• MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world
    32·
    23 days ago

    Jeff Bezos owns the washington post.

    Just a reminder that all these billionaire fucks are fascists

    and none of them are on your side.

    • frezik@midwest.social
      2·
      24 days ago

      Not really. Even from an almost sociopathic perspective, the economic loss of sending a chunk of your population off to war instead of doing something more productive at home can kill the whole calculus. Sun Tzu had a whole bit on how expensive it is just to march an army around, as if he were trying to get nobels to understand that maybe you just fucking shouldn’t.

  • Spacehooks@reddthat.comEnglish
    13·
    24 days ago

    They do say there is lots of tech and medical improvements because of war but I see it as oh now we HAVE to spend money on these thing while before it was just optional.

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
      9·
      23 days ago

      It’s not strange that these advancements happen only during war. During war the government and the rich finally need living human bodies to throw at eachother so they invest in us, and are willing to take risks on those of us with good ideas. If we take control of our money and our government we could do that ALL THE TIME.

      Damn greedy dragons hoarding their bullshit “wealth”

  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
    9·
    24 days ago

    Read the article by the way

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-long-run-wars-make-us-safer-and-richer/2014/04/25/a4207660-c965-11e3-a75e-463587891b57_story.html

    TL;Dr

    ‘war is hell’ and ‘war is brutal’ but it has brought about larger societies in which technology and the rule of law have dramatically reduced the amount of violence the average person suffers (he compares the stone age to modern times)

        • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
          5·
          23 days ago

          What has given you this perception that all of history was something like mad max? There are certain time periods and events of turmoil and “war” which you can point too, but why have you come to the conclusion that all of history and life in it was a super action movie?

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            3·
            23 days ago

            I’m not him but we know the answer. All the rich people keep repeating it. And if you hear it enough times, see it in enough movies, and even get taught in school that slaves were thankful for their “opportunity” then you start to believe it.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          4·
          23 days ago

          What if I told you it wasn’t a light switch, you can just defend your community and there were areas of the world that understood this. Cultures that resolved conflict with mostly ceremonial combat and preferred trade to war?

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      53·
      24 days ago

      it has brought about larger societies in which technology and the rule of law have dramatically reduced the amount of violence the average person suffers (he compares the stone age to modern times)

      lmao. Who believes this pseudo-scientific nonsense?

      Ofc the author is a (british) classics professor. Unqualified and steeped in white supremacy. I almost barfed at the apparently serious reference to Hobbes. Just another jordan perterson style grifter…

          • Lileath@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            3·
            23 days ago

            Not Shezznazz but Hobbes thought of the “natural state” of humanity as war of everyone against everyone with the only motivation being profit to oneself. The way to escape that state of being was to form a state where all members relinquish their individual power to a single person or group who then intimidate everyone into following the rules they made up by punishing them if they don’t.

            It is pretty much just an attempt to justify the divine right of kings in a more or less scientific/philosophical way.

          • shezznazz@lemmy.world
            2·
            23 days ago

            Hobbs and even rosseu both had simplistic mindset on pre history humans that were incredible naiive and harmful towards ant progression of understanding. Hobbs believed in the savage brutish and short life of these people, while rosseu believed they were all loving, peaceful, and egalitarian. In reality, humans are humans, very smart, and complex social organisations haven’t been with us well before the first villages or towns became a thing. I have an issue with both, but arguably, hobbs with so much worse, so much more racist and backwards too. The kinda guy if was alive today you’d want to beat up

  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
    2·
    24 days ago

    Divisive opinion pieces can be good for taking discussion on new tracks or bringing up good points. Sometimes they’re basically print version of flame bait which is entertaining.

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
        1·
        24 days ago

        You sure put a lot more weight on some random opinion piece than I do

        E: Also this was written in 2014… It occurred at the same time as they published (and probably wanted to promote) a book with the same idea.

        • Miles O'Brien@startrek.websiteEnglish
          1·
          24 days ago

          Myself, I don’t think this is in preparation for imperial colonialism, which honestly is becoming to sound like the word “woke” now, but for the opposite side where the second I hear it I toll my eyes and wonder what dumbass take I’m about to read says.

          It’s definitely a opinion piece paid for by people who profit from war, and is 100% just another ultra-capitalist trying to influence public opinion to make themselves richer.

          The only ones who benefit from war are the dictators and shareholders of weapons manufacturers.

          This isn’t “imperial colonialism” is “capitalism that profits on death is still good, full steam ahead”