War Room Lounge v145: I never played it. Is it basically grand theft horsey?

[WhiteMousse]

I wonder to what extent advances in small arms technology have affected political stability. Consider that in the era of flintlock firearms to take maximum advantage of the technology you had to field large forces that were trained to fire in formation. That meant you also needed a certain minimum social organization and logistics that would be hard for non-state actors to emulate. You can't commit a mass shooting with a musket and trying to carry out a bombing in that era would've been difficult. To challenge an established political authority you needed to be able to organize a substantial social movement

But now small arms technology have advanced to the point that a small number of people can wreak havoc on society. Car bombs and mass shootings don't require large social movements, just relatively small cells and in the case of bombs some expertise.

The pros and cons of the exponential growth of technology. Almost all information is available to all people. Those who are motivated or radical enough (not sure how much of a difference there is) will soak in as much as they can, while most people are lazy unmotivated and lazy to do the same, and so they will essentially be at the mercy of the others. Survival of the fittest is now survival of the swiftest I guess. Again, not sure there's much of a difference.

Speaking of flintlock tech advancements, hard to beat the persuasion power of a pump action, short double barreled 12ga magnum shotgun. Survival of the thickest

 

[Sycho Sid]

He said some times people are controlled by demons. Guess he secured TCKs vote.

BuT BlACk PeOpLe WiLl VoTe FoR hIM OveR BiDen

 

[M3t4tr0n]

BuT BlACk PeOpLe WiLl VoTe FoR hIM OveR BiDen

Right? Lol. He is having a full on bipolar melt down and jumping from subject to subject and talking about god then cussing then crying. I can't even make fun of him I just feel bad.

 

[Islam Imamate]

The pros and cons of the exponential growth of technology. Almost all information is available to all people. Those who are motivated or radical enough (not sure how much of a difference there is) will soak in as much as they can, while most people are lazy unmotivated and lazy to do the same, and so they will essentially be at the mercy of the others. Survival of the fittest is now survival of the swiftest I guess. Again, not sure there's much of a difference.

Speaking of flintlock tech advancements, hard to beat the persuasion power of a pump action, short double barreled 12ga magnum shotgun. Survival of the thickest

Its crazy to see how a relatively cheaply armed insurgent force can, if playing in a home game, punch a far better equipped and trained military force square in the nose. Hezbollah is widely considered to be the most powerful non-state armed force in the world but of course they are locked into a perpetual stand off with one of the most sophisticated and experienced and powerful military forces on the planet in the IDF. In one of their wars Hezbollah was able to take out dozens of Israel's famed Merkava tanks, often waiting for tank columns to enter through narrow passes and taking out the last one with an RPG to trap the rest. Tanks are expensive to build, maintain, fuel, repair, and operate(in terms of the time and money investment in the operator) and yet to take one one requires a lot less time and money. RPGs are cheap compared to tanks or attack helicopters which can cost as much as $100 million.

 

[BEER]

Right? Lol. He is having a full on bipolar melt down and jumping from subject to subject and talking about god then cussing then crying. I can't even make fun of him I just feel bad.

You know, as someone who battles mental illness, Kanye is just losing his shit.

He needs to get help, seriously.

 

[BEER]

Its crazy to see how a relatively cheaply armed insurgent force can, if playing in a home game, punch a far better equipped and trained military force square in the nose. Hezbollah is widely considered to be the most powerful non-state armed force in the world but of course they are locked into a perpetual stand off with one of the most sophisticated and experienced and powerful military forces on the planet in the IDF. In one of their wars Hezbollah was able to take out dozens of Israel's famed Merkava tanks, often waiting for tank columns to enter through narrow passes and taking out the last one with an RPG to trap the rest. Tanks are expensive to build, maintain, fuel, repair, and operate(in terms of the time and money investment in the operator) and yet to take one one requires a lot less time and money. RPGs are cheap compared to tanks or attack helicopters which can cost as much as $100 million.

All it takes to win a war is to not play by the rules.

