CockneyRebel
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24 Jan 2026, 12:19 am
24 Jan 2026, 8:31 am
24 Jan 2026, 3:04 pm
funeralxempire
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24 Jan 2026, 4:43 pm
24 Jan 2026, 8:12 pm
is this a loan sharking app? sounds terrible
24 Jan 2026, 8:47 pm
funeralxempire
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24 Jan 2026, 9:37 pm
is this a loan sharking app? sounds terrible
Short term loan apps have predatory rates because they mostly serve people who can't get cheaper credit.
funeralxempire
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24 Jan 2026, 9:41 pm
Guns also broke the concept of a warrior elite. Surely society was better off when people who could train for physical violence all of the time held most of the power.
25 Jan 2026, 2:36 am
25 Jan 2026, 5:54 pm
26 Jan 2026, 6:54 am
Guns also broke the concept of a warrior elite. Surely society was better off when people who could train for physical violence all of the time held most of the power.
And yet it's still the common people being gunned down by the thousands and the tens of thousands, while the elite are untouchable. We've just learned how utterly naive the American belief was that their guns could defend them from government oppression. You don't need to be a "warrior elite" when you can just buy overwhelming force to exterminate anyone who stands in your way.
funeralxempire
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26 Jan 2026, 7:07 am
Guns also broke the concept of a warrior elite. Surely society was better off when people who could train for physical violence all of the time held most of the power.
And yet it's still the common people being gunned down by the thousands and the tens of thousands, while the elite are untouchable. We've just learned how utterly naive the American belief was that their guns could defend them from government oppression. You don't need to be a "warrior elite" when you can just buy overwhelming force to exterminate anyone who stands in your way.
I wouldn't argue against any of that.
But, I would point out that ending the concept of a warrior elite makes it much easier to have a military that's controlled by the state, rather than a state that's controlled by the military. That doesn't mean the state will do the right things with it's armed forces, but it does seem like the first step towards a society having it's armed forces under the control of a responsible (which is to say democratic by some means) civilian government.
The invention/widespread proliferation of guns isn't the only way to achieve that outcome, but does appear to be the most decisive way to achieve that outcome.
But yes, you are right to observe that no matter how well-developed a state is, it can be eroded by actors who choose to destroy and/or corrupt it's institutions from within, especially if enough people are supportive of that destruction and corruption. In the case of the US, most of the 2A bros are supportive of the MAGA/P2025 agenda, so it's not really naivity, rather it's that they don't see the situation as oppression that needs defended against. They welcome the oppression because it owns the libs.
27 Jan 2026, 1:42 am
28 Jan 2026, 7:52 pm
funeralxempire
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28 Jan 2026, 7:57 pm
CockneyRebel
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28 Jan 2026, 11:20 pm
