Comment by redwood | Hacker News Reader

Comment by redwood | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Judo and two total wars with western powers won only after seemingly losing everything -- it's hard not to think that the dictator will eventually inflict far far more pain in the form of martial law on his own people than any of us can imagine in the hopes that that will allow them to find the spark to fall to such a base survival instinct as to bounce back. By no means do I believe that will happen, in fact I believe we must do anything in our power to ensure that does not happen, but I do believe there's been a lack of critical analysis of the way that dictator likely thinks based on a lens of history and his favorite sport. He likely genuinely believes they need to keep losing and losing much more badly than they are today before they can have a shot of turning the tide. It's definitely time to get out of there

In Judo you don’t take a beating, magically absorb all the force and then release it all in a gigantic blow that sends the opponent flying towards the moon, shattering it on impact, like in an anime.

The stuff you describe doesn’t have anything to do with the sport. It’s insane how people twist things to make them fit their ideas.

I mean it more metaphorically in the sense that when your opponent comes in with a lot of force, you can harness that into them thinking they've got it

> He likely genuinely believes they need to keep losing and losing much more badly than they are today before they can have a shot of turning the tide.

I'm having some difficulty following your argument. You're saying Putin thinks Russia needs to keep losing the war so that eventually they can win it? I find that confusing.

"Judo (Japanese for “the gentle way”) emphasizes winning in combat by using your opponent's weight and strength as weapons against him, while preserving your own mental and physical energy."

Since jb1991 is being downvoted I want to clarify that this doesn’t somehow support the grandparent.

Using your opponents strength as weapon means deflecting their attack and using the force to throw them on the ground/defeat them.

Have a look at e.g. 5:58 https://youtu.be/-Qe_JKQjJTA It’s kata, so slow and meant for demonstration purposes.

I don't know if you've ever read War and Peace or looked into the Napoleonic Wars in Russia, and also looked at the parallels to the Eastern theater of World War II, that's what I'm referring to

Reply on news.ycombinator.com