LupineTroubles [he/him, they/them]

I remember vaguely an academic historian claiming that Ottomans were “proto-quasi-socialism” but that had more to do with how their markets and guilds were organized and how they saw economy should function.

Of course this person and tweet isn’t getting on that and doing a mix of what you said and just raw memes.

Turks are closest to native Anatolian populations with which they share in common with Greeks, rather than Greeks in particular, since those were first Hellenized as a result of Greek and Roman conquests then Turkified by Turkish ones.

There is absolutely zero chance that Turkey and Iran would actually start fighting at any serious sense that would escalate to a point of requiring involvement of Azerbaijan or anyone else. Not only because it is completely diplomatically and economically suicidal for both sides but also strategically and logistically it is not feasible due to geography involved between the two countries. Turkey’s border with Iran is nothing like with Syria, where it is open plains past natural barriers that lie mostly on Turkish side and even there Turkey was very reluctant to involve actual Turkish army, mainly using FSA and similar with few Turkish officers and specialized troops involved with main support coming from artillery, air and armor elements. Only time the Turkish army was actually involved at all was Afrin operation, which Turkey used mainly its own army because of somewhat more challenging terrain and to avoid potential backlash if FSA started killing too many Kurds too indiscriminately rather than precisely. There is really no similar context compared to Syria.

People can have bouts of weakness, especially when there are things that are positioned to exploit that weakness. If there are no problems in the relationship otherwise it would be best to get through it together. I would definitely not treat this something like cheating or anything like that.

He was obviously motivated by a desire to rationalize and explain the visible disintegration of British imperial project which happened within his lifetime. If it was fated that it would collapse when it did then it was destined what happened came to pass is the central belief within the analysis not a genuine examination of historical states and their trajectory. Because he has an idea and he is working back from it.

This is just obstructionist post-modernism to essentially delegitimize anyone’s presence on any given territory thus justify displacement by force as legitimate as concurrent presence.

Israel, UK, UAE and France in terms of actually causing visible and tangible harm on purpose at a vast scale both currently and historically beyond basic imperialist or raison d’état imperative. There is also the fact that almost all states of relevant economic and military weight that has a say in politics of neighboring countries will generally cause harm, basically any middling power goes here like Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and others especially with current nature of global politics. There is also Germany which is dedicated to cause of genocide so much for the love of the game they are behind Israel no matter what, trying to launder their own politics by focus lensing on Israel.

Looking it up, he seems entirely right about what he is arguing.

There is indeed always a sort of liberation in being able to associate with other if you are either othered yourself or asked to dehumanize the other, which is why I think so many progressives (and especially queer people) tend to associate themselves with Japan, because the media they produce gives them both an outlet and an out of certain social cycles.

Still, even in that situation, I do think that it is now Japan mostly is because it is seen as the only respectable other with qualities that can be emulated or even looked up to even as it is romanticized and fetishized. There used to be some others, at one point it was Sufi Islam in West, India and its spirituality and now there is also China but Japan does remain the only one that is a “Honorary West” that even in progressive people either appeal to certain underlying prejudices or otherwise sidestep them.

It is especially disappointing to see how many leftists romanticize Japan in particular and make excuses about it just because a few anime artists are somewhat left-leaning and progressive, as if artists aren’t left-leaning and progressive basically anywhere and even that’s somewhat underrepresented in Japan compared to their population. It’s not only a conservative society, it is conservative beyond its development and income level for the most part. Just because they aren’t violent about their prejudices and bigotry (usually) doesn’t mean they aren’t, even in big cities. They have been basically riding something similar to “alt-right” since early 2000s too.

What’s it that you are feeling the absence of, that you think you could know or someone you feel is more historied would know? In addition, what do you have envision as the connection if this information was available to you that you feel you are missing now? I am asking this genuinely.

I feel your feeling of a lost past and the apparent melancholy of it, is more of a profound feeling about one’s ancestry than most people ever think or feel about their family history beyond maybe their grandparents.

You have connection to history as anyone else, there is nobody who is more and less historied. Moreover, even the idea of having a localized identity which may or may not be institutionally robust that used to highlight a regional socio-cultural and historical presence disintegrated in most of the world already and everyone exists in the permanent global present which has its own culture and subculture. Everyone looks for authenticity in this and some people are just more romanticized and some larp more than others, which depends entirely on their relation to permanent global present and not any genuine history that’s somehow more real than others.

It’s more that this is a 17 year old kid without a coherent worldview. They all just absorb the same unfiltered loose ideology that exists within the overlap of these online communities.

Thick, bitter and muddy since it is serviced with its coffee grounds but with unparalleled coffee aroma.

Turkish coffee is the best coffee, they got it right the first time.

Generally speaking it seems people consider being able to read a book in its own language a positive. Meanwhile much of the backlash to this seems to come from people who can read English just fine but want to specifically be catered to in their own language for what appears to me as mostly consumer concerns. Such as being a big market that has to pay relatively highly for these products but don’t get specific translations.

I’ll have to guard the yogurt I make, I don’t want any sexy mice running around.

I always found her judgmental and preachy, but the fact that she is being gullible about all US policy since she has been enchanted by Hillary Clinton is also stupid which I didn’t think before.

This article serves the purpose of trying to preemptively deflect the possibility of comparing ICE to Israel, but rather to project against groups US and Israel fights.

Putting a gigantic dunce cap on a data center to make us feel bad about being mean to it.