Post Anwi0VdxayWcs2dRGC by wonka@chaos.social
(DIR) More posts by wonka@chaos.social
(DIR) Post #Anpyw0tWJeXlSadTJg by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-11-08T11:39:07Z
3 likes, 4 repeats
I'd just like to remind Americans that France is currently on its Fifth Republic since 1789 (with three Empires—with monarchs—interleaved until 1870).The USA appears to be in the dying days of its Second Republic (time out in 1860-65) but something better will emerge eventually, if we avoid planetary ecosystem collapse in the meantime.This, too, shall pass.
(DIR) Post #AnreFuWbzvJ2mAUF4S by SaareMartha@epicure.social
2024-11-09T07:55:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@peterbutler @JessTheUnstill @cstross No might about that - especially the where part.
(DIR) Post #AnreFvo1EgpAkRdeqG by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-11-09T11:00:03Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@SaareMartha @peterbutler @JessTheUnstill There are fewer than 10,000 nuclear weapons on the planet, down from a peak of over 50,000 in the 80s. And they're smaller than most people realize—the really big H-bombs were militarily useless so they were retired first.We *could* build a bomb big enough to do real damage—designs for such go back to the late 1950s—but such doomsday weapons would be immobile and easily disrupted by an attacker, which is why second strike forces are submarine-launched.
(DIR) Post #AntWlyCRSalE7dkScy by chema@ctrvx.net
2024-11-09T08:03:19Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Some, mostly Republicans, have been organizing for an Article 5 Convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. At least 28 states have called for it already and I believe it is a top priority for the incoming administration.So yes, this too shall pass, but the following American Republic might be a whole lot worse depending on who controls the process.https://www.commoncause.org/work/stopping-a-dangerous-article-v-convention/
(DIR) Post #Anwh8gr1hLBq0E5Fpo by jwz@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T18:18:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross As a victim of an American education I know basically nothing about French history, so I learned that this *this year* after watching the recent (terrible, interminable) Napoleon movie. In the American version the whole French Revolution is just a footnote in the chapter where Jefferson invents Liberty. So on realizing that after all that fuss with the beheadings and whatnot it only lasted ten years, I had to pause the movie and go "wait, what?" on Wikipedia for a while.
(DIR) Post #Anwh8hublVeJHcld3Y by luis_in_brief@social.coop
2024-11-08T18:25:17Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@jwz I don’t know if you’re a podcast person at all, but I do know you’re a nerd, so I wholeheartedly recommend the Revolutions podcast; doesn’t cover all five French Republics but does get into several of them. Maybe a good listen while you’re on a SOMA nature walk. https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/
(DIR) Post #Anwi0RxfHluVRzp7Q0 by clintruin@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T15:00:57Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@sidereal @wonka @cstross Yes. And very few politicians , across the spectrum, are doing anything about climate change.This said, none take the seemingly visceral joy in denying climate change. In Trump's case, it almost seems as if he actively hates the planet.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/06/trump-climate-change-fossil-fuels-second-term
(DIR) Post #Anwi0VdxayWcs2dRGC by wonka@chaos.social
2024-11-08T11:44:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross That's quite a big "if" this time.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0W7Npa3qLIOw7c by clintruin@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T14:10:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wonka @cstross It really is a big "if"--"...if we avoid planetary ecosystem collapse in the meantime..."😂 Under Trump -- of course -- all worries about climate, climate action or climate change are effectively dead. He's made it clear time and time again."...This, too, shall pass...."As concerns climate, no, no it won't.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0WUQRuUbUlBL2O by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-11-08T14:47:02Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@clintruin @wonka Yes it WILL pass, in the same way that the end Cretaceous extinction event passed within only a few million years. Sucked to be a non-flying dinosaur, though.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0WmrLNEoPvo3lo by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-11-08T14:20:18Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@clintruin @wonka Trump presides over a decaying superpower with about 5% of the planetary population and a declining share of GDP. He can ignore climate change but climate change won't ignore him. The rest of the world will hopefully learn from his mistakes.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0Wv0r3lApDcZTk by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-11-08T15:02:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@clintruin @sidereal @wonka If I was of a superstitious inclination I'd be absolutely certain at this point that Trump was a case of demonic possession."Why did he do that?" "Because he's a demon from hell who hates humanity and wants to maximize our suffering." Case proven!
(DIR) Post #Anwi0X3WLQZ7FbbMjw by heartofcoyote@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T15:18:18Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross @clintruin @wonka Our share of the population is not reflective of our share of carbon emissions, unfortunately.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0XNN9cReFAtDgO by blogdiva@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T18:50:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
it’s why christofascists voted for him. he is the antichrist they’ve been waiting, for the apocalypse and then rapture. this was the scenario circulating in homeschooling bbs when i had to homeschool my sons after 9/11 (live in lower manhattan and all our schools were affected by the bombing).my time on those boards were the same as when younguns infiltrate nazi chatrooms. but these were out in the open because !moms. few believed me and here we are.@cstross @clintruin @sidereal @wonka
(DIR) Post #Anwi0XoJXRznajUjg0 by clintruin@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T15:06:43Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross @wonka That word "hopefully" sure is doing a lot of heavy lifting these days, eh?
