Posting the Open Thread a day earlier than the usual (Friday) to provide a space to avoid cluttering up the Belarus threads with discussions about the alleged Navalny poisoning.
I have no particular “takes” to dish out atm given that it’s breaking news and we know barely any details.
Anatoly Karlin is a transhumanist interested in psychometrics, life extension, UBI, crypto/network states, X risks, and ushering in the Biosingularity.
Inventor of Idiot’s Limbo, the Katechon Hypothesis, and Elite Human Capital.
Apart from writing books, reviews, travel writing, and sundry blogging, I Tweet at @powerfultakes and run a Substack newsletter.
This is the current Open Thread, where anything goes – within reason.
If you are new to my work, start here.
Navalny was obviously poisoned by the FSB. Putin personally approved the killing. This will be the conclusion of a bipartisan senate report, too.
Poland’s soft power in Belarus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKjgd3tB2XE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=645dJ5GRMhE
The song was an unofficial anthem of Solidarity in 1908s but it is a Catalonian song. Theres is no happy end in the song. The new walls replace the old ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mury_(song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRqbwHS4Hs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJbG4Jjg3_s
Here are some photos of ancient Zhang Zhung castles and temples, which predate the Tibetan civilization
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/UTAE17.6.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/jvb.fig_.87-1.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/05.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/051.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Bon-ruins-at-Lake-Darok.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/the-remains-of-an-Upper-Tib.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/UTAE18.1.jpg
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/023.jpg
Interesting stuff. Sadly among my Tibetan friends there arent any followers of Bön, and it seems that Buddhist Tibetans dont know almost anything of it. They have a huge corpus of literature and even their own lineage of Dzögchen, but probably 99% of their literature has not been translated yet. And I dont have much trust on western scholars on topics like these. Even after 200 years of western Buddhist scholarship they tend to make critical mistakes, although situation now is much better than in the 19th Century. But sadly their translations are not as poetic as before. So if western scholarship concerning Buddhism is on such low level, then my expectations are not high regarding their Bön scholarship. Strangely my Tibetan monk friends tell me that Bönpos are only ones among Tibetan schools who can sometimes beat Gelugs in debate(logic and epistemology), thats a serious proof that the Western knowledge of them is limited, for almost all what I have read about them in English does mostly deal with their mythology. And in my opinion Gelugs have superior debating skills compared to any western school of thought. Interesting that nowadays its believed that Zhangzhung language is connected to language of Kinnauris, although their language is relative of Tibetan, they look more European than Tibetan. I never forget my two weeks of travelling in their valleys in Upper Himachal Pradesh in 2013. Kinnauri people gave me a very good and friendly impression and their religion and local traditions were clearly more ancient than the Hindus of lowlands.(They even make quite tasty homebrew from apricots!) Actually they are one of the few people nowadays who are Buddhist and Hindu at the same time, without any confusion. Normally I would not accept that kind of position, but as long as you are authentic polytheist Hindu, then there is no problem at all. Do you hear that Vedantins?!
Surprisingly there has been found some Zhangzhung texts from Dunhuang which are written in even older form of Zhangzhung script. But I cant find any pictures of this “old Zhangzhung” script.
Here are some samples of Zhangzhung script. They had quite obsession with Swastika or Yungdrung, which is shared by their religious descentants the Bönpos.
https://www.babelstone.co.uk/ZhangZhung/_Zhang_Zhung_07.jpg
They dont use Vajra but somekind of Swastika handle
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/435DaX59WQVZFzKB3_EzDpdxQ6hmggLPUla1QW0jjlM9DoO5fchB_R8exr52rVOi9cVJBGNeug6qeP8paceQUrjyXBsfruqSuHr8PXfx_-e5dVE8VzrJhaD3Dyn1
More Bön swastikas!
https://yeruboncenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/bon-yungdrung_Fotor.png
https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/13.jpg
It might be allergy. It’s happened before. I can’t imagine Putin would want to make trouble for himself over Navalny. However, Putin isn’t always rational once he has decided to dislike someone.
I might not be Putin. Navalny makes a habit of upsetting people.
What Effective Altruist organizations do you think are the most and least woke, and are there any that are salvageable? Also, what do you think of this list of the most effective Effective Altruist charities?
https://reducing-suffering.org/donation-recommendations/
https://media.8kun.top/file_store/79c50472e6025f2d6b813481fa04e837f0474603b3ba99ba54a59537cfac6a3a.png
Not only did Putin order the poisoning personally, he oversaw the creation of a new, previously unheard of but now considered the mostest deadliest substance on earth specifically for this purpose. It is a combination of polonium and Novichok, ominously named Polonichok.
Indian PPP per capita passed 9000 in 2020.
Also, finish essay.
End of thread.
https://twitter.com/akarlin88/status/1295427301623160836
I don’t see Building an 18 m monument to Rattus Norvegicus on the list. 🙁
https://www.themideastbeast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Laura-Loomer.jpeg
Congratulations to this Jewish woman for proving that its possible for Jews to infiltrate the Republican party.
Maybe Navalny had lunch at an Itsu with Scaramella.
Actually it goes to show how incompetent Russia is at this stuff, all they had to do was robotically repeat Scaramella and Itsu every time Litvinenko came up. It was an established fact he was poisoned somehow in Itsu for many months until the story was implausibly changed to tea in a hotel many hours later, where strangely no one else became ill dispite the magic teapot still having traces of polonium many months and even more washes later.
It looks like Navalny tried to bring the light of liberalism to the Siberian natives and was drinking local moonshine until 2am in the morning.
I would probably feel unwell after that too. His poor liver.
Oumuamua is still probably aliens.
https://www.livescience.com/amp/oumuamua-interstellar-hydrogen-or-aliens.html
It puzzles me that we failed to detect it on approach. I mean, it was not that small – few hundred meters across, and it came very close (relative to the interstellar distance it was traveling).
