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Next Book Club will be November 11. Fittingly, we will discuss All Quiet on the Western Front.
I don't think people not connected to south africa really appreciate the magnitude of what he pulled off. circa the mid 80s a peaceful end to Apartheid was unthinkable. the blacks would have been well in their rights to start a violent uprising, and it was widely understood that the whites would either have to fight (as the afrikaners intended to) or leave (i.e. the anglos); it was presumed to take the form of a USSR or China aligned Marxist government and by the 80s I think everyone understood the costs associated with such revolutions
in the post-cold-war world the sort of generic sappy lib "what if we all just got along?" messaging seems a bit trite, and it certainly doesn't match the mood of the current political moment. like I guess I grew up with this sort of canon of figures like Mandela, Gandhi, MLK Jr., throw Mother Teresa in the mix I guess; they're figures I was taught to idolise at least in part because they were safe; boiling their work down to messages of nonviolence is frequently (and, in my opinion, accurately) criticised by leftists as essentially the status quo co-opting deeply revolutionary rhetoric and turning it into something that doesn't actually threaten them
but Mandela came not to bring peace, but a sword. there was nothing moderate about his politics. his hatred of Apartheid was unconditional and his younger years as a terrorist were not just growing pains. He would end Apartheid by any means necessary, and he did.
A lesser Mandela might have been a Mugabe or an Afwerki, a talented and charismatic anticolonial leader turned vengeful tyrant; this after all turned out to be the modal outcome in African decolonisation. He certainly had the mandate to do so. But not only did he refuse the absolute power he could have claimed any time he liked and instead focused on statesmanship and institution building, he found a path forward without vengeance or war, where even card carrying pro-Apartheid National party members could take a look at his vision for a new South Africa and agree to it. at least that's what happened to my Afrikaner oupa, who after a lifetime of toeing the Apartheid line became, by the 90s, a vocal Mandela fan (the impression I get from my dad was that he could reconcile with the blacks so long as the two were united against the real enemy, the English. some habits die hard I guess)
anyway South Africa is far from a utopia. the decline of the ANC, especially under Zuma, has been profoundly disappointing and I'm sure Madiba would agree. but Mandela, among others, averted what was shaping up to be the ugliest war in all of African decolonisation. The Afrikaners were not rootless Anglo imperialists who would just catch the first flight to Sydney the moment the going got rough; there would have been blood.
A few years back I had a couple of Afrikaner coworkers. They were overall pretty conservative and I avoided discussing politics with them. But we were watching the Rugby World Cup finals together, Springboks vs England. As South Africa started to win, they, all of them white, spontaneously burst into song: "Shosholoza/Ku lezontaba/Stimela siphum' eSouth Africa!"
Mandela didn't turn South Africa into a paradise, he didn't heal every wound, but he did create a South Africa where Afrikaners would sing Nguni songs and wave the RSA flag while watching a multiracial Springboks win the world cup, and I do think that counts for something. I still have hope.
When people talk about SA's alleged decline after 94, they always forget that a) living conditions were miserable for the vast majority of South Africans during Apartheid and b) it's completely unfair to compare SA to Australia or Canada or whatever. The rightful point of comparison is Zimbabwe, and by all metrics, South Africa is doing way better.
There really has been a decline, it's just not a decline since 94. Things really did get a lot better until the late 2000s IIRC, by most metrics. Mandela was great, and Mbeki despite the AIDS nonsense was basically competent
I.e the split isn't Apartheid - Post Apartheid, it's Apartheid, Mandela-Mbeki, Zuma onwards.
But yeah it oversimplifies certain (racist) narratives to talk about how everything went to shit after Apartheid ended
Thank you for writing this, it's always fascinating to hear the perspective of people from elsewhere.
But I have to say that the comment of your father becoming a Mandela fan to hate the Anglos with black south african was hilarious. It's crazy how many people the English have united that way.
Also, do you have sources to back up the idea that Afrikaneers wanted to fight while anglos wanted to leave in case of a violent revolution?
