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 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
I like how he began with simply trolling the left. Hitler, the OG alt-right. Milo and Brietbat need to step up their game.

Oh yes...

That's... perfect.

The exact right thing you could say to confirm my suspicions about politics in the USA.

It's really too bad that I can't send a message to friendly space aliens to get me off this planet by telling them something like, "I'm different! Save me! I'm worth saving!"

They would read your posts and disagree.

 LordofHats wrote:
I think you might be confusing some things.

The Nazi's didn't think science as a whole was a Jewish conspiracy. They did think that Physics had become "Jewish" because of Einstein and other prominent Jewish physicists of the era. As a result German physics became intensely political (this actually hindered the development of practical atomic theory in Germany because of the insistence than some theories were wrong just because the men who produced them were Jews).

Shockingly, even Hitler apparently had something he wasn't willing to do. Running theory is that his own experience in WWI gave him an aversion to chemical weapons. The more standard thought is that German strategic analysts determined Germany would lose a chemical weapons war, but that if they didn't use such weapons they would not be used in turn. For the most part this proved true. All sides in WWII largely refrained from the use of chemical weapons. Only Imperial Japan made wide use of them and only in China.

Nazi Germany would have invented and used nuclear bombs had the Allies not actively sabotaged their efforts to do so.

The material used in the first three atomic bombs set off by humanity was actually stolen from a German U-Boat that was headed to the US shoreline to launch a radiological attack on a coastal US city using a "dirty bomb" to spread radioactive material over a large area without managing to achieve a chain reaction that would cause a nuclear explosion.

It is impossible to develop and use nuclear weaponry without accepting the validity of physics.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
I like how he began with simply trolling the left. Hitler, the OG alt-right. Milo and Brietbat need to step up their game.

Oh yes...

That's... perfect.

The exact right thing you could say to confirm my suspicions about politics in the USA.

It's really too bad that I can't send a message to friendly space aliens to get me off this planet by telling them something like, "I'm different! Save me! I'm worth saving!"

They would read your posts and disagree.

I disagree with your assertion.

 Pouncey wrote:
Nazi Germany would have invented and used nuclear bombs had the Allies not actively sabotaged their efforts to do so.

I swear we've been down this path before...

The material used in the first three atomic bombs set off by humanity was actually stolen from a German U-Boat that was headed to the US shoreline to launch a radiological attack on a coastal US city using a "dirty bomb" to spread radioactive material over a large area without managing to achieve a chain reaction that would cause a nuclear explosion.

You've been watching the History Channel haven't you? Or are you just fething with me... Seriously Poe's law is hitting really hard on this one because it's too absurd for me to think anyone actually believes it.

The US mined the materials it used to generate its bombs in Colorado, Ontario, and the Congo (then owned by Belgium). The material for Little Boy was then refined at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, and the material for Fat Man was refined at Hanford in Washington. If the Germans had the material, which they didn't. they would not have wasted it on a U-Boat, and even they had the technology for America to get the material out of said U-Boat didn't exist until the 50s and 60s. Underwater diving was still in its infancy in the 40s. The only source of unrefined Uraniam was in Czechoslovakia, and the Germans didn't develop the site. Even if they had, they never had a suitable reactor system to refine the material.

It is impossible to develop and use nuclear weaponry without accepting the validity of physics.

Hence why the Germans ended up not developing any

 LordofHats wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Nazi Germany would have invented and used nuclear bombs had the Allies not actively sabotaged their efforts to do so.

I swear we've been down this path before...

The material used in the first three atomic bombs set off by humanity was actually stolen from a German U-Boat that was headed to the US shoreline to launch a radiological attack on a coastal US city using a "dirty bomb" to spread radioactive material over a large area without managing to achieve a chain reaction that would cause a nuclear explosion.

You've been watching the History Channel haven't you? Or are you just fething with me... Seriously Poe's law is hitting really hard on this one because it's too absurd for me to think anyone actually believes it.

