I've already mentioned the book titled On Killing - The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman (Lt. Col. of US Army). It gave some food for thought and I'm planning to write some of my speculation.

But what did the author write? Let's summarize.
He starts with the observation that most men has a natural resistance to kill (only 2% of men - those who have "predisposition toward aggressive psychopathic personality" - can go on killing without becoming a nervous wreck). This resistance is so high that even at times that our life is directly threatened (like others shoot at us) still difficult to overcome it. This resistance is the reason why infantry fire was so embarrassingly ineffective in the past 300 years - with the exception of machine guns - despite the fact that infantry weaponry (rifles) are reliable and accurate enough to cause massive losses among the enemy.
The author gives examples and sources, such as a Prussian experiment in the late 18th century, several reports and notices from several authors during 19-20th centuries (American, French, Israeli etc.), and an interesting work by a US Army historian who (and his coworkers) made mass interviews with fighting GIs during and after WWII. Also he cites his own conversation with veterans of WWII and Vietnam.
He gives new ideas on what's really happening on the battlefield. He compliments the widely known fight-or-flight model with two other options: in reality the soldiers can fight, posture, submit or flight. And most soldiers choose the second option.
Then he ponders on what enables killing (I'm gonna write more about this later) and how modern (post-WWII) armies achieve this. Then he compares these methods with the ways of contemporary mass media. His conlcusion is (after pointing out the exponential rise of violent crimes) that mass media has an undesirable effect on society.

What interesting for me is this resistance, and the enabling part. These things are actually give an entirely new way of looking warfare, and how and why battles were won.
For example the part officers (the demanding authority to kill) play in the enabling. When people (professional historians, history pros and other armchair generals) comparing the Hellenic phalanx with Roman manipulus and why the latter was more successful they compare everything but the officers. In the phalanx he's only one among those who stand in line and do the poking with pikes, but a Roman officer is one outside the formation and pressuring the soldiers to kill. It makes a huge difference if someone shouting in your ears "stab! stab! stab!" and generally pressuring you to kill. Especially if this one person is an exemplary one, a veteran whose skill in killing surpasses all the others in that particular unit. However noone talks about this because noone thinks about it.

I'll continue this sometimes, maybe only next weekend, we'll see. If you wish to read the book you can probably find it on libgen.

Previous: >>51681

Around 2024 December 8 (I think the real date was the 7th) Assad was overthrown in Syria and left for Russia, went into exile with some of his family. Since then the Turkish backed and Turkish proxy Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over most of the country, led by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa aka. Abu Mohammad al-Julani who risen through the ranks of al-Qaeda to found al-Nusra Front which he turned into the HTS, and now he is the President of Syria and changed his kaftan to a suit. And Syria turned from the enemy of the US into a client or a client of a client (Turkey's client).

Syria is weak and divided. Her leaders really has to bow to their masters, I don't think they like this, but they can't do anything else since Syria can't defend herself.
To the very north the other Turkish backed faction Syrian National Army (SNA) has a small enclave still I think. In the North East in the Kurdish populated areas the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue to rule, while Turkey has a buffer zone protruding into their territory. New formation emerged in the south where the Druze minority lives, I believe they are now essentially autonomous.
During the chaos of Assad's fall Israel invaded from the occupied Golan Heights and occupied more of Syria, calling it a security zone, similar to the Turkish one in the north.
I think the event that really showed Syria's vulnerability and that it is just a toy for all the stronger states around was the Israel-Iran war, when the IDF jets used Syrian airspace to refuel, blatantly disregarding any appearance of sovereignty.

But Syria left the isolation, the US stopped with the containment policy, sanctions were lifted. Now the leaders of Syria try to establish international relations. Just yesterday al-Sharaa met with Putin in Moscow. He also met Trump and Macron too not in Moscow - which our lad Clement Molin found distasteful, if the translation is correct. I also heard they established relations with India as well. So they are reaching out to everyone they can.

As I promised I'll write about this book.
It's quite lengthy but you'll reach the end if you read at your own pace. Most of the book isn't dense for me, an economic layman, with the exception of the parts about trade, which left me confused. I'll write what I manage to understand.
The author wrote it to argue in historiographical debates and make some points, but I read it just to add to my historical knowledge.

I'll write in sections, at most one a day so Bernd doesn't get overwhelmed, and will try to make the sections more thematic rather than just a sythesis of each chapter, as Hitler himself suggests in Mein Kampf for how one should mentally organize knowledge. I want to write about:

-Trade and controls of foreign currency and raw materials
-Budgets and revenue
-Agrarianism
-Businessmen and workers
-Consumer goods
-The fate of different industries
-Rearmament
-General progression from 1933 to 1939

If I give up on writing I hope at least to cover the prewar period. I also hope to write on:
-Armaments priorities until 1940

A year passed and again this day commemorates the foundation of Hungary, this is 1018th birthday. We celebrate this national holiday with listening to politicians mixing irrelevant daily politics into historical events in the morning and watching fireworks in the evening. Budapesterners can witness the procession of state founder Saint Stephen's Holy Dexter. Also all the local communities have their own little celebrations.
This is the third time I make this thread, and I won't post much, maybe I'll post something about what happened today - if anything interesting - later.

Previous thread: >>36217

Found fun informational. It's dated, I think from 2019 but things seems to be the same. Not sure about that Paris Climate Agreement tho.

As in last post in prev thread stated today EU Parliament voted back Ursula von der Leyen as the president of the EU Commission (EU govt. basically).
719 deputy
707 votes
401 yes
284 no
15 abstained
7 invalid votes
She's so dumb, and the dumbest statements she makes. She's also a bit dated, she was first elected in 2019. But it shows how strong the leftlib is, they stay in power as expected, despite all the bleeting in the leftlib press about far-right danger.

Previous one is autosäging.

Wanna watch The Longest Yard, the original Burt Reynolds movie.
I only see two remakes, the Mean Machine with Vinnie Jones, and the Adam Sandler comedy from 2005. Probably the only good Adam Sandler movie. It's greatest selling point is the catchy tunes played in the background and the supporting cast. Judging by the screenshots it follows the original story quite tightly. The Mean Machine is adapted to the circumstances of a Bri'is prison and normal football. It was entertaining too.
One more remake was made, and Egyptian one: Captain Masr in 2015. Not sure if it's available anywhere, or has any English dubs or subs. Also features normal football.

Newest Edition, with less Ghork.


First thing first:
That dude of the Primitive Technology channel and all his copycats have a great advantage: access to unlimited supply of bamboo. Unlimited to their objectives. That stuff is great, tuff as shit, light as feather, can be used to many purpose with little modification and not too much work.

I also read most of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation#Responsibility_and_accountability
I think technology and it's use are running forward and lawmakers lag behind. Those who spent any time in the past two decades on the internet have a giant heap of data about them. I think Bernd posted a video about a security eggsbert, I think he works kind of a private investigator many time cooperating with officials and he said in that video anonymizing data worth nothing it can be de-anonymized with ease, and both companies and govt agencies do.
Now this law was passed at 2016. This year the EU countries have to start implementing it. Who knows how long it takes until it finishes. The whole stuff is kinda vague (it can be modified when necessary tho), and I don't know for example how the EU can force a foreign company to do whatever? There are sanctions but what jurisdiction the EU has over a US based firm for example Facebook and how the EU will force the sanctions onto for example said company?

This place feels so cozy and gives me old kc feels.