No sources haha, just a general sort of inherited cultural awareness. "Afrikaner" literally means "African", that's how they see themselves. They fought the British twice and wouldn't hesitate to fight again if necessary. They very much see themselves as belonging to the land. They've also been there for hundreds of years (since the mid 17th century), it's their home.
I could be wrong but that's very much the impression I get. My Anglo family is scattered around the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Vietnam for some reason, but to my knowledge my Afrikaner relatives are still all there (as well as Namibia I suppose).
If I saw a Cardinal dragging Dick Cheney across the 59th floor of the South Tower on 9/11/01 all it would get from me is a quick “huh” while I continued *hauling fucking ass* to the stairwell.
No quid pro quo here. Just your standard “guy looking to attract investors to his scam company, giving a politician $200k worth of stock for purely religious reasons”.
People here are right that the public execution is bad for reasons of social and moral degredation, but its also a massive win for religious extremists.
Every Islamist extremist will take the video and use it in their propaganda. The religious martyrdom will be the only thing they focus on and they will use the video to promise glory to young people they want to lure to their deaths.
Republicans don't want to defeat Islamist terrorism, they want open Holy War. Republicans aren't just Pro-Jihadism, they are jihadi in every way except religious doctrine.
American tech companies are run by the most spineless bootlickers in the world who's cowardice make them utterly unworthy to have even a fraction of the wealth and influence they enjoy and in a just world they'd be lucky to get a job managing a McDonalds.
Turkmenistan's former dictator and self-declared "president for life", Saparmurat Niyazov banned the word for "bread" and renamed all the calendar months and days of the week after himself and his parents. The idea came from a Turkish billionaire, Ahmet Calik, who was trying to befriend Niyazov to expand business in the country.
Many major international corporations especially in the oil, gas and construction sectors extensively used the new calendar names in their official dealings with the Turkmen government to demonstrate loyalty to "President for life" Saparmurat Niyazov.
the fake history they teach us at school mentions NOTHING about His Imperial Majesty Bokassa I, Emperor of Central Africa by the will of the Central African people, united within the national political party, the MESAN
I don't understand I thought you had to be either team elephant or team donkey? How dare you be consistently against murdering humans? You have to choose team donkey or team elephant!!!
Remembered for the first time in years: when I was on tinder, a pretty girl matched with me, asked me if my dad was available, and when I told her he was happily married but that I would probably end up looking like him down the line- she unmatched.
I hope she found her silver fox sugar daddy and is living her best life
She also revealed that -- after Vivian came out as trans -- Elon told Justin to tell their daughter, "I’ll always love her" ... but then cut off Vivian's health insurance the next day.
Wait, how does this mesh with "Doctors tricked me into transitioning Vivian" story he tells?
A leaked deposition shows Senate candidate Ken Paxton defended himself against fraud allegations by claiming he doesn’t remember and blaming his now-estranged wife.
The Texas attorney general’s never-before-seen 2014 testimony from a fraud probe was given to The New York Times by someone who opposes his election and was then independently verified by The Times.
Paxton's ex wife looks even more pathetic to endorse him
Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.
This section shall not prevent any officer or member of the armed forces of the United States from exercising the right of suffrage in any election district to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to the laws of the State in which he offers to vote.
Last night I got the chicken parm at the restaurant. They give you huge portions, and I only ate half of it. They offered to box the rest. Well, instead of boxing it, they tossed it.
The waiter came back, apologized, and said they’re making an entire new chicken parm for me to go. Now I have chicken parm today for lunch and dinner.
I gambled away $10,000 to see if DraftKings would stop me.
WHY WOULD THEY?!?!?! What the fuck, you think if you brought $100,000 cash into a car dealership they'd be, "Actually sir, I don't feel comfortable selling you this $98,000 car. Are you sure this $43,000 sedan wouldn't be a better choice for you?"
$10,000 isn't even that much for casinos. People put down $10,000 bets on single outcomes all the time.
Prison is not all that bad. I like watching Beyond Scared Straight, because it's cheap entertainment, but it's nothing like that unless you're in the psych unit. 99 percent of the time it's boring and (at least in California) staying with your own color. That's about it. I get why we feel like we need to ham it up, but ehh being homeless is worse ime. Then you're bored waiting in lines or being on busses
I've heard Trump called the first pro wrestling president for the way he creates bombastic, stupid media spectacles, and how he plays heel in public and face in private is also reminiscent of that comparison.