The US mined the materials it used to generate its bombs in Colorado, Ontario, and the Congo (then owned by Belgium). The material for Little Boy was then refined at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, and the material for Fat Man was refined at Hanford in Washington. If the Germans had the material, which they didn't. they would not have wasted it on a U-Boat, and even they had the technology for America to get the material out of said U-Boat didn't exist until the 50s and 60s. Underwater diving was still in its infancy in the 40s. The only source of unrefined Uraniam was in Czechoslovakia, and the Germans didn't develop the site. Even if they had, they never had a suitable reactor system to refine the material.

It is impossible to develop and use nuclear weaponry without accepting the validity of physics.

Hence why the Germans ended up not developing any

I didn't get my information from the History Channel.

I got it from an article detailing the heroism of Allied soldiers participating in those sabotage operations.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Uhh, the Nazis siezed control of the German government by having the Brownshirts murder anyone who opposed the Nazi party in broad daylight in public places because people were too scared to stop them. And then the survivors went along with it out of fear of being murdered too.

When the Nazi's won a overwhelming majority in the Reichstag in 1932, one of the first things they did was elect Goring President of the Reichstag. The second thing they did was prevent opposition members from participating in the basic functions of Reichstag. Meetings were regulated. Members forbidden from participating in discussions. Following a terrorist set fire in February the following year, the Nazi's used the incident to begin a violent crack down on communists, then on to socialists etc etc.

Brownshirts beating people in the street was the endgame. Not the start.

Clarification: overwhelming majority, no. 33% of the vote isn't an overwhelming majority. They were however, the majority party.

 amanita wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Uhh, the Nazis siezed control of the German government by having the Brownshirts murder anyone who opposed the Nazi party in broad daylight in public places because people were too scared to stop them. And then the survivors went along with it out of fear of being murdered too.

When the Nazi's won a overwhelming majority in the Reichstag in 1932, one of the first things they did was elect Goring President of the Reichstag. The second thing they did was prevent opposition members from participating in the basic functions of Reichstag. Meetings were regulated. Members forbidden from participating in discussions. Following a terrorist set fire in February the following year, the Nazi's used the incident to begin a violent crack down on communists, then on to socialists etc etc.

Brownshirts beating people in the street was the endgame. Not the start.

Clarification: overwhelming majority, no. 33% of the vote isn't an overwhelming majority. They were however, the majority party.

No.

They didn't have the majority of the vote.

They had a plurality of it.

 amanita wrote:


Clarification: overwhelming majority, no. 33% of the vote isn't an overwhelming majority. They were however, the majority party.

Yes that is correct XD I think it was something like 36-38%. I suppose the correct term is plurality (serious this is such a common mistake everyone makes eh?), but the point is that with that many seats, amd with the rest of the legislature highly fractured between a dozen other parties it wasn't hard for the Nazi's to take over the government.

EDIT: Wait we're talking about different elections XD I'm referring to the July 1932 election, where as you are referring to the November 1932 election that followed when everyone sat down and decided they didn't like each other much

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
I like how he began with simply trolling the left. Hitler, the OG alt-right. Milo and Brietbat need to step up their game.

Oh yes...

That's... perfect.

The exact right thing you could say to confirm my suspicions about politics in the USA.

It's really too bad that I can't send a message to friendly space aliens to get me off this planet by telling them something like, "I'm different! Save me! I'm worth saving!"

You would have to get in line behind the millions of first-world teenagers who've said the same. But could you elaborate on your suspicions? I suspect they were formed from a single unquestioned source, since that seems to be a trend here.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
I like how he began with simply trolling the left. Hitler, the OG alt-right. Milo and Brietbat need to step up their game.

Oh yes...

That's... perfect.

The exact right thing you could say to confirm my suspicions about politics in the USA.

It's really too bad that I can't send a message to friendly space aliens to get me off this planet by telling them something like, "I'm different! Save me! I'm worth saving!"

You would have to get in line behind the millions of first-world teenagers who've said the same. But could you elaborate on your suspicions? I suspect they were formed from a single unquestioned source, since that seems to be a trend here.

I am 28 years old.

I have spent almost every waking moment since I was 15 in front of a computer, spending time on the Internet.

