Schmerika

"Might makes right" is not a smart or sensible way for a sentient species to make decisions. We depend on trust and cooperation to achieve our potential.

All the work being done to tear that to shreds (as imperfect as it always was) seems to hinge on the unaccountable Epstein class being allowed free reign to commit the most heinous atrocities imaginable... But we do outnumber those people, by a lot.

> The Rome Statute and the ICC exist to make people feel better, to have people believe that the world is just thanks to a few brave bureaucrats.

If that were entirely true, the US wouldn't work so hard on things like the Hague Invasion act, or on sanctioning ICC judges... Or on propaganda to make people believe that 'international law' is just a sanctimonious lie.

> There's so many inefficiencies that are trivially solved with existing tech frameworks.

There really, really are.

The legal industry is well aware of that fact - and how many billable hours they stand to lose by making their work more efficient and understandable.

You know how tax prep companies spent over $90m 'lobbying' Congress to ensure that filing your taxes remains difficult and complicated [0]?

Well, lawyers know just as well or better how to butter their bread; and they will pull out every dirty trick they have to scupper attempts to make practising law more transparent or efficient in any way.

0 - https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2023/09/tax-prep-companies-...

> The US doesn't generally intermingle their children with their military bases... I hope.

There's no need to 'hope' against reality. This information is easily available to us both - there are tens of thousands of K-12 students on US military bases, in America and in other countries [0].

> it was obviously a targeting/aiming/intelligence error

... You're still somehow ignoring the 497 other schools targeted within these last few weeks. It's like your brain simply refuses to process that information - perhaps because it would force a perspective shift?

(Spoiler alert: We are the baddies. 498 schools in 4 weeks is pretty unambiguous, especially following the US involvement in bombing basically every school in Gaza.)

> it is war. Shit happens!

War crimes are not excused by 'being at war'. That's not how it works.

Many people here have already pointed out to you the many reasons and the many officials calling the first Iranian school bombing out as a war crime; and I highly encourage you to being to wrap your head around the fact. Defending war crimes is a deeply uncool way to spend your time. It's not good for you, or for the people reading it.

0 - https://www.militaryonesource.mil/education-employment/for-c...

Nope.

Where are you getting your news from?

> Calling it a “school attack” implies deliberate targeting of a civilian facility.

>It was obviously an error because the building used to be a military facility and is on the campus of a military base!

... No actually, being on the campus of a military base doesn't make bombing an elementary school full of children not a war crime. If it helps, try imagining Iran bombing a school on a US military base.

And I can't help but notice that you're not mentioning the 497 other targeted schools which I made you aware of.

Do you think that's how most students are using it? Teachers would quickly disabuse you of that notion [0]:

> In study hall, I watched a kid use Snapchat to take pictures of his computer screen. He was working on IXL skills. His Snap A.I. friend sent an immediate reply. He then clicked the answer on his screen. The next question popped up, he took a picture and got an answer. He swiftly went through the whole session this way. His right hand held the phone, he tapped the camera button, glanced at the reply, and his left hand entered the answers on his laptop. He didn’t know I was watching, but I saw the gold medal of 100 percent mastery bloom on his screen. I told the teacher who assigned the IXL. She didn’t realize Snapchat had an A.I. that would do her homework. It can answer all the questions.

... Now, can you use AI to learn things? Sure. But what the article is talking about it is critical thinking:

> Adults using AI mostly just sound generic. But for a child who never formed independent reasoning, "generic" is a major identity problem. The model’s reasoning doesn’t compete with the child’s reasoning but becomes the child’s reasoning. For children still building out the cognitive skills for evaluating the world, the effect will not be temporary but have a foundation impact on their thinking.

American's performance with critical thinking is already mixed at best. A new generation with even lower independent thinking ability combined with AI painstakingly engineered to suffer from severe bias is a powerful recipe for (even more) horrors beyond human comprehension. Paid for by our tax dollars.

0 - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/learning/teachers-on-how-...

> the US and Israel have not yet committed anything that would constitute a war crime.

Targeting and blowing up schools full of little girls [0] is in fact an atrocity and a war crime. Double and triple tapping it? War crimes upon war crimes.

You probably heard about that, and I've no idea why you're not mentioning it... However, did you hear about the other 497 schools that have been targeted [1]? Or the 281 medical centers, hospitals, and pharmacies? The 17 Red Crescent bases, and 94 ambulances and rescue vehicles that have also been damaged [1]?

498 schools. Think on that for a minute. Think about it for 498 minutes.

Blowing up unarmed ships, and then leaving their soldiers to drown without providing aid [2] - also a war crime; also an atrocity.

Ecocide, giving residents of Tehran generations of "cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, DNA damage and cancer" - war crime [3].

The US is putting ICC judges under sanctions for daring to investigate their war crimes [4]. We've had a longstanding policy of threatening "to use all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any person described in subsection (b) who is being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court" [5].

And all of that isn't even touching what the US and Israel have been responsible for in Gaza, a bipartisan live-streamed genocide and holocaust.

