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Everyone with the “only solution is revolution” mentality needs to read this comment. Anyone salivating over/romanticizing armed conflict has never experienced

Everyone with the “only solution is revolution” mentality needs to read this comment. Anyone salivating over/romanticizing armed conflict has never experienced it and can’t fathom how awful it is. I know I can’t, and that’s why I don’t want to find out.

applfanboysbgon 8mo ago
Anyone salivating over/romanticizing surrendering to a dictatorship hellbent on committing genocide has never experienced it and can't fathom how awful it is. I know I can't, and that's why I don't want to find out.
- temp8830 8mo ago
  With attitudes like this, Americans might just go from exporting revolutions to domestic consumption within a generation!
- Forgeties79 8mo ago
  So there are only 2 stark options?
mothballed 8mo ago
From my experiences with the YPG in the Syrian Civil War --- You'd be surprised how many people that have seen combat absolutely loved it. There was one guy that would go in a state of ecstasy while being shot at, literally expressing happily "ha ha they try to shoot me" and this is a guy who had seen many of his comrades die. Once you accept you are dead it's actually far less mundane than normal life, while at the same time you have a fairly straightforward sense of meaning and purpose. Plus life is much simpler -- 99% of (that) war is just standing guard, smoking cigarette, drinking tea, moving sandbags, etc, much less complicated than say something like trying to juggle a dentistry practice while driving the 2 kids to school events and then going home to patch drywall on the house. There's a reason why Hemingway wrote "There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter." Going home just to have a toddler scream at you for the wrong color cup or walking into the grocery store and just effortless picking one of 1000 brands of cereal just seems so -- hollow -- afterwards.
- pjc50 8mo ago
  This is a large component of the alt-right, isn't it. > much less complicated than say something like trying to juggle a dentistry practice while driving the 2 kids to school events and then going home to patch drywall on the house There is genuinely a group of people who'd rather fantasize about mass murder than do chores. Every now and again one of them actually picks up a gun. Then some school kids never have to go to events, or anywhere, ever again. I have some sympathy for people who can't adapt to peace. When I was a kid one of my neighbours was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert ; I knew him as an old man who drank too much and never talked about the war. This is not an excuse to restart the war.
  - mothballed 8mo ago
    >This is a large component of the alt-right, isn't it. I couldn't tell you. YPG was dominantly left-wing and looked up to the former communist 'Apo'. I imagine the phenomenon is fairly politically universal. >There is genuinely a group of people who'd rather fantasize about mass murder than do chores. Every now and again one of them actually picks up a gun. Then some school kids never have to go to events, or anywhere, ever again. Yes there are people like that. Although most of the Kurds I met started fantasizing about fighting ISIS only after Islamic theocrats starting murdering and raping their population. I doubt many of them who gained a taste for combat were doing chores one day and started fantasizing they could live under a tyrannical regime so they'd have an "excuse" to "restart" the war. Personally I don't think soldiers in need of a war have to fantasize too hard to come up with a morally acceptable outlet. I wouldn't look down on those who fought against the Russians in Ukraine or against ISIS in Mali because they need an outlet for their escape from civil life.
    - markhahn 8mo ago
      re right vs left: the usual metaphor here is red-brown alliance.
- Forgeties79 8mo ago
  I think the point of the hurt locker was to show us how unhinged that existence is, at the end of the day.
pasquinelli 8mo ago
nobody needs to read a comment, tbh, any comment. revolutions are like earthquakes or pandemics: created by forces beyond our control and a matter of when, not if. people romanticizing or anti-romanticizing armed conflict online doesn't even enter the frame <zizekian sniff>.
- Forgeties79 8mo ago
  I think the last couple of elections have shown us how powerful online discourse can be. I don’t think it makes sense to pretend internet discourse doesn’t bleed heavily into the real world. Look at the influence QAnon, for instance, has had on the MAGA movement and the Republican Party at large.
  - pasquinelli 8mo ago
    i think exactly the opposite and your comment literally made me laugh out loud, but there's a wide range of views out there.
    - Forgeties79 8mo ago
      I understand we disagree here but telling someone you’re laughing at their views is incredibly rude. If you don’t want to have a respectful discussion then we can both just move on.
      - pasquinelli 8mo ago
        sorry, i really didn't mean to offend you. i really didn't convey the tone i was going for well. what i've learned in the period of time between the last couple elections is how astroturfed online discourse is, and when that astroturfing fails to manage opinion effectively--i'm thinking here about the israeli genocide against the palestinians--cruder forms of supression are used. and then if public opinion continues to be "wrong", well, just nothing happens, the button of public opinion isn't wired to anything. online discourse has been shown to be powerless.