 

[WhiteMousse]

Its crazy to see how a relatively cheaply armed insurgent force can, if playing in a home game, punch a far better equipped and trained military force square in the nose. Hezbollah is widely considered to be the most powerful non-state armed force in the world but of course they are locked into a perpetual stand off with one of the most sophisticated and experienced and powerful military forces on the planet in the IDF. In one of their wars Hezbollah was able to take out dozens of Israel's famed Merkava tanks, often waiting for tank columns to enter through narrow passes and taking out the last one with an RPG to trap the rest. Tanks are expensive to build, maintain, fuel, repair, and operate(in terms of the time and money investment in the operator) and yet to take one one requires a lot less time and money. RPGs are cheap compared to tanks or attack helicopters which can cost as much as $100 million.

It is both admirable and terrifying. It speaks to the ruthlessness and ingenuity of mankind. If someone really, really wants to destroy something, they will find a way to do it.

 

[Joe]

Right? Lol. He is having a full on bipolar melt down and jumping from subject to subject and talking about god then cussing then crying. I can't even make fun of him I just feel bad.

I don't even fall bad for him. He knows he's fucked up but yet continues to make a spectacle of himself. There's millions out there who wish they could afford to get help but this guy continues to hog the spotlight.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

You know, as someone who battles mental illness, Kanye is just losing his shit.

He needs to get help, seriously.

My brother is bipolar so I've seen things before. It's really sad.

 

[HereticBD]

@HereticBD, weren't you suggesting that the existence of a troll discord was some kind of wild conspiracy theory?

Err, I don't think so. What are you referring to, exactly?

 

[M3t4tr0n]

I don't even fall bad for him. He knows he's fucked up but yet continues to make a spectacle of himself. There's millions out there who wish they could afford to get help but this guy continues to hog the spotlight.

Yeah he has access to a lot of things regular people don't. If he doesn't get himself the proper help its partially his ego in the way.

 

[BEER]

Has anyone else noticed the creeping misogyny lately?

I mean, we're on a fucking MMA board, so I'm not really expecting Women's Studies majors or anything, but 2019 Join Date Homeboy just made a list of inferior human beings that put porn actresses alongside rapists.

 

[M3t4tr0n]

Has anyone else noticed the creeping misogyny lately?

I mean, we're on a fucking MMA board, so I'm not really expecting Women's Studies majors or anything, but 2019 Join Date Homeboy just made a list of inferior human beings that put porn actresses alongside rapists.

Ouch

 

[Joe]

Yeah he has access to a lot of things regular people don't. If he doesn't get himself the proper help its partially his ego in the way.

It happens every year. Dudes ego won't keep it from stopping. His sunday sermons look like some weird cult ritual. Just a strange guy that I'm glad I was never a fan of.

 

[AgonyandIrony]

Its crazy to see how a relatively cheaply armed insurgent force can, if playing in a home game, punch a far better equipped and trained military force square in the nose. Hezbollah is widely considered to be the most powerful non-state armed force in the world but of course they are locked into a perpetual stand off with one of the most sophisticated and experienced and powerful military forces on the planet in the IDF. In one of their wars Hezbollah was able to take out dozens of Israel's famed Merkava tanks, often waiting for tank columns to enter through narrow passes and taking out the last one with an RPG to trap the rest. Tanks are expensive to build, maintain, fuel, repair, and operate(in terms of the time and money investment in the operator) and yet to take one one requires a lot less time and money. RPGs are cheap compared to tanks or attack helicopters which can cost as much as $100 million.

The Hungarians were also experts at baiting tanks and taking out the tank and crew one by one in the Hungarian Revolt of 1956. The tactic you mentioned has been utilized around the world due to the Hungarian success, often with the primitive Molotov cocktail.

In the first battle of Grozny Russian invaders were met with a similar fate, the radio calls from Russian tank crews are dark as fuck. Shit look at Iraqi insurgents fighting US occupying forces with basic ass IEDs.

The U.S. military was able to achieve modest gains against the IED by innovating its way toward improved detection, disablement, and protection against the bombs. The 50 percent increase in the find and clear rate, though, was far from enough to make insurgents consider abandoning the devices. When a $265 device can disable a $525,000 armored vehicle, quadrupling the number of bombs required to be effective does not turn cost and risk in favor of the counter-insurgent. Despite efforts to control access to IED components, the devices actually got cheaper over the course of the wars even as armor, electronic jammers, and mine detectors became more expensive. Innovation saved lives and improved freedom of maneuver, but barely dented the IED’s asymmetric advantage.

https://warontherocks.com/2017/05/h...-the-myth-of-tactical-success-and-innovation/
Really good article by the way.

