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kleinbl00  ·  664 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Of Chinese Balloons and Tinfoil Hats

That's unfair. There are very few things I work as hard at as avoiding "you're a child, bow down." It drove me crazy when I was young and now that I'm not, I can see why people do it? And there are no good reasons to do it. So I don't. And I didn't. I said:

    But it's been 30 years and that book hasn't been discredited,

Not you, not me, the book. I didn't bring up The Epoch Times. I didn't link to anything from The Epoch Times. I linked to an org chart created by a then-current research analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency. I would have linked to something newer but there hasn't been - ever since "most favored nation" status was given to China, none of our intelligence agencies have leaked any counterintelligence. 1994 is as current as we can get, but even shit written in 1994 has not really been amended.

More importantly, whatever crazy opinions Nick Eftimiades has now, they weren't in evidence then. I could have mentioned Bertil Linter's book, too but it's a lot more speculative (and his distaste for the Chinese is a lot more evident. Would I read something else by Nick Eftimiades? Probably not these days because you're right - dude clearly has an agenda. Wildest thing about this book is it paints a picture of Michael F. Flynn as a competent, level-headed military executive. Do any of us have that picture now? Hell to the no. Would I read Mike Flynn on foreign policy now? Equally no. But if I needed some insights about JSOC from 2004-2007? He'd be on my list at a minimum, particularly if he wrote something prior to coming out of the crazy closet.

Thank you for the apology, and thank you for acknowledging that you respond immaturely to things that you don't like. Here's my problem: you didn't like me pointing out that you made me mad. When I did my level best to do so as politely as possible, you got madder. So if I'm just sitting over here chortling about sub radio and you decide the whole thing is shit, I don't know that the onus is on me to figure out the kindest possible way to say "hey did you mean to be so antagonistic."

We're friends. That was never unclear. So please do me a favor: wrap your head around the idea that your opinion matters by default.