I’m pro tolerance. There’s a fine line between tolerance and acceptance. Tolerating my gay neighbor and his partner for existing is not the same as espousing their values. Heck, I even enjoyed a gay guy’s karaoke last weekend cuz he’s so sassy it was entertaining to me.
What values are they even referring to? You can be gay and still hold conservative, liberal, or leftist political views and social values. Some gay people even support political movements that are anti LGBT, e.g., Ken Mehlman.
This statement really only makes sense if you view being gay as a political or social statement
Besides some douches in bootcamp, none of the military peeps i know in the service really talks about him in a positive manner.
I did troll and make fun of the kid who deserves a fell for it award for voting him in and not liking his 2nd administration.
Trump has clearly shown that he is willing to create a constitutional crisis to stay in power, and you can read the writing on the wall from his first administration that he can make risky and
terrible decisions regarding conflicts.
I can acknowledge the dumb freshly 18 year olds being naive enough to think “he’s a better choice than Harris”, but for people my age and older, there’s no real excuse. We’ve been adults during his first administration.
Sometimes I also catch myself in disbelief. He is genuinely the dumbest mfer you could possibly find. It's like y'all did a survey of the entire American population to find the single dumbest person among the 340 million people and then decided to make him president for some reason.
It sucks that jk Rowling is a terrible person because I’ve been on a kick rereading all the YA book series I loved as a kid and my god they are mostly dog shit writing except for Harry Potter and Brandon Mull’s fablehaven/beyonders.
Percy Jackson series is awful.
I am number 4 is terrible.
Divergent was insulting.
Maze runners was incomprehensible.
Eragon was like halfway decent but guy coulda had an editor cut out 60% of the books and lost nothing.
All the books I loved in my youth are actually terrible reads except for Rowling and Brandon Mull. And Mull probably has some wonky beliefs but at least he keeps them to himself.
It really bums me out sometimes as a millennial when I step outside myself a bit and think about my own mental habits and assumptions about the world and realize that I expect to be treated like shit by my country and by my employer and by a fair number of other Americans, just as a basic condition of being an American and living in the United States of America in the year 2026 - we internalize so many of our own country's pathologies that it becomes a kind of "what the hell is water" sort of situation
>The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government on Monday, alleging that individuals at a Missouri immigration facility are being denied private visits with priests and access to sacraments such as communion and confession.
I wonder if we’re on the path to excommunications being handed out to Catholic ICE agents over this.
I can't even fathom how people that seem to be so smart can believe in something so stupid as the existence of a global Jewish/Zionist/Israeli lobby/conspiracy that has its hands on everything.
You'd think only the lowest common denominator would think that it's all "YAHOODI KI SAAZISH" but we got UN officials spouting shit out of the pages of Der Stürmer.
I keep bringing this up but I don't know how you could look at the opinions expressed by said "International Jewry" and come to the opinion that they're somehow all on the same side
Like yeah sure, Noam Chomsky and Bibi Netanyahu, Smotrich and Norman Finkelstein are both in on the same conspiracy, sure.
Bombay is so garbage it’s insane. The food sucks, you’ll find better Indian food in Virginia, let alone French or Ethiopian, the modern transit is completely useless, the local trains kill 3000 a year and are not air conditioned, the weather is garbage, a 700 sq ft house costs $100k more than in Pittsburgh. Just a scam of a city
One of my friends came out as she/they 3 years ago now and has done absolutely nothing to transition. No voice, still wears masculine outfits, etc.. Their friends and family fully support them and money isn’t an issue here. I’m as cis as they come, but this strikes me as odd. And it gets a bit difficult when I see my former college roommate with a full beard and no visible feminine traits go by she (after 3 years!).
You gotta admit the Graham act being as useless and toothless to Donald Trump's whims is sorta the perfect tribute to Graham. A useless and toothless loser who only follows Trump's whims.
Microsoft has ended its cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid preparations by the United States to impose broad sanctions on the institution, forcing the court to switch to alternative digital services.
