If I’m understanding what you mean correctly, then that is the point that Japan started building up its military again. The war in Ukraine was a shock to the system for many countries, and Japan was no exception. Their subsequent 2023 force design white paper outlined a whole host of ways that they intended to expand and modernize the force in order to better handle a potential fight if the “rules-based international order” (their words) were to continue its trajectory of instability.

Still, your point stands, as to my understanding, they remain deeply dependent on INDOPACOM for coordination a lot of the time. For example: South Korea is by far one of their best options as regional allies go, but those two haven’t really been able to put aside the hate for each other very effectively. They’re explicitly allied, but most Asia Pacific training operations involving Korea and Japan are configured with the US as the glue holding them together. I, for one, wouldn’t trust that glue to keep holding.

Impressive. Not just anybody can cut mid stream like that on a hydrated, full bladder.

Homie got a stream so clear and a kegel so rock-hard that they’re just pissing out mineral water at this point.

Honestly, I don’t even need the group pee, I be judging even at the urinal. If I’m pissing at a urinal and someone walks up next to me, completes their entire piss, and then leaves before I’m done, I’m gonna be just a little smug about it in my head.

Smh. Should’ve been born in Rome. I could’ve been critiquing Publius on both piss duration and log volume.

Remarkably clear streams. These dudes are out there chugging water to make sure they’re not showing up dehydrated for the communal sink piss.

Idk man it maybe sounds kinda nice though?

Like, I could go for a little death (no, not that one, France) right now. Just a little, as a treat.

Sorry I’m late, but is this even true, though? My understanding is that their population is only endangered due to human mass deforestation, and that the reproductive difficulties we see with Pandas are specific to captivity.

It’s not that they’re not trying to exist, it’s just that we took away their natural environments and they’re just not made for an artificial environment. There are plenty of animals that can’t live/reproduce in captivity, and it’s not because they’re not trying.

Idk, I’m not an expert on Pandas, but imo it feels incredibly arrogant for us to decimate their habitats, imprison them in artificial environments, blame them for being unable to adapt to the conditions that we inflicted on them, and then allow them to die as if that was somehow their desire or predetermined end.

Exactly, a Philosophy Major.

Hit the nail on the head. I’m not proud to admit that I’m absolutely okay with execution purely for the reason of retribution in the face of truly unforgivable acts (I’m talking the Epsteins of the world; beyond any doubt guilty of years of atrocity). I acknowledge that this isn’t justice, it’s vengeance, but my ape brain admittedly doesn’t really view the two separately - a relic of our evolutionary past, I’m sure.

However, I absolutely don’t trust the state to be the one setting the requirements for what meets the definition of unforgivable, and I certainly don’t trust them to do their due diligence, so the whole thing has to go. As it stands, capital punishment isn’t about what you did, so much as it is the state proving to you and everyone else that only they have a monopoly on violence. That they can, if they so choose, end your life and nobody can do anything about it. It’s about proving that they, at the end of the day, own you.

Trigger warning: this is about to get fairly gruesome; I’ll be going in depth on botched hangings.

But short answer: 100%. Hanging can be botched in a variety of ways. More detailed explanation below.

I love this being framed as inhumane as if lethal injection isn’t the most consistently botched method of execution and as if firing squad isn’t by far the most effective and painless. People are shocked by it, and they want to abstract away from the barbarism inherent in the taking of a human life, but no matter the method, the end result is always the same.

Capital punishment shouldn’t exist in my opinion, not because I have any moral issues with it in principle, but because the burden of proof is simply too high to be met by the legal system as it exists now. Given that it does exist, however, I would personally choose firing squad as my way to go ten times out of ten. Better that than the paralytic working, the anesthetic not working, and feeling lava in your veins for the final minutes of your life as you can’t even scream.

Philosophy Major career path

Bro just hit the perfect parry, let him be.

The hilarious thing about Vista to me is that I remember hating it at the time, but now I’ve seen versions of Windows so much worse that I can’t even muster mild dislike for it lmao

For anyone that needs context.

As with Batman, the number only remains the same if you only kill one murderer. Kill two, and that’s a net positive!

Gamers when they learn about the Pro-G spot

Tbf, I’m a zoomer who knows a lot of people who vape, and the overwhelming sentiment among people I know isn’t the denial of “this won’t give me cancer”, but rather the nihilism of “I cannot be bothered to give a shit if this will give me cancer, because I probably won’t live long enough for it to matter.”

That’s not to say there isn’t a denial crowd, but the prevailing view in my experience seems to be that if, in the end, it’s the cancer that does us in, then we have already survived past all expectations, and in the present we’re just trying to get through the day.

Ahh, good old Ken M.

It’s been a while, old friend.

Asymmetric warfare is the name of the game, and you are correct in that Ukraine’s creative implementation of low-cost, accessible technology to generate combat power is something which any force fighting an asymmetric war should seek to emulate. Drones are a fantastic resource for equalizing a resource/materiel disparity and filling capability gaps, as we have learned. Unfortunately, though, looking at the way that Ukraine is fighting their war currently is not likely to be as helpful as looking at the way that Ukrainians were preparing to fight this war.

As it stands, the war in Ukraine turned out to be much closer to a peer conflict than the absolute overmatch that was anticipated, so the type of fighting we see now became an option. Before Feb. 2022, however, the focus was much more on providing civilians and irregulars with the arms and resources needed to become persistent thorns in the side of an occupying force. That is, rather than preparing to fight a war, focus was on preparing an insurgency. The US is unlikely to be atrophied in the same way as Russia, and while there are many valid criticisms which can be leveled at the US Military, the operation in Venezuela proves that the US retains the ability to coordinate a combined arms offensive in a way that Russia simply cannot.

That’s not to say it’s a guaranteed instant loss: Canada is a very large country, with many environmental advantages which skew the odds heavily away from an invading force, but I think that this is much more likely to be an overmatch than Ukraine was. If nothing else, though, the expeditionary wars in Asia and the Middle East tell us that a dedicated insurgency always wins over a long enough time frame against America.

To any Canadians (or Greenlanders, for that matter) worried about a US invasion, I would recommend the Swedish government’s In Case of Crisis or War brochure. There’s some information in there that is Sweden-specific, but it contains a lot of good information about prep and adaptation during wartime conditions. Additionally, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual by the US Office of Strategic Services remains a great resource in making yourself a more destructive nuisance to an invading force.

Also, get a gun and learn how to use it. Hopefully it just gathers dust, but in the worst case, you’ll be glad you have it. Know that if the US invades, I’ll be doing my best to be a domestic saboteur.

Godspeed, soldier, and thank you for your service up to now. You’ve been a persistent voice of reason on Lemmy, and I’ll miss seeing your input, but taking care of yourself comes first.

Hoping all goes well for you, and I’m looking forward to hearing how you beat cancer’s ass!