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Thread: COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

  1. #20561
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    Quote Originally Posted by rkjohns1 View Post
    Sorry Jovan, I missed your post explaining what exactly was real. Perhaps I should have said, "... unrepresentative of the majority of the Ukrainian people...", is that better?
    No man, the idea that there is a resistance going on. The Ukranians are not rock bottom idiots, of course they are not going to put up a resistance against a vastly superior enemy. Even if they did have a desire to do that, it is completely clear that the missile strikes and quick enemy troop movements on the very first day of the war completely obliterated any kind of organized Ukranian army effort, if there ever even was one. What you have is a bunch of people who were told they would get pensions and something resembling a decent salary if they joined the armed forces, but those guys only did it out of financial desperation. As soon as they were encircled in areas which came to be completely controlled by the Russian military, they are of course laying down their weapons or putting up a symbolic fight so that the people running their regiments don't shoot them in the head. You also have a bunch of what are essentially soldiers of fortune from Ukraine and elsewhere. If any of them is putting up a fight, it is simply because they know that the Russians will not let them get out alive, so might as well go out with a blast. The whole thing was pretty much over even before Putin came out and announced the hostilities, what we are looking at now is just a hologram, mostly information warfare which is not even directed at the Ukraine. The saddest part is that the Russians are even wining that one in the West, I mean the battle for the somnambulist, narcissistic, unspeakably sad excuse for what we call out civilization, even though that was the least of their objectives. For this we can blame all the usual kakistokracy suspects who have been making our lives as miserable as possible for the past two years.

    Of course the Ukranian government is a puppet show not nearly representative of its people, but what is the story there? The same holds true for your government, and mine, and the Russian one, and the Chinese one and so on. It is like debating whether it is warm when the sun shines bright in the summer.

  2. #20562
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    Quote Originally Posted by anticausal View Post
    Here's an interesting excerpt from a recent Gonzalo Lira (Coach Red Pill) rant. Transcript starts at 29:36:
    100%

    And once again, history repeats itself.

    I've actually been less concerned with the coof narrative and the open borders and financial system collapse, than when these incompetent corrupt evil bastards pull the "Climate Lockdown" card. Coming soon, and if you thought the coof brought out the sheep, just wait till the weather fanatics start gathering in the streets.

    It's pure fuckery. Where I live, Lake Michigan varies about 2 feet year over year. When the water level is lower, it's a crisis. When the water level is higher, it's a crisis. I've seen this shit play out for 50 years.

    If we don't get nukes from WWII, we'll get nuked with climate or another coof.

    Quote Originally Posted by rkjohns1 View Post
    What kind of resistance? Are you questioning that there is a war going on? Even a preferred news source of yours acknowledges this: Russia-Ukraine War Headed For a Bloody Stalemate – PJ Media

    Putin ordered his military to invade Ukraine, so yes, I really believe Putin is the bad guy here.



    Sorry Jovan, I missed your post explaining what exactly was real. Perhaps I should have said, "... unrepresentative of the majority of the Ukrainian people...", is that better?
    Maybe I'm too cynical, as often suggested, but I tend to believe the exact opposite of whatever the state media narrative is. If I were a betting man, which I'm not, I'd wager on the media being useful stooges in stirring up the shit and being seemingly giddy about the prospect of nuclear war.

  3. #20563
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    You answer my questions, I'll answer yours.
    Okay, deal. I answered your question about Putin being the bad guy, and to answer to your question about what kind of resistance, my answer is the Ukrainian military, armed civilians and foreign volunteers. Earlier you had asked if I voted for Biden. I did. You also asked about the $100 Biden Bucks. Highly doubt this will come up for consideration, but if it does, if there isn't a sound way to pay for it, don't do it.

    Did you catch the Duke vs TTU game last night?

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Charles View Post
    Out of experience here, usually “we” means some of us. Don’t take it so literally. I’ve asked who we are at war with with respect to COVID dozens of times and never got very far.

    Us, them, we, you, everyone, all, etc. are just figures of speech, and not rigorous declarations. It’s confusing because the arguments are more speculative than factual, but presented as factual anyway.
    Got it, thank you. I was beginning to think two years on this thread had started a case of groupthink for some.

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  5. #20565
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    Quote Originally Posted by rkjohns1 View Post
    You also asked about the $100 Biden Bucks. Highly doubt this will come up for consideration, but if it does, if there isn't a sound way to pay for it, don't do it.
    A sound way to pay for it? You really did vote for Biden.

    Did you catch the Duke vs TTU game last night?
    I don't answer sports questions.

    Quote Originally Posted by anticausal View Post
    I think he's just incredibly, profoundly stupid. The man has a 1500-word vocabulary, and I'd rather listen to rustling plastic bags.

    __________________________________________________ __________


    Here's an opinion about us from the geniuses at MSNBC: Pandemic fitness trends have gone extreme — literally

    So you don't have to visit their website:

    It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.

    Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online “fascist fitness” chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies. Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.

    Physical fitness has always been central to the far right. In “Mein Kampf,” Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with “fanatical love of the fatherland,” would do more for the German nation than any “mediocre” tactical weapons training.

    In more modern times, far-right groups have launched mixed martial arts and boxing gyms in Ukraine, Canada and France, among other places, focused on training far-right nationalists in violent hand-to-hand combat and street-fighting techniques. It’s caught the attention of intelligence authorities, especially in Europe, where various reports have noted the role of combat sports and MMA in radicalizing and promoting far-right violence. A series of collaborative efforts between governments, national sports associations, and local gyms in places such as Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom have introduced intervention and prevention programs.