> the combined force are not “carpet bombing”

Tell that to Rafah [6].

> Trump threatened one (blowing up civilian power stations), but he hasn’t followed through.

You certain about that? [7]

I don't know where you are getting your information, but you really need to get out of your bubble if you think all this is just propaganda.

0 - https://www.amnestyusa.org/blog/u-s-responsible-for-killing-...

1 - https://truthout.org/articles/us-israeli-attacks-have-damage...

2 - https://x.com/KanwalSibal/status/2029438199546954240

3 - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/23/tehran-toxic-c...

4 - https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/international-criminal-court-de...

5 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members%27_Pr...

6 - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C2Xt05-i19E

7 - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bushehr-nuclear-plant-h...

> What if a monstrously ambitious morally flexible snake is exactly what the Democrats need now?

I'd call that a very strange take, considering Dems support for arming genocide just lost them a rather important election. Not a popular view among their base.

Maybe we could try electing people who are ambitious - but for the good of the country and the planet, rather than themselves and their billionaire owners.

> an embittered Iran

Very little to nothing about why Iran might be 'feeling bitter'. Amazing how our media can simply glide right over hundreds of war crimes and atrocities.

Large ebony pot calls enormous vanta-black kettle 'black'.

> Asked about other California tech titans, Newsom praised OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as an innovator who can "look at a mountain" and "see right through it."

> Citing a relationship with Peter Thiel dating to his days as a county supervisor, Newsom called the Palantir founder a "next-level" intellect who has grown increasingly "nihilistic."

> "He shouldn't be put purely in a political box, as I know my party often puts him into," Newsom said of Thiel, a top MAGA donor. "He belongs in many different boxes."

Vomitous.

If every wealthy country had a frog to represent their culture of taking care of workers (strong unions, workers rights, vacation days, not having healthcare tied to their employment, maternity and paternity leave, equitable pay etc), there is one particular frog which most would describe as having had its brain removed.

It's very weird indeed - and yet, it always seems to match with whatever 'random' country the latest shows and news reports have been demonizing.

It reminds me of that old joke:

> A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink. "I have to admit, I'm always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up," the CIA agent says. "Thank you," the KGB says. "We do our best but truly, it's nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them." The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. "Thank you friend, but you must be confused... There's no propaganda in America."

And that's only gotten more true every decade since. I don't see the US ever reaching the level of discourse where we question our 'allies' atrocities the same as [latest boogeyman]'s. And taking any accountability for our own war crimes? Not a chance. We'll invade anyone who tries (see the Hague Invasion Act).

At least when it comes to politics, the vast majority of the US lives on the Dunning-Kruger "Peak of Mount Stupid"; failing to clear the lowest possible bar while pointing fingers and laughing at everyone else.

All the money, all the access to information, and still that's where we're at. Weird af.

That's an important distinction, thank you.

However, it still points to the fact that Harris lost millions of votes due to her support for arming Israel.

And, even for the people who voted Harris there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm - directly because of Gaza.

> Even among Biden 2020 voters who did vote for Harris in battleground states, voters by a seven-to-one margin say they would have been more enthusiastic in their support if Harris “pledged to break from President Biden's policy toward Gaza by promising to withhold additional weapons to Israel” rather than less enthusiastic.

> More enthusiastic - 35% > Less enthusiastic - 5%

This comment section is about as perfect an irl microcosm of Plato's cave as I could imagine :/

> By the fact that Trump hasn't killed thousands of people to stay in power.

Oh? How many do you think he has killed?

How many people have died so far because of Trump's aid to Israel?

How many people have died because of the cuts to USAID?

How many Iranians has Trump killed? How many Iranian children? ... Compare to, how many Americans did the Iranian government kill?

How certain are you that the conditions in the Iran protests weren't provoked by US and Israeli provocateurs? ... Why?

What's your explanation for Trump directing Lockheed Martin to ramp up production of interceptor missiles months before assassinating Iran's leader during negotiations? Months before the protests used as a fig leaf of justification?

> Pretty simple really.

Idk man. Is it? Maybe thinking Trump is a better person than the leader he helped assassinate is too simple.

> Protesting the US government is still legal. Protesting the Iranian government in Iran will get you killed.

Protesting the Israeli government in the US can get you thrown in a concentration camp and deported. That's pretty weird, no?

Even during the last admin, protesting the Israeli government could get you fired, or attacked by riot police.

Does the moral high ground of not murdering protesters give you the right to arm and enable genocide? To murder leaders while pretending to negotiate with them? To bomb schools?

> Alone smoking is terrible. You enjoy the first, then you know very well how you feel the following ones.

> Only the bad effects of being lazy, tired, sleepy, none of the pros.

... You are allowed to stop at one you know.

Democrats funded, armed and protected a live-streamed genocide so horrific that roughly a third of their own hard-core base (Biden 2020 voters) couldn't bring themselves to vote for Harris, even in a close race against Trump [0].

There are other reasons Dems lost, also important. Still, genocide remains the blazing neon-red 12-ton elephant in the room. And there seems to be absolutely no sign of owning that fact, which means that no lessons will be learned or policies changed.