Getting wacked by very high speed, large and undetectable interstellar object will make life on this planet very unpleasant for a while.
Ongoing Thai demonstrations are absolutely riddled with the dregs of Western culture.
Apparently their three finger symbol comes from the Hunger games. Surprising, since I wouldn’t have thought English was widely spoken there. But they are apparently mostly teenagers and younger, which might account for it.
https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200×800/public/d8/images/methode/2020/08/20/439010d0-e22c-11ea-8e8d-92e5de2d33e5_image_hires_140820.jpeg?itok=-eRjH6ne&v=1597903720
https://i.insider.com/5f2932ce7924a137d868e623?width=1800&format=jpeg&auto=webp
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/5D92/production/_113645932_54408436-e0d1-4495-a9d2-8be5f1daaa4c.jpg
I think the theory of panspermia, if one believes in it, necessitates the idea that interstellar objects are common. My theory is that they are not as dangerous as objects in our solar system, since they are probably more likely to be outside the ecliptic.
Why the strange characteristics for Oumuamua? Well, since it is the first one that we have observed, and we haven’t observed many since, and because we never sent a probe to it, we cannot really say it is strange. As far as I’m concerned, these things are an advertisement for nuclear propulsion – it’d be good to have the extra acceleration to play catch-up.
If I go to India, can’t I have 5 tailored shirts made for $5 or something? But you can’t even get a Big Mac there, so what is PPP worth?
There’s Maharaja Mac which is better than Big Mac by the way.
Bön Religion derives its tradition from an enlightened spiritual leader, Teacher Shenrab, who according to the Bön-Pos lived before the Buddha Shakyamuni times in the land of Tad-Gziks (Tadjiks) located west of Mount Kailash.
One of the earliest Aryan urban centers found in Tadjikistan is Sarazm. It is possibly as ancient or even more ancient as the fall of the Indus valley Civilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarazm
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/tajikistan/page2.htm#yagnob
We don’t know what religion the people of Sarazm practiced, but a look at Kalash Kafirs, records of Afghan Nuristani pre-Islamic beliefs and the culture of Kho people of Chitral might give some insight about what might have been early Aryan animism prior to Vedic and Avestan times.
Perhaps this early Aryan animism mixed with Tibetan shamanic practices was the earliest form of Bön?
We might never know for sure because modern Bön is very much influenced by the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Anyway, looks like the Western scholars finally started studying Bön texts on a larger basis. Interesting readings ahead!
Thanks for the beautiful pictures Altan. Their script looks amazing.
I just looked-up McDonald’s in India and found this woke quote (2019): “They say that Unity in Diversity is the true representation of the Indian culture. And this Independence Day, we are celebrating the diversity of our ingredients. Because why not! After all, our burgers are as Indian as it gets.”
There might be an interesting corollary to the Big Mac Index, which one could construct by looking at the relative wokeness McDonald’s PR in each country in which it has a presence.
Yea, and we also need more sensitive telescopes further out in orbit to keep track of that sort of thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3s01R0lPdw
Republican Senators sabotage Trump with final Russiagate Senate Report.
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 638.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PlM6s_CBRyM/
We had a mask compliance experiment of sorts as the health officials reversed their previous position and recommended masks for public transport and gatherings. Not mandatory, recommended.
It works exactly as I expected. Women rushed to the store and mask usage seems over 50 % among the crucial Karen demographic of affluent early middle aged women and no one else cares. I’ve only seen young men with masks when they’re in the company of a woman so I assume they’re henpecked enough to decide that it’s less trouble to wear the mask than to argue with their girl.
Migrants don’t give a fuck except for East Asians. Somali women walk around in those oppressive looking tents and they cover their heads but they won’t wear masks.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/can-russia-be-trusted-international-security-pacts-167294
Hmm … “progress”.
Hmmm … “our people“.
Hmmmm … “celebrating”.
Hmmmmm … “even better future”.
America’s “future”: Today’s deplorables = tomorrow’s Dalits (*).
(*) “broken/scattered” in Sanskrit and Hindi.
India is not woke, not in any way, they have true organic diversity there as does most countries of Asia, Russia included. In western countries diversity has been artificially created in short time period by policies that have not been supported by the majority of native population, in many Eastern countries diversity is product of hundreds of years of history and population dynamics, like in Russia, for they have large Muslim ethnicities that have lived continuously under Russian rule for at least from 16th Century, probably even from 15th Century like the Tatars of the Qasim Khanate. I dont claim that there was no cultural diversity in pre 60’s Western societies, there was, but they rarely had ethnic or religious diversity in the way of Asian countries. Strangely different Christian sects had as hard time living together in premodern Europe as Hindus and Buddhists had with Muslims, maybe even harder. Practically Catholics and Protestants both purged large areas of Europe from those that they viewed as followers of heretical forms of Christianity, very Islam like behaviour? Very different from Orthodox Russia, that quickly incorporated Muslims and Buddhists to its society.
So did other Cossacks under Russian service, like the Ural, Baikal and Amur Cossacks etc. Strangely Wikipedia mentions that only some Ukrainian Cossacks let Jews join their ranks! Although in my understanding they were converts.
Oh but I almost forgot India, India has strange parallels with the West and Russia, for they have educated western leaning intelligentsia, that does hold liberal or socialist views, and who live on totally different reality than the rest of the country. They had some influence on Indian politics during the rule of the Congress party, and although average Indian didnt understand much about their ideology, they had capability of gathering votes from poor people and minorities by pushing grievance or affirmative action politics. There is very much affirmative action happening in India, too much, caused by failed policies of Congress party, but thank Indra and Shiva too that we have now a proper leader for India, Narendra Modi! For majority of Indians intuitively rejected the policies of the Congress party and are now returning back to their roots, people there have showed their unity and resolve! The liberalist class is after all too small and too detached in India to have any real influence without having any ministers or bureaucrats in the government, they dont have a huge capitalist and media class backing them, and common Bharati man instinctively sees them as a foreign element in India. So No India Is Not a Woke Country, there is true freedom of speech there, they even sell Mein Kampfs on small book stands in railway stations! I bought one, it was so boring that I dont remember anything at all, I dont remember even if I read it to the end,I gave it as a gift to some random Indian in train years ago. Albert Speers biographies and Hitlers Table Talks by Martin Bormann are much better if one is interested in the inside workings of the Third Reich.