    The U.S. is comparatively far behind, which will only become more and more problematic, especially since the phenomenon is growing in the country, building on the established fight-club culture of MMA far-right extremists. The leader of a Maryland skinhead group, for example, once ran a gym to “recruit and train white supremacists in mixed martial arts.” Four members or associates of the racist, violent Rise Above Movement (RAM), the self-described “premier MMA club of the Alt-Right,” pled guilty to conspiracy to riot after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. An online propagandist for that now-defunct group was spotted among protesters on Jan. 6 last year. When members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched in Washington, D.C., in December 2021, they were accompanied by a new media outlet created by RAM’s founder, Robert Rundo, who is working to create a network of far-right MMA "Active Clubs” in the U.S. and abroad.

    The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition. Physical fitness training, especially in combat sports, appeals to the far right for many reasons: fighters are trained to accept significant physical pain, to be “warriors,” and to embrace messaging around solidarity, heroism, and brotherhood. It’s championed as a tool to help fight the “coming race war” and the street battles that will precede it. Recruits are encouraged to link individual moral virtues such as willpower, decisiveness and courage, with desired collective traits such as virility and manliness. This also works in reverse, with white supremacists encouraging potential recruits or activists to stay in good physical shape as a way of managing self-presentation to the public. The neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin advised his followers that “fat people” should be required to commit to losing weight if they are to stay involved with groups or in-person gatherings, noting that “continued obesity should not be tolerated.”

    With recruitment now moving from physical gyms to chat rooms, livestreamed fights, tournaments, festivals, and even combat sports video games, we’re seeing extremist fighting culture being combined with an entertainment culture that already valorizes violence and hypermasculinity.

    Fitness of course is a staple and a hobby for many people, for whom it is enjoyable and rewarding for brain health and overall well-being. Physical fitness channels dopamine, adrenalin and serotonin in ways that literally feel good. Intertwining those feelings with hateful and dehumanizing ideas, while promoting the concept that physical warriors are needed to create the strength and dominance to defend one’s people from a perceived enemy, makes for a dangerous and powerful cocktail of radicalization.

    For those of us working to find better pathways to reach at-risk youth, understanding the ways that far-right groups recruit and socialize youth — in ways that go well beyond rhetoric and ideas — is crucial. It’s critical that leaders, including parents, physical trainers, gym owners, coaches and others in the fitness world understand how online grooming and recruitment can intersect with spaces that we generally think of as promoting health and well-being. The realm of online fitness now provides a new and ever-expanding market for reaching and radicalizing young men; and it requires our targeted focus and resources to try and stop the cycle.

    Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Education at American University, where she directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). Her most recent book is "Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right."
    Do not ever believe anything the media says.

  6. #20566
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    Quote Originally Posted by rkjohns1 View Post
    I really believe Putin is the bad guy here.
    The US has been poking around in the Ukraine for some time and checking out the oil and gas reserves. Putin the head of the world's largest kleptocracy does not want the US to get their hands on those energy reserves as Ukraine as far as he is concerned belongs to Russia or more specifically to him and his other "rulers of few". The world may be trying to go "green", but anybody with a brain knows oil is where the money is. Also Putin does not want US and Nato forces in the Ukraine which would threaten his control over Russia.

    Greed is the motivation and fossil fuels are the prize.

  7. #20567
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    Quote Originally Posted by rkjohns1 View Post
    Putin ordered his military to invade Ukraine, so yes, I really believe Putin is the bad guy here.
    Quote Originally Posted by wal View Post
    The US has been poking around in the Ukraine for some time and checking out the oil and gas reserves. Putin the head of the world's largest kleptocracy does not want the US to get their hands on those energy reserves as Ukraine as far as he is concerned belongs to Russia or more specifically to him and his other "rulers of few". The world may be trying to go "green", but anybody with a brain knows oil is where the money is. Also Putin does not want US and Nato forces in the Ukraine which would threaten his control over Russia.

    Greed is the motivation and fossil fuels are the prize.
    I've told you kids that this is more complicated than your media is portraying. But Putin=bad/Ukraine=good is just so much easier: A response to Arnold Schwarzenegger / Ответ Арнольду Шварценеггеру - YouTube

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    I've told you kids that this is more complicated than your media is portraying. But Putin=bad/Ukraine=good is just so much easier: A response to Arnold Schwarzenegger / Ответ Арнольду Шварценеггеру - YouTube
    Somehow, I didn't need the subtitles to understand this strong woman's message.

  9. #20569
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    I've told you kids that this is more complicated than your media is portraying. But Putin=bad/Ukraine=good is just so much easier: A response to Arnold Schwarzenegger / Ответ Арнольду Шварценеггеру - YouTube
    "Russophobia is as terrible as anti-semitism"

    I like this girl.

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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    [I]
    Here's an opinion about us from the geniuses at MSNBC: Pandemic fitness trends have gone extreme — literally

    So you don't have to visit their website:
    It says:
    Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with “fanatical love of the fatherland,” would do more for the German nation than any “mediocre” tactical weapons training.
    These people can even pick out a Hitler quote to make him look totally right and smart. This is a super funny article, the author is obviously into costumed BDSM.

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