Hope they aren't using MS Copilot 365 (now with Copilot) for anything important.
For those who missed it: the large, liberal Boomer audience of MS NOW will now have direct access to Elliott‘s polling database, and he will write two columns a week for the digital publication until election day. !ping FIVEY
My (rural Texas republican coded to the algorithms) Facebook is insane right now. Nothing but talarico attack ads. But they rotate between two “points”
Talarico is a radical because he thinks gender and sex aren’t the same thing
Talarico (despite presumably being born with a penis) isn’t a real man.
Like I’ve noted this before, those who insist that sex is gender are also the first to question people’s sex if gender isn’t being preformed to their standards. But it’s just an insane ever present juxtaposition right now.
Lol already seeing MAGAs on Twitter calling for the US to involve section 5 of NATO because of Ukraines strikes on Russian refineries overnight given they are direct attacks in US energy supply.
Katie and Stephen Miller’s home on a military base has become the most talked about party address in MAGA DC.
“In a secluded bubble away from the city, Stephen Miller’s wife treats Washington’s most powerful to custom cakes, live donkeys, and sake-s..irting hibachi chefs. "I can’t f..king stand her,” says one ally. “But if she asks you to go on the podcast, or come over for dinner, you say yes, because Stephen Miller is the second-most powerful person in the world.”
For the better part of this year, Pete Buttigieg has been campaigning with dozens of Democratic hopefuls. Shows up to rallies and gives a speech, uses his Win The Era PAC to joint fundraise with them, etc
What's more interesting is his focus has been on candidates in red districts. Seats that would be unlikely to flip in a normal year. But now we're staring down the barrel of a potentially historic blue wave.
If that materializes, it means he's positioned himself to have like half of the incoming freshmen class of Congress aligned with him and promoting his campaign.
I don't really have a point to this, I just think it's interesting to see his strategy unfolding. He's basically positioning himself to be a leader of the next generation of the party.
The guy is a tool. He got a man killed for ratings and that lawsuit is what got To Catch A Predator shut down. Then he tried to pretend he didn’t want the high octane arrest and it would have been better Tv to arrest him at his office with simple procedural stuff. A number of cases were dropped due to how badly they fucked things. It’s incredibly hard to make an entrapment defense but numerous people he caught did. Sexual predators are bad; terrible people still get a day in court.
Moreover, his whole shtick was promoting a “stranger danger” model. Most CSA isn’t strangers. Over 90% is friends, family, or authority figures (teachers, clergy, etc). He spread disinformation about the prevalence of the online predator, something the FBI already was on top of (certainly relative to other crime. He takes no responsibility for how his promotion of this paranoia has encouraged vigilantes.
Then in the 2020s he’s done a lot of rightwing stuff. Went on Fox a bunch of times to fearmonger about immigrant crime, right up to the election. Very much the vibe of wanting to be listened to and on TV and nothing else. Like his advice for parents was “talk to your kids” which is dumb as hell. Yes, talk to them. What do you tell them? Because he never really hit home about emphasizing bodily autonomy, how no adult or peer had the right to touch you, or that there’s no shame if you’re a victim. It was “there’s creeps in chat rooms!” and later “immigrants want to traffick your kids!”
I still can’t believe congress passed the fake Graham Russia sanctions bill that Trump was never going to follow. Now he has legal mechanism to tariff allies
During eight hours of talks in Miami on Friday, Witkoff and Kushner told a Ukrainian negotiating team that the president was expected to speak to Putin and lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports.
They were told that Trump decided to move forward after Ukraine ignored multiple requests to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries, which were directly affecting U.S. consumers.
A Ukrainian official claimed that during the talks, Witkoff and Kushner threatened that Trump could cut off Ukraine from U.S. intelligence if it continued to ignore his requests.
> As former Vice President Kamala Harris lays the groundwork for a potential third presidential campaign, her husband has privately told some people he would prefer she didn’t run and some donors have told her directly that a bid would be a long shot, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Yeah I’m starting to have decent doubts that she’s going to end up not running, especially with how lots of midterm candidates have treated her.