But yup the jokes that common Indian man tells about the Muslims are quite explicit stuff and not suitable for the ears of respectable people here. Like what Shiva does to Muslim men when they are bowing… Really powerful guys like our Jatt Arya are more common there than stereotypical western geeky expat Indians… In my honest opinion they are good and fine people in a fine nation with a fine culture!
Narendra Modi is an exceptional man, a rare politician during our degenerate age, a man worthy of admiration. He has been celibate for most or all of his life, he quickly left his wife after the wedding ceremony and travelled to Northern India and wandered for years as a religious sannyasi ascetic in the foothills of the Himalaya. Also in his youth he joined the very right wing RSS, which some western commentators describe as a paramilitary Hindu nationalist organization. Although they are too mild or meek for Jatt Aryas liking.
Modi in his youth:
https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/indiatoday/images/story/201901/narendra_modi_youth.png?ZhdqITpFzaK2VteEvSdpfUdsc6nlUWWv
Modi meditating:
https://imagevars.gulfnews.com/2019/05/18/Prime-Minister-Narendra-Modi-_16acba32de7_large.jpg
https://images.newindianexpress.com/uploads/user/imagelibrary/2019/5/19/w900X450/MODI.jpg
Modi on pilgrimage in Kedarnath Uttarkhand:
https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-05/i8sfr3do_narendra-modi-kedarnath_625x300_19_May_19.jpg
https://static.toiimg.com/photo/msid-69394960/69394960.jpg
Modi praying Buddha(like all true sons of India should do!)
https://www.indiablooms.com/news_pic/2018/ModiBuddhaPurnima-1525061555.jpg
And lets end our Modi -posting with some Yoga with Modi of course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VMHQgr1WXE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj6zSPf_oso&feature=youtu.be
Elpidophoros who is probably in all likehood the favorite and the successor of EP, shows his true colors.
“We pray that You would shine the light of your countenance upon the delegates of this convention, and upon Vice President Joe Biden for the highest office in the land.”
“Inspire our better angels,” liberals just love that phrase, its like some code word among them, not too long ago I listened Michelle Obama speaking in defence of Biden and he too mentioned that phrase. And not even one mention of Christ from Elpi…
This is incredibly unfortunate. How can the Kremlins be so criminally stupid? What could they possibly hope to achieve here?
Well details aren’t out yet, but Navalny didn’t have the 90s underworld ties Nemtsov had, so I find it hard to see anywhere to shift blame here.
I’ve never attempted to read the whole of Mein Kampf, just the more interesting parts. I agree – Hitler was not a good writer, and none of his ideas seem unique, but I did appreciate the somewhat based tone, in a low-grade way. (I would not go as far as Aaron_B and call Hitler a cuck.) Speer was a better writer, but somewhat given to fibbing, I think.
IMO, Modi, even if he is as Hindutva as some say, is hobbled by the political system and the media establishment. I agree with you that there’s often a different dynamic to diversity in old, non-white, diverse areas, exactly because it is older. People lived in different, segregated neighborhoods for hundreds of years, and that allowed them to develop a culture for dealing with each other. Desegregation was an attempt to prevent this from happening in the Northern US, and it worked (people surrendered to it, or fled) because of the relative homogeneity of Northern US, at that time. If it had required black enforcers – even if there had been many of them – or if there had been nowhere to flee to, it would have been defeated.
This is why I wonder if India is different and resistant to desegregation. I am unfamiliar with the public school system there. (I presume most high caste Indians send their children to private school and that it is cheap in India) Forced desegregation is cultural genocide, IMO. I also think India’s linguistic diversity is a strength.
I’ve mentioned this before, but China has 5x the number of foreign films (Hollywood but 1 Bollywood) than India does in its 50 highest grossing films (not adjusted for inflation). Though, I’m not sure if that is just an economic signal or not. Or how significant it might be. (there’s more eyeballs than buy tickets.)
I found this interesting quote by Frank Capra:
Though, his (an ethnic Italian) WWII propaganda, in conjunction with Dr. Seuss (an ethnic German) is really quite astonishing. It is a blood libel against Germans. An attack against Father Coughlin in the US. I haven’t seen the whole series, but I’m not sure it ever mentions the word “Jew” directly, but does mention them not very obliquely. I wonder if he delegated some of it, or else had orders from higher-up.
Reagan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPDRD5J5ubc
Well yes, since Petrov and Boshirov it’s certainly hard to assume innocence for the Russian state as a whole. One explanation would be that after the Belarus events someone got paranoid.
False equivalence! Segregation in US has never been comparable to the diversity of India and Russia. Firstly negroes and Europeans are much more divergent from each other genetically than various Indian groups or ethnicities inhabiting Russia. The subsaharans and rest of humanity diverged at least 80-200 000 years ago. When in Russia and Aryan societies of steppe there was constant genetic movement and interaction between Indo-Europeans, Finno-Ugrians and ancestors of Turks and Mongols. Secondly Indian society got more stratified after the Muslim invasions and collapse of their traditional civilization or possibly that process began couple hundred years before invasion with the ascendancy of Brahman caste. In ancient India there were social classes, but they were not as rigid. Of course there were exceptions in both periods but the social mobility was generally much higher in Ancient India.
Also USA had very non traditional very heretical forms of Christianity as source of their moral guidance. In my opinion Catholics of the past were schismatics from traditional Christian point of view, protestants of pasts were heretics. But situation has changed, now Catholics are heretics and protestants are a new religion for they have diverged so much from the teachings of the early Church that they are often as different from traditional Christianity as Mormons are, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Hopefully, he gets the care he needs to recover.
