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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2127 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: North Korea making 'rapid' upgrades to nuclear research site

Everybody forgets this about the North Korean misadventure: The only thing North Korea needed was legitimacy and the reason they've never gotten it before is they were unwilling to give up anything to get it. The Trump administration gave it to them without requiring anything in return.

Of course North Korea is returning to business as usual.





b_b  ·  2127 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's really weird to see hawks praising Trump for the meeting, when hawks have been against this type of meeting for like 70 years. Now they get legitimized and a promise to end joint readiness preparations with S. Korea because Kim knows how to flatter the easiest man in the world to flatter. As an aside, I'm not at all convinced that Trump knows what a "war game" is, and I therefore doubt he even had an idea what he was agreeing to.

kleinbl00  ·  2127 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Tribalism has trumped tradition. It's no longer about the policies you support, it's about beating the other guy.

b_b  ·  2127 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You would have thought that if there were one group who was refractory to that type of thinking, it would be the people whose main professed interest is in keeping America and its allies safe. I guess even that was bullshit all along.

kleinbl00  ·  2127 days ago  ·  link  ·  

something something Prescott Bush something something Nazis

mk  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  

American conservatism differs from European conservatism in that there is no theory behind it.

tacocat  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I believe American conservatism's operating theory is "Fuck you."

mk  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey now, only if it's in their interests.

tacocat  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  
This comment has been deleted.
mk  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not evil in the bad intentions sense, just good intentions for themselves alone. Exceptionalism and ambivalence. Can look like evil in practice, like in the incarceration of brown children, but different and more guilt-free.

tacocat  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I had to delete that comment. My markdown skills are rusty. And now I've italicized everything on my user page

user-inactivated  ·  2126 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I feel like it's no longer just or correct to call whatever's the Republican party doing "conservatism".