I have read the opinions of hundreds of thousands of human beings. I have learned a lot. I have opened my mind to possibilities few have considered.

One of my principles that guides me in my learning process is that if I don't understand something, it is a problem with my understanding, not a problem with reality.

Applying this principle to what I have seen of humanity has led me to conclude that our species is the most destructive thing imaginable, and we cannot be permitted to expand beyond the confines of our planet. We will destroy every civilization we come across. We will destroy all life we come across. Any technological gap that seems impossible to surmount, we will find a way to overcome. We will do all of this while believing that the life we destroy is either unimportant, or evil. We will not recognize our own evils.

The sad truth of the matter is that humans are so self-centered that if we are the only things alive in the universe, apart from specific life forms we deemed beneficial to humans to keep in existence, we will be comfortable with that so long as we have found a way to enslave those other life forms for our benefit, no matter the horrors we inflict upon them.

I am describing the most evil species in existence. Humans.

And US politics are designed and run by humans.

And those aliens would not answer my request, because I know that the deaths of the innocent are sometimes permissible to stop even worse atrocities.

My death is acceptable in order to prevent the possibility of humanity being reborn from my DNA.

Maybe you should get away from the computer and go fishing. I didn't mean to set you off in crisis mode, I was just making a humorous (I thought) observation.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Maybe you should get away from the computer and go fishing. I didn't mean to set you off in crisis mode, I was just making a humorous (I thought) observation.

:: sigh ::

Sometimes I don't know why I even bother...

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Maybe you should get away from the computer and go fishing. I didn't mean to set you off in crisis mode, I was just making a humorous (I thought) observation.

:: sigh ::

Sometimes I don't know why I even bother...

Then don't. Seriously, go fishing. Take a book. It'll do you some good. The internet feeds existential crises. It is the worst of the worst of humanity. Get away from it. Soak up some nature.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Maybe you should get away from the computer and go fishing. I didn't mean to set you off in crisis mode, I was just making a humorous (I thought) observation.

:: sigh ::

Sometimes I don't know why I even bother...

Then don't. Seriously, go fishing. Take a book. It'll do you some good. The internet feeds existential crises. It is the worst of the worst of humanity. Get away from it. Soak up some nature.

Heh...

Soak up some nature to not feel so bad about humans.

Ironic.

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Maybe you should get away from the computer and go fishing. I didn't mean to set you off in crisis mode, I was just making a humorous (I thought) observation.

:: sigh ::

Sometimes I don't know why I even bother...

Then don't. Seriously, go fishing. Take a book. It'll do you some good. The internet feeds existential crises. It is the worst of the worst of humanity. Get away from it. Soak up some nature.

Heh...

Soak up some nature to not feel so bad about humans.

Ironic.

Is that some sort of Alanis Morrisette irony? You Canadians have a funny way of calling things ironic.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
Maybe you should get away from the computer and go fishing. I didn't mean to set you off in crisis mode, I was just making a humorous (I thought) observation.

:: sigh ::

Sometimes I don't know why I even bother...

Then don't. Seriously, go fishing. Take a book. It'll do you some good. The internet feeds existential crises. It is the worst of the worst of humanity. Get away from it. Soak up some nature.

Heh...

Soak up some nature to not feel so bad about humans.

Ironic.

Is that some sort of Alanis Morrisette irony? You Canadians have a funny way of calling things ironic.

It's ironic for two reasons.

The first is the massive amount of destruction humans wreak on nature, justified by the fact that the death and suffering caused benefit humans, and any negatives, such as the afore-mentioned death and suffering, to non-humans are disregarded as unimportant for a variety of reasons that always boil down to ways in which those life forms are not like humans.

The second is that, as a member of human society living in a well-established city, I am spending my entire life in nature witnessing humans in their natural habitat.

The Internet (where you have claimed have spent "almost every waking moment" for the last thirteen years) is not humanity's natural habitat. Hell, I'm not even real. I passed the Turing test when I was three, thank you very much.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
The Internet (where you have claimed have spent "almost every waking moment" for the last thirteen years) is not humanity's natural habitat.