If he were to die, it could be bad for Putin.
My list of fake nations in Europe
Very fake nations:
-Macedonia, the fakest of them all
-Belarus, very fake, practically as fake as Macedonia, but Belarussian SSR was created before Macedonia, so Macedonia wins!
-Bosnia-Herzegovina, fake and artificial
-Montenegro, superfake, could be even more fake than Macedonia, but at least they have a history of political independence, so Macedonia wins!
-Kosovo, bad quality pirate copy of Albania
-Belgium, honestly fake country, so points for that
-Luxembourg/Lützelburg, evil globalist feudal Germans larping as French.
-Moldova, a rightful part of Russia!
Somewhat fake countries:
-Ukraine, see its in the name!
-Austria, small remnant of an empire
-Slovakia, no history of political independence or literary tradition, but have their own language and ethnicity.
-Slovenia, same as above
-Latvia, same as above
-Estonia, same as above
Honorary mentions:
-Romania, they are a real nation but have fake name and have gotten too lucky historically
-Croatia, they have people with cultural history and literary tradition, but without history of political independence.
Interesting summary and analysis of the Belarus/EU/Russia/US conundrum by MK Bhadrakumar at Asia Times:
https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/risk-of-a-russian-intervention-rising-in-belarus/
Basically, EU and Russia started to plan a dialogue between Lukashenko and opposition.
And that is why the assassination attempt on Navalny is interesting. It is weakening Russian bargaining power in the Belarusian crisis.
Navalny’s (temporary?) but sudden removal reeks of insecurity and is somewhat likely that Lukashenko actually managed to play off the Putin’s own fears and appeal to some solidarity sense beetween authoritary rulers – got the support so far without any public promises of joining RF or even letting RF military base in and did not change his own government to blatantly open pro-RF figureheads.
The turning and unexpected point probably seems to be reachen when the strife of blue collar workers in Belarus started several days ago that scared both of them as they were already used to white collar constant protesting but this was something new.
Hitler had an idealistic personality very strange for a world leader, which comes across in his writing.
I do not think Putin and his circle are stupid enough to try to kill Navalny. Just like in the Skripals’ case Putin has nothing to gain from this poisoning attempt. But the enemies of Putin and his circle have everything to gain from destabilizing Russia and weakening it at this very moment. Especially given the whole Belarusian situation.
Hitler should have stayed a painter in Vienna.
Skripal and Litvienko could possibly have been motivated by security agency revenge against traitors, though this would unlikely be sanctioned from the very top. The motive Putin, or any government agency, would have for whacking Politkovskaya, Nemtsov, or Navalny truly escapes me.
Have you seen this (from 1945):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYeJKCFQgA
The first part is a collective indictment of Germans, somewhat excessive imo, but probably understandable given the situation in 1945. But it gets really creepy in the last few minutes, when it’s warning against a possible resurgence of fascism in the US (!) and that constant vigilance against bigots and a revival of Hitler’s project is needed (I think there’s a reference to Father Coughlin here, as someone who used religion as a cloak for bigotry).
Yes, that one is what I was primarily thinking of. Pretty disturbing (though I generally find war propaganda disturbing). I wish I knew more about the scripting and approval processes.
Capra later got away from Hollywood. I vaguely recall seeing one of his educational films in high school – very ’50s USA, with ideal American children. It was about DNA.
On VE Day 8 May (or perhaps Victory Day 9 May) 2019 Turner Classic Movies showed on old newsreel that was shown in US movie theatres at the time. It was the usual stuff celebrating victory with a markedly pro-Stalin/USSR bent to it. Nothing surprising there as the Americans were initially not anti-Soviet or anti-communist as shown by their refusal to take seriously Churchill’s warnings about the Red Army’s advances in Central & Eastern Europe.
What really stunned me though was the vitriolic language directed at the British & French empires. At the end there was even a snide patronising remark about how the British and French needed to ask themselves some questions about their treatment of Indians and Muslim North Africans given the role soldiers from those colonies (note: Algeria was not a colony) played in defeating Germany. (No mention of segregation in the American South though). This would’ve been official US government propaganda. Due to the Cold War a few years later, which resulted in the US changing policy in much of the non-white world, we tend to forget just how hostile the US was towards European interests/imperialism. Of course, just a few years after forcing Europeans to relinquish their empires in 1953 the US rebuffed attempts by the USSR and Churchill to end the Cold War because it would’ve meant the Americans giving up, among other things, their conquest of West Germany.
Unsurprising given that one of the top advisors to FDR was proposing starving tens of millions of Germans to death through deindustrialisation and partition.
The sudden turn in Hitler Lives from anti-German propaganda to comments about fascism in the United States is understood by knowing the production history of the film. The anti-German bits are all taken verbatim from an earlier film, Your Job in Germany, which was produced for American occupation soldiers. The last part about fascism in the United States was a new addition.
Why is this important? The original film, as said earlier, was directed by Italian-American Frank Capra and written by German-American Theodor Geisel aka Doctor Seuss. The later film was directed by Don Siegel, written by Saul Elkins, and the rights for Your Job in Germany purchased by Jack Warner. All three of these individuals were Jews. Since undermining their host society is in the Jewish DNA, it was necessary they inserted the bit about American fascism. Everything else in the film was simply re-used from Your Job in Germany.
I have to say I don’t think a comparable film to Your Job in Germany/Hitler Lives could be produced today. The writing is superior to the kind of woke language in use today. This is another example of the decline in culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OUR5uvs9aw
Enoch Powell was very anti-American because of this.
I disagree, he was calculating, ruthless and pragmatic politician before the power got in his head.
