The United States has just gotten involved in the conflict in Iran, striking several key nuclear sites. Among these was the famous Fordow site located deep underground, necessitating the use of the B2 Spirit bombers, which are uniquely suited to delivering the famous “MOP” bunker buster, capable of burrowing deep underground to deliver its business.

There’s no question that this strike made the world a far safer place, as it deprived the Ayatollah of the nuclear munitions that he undoubtedly would have eagerly deployed against nations such as the United States and Israel, both of whom he frequently wished death upon.

However, this move faced pushback from the more pacifistic elements of the MAGA movement, who stated that they voted for Trump believing that he would have been more hesitant to get the US involved in foreign conflicts. While it wouldn’t surprise me if an examination of their digital footprints were to reveal that they are actually Pakistanis who don’t live in the US, assuming that they do, an examination of their convictions reveals that they don’t have a strong understanding of how the world works, nor have they given much thought to the philosophical bases behind their convictions.

On the bright side, they seem to change their viewpoints somewhat when you attempt to reason with them, which makes them much better than most of the people who I take issue with.

It also gives me an opportunity to make a point that I’ve wanted to make for a long time: That freedom of speech does not protect all forms of speech.

I say this as a strongly free speech kinda guy. You want to make a video game where the protagonist commits outrageous crimes? That’s protected speech. Want to draw comics of fictional characters committing graphic acts of violence? Also protected speech. It might not be according to my taste, but it’s free expression.

Those on the right tend more towards free speech absolutism. It seems largely to come from the idea that having free speech means saying whatever you want, which is pretty much a reductive perspective that they tell elementary school students because there’s less expectation that they’d understand the more nuanced aspects of the matter.

Is defamation a form of protected free expression? No, it is not. It can damage a person’s reputation and cost them opportunities. If it can be proven that defamation has caused damages, the person who committed it can be taken to civil court.

Let’s get closer to the heart of the matter. Are threats of harm a protected form of expression? No, they are not. A person’s freedom ceases to be their freedom when it interferes with the freedom of another, including the right of a person to be secure in their person or their property.

To illustrate, here’s a story: Suppose you lived in a neighborhood, and you’ve made a few friends there. However, there’s one person there who doesn’t like you. Let’s call him “Loose Cannon”.

One day, Loose comes up to you and tells you that he wishes you dead. He doesn’t just say it to you, he also says it to your neighbors, particularly the ones who you’re friends with. But, no one in the neighborhood thinks much of this because Loose is only 5 feet tall, has a poorly-maintained beard, and bows, kneels, and scrapes to some rock idol in the middle of a desert five times a day. There’s no expectation that Loose can do much of anything.

And it’s not a one-time thing, either. Loose keeps wishing you and your friends dead, day after day for years on end. And you and your friends keep brushing him off. He seems sincere in his hatred, but his words don’t seem threatening coming from him.

But then, matters escalate significantly. Eventually, Loose comes up to you and tells you that he’s going to buy a rifle, and use it to shoot you and your family and your friends. Quite alarming. He then runs off.

Minutes later, one of your friends calls you and tells you that Loose just said the same thing to him, and that Loose had just gotten into his car to go to the gun shop. Highly actionable information.

Just then, you look out the window, and you see Loose driving down the street. Not only that, one of your friends had just shot out his tires. Seeing an opportunity, you and your friend immediately subdue Loose, performing a citizen’s arrest.

While a citizen’s arrest is legally risky, the police do arrive and take Loose away, leaving the neighborhood much safer thanks to you and your friend’s efforts. A job well done, to be sure.

But then, one of your neighbors starts yelling at you. Let’s call him “Limpy Smallpart”. Limpy starts yelling at you and your friend for not resolving the matter more peacefully. He points out that Loose had some grievance that should have been heard, and that if he did have a rifle, he would have been in a better position to negotiate.

You probably wouldn’t take Limpy seriously. Because of course you wouldn’t. You and your neighbor return to your respective homes, all while Limpy shouts himself silly. Then Limpy, being upset that no one is paying attention to him, turns to social media and makes memes about how you suck off your neighbor, to an audience of exactly one who believes in conspiracy theories too stupid to make into movies.

While the legality of the actions of the characters in this story can be debated, there’s no question that you and your neighbor would have acted morally in recognizing a threat of impending harm and responding by mitigating that threat.

Now, take this story and multiply it in scale by millions of times, and you should be able to comprehend why the United States and Israel were moral and responsible in how they responded to the Iranian regime, who has been making repeated threats against the United States and Israel, and have been continually attacking Israel through proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and have been attempting to secretly develop nuclear arms.

Notice how no other country on the planet is coming to Iran’s defense? That’s because it’s obvious how irrational that the Ayatollah is being. And the fact is, no one wants another nuclear weapon to be detonated, especially not in a central location like the eastern Mediterranean.