 

[HereticBD]

Has anyone else noticed the creeping misogyny lately?

I mean, we're on a fucking MMA board, so I'm not really expecting Women's Studies majors or anything, but 2019 Join Date Homeboy just made a list of inferior human beings that put porn actresses alongside rapists.

Friendly reminder that at the end of the day, this is an MMA website. You're noticing some select threads in the War Room, but it's pretty common around here in general. Some more extreme than others, but shit, if you've got threads rating women's looks, and fuckability on the regular, it's safe to say that this is the farthest thing from a feminist sensitive forum.

 

[BEER]

Friendly reminder that at the end of the day, this is an MMA website. You're noticing some select threads in the War Room, but it's pretty common around here in general. Some more extreme than others, but shit, if you've got threads rating women's looks, and fuckability on the regular, it's safe to say that this is the farthest thing from a feminist sensitive forum.

I mean, I noted that it's an MMA forum.

There is a difference between noting fake tits or rating female bodies and thinking women who have sex on camera are subhuman.

 

[Islam Imamate]

All it takes to win a war is to not play by the rules.

Interesting way to put it.

It is both admirable and terrifying. It speaks to the ruthlessness and ingenuity of mankind. If someone really, really wants to destroy something, they will find a way to do it.

Well I don't think its all bad really, as someone who is at times sympathetic to resistance movements I think it can be a good thing in certain contexts since it tips the balance of power in favor of non-state actors over state actors who do not always have the moral high ground. But yeah it does mean that it can make it harder for a legitimate state to consolidate its authority in certain cases, which is the point I was originally making, and that is bad.

The Hungarians were also experts at baiting tanks and taking out the tank and crew one by one in the Hungarian Revolt of 1956. The tactic you mentioned has been utilized around the world due to the Hungarian success, often with the primitive Molotov cocktail.

In the first battle of Grozny Russian invaders were met with a similar fate, the radio calls from Russian tank crews are dark as fuck. Shit look at Iraqi insurgents fighting US occupying forces with basic ass IEDs.

https://warontherocks.com/2017/05/h...-the-myth-of-tactical-success-and-innovation/
Really good article by the way.

Yeah that's exactly what I am talking about, in fact even better. At $265 an IED is not only clearly cheaper than a tank, its cheaper than many firearms so the asymmetric advantage is massive. And, according to that article, its only getting worse

The IED has a long history. It was Guy Fawkes’ tool of strategic influence in 1605. More recently, though, the ubiquity of technical knowledge and the collapsing cost of technology have made the IED a readily accessible and reproducible weapon of nearly infinite variety. Given the vertical adoption rate of new consumer electronics, each new programmable circuit board, hobby robot, and sensor offers new opportunities for motivated amateurs to solder together weapons of strategic influence on the battlefield. As a result, improvised threats have outgrown the term IED. They have become their own dimension of modern warfare — an accelerating, localized arms race of novel weapons systems seeking asymmetric advantage, and strategic influence, in gray zone conflicts globally.

To go back to my point regarding my sympathy to certain resistance movements I bet a crazy leftist like you sees the potential in such technology to resist tyrannical government.

 

[BEER]

Yeah he has access to a lot of things regular people don't. If he doesn't get himself the proper help its partially his ego in the way.

I mean, Kanye is known for his ego, but I'm not sure ego is the reason. Even when I had health insurance, I refused care.

I regret it now, but it is what it is. Depending on the situation and/or illness, refusing care is actually a symptom. I'm not sure being wealthy removes the fear/disdain of authority. And psychologists/psychiatrists are absolutely viewed as authority figures to a lot of us.

 

[Limbo Pete]

I mean, I noted that it's an MMA forum.

There is a difference between noting fake tits or rating female bodies and thinking women who have sex on camera are subhuman.

You shoulda seen some of the stuff that got posted in the War Machine threads after he almost killed that lady