andrewrgross

I'm sure whatever it is it'll be very fun and funny. I'm looking forward to this.

Yeah. I think there's a lot she could do with the stories, but I really need more hope right now. I think Parable of the Sower managed to provide just enough of that.

I don't fault her for being so brutal. It's honest. Reading both this and Parable of the Sower, I couldn't help thinking that there are people in Haiti and Palestine for whom these books are just their present reality. I even feel bad that I'm so demoralized, because I know that I need to toughen up. This is what the real world looks like. But I need to have enough composure to be an effective dad and activist, and it takes a balance for me to do that. Too much truth can leave me too drained and despondent to be the force in the world I want to be.

Didn't see Echo. Good?

I hope it's good. That said, I thought the writing and characterization for Fisk in Hawkeye was rather disappointing. And also, the writing for the later half Daredevil season 2 on Netflix was... not good. I don't recall if I saw the third season, but I remember being very genuinely disappointed in The Defenders. Not disappointed like a bitter comic book nerd, more disappointed like a parent. Like... there was so much there you could've done! That was all? Oh well. Points for trying, I still love you.

Anyway, time will tell. I'm happy that they're trying, but I won't get my hopes up yet.

It sounds like there's no fundamental disagreement between us. It sounds like the only difference is one of attitude.

I worry sometimes that people express frustration with the state of things as though articulating what people should do might serve as a road map to getting them to do it. But getting people to do it requires understanding why they don't.

This is true. But it's incomplete.

We do not have a functioning democracy. Most people feel that. Voting works when there are candidates with voting for, and votes translate into change, but when the system has been hollowed out by money and judicial capture and voting rules designed to prevent actual change, we are in a bind.

Will voting fix this? No, not singularly. So voting doesn't make a difference? Absolutely not! It's still one of our most powerful tools, even as weakend as it is!

Vote ... and March. Vote... and boycott. Vote... and disrupt. Vote... and organize your neighbors.

We can't stop voting, but that can't be our biggest or only tool. And everyone needs to understand this.

Okay. I don't really have anything to add to that. Good luck though.

I'm not disputing this, I'm just asking for clarity so I can understand key facts. Are there soldiers actively serving in Israel? How many? Since when?

That article didn't actually provide much clarity. I tried searching for more, and found a bit in this article:

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/27/secret-military-base-israel-gaza-site-512/

The main thing this says is that US military presence in Israel is deliberately ambiguous. For instance, the day after the commemoration in the article you shared, US European Command actually denied that this was a us military base, insisting that it was actually a "living facility".

I don't doubt that we have troops there. But historically the army doesn't seem to acknowledge them. So announcing sending people does seem significant.

These are good questions. I don't know. First, what state are you in? Second, does she have any coworkers? Also, does she know anyone in a similar field? If she went to school, does she know any classmates or teachers who might have advice?

Also: can this be automated? Nowadays, you can have a large language model code a lot of things. Could she instruct one to write a python or bash script to reduce since of the work?

Ultimately, I think she should keep looking for better work. But I know that can be challenging.

If it makes you feel any better, I remind myself that I myself am subject to the same irrationalities and motivated reasoning as anyone else. We're all just people, and people aren't logic machines. We're bundles of impulses and habits that live within whatever stories our minds have to create to make sense of all of this.

In this context, if you're looking for some kind of remedy, the best I can offer is that instead of trying to bother disputing with myths and superstitions, recognize that anyone who grows out of them usually does so because they find some other way to the same fundamental bedrock notions. Your friend wants to adhere to the rules laid out by the creator. They want to be worthy of Christ's love.

I think if you were inclined to change their mind -- which I'm not recommending -- it would be when this comes up to remind him how many people have been seduced into supporting ungodly things thinking they were following God's will. That's Satan's number one tactic. So all we can do is stay humble and listen to our hearts. If seeing kids living in Bethlehem struggling to survive under an oppressive king just as Jesus and his parents did seems wrong, it's okay to not have a confident stance. Maybe your pastor says it's God's plan, but no one -- not even the disciples -- could ever no God's plan for sure. You don't have to have a stance. You can say "God's will will be done. He does not require my involvement."

I think you're arguing a strawman version of my point. I'm not claiming that it's impossible for them to know something we don't. I'm just saying that the assumption that there is secret information that makes his actions sensible is not well founded.

There are numerous examples of leaders claiming expertise that wasn't borne out. And if this were the case, I think it would be reasonable to expect them to at least claim this to be the case.

As it stands, this behavior can be fully explained with the information available to us and Biden's foreign policy stance. So there is no reason when you see him doing something that can be easily explained by the observation that he has poor judgement and priorities that are wildly different than most Americans to believe that there is a reason outside of the public facts and our existing knowledge of his poor judgement and unpopular priorities.

Do you have more info?