But you support his invasion into Ukraine?

But why do you support Putin? He’s worth what, $200 billion? If he’s that rich, and Russians are poorer than Americans, it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t give two shits about Russians.

No, you owe an actual explanation for your support of Putin.

Did… you… not remember our last conversation?

Edit: I’m kind of hurt.

And that’s the part I find funny. You simply cannot comprehend, or allow, that because I dissent from not just the current regime, but most administrations of the U.S., that I must be eating up the propaganda.

Its not even odd to you is it? The U.S.A currently has a very pro-Putin regime. Yet the U.S.A is doing exactly what you are pointing out.

I mean, fuck, the Trump family has made significant money IN Russia. The Kremlin, the sole authority in Russia could stop that cash in an instant. Why don’t they?

But I mention the cruelty of Putin, and you get all bent out of shape. Putin is a victim of western propaganda.

Do you need a list I have of 64 people who the Kremlin successfully assassinated? Or just the ones within Russia?

Be a shame if I accidentally downloaded a PDF copy of it too. You know for safe keeping.

Like I said the last time we spent a week in a thread going back and forth, I can do this forever. You know I can.

You already established you aren’t American, and CERTAINLY aren’t culturally progressive. You claim it, every single time, say “we’re doing x.” “We do x.” You don’t even realize you’re on a European instance do you?

I didn’t claim Russia was doing SHIT this time. I merely responded that you claim Russia is a victim of the west.

Putin, and his Kremlin are the problem for Russians. Vladamir Putin, specifically.

The rest of the world worries about Russians because of what Putin has done to them to enrich himself.

Hey man, I’m just saying, maybe Putin shouldn’t have orchestrated apartment bombings, sold former soviet assets to oligarchs, own several luxurious properties throughout your country, had political dissidents and opponents assassinated (inside and outside of Russia) took extreme efforts to install pro-Putin leaders in other countries, make all displays of LGBTQ pride and education illegal, control the entire media system, and not relinquish power ever.

Hi Mr. Local Area Man. Funny of you to show up in yet another thread claiming that Russia is being preyed upon by the west again.

They want to kill 268,000,000 americans.

So, presumably, the answer is “yes.”

Do you know how relieved I am to hear that?

When we started working remotely, I got started getting stuff done.

Its not popular - hence why it’s changing. Nuance is lost on the internet, but people really need to start chilling out about making blanket assumptions of huge swaths of people.

Its one of the “automatic assumptions” people have - that it IS illegal. So they wouldn’t bother looking it up.

Most Americans don’t have the slightest idea of what is/isn’t legal. Gotta remember, before the internet, you had to get a physical copy of your state’s statutes. These change frequently, and are quite large.

Legalinfo first started in 1994, and it took a much longer time before states have their own websites.

Bro spoilers for Children of Dune but we have a spoiler tag:

Best Forecasters of Future Conflict.

They know future conflict isn’t the war that a foreign nation will come at the military with. The future of warfare is how they will fight the revolutionaries that will inevitably rise against tyranny.

Musk has the ability to deploy surveillance technology anywhere. The “study” is “how do they continue to keep squeezing the iron fist?”

Edit: and by anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE. Motherfucker owns a space agency. Tesla cars rely on video processing of always network connected cameras for their driving assist mechanisms. Starlink puts network connectivity anywhere it currently isn’t.

And GUESS who is part of the PayPal mafia? Palantir. But also Yelp and LinkedIn. Those are much less important than Palantir, but Yelp can at least target businesses that don’t play along, and LinkedIn can harm people seeking employment.

The dystopia we are in is worse than people can truly grasp.

Now THATS mass surveillance.

He did get us there, damn.

DUNE is a bit of a special interest of mine. So I will thoroughly enjoy this exercise, as I have a 9 year old, but I’ll aim for a 5 year old.

Backstory isn’t really relavant to Frank Herbert’s novels, but it is a fun one.

Humans have gotten really good with computers. So good, that they now attempt to make computers do their thinking for them. Some humans thought this would make their lives easier. Except it only allowed other humans with thinking computers to enslave them, and it lead to a big war.

The war ended up being between the thinking computers and last humans. We already had the ability to travel between stars, but it takes a long time. A really smart woman invented a technology that allowed protection from pew pews, and the ability to travel through space instantly.

The thinking machines didn’t have the technology. The only problem was that when the space ships used it to travel space instantly, a lot of the ships blew up because they couldn’t see exacrlt where the ship would travel.

The smart woman found that a new medicine, taken from the sands of the planet Dune, let her see all possibilities, briefly into the future. This allowed the ships to travel instantly. This helped the humans defeat the thinking machines.

After the war, humans decided that computers were very bad. So they created schools to train some people in ways to replace computers. Mentats were very good at math, had a lot of knowledge, and excellent problem solving ability. Suk doctors were able to do everything that machines used to be required to cure people. The Bene Gesserit were to help shape humanity to prevent stagnation and enforce the ban on computers.

The space ship pilots controlled the who universe though. And since the medicine they needed came from Dune, all the power of the universe was sitting in that single planet.

No space prince doesn’t become a worm.

Space prince’s son does.

I don’t think I know anyone that would argue with Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and maybe The Wire (I don’t know any of you contrarians) but the rest of the list just doesn’t have nearly the writing quality. Which is really weird to think about. 3 shows (really 2, Better Call Saul is really Breaking Bad) that are exponentially better than the rest.

Edit: I mean White Lotus is on there. I couldn’t finish the first season. It wasn’t dark or witty. It was just rich people being rich people.

That’s either Vladimir Harkonen or another guy twinning him

So maybe?