I think the basic reason was simply that after the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal, Hollywood executives simply went on to walking on eggshells, because let's face it, Harvey Weinstein had been one of the most successful movie moguls of our time. Hence any public media coverage or accusations of some corporation executives being bigoted or sexist was something that these people truly feared. How many billions you have made for the stock owners would not help you if you are accused being sexist or of using the "N"-word. And this created the opportunity for the "woke" to influence movies so much.

Hence when the media noticed that Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe didn't have much women in lead roles, the head of this Disney enterprise Kevin Feige responded by promising in 2018 more female superhero movies. This indeed happened and thus the MCU made bad and lackluster movies: usually because the storylines were bad, yet many times the directors were women who hadn't directed superhero-movies. End result was not so inspiring action movies. For example, The Marvels director Nia DeCosta had directed only two long films before the Marvels -movie. But she was black and a woman and the film had an all women lead. Now MCU is totally capable of making bad films that aren't at all woke, but needless to say that now Disney hasn't had true blockbusters for a while. That the wokeism is over can be seen from the Deadpool & Wolverine movie MCU did last year. Yet it is telling that there are only a few directors in Hollywood, that give us good movies again and again.

DaCosta directing the Marvels during the pandemic:

At that point we'll probably see them overreach like the feminists did a decade ago until the cultural pendulum swings away from them. — Mr Bee

Discourse especially in Hollywood always goes too far to excess as the pendulum swings, as you said. To similar levels of silliness, I guess.

The incredible stupidity of Trump's "Liberation Day" finally is getting to be over as Trump blinked and lower tariffs with China.

As Bessent said in an interview today: "Neither side wants a decoupling of trade". Well, Trump think trade is bad, but anyway.

When nobody is limiting this moron's actions in the White House, then they are then limited by the markets and the real economy. Still, 10% tariffs and the 30% tariffs on Chinese goods do have some effect... not of an embargo, but still something. Can we still avoid the Trump recession? Let's hope we can do that.



And has ever corruption been so evident? With the Qatari gift of a luxury jet for Trump, never. And this was the person the Trumpists believed to root out corruption and "drain the swamp"! :lol:



After the presidency, the 400 million or so luxury jet goes to the Trump Presidential Library Association... not to be part of the US Presidential fleet.

I already know that one of the biggest fears of Trump’s opponents is that a reality TV host and his rag-tag band of Fox News employees, children’s book authors, and private business men will do a better job than their over-educated bureaucrats and life-long politicians. — NOS4A2

Well, there's a myth that Caligula appointed his horse, Incitatus, to be a consul, because there were too many jackasses in the Roman senate. The reality is that he just said it likely to gain popularity. And I guess many Romans were happy with the thought. Not much has changed, I guess.



And actually you are wrong. If there are people that are accepted to be talented, they are then said to be "the adults in the room". Yep, you have people even in the second Trump administration that are called so. :wink:

Meanwhile, me waiting for a ssu prediction to come true: — NOS4A2

Lol. You will not see anything wrong with Kash Patel, never.

Right, skepticism over "illiberal democracy" doesn't tend to result in a wholesale abandonment of democracy. Rather, complaints against Brexit, Trump, Erdogan, Orban, etc. are generally against "populism" and a democracy that is "too direct." — Count Timothy von Icarus

Populism is many times very illogical. Populist can praise liberal/libertarian values and in the same time go against them. Perfect example of this is when populist claim to be "free speech warriors" and also curtail and limit views that they don't support.

The illogical aspect of this is even more clear when we look at authoritarian system like Marxism-Leninism. Democracy ought to have functioned through the party, and in fact the term "Soviet" is an adjective that comes from the Russian word for council or assembly. How democracy can work when the whole ideology starts with there being the class-enemy of the capitalists shows this fatal flaw in the thinking. In fact populism makes this separation of the "ordinary people" and the "evil elites" also, which basically undermines the faith in democracy from the start. Populism has the tendency to favor "strong men" who are needed because the republic doesn't work at the moment.

The case about democracy being "too direct" is basically made by there being a Constitution that cannot be changed with a simple minority or in some cases, at all. I do welcome these kinds of safety valves.

It looks like the Trump team has facilitated ceasefire negotiations between Pakistan and India. The comments of all involved are available on X, but we’re not allowed to post those kinds of facts here. — NOS4A2

Even if at start Trump was clueless when asked about this, at least here Trump's administration and Rubio have done the right thing and responded how the US should respond.

After the terrorist attack India had to respond yet both sides didn't want an escalation to all out war (with both sides having nuclear weapons). Hence here the US acting as a third man was invaluable.

I give here one of the few positive marks for Trump's administration.

- - - - -

Yet one should note one thing here: two nuclear armed countries can come to blows, hence nuclear deterrence doesn't mean that sides wouldn't end up in a situation were limited military operations are launched.

There are pretty vocal groups on the left and right who are skeptical about democracy, precisely because democracy can constrain liberalism. — Count Timothy von Icarus

Democracy can constrain liberalism?

Well, people naturally can vote to power undemocratic authoritarian people, who do away with democracy, the rights of the individual and the rule of law. Yet is that democracy in the end? Few if any authoritarians, even the Marxists, say they are doing away with democracy (but are just improving it to listen actually to the people).

Now democracy constraining capitalism and the market mechanism can indeed happen, but I don't think that is "constraining liberalism". The usual case is for example social democratic parties limiting the free market in the objective of curtailing the excesses of the free market, which typically tends in reality to form an oligopoly in the market, not the theoretical and perfect "free market". And people are happy with this. Most liberals and even libertarians understand that not everything can be solved by the market mechanism and naturally you have to have solid institutions for capitalism and the markets to perform well.