0 - https://www.imeupolicyproject.org/postelection-polling

By what metric?

Certainly not by lives lost, damage done, or dollars embezzled. Not by interference in other countries, or apocalyptic rhetoric.

So, what exactly is your opinion based on?

> at some point the only logical conclusion is that we like to suffer and to lose.

Or that our political and media class are captured...

> Green energy isn't very useful for heating in winter.

Solar energy isn't the only 'green' energy. The wind, tides, geothermal vents, rivers etc all continue to work as well or better in winter.

Plus there's a lot of room for improvement elsewhere, like insulation.

With respect, if you believe that then you likely aren't aware of the true scale of the problem. Unless they follow /active, /new, and have [showdead] on, people have very little idea just how much is getting suppressed here... And it's a lot, especially this past year, and extremely especially if it's anything Musk-related.

Another reason most people here don't know how bad it's got is because posts about the poor flagging system are explicitly disallowed. For that reason alone it's quite hard to say this is purely incompetence with no malice.

You can ask mods for permission to make a post about the flagging system - you'll be denied. People have tried making posts about all the Musk stories being flagged - flagged by moderation. Every time. Quickly.

So, no. Unfortunately, this isn't a case where I'm happy to assume incompetence. Look at where we're at - a post about the richest tech bro in the world enabling mass creep shit of the worst kind remains flagged for hours. That's absolutely vile - and far from a rare event here.

Honestly it's not even that moderation doesn't care. Garry Tan and PG were big DOGE fans, and I'm not silly enough to believe that the moderation are unaware of that fact.

There's been far too many flagged Musk stories that never get unflagged to put it down to simple incompetence and neglect.

> When everyone is just rolling around in the muck there is no incentive to be better.

There have been many celebrated and uncelebrated people throughout history, known for their tremendous insight and wisdom, who all say the same thing about virtue: It's better, by far, to be a good person with fuck-all than a pos with billions.

* "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" - JC

* "The one who lives a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled is not worth as much as one who lives a single day virtuous and meditative." - Buddha

* "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor" - Seneca

* "Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself." - Marcus Aurelius

Etc. And that timeless fact doesn't change no matter where or when or who you are; or how many people are "rolling around in the muck".

It's not even an especially hidden fact. It's awful sad that grown-ass adults can look at people like Musk or Gates or Trump or the Manosphere shitlings and think, wow, those look like happy content people.

> there is just a ton of people who are natural born minions

Yeah I think that's kind of it.

I'd prefer to believe that it's school/culture/religion making people like that... And those are definitely factors.

However, I personally think that it's probably just more effective, evolutionarily speaking, to not have too many independent thinkers in a tribe.

The 'funny' part is that we call the people who are naturally resistant to following the herd "neurodivergent" - and then try to medicate them into conformity. As if the herd is doing such a great job right now.

> this seems to be sufficient to most.

Yeah that's the really painful bit alright. The pretence isn't even good.

But they'll get so mad at you for pointing out the obvious.

It's been this way for a long time - MLK pointed all this out 6 decades ago. It's gotten worse since, to the point where over 98% of US voters in 2024 didn't hold enabling live-streamed genocide as a red line for their vote.

I'll keep talking about it, and USians will probably keep getting mad at me for it. Ah well.

Yep. The broken window fallacy and the tragedy of the commons*, darkening the future of basically every vertebrate on the planet.

* A solved problem, btw.

Not if you've ever had good butter* on good bread*.

* - which most American's haven't. I realize this sounds like needless shade, but it's very true.

Getting a 403 error on their site, but the archive remembers [0] and yeah - that website is wildly sus.

Lil offtopic: This is interesting stuff on its own, so I don't want to distract from the important discussion. However, OP might want to know: I don't think I've ever seen a new account's first (utterly inoffensive) comment show up [dead] like theirs [1]. (You might need [showdead] on to see that, idk.)

Anyone have any insight?

0 - https://web.archive.org/web/20250324144815/https://www.digit...

1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47361290

We've spent more than $20 trillion dollars on 'wars' in that region since 2003.

We've killed millions.

The people responsible have made billions.

These 'numbers' (ie, our future potential, not to mention millions of lives) don't ever seem to have much effect.

Trump talks about military action in Iran - and both sides of the aisle stand up and clap like crazed seals. Harris talks about 'the most lethal military' and the DNC roar with approval.

But hey, the DOW was over 50,000 or whatever.

... It's almost like there's a big club that we're not in.

You still think this problem is one sided?

Dems had Trump dead to rights for insurrection. They had everything in the Epstein files and didn't drop it. They told you they were working tirelessly for a ceasefire - while unilaterally vetoing 4 of them at the UN.

Genocide. They armed genocide. Which we could all see on our phones.

They loved arming it so much, they decided they'd rather keep arming it than gain millions of votes in swing states vs Trump.

Trump is worse. Yes. But when both parties in the two party system are pro-genocide, pro-torture, pro-ICE, pro-Epstein etc etc etc, you can't blame the whole problem on just half the people involved.