skells @skells@social.cleverlibre.org

@lucifargundam there is no difference between ravens and crows, the former have just eaten more mice

hey, look

@sim you ever tried weightlifting?

always grounds me more in my body, translates to better confidence in general too which is nice

@bonifartius there's a lot to learn from Elon no matter who you are

@7 fortune plays a huge role, but luck is opportunity plus preparation.

one of the themes that stuck with me from the Godfather (Puzo's book, not the movie) was the continual references to "playing the percentage points" - small incremental decisions and wise acts of foresight, none of which alone would ensure success but compounded to the benefit of whoever had better insight

this example not the basis of my saying that but it's the only way I can describe it; this is why there is such an emphasis on military tradition - success in war, for all it's sordid filth, is the result of cultural ethos difficult to fake.

@kcrca I suspect the Russian leadership are far more circumspect and considered than western media would have us believe

but yes, it's a valid point.

oatmilk is weird af

you can make a case that russia blew the pipes, but only upon the basis that they knew that they're going to win in ukraine

@bonifartius i trust him less and less but this has always been a thing

@11112011 no I don't think I was

@11112011 do you have English for the uniquely stupid shit they say or do you have English for some other reason

send guess

the political system will always adapt to preserve itself as far as possible to the prevailing conditions - but these changes can only come from outside that system, either grassroots or new challengers

at this time things are in upheaval, there's more chaos and "events" for the WEF et al. to capitalise upon, but that sword cuts both ways - a total reform of the polical system is impossible, for that you need a revolution which is even more dangerous and unpredictable

but I wouldn't misunderestimate how much of a win it would be, for example, to get a DeSantis/Gabbard ticket through 2024, even if they are to some extent compromised. That system by definition will have to be more responsive to the forces that put it in place; you don't change the political system, you repeatedly infect it with your ideas in a way that it is forced to respond to in an adaptive rather than combative way.

elites are here to stay and we need to entrain aristocrats over oligarchs, of whom we demand attentive service to their locality over centralised control over their spreadsheets.

so maybe the leap of the MSM to crow the "end of trump" and DeSantis being touted as the 2024 candidate (along with McConnell getting kicked to the curb and talk of the end of the GOP as we know it) are this process in action.

this is not necessarily a bad thing, the question is if Trump has bulldozed enough for it to have a meaningful long term change - or if the trajectory of American politics has changed enough for the fresh blood to reinvigorate the system. too soon to tell.

representative democracies, and most forms of governance, will always have an elite of some form.

when you have people like Trump and events like Brexit, whose stated aim is to reform the system, there will be those within the system who will seek to co-opt and harness that groundswell.

without serious structural reforms, this will always happen; the oligarchic system is an organic entity and will adapt to change of circumstances.