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[Starver]

Spoiler: Overthinking the problem (click to show/hide)

[Criptfeind]

Maybe we should discuss the use of martial arts and armor in the toilet.

This is why chainmail is superior to plate, as it's easier to take off and to go bathroom.

Eat a dick plate lovers, in your search to protect your life, you've ruined the very thing you're trying to save.

[overseer05-15]

Maybe we should discuss the use of martial arts and armor in the toilet.

This is why chainmail is superior to plate, as it's easier to take off and to go bathroom.

Eat a dick plate lovers, in your search to protect your life, you've ruined the very thing you're trying to save.

Live long and shit.
Prosperously.

[helmacon]

I believe that gender is something determined by a person's genetic programming, not by their choice of lifestyle.

That being said, if a chick really wants to pee standing up at a urinal next to me in the men's bathroom, I'm probably just gonna file that one under 'Cool' and move on with my life.

Well, there's this going against you.

[itisnotlogical]

I believe that automation of many life-critical industries (mostly food production and distribution) is totally possible within our lifetime, and the only thing preventing it is human shortsightedness and corporate interest.

Note I say "believe," not know for a fact.

[Antioch]

But seriously, the Cambodian genocide shows that continuing the Vietnam war wasn't such a despicable choice after all.

The genocide of more than 2 million people could have been prevented by not giving in to anti-war protests.

[McTraveller]

Well, there's this going against you.

I'll see your journal article and raise you a researchers fail article.

Science is great, unless it isn't.

[ChairmanPoo]

Well, there's this going against you.

I'll see your journal article and raise you a researchers fail article.

Science is great, unless it isn't.

That's a nonsequitur

[Baffler]

I believe that automation of many life-critical industries (mostly food production and distribution) is totally possible within our lifetime, and the only thing preventing it is human shortsightedness and corporate interest.

Note I say "believe," not know for a fact.

Mechanizing a farm is obscenely expensive and most farmers aren't able to easily afford it, but they need to in order to stay competitive. That's why the size of a "small farm" has been growing over the years (since a farm operator can work more land now than he could even just 20 years ago) but they're still losing ground to major agribusinesses - the economies of scale just don't work in their favor, and we're already in a situation where the government has to pay people to not grow things. Likewise I'm sure trucking companies would love nothing more than to be able to run their fleet 24/7 without having to pay drivers; and retail outlets and fast food places would be happy to trim some staff.

It's corporate interest that's driving the trend, not putting the brakes on it, and I don't think it's shortsighted for the people who'll lose their livelihoods over it to not want that to happen. If it ever gets to the point where people in the service industry can be economically replaced on any kind of scale, it's going to result in ‼problems‼.

[Reelya]

But seriously, the Cambodian genocide shows that continuing the Vietnam war wasn't such a despicable choice after all.

The genocide of more than 2 million people could have been prevented by not giving in to anti-war protests.

Hell no. It was Nixon who dragged Cambodia into the war. They were peaceful and stable before he messed it up.

http://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Bombing_of_Cambodia?rec=1611

In March 1969, President Richard Nixon authorized secret bombing raids in Cambodia, a move that escalated opposition to the Vietnam War in Ohio and across the United States.

Nixon believed North Vietnam was transporting troops and supplies through neighboring Cambodia into South Vietnam. He hoped that bombing supply routes in Cambodia would weaken the United States' enemies.

The bombing of Cambodia lasted until August 1973. While the exact number of Cambodian casualties remains unknown, most experts estimate that 100,000 Cambodians lost their lives, with an additional two million people becoming homeless. Enhancing the destruction, in April 1970, President Nixon ordered United States troops to occupy parts of Cambodia. Nixon claimed that the soldiers were protecting the United States' withdrawal from South Vietnam. American soldiers quickly withdrew, but their presence, along with the air strikes, convinced many Cambodians to overthrow their government, leading to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, a communist and despotic government.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/04/khmer-rouge-cambodian-genocide-united-states/

The US began bombing Cambodia in 1965. From that year until 1973, the US Air Force dropped bombs from more than 230,000 sorties on over 113,000 sites. The exact tonnage of bombs dropped is in dispute, but a conservative estimate of 500,000 tons (almost equal to what the United States dropped in the entire Pacific theater of World War II) is unquestionable.
...
Pol Pot’s insurgency was indigenous, but as Kiernan argues, his “revolution would not have won power without U.S. economic and military destabilization of Cambodia.” Previously apolitical peasants were motivated to join the revolution to avenge the deaths of their family members. As a 1973 Intelligence Information Cable from the CIA’s Directorate of Operations explained:

"Khmer insurgent (KI) [Khmer Rouge] cadre have begun an intensified proselyting campaign among ethnic Cambodian residents . . . in an effort to recruit young men and women for KI military organizations. They are using damage caused by B-52 strikes as the main theme of their propaganda."