One good example is how he tried to portray himself as a lone man who has given himself completely to the nation, thats why Eva Braun was kept out from the public, he even said that women will vote him because of that. But sadly you have fallen to his act.
The part about Germany isn’t even what I found most irritating about this film (even though I disagree with its interpretation of German history), after all it was just after a war which Germany had started and during which Germans had committed extreme atrocities. But the last segment which pretty much calls for a constant war against racism, antiracist education programmes etc. at home in the US is really disturbing imo, because from that there’s a pretty clear line to what’s going on today.
I dislike America for many reasons, but I think it is factually incorrect to blame them for the end of the British empire as much as Enoch Powell (and other British nationalists) often have.
Although they were very anti-Imperial immediately after the war, the British and French empires would have become financially unsustainable much sooner if it hadn’t been for American financial support (hence Eisenhower’s leverage at Suez).
I think that’s mostly correct, in conditions where they feared takeover by communists (Malaya, French Indochina) the Americans eventually came to support European colonialism, but only as a temporary lesser evil with the expectation that there should be a path to independence. By 1945 British rule over India probably wasn’t sustainable anyway though, and without the Indian army it would have been difficult to hold on to Burma by force.
The Americans did put pressure on the Dutch to end their “police actions” in Indonesia and come to terms with the local nationalists, iirc they threatened cutting off financial aid to the Netherlands.
For an additional example see Columbia professors Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish’s 30-page pamphlet The Races of Mankind, published in 1943, which her New York Times obituary claimed ”helped disseminate the Boasian critique of racism beyond the academy to public schools, churches, labor unions and (until the pamphlet was banned by a Congressional committee) the military.”
Aside from some anachronistic terminology and, depending on the social-political circles, the shallow biblical argument, much of it appears as if it could just as well have been written decades later.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035399206&view=1up&seq=1
Thanks, interesting to see how so much of antiracist ideology was already there back then (even the “great Negro states in Africa when Europe was a sparsely populated forest”, funny how there were already such attempts to elevate the self-confidence of American blacks). And the US as “the greatest crossroads of the world in all history”. The idea of the US as a global nation and redemptive model for all of humanity was clearly already prominent for such people.
There was also the UNESCO declaration ‘The Race Question’ in 1950 drafted by Ashley Montagu né Israel Ehrenburg (you can’t make this up) which said that race didn’t really exist and that racism was an evil the UN was designed to combat.
lol, it gets even better:
“The Russian nation has for a generation shown what can be done to outlaw race prejudice in a country with many kinds of people. They did not wait for people’s minds to change. They made racial discrimination and persecution illegal”.
Sounds like the authors thought sending racists and antisemites to a Gulag camp was a good idea.
In Richard Lynn’s recently published autobiography he mentions that the majority of Cambridge University’s psychology faculty were already against hereditarianism when he was doing his degree there in the late 1940s.
On a related note, while I had always been sceptical of Stalin’s alleged anti-semitism (as distinct from treating Soviet Jews as awfully as he treated Soviet Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs etc. and most of his subjects in general), I was surprised to find out that he would state as early as 1931 that “active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty”.
Granted, he is playing to a Jewish audience but even so that is quite extreme, given that it is a concrete threat more so than the usual Communist flamboyant and bombastic rhetoric.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/01/12.htm
The claims about Stalin’s antisemitism usually seem to refer to the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Stalin supected Soviet Jews of disloyalty after the creation of Israel (“doctors’ plot” etc.). But of course that would have been in line with his prior suspicion of countless other potentially disloyal ethnicities like Poles, Finns or Volga Germans, and unlike those Jews in reality never were subject to mass deportation or mass killings by the Soviet state. imo it says a lot about the modern West that this aspect of Stalin’s late reign is emphasized so much (while the heavy involvement of Jews in the Bolshevik system is often excused or played down), either by ethnocentric Jews and their friends, or by old cold warriors like Pat Buchanan who want to argue “See, Stalin was just like Hitler!”.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/david-shor-cancel-culture-2020-election-theory-polls.html
Yup cosmopolitan consensus has been there in college since 1850s, electoral issue now since more people college educated.
As for Modi, he also was a Sardar during emergency.
McDonalds India is all halal & must be boycotted.
Aurangzeb Alamgir the last real Mughal decreed whoever eat halal is muslim & subject to sharia.
Khalsa does Jhatka:
https://youtu.be/347w0WvHtzc?t=350
350s if link broke. (5:50)
Lol Endia has sc/st act & other hate speech laws which make even far left look tame, even in quotas.
Sardars broke back of Indira during emergency & allowed BJP to rise in 92, the Ayodhya movement was even launched by Sikhs..
RSS is meek they carry Salotar instead of Shamshir||
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/744474277734121482/746461671618248794/Shastars1.jpg
Yaar Jhatka is way better than Halal! But its sadly impossible with big animals like yak. Good point about the McDonalds, didnt know. But does Dominos have Halal? Halal should not have any place outside Muslim communities.
Are you sure? Never heard before so.
https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/in-pictures-brave-sikhs-warriors-who-kept-shastra-vidya-alive-all-about-nihangs-with-magnificent-turbans
also side point
https://twitter.com/JungNihang/status/1296907635040694277
I think 1 shot or hunting counts as Jhatka.
Halal has no place anywhere since Guru Sahib has ordered destruction of Turk||
Most Endia Halal but counter org also led by Sardar (KeshDhari Sikh)
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/halal-spread-due-to-our-mental-slavery-it-will-end-with-our-financial-slavery-swarajya-interviews-jhatka-certification-authority-chief
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾ।।ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ।।
Never thought of that before, but your view makes sense. Kharosthi and Brahmi appeared in a very short time span as a fully developed and sophisticated writing systems, I dont know when Persian Empire conquered Indus region or adopted the Armaic script, but the empire was established about 2500 years ago and in only one hundred year after that Brahmi and Kharosthi appeared out of nowhere. Also Buddhist texts support your viewpoint, for they say that there were multiple writing systems during the time of the Buddha. Also it must be remembered that Indians mostly wrote on palm leafs and climate of Bihar and U.P. is very humid and hot, so nothing tends to last there.
