4 ms·

I think you can take this analogy too far. If I were to do so, I'd say that the OP is suggesting that Pearl Harbor was attacked, the President said it was no bi

by untog 7y ago

I think you can take this analogy too far. If I were to do so, I'd say that the OP is suggesting that Pearl Harbor was attacked, the President said it was no big deal, just one Japanese plane, and the country collectively twiddled their thumbs while the enemy advanced.

bilbo0s 7y ago
True. Not sure why everything is always compared to a war in any case? We have a war on this, a war on that. You can compare anything to a war, but that doesn't mean you're going to get useful insights out of the exercise. I mean, yeah, I suppose it's Pearl Harbor is attacked and we twiddled our thumbs, but what insights useful right now in dealing with this virus does that comparison uncover? It's kind of just noise at this point. Save it for the post-mortem and the history books. It's not terribly useful right now. And it's certainly not useful to tell Americans at this point that it's necessary and common that many of them will need to die unnecessarily because, "that's always the way".
- untog 7y ago
  > It's kind of just noise at this point. Save it for the post-mortem and the history books. It's not terribly useful right now. If we were serving in the White House right now I'd agree with you. But we're just people shooting the shit online, I don't really see what harm it does to discuss the things that are on our minds. Nothing we’re talking about here is really all that useful in terms of tackling the issue in front of us all.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
huonpine 7y ago
Pearl harbor is a bad example as harm prevention was carried out prior to the attack (2 missing aircraft carriers).
thejohnconway 7y ago
Well, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, the US did twiddle its thumbs for at least two years after the outbreak of WW2. Earlier intervention may have virtually stopped it (in Europe at least).
- tsimionescu 7y ago
  Sure, though I believe that during those 2 years the US was also trying to decide which part they should enter the war on. There were influential Nazi supporters in the US, and Russian 'communism' was probably seen as a bigger ideological problem than antisemitism to many.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    While there was a certain amount of bi-directional influence (Hitler taking inspiration from the KKK, the German-American Bund being the local Nazi party) there was never any question of entering the war on the Nazi side, and indeed Lend-Lease started in early 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, including supplying arms to the Soviet Union. The private sector was still supplying Nazi Germany while the US was officially neutral, though.

by untog 7y ago

bilbo0s 7y ago

True. Not sure why everything is always compared to a war in any case? We have a war on this, a war on that. You can compare anything to a war, but that doesn't mean you're going to get useful insights out of the exercise. I mean, yeah, I suppose it's Pearl Harbor is attacked and we twiddled our thumbs, but what insights useful right now in dealing with this virus does that comparison uncover? It's kind of just noise at this point. Save it for the post-mortem and the history books. It's not terribly useful right now. And it's certainly not useful to tell Americans at this point that it's necessary and common that many of them will need to die unnecessarily because, "that's always the way".

untog 7y ago
> It's kind of just noise at this point. Save it for the post-mortem and the history books. It's not terribly useful right now. If we were serving in the White House right now I'd agree with you. But we're just people shooting the shit online, I don't really see what harm it does to discuss the things that are on our minds. Nothing we’re talking about here is really all that useful in terms of tackling the issue in front of us all.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

huonpine 7y ago

Pearl harbor is a bad example as harm prevention was carried out prior to the attack (2 missing aircraft carriers).

thejohnconway 7y ago

Well, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, the US did twiddle its thumbs for at least two years after the outbreak of WW2. Earlier intervention may have virtually stopped it (in Europe at least).

tsimionescu 7y ago
Sure, though I believe that during those 2 years the US was also trying to decide which part they should enter the war on. There were influential Nazi supporters in the US, and Russian 'communism' was probably seen as a bigger ideological problem than antisemitism to many.
- pjc50 7y ago
  While there was a certain amount of bi-directional influence (Hitler taking inspiration from the KKK, the German-American Bund being the local Nazi party) there was never any question of entering the war on the Nazi side, and indeed Lend-Lease started in early 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, including supplying arms to the Soviet Union. The private sector was still supplying Nazi Germany while the US was officially neutral, though.