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HEY GUNS posted:weekly reminder that fascism is an aesthetic movement as much as a political and economic one Ezra Pound was a scumfuck shithead whose reputation can't sink low enough for me 
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Feb 25, 2018 04:05
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Well What Now posted:Ezra Pound was a scumfuck shithead whose reputation can't sink low enough for me i enjoy his poetry a great deal
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Feb 25, 2018 04:13
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dublish posted:Food shortages in the south had very little to do with lack of production. Farms very quickly moved from cash crops (that had no available market) to foodstuffs. The bigger issues were a) lack of transportation infrastructure that made it very difficult to move food around, and b) runaway inflation that made it more difficult for anyone not involved in agriculture to actually afford food. Just to add, food production was also stymied by the availability of arable land. Cotton is very taxing on the soil and plantation owners had no interest in crop rotation to prevent the land from being exhausted. Most plantation owners were the richest people in America during the Antebellum period and just bought more land and moved their plantations if they needed to. Small farmers were left with little land to use for large scale food agriculture and most planned to become plantation owners at some point anyways. The trend of Americans thinking they're temporarily poor and will one day be a millionaire isn't a new thing. The containment of slavery was also used in the lead up to the Civil War as well because Lincoln and many others believed that the plantation system would run its course and then die. The push into Central and South America was necessary because there was not only no suitable land in the north or west as pointed out but new land would need to be acquired to continue this system. The plantation system would eventually ecologically destroy the South and make large scale agriculture unfeasible for decades. Slavery was also legal throughout South America until the end of the 19th century and the region was very unstable. William Walker, an American adventurer from Tennessee, installed himself as the leader of Nicaragua for about almost a year until foreign intervention removed him from power fearing he'd attack neighboring countries. If some adventurer could take over a country there, why not the United States or the Confederacy?
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Feb 25, 2018 06:05
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tbh my biggest challenge this semester has been not referring to yezhov as "yeezy" in front of students
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Feb 25, 2018 07:17
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Feb 25, 2018 07:36
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Go on...
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Feb 25, 2018 07:48
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Cotton is very taxing on the soil and plantation owners had no interest in crop rotation to prevent the land from being exhausted. The hole of debt the plantation owners often dug themselves into probably also made short-term gains too attractive.
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Feb 25, 2018 09:13
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Vive... la France?
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Feb 25, 2018 10:19
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HEY GUNS posted:What he needed was therapy. What he stumbled into was Nazi propaganda. Yeah, I could tell that and get that that's the point, I mean that he specifically says stuff like "I hope I will be dead soon" and "this world is not for me" which makes me slightly terrified he's actively contemplating suicide instead of just being depressed In General. I reported it to twitter under their suicide prevention thing and it seems like he's posted a bit since, at least.
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Feb 25, 2018 10:20
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Ensign Expendable posted:
People treat the Hetzer like it's the second coming of armor piercing christ, I'd like to know if the hype is true 
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Feb 25, 2018 10:22
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What's the recent series on the Vietnam war everyone's been talking about? I didn't hop on at the time but am considering giving it a whirl now I've developed slightly better media discipline.
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Feb 25, 2018 10:39
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It's straight up called The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. I heartily recommend it and think it's the best documentary made so far, but be adviced that there are some pretty gut-wrenching memoirs in there.
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Feb 25, 2018 10:49
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I'll second that recommendation but be warned, it will make you very angry.
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Feb 25, 2018 14:06
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Gort posted:I'll second that recommendation but be warned, it will make you very angry. at who? i'm already pretty angry at the us govt and military.
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Feb 25, 2018 14:34
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Mycroft Holmes posted:at who? i'm already pretty angry at the us govt and military. From episode 1, "Everyone, but especially France".
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Feb 25, 2018 16:00
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Reading "Motivation in War" now, and one of the punishments it mentions every so often is "beaten with the flat of a saber X amount of times." It's possible the book goes into this later, but for now - what's the cultural significance of being beaten with a saber? Is it considered a better or worse punishment than, say, caning or cudgeling? Is it used more often for serious or frivolous crimes? Is its use restricted only to certain ranks or classes? It's just such an odd-sounding punishment that I can't help but imagine there's probably some cultural baggage around it.
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Feb 25, 2018 16:35
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Probably like how for a long stretch of time, noblemen were executed with a sword instead of an axe - it signifies that, while you hosed up, you still belong to a more important class of person.
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Feb 25, 2018 16:38
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Most likely. Caning was something done to children, cudgeling and whipping to peasants, criminals, and slaves.
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Feb 25, 2018 17:55
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Tias posted:People treat the Hetzer like it's the second coming of armor piercing christ, I'd like to know if the hype is true Spoiler: not even remotely.
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Feb 25, 2018 18:15
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Mycroft Holmes posted:at who? i'm already pretty angry at the us govt and military. For me it was primarily Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and McNamara, but there are tons more.