I am quite sceptical on claims that Indus culture had a script, for all their inscriptions are very short, so possibly they were some kind of commonly used symbols, like here is the tax office and here is the market. Or ownership markings etc.
Maybe British had some reservations in the beginning, but Sikhs were quite eager to enlist and Brits were similarly eager to enlist them. In my opinion the Muslims were most fiercely against the Raj, but later got coopted by the English.
Navalni was either poisoned by the globalist inter-dimensional vampire faction or got sick by natural causes. It’s just like with that guy who got shot on the bridge adjacent to the Moscow kremlin, leading to Red Square, a false flag to make Putin look bad. Why would Putin have some almost minor figure like Navalni killed? Modern Russian leadership has, unlike the Chinese leadership, learned many of the lessons of powerbrokers in the west. It’s rare that you need to kill a critic, when you control the means of entertainment- and newsmedia-production you can easily endure most types of criticism. The only time you “need” to kill a critic is if they can break a scandal, such as Breitbart was possibly going to do.
More likely Navalni’s illness is part of a broader op to make Russia seem Bad ahead of the election. Russia is so irrelevant to the lives of typical American voters that it takes sustained effort to artificially stoke a feeling of threat. You’ll note that a few Americans have been nabbed in the last few days for alleged spying for Russia. Interesting timing. Make Russia seem threatening, tie Trump to Russia using the incredible hoax investment laid out in 2017-2019. Sad.
Stalin has intentionally promoted antisemitism when it was useful for him after 1948, and propaganda was often based partly on Nazi propaganda. Antisemitism was a “tool” he invested to those later years, and some other leaders after him also have.
That’s not saying Stalin necessarily believed in antisemitism. It was more likely one of the tools, which he used at last moments in his career when he perceived that it was useful.
For example, something funny in the Soviet Union, was that a part of antisemitic propaganda was produced by the government, was not used or released. So there are films produced in Soviet times which are based almost directly on Nazi propaganda films* about Jews – but which some had been stored for potential use, but were not released in Soviet times. Propaganda could be like stockpiles of gasmasks or ammunition, that were not used.
Here you can see how antisemitism was quite consciously a potential control mechanism, which the authorities had invested resources into, and could even store unused.
Antisemitic literature was viewed as potentially useful tool for various goals: it was published especially in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Belarus to combat nationalism/separatism. For example, nationalism movements could be identified with Zionism, or Judaism could be identified as the archetype of extreme racism, nationalism, imperialism and xenophobia.
Example of a kind of text published in Minsk, where the external criticism is of Zionism, but of course real target is to suppress separatist/nationalism, and the fact it is published in Belarus is probably not co-incidence.
“Nationalist madness. Ideology, politics and practice of international zionism ” (Minsk 1976). “Bankruptcy of the nationalist doctrines advanced by the zionists is shown.” https://www.twirpx.com/file/3079637/
I was watching a documentary film about antisemitism, which interviewed about the antisemitism wave of the 1980s. Jews interviewed were saying they had not experienced antisemitism in their life until the 1980s. And then after Brezhnev died, suddenly it seemed common.
The antisemitism was mostly turned off in the 1960s. It was then increased to the strongest level in the 1980s. Antisemitism then continued into the 1990s, although here it was more a result of the collapse of society and state capacity. But in the last 20 years, Russia has been one of world’s least openly antisemitic countries – there is still something similar to Soviet times on this topic, in how controlled “top down” all this is.
–
*Although obviously targets inverted. For example, 1970s books published with names like “Anticommunism and antisovietism are the zionist profession”
https://www.livelib.ru/book/1001665186-antikommunizm-i-antisovetizm-professiya-sionistov-sbornik-v-bolshakov
Whereas in 1930s Germany, you would have to invert the title.
I wouldn’t say, for me, that would be lesson, no doubt it is for some. The Americans were just focussed on their own interest, their faux concerns about ‘Imperialism’ being one mechanism, and that we should dispense with the special relationship nonsense.
The Americans just wanted to supplant the European powers, as they did in Kenya, Vietnam etc.
The point Kevin MacDonald makes in Culture of Critique is that this nonsense was already making headway in the twenties.
The undeciphered Kohi script might have contributed to the formation of both Brahmi and Kharosti scripts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohi_script
I was not aware of this. But makes sense if we think that early Brahmi, early Kharosti and Kohi coexisted for some time. Also to my eye Kohi offers similarities to the older form of Tokharian. Given the early interactions between the Scythian Steppe and ancient India (silk found in the Pazyrik tombs has been demonstrated as of Indian wild silk origin) one should not be surprised if Tokharian script also was part of the same matrix of the writing systems. For the record, my belief is that the Lankavatara Sutra translated by Suzuki was a Scythian or Tokharian Buddhist text (reference to scribe being part to the “Soma tribe” that Suzuki (mis)translated as the “tribe of the Moon”.
.
Gandharan texts were often written on birch bark (just like in the Novgorod Rus, but it appears that Indian birch bark was better processed). Birch grew (probably is stil growing) in the higher altitudes of the Hindu Kush. Interestingly enough, the earliest currently extant Indian Buddhist scripture is a Gandharan prakrit birch bark scroll recovered from some stupa in Gilgit Baltistan. Among other texts it contained the Rhinoceros Sutra and the Dhammapada.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandh%C4%81ran_Buddhist_texts
The Gandharan Tripitaka seems having used Kharosti script.
