1/10

- From Cold War to Hot -

It has been observed, by historians, and those of us who remember at least the tail end of the Cold War, that it never descended into such conniptions of hysteria and outright warmongering as we're seeing in the West today. Why is that? 2/10

The reason the European elites in particular seem stricken by a panic unparalleled even during the the most frigid depths of the Cold War is partly, and to all appearances paradoxically, because that conflict almost never really was a truly ideological struggle.

1/7

One fairly prominent feature of the online debate on the conflict in Ukraine is the so called OSINT community. OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence, first gained a high profile during the early years of the Syrian civil war, mainly on the subreddit covering that conflict. 2/7

These were your archetypal internet autists geo-locating bomb strikes by identifying one particular building or landmark on Google maps. (In)famous practitioners of the art, who made it into a career, like @EliotHiggins, aka @bellingcat, got their start there.

1/8

*--- Faith and Fallacy ---*

Western Man abandoned faith for the gifts of the inquisitive mind, only to turn skepticism into dogmatic nihilism and a millenarian cult of blood magic. 2/8

Humans are by nature religious beings. And faith never dies but it is replaced by another. Christianity didn't fade as the motive force of the West because people lost faith, but was eclipsed by another, whose deities seemed more inclined to answer prayers, progress itself.

1/41

- The Decline and Fall of Rock -

Not only is Rock music dead, it's been dead for a while. Like Jazz, Blues, and Classical, it rests now in the afterlife of soundtracks and tombs of dark clubs and gilded halls, where the remnant priesthood still perform the ancient rituals. 2/41

I once posted a thread on the related topic of Grunge being the last gasp of Rock as the dominant cultural touchstone. But it deserves a slightly deeper consideration as to why rock developed in the first place, and why it slid into terminal decline.

https://x.com/AlexanderGRubi2/status/1621946078202413057

1/9

- The Death of the Aircraft Carrier -

There are now credible indications that the American aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower was either hit by Houthi forces' fire, or at least so pressed as to be forced to withdraw from the zone of conflict. This shouldn't come as a surprise.

https://twitter.com/ArmchairW/status/1797436142951997589

2/9

One reason is that some of us predicted precisely this very outcome at the start of the naval operation aimed at breaking the Yemenite Houthis' blockade of the Red Sea, and access to the Suez Canal, in retaliation to the Israeli attack on Gaza.

https://x.com/AlexanderGRubi2/status/1736491556079567221

1/18

- Inflation & War -

What's becoming clearer for people in this inflationary era, is that money, in the end, is a medium of exchange for goods and services, not other currencies. Almost all currencies are now losing value, relative to "stuff", only some faster than others. 2/18

The only reason the US has been able to print so many dollars is that it was the global reserve currency. The dollar was once backed by gold. But they printed more dollars then they had gold to back it.

1/5
The Hollywood cliche that we all have drilled into our skulls: The pretty girls (blondes in particular) are mean and dumb, while the homely ones are smart and noble. In reality it's, most often, the other way around. Pretty people are well adjusted, and ugly people are bitter

https://twitter.com/extradeadjcb/status/1756338711552201200

2/5
And bitterness breeds. They want to be special, but know they have nothing to commend them, be it beauty, talent or strength of personality. So becoming a side show freak, or an alien, is preferable than being merely ordinary, as they have no faith to sustain them either.

*** Veien til Krig i Ukraina ***

I was asked to translate my thread on the historical background for the Ukraine War into Norwegian. 27 parts follows below.

Jeg ble bedt om å oversette min Twitter-tråd om bakgrunnen for krigen i Ukraina til Norsk. 27 deler følger under. 1/27
Om det finnes en kime av visdom folk og ledere i Vesten skulle trekke fra historien så burde det være at ingenting er enkelt i Øst-Europa, i noen betydning av uttrykket. Og det samme er sant om den pågående konflikten i Ukraina.