Besides, those that are sceptical about democracy (or neoliberalism) are nearly everybody simply angry about how badly the whole system is working currently: that it's only the rich or those close to power that benefit, or that there is corruption or inefficiency or useless bureaucracy. It's really only a very few people that are inherently against democracy as the vast majority believe that "the people" are still quite rational and capable of handling a democracy.

Ah yes, this is especially to @NOS4A2 and to our continuing discussion on the job that Kash Patel will do with the FBI. NOS was so eager and enthusiastic about this appointment at the start of this administration.

A very telling discussion on the FBI in Congress, worth the few minutes to watch it. It's just hilarious. So this is the way things are going like this with the Trump childrenbooks author heading the FBI:





:smile:

Then it became a South Park episode where Cartman is being persecuted by dreams in which all of his loved ones have been replaced by diversity compatible women in a place called Pander-verse. — frank

Wasn't this before Zegler? This was more against woke Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy and the "Force being Female" stuff? Yeah, same corporation, but anyway.



But now we live in Trump world where photos of the B-29 bomber that dropped the first nuclear bomb is deleted from Pentagon sites as it's name is "Enola Gay". Hence when the US administration goes after universities and other institutions because of DEI policies, laughing at woke Hollywood has lost it's flare in my view. It isn't anymore about criticizing the hypocritical elite establishments like Hollywood in the way they bow to all things woke, but being anti-woke has become part of the official policy. There's nothing fresh to this anymore.

And anyway, I think Hollywood corporations finally have learnt their lesson. But making movies is a slow process, Snow White was just the disaster waiting to happen and Disney knew it. So the corporation put it out because they did have a finished film and tried to minimizes the whole issue. Now it seems that the woke-era in Hollywood is over. Or if it's not over, then it's saved by Trump just like the liberal party was in Canada.

Why were these woke films so bad? Well, the wokeness wasn't only limited to the storyline, but starting from the director and the people writing the stuff was made with woke choices. So you had to have female directors, female writers and representation all along. And in the end you got movies and series where basically the people making the whole thing weren't at all in their ballpark.

Above all, what is learnt is that you don't take the expectations of the movie goers away BEFORE you show it. This saved Barbie from failure as Universal Pictures likely silenced people around the movie and thus audiences (and critics) only after paying the tickets and seeing the movie got director Greta Gehrwig's feminist plot. Yet if Margot Robbie would have gone around telling how feminist the movie is and how in the end Barbie turns down Ken because Barbie doesn't need Ken or men in the end, then I guess you would have gotten a Zegler-like response and Margot Robbie's career would be down the drains. Now we just can admire how good Robbie is portraying female villains.

Yes, but as I'm always wondering, does anyone give a shit about it? Is the corruption being stopped by enforcing the law? Where's the US marshals dragging him out of office? If the corruption isn't stopped and he can break whatever laws and regulations he wants, then there's definitely no democracy in the US. And if there's no democracy in the US, then what are the population opposing him waiting for to happen? For the storm to just calm on its own? — Christoffer

The US has already entered the sphere where many Latin American countries have been for a long time. Corruption will only be dealt with if there's a dramatic change in power relations. Just like in many Latin American countries or developing countries.


The US has now mediocre to weak institutions when it comes to check Presidential power. In a true democracy a tiny issue like putting foreign diplomats and leaders to check in Trump hotels when staying in Washington DC would have been considered corruption that could even have shaken the chair that the President sits on. Now it's just an example of how small and innocent the corruption was in the first administration.

It's some random guy no one has ever heard of posting a tweet. Sometimes politicians say edgy things to get attention. Big whoop. — Tzeentch

Your failing desperately in your defense of these far-right nativists:

René Springer (born 15 July 1979) is a German politician. Born in Berlin, he represents Alternative for Germany (AfD). René Springer has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Brandenburg since 2017.

This is a perfect example of these far-right populist parties in Europe: you have to listen what their members are actually saying. And this is just one example among many AfD politicians with similar rhetoric. Hating muslims is another topic these people love. Yeah, political parties can change their stances, but here I guess with AfD to do away with the nativist alt-right rhetoric would loose "the base" of the party.

Those who look at these issues objectively understand this. Those that will do anything to defend Trump/Putin -populists will deny everything.

Go along with the Musk-view that these are actually only libertarians who the evil established media is attacking.

So it seems that you take as proof that this is an non-issue the fact that the AfD states on a webpage that they "firmly reject unconstitutional demands such as the arbitrary collective deportation of foreigners regardless of an existing individual right of residence, or even the deportation of German citizens with a migration background."

Well great, they say that they basically abide with the current laws and won't break the law. That's... a good start. :roll:

However what AfD says otherwise actually are talking about. Like this, just to give one example:



So when a political party promises to deport millions of people to sustain the national identity, yes, it's not your libertarian party, but your nativist anti-immigration far-right populist party. You can try to ridicule me and troll all you want, but that won't change anything. The "Libertarianism" of this party is simply window dressing in order that people who don't love the neo-nazi tag can join in.

And then there's the obvious polarization with Germans supporting the AfD and the rest:

- Only 20% of Germans with a favorable view of the party say democracy in their country is working well. Among Germans with an unfavorable view of the party, 65% believe their democracy is working well.

- Only 30% of AfD supporters have a positive view of the EU, compared with 72% of those who do not support the party.