I agree, as I wrote I think that the earliest writing systems (vinca, Indus valley and Tifinagh among others) were simple mnemonic devices. People simply didn’t see the point of writing much. On one hand the majority of commoners didn’t know much about writing, on the other hand the priestly class used to learn their mythology and belief system by heart. The Tifinagh later evolved to be used more extensively, but the majority of texts are still rather short.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/c5/b5/7fc5b5d98a96b75323c636798f44c8f6.jpg
The Tifinagh has been found on Canary Islands that have been colonized by the proto-Berber Guanche people at the end of the Neolithic. The Tifinagh is found on Canary Islands.
https://www.bienmesabe.org/revista_uploads/inscripcion%20tifinagh%20sur%20argelia.jpg
How could Tifinagh derive from Semitic (Phoenician) Abugida if Canary Islands colonization predates it by at least a thousand years?
This is of course a rhetorical question.
Vinča and Indus scrpts would have probably evolved into a commonly used writing system, if not for the collapse of their civilizations. Although I believe (without any scientific proof to it) that Vinča has contributed to later appearance of the many ancient European scripts and possibly also to the earliest Indo-Iranian (Scythian) scripts bringing in due time Kohi, Kharosti and Brahmi scripts to life.
For the Indo-Iranian link to late Tripolyan civilization see this:
https://indo-european.eu/2020/03/earliest-r1a-z93-from-late-trypillian-in-the-podolian-volhynian-upland/
Question for you Russian nationalists (or for that matter any nationalist): Do you think your country’s reliance on closed source, American software/hardware is compatible with national sovereignty. Thinking specifically of Windows/MacOS/IntelManagementEngine/nvidia drivers/MSOffice/Google.
Seems insane to me that major countries and the EU are so reliant on compromised US software and hardware. The USA very likely has compromising dirt on future Russian politicians and business leaders due to Russian citizens widespread use of system which we can safely assume are riddled with backdoors.
I am so tired of Westerners like Mr. Hack who question my Buddhism and claim that its false because of my political views. So I will try to explain to people here why there is nothing non-Buddhist in supporting of Russia and being against of modern Ukrainian nationhood. It may surprise many people, especially those who have gotten all their knowledge of Buddhism from those fake new age hippies of the west, actually there is a strange and possibly ethnic clique controlling Buddhist convert circles in the USA. People like Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg etc, all those fake Buddhist nuns in California, all without proper lineage of ordination, but its very tiresome and irritating topic for me, so I probably will not write about it. Lets make clear too that I will in no way claim that Buddhist cant be a supporter of the modern Ukraine or be just neutral on this topic.
Now I will begin, but I will try to keep my text short for this is an enormous topic and book or two could be written about it. Its an old belief among followers of Tibetan Buddhism that Romanov rulers from Catherine II were manifestations of White Tara. White Tara is perfectly awakened female Buddha, who symbolizes longevity, compassion and spiritual purity. As manifestations or emanations of White Tara Romanov emperors were called White Tsars among Mongolian peoples. Although there is some evidence than even Ivan III or Ivan IV were already called by that name. Some idiotic western scholars claim that White in White Tsar comes from their Caucasiannes, when actually it symbolizes their western direction, their independence, their purity and most of all that the Emperors of Russia had connection with White Tara. Like our Old white man would be Caucasian because of his name, silly race obsessed Americans…
https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%86
In 1766 highest lama of Buryatia Pandito Khambo Lama proclaimed with other high lamas that Catherine II is the incarnation of White Tara, and there is some anectodal evidence that Catherine had private audience with the Lamas and all the honors of Great Goddess were given to her, or at least they made statue of Catherine as our Buddhist Goddess Tara and it was shown to the Empress and afterwards moved to Aninsky Datsan. From this time on there was an official cult among Kalmyks and Buryad-Mongols that ruler of Russia is White Tara and under her special protection. Catherine II enjoys very high respect in Buddhist circles and is probably most connected with this cult. Catherine II also had very good policy regarding the Little Russia, so religiously I have quite strong case for my views… Possibly stronger than even Orthodox Russians have.
White Tara:
https://drepunggomang.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/28279007_1776578159073619_7050727165491167839_n-600×901.jpg
This belief in White Tsar was spread all over Mongolian lands and Tibet by travelling Buryatian monks, who dreamt of future where those lands would be under the Russian emperors. Like Agvan Dorjiev who was foreign minister and teacher of H.H. the 13th Dalai Lama, or Pyotr Padmaev, physician of Nikolai II, or Lubsan Tsydenov and many others, there actually was clique of Buryat and Kalmyk intellectuals in beginning of the 20th Century who worked with the Russian government so that Russia could one day rule those lands. Sorry all the Chinese here, but it would been better for Mongolians and Tibetans in the longer run, and it would have succeeded, but then came the revolution and destroyed all those plans, Stalin killed practically all Buddhist clergy in Russian and forced his puppets in Mongolia to do likewise.
Some links for those who want to read more about the subject matter:
https://dazanspb.ru/news/kak-imperatrica-ekaterina-velikaya-stala-buddijskoj-boginej/
https://dazanspb.ru/arb/255-let-rossijskomu-buddismu/
That last sentence is cringeworthy. Lama Ulyanov?
Also I found this surprisingly interesting and good article from that irritating bohemian bourgeois journal of liberal American Buddhists:
https://tricycle.org/magazine/lubsan-samdan-tsydenov/
Here is poem that Lama Tsydenov wrote to the Emperor Nicholai II:
Like the full moon amid stars,
The Czar Nicholas, the radiant Lord, blesses the minds
of all his subjects.
As he emerges in the sky with his radiant consort,
He embodies the fulfillment of all the world’s longings.
I look up and the sky opens,
And just as the still expanse of the sea
Is suddenly ornamented with shining ripples,
It seems my body is wrapped in golden cloth.
The hair on my skin rises and shivers.
For a long time, I cannot move.
Then I make three prostrations.
I offer the symbols for an enduring life:
A white silk scarf, a jeweled mandala, a statue of
Amitayus, Embodiment of Life and Light.
I pray:
May this ruler forever entrance our minds,
Forever dispel the darkness of disorder and chaos.
