Through the gates of hell

This is Steve Hughes level comedy: https://youtu.be/h5VliEjyohM

The United States of America after the Cold War.

I’m not even Catholic and I want to send this guy to the Inquisition for heresy

Why would anyone install a proprietary freeware browser?

I like you ask in hypotheticals.

Resist now.

All 30 if us who play it agree.

Steven Universe too!

Yup. It should not be a thing.

Meanwhile China is going all in on renewables.

Here is a fact: an authoritarian non-democracy is doing a lot for securing the future of humanity, while the “leader of the free world” are vandalizing the climate and accelerating apocalyptic climate catastrophe.

In 2025, China is a net positive for the future of humanity, while the USA is a net negative.

If that makes you uncomfortable about what our political and economic systems in the West that brought us here, well, you know the meme: “facts don’t care about your feelings”.

If you, like me, care about the future of democracy, we have to do a LOT of digging.

Vodka 25 years ago.

If Nero won the Olympics why can’t Trump win the Nobels?

Excellent opportunity to prove the superiority of our localized moderation model!

They haven’t actually signed anything yet. But also, note that hostilities don’t stop before the armistice:

• https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2018/11/08/a-story-of-incredibly-bad-timing-canadian-last-to-die-before-armistice/
• https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/11/08/in-the-final-hours-of-world-war-i-a-terrible-toll/
• https://www.armytimes.com/veterans/salute-veterans/2017/11/10/nov-11-1918-wasted-lives-on-armistice-day/

That said, I have very little confidence that this truce will hold. Israel broke the previous truce in March 2025.

Yea, that’s exactly why I thought it was worth asking.

It seems Aral has actually done the work: https://mastodon.social/@staff/115129752094733480

One of the most interesting explanations I’ve seen is that Western Europe was politically fragmented just enough so that big enough entities were competing with each other for dominance. So there was no central authority strong enough to pacify it, and the individual states were powerful enough to mobilize resources, creating a competitive power race. It was in trying to beat each other that they reached out and colonized the rest of the world.

Edit: I’m thinking now how during the apex of pax Americana, space exploration really subsided for example. When the US and the USSR were competing it was on. Now that US hegemony is declining, it’s seems to be on again. Too strong of a political unification keeps the centrifugal forces in check.

The idea of conquering the world was Persian. Alexander just took over what Persia what already conquered.

The demonization of the Romans is silly.

Slut shaming is not OK.

Fuck Trump.

His last word was “violence”.