- AfD supporters have more confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin than those who do not support the party (45% vs. 10%). Nonsupporters, by comparison, have much more positive views of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (61% vs. 31%).

- AfD supporters also stand out for having significantly less favorable views than nonsupporters when it comes to NATO (39% vs. 71%).

Yet if you want to support German Putin-lovers, the AfD is the party for you.

Yes, well the tie to Elon Musk and Trump hopefully backfires. After all, the best thing to happen to the support of the EU in member countries was the shitstorm of economic calamity that the UK headed into when it did it's Brexit.

The AfD is not even remotely fascist or nazi.

It's a libertarian party, which is the diametrical opposite of the type of authoritarian far-right movements. — Tzeentch

It might portray itself as libertarian and enthusiastically talk about being libertarian, yet it's stance to immigration, not only just to stop it, but talk of remigration, shows that this clearly isn't the case.

I'll just repeat I put on another thread on the issue:

I'm usually pretty critical when some European party is marked as being far-right or extremist, but with the "Alternative for Germany" AfD, it's quite obvious and I totally agree with the German domestic intelligence service, the BfV, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. When a political party starts segregating citizens of the country on the base of their race or ethnicity and wants to sent somewhere away German citizens, that is a clearly a threat to democracy. There's no way to look away from that. That AfD leader Weidel used the term remigration, a term popularized in the German-speaking world by Austrian neo-Nazi Martin Sellner, which refers to forcibly removing immigrants who refuse to integrate with German culture, regardless of their citizenship status, isn't just an error. The AfD leadership had met Sellner himself and afterward used the term. And there's many incidents to show just how neo-nazi many in the leadership of the party are.

The idea of AfD being this innocent libertarian/populist party that is wrongly accused to be extremist by the powers at be is simply incorrect bullshit spread by the alt-right itself. Normalization of people applying for citizenship is one thing, but changing the status of people that are already citizens is a truly toxic thing to do. One of the best ways to spread hate and disagreement amongst a population.

And that's why Putin and the Kremlin simply love these parties. As I said years ago.

↪neomac, they've been trying to demonize (and divide) Europe for a while, all part of the playbook.

Incidentally, it goes well with Vance's Munich tirade. :chin: — jorndoe

Which is just continuing.

US Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused Germany of rebuilding a "Berlin Wall" after action against the far-right AfD party, the latest heated criticism of the longtime ally by President Donald Trump's administration.

"The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt -- not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment," Vance, who in February defiantly met the AfD leader while in Munich, wrote on X.

And not only Vance, but Rubio too:

(CNN 2nd May, 2025) A remarkable exchange played out on X on Friday as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the government of key ally Germany of “tyranny in disguise” for designating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as an extremist entity.

In a post Friday afternoon, the top US diplomat slammed the classification made by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, which allows it to increase surveillance of the political party. Vice President JD Vance later echoed the rebuke of the move in his own post on the social media platform. “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” Rubio wrote on his official State Department X account. “That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.”

“What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes,” he continued. Rubio, who has been newly tapped as the interim national security adviser, said the US ally “should reverse course.”

In a direct reply on X more than three hours later, the German Foreign Office pushed back. “This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law,” the account posted. “It is independent courts that will have the final say.”

“We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped,” the foreign office wrote.

I'm usually pretty critical when some European party is marked as being far-right or extremist, but with the "Alternative for Germany" AfD, it's quite obvious and I totally agree with the German domestic intelligence service, the BfV, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. When a political party starts segregating citizens of the country on the base of their race or ethnicity and wants to sent somewhere away German citizens, that is a clearly a threat to democracy. There's no way to look away from that. That AfD leader Weidel used the term remigration, a term popularized in the German-speaking world by Austrian neo-Nazi Martin Sellner, which refers to forcibly removing immigrants who refuse to integrate with German culture, regardless of their citizenship status, isn't just an error. The AfD leadership had met Sellner himself and afterward used the term. And there's many incidents to show just how neo-nazi many in the leadership of the party are.



Perhaps the US should btw need a Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution?

If there's a positive note, at least Secretary of the Treasury Bessent stated what the Trump administration is looking forward to do in an logical way. Basically a policy speach that Trump is utterly incapable of giving (apart of the very Trumpian attack on the IMF on going on woke issues like climate change). He gives a short interview after the speech:



In fact was positive is his view in energy policy of the importance of base load and then alternative production. Many politicians go for the trendy and politically correct view of alternative energy can give everything. But then Bessent is just one man who tries to influence just what Trump actually does.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick got Donald Trump alone and away from rival advisor Peter Navarro to convince him to put a 90-day pause on most tariffs, according to a report.

The president's financial team has taken hits over the administration's first 100 days, with many wondering if Lutnick should represent the administration on television. Perhaps no one has been more controversial than Navarro, however, particularly stoking the ire of 'First Buddy' Elon Musk

And another totally is what the Trump administration will end up doing.

Yet the executive branch can only enforce the laws made by the legislature and interpreted by the judiciary. — Harry Hindu

That would be the idea, which obviously US Presidents and especially Donald Trump doesn't understand with his "executive orders".

Both the executive and legislature have expanded the powers of their branches, establishing precedence for when the other party takes power, essentially both parties working together to expand the powers of government influence in our lives. — Harry Hindu

Even in a multiparty system this happens. Imagine a Parliament that would some day just declare: "Got it! All laws that we need have been done. We'll go home now, call us if we are needed." :wink:

Left or right Libertarians can only be those that are abandoning Libertarian views in favor of more authoritarian ones, as in looking to gov. to solve their problems, when their problem is the need to tell others how to live and what "choices" they can make. — Harry Hindu

I'm not sure if libertarians themselves see it like that.