May he sit in splendor on his diamond throne.
May the pure land of imperial rule
Pervade all time.
Without a holy ruler,
How can humankind know peace?
Please protect us from the madness of the world
May this song, written down under the light of two
electric bulbs, bring all-pervasive purity and perfect
bliss to every sentient being.
Here is map and establishing year of Buddhist temples in Buryatia
https://s017.radikal.ru/i440/1112/52/8bf9ab19c85b.jpg
By the way most Buryat-Mongols were not Buddhist before the Russian rule, but Tengrist, but unlike all Western European governments Russians had no problem with missionaries coming from Tibet and Mongolia and crossing the border and converting people. But clearly Russian history is just one huge story of non tolerance, nationalism and gay bashing, right guys? I could actually write book on that topic, the very un-European and high level of tolerance that Russian people have shown through history towards minorities from 17th to early 20th Century, there is nothinf similar in European history. Also Buryats were once only one tribe of the Mongols, but Soviet Union made the Belarus/Ukraine thing with the Buryats and Mongols, for Stalin feared Pan-Mongolianism so much and thought that Pan-Mongolianism was supported by the Japanese. Originally Buryatia under Soviet Union was know as Buryat-Mongolian A.S.S.R.
There is a language difference between Buryat and Khalkha Mongol, but no more than there is between Ukrainian and Russian, actually difference between Oirat Mongolian and Khalkha is greater than its between Buryatian and Khalkha. Khalkha Mongols are largest Mongol tribe of nowadays Mongolia and Oirats are those tribes who live in Western Mongolia.
I hope that my writing has removed even little bit Hollywoods lies from your heads, sorry for all grammatical errors, Im quite tired so its no wonder if my text is full of them.
Also I must state that I dont personally believe that the Romanov rulers were actual incarnations of Tara, but I do believe that the best of them were guided and protected by the Great Goddess Arya Tara. Although protection has a very different meaning for us Buddhists, compared to those who hold Western Materialist worldview, where the death is the end of everything or annihilation of the mind.
But most importantly I do believe that the Russian nation is under special protection of Arya Tara, like she is under the protection of Theotokos, who in Buddhist circles is often thought as a manifestation of Tara in Christianity.
But these things are very complicated, I mean all this Pro-Russia, Pro-Ukraine, Pro-West stuff, for most of us lack merit, or good deeds and have afflictions that stain our mind or cognition, so it can be said that we Samsaric beings do not see things clearly or we see all in twisted way. Still I will try to use my reason in the best possible way. Which leads me thinking that in the longer run the current USA is dangerous for the material and spiritual well being of humanity. Yes, yes material wealth of USA is unparalleled in human history, but even with science I do not believe that this constant destruction of morality could sustain well being in longer run, or maybe in the year 2100 we all will be rich and can choose what we want to be, but does that matter if we all have sensibilities of a whore, if we have no love, no loyalty, no wisdom of ethics or aesthetics?
True.
Also True.
Don’t think this will happen. I believe that mankind has entered the era of what Nick Bostrom has named existential risks. I would be very much surprised if human civilization survives past 2050 in its current form.
It was just a rhetorical extrapolation.
I dont know what will happen, but I do not believe in enviromental alarmism, there will be problems, like there has always been, but humanity will survive. Nor do I believe in rogue A.Is, which will take over humanity.
Correct.
Although I am by no means a specialist in the AI field, I believe that you are probably also correct about this.
What I have written about in my comment above is human civilization surviving past 2050 in its current form., not a total anthropocide.
This begs the question about what the current form of human civilization is. My take on it is of course quite subjective, I would personally define it as a relatively highly technological globalised financial oligarchic network centralism. Despite the lenghty describer it is in short a global plutocracy. This plutocracy is centered around Western TNC (indeed their major shareholders) and inside the West itself on the Anglosphere. The politics here are the mean to an end: allowing the plutocracy to maximize its share of cognitive, financial, economic and natural resources and transform these resources into power.
Problem is, the development of the technologies and the evolution of global demographics is rendering all this globalized system unstable. I believe that some technologies (biotech and nanotech in particular, but also automation) will make the whole edifice even less stable and eventually contribute to its radical transformation.
A big and complex building always falls with much fracas, even if through controlled demolition. And many are those who can be trapped under its debris. That is what I was referring to in my comment. IMHO COVID-19 is just the first glimpse of the things to come.
I dont know much about nanotech and biotech, but are there any real life applications of something like genetic engineering available even for the rich people yet? And when they become available for masses and if they become will there be any more useful applications than changing ones hair color. I have understood that tinkering even one or two genes can have unforeseen consequences.
In my opinion the pace of scientific progress has slown down considerably during the last generations. Lets take as an example a hypothetical European man who was born in the year 1900. In his fifties or sixties the world would have changed dramatically politically and technologically for three or four times. Planes, space, exploration, quantum physics, car technology, nuclear power, television, radio, cameras, telephones, satellites, jet aircraft, missiles, factories and so on and son. Our reality has also changed dramatically during the last decades, but there are fewer such major breakthroughs, of course there is internet, smart phones, better tvs and stuff like that, but there has been less change in my humble opinion, between 1990 and 2020 than there was between 1900 and 1920 or 1920 and 1950. The changes that we are going are more psychological and ideological than tangible and visible breakthroughs in science and technology. Of course outside the west its a different story, and maybe in former Warsaw pact countries, although I still claim that even there the changes have been less dramatical than they were during the first 7 decades of the 20th century. Even the Soviet 70’s was a totally different reality compared to the Soviet 50’s. Of course in Russia the reality changed totally between the 80s and 90s, but it was mainly political changing, not technological or scientifical.
Cool Kalashnikov presentation of new products:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNbZOyx0X_8
Quite like Tesla or Apple, just not with cool toys for hippies, but manly stuff like CNC machines, rifles and missiles. Real man stuff, to build and destroy.
Its an Ak74u