The US-backed coup that removed Sihanouk from power in 1970 was another factor that dramatically strengthened the KR insurgency. (Direct US complicity in the coup remains unproven, but as William Blum amply documents in his book Killing Hope, there is enough evidence to warrant the possibility).

And it was actually the Vietnamese who overthrew the Khmer Rouge. And you know what USA did? They put the Khmer Rouge back in power in the 1980s just to spite Vietnam. Thanks, guys.

[Antioch]

But seriously, the Cambodian genocide shows that continuing the Vietnam war wasn't such a despicable choice after all.

The genocide of more than 2 million people could have been prevented by not giving in to anti-war protests.

Hell no. It was Nixon who dragged Cambodia into the war. They were peaceful and stable before he messed it up. The US bombing is actually what devastated most of the farm lands, that was the ultimate cause of the famine, the complete collapse of farming due to the bombing of all the country areas.

Nixon was elected on an ending the war platform, and instead launched a full-scale war in Cambodia to wipe out a small number of rebels. But they used aerial bombing of farmlands to achieve that, because they knew they couldn't send US ground troops. They killed so many Cambodians and destroyed so many villages with the bombing that everyone flocked to join the rebels, which was the ultimate reason that Cambodia fell to the communists.

The Khmer Rouge already waged armed insurgency since 1967. The North Vietnamese were already vastly involved in Cambodia with their supply lines and sanctuaries long before the US expanded their operations to include Cambodia.

The cambodian genocide was way more than a famine, it was institutionalised mass murder performed by a totalitarian dictatorship.

[Reelya]

There's ample evidence from numerous sources that the KR were a very small force before the bombing, they managed to recruited 20 times as many people as they originally had in just in the three years the bombing campaign continued, and that was their main selling point: that if you follow us, we'll stop the bombs. 2 million people were rendered homeless (i.e. 10% of the nation had their villages destroyed) by the bombing, 200,000 of those went and joined the Khmer Rouge, who had numbered only 10,000 previously.

Between the bombing and backing a military coup against a neutral government who was already recognized by all the regional nations (which did include Vietnam), it's ALL on Nixon, this one. e.g. Vietnam already supported the existing Sihanouk government as the rightful rulers of Cambodia, NOT the Khmer Rouge, and it's actually the Vietnamese who defeated the Khmer Rouge and removed them from power.

[Pwnzerfaust]

It's corporate interest that's driving the trend, not putting the brakes on it, and I don't think it's shortsighted for the people who'll lose their livelihoods over it to not want that to happen. If it ever gets to the point where people in the service industry can be economically replaced on any kind of scale, it's going to result in ‼problems‼.

Nonetheless I look forward to it. There will be a rough transition period, but the closer we get to something like The Culture, the happier I am.

[Antioch]

There's ample evidence from numerous sources that the KR were a very small force before the bombing, they managed to recruited 20 times as many people as they originally had in just in the three years the bombing campaign continued, and that was their main selling point: that if you follow us, we'll stop the bombs. 2 million people were rendered homeless (i.e. 10% of the nation had their villages destroyed) by the bombing, 200,000 of those went and joined the Khmer Rouge, who had numbered only 10,000 previously.

Between the bombing and backing a military coup against a neutral government who was already recognized by all the regional nations (which did include Vietnam), it's ALL on Nixon, this one. e.g. Vietnam already supported the existing Sihanouk government as the rightful rulers of Cambodia, NOT the Khmer Rouge, and it's actually the Vietnamese who defeated the Khmer Rouge and removed them from power.

Then again, I didn't say it was good to involve Cambodia into the war, I said it was bad to leave at the time they did.

[Pwnzerfaust]

One thing I don't understand: Why didn't the US just straight-up invade and occupy North Vietnam and cut off the snake's head?