So you think Trump wants to talk with Iran and won't attack (or let Israel attack) Iran?

Perhaps.

I think that as long as Trump is mired in his stupid tariffs and nothing happens in the Middle East, he won't take the initiative. Trade war with China is already a big issue.

Yet one third (or half of operational) B-2s are forward deployed still in Diego Garcia.

Seems that Trump's idiotic "Recession by tariffs" is coming closer. Hence Trump seems to be begging for the Chinese to "come to the table". Yet the consequences of the trade war are finally coming to shelves of American stores next month.

A good overall recap how international trade to the US from Asia (especially China) is starting to show:



It seems like that China is not in hurry to stop the trade war. Even so, two of the largest economies being in an all out trade war is not good for the rest of the World.

Weren't all of these measures simply Trump lashing out at a Government that he hates, using 'waste and fraud' as a pretext? — Wayfarer

I think that these guys were truly sincere in their goals, yet the disdain and hate they had towards the system was clear right from the start. The strategy of "Let's just go in quick and cut as much we can do and then solve later any issues that rise up" had basically the effect of just lashing out at the government. The normal way would simply been for Elon to go through the government and then make list of things to be cut and that to be given to the Congress to chew on. But yes, as you said, power went to their heads.

It seems the wind has been taken out of Musk's sails. He's said to have been having screaming matches with Scott Bessent in the West Wing and to have considerably annoyed many other cabinet members. — Wayfarer

Things can get heated in any administration, but with the inept leadership qualities of Trump it's a sure end result. And of course this was baked in from the start as there no DOGE officially exists and Musk isn't part of the actual administration (as he obviously didn't want to set aside his wealth and companies). The de facto but not de jure status was first seen as a great advantage, but when DOGE fails to do anything but stir up a mess, it becomes easily a nuisance in the administration.

) I think Musk was literally power-drunk when it all kicked of. — Wayfarer

Indeed he was. You could see it from his crazy attacks against various European countries (Germany, Poland, the UK).

But we shouldn't forget that the most power-drunk person has been and is still Trump himself. There is nobody around him that would saying anything against him, hence the only thing that get's him to change his views are the effects of his policies in the stock market and the economy. With Elon, it's his companies, with Trump it's the US economy and the international status of the country and it's alliances.

Sure they do. They want the government to "fix the problem" of gay marriage by defining it as a union between a man and a woman. The Libertarian's stance is, "Why are we looking to the government to define marriage in the first place?"

They want the government to "fix the problem" of abortion and God being eliminated from public schools.

Both sides look to the government to "fix problems", either economic or social, depending on which side you are on. So yours, and others, tactic to put Libertarians on the right side shows that you all really understand what Libertarianism is. — Harry Hindu

Ok, with "the government" I'm more talking about the executive branch. Naturally the right wants there to be the legislature and the judiciary too. This complex relation is shown when especially the right wants to act legislation to protect the freedom's and the rights of the citizen from the government.

Left-libertarianism might sound as an oxymoron, but it isn't at all, especially outside the United States. In the US it is right-wing libertarianism that dominates libertarianism, but I guess both have strong roots in classic liberalism.

Trump is going for all the strengths that the US has had and enjoyed: 1) The Economy, 2) The Alliances it has, 3) The Universities. And he also wants to devalue the dollar.

I heard about a study not long ago ( by Jonathan Haidt) which showed that conservatives have a broader set of values. - I think the current political divide in the USA is really a divide in moral development. I don't think it was always this way though, or at least not to this degree. — Brendan Golledge

MAGA isn't a normal conservative movement. Sure, many leftist commentators will say that this is actual right-wing politics simply exposed to it's true nature, but this isn't so. Radical authoritarian populism is quite different from the typical right-wing politics, just as Jonathan Haidt isn't a believer in the MAGA cult.

I see the right as seeing the problems, but mostly waiting for someone in government to fix the problems, which rarely happens. — Brendan Golledge

Especially in the US the right doesn't assume for the government to fix the problems, that is more of a leftist view. I would say that many on the right think that with the government, they are simply buying a service as they do in the private sector for other services. So you pay taxes and get services like the police, legal system, fire department and so on. And when they get poor service, they are angry. And thus many libertarians think that many services could be simply be provided by the private sector.

This view totally underestimates the role and importance of the institutions that a government creates. The liberitarian might make an exception when it comes to national defense (as even they understand that going with private armies wouldn't be such a great idea), but otherwise everything is just a service.

2. Kohlberg was probably right that women on average have a lower level of moral development than men — Brendan Golledge

:brow:

Was there a question?

As someone said, when debating the Culture War, one doesn't have to use the brain.

And anyway, it seems that "Elon Musk's unprecedented intrusion deep into the mechanics of the Federal Government", as @Wayfarer stated in the OP, is coming to an end. I think that Elon will be quietly going to withdraw from the Mar-a-Lago and the White House scene. So perhaps it should be good to look at what I first wrote in this thread three months ago.

As I've stated again and again. Elon Musk will be the most hated man in the US in the future. You see, it will be alright for the South African born billionaire to be hated even by the Trump crowd, as God-Emperor Trump cannot do anything else than his genius blessed acts. But Elon can go. Because this won't end happily, really. The man is bouncing too hard here and there.

