Greetings from Dieng, the soul of Java. #Indonesia

No, it isn't. It's exactly what Ancient Greeks called Hybris. And Gods always punish hybris with death and despair. View quoted note →

Burn your heroes culture is the winning one View quoted note →

I haven't read Doctorow's book, but I guess his idea of platform enshittification is pretty clear. To summarize my take with a slogan: "We don't need new platforms anymore, we need protocols. " View quoted note →

IMHO, the endgame is to achieve a generalized regime change in West Asia toward a more favorable outcome for Iranian civilization—i.e., shifting from a pro- to an anti–US/Israel Middle East. It’s both a long-pursued strategy and an all-in gamble. It’s a long-pursued strategy because it’s complex, articulated, and focused on second- and third-order effects. It’s a gamble because it is still extraordinarily risky for Iran’s survival as a coherent nation. It’s a total victory/total defeat strategy; when you’re strongly ideologized by religious zeal and you feel you’re backed against the wall, you go all in, risking everything. The plan, as a chain of expected consequences and outcomes, may be roughly this: 1) Severe depletion of US military stockpiles through constant missile exchanges, sabotage, and pinpoint strikes (“death by a thousand cuts”), plus widespread attacks on vital economic lifelines for the Gulf petrodollar monarchies and US client states in the Levant. 2) Infrastructural, logistical, and trade disruptions, leading to regional chaos. 3) Energy, food, and water crises among the local population. 4) Hostility toward local governments that are unable to manage the situation or cope with basic needs. 5) The spread of riots, rebellions, turmoil, and even civil wars. 6) Regime change in the weakest governments. 7) A domino effect across the region (the “Arab Falls,” in the sense of the Arab Spring). 8) Yankees lose every grip, foothold and forced out of the region Will it work out as planned? Sure, US is toasted. Checkmate. No doubt about it. But Israhell? How will it react? 🥶

One of the things I loathe most about contemporary Western civilization (yes, I’m part of it) is this stubborn conviction and the will that we’re always on the side of reason in international and ideological disputes. We do it by dressing up arguments in moralizing language, not logic, not facts—just moral hand-waving. And it’s an irresistible reflex, even for the most hard-nosed policy makers, to drape every act of ugliness we unleash on the international chessboard in a “civilizing” fig leaf: an ethical gloss, no matter what it’s covering. Deep down, I think this is a perverse legacy of the Enlightenment: it took metaphysical, transcendent legitimacy and replaced it with a rational pseudo-morality, one that stands on epistemic feet of clay.

Sarebbe molto consumata quella giacca dato che é pressoché la stessa almeno da oltre mezzo secolo, se non addirittura da più di un secolo. View quoted note →

Iran is doing a great job in bleeding the beast

Sometimes I’m even at odds with myself—never mind everyone else.

The interesting pattern I can see in Jordan right now is that while Trump blames the local military authorities for their AA failures (implicitly delegitimising them), the IRGC is complimenting jordan informers for their support in targeting on the ground. This is an explosive mix that in time and with the right momentum it could lead to an underrated iranian goal: regime change in Jordan. Remind me how many Palestinians live there..? Oh 50ish % of the population. View quoted note →