I mean, I think being an occupied country sucks pretty badly for all concerned, depending in part on the brutality of the invading forces, which varies by nation. We’d all choose the Brits, I suppose, and even they have committed their share of rape and just-for-kicks murder.
I would also dispute that men choose to go to war in most cases.
War hurts people. Men who are members of the winning force have it better than men who are fighting a losing battle, who may or may not have it worse than the women dealing with the invading forces and their needs/wants. Still, it’s no good to be a soldier on the winning side if you happen to get picked up by the losing forces and are left to account for all the pain and outrage your army has caused the people who now hold your life.
No, it doesn’t. Not worldwide, not for the overwhelming majority of conflicts throughout history and certainly not for the USA. This has been studied.
I’d choose the USA, if I had to be occupied.
Sorry about the total destruction of your cities and industrial base, bro. Now, play along nicely, give the process a few decades and you’ll end up with the third and fourth largest economies in the world, honest-to-gosh human rights and a first-rate standard of living.
Back on-topic, our governor landed another really tough blow to my area. 5 days before the bars and restaurants were all set to re-open, Mills called it off. Food was ordered, maintenance was done, infrastructure set up, labor invested, thousands were spent by most of these places to be ready to open under the new guidelines. I can hop in my car and drive 30 minutes away to eat at any bar or restaurant in the state that’s not in one of three counties, but I can’t go get a massive plate of fried seafood at the Chick-a-Dee or any other restaurant in three counties.
5 days to go and she pulls the plug. People are pissed. I know the guy in the video. He’s about as reasonable and stand-up of a guy you can imagine. Our kids played hockey together for years and he even hosted an international youth hockey dinner at his restaurant when the kids from Lac Megantic came down to play. Guys like him are just getting crushed under the wheel of Janet Mills’ whimsical decision making.
This isn’t about people “whining” that they can’t go out to eat. This is about the local economy getting strangled by fiat.
#FUCKMILLS is trending on the back of vehicles. I saw five on the way to the grocery store and back yesterday.
The “Warrior Queen” Victoria, who led England on a bloody conquest of much of the entire Earth, establishing the greatest Empire ever seen on Earth, would disagree.
As far as men choosing war, I suspect most soldiers are drafted. I certainly was drafted into the IDF. I don’t know this for certain, but strongly suspect that to be the norm.
And our wars are not by choice, either. Basically, we fought or would have been (and would yet be) exterminated from the Earth. I suppose by not agreeing to die, we’ve made a choice of sorts, but I’d argue that such choice is one made under duress.
As far as who it affects most, I can only discuss my own experiences. Even in a country like Israel where both men and women are drafted, men make up the bulk of all casualties, even taking into account the fact the Arabs intentionally attack soft targets like elementary schools.
Why don’t you just start with the Soviet Union in WWII. Counting all casualties (civilian, forced labor, military) there were about 26.6 million dead, being 20.0 million males and 6.6 million females with 8.7 million being military men only.
Even with Israel, the peoples who attacked you had a choice.
If we take choice out of the equation then just following orders would be an acceptable defense all of the time.
My point is war is not like a tornado or earthquake; there is agency involved and if we say choice does not play a role then we accept it as not only inevitable but as natural.
He seems like a nice guy making an earnest attempt at running a business, and looking out for his own.
It’s not anything he is doing or not doing. It’s the phenomenon of having to dumb things down to the lowest common denominator because people in mass are easily confused, and everybody believes that they are doing the right thing, whether it’s remaining sequestered or thumbing their noses at the entire thing.
So public policy makers/deciders just have to say “XYZ. Period.”.
It’s been kind of nutty here too, but my old tree cutting buddy opened a restaurant about a year ago and has basically turned it into a takeout/personal catering and apparently great drive up open BBQ place. He’s ridiculously busy, but also communicates exceptionally well using social media.
Depends on your definition of choice.
If by “choice” , you mean choosing between options, everything (including breathing and keeping the heart beating) is a choice
If you mean conscious choice, that’s highly debatable. Even something as “deliberate” as war could be minutely affected by the leader’s emotional state, hunger, the colour of the walls, an “invisible” watermark on a sheet of paper or any host of unrecognized factors.
Apparently people only consciously process a very small fraction of that they see
I’d buy that if our curve hasn’t been flat for the entire pandemic. 2 total deaths in my county. A small spike in recent cases tied to one event, and the rest of the state is opening back up (albeit in a limited fashion).
There’s no sense or consistency to it that I can see.
I think he’ll be okay, but a lot of that guy’s business are retired folks who flock there for lunch and early dinner. I’m not sure if they’re staying in or coming out, but I’m not seeing as many older folks out-and-about when I’ve been out-and-about.
I’ve got a fair number of industry friends who are up shits creek. I’ll be surprised if the upscale place I bounced at will open back up now.
The dive bar’s going to be fine, but it is very low overhead and the owner has no kids. I’m expecting some type of defiance from him, but who knows? Back in the day we’d fence off the entire parking lot and dump a few truckloads of sand, erect an above ground pool and have a beach party at the bar. No alcohol outside the fenced-in area, kids.
The city shut that down a few years ago (for good reasons, if I’m being honest) but now that summer is here a similar parking lot setup could be achieved and ran at least as safely as a Wal-Mart that serves alcohol.
It really sucks for the people who took out loans to get ready to re-open next week.
Imperial powers (Victorian Britain, modern-day American Empire and so on) who have the luxury to fight outside of their borders, where enemy civilians are getting killed, have a disproportionately high number of able bodied men among their casualties.
How many civilians did the Soviets kill in Afghanistan, for example?
Ah yes, I stand corrected, Vercingentorix did send them out and they starved in no man’s land.
But the original points still stands. For example, Gothic wars ravaged Italy in the 6th century and the forces involved were tiny by Empire heyday standards.