While I could lay into the pacifistic MAGA, what keeps them from being idiots is that they actually do seem to change their perspective when they realize a few things about how the world works (admittedly, the world isn’t ideal), and that the Iranian regime is the kind that cannot truly be reasoned with.

To the end of increasing understanding, there are a couple things I could point out. First, that the United States is as prosperous as it is because it’s a hegemonic power. When you realize this, many of their foreign policy decisions start to make a lot more sense. It also makes it more clear why Americans eat as well as they do. But when it comes down to it, the world at large has benefitted pretty heavily from the US’s superpower status, including those who they’ve previously conquered. The US has opened up sea lanes to just about everyone, which has been great for global trade. Germany and Japan’s best days came after practically becoming vassal states for the US. While the US can be called an empire, it’s a hugely benevolent empire. If the US were to turn isolationist, other nations would rise to attempt to fill the power void, resulting in global conflict, and it’s highly likely that a less moral nation would assume the vacated position of hegemonic authority. At that point, Americans would likely learn a few things about Russia and China.

Second, it’s naive to think that western values are universal. People in the Middle East actually do take their respective religions seriously, enough so that they allow their religions to have an effect on the way that they live. This is quite eye-opening to the Western world, which largely professes Christianity, but follows philosophical concepts and days of observance which don’t have Biblical origins. As for Iran, only about 30% of Iranians are practicing Muslims, but the entire country is being controlled by a small cadre of religious fanatics who consider it to be their religious duty to fight against Christians and Jews. Most of the Islamic world is not as fanatical as the Ayatollah, and to trust him with a nuclear bomb is like… trusting the Ayatollah with a nuclear bomb. Something as comparably stupid does not come readily to mind. You cannot reason with the Ayatollah unless you know what motivates him, and if you’re a rational person, you’re motivated by different things than he is. And even if you do know what motivates him, you still cannot reason with him.

But thankfully, the irresponsibly pacifistic are not in a position to make decisions on the global stage, and the world is far safer for having the Ayatollah’s nuclear ambitions subverted. And it’s not really necessary for everyone to understand this. If it’s your thing to sit on the sofa and pretend that you’re standing for something, you benefitted from the US’s decision, whether you know it or not.

But one thing that I think most of us can agree on is that we’re better off for not having Kamala Harris being the one issuing the orders.

Invitation in hand, the young man approached the door. On the other side, it was the banquet to which he was invited. But as he neared the door, his expectations steadily dropped, until the moment that he pulled back on the handle, and upon crossing from the sunlit expanse to the florescent illumination of the liminal space, all speculation came to an end.

It was surreal. An expanse of tables. Empty tables. No food, no chairs, and no people at all in the noiseless hall. Not so much as the murmuring of a hypothetical event staff in another room, or the stirring of busy caterers. Just silence, and, eerily enough, not so much as a scent, save for the lingering scent of the surfactants used in the building’s maintenance.

The young man’s attention turned again to the flier in his hand, specifically, the date and time thereon. He then confirmed with his watch that he was there at the right time, and the right date. And the location was correct, this rural hall with only the subtlest signs that anyone had recently been there.

The young man’s attention was drawn towards the only movement in the room, the fans hanging from beams on the high ceiling, a scarce circuitous movement on the lowest setting.

The young man was very aware of the sound of his own footsteps as he turned back towards the door, for to peek his head outside. As it was upon his arrival, his was the only vehicle in the parking lot. Complete silence told him that there were no other vehicles around that might have been approaching.

Back inside again, the young man’s gaze rested on an empty table. He knew that it was a meaningless exercise to remain for a few minutes more, save for to cynically claim that he did. His mind drifted to the time that it took him to get to that very event. Precious time. Time he would not get back.

In another world, this might have been where the people were. Connections would be made, and the courses of lives would change. But there was none of that here.

He had no idea how he knew that he would be the only human being who would set foot in that building for the duration of the event, but somehow, he was certain of it. The young man had his hopes. But no one else cared, not even those who organized the event. Not even they bothered to come, or so much as set out some donuts or coffee.

This was no ordinary disappointment. The young man knew that he would remember this event for a long time.

He turned his attention to the invitation in his hand. It was printed on a single thin sheet of eight-by-eleven office paper. And it wasn’t worth that much.

So, he set the invitation on one of the many empty tables, turned around, and went right back out the door, to leave as he entered, completely alone. And as he did so, he made a determination.

If he wasn’t going to find what he was looking for there, he would go to those who have it.

There is a problem in the influencer sphere, and the launch of the Switch 2 has made it clear. I’m not putting a specific influencer on blast, considering that this is a problem that’s not limited to just one. Perhaps you can think of some examples. But what I’m getting at is that many influencers out there, perhaps most, aren’t even real.