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Feb 25, 2018 18:43
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Victor Hutchinson's POW Diary Sunday 25th February, 1945 No better have acquired the refinement of a sore throat. Our embargo on the trading over the wire deemed to have produced desired effect until some avaricious blighter wrecked the whole scheme by trading for bread above scheduled prices. Consequently the N.C.Os refuses to do business with bread at our prices. Realise of course that these men are our own countrymen who for the sake of cigarettes pander to our hunger & malnutrition. No wonder one is sceptical of finding Utopia around the corner after the war.
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Feb 25, 2018 18:44
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Tias posted:People treat the Hetzer like it's the second coming of armor piercing christ, I'd like to know if the hype is true It's just a cute lil' tank with a decent gun and ok armor for early war. It's more adorable than deadly.
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Feb 25, 2018 18:55
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Gort posted:I'll second that recommendation but be warned, it will make you very angry. It mostly made me angry at Ken Burns, he really pussy footed around assigning blame to the American populace and political establishment that they absolutely deserved. I really just want someone to make a documentary about how the Founding Fathers were assholes. Especially Jefferson, holy gently caress.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:04
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Tias posted:People treat the Hetzer like it's the second coming of armor piercing christ, I'd like to know if the hype is true I was an armor crewman in the USMC, I spent 8 years in armor. I've worked on M-60A1s, M-1A1s, and AAV7A1. Several years ago I did some WWII reenacting. After a while I decided it wasn't for me, but I had some fun at the time. The group I'm with had (has) some WWII armor, and would travel to events in other states. I've spent time on Shermans, Stuarts, a T-34/85, and others. None of them are a modern tank, obviously, but I can meaningfully compare WWII vehicles to each other. At an event in Camp Roberts, CA, I got to spend some time with a Hetzer. Here's a photo from the event:  And one of it next to a Sherman:  The Sherman is a LOT bigger, the perspective doesn't really show this well. This Hetzer was one of the ones that was sent to the Swiss army after the war. By the 70's they had outlived their usefulness and the Swiss were practically giving them away to anyone who could haul them off; many ended up in the hands of collectors and reenactors. The one I was on still had the old gasoline engine. Many of the descriptions talk about how the Hetzer is "cramped." They don't do it justice. I'm a bit over 6'1", and found that it was very difficult to get in and out of the various crew positions. In particular the driver, gunner, and loader are all on the same side of the hull, wedged in beside the gun's breech - so if you want to get into the driver's you drop in through the hatch onto the loader's seat, then swing up and clamber over the gunner's, then into the driver's - through a VERY limited amount of space. The idea of trying to get out when the vehicle is on fire is nightmarish. Driving was VERY disappointing. I've driven a lot of armor, and couldn't get the hang of the Hetzer. Ever teach someone how to drive a stickshift for the first time? Everything feels jerky and lurches around. Gears grind, the vehicle staggers from place to place. The Hetzer feels like that, and did even when the guy who owned it (and drove it a lot) took over. It felt like clattering, wheezing garbage. A Soviet BMP-1 feels like a smooth and spacious ride in comparison. Visibility was terrible from the driver's station. Combine this with how cramped it is and how badly it drove and trying to get from one side of an open field to another feels risky. I can't imagine driving that thing over rough or broken terrain - which you really need to do in order to fight effectively. I have no idea how the loader worked. He sat on the gun's left, in a half-sitting/half-standing position without enough room to move around. I can't see how this worked in practice. Everything inside felt cheap and shoddy - even in comparison with Soviet stuff. Seemingly all of the little fittings, mounts, tiedown-points, and the like were cracked or broken. Even though the owner had mopped out the bilges before the event, it still leaked oil and gas. I understand that old vehicles do this, but this seemed worse than corresponding Soviet vehicles, even though the owner said he'd replaced as many gaskets as he could. The interior was just saturated with gas fumes whenever the engine was running. Given how hard it would be to get out of one of these vehicles when it's on fire, having an interior soaked with gasoline made it feel really - risky. The armor seemed really tinny and cheap. The top hatches on an M-5 Stuart feel more substantial. I only spend a few hours on the thing, and I've obviously never taken it into combat, but from what I saw it was junk.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:12
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PittTheElder posted:It mostly made me angry at Ken Burns, he really pussy footed around assigning blame to the American populace and political establishment that they absolutely deserved. Agreed, it felt VERY watered down. I think I was disappointed because I was expecting what the title promised - a history of the Vietnam war. From that perspective it was quite lackluster. If it had been entitled "Interviews with American Vietnam Veterans" I would have been fine with it.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:19
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I very much enjoyed the interviews they had with NLF and ARVN veterans. I've watched other American Vietnam documentaries that didn't interview anyone from Vietnam at all.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:27
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Yeah, it did a pretty good job of making me see it as a principally nationalist struggle from the Vietnamese point of view; I admit I'd previously seen "Ho Chi Minh was pro-US originally" as more of a historical factoid, whereas now... gently caress.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:35
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PittTheElder posted:It mostly made me angry at Ken Burns, he really pussy footed around assigning blame to the American populace and political establishment that they absolutely deserved. I don't really think that's Burns' style but he got about as close to it as he felt comfortable doing, imo, though it was never really as frank as something like Kill Anything That Moves.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:39
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PittTheElder posted:It mostly made me angry at Ken Burns, he really pussy footed around assigning blame to the American populace and political establishment that they absolutely deserved. I mean he didnt, he spent a lot of time criticising the actions of presidents and establishment figures. Its not a history of the political background of the war exclusively, its an all encompassing look at the conflict from its origins to its end. He devoted an appropriate amount of time to that particular sphere without compromising his ability to cover the rest of the very important factors of the war in his limited television run-time.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:42
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Tias posted:People treat the Hetzer like it's the second coming of armor piercing christ, I'd like to know if the hype is true It was the kind of vehicle the Nazis should have been making instead of big cats. They wasted a lot of precious resources and failed the 'A tank you have is better than a tank you don't have' challenge.