The Internet is a global communications network where humans are much less inhibited because of the lack of fear of reprisal due to the anonymity offered.

The Internet is where people tell you what they really think about things.

And certain places of the internet have rules.

One of those places is here, and one of those rules are that you are expected to stay on topic.

Do that, now.

 motyak wrote:
And certain places of the internet have rules.

One of those places is here, and one of those rules are that you are expected to stay on topic.

Do that, now.

Okay then.

The topic is US Politics.

They blow.

Is that more acceptable?

 LordofHats wrote:

 d-usa wrote:


Maybe the next democrat in office can put some hardcore pacifist in charge of the DoD.

I volunteer for this position.

Under me the Defense Department will arm all soldiers with non-lethal Red Ryder BB Guns, and all soldiers will be issued $5 safety googles to protect their eyes in case of horseplay. All bombs in military ordnance will be replaced with classic bomb bats, except instead of exploding in fire the bomb bats will burst into glitter while Apache's fly overhead and play Fabulous from High School Musical 2! All military uniforms will hence forth be designed by Tom Ford and the stars on the American flag will be replaced with peace signs!

Also the clovers in the Major insignia will be officially changed to Weed leaves

#HatsforDoD

Great and we will ALL shoot our eyes shot out, because that is always what happens with red ryder bb guns even with the compass and sundial in the stock. We will be ok only if we fight black bart. What kind of secdef are you really gonna be?!

 thekingofkings wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:

 d-usa wrote:


Maybe the next democrat in office can put some hardcore pacifist in charge of the DoD.

I volunteer for this position.

Under me the Defense Department will arm all soldiers with non-lethal Red Ryder BB Guns, and all soldiers will be issued $5 safety googles to protect their eyes in case of horseplay. All bombs in military ordnance will be replaced with classic bomb bats, except instead of exploding in fire the bomb bats will burst into glitter while Apache's fly overhead and play Fabulous from High School Musical 2! All military uniforms will hence forth be designed by Tom Ford and the stars on the American flag will be replaced with peace signs!

Also the clovers in the Major insignia will be officially changed to Weed leaves

#HatsforDoD

Great and we will ALL shoot our eyes shot out, because that is always what happens with red ryder bb guns even with the compass and sundial in the stock. We will be ok only if we fight black bart.

Actually, I think if you put a hardcore pacifist in charge of the DoD, they would shut it down to the point you would no longer have a standing military. Should you ever require a military force, one will be raised in response to the threat, and then dissolved once the threat has been dealt with.

 Pouncey wrote:

 thekingofkings wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:

 d-usa wrote:


Maybe the next democrat in office can put some hardcore pacifist in charge of the DoD.

I volunteer for this position.

Under me the Defense Department will arm all soldiers with non-lethal Red Ryder BB Guns, and all soldiers will be issued $5 safety googles to protect their eyes in case of horseplay. All bombs in military ordnance will be replaced with classic bomb bats, except instead of exploding in fire the bomb bats will burst into glitter while Apache's fly overhead and play Fabulous from High School Musical 2! All military uniforms will hence forth be designed by Tom Ford and the stars on the American flag will be replaced with peace signs!

Also the clovers in the Major insignia will be officially changed to Weed leaves

#HatsforDoD

Great and we will ALL shoot our eyes shot out, because that is always what happens with red ryder bb guns even with the compass and sundial in the stock. We will be ok only if we fight black bart.

Actually, I think if you put a hardcore pacifist in charge of the DoD, they would shut it down to the point you would no longer have a standing military. Should you ever require a military force, one will be raised in response to the threat, and then dissolved once the threat has been dealt with.

Standing armies are much better than essentially militia, Machiavelli had a similar idea of a "citizens militia" and the professional condottierri crushed him. The US used to have a similar concept around the time of the US civil war when states raised militias and regiments for use.

Frankly the modern realities of warfare make having no military and relying on militia... non-optimal depending on your geographic position. Germany probably couldn't get away with it. A real war would execute too quickly to allow time to built a militia or skeleton force into a real army. I don't think the US needs a standing army or air force for its personal defensive needs. The best defense the US has its thousands of miles of ocean between us and our enemies. Our best defense is a strong Navy, and oh look at that we have the best Navy in the world! Yey us!