Let's start from the basics. Musk owns a very overvalued car manufacture. Somebody now buying a Tesla will make a clear political statement. And that is bad. This is the reason just why corporate leaders usually try stay out of the media limelight. And the demand for Tesla has started to plummet dramatically. — ssu

Now a disastrous first quarter results made this clear to Musk. I gave too much credit to what DOGE could do as Musk didn't last even until the summer and the cuts have basically been meaningless as the Trump administration is spending a bit more than the Biden administration now. I presumed that DOGE could really to go for serious cuts in the expenditure (which would have made Musk even more hated). Likely now only the Democrats and liberals got offended about Musk, but Republicans didn't get to be as annoyed at him as I predicted. And for Trump, the midterms are too far off to notice that there might be use for having the Worlds richest man around (or one in the top ten). Then he might beg for Musk, but already that one election of a judge that Musk lost has shown that he cannot buy everything.



It seems that now Trump is likely to cave in his delusional ideas about tariffs saving everything when the recession hits home. Other countries just can wait and let Trump's situation get worse. That's the next step, but an issue for another thread.

Also, there seems to be more focus on defensive weaponry, like detecting and shooting down incoming bombs and drones. With less (effective) weaponry to strike back, it's a precarious situation. Sufficient aid to put the invaders on the defense would help. — jorndoe

The positive thing is that Ukraine's defense industry is really kicking into gear too. It's said to have 300 000 working in the military-industrial complex and producing like well over million drones annually, which production is increasing. FPV drones are now killing more than artillery, which indeed is quite a revolution in military affairs. Yet these drones are controlled by human drone flyers, the next step is likely going to be swarms of drone controlled/assisted by AI. The main weakness is control: hence optical wires are usually needed, even if naturally there is also the issue with short range and payload limitations.




What is notable is that the losses that Russia has endured has lowered it's abilities. The casualty rates have had a toll on Russia. Rarely do Russians operate at night and vast numbers of the new recruits seem to get inadequate training. Once Russia basically put itself behind the Gerasimov-line, it also hindered it's ability to do maneuver warfare.

This is a decidedly social conflict, as I see it and politicians just pick up on this (knowing they aren't the right arbiter) to get less-intelligent people to vote for their buzz-word speeches. — AmadeusD

Wait a minute.

Isn't politics all about moral issues to what existing laws don't give us direct straight forward answers? Isn't politics about what is wrong and what is right or what is beneficial to us and to our society? Yes. we think of politicians to be these corrupt power hungry narcissists, but in reality shouldn't politicians be the arbiters of social conflicts?

I would also, in some degree, reject that definition. It seems designed to play into a leftist "if you disagree you're a bigot" type thinking. Ironic LOL (but also probably partially bias on my part). — AmadeusD

Lol. Well, I've voted all my life for the conservative party in my country, but I'm not surprised that Americans or Brits would see me as a leftist.

Is Putin going for a Molotov-Ribbentrop type deal with Trump? — jorndoe

Putin would be drooling to get one. And yes, basically that's what he is trying to get.

Europe better get its act together. — jorndoe

Hope it will do that.

(Deutsche Welle, 11th April 2025) Acting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced a new military aid package from Germany at a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Brussels.

According to Pistorius, more guided missiles and ground surveillance radars will be delivered to Ukraine this year.

The package will also include a further 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 300 reconnaissance drones, 25 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 15 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks, 120 Manpads ground-based air defense systems and 14 artillery systems.

In recent days, 30 additional Patriot guided missiles have also been delivered to Ukraine, the minister added.

*******
The European Union and its member states have committed more than €23 billion ($26.2 billion) in military aid to Ukraine so far this year, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

It is a higher amount than €20 billion of support for Ukraine last year, she added in a post on social media.

If the US commitment wanes and the US won't supply, what will happen? The rounds used in the war are in the millions. Will be a very difficult late summer and fall.

Nope. I didn't say that.

These things are quite subtle in many ways. Just as were the issues when FBI looked for moles in CIA, while actually the worst traitor was in the FBI.

It's something you can see only later. Same thing actually with a lot of institutions in the US too.

Today, it seems odd to me that something like trans rights, such a relatively small issue, can generate so much outrage and energy, while something like economic inequality, which affects umpteen millions, evokes far less passion. You can't help but wonder to what extent culture war politics are just a great way to distract us from real structural problems and get us fighting among ourselves about toilet use, while the corporations and the billionaires continue to expand their power and finances. — Tom Storm

I totally agree.

And this is why it seems to me much more of a manufactured issue as the intent is clearly to get supporters to rally around a cause and get them voting. Especially if the economy isn't so great and there are true problems in the society, Cultural War issues might be a safe bet for the politicians. Homosexuality is a minority issue, yet being trans is even a smaller minority. Yet, as you stated, these issues evoke outrage and passion, which aren't typically the feelings from something like financial and monetary policy, which actually affects us all every day. (Perhaps with Trumpnomics and the Trade War sillyness we will really get there.)

Perhaps I would add that usually once when a political movement achieves it's actual clear goals, then the next "wave" of the movement have to go with something new, and in the end it becomes rather silly. Just think about what liberalism was fighting for at the time of Adam Smith compared to the anarcho libertarians of today or the suffragettes to the feminists of today.

