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Linebarger on "legitimation crises" and their alternatives (in the context of ending hot wars): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48612/48612-h/48612-h.htm#:~...

Ah wonder if the confederate train was meant to evoke Germany's rail-themed legitimation crisis (getting the hot war rolling)

Given that a large part of the subtext (Linebarger* does implore us to habitually analyse all communication as if it might be propaganda) in Psychological Warfare is that "hey, it might really be better if the US Army didn't practice apartheid" (finally ended in practice ca. the 6.25 전쟁), I'd bet the confederate train was supposed to evoke the US Civil War.

(let's stay silent about: "...the new organization is simply the old one under a slightly different name, but with the old leaders and the old ideas still prevailing.")

* might this be why he seems to have been replaced at Bragg with a very powerpoint-y kind of textbook?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/us/politics/admiral-alvin...

Okay I feel i'd said something stupid ---about the train--- without knowing what or why :)

I had a notion that, compared to the US military, it was the Civilian Enforcers that practise apartheid-- ~a decade ago, not sure about now, they forced a black admiral to retire weeks back? Then again I was surprised that I was surprised at the inflation in NYC since the start of the pandemic

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981

aebtebeten 167 days ago

I think that notion is largely true: the military started desegregating in 1948[0]; the Civilian Enforcers not until decades later[1]. (I'd believe, recent purges notwithstanding, that the military has successfully integrated[2]; civilian society apparently ... not as much as one might have hoped, 160 years after Reconstruction[3]?)

I'm not surprised at the inflation: USD has crashed by ~20% against CHF since last year[4], so it makes sense that less real value would show up in domestic prices.

[1] eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968

[2] eg I believe if it were up to career officers, US Fort Bragg would not currently be named after a CSA general

EDIT: my bad, Bragg has been retconned to refer to US PFC Roland L. Bragg instead of CSA Gen Braxton Bragg

[3] the really silly thing is that Reconstruction seems to have been thrown in the trash in order to buy southern support for WWI, yet unlike the other major XX unpleasantry, the US participation in and effect upon that conflict was minimal

[4] I lay the blame squarely on US domestic policies; others may differ...

gsf_emergency_6 164 days ago

What have you recently learnt from Psychological Warfare that you think scholars don't get?

(I was once chatting with a swiss lawyer, and asked if he were familiar with the concept of "venue shopping". He pointed out the 26 cantons[0] and asked if he needed to proceed any further?)

("Welfare & Steering": JH's 1973 "relative success of the welfare-state compromise" may be a bit dated? I get the impression that ever since 1980, and distinctly accelerating since 1992, the Old Country's politics has, on average, been reducing both outputs: welfare and steering)

For CH, I think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjlT4BME2aE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYJ5V2HYy4 captured the difference in vibe well. (one detail SwissBloke didn't go into the weeds on: the army asks dozens of people to leave each year, on grounds largely ranging from far left extremism through fundamentalist islamic extremism to far right extremism, and a consequence of that is that one has to return one's service rifle. Part of having a hunting license[1] is being a member of a hunting club, and presumably they too will kick you out should you start to seem too crazy to associate with)

[0] it'd be a bit more difficult to game, but as far as gun ownership by foreigners is concerned, it's max(home country, CH), so there could be up to 195 potential venues involved, and I have the distinct impression that, having come from the States, I would have only hit the limit at local[2] law.

[1] another example of difference in vibe: in the US, folks complain bitterly if the exam for a hunting license takes more than 1 day; in my old part of CH, the process took 2 years, involving classroom time, community service, and practical, written, and oral tests.

[2] the cantonal police got a call about an old nutter in my first few years here. I was impressed, because apparently they just went out, talked with him, and left him all his legal weaponry, but took the full auto weapons, grenades, and other explosives with them when they left. I imagine in the Old Country that kind of visit might've been closer to a Waco?

Reflection: there's the societal vibe difference, and then there's not having an expansively interpreted 2A. Our constitution dates all the way back to 1999, because we believe in cleaning up the legacy cruft.

Moore on reducing welfare and steering: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRZj7bq...

I wonder how much [theory vs practice] of CH policy moves the average vibe around guns towards an Aristotelian mean (compared to the US)

It's common to compare shooting at a range to meditation?

I don't know about common, but meditators and rifle shooters both:

- relax their muscles and search stillness

- maintain awareness of their breathing and heart beats

- focus without letting their minds wander

so there are definitely parallels!

(on theory vs practice, I have a minor comment that can wait for a thread with some PH participation)

Fwiw I'm quite alright at (low calibre) rifles & terrible at meditation..

(I do wonder at, say, Hunter S. Thompson's skill level, which is where I'd guess the median gun rights vocalist would be at --to ask Gemini later)

am myself curious at how PH would answer your death / Kohut questions, amen on squatting.

aebtebeten 167 days ago

Hmm... I'm a relatively poor shot, and I've never tried meditation myself, only listened to people talking about it, so maybe I should retract that. What would you say the major differences are?

(might you see more of a parallel between ice climbing and meditation?)

gsf_emergency_6 166 days ago

To your kind of meditation, yes!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41326474

To Fehmi's (& what I called "meditation"(/"prana-bindu") above, to be investigated..

Happy 2026!

Ps presumably your dad was with the Navy?

gsf_emergency_6 166 days ago

(That was not to imply that I have firsthand familiarity with iceclimbing; I was just wildly extrapolating from rock climbing and friends')

The major diff is paying attention to external (nontactile) sensations perhaps?