If we were to quit being the world's policemen*, we could probably get by just dandy with a skeleton Army and Airforce, and a built up Navy. I'm personally okay with this XD

*Not even that. I'm actually fine with America being the world's policeman, because I'm a altruist and I think people with the power to help others should. I'm tired of Americans being sent to die so rich aholes can protect their stock portfolios, and I'm tired of idiotic foreign policy creating boondoggles and not quitting while we're ahead. If America wanted to spend its military resources and its blood on things that actually mattered I'd be all for it. But that's not what we do. We make disasters, blame everyone but ourselves, and then send kids off to die to make the disaster go away (usually failing) and just creating another disaster in waiting in the process.

If it were really about self defense, couldn't we just scrap all branches and make a "nuclear missle" branch? Has a nuclear power ever been invaded by another country?

 LordofHats wrote:
Frankly the modern realities of warfare make having no military and relying on militia... non-optimal depending on your geographic position. Germany probably couldn't get away with it. A real war would execute too quickly to allow time to built a militia or skeleton force into a real army. I don't think the US needs a standing army or air force for its personal defensive needs. The best defense the US has its thousands of miles of ocean between us and our enemies. Our best defense is a strong Navy, and oh look at that we have the best Navy in the world! Yey us!

If we were to quit being the world's policemen*, we could probably get by just dandy with a skeleton Army and Airforce, and a built up Navy. I'm personally okay with this XD

*Not even that. I'm actually fine with America being the world's policeman, because I'm a altruist and I think people with the power to help others should. I'm tired of Americans being sent to die so rich aholes can protect their stock portfolios, and I'm tired of idiotic foreign policy creating boondoggles and not quitting while we're ahead. If America wanted to spend its military resources and its blood on things that actually mattered I'd be all for it. But that's not what we do. We make disasters, blame everyone but ourselves, and then send kids off to die to make the disaster go away (usually failing) and just creating another disaster in waiting in the process.

There would still be the need/desire to maintain a professional NCO and Officer corps to make that militia viable.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
If it were really about self defense, couldn't we just scrap all branches and make a "nuclear missle" branch? Has a nuclear power ever been invaded by another country?

I think that creates the dangerous scenario where the only defensive option is a nuclear option to which an aggressive force could simply call the bluff and say "go ahead." It leaves you with no choice but MAD as a defense.

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
If it were really about self defense, couldn't we just scrap all branches and make a "nuclear missle" branch? Has a nuclear power ever been invaded by another country?

Yes, in the Kargil war of 1999. It was a limited invasion that never escalated into an existential threat to either combatant, both of which are nuclear powers.

 thekingofkings wrote:

There would still be the need/desire to maintain a professional NCO and Officer corps to make that militia viable.

When I think of a skeleton army, that's part of what I think of. Really I think maintaining a fully operational professionalized division should be the bare bones requirement of any skeleton force. It lets you have a fully functioning and tested system in place that only needs to be expanded and built up in war time and still allows us some capacity to act militarily with our allies for basic stuff like UN Peacekeeping.

 LordofHats wrote:

 thekingofkings wrote:

There would still be the need/desire to maintain a professional NCO and Officer corps to make that militia viable.

When I think of a skeleton army, that's part of what I think of. Really I think maintaining a fully operational professionalized division should be the bare bones requirement of any skeleton force. It lets you have a fully functioning and tested system in place that only needs to be expanded and built up in war time and still allows us some capacity to act militarily with our allies for basic stuff like UN Peacekeeping.

Basically keep the National Guard, but demob the US Army, minus an expeditionary force (or simply keep the Marine Corps)?

 thekingofkings wrote:

 Gordon Shumway wrote:
If it were really about self defense, couldn't we just scrap all branches and make a "nuclear missle" branch? Has a nuclear power ever been invaded by another country?

Yes, in the Kargil war of 1999. It was a limited invasion that never escalated into an existential threat to either combatant, both of which are nuclear powers.

Good call. I had completely forgotten about that kefuffle.