SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]

“Crises teasingly hold out the possibility of dramatic reversals only to be followed by surreal continuity as the old order cadaverously fights back.”

  • 81 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: January 3rd, 2022
  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOPMtonews@hexbear.net•Bulletins and News Discussion from June 24th to June 30th, 2024 - Waiting for War - COTW: LebanonEnglish
    54·
    2 days ago

    or scholars from a post-internet empire 5 centuries from now trying to salvage whatever data they can from what they view as the height of human civilisation

    whenever I get a bit too anxious about ongoing events, I like to imagine a hypothetical person during, say, the Mongol conquests. in the middle of massive battles that shaped civilizations, but just trying to get by on the day-to-day, trying not to get murdered, harvesting grain or weaving or something, and totally forgotten by history. did they ever think that centuries on, people would still be talking about and analyzing events back in their time? did they hope that we’d have overcome war by that distant decade? I sure hope that the people of the 2100s and 2200s are living in lovely communist cities and free from many of our blights.

    it’s a more human-centric version of the concept of “compared to the universe, we are tiny and insignificant” so it has more mental staying power for me. it’s not so much about bitter nihilism as much as it is the indomitable human spirit. a city 100 miles away in central Asia gets sacked, but you still have to go wash the clothes in the river and feed the cattle. today, I am just one of billions living during the current timeframe. in a century or so, I and almost everybody currently alive will be dead, but geopolitics continues on, our suffering forgotten, or at least made less horrifying by remote abstraction, like those who died to the mongol army. but today, we live.

    sometimes in life, shit happens and then you die. most of the time, shit happens and then you keep living.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOPMtonews@hexbear.net•Bulletins and News Discussion from June 24th to June 30th, 2024 - Waiting for War - COTW: LebanonEnglish
    23·
    2 days ago

    The Country of the Week is Lebanon!

    Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Lebanon.

    If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:

    spoiler
    • What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
    • What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
    • Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
    • Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
    • What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
    • Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
    • How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
    • Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What’s the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
    • If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?

    Check out the reading list. Our books on Lebanon:

    • A History of Modern Lebanon by Fawwaz Traboulsi (2007).
    • Narrating Conflict in the Middle East: Discourse, Image, and Communications Practices in Lebanon and Palestine by Dina Matar and Zahera Harb (2013).

    Amal Saad is a prominent scholar of Hezbollah and frequently posts on social media about her analysis of ongoing events. She has two books: Hizbu’llah: Politics and Religion published in 2001, and The Iran Connection: Understanding the Alliance with Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas published in 2012.

    There’s also plenty of books on Palestine (and thus by extension, the Resistance helping them) in the Palestine section.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]@hexbear.netOPMtonews@hexbear.net•Bulletins and News Discussion from June 17th to June 23rd, 2024 - Macron's Gambit - COTW: FranceEnglish
    58·
    4 days ago

    An interesting thing to note I think is that People’s War can create the material conditions IF the enemy responds to your existence with a poorly thought out and brutal strategy that harms the people.

    It’s also why the whole “diplomacy is for pussies, real manly men go to war! Yemen is about to figure out why we don’t have free healthcare!” is simply wrong from the foundation upwards. the kind of war of extermination of the 18/19/early 20th century European monarchies that Israel is basing their genocide on did not result in placated populations, it generated such anti-colonial anger and action that it was one of the major factors making outright colonialism impossible (and necessited a switch to a more economic and diplomatic neocolonialism)

    no matter what technology you throw at it, no matter what AI you have piloting the drones, it’s still colonialism and settler-colonial relationships of oppression. Israel has ideologically trapped themselves, unable to see that by following this path, they have doomed themselves in the same way that the European empires doomed themselves. if Israel wished to keep its miniature empire, it should have let Palestine have a state but maintained an extractive neocolonial relationship. not doing so will be seen as one of the biggest errors of Israeli policy in a post-Israel world imo.

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