applfanboysbgon 8mo ago

Anyone salivating over/romanticizing surrendering to a dictatorship hellbent on committing genocide has never experienced it and can't fathom how awful it is. I know I can't, and that's why I don't want to find out.

temp8830 8mo ago
With attitudes like this, Americans might just go from exporting revolutions to domestic consumption within a generation!
Forgeties79 8mo ago
So there are only 2 stark options?

mothballed 8mo ago

From my experiences with the YPG in the Syrian Civil War --- You'd be surprised how many people that have seen combat absolutely loved it. There was one guy that would go in a state of ecstasy while being shot at, literally expressing happily "ha ha they try to shoot me" and this is a guy who had seen many of his comrades die. Once you accept you are dead it's actually far less mundane than normal life, while at the same time you have a fairly straightforward sense of meaning and purpose. Plus life is much simpler -- 99% of (that) war is just standing guard, smoking cigarette, drinking tea, moving sandbags, etc, much less complicated than say something like trying to juggle a dentistry practice while driving the 2 kids to school events and then going home to patch drywall on the house. There's a reason why Hemingway wrote "There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter." Going home just to have a toddler scream at you for the wrong color cup or walking into the grocery store and just effortless picking one of 1000 brands of cereal just seems so -- hollow -- afterwards.

pjc50 8mo ago
This is a large component of the alt-right, isn't it. > much less complicated than say something like trying to juggle a dentistry practice while driving the 2 kids to school events and then going home to patch drywall on the house There is genuinely a group of people who'd rather fantasize about mass murder than do chores. Every now and again one of them actually picks up a gun. Then some school kids never have to go to events, or anywhere, ever again. I have some sympathy for people who can't adapt to peace. When I was a kid one of my neighbours was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Calvert ; I knew him as an old man who drank too much and never talked about the war. This is not an excuse to restart the war.
- mothballed 8mo ago
  >This is a large component of the alt-right, isn't it. I couldn't tell you. YPG was dominantly left-wing and looked up to the former communist 'Apo'. I imagine the phenomenon is fairly politically universal. >There is genuinely a group of people who'd rather fantasize about mass murder than do chores. Every now and again one of them actually picks up a gun. Then some school kids never have to go to events, or anywhere, ever again. Yes there are people like that. Although most of the Kurds I met started fantasizing about fighting ISIS only after Islamic theocrats starting murdering and raping their population. I doubt many of them who gained a taste for combat were doing chores one day and started fantasizing they could live under a tyrannical regime so they'd have an "excuse" to "restart" the war. Personally I don't think soldiers in need of a war have to fantasize too hard to come up with a morally acceptable outlet. I wouldn't look down on those who fought against the Russians in Ukraine or against ISIS in Mali because they need an outlet for their escape from civil life.
  - markhahn 8mo ago
    re right vs left: the usual metaphor here is red-brown alliance.
Forgeties79 8mo ago
I think the point of the hurt locker was to show us how unhinged that existence is, at the end of the day.

pasquinelli 8mo ago

nobody needs to read a comment, tbh, any comment. revolutions are like earthquakes or pandemics: created by forces beyond our control and a matter of when, not if. people romanticizing or anti-romanticizing armed conflict online doesn't even enter the frame <zizekian sniff>.

Forgeties79 8mo ago
I think the last couple of elections have shown us how powerful online discourse can be. I don’t think it makes sense to pretend internet discourse doesn’t bleed heavily into the real world. Look at the influence QAnon, for instance, has had on the MAGA movement and the Republican Party at large.
- pasquinelli 8mo ago
  i think exactly the opposite and your comment literally made me laugh out loud, but there's a wide range of views out there.
  - Forgeties79 8mo ago
    I understand we disagree here but telling someone you’re laughing at their views is incredibly rude. If you don’t want to have a respectful discussion then we can both just move on.
    - pasquinelli 8mo ago
      sorry, i really didn't mean to offend you. i really didn't convey the tone i was going for well. what i've learned in the period of time between the last couple elections is how astroturfed online discourse is, and when that astroturfing fails to manage opinion effectively--i'm thinking here about the israeli genocide against the palestinians--cruder forms of supression are used. and then if public opinion continues to be "wrong", well, just nothing happens, the button of public opinion isn't wired to anything. online discourse has been shown to be powerless.