Author | Lightnews

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

I would say that this is a very welcome development, as they finally feel a bit of pressure from the left. If that halts the drift rightward, then the country will only be better off for it!

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

Seems to not like genocide either. Strange times.

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

... West Germany suffered while East Germany prospered?

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

... another war in a couple of decades (like after WWI), or let the economy rebuild itself in the world that existed. They chose the latter.

I haven't read enough yet to understand whether there were other major factors at play. Maybe the Soviet threat, and attractiveness of communism if ...

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

... allowed re-concentration. Same with the banks – they were broken down and taken over after the war, only to be allowed to reconstitute themselves less than a decade later! I guess the choice was of either having Germany struggle economically and be miserable again, potentially ready for ...

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

In the end, economics won over politics. Essentially (gross oversimplification warning!), after having broken down the industrial conglomerates of Nazi Germany right after the war, the occupying authorities realised that such industry wasn't fit for the modern era (this was in 1950s!) and ...

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

Could the Caliphate of the Golden Age of Islam be a counter-example, where you have performance of masculinity linked to poetry yet you don’t have massive murder rates? (Also has cool aesthetics, like your examples.)

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

... story, including his leaving the company to a charitable foundation that is one of the biggest donors to charitable causes to this day. But his company did for example operate slave labour factory at Auschwitz, and he only spent a few years in prison for it. (He wasn't tried in Nuremberg.)

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, this was quite shocking to me as well when I was reading about the trials yesterday in response to your post.

Alfried Krupp even got his company back, was able to grow it even bigger than in was under the Nazis, and was honoured by West Germany politicians. There are shades of grey in his ...

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

... military leaders tried. In any event, they were, and the message of "just following orders" NOT being a "get out of jail free" card resonated through history.

Which was the point of my original post. And which we should hope to preserve, because terrible things lie along the other path.

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

It is also true though that British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden argued that military professionals should not be considered criminal for "merely carrying out the régime's orders", which was the split with the British PM and the Americans.

So there were those who didn't want even the ...

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you for pointing this out, I didn't know how narrow this was. I learned something new.

However, one of the stated goals of the trial was to declare four organisations, including Wehrmacht (the German army), criminal, and then deal with members (including soldiers) in expedited martial courts.

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

While this is all potentially true (I just don't know enough), I was making a narrow point that US personnel should be held to account for following illegal orders, otherwise the future is very dark indeed.

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

Dude, you are advocating a race to the bottom. You know, might makes right and all that. This doesn't exactly guarantee a nicer future, just mob violence and potentially a different oppressor. Laws, and their faithful execution, are the way, not doing what they are doing!

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

I didn't say anything about executions. I only mentioned accountability for people who participated in war crimes, even if they were just following orders. I wouldn't personally support executions anyway, much too likely to mess up irreversibly that way and also hard to claim moral high ground.

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t think it’s myopia. I increasingly suspect it’s cynical self-interest, which is one of those other things that he’s clever at. Conflict and division sell, and also increase the need for “reasonable” voices. “Let the country burn as long as I keep climbing the career ladder.”

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

Either that, or it was a miscarriage of justice that all those German soldiers and officers at Nuremberg were punished. I wonder which approach creates better incentives and results in a better world? 🤔

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

This 💯! The whole “reasonable” news media is complicit in the ascendancy of this anti-immigrant rhetoric and the rise of the far right in general.

Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 2d

The whole interview is a microcosm of our political-media-entertainment machine: bullshitters dancing for the benefit of racists & reactionaries, while journalists either clap or scratch their heads, & no-one is any wiser or better informed. A kind of weird performance of journalism & democracy 6/6

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 3d

Peston tells Lam that she said something that he "genuinely didn't understand". "But who are these people who came legally who should leave?"

This does not look like faux naivety.
He should know the answer!

She misleads in her answer to him.
So he gives a misleading summary of her policy on air.

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

Or is seeking to minimise the blowback of the policy because he perceives his interests align well with the further prospering of populism where he can continue playing the role of befuddled reasonable apologist.

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

This is really interesting. Great work, generally aligns with my experience, both on subjective and objective measurement front!

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 2d

Isn't there also an element of certain things just not having been in scope in the first place without the AI, but now they get done? The effect of that would probably be very hard to measure, but I know that is a large factor for me and a few friends I talked to.

The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 3d

I think it’s a learned posture that helps him obfuscate and manipulate to the satisfaction of powers that be. He’s plenty bright enough to keep getting promoted. I have been shocked by his continued success ever since Eddie Mair used to take the piss out of him during his PM tenure.

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Reposted by The Humble Bumblebee

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 6d

www.offmessage.net/p/the-suprem...

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 6d

I don’t know why anybody is talking to this asshole. He’s just bullshitting all the time, lie after outrageous lie. You know less after listening to him, he’s a black hole for knowledge and sense! Doesn’t help either that he’s a charisma-free zone. Such a vomit that he makes vomits throw up!

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The Humble Bumblebee @cmrlj.bsky.social · 6d

I wouldn’t be so sure about that. This fever will break at some point, and the reckoning might well come…