leicsmac

Are other people actually OK with other powers inflicting massive casualties on the citizens of such regimes in the name of maintaining their own power and control over the way the world progresses? And are they OK with such powers being highly selective and therefore hypocritical regarding which regimes they target, considering there's a great many oppressive regimes to go round?

Ah, thank you for the context showing the man is just being (correctly) snarky at Felon#47 rather than nuts.

What, exactly, does he think will happen after that? And this is a person formerly appointed to oversee the UK military policy.

If that is a verbatim quote, then yes, any advocacy of a decapitation strike on the leader of a nuclear armed nation with second strike capability is absolutely insane.

As per another thread: "Welcome to the future, everyone. Arriving ahead of schedule."

Yeah, this is right. Hopefully enough people don't buy into that brand of delaying bollocks and eventually he can't delay any more, though. Thank you mate, she looks to be safe at the moment, thought she would be. Apparently the Emiratis are handling it all very well, she's just sheltering in place and ready to evacuate if needed. I bloody knew who @Md9 sounded like.

JFK must be rolling in his grave at how this program has been executed in terms of time management. Gemini and Apollo took roughly eight years from start to Moon, sticking to the deadline he imposed (andthat was with an large delay due to the Apollo 1 fire). This has taken over 20 since the first genesis of the Constellation program, even with the massive leaps in computing, control and material sciences since then. Deeply disappointing.

This wouldn't be the first Iranian leader the Americans have taken it upon themselves to off, unfortunately.

Thank you for that, and no worries- sometimes very dark humour is a good coping mechanism. I'm sure everything is fine, there's nothing I can do other than wait to hear what's going on anyway.

My sister is a neonatal nurse working in Dubai.

Also, why are we living in a world where Marjorie Taylor Greene is suddenly a voice of sanity?

Farage wanting the UK to follow the US in attacking Iran and "praying" for the "wonderful Persian people". Wonderful enough that you'd like some more of them in the UK voting in elections, Nigel? Given the events of this week, assuming probably not?

Yep. Using the cheap "Yellow Peril" excuse to allow AI more unfettered access to systems designed to kill people. What could possibly go wrong?

That latter part is one of the other definitions pertaining to movement rather than sole sentiment, yes. I would say again though that it's most inadvisable to overlook or downplay such a sentiment when people acting upon it has led to events like those we are seeing today.

Purely for the record, that does appear to be the dictionary definition of the matter. Mirrism-Webster: an ideology that elevates one nation or nationality above all others and that places primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations, nationalities, or supranational groups Oxford: identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. There's absolutely no denying that it does get conflated though and it's good to hear you oppose the sentiment as defined by dictionaries, it's just unfortunate that a lot of other people seem to be rather fond of it, if current events are anything to go by.

Today is certainly an interesting day to be having discussions about displays of national superiority when today is also showing just exactly where such sentiments near inevitably end. One nation inflicting violence on another nation for the sole reason of maintaining its own superiority and that nation being bombed itself killing thousands of its own citizens because it believes itself to be superior too. Of course, as per above, there's an important difference between patriotism and nationalism, and the simple act of putting up flags is almost always the former than the latter imo, but it should be noted that a certain slippery slope from one to the other does exist and perhaps folks need to be more mindful of that. Perhaps.

I honestly think political compassing of the type a lot of people used has become or is going to rapidly become passe anyway. There are far clearer and more meaningful labels and distinctions to be made based on a persons political viewpoint. And those distinctions may well only become more stark in the near future.

You're assuming they have the self awareness and any kind of humility.

Thought this deserved another look this morning.

Did anyone actually believe that was anything other than yet another massive piece of gaslighting?

That's an interesting framing euphemism for what's about to happen, to be sure.

I vaguely remember that one as well. There's something in the argument that having never really suffered in that way by comparison to other nations does lend itself to both an increased sense of importance and diminished sense of reality when it comes to such things. Yeah, see above. The base is only unhappy because they believe it to be being done on the instructions of another, rather than the act itself. They don't care that a lot of people of different skin colour to them die, they do care that they're not the ones really "directing" that violence. Still, that discontent might hopefully be useful in its own way.

And only if you ignore that the biggest nationalist in play right now, the one that is apparently imminently about to throw their weight around again right now as it has multiple times in the recent past, as well as actively encouraging others of similar stripe to do so, is...

.... they really do treat warfare and all the associated death and suffering they inflict like it's some kind of perverse video game, don't they? Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, events like the seemingly imminent one is almost always where feelings of nationalism (as opposed to garden variety patriotism) acting upon end up, and that's why it's not necessarily a good thing. As if there were any more evidence actually needed of that, though.

And therein lies the difference in thinking between a patriot and a nationalist. The former thinks they don't have to be mutually exclusive, the latter believes they must be.