You can argue that the politicians respond to Culture War issues that people are already talking about. I would be here a bit more skeptical. I would argue that it's the political parties and the politicians who make many Culture War issues an issue that the people then start to heatedly to debate. Here the initiator of a debate usually has an agenda why to make something part of the "Culture War". The Culture War is something that divides Democracts, but unites Republicans and thus it's the Republicans that promote in the US the Culture War debate. In other countries the rhetoric of a Culture War is mimicked by conservative and religious parties.

Just look at the definition of Culture War:

A culture war is a form of cultural conflict (metaphorical "war") between different social groups who struggle to politically impose their own ideology (moral beliefs, humane virtues, and religious practices) upon mainstream society, or upon the other. In political usage, culture war is a metaphor for "hot-button" politics about values and ideologies, realized with intentionally adversarial social narratives meant to provoke political polarization among the mainstream of society over economic matters, such as those of public policy, as well as of consumption.

As practical politics, a culture war is about social policy wedge issues that are based on abstract arguments about values, morality, and lifestyle meant to provoke political cleavage in a multicultural society.

Notice the role of politics in this definition above.

The Hegseth issue continues to fester, as he's plainly, utterly incompetent for the role of CEO of the largest organisation in the world. But, hey, since when do facts matter for Trump? Besides, he won't give the media the satisfaction of a resignation. He'll dig in with the usual fire hydrant of mendacity. — Wayfarer

What I find here really showing how Hegseth is crumbling is the following issue, which just shows that he is totally incapable of handling such a position that he is in now:

(Guardian) John Ullyot, who resigned last week after initially serving as Pentagon spokesperson, said in a opinion essay published by Politico on Sunday that the Pentagon has been overwhelmed by staff drama and turnover in the initial months of the second Trump administration.

Ullyot called the situation a “full-blown meltdown” that could cost Hegseth, a 44-year-old former Fox News host and national guard officer, his job as defense secretary.

The notable fact is that Ullyot is one of the Hegseth-guys that came in with the new administration. And it's been those in the MAGA-team that have now been fired from the Pentagon. So now Hegseth is battling out with his own people.

(NBC News) On Friday, according to Ullyot, Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, was removed from his position following the firings of several other senior aides to Hegseth, including deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and senior adviser Dan Caldwell, as well as the chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, Colin Carroll. (Selnick, Caldwell and Carroll said in a statement Saturday: “We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”)

“In the aftermath [of the firings], Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month,” Ullyot wrote. “Yet none of this is true.” Ullyot said that he was not part of the purge and that he opted to leave the Pentagon when he turned down a position Hegseth had offered him.

So guess we will see how this goes...

This is a highly inconvenient truth, as far as Trump is concerned. He's right in saying that the process of giving all these unauthorised arrivals their due is highly impractical and he's saying that completely over-riding their constitutional rights is, therefore, justified. That is what is at issue. i think this will be the arena in which the impending constitutional crisis in the form of defiance of the Courts will manifest. — Wayfarer

It is already manifesting itself with these issues. And Trump doesn't make it less tense by hinting that US citizens could be sent to foreign prisons like in El Salvador. After all, they want El Salvador to build more prisons.

I somewhere read that there are now less people deported than under Biden, because people obviously aren't so eagerly trying to get into the US. But this is one of those facts I tried to state earlier before Trump came to power: in order to truly deport millions of people you truly have to have people with huge organizational skills to create a huge process which does include the legal system firing on all cylinders. That would be a huge complex thing to orchestrate. Trump is not that kind of organizer, and neither are his lackeys. We already saw his abilities in the way he failed to "build the Wall". So then it's these "photo-op" deportations to El Salvador that are made in response.



It's all a bit ad hoc, all not really thought well, but more of actions improvised on the spot. That is the way how a Trump administration works.

And btw for @NOS4A2, about Kash Patel and the FBI, well, I think in the long run I'm not going to be so wrong... assuming that the director of the FBI matters to the FBI. Of course the actual result of his tenure can be seen and read about only afterwards.

(MSNBC) Since taking office, Patel has misstated key elements of the FBI’s recent work. He reportedly confused intelligence and counterintelligence. He said he planned to spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, where he’s been living, even as others were told that remote work is prohibited. He ordered officials to relocate 1,500 employees from Washington, D.C., and when told the bureau didn’t have the resources for such a restructuring, he reportedly told his subordinates to simply figure out a way to execute his directive.

Perhaps most importantly, the FBI director has taken steps to break down the firewalls that used to exist between his office and the White House. NBC News reported that Patel went so far as to ask about creating a possible hotline that would facilitate direct communication between him and Trump.

In case that weren’t quite enough, NBC News reported on Patel also placing Brian Auten, a government expert on Russia, on leave — which was notable because Auten’s name appeared on Patel’s published list of alleged “deep state” actors.

But I guess Kash is having himself a great time going to UFC matches and wants the UFC to get involved in the physical training of FBI agents.

(ABC News) Newly-installed FBI Director Kash Patel, whose proclaimed plans to overhaul the nation's premier law enforcement agency have rattled many within the bureau, has proposed enhancing the FBI's ranks with help from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the martial-arts entertainment giant whose wealthy CEO, Dana White, helped boost President Donald Trump's reelection, according to sources who were told of Patel's proposal.

On a teleconference Wednesday with the heads of the FBI's 55 field offices, Patel suggested that he wants the FBI to establish a formal relationship with the UFC, which could develop programs for agents to improve their physical fitness, said sources who had been briefed on Wednesday's call.

At least it isn't Vince McMahon and the WWF-entertainment, seen below in a mock fight with Donald Trump.

