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Posts by Elbow
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2024-07-21 at 1:28 AM UTC in any of you think JapanLike the period of isolation that set Japan back began 100 years after the Spanish discovered the New World. There's no world where sakoku is to blame for their lack of eastward expansion. They just... didn't know, and didn't care, at the time when it would have counted.
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2024-07-21 at 1:22 AM UTC in any of you think Japan
Originally posted by Lanny That's true, and it's impressive that Japan managed to rapidly go from a feudal society into an industrial one without the rampant corruption and general dysfunction that almost always comes along with exposure to western technological heroin. But remember that what we're being impressed by is that Japan went from feudal society to what Britain had already been for a hundred years, which they managed to do with the introduction of western ideas and science. That doesn't say "more disciplined and advanced (than Britain)" to me, since the very thing we're talking about is an act of catching up to English industrialization.
Oh. Certainly. They're only honorary Aryans, after all.
In all seriousness though, yeah, no, they were definitely far behind Europe and America until the 19th century. You could chalk that up to an astonishing innate capacity for Disciprine if you really want to hammer that point - "they knew za warudo was evolving around them and they remained steadfast in their efforts to rive traditionarry without undue influence from the outside warudo for hundreds of years 🎎" - but at the end of the day, they fucked up bigly and set themselves back like ~300 years technologically. That they were able to make up so much lost ground and beat their neighbors to industrialization is to their credit, but the fact that ground needed to be "made up" at all is undeniably damning.
Sakoku ended precisely because of how incredibly obvious it was to the Japanese themselves that they weren't nearly as sophisticated as the Europeans or Americans of the day. You are correct.
In our world, Japan was like 200 years late to the party at least if they were hoping for any New World or African colonies, and Wariat is talking about what would happen if sakoku had just never happened though I guess. And uhh... even in a world without sakoku, it was kinda hopeless for the Japanese to ever become more than the King of East Asia and the Pacific. When Tokugawa Ieyasu was born, the Spanish were already conquering and colonizing their way through the Americas. And even in a world where that somehow wasn't true, and the Tokugawa lineage hadn't pursued the gradual policies which formally and legally isolated Japan, I think they were probably still going to be late to the party, because the Tokugawas were still going to be preoccupied with looking inward. At best Japan might have caught up sooner, and laid more concrete historical claims to more pacific islands/mainland Asia. They were never going to span the globe. -
2024-07-20 at 9:10 PM UTC in Anyone have info on the last Samurai
Originally posted by Bradley i saw that movie the last samurai when I was in high school I borrowed it from this guy named Panky and I liked it a lot.
a schizophrenic dude lent me his copy while i was in the loonie bin (hehe) for a sewercide attempt and wanted to meet up after we both got out so i could return it to him. i did not return it to him. tbh i dont think i even got his actual address, just the part of town he lived in, so idk what he was expecting. dude was funny tho. he bought a laptop at goodwill and was telling me about all the files the previous owner left on it, saying the previous owner worked for the cia. he thought the cia were evil, but the fbi were good, and they were locked in a kind of immortal struggle for control of the soul of american foreign policy (which he wanted the fbi to win because "america is the world's moral police force").
i live in canada. that's what total cultural victory looks like: when your country's delusional schizophrenics are talking about the US government's federal agencies. -
2024-07-20 at 8:17 PM UTC in When husbands prefer porn to their wives
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2024-07-20 at 7:48 PM UTC in Biden asked to step down, still says he is running for POTUSBiden staying on means Chaos Wins, and at the end of the day, that's what really matters.
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2024-07-20 at 7:47 PM UTC in Biden asked to step down, still says he is running for POTUSHonestly it would be extremely funny for me personally if Biden stays the course. If he wins, it means Trump lost to a literal braindead vegetable and that will be hilarious. If he loses, Trump is the second person in the history of the republic to have a non-consecutive two term presidency and everyone gets to gloat about how fucking retarded it was of the dems to run a literal braindead vegetable against the most charismatic man in politics.
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2024-07-20 at 7:42 PM UTC in Biden asked to step down, still says he is running for POTUSI think Nate Silver's analysis regarding polarization in modern elections is probably pretty on the money. It's hard to gain or lose voters these days, and consequently, all Biden has to do to get quite a lot of people to vote for him is remain breathing. Against Trump, it almost doesn't matter who is running. The Not Trump vote is guaranteed no matter who is (or isn't, as the case may be with Biden) campaigning.
I don't think Biden is actually in any risk of losing the popular vote, and if I'm keeping it extremely forreal, he'll also probably win the election. -
2024-07-20 at 7:31 PM UTC in any of you think Japan
Originally posted by Lanny The dominant mode of medicine was basically witchdoctoring well into the 19th century and they couldn’t consolidate power within a tiny island nation without stimulus from the west. Japan is cool and all but I’m not seeing the “advanced and disciplined” thing
They were basically the only country in Asia to industrialize in the 19th century. If not "advanced", the Meiji restoration shows a capacity for forward thinking far beyond that of their peers. Consider that Chinese people are still eating bird nests and drinking 3 penis wine for medicinal effects in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty four. As regressive and backwards as Japan may be, they are leagues ahead of their neighbors.
I don't know about "empire", but had they played their cards slightly differently during the second world war (ie "not done a cheeky sneak attack on pearl harbor and been nuked into submission for it"), there's a solid chance they'd have a few more holdings in the pacific. Might have even held onto a unified Korean peninsula. -
2024-07-20 at 7:23 PM UTC in Anyone have info on the last Samuraiこの文を認めるのは、ただこの場の名声を高めるためである。
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2024-07-20 at 7:12 PM UTC in When husbands prefer porn to their wivesi mean i cant really blame scron
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2024-07-20 at 3:25 AM UTC in How big are ubeeg
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2024-07-20 at 1:59 AM UTC in Kamala is the only choice Dems have if they boot Biden
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2024-07-19 at 8:55 PM UTC in Donald Trump just got shot
Originally posted by RIPtotse Ok so you guys really believe that a kid just decided to do this?
Ok I mean I GUESS THATS AN OPTION FINE U GUIZ
I mean, yeah? He wouldn't be the first young man with no prospects to go out and try to kill someone to make a name for himself. Infamy has a potent allure to the down-and-out types of the world. -
2024-07-19 at 8:20 PM UTC in Kamala is the only choice Dems have if they boot BidenThe best defense I've seen of Biden stepping down for a Kamala campaign is that her losing in 2024 will effectively keep her away from the 2028 nomination. If she's already lost once before, she'll be DOA in 4 years type shit.
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2024-07-19 at 7:09 PM UTC in Donald Trump just got shotoy vey shut it down
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2024-07-19 at 7:08 PM UTC in (Hi Aldra)Elasticity of Demand and Consumer Perception of other expenses.
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2024-07-19 at 7:04 PM UTC in Crowdstrike anti-malware breaking Windows PCs this morningthey were trying to take down ATC as all the republicans flew home from the RNC it was an attack
a cyberattack most foul
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2024-07-19 at 6:07 PM UTC in (Hi Aldra)Elasticity of Demand and Consumer Perception of other expenses.I will try to meet my husband's demands for high anal elasticity.
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2024-07-19 at 2:25 AM UTC in The republicans are doing a rock concert at the convention and it is top tier cringe.have you considered being a red blooded american male bradley it might change your perceptions
(it wont. i saw them dancing. it was cringe.) -
2024-07-19 at 2:23 AM UTC in The republicans are doing a rock concert at the convention and it is top tier cringe.
ROCK FLAG AND EAGLE! 🤘🇺🇸🦅