(DIR) Post #Anwi0Xr9MuGRjWp064 by cstross@wandering.shop
2024-11-08T19:28:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@blogdiva @clintruin @sidereal @wonka I've been tracking those lunatics for decades and they give me the cold shudders.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0YVuvKsFlxtYdk by blogdiva@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T20:08:38Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
for reals. are you familiar with Robert Jay Lifton’s work? his work on cults and nazis really brought together all these loose ends i had in my unfinished academic work that made me hit a wall & stop but continue outside academia, literally as a consequence of 9/11. his whole framework of islands of totalism, that allowed these fascist cults to develop in the open is required studying now more than ever. the hiding in plain sight nazi is very american@cstross @clintruin @sidereal @wonka
(DIR) Post #Anwi0YsxXfJ0vQfxYW by JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com
2024-11-08T18:58:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@blogdiva @cstross @clintruin @sidereal @wonkaDefinitely seems like it.One of their objectives is the destruction of Israel and the Jews, btw.
(DIR) Post #Anwi0ZO9fgG8UBGsBE by blogdiva@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T19:08:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
why been so mindblowing to see a sociopath like Netanyahu seek and embrace “xian zionism”, an oxymoron if there ever was one. and, again, they've been very open about this because this is what they use to brainwash their cults: be nice now, kill them later.meanwhile zionists are absolutely certain that giving them Gaza will appease these creeps.nope.christofascist apocalyptic cults want their full crusades, rivers of blood and all@JoshuaACNewman @cstross @clintruin @sidereal @wonka
(DIR) Post #Anwi0ZqVyEwbu8XWNs by JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com
2024-11-08T19:11:33Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@blogdiva @cstross @clintruin @sidereal @wonkaNetanyahu benefits from worldwide antisemitism. It keeps him out of prison, makes him look like he's saving Jews. He's building on the foundation of European Blood Libel and dhimmification under Muslim law to make a place where Jews finally get to be the petty bullies in alliance with antisemitic forces from Russia and the US to India and Saudi Arabia.
(DIR) Post #Anwk6MufAUeJRHMxYO by bobthomson70@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T11:53:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross I think many of us in France think it’s time for the 6th Republic to spin up.
(DIR) Post #Anwk6Nji6hTxzbFj7Y by NatureMC@mastodon.online
2024-11-08T12:26:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@bobthomson70 This. I just wanted to say that Macron's "fabrication" of the new government against the results of the last elections is not the finest example for an intact democracy. @cstross
(DIR) Post #Anwk6OMLn2OHvRKaLg by bobthomson70@mastodon.social
2024-11-08T13:00:29Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@NatureMC @cstross to me it’s like many western democracies now; it has a system that does not reflect the multi party situation now, and also the participation of actors who give no fucks about accepted conventions of how things are done and thus demonstrate the need for more guardrails.
(DIR) Post #Anwm6xgaeAS5OfCIcK by slothrop@chaos.social
2024-11-08T12:03:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross So, what´s the median lifetime of a republic? And if we look at this as an evolutionary process, how many republics does it take for a nation to reach a somewhat sane and stable state?
(DIR) Post #Anwm6yUZeKQztgaDWi by stingraz@sueden.social
2024-11-08T12:31:27Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@slothrop @cstross I like to remember that the first two republics ended before their second parliamentary session, by being turned into dictatorships (or as they were called then, imperial monarchies) by their elected rulers. The first one to make it to a second electoral cycle was number three, and if we use that as a definition, France only successfully turned itself into a republic in 1874, after almost a century of intermittent civil and international wars.
(DIR) Post #Anwm70Fl6NlvMJfPiC by stingraz@sueden.social
2024-11-08T13:06:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@slothrop @cstross By "parliamentary session" I mean one electoral cycle as set out in the constitution. The first republic was such a mess I won't bother with the details, but since its actual 1793 constitution was never actually in force due to the state of war the country was in, and that it was mostly made up of periods of state terror, coups and ruling councils formed by military leaders (the last of which was Napoleon Bonaparte, who crowned himself emperor), you could call that stillborn.
(DIR) Post #Anwm722MTAFAtLPk6i by stingraz@sueden.social
2024-11-08T13:14:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@slothrop @cstross the second was the one where they elected (universal male suffrage, first time! Yay!) Louis Napoléon Bonaparte president in 1848, straight away. He had the good grace to wait out most of his allowed term to then have a coup+referendum to be declared emperor in 1851.The Third Republic then managed to last from 1871-1940, over several electoral cycles and mostly peaceful changes of government, with most of the political discourse by then not being anti-republican in some way.
(DIR) Post #Anwm74hCaI6J8aXO2i by stingraz@sueden.social
2024-11-08T13:26:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@slothrop @cstross That then ended after defeat in war and by handing power to a decrepit but popular WWI general, allowing him to write his own constitution. The Nazi-aligned satrapy that emerged lasted until 1944. The attempted reboot of #3 as #4 failed within 14 years in '58, but they still had plenty of elections and gov'ts lasting weeks to months. Then they called in an ageing but popular WWII general to write himself a new constitution, which is the one we're still on now.