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Feb 25, 2018 19:45
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Gort posted:I very much enjoyed the interviews they had with NLF and ARVN veterans. Did you notice how the soundtrack kept breaking out that one same little "Asian"-themed musical loop whenever one of them appeared? You know, just so we could be absolutely sure that the obviously Vietnamese person speaking about the activities of Vietnamese people in the Vietnamese language was from ~THE MYSTERIOUS AND SPIRITUAL ORIENT~
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Feb 25, 2018 19:55
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Cessna posted:I only spend a few hours on the thing, and I've obviously never taken it into combat, but from what I saw it was junk. Soviet propaganda. Everybody **really** knows that --  Trin Tragula posted:Did you notice how the soundtrack kept breaking out that one same little "Asian"-themed musical loop whenever one of them appeared? You know, just so we could be absolutely sure that the obviously Vietnamese person speaking about the activities of Vietnamese people in the Vietnamese language was from ~THE MYSTERIOUS AND SPIRITUAL ORIENT~  I didn't expect Burns would take a cue from "Bridge on the River Qwai"
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Feb 25, 2018 20:13
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Trin Tragula posted:Did you notice how the soundtrack kept breaking out that one same little "Asian"-themed musical loop whenever one of them appeared? You know, just so we could be absolutely sure that the obviously Vietnamese person speaking about the activities of Vietnamese people in the Vietnamese language was from ~THE MYSTERIOUS AND SPIRITUAL ORIENT~ I haven't seen it but would love a sample if anyone has it handy.
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Feb 25, 2018 20:28
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There's also like exactly 1 ARVN guy which seemed a little strange.
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Feb 25, 2018 20:43
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From the sounds of it a hetzer isn't much better than an AT-gun, really. How's the fancy remote control machine gun?
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Feb 25, 2018 20:43
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Tomn posted:Reading "Motivation in War" now, and one of the punishments it mentions every so often is "beaten with the flat of a saber X amount of times." It's possible the book goes into this later, but for now - what's the cultural significance of being beaten with a saber? Is it considered a better or worse punishment than, say, caning or cudgeling? Is it used more often for serious or frivolous crimes? Is its use restricted only to certain ranks or classes? It's just such an odd-sounding punishment that I can't help but imagine there's probably some cultural baggage around it.
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Feb 25, 2018 20:45
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Don't doxx me. 
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Feb 25, 2018 20:51
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The Nazis couldn't really afford to throw anything out so they were big on kludged conversions. The Hetzer was on the Czech 38 chassis I think? When you're trying to fit a long 75mm into something that originally came with a 37mm something's gotta give, and sometimes that thing is the loader's spine, who realistically is not going to live to enjoy a quiet retirement anyway. The Marder was another example. There was something they built like four of on the chassis of some rejected prototype. The Ferdinand?Tomn posted:Reading "Motivation in War" now, and one of the punishments it mentions every so often is "beaten with the flat of a saber X amount of times." It's possible the book goes into this later, but for now - what's the cultural significance of being beaten with a saber? Is it considered a better or worse punishment than, say, caning or cudgeling? Is it used more often for serious or frivolous crimes? Is its use restricted only to certain ranks or classes? It's just such an odd-sounding punishment that I can't help but imagine there's probably some cultural baggage around it. I've read so often about this being done as crowd control, you send in the cavalry and they beat people with the flat of the sabre and that just seems really dangerous. aphid_licker fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Feb 25, 2018 |
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Feb 25, 2018 21:10
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aphid_licker posted:The Nazis couldn't really afford to throw anything out so they were big on kludged conversions. The Hetzer was on the Czech 38 chassis I think? The Marder was another example. There was something they built like four of on the chassis of some rejected prototype. The Ferdinand? The Ferdinand is a tank-hunter version of the Porsche Tiger proposal, yeah.
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Feb 25, 2018 21:13
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spectralent posted:The Ferdinand is a tank-hunter version of the Porsche Tiger proposal, yeah. Artisanal handcrafted tank destroyers! Limited edition!
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Feb 25, 2018 21:15
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