I just don't see things this way and find it quite hard to put myself in a position to see it that way.
The 'culture wars' are certainly not a 'tool' of any kind. They spring up out of the the tension between what people actually care about, and what politicians are doing. Its certainly cyclical, and has some hallmarks of a 'game', but that seems patently not what's happening.

People get fired up because its hte future of their country they're debating. — AmadeusD

Talk shows, podcasters and other commentators etc. can surely debate Culture war issues, but do notice how the Culture War is played and handled by the politicians. And you already said it yourself: "tension between what people actually care about, and what politicians are doing". What politicians do or decide is inherently political. And when it is thought to be negative, it is in the interest of the other side of the political field to embrace the issue and use it. Otherwise something like Colin Kaepernik taking the knee or if corporations have DEI training would be such an issue. In fact, in Trump's second election victory not only inflation, but also Culture War issues played a big part (apart from the Dem's struggling and finally replacing Biden with Harris). As I said, it's far more easier to get the voters interested in Culture War issue than economic or foreign policy issues, which one needs a lot of information to judge (or to get angry about). But trans-athletes, burning the flag or use of toilets? Far more easier to have your own view about those things.

The politics of the Culture War is shown when you can put the issue at hand into an accusation of the opposition: "Look at what this administration is doing to X." That's where you see how these issues are used in politics.

People get fired up because its the future of their country they're debating. Not sure this needs any further justification or explanation. — AmadeusD

And that would not be political??? Isn't that the centerpiece of a politics?

I think that's an over-simplification, although there is certainly truth in it. — T Clark

Well, add to it the wooing the nativist/isolationist people in America who distrust the democratic institutions and opt for an authoritiarian leader to make things right. That's what the current so-called conservative party is that the Republican party under Trump is.

Because the rest of the "policies" are a collected assortment of brainfarts of an old vindictive populist to whom power has gone to his head.

How does your view from Finland match up with Tzeentch's from the Netherlands? Is it a difference between the two countries or a difference in political ideology? — T Clark

Of course the two countries have a totally different history among the other differences. First issue that comes up is that Netherlands is really multicultural and far more permissive compared to Finland. But what I agree with @Tzeentch is that "money doesn't grow on trees". Hence in order to have a welfare state, you have to have a functioning strong economy that can compete in global market to create that income that allows a welfare state to exist. Even if you would have the situation of "money growing in the trees" and a society that has abundant income from natural resources like oil, it also creates problems like the the Dutch Disease that the Dutch themselves could avoid, but the Venezuelans didn't.

Do Europeans get better lives for their higher taxes? — T Clark

When I talked about this with Finns living in the US, the complexity of this came apparent. Naturally they liked living far larger homes and paying less taxes than in Finland. But then getting children educated or the what to do if you lose your job and get ill are problems that aren't such a financial disaster in Finland as in the US. The highest tax levels aren't so different, actually, what is the difference is that at far lower income you hit the highest tax bracket in the Nordic countries than the US.



The ugly reality is that when it comes to education and health care, the OECD-country example of having universal health care is far less costly than the system in the US. Hence I think that for the taxes paid the people in the Northern Europe usually get more services than what the Americans tax payer gets. For example, the Finnish universal health care costs well under 50% of what the US health care costs are per capita. Talk about a racket in the US case.

Regulation only seems to be a problem when it benefits the people who actually use the products and services of these industries and who have to face the consequences of their ineptitude, negligence, and malfeasance. Worker safety, environmental, and consumer protection regulations cost money and reduce profits so they are considered unreasonable, too restrictive. — T Clark

Especially the so-called "conservatism" in the US could be described more accurately to be simply lobbying efforts for the super rich disguised in an traditional political movement that has it's ideological roots in conservatism.

Yet not every country is like the US. Many countries do have strong trade unions and the left has been in power, usually that left being the Social Democrats. (The socialism of Marxism-Leninism is totally different and in the realm of authoritarian/totalitarian and anti-democratic regimes.)



Conservatism differs a lot in these countries, especially in those where Social Democracy has enjoyed an upper hand in politics and where administrations are made up by coalitions of parties. You can easily see this in the difference between US regulation and EU regulation. The above description of regulation simply doesn't cut it when you look at Nordic countries and many EU countries, even if they have right-wing governments.

That's bullshit. It was formulated as a letter, not as a topic for discussion. Unless perhaps, they use AI to write up their discussion topics. — Metaphysician Undercover

Likely is bullshit.

But the stupidity of the administration should never be underestimated as this administration has severe difficulties in communication in general:

(CNN, 21st April 2025) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen on a second Signal group chat, this one on his personal phone and including his wife, lawyer and brother, three people familiar with the chat told CNN.

The chat was set up during Hegseth’s tumultuous confirmation hearing process as a way for his closest allies to strategize, two of the people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth continued using the chat, which had more than a dozen people in it, to communicate after he was confirmed, the people said.

-

Similar to the first Signal chat, which was revealed publicly by The Atlantic after its editor was mistakenly included by national security adviser Mike Waltz, the military plans Hegseth shared in the second chat were about strikes against the Houthis, the people said.

Good that the wife, the brother and former colleagues on Fox got the launch times of those air strikes too. Hey, some of us just have being a reporter in our blood! We have to spread the good news.

Then they just stop firing and sit where they are. Or is Ukraine the aggressor? — Punshhh

That's the insane bullshit promoted. And I guess many MAGA diehards believe that.