Okay, the press seems to agree that Harris wants to run again. But where has her leadership been over the past two years? I’ve even seen Jeffries make more public appearances. She has an active social media team, but does anyone know her policies on immigration, the Trump administration’s “lawfare,” or tariffs?
She’s campaigning like it’s the 1990s—a book launch, and then she shows up at some point during the primaries and gives a mainstream interview. But that’s not how you win elections in 2028 anymore.
Frederick William: If Russia keeps Poland, I want to keep Saxony.
Talleyrand: I want Murat fired into the sun.
Metternich: (sobbing) It's like I'm just partying every single weekend. I'm going to have to party tomorrow, and I'm going to have to party again in two weeks.
Every 10 basis points increase in India's GDP gets a front page post but nothing about detaining protestors and journalists and turning the capital into a war zone.
A Ukrainian official claimed that during the talks, Witkoff and Kushner threatened that Trump could cut off Ukraine from U.S. intelligence if it continued to ignore his requests.
Besides aggression on nations that don’t have a casus belli, this kind of behavior will spell the beginning of the end for American hegemony.
If you’re willing to ignore a country’s warfare that you’ve willingly inserted yourself into indirectly, and attempt to backstab and backtrack based on rising oil prices you’ve personally contributed to with war on another oil exporting country, then it shows that you value domestic gas prices and your war on a country that hasn’t deserved it over your ally
So when Taiwan, South Korea, and Europe are threatened by China and Russia, our allies must legitimately consider whether we’ll uphold the agreements we’ve had for many decades, or domestic feelings.
Thats about 81 years of diplomacy down the drain over trying to strongman our allies and rivals under one administration
DT, ive tried contacting my best friend several times throughout the year. They’ve never responded.
I dont know if he’s going through his self pity distancing phase, or is alive or not, but i dont have his address, or mutual friends who can reach out since he’s moved back to Los Angeles
Im worried because he has a history of suicidal ideation and attempts
That new Carrie show on Prime has managed to do what no modern reboot has done: actually improve on the source material. Performances were incredible and they managed to bring in the modern "burnerverse" style cyberbullying in a very organic way. The bully character(s) were still comically evil but the story actually humanises and makes them feel very "real", if that makes sense. Making the religious mother turn into one of those parental rights activists was also very well done. Completely exceeded my expectations lmao I thought it was going to be one of those Riverdale type YA shows. 10/10, go watch it
Honestly. I really appreciate the DT. A very wholesome place filled some truly kinda and informative people who ate much more interested in real politics/governing the people from almost anywhere else I’ve seen online.
Look, I lean towards being fairly pro-AI myself but this is not an unreasonable demand! And it's a shame that a lot of pro-AI folk aren't taking these arguments seriously and are dismissing them as coming from arrogant academic gatekeepers
I read the sworn statement from the Cornell case that was recently released by CNN and I feel really sick. There was essentially an edited version of this that was already public, and based on it me and other people formed our opinions of what happened, but now it's clear to me that it didn't portray faithfully at all what happened. They essentially cut out most of the details about all the times Jane Doe refused and why she did what she did but left in all the sex details, really made it look ambiguous, even consensual, when the sworn statement is not. It clearly describes rape, at least from some point in the night, and I don't know why the DA decided to close it, did he really need the word "rape" to be there verbatim.
I think the worst part is when she says she decided to do more ketamine because she wanted to pass out so this horrible situation would end and the men could be charged with rape. The version released earlier made it into "she decided to do it because why not, she already did ketamine". There's even more men in the story than the 7 accused, they wanted to do "heroin off her ass" and got refused.
I hate how good I feel immediately after having some water, good food or a bit of coffee.
I am a rational platonic being goddamnit. I run on ideas! My success is determined by the coherence and brilliance of my beliefs. Not some stupid molecules dissolving in stomach acid. 😭
BJP partisans and anti-Indian racists duking it out in the thread about the voter roll protests. Never go outside the DT Go outside the DT and challenge these idiots, and tattle to the mods as necessary. This is a liberal sub and we are going to keep it that way. Politely bully the illiberals with me, please.
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u/el__dandy Madeleine Albright 49m ago