1/8

So much policy and discourse in the modern West is driven by the concept of "systemic racism", the notion that just about everything is rigged in favour of whites, and against "minorities". And they kind of have a point, just not quite the one they think they are making. 2/8

In the famous Peter Principle employees in large organisations tend to get promoted 'til they hit their level of incompetence; and so, over time, it gets bogged down by people who are unequal to their tasks, who are now a net drag on the whole.

1/6

A striking feature of the Russo-Ukrainian War has been how diametrically opposite reality has been to western perception. Russia is accused of genocide, but have avoided civilian targets almost to a fault, while the AFU lob artillery indiscriminately into Donetsk city. 2/6

The lack of Ukrainian success on the battlefield of late is explained by claiming the Russians are employing unsustainable Zerg Rushes, or "meat waves" of men driven into suicidal attacks by "barrier troops" like the beginning of the WWII movie "Enemy at the Gates".

* The Dissolution of the Elites *

Since the 1960s Western elites have spearheaded what they saw as individual freedoms. But they were also inherently risky behaviours, unless you were part of the wealthy elite. 1/17

The new "meritocratic" managerial elite has saddled us with elites that are far more alienated from, and disdainful of those they presume to rule than any ancien régime aristocrat. This isn't just true in economic terms, but social and moral as well.

https://twitter.com/AlexanderGRubi2/status/1714938347339055478

1/15

Wealth and War

The Western public debate about the war in Ukraine, both in politics and on social media, reveals a certain hubris (ask the ancient Greeks what that leads to), which is not only a bit outdated, but also based on a misunderstanding. 2/15

The Spanish soldiers of the 16th century, when their Tercios were the most feared military units around, had a saying that, "Victory goes to the man with the last escudo!" meaning that wealth was the key to lasting military success.

***꜉꜍*** 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 ***꜉꜍*** 1/17 "Classical" is a word that carries many shades of meaning. It might be employed, and today usually is, to denote something of outstanding quality, or that something stems from classical antiquity, the Graeco-Roman culture, or belongs to the tradition that harks back to it.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐔𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 1/27 If there's one kernel of wisdom history should have imparted to the people and powers of the West, it ought to be that nothing is simple in Eastern Europe, in every meaning of the phrase. And so it is with the present conflict in Ukraine.

1/8 Why is the collapse of western civilization already happening, but few even notice? And why will none of us be Road warrior warlords in a Mad Max future? It's because the collapse of complex societies seldom happen that way. 2/ Getting into the weeds on the multiple reasons for decline would take a tweet thread a mile long. Suffice to say that complex societies seldom fall for a single reason. They can take an earthquake, corruption, inflation, war, or plague, but not several at once.

The Death of Rock

1/ Many years ago, in my long defunct magazine, I wrote an article on the premise that Grunge was the end of Rock music. And looking back on it now, I think it stands up to scrutiny. 2/ My claim wasn't that great rock music would cease being made, but that it would never again define the spirit of the age, just as great Jazz music is still being performed, but for a limited audience of "feinschmeckers".

@GmorkOfNothing 1/ Yes, collapse is paradoxically seldom that. It's a gradual grinding, almost imperceptible string of things just degrading over time, until they're abandoned a good while before they are competely non functional. @GmorkOfNothing 2/ This is how the fall of the western Roman empire played out. Unless you lived in a major city when it got sacked, your could almost imagine nothing had really changed over a generation. Life in you villa carried, on. But suddenly trade goods were getting hard to come by.

@Senthezenz @spectatorindex 1/ No, the other way around. The only reason the US has been able to print so many dollars is that it was the global reserve currency. The dollar was once backed by gold. But they printed more dollars then they had gold to back it. @Senthezenz @spectatorindex 2/ So in the early 1970s President Nixon had to drop the promise to exchange dollars for a set amount of gold. This could have been a crisis for the dollar. But instead the US made a deal with Saudi Arabia (and OPEC) that the US would protect the ruling Saud family.