If you’ve been following along with the Switch 2, it’s likely that you’ve seen a few influencers find one problem or another with the system. One of them in particular has gone on to say that they wouldn’t even purchase one.

But he did. And not just him, but numerous other influencers who likewise spoke of the hybrid console as though it were the worst console in their lifetime.

Obviously, these people didn’t believe what they said. These people are disingenuous. And the reason why these people act as disingenuously as they do is because they are incentivized by the algorithm.

The fact is that the algorithm tends to promote negativity in its many forms. Did you get recommended a short video of a fistfight that broke out in a bodega? Or a list of mistakes that were made by a multinational corporation? Or did you stare with indignation at a confrontation with an obvious imbalance of power?

That’s the algorithm pushing negativity onto you. But it doesn’t do so for no reason. In fact, the algorithm itself isn’t capable of malice on its own. Putting aside that the algorithm could be used as a tool to further an agenda (and, let’s be honest, we’ve seen plenty of that), the algorithm is like a mirror turned back at us, showing people content that is likely to hold their attention, considering not only the content that an individual has already engaged with, but also in consideration of the tendency of typical human psychology.

To get right down to it, humanity has a negativity problem, with the recommendations from algorithms being a second order effect of this problem. And because of this second order effect, influencers have an incentive to produce negative content, raking in ad revenue for having done so, and contributing to the problem.

There’s a strong chance that your favorite influencer is not real.

And it’s not just about the newest game console. Political streamers also know that there’s money involved, and they want some of it. And to this end, they’ll dehumanize their political opponents with the most pejorative adjectives, flavored with the buzz words that they know will get a response. Not because they believe it, but because they can make a few bucks, and they don’t give a shit who they turn against each other.

There are other kinds of influencers who game the system in this way, but political streamers are among the most notable offenders.

If you want a strong indicator of who’s sincere, it’s likely the people who are swimming against the stream of the algorithms, and against whatever is the prevailing zeitgeist of the agencies who manage online talent as a business. And speaking of, these corporate talent agencies have long been a source of self-censorship in social media. In the V-Tuber space, for example, indie V-Tubers are a better source of sincerety than the corporate ones that have been shackled with the golden handcuffs. Corporate influencers are the ones who have to look over their shoulders to be sure they’re not saying something against the values of their agency or its network of advertisers. And their respective agencies “reward” them by scraping away their revenue. Because who needs ethics when you can just legally steal money from people who actually produce value?

Considering all this, I’ve come to the point of finding forced negativity in social media cringy, especially when it’s obviously coming from a place of incentive rather than sincerety or just humor.

But it’s really only one of many ways that many, many social media personalities are fake.

End Holden Caulfield moment.

People need to stop getting cancer. A cure would be nice.

On Sunday, it was made public that former president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with cancer. It’s a prostate cancer which has metastatized to his bones, which isn’t great, but it’s the kind that responds to hormone therapy, so it’s manageable, and the outlook is generally positive.

As I would have it, he would make a full recovery immediately, and so to everyone who has cancer. I might not have agreed with everything he has ever said or done, but I don’t wish illness on him.

However, the diagnosis did raise some eyebrows, as the variety of prostate cancer that Biden has is the kind that takes years, often the better part of a decade, to metastatize, and can be detected early with a simple blood test.

This brings up two possibilities. The first being that the White House physicians that gave Biden his routine physicals are astoundingly incompetent for their position. After all, about one in eight men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, especially as they age, so it’s definitely reasonable to screen for the disease for a man in his eighties, such as Joe Biden, as part of a periodic blood test.

The other is that White House physicians were complicit in the plot to conceal Biden’s physical and mental state, which are highly relevant considering the position he was holding. And that was probably the case.

In light of this, people recalled a speech in which Biden admitted to having cancer. At the time, it was assumed that Biden was referring to a minor form of skin cancer which is usually not a huge threat. However, people are floating now that Biden may have been aware of his prostate cancer, but forgot to keep it under wraps.

What I find interesting is that, early on in the Biden presidency, shortly after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, the propaganda arm of the establishment was pushing speculation that Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, had a secret cancer diagnosis, and was dying.

Naturally, nobody believed state media as they said this. But considering that an old strategem in disinformation is accusing your opponent of what you yourself are doing, an old story has picked up some new optics.

But at this point, it’s already well-known that Biden has been carefully propped up over the course of nearly his entire administration, until the point that his health couldn’t be concealed any further, at which point leftists either pretended to be surprised, or that they weren’t party to the cover-up.

All this instead of, you know, just leaving a poor man to retire with cocktail in hand, after about five decades of accomplishing nothing on Capitol Hill (which is kinda preferable, things considered).

Regardless of the circumstances involved, I wish Biden well, and a speedy recovery.