‘Sea is constantly dumping bodies’: fears Libya flood death toll may hit 20k

Re:‘Sea is constantly dumping bodies’: fears Libya flood dea... by 2devnull on Friday September 15, 2023 @08:52AM (#37522180)

This is almost the offensive realist viewpoint were it not for the intense American exceptionalism. Great powers are going to do what they do. Accept this and everything becomes more hopeful. Otherwise, the world will always seem to be ruled by terrible amoral people and nihilism and despair are all you will ever have. There is no glorious future without rulers or parties, therefore wars and competition. Our western Judeo-Christian morality will never replace other modes of thinking, even in our own government!

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Re:‘Sea is constantly dumping bodies’: fears Libya flood dea... by ganglandfee on Friday September 15, 2023 @09:14AM (#37522420)

Hah. You realize you just said facts are facts and that facts are just that, they are neither right or wrong, hypocritical or amoral or immoral.

Hmmm. That’s tough to argue against when you put it like that.

Another way to put it is that many facts can be true at the same time. Superpowers are gonna Superpower, but they are also hypocrites operating on a double standard.

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Re:‘Sea is constantly dumping bodies’: fears Libya flood dea... by 2devnull on Friday September 15, 2023 @02:56PM (#37527637)

Yes! That’s exactly right!

So then the question is, are all facts the same? The answer I’ve come to is that some facts are more useful than others.

The fact that America is a great power is a very important fact.

The fact the great powers act alike is a useful fact.

The fact that can derived from these, that America does great power stuff, is of no value. It’s just the obvious result of other facts which are more important if your goal is prediction or parsimonious explanations for historical events.

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