If only people would listen and look what Russia and Putin actually say, the case would be more clear. Russia has declared Ukrainian oblasts to be integral parts of Russia. And these oblasts have territories that are still in Ukrainian hands, so even the minimum objectives aren't yet met. Better objective would be that Ukraine would lose it's entrance to the Black Sea. And then of course Putin wants that rump Ukraine would be controlled by a Russian puppet regime. Putin already had a puppet in waiting, but that didn't make it.

With Trump assisting Putin, why wouldn't Putin continue the war?

So Putin declares an Easter ceasefire, end at Sunday midnight.

Such a good Christian.

But anyway, 36 hours is better than nothing, if it lasts.

The neoconservative left? Hmm... :chin:

Well, there's so many ways this could be answered, so it would be useful to know what are issues and fields you are interested in. Is the threoretical problems and overcoming them the issue? Or practical issues? Economic and social consequences? I'll answer first about theoretical issues in the article and then about real world consequences.

Whatever is said, it's still the limitations that computers using algorithms have. With algortihms and ultra-quick computation, computers/AI can dominate games (that have rules) and find use masses amounts data. Yet not everything is like that all. For example, from the article, one difficulty:

"In the era of human data, language-based AI has largely focused on short interaction episodes: e.g., a user asks a question and (perhaps after a few thinking steps or tool-use actions) the agent responds," the researchers write.

"The agent aims exclusively for outcomes within the current episode, such as directly answering a user's question."

There's no memory, there's no continuity between snippets of interaction in prompting. "Typically, little or no information carries over from one episode to the next, precluding any adaptation over time," write Silver and Sutton.

Perhaps it could be argued that the engineers have really tried to tackle the "Turing Test", but this test doesn't give us much information, only that we can be fooled in some interactions. Yet the above shows that AI still lacks subjectivity, understanding of role itself has and awareness of what the discussion is about, the role of the interaction itself. Let me try to explain this to you.

You @180 Proof put the question to me and to others like @Carlo Roosen, @Wayfarer @noAxioms @punos and @Christoffer, fellow members here on the PF. You will likely participate as we have seen in earlier threads, and hopefully will others.

Yet assume if you had put this discussion thread up to six 12-year olds in your local school that would want to are interested about AI. You would be the adult in the conversation and understanding that you are talking to children, you would take a different role. You wouldn't be offended if the some replies would be a bit ignorant, as obviously every 12-year old doesn't know the basics like how computers work. Now think if you started had this conversation with the DeepMind scholars David Silver and Richard Sutton themselves along with four other top notch AI scientists. Again this would change things, you might want to use the time learn specifically more about the issue. For us a discussion has a larger surrounding, a reason to have it and understanding of the other participants.

In fact you see this problem in the forum itself, where we all are total strangers to everybody else. Especially in Math someone can have an idea that is actually false (and provably false) and is answered immediately by few other members that there's a mistake. Yet many times the response isn't "OK, thanks", but the person getting angry and insisting he or she is correct. To others are like you is perhaps a natural starting point in an anonymous forum. In a school or university environment, if you are one of the pupils of the class and the math teacher says that you are incorrect and you get the subtle messaging from the class that indeed they share teachers view, you won't start continue to insist that you are right. Or few do that.

Hence perhaps something like this Silver and Sutton are trying to argue with Age of Experience, "Agents will inhabit streams of experience, rather than short snippets of interaction", and draw an analogy "between streams and humans learning over a lifetime of accumulated experience, and how they act based on long-range goals, not just the immediate task".

And what is that? Subjectivity, having that consciousness, understanding one's role in the World. Life time learning based on experience. Again really big questions that we haven't yet answered.

Then about the real World effects:

However, they suggest there are also many, many risks. These risks are not just focused on AI agents making human labor obsolete, although they note that job loss is a risk. Agents that "can autonomously interact with the world over extended periods of time to achieve long-term goals," they write, raise the prospect of humans having fewer opportunities to "intervene and mediate the agent's actions."

Of course there's always the cost-cutting capitalist, who tries in every way to get his or her expenses and cost way smaller in order to have a bigger profit. What would be a better and cooler way to get rid of those expensive workers by relying on AI and lights out factories? Well, that's basically the same song that has been played since the industrial revolution by everyone hoping to be the next Henry Ford.

The other "risk" is a bit more confusing to me.Would it be like the admin here finally being fed up with the low quality postings of us and getting the best philosophical AI to post on this site, which then the AI would dominate? An end result of having 95% of the discussion threads being written by AI usually countering other AI? Well, how about the use of troll farms and AI to dominate political rhetoric? Something that is a problem already. Likes and the number of repost do influence the algrorithms controlling the social media already.

On the positive side, they suggest, an agent that can adapt, as opposed to today's fixed AI models, "could recognise when its behaviour is triggering human concern, dissatisfaction, or distress, and adaptively modify its behaviour to avoid these negative consequences."

Well, again some of those things and interactions that are obvious to us, but very difficult for a computer using an algorithm.

I think your assessments are based more on sentiment than on facts. — frank

Now there are no facts on how much one coffee will be next year.

It will cost 10% more. — frank

Want to bet on that? Perhaps one virtual coffee? Especially something like coffee can be tricky. :chin:

So helping the economy wasn't the point. — frank

Yes. When one doesn't understand the basic reasons why the US has had a long standing trade deficit and when one thinks that "Trade is bad", then your actions likely won't help the economy. Especially when you have around you only sycophants and nobody to limit your harmful ideas.

You still can't have stagflation with a labor shortage. That doesn't make any sense. — frank

In general, of course some special fields can still have a labor shortage, but that is because of a mismatch between the existing labor force and what labor is needed.