#Vietcong 2

[destielmemenews]

"On March 16, 1968, Calley led American soldiers of the Charlie Company on a mission to confront a crack outfit of Vietcong enemies. Instead, over several hours, the soldiers killed 504 unresisting civilians, mostly women, children and elderly men, in My Lai and a neighboring community."

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[lulu2992]

Exploration of the now-offline Far Cry 5 official websites

Part 2: Game Info 1 (America)

Recovered content

Here are screenshots of what we could find on the official American website on May 27th, 2017, between an invitation to watch the Announce Trailer, some news, and a link to pre-order Far Cry 5 (which, at the time, was scheduled to come out on February 27th, 2018). For the first time, there was information about the game:

THE CULT Whether through coercion, starvation or forced baptisms, this fanatical cult will use every resource available to build a following in preparation of The Collapse.

THE RESISTANCE Committed to restoring freedom to Hope County, The Resistance has rallied together in order to stop the Father and his followers. And they’ll only succeed with your help.

TOYS From shotguns to slingshots, plus a few trusty farm tools, this toy chest is stocked, locked and loaded with every piece of steel you’ll need to take down the Cult.

GAME FEATURES There's no shortage of mayhem to be had in Hope County. Whether taking down the cult solo or with a wingman, you’ll find adventure around every bend – not to mention some seriously boss rides. Build your character and carve your path through the largest, most customizable Far Cry game ever.

Between June 10th and June 17th, 2017, two of the images (for The Cult and Toys) were replaced:

The text, however, stayed the same, and the appearance of the homepage remained unchanged until it was modified sometime between May 1st and June 10th, 2018. The Game Info section then looked like this:

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. EVERYTHING WILL. Game Info: Discover The Weapons, Vehicles, and Features of Far Cry 5. Story & Characters: Hope County has been taken over by a doomsday cult. Join the Resistance and restore freedom to Hope County! Far Cry Arcade: Jump into Far Cry Arcade and enjoy infinite Far Cry experiences built by a robust community of creators. Far Cry 5 Season Pass: Face off against hordes of zombies, ruthless Vietcong soldiers, and Martian Arachnids with the Season Pass.

This is what we got if we clicked “Learn More” for Game Info (I split the page into 4 parts):

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. EVERYTHING WILL. Welcome to Hope County, Montana, land of the free and the brave, but also home to a fanatical doomsday cult—known as The Project at Eden’s Gate—that is threatening the community's freedom. Stand up to the cult’s leaders, Joseph Seed and the Heralds, as you spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community. Join the Resistance now with Far Cry 5. Available now on PlayStation 4 system, Xbox One, and PC. STORY & CHARACTERS You’re the new Sheriff’s Deputy in town. The only problem is, your badge is pretty much useless. Cut off from the outside world, you’ll need to use your wits, willpower and the helping hands of Hope County’s townsfolk to remove the plague that is The Project at Eden’s Gate. TOYS Your arsenal is vast, and the way you wield it even more so. Throughout your campaign, you’ll gain access to weapons mods based on the folks you meet and progress you make. GAME FEATURES Far Cry 5 is a massive gameplay arena that’s filled with something new around every bend. The enemy AI behavior is more realistic, and the exploration is endless. Even when you feel like taking a break from the campaign, you can take in some leisurely fishing before diving back into your quest. It’s your mission. With it comes to freedom to take on a world that hits back by any means necessary. RALLY THE TROOPS THE RESISTANCE NEEDS YOU There’s no better time than now to start rallying your cult-fighting friends, dialing in your arsenal and planning your strategy to take back Hope County from Eden’s Gate.

What I mostly wanted to “Learn More” about were the Story & Characters, but there was interesting information on the Game Features page as well.

Commentary

The initial description of the cult said the “coercion, starvation or forced baptisms” were ways for them to “build a following in preparation of The Collapse”. This is still close to what we see in Far Cry 5, but they already had a following when the Reaping began and the open violence started. The vast majority of the cultists we encounter in the game joined because they had faith in Joseph, not because they were forced to. NPC dialog from the E3 2017 demo suggests, like this text, that the early version of Eden’s Gate wouldn’t hesitate to literally beat people into following and believing in the Father long before the Reaping began.

Under the cut are all the available source files, saved directly from the website, of the images you see in the screenshots:

[theculturedmarxist]

Israel’s military strategy follows precisely the parameters its war planners proclaimed: total war. This would not be mowing the grass. This was a fight all the way to the end of the line. To eradicate Hamas, yes. But far beyond that.

US leaders have telegraphed their acceptance of this approach by floating the notion of “what comes after Hamas is defeated.”  In other words, after Hamas is totally dismantled and destroyed as a viable entity.  They may be thinking of how the west and its regional allies attacked and largely eliminated ISIS as a viable force.

But as this article points out–the proper insurgency analogy for Hamas is not ISIS, but the Vietcong.  A people’s army rooted in every home and village.  With disciplined political and military cadres operating covertly and overtly everywhere and anywhere.  Even when the Vietcong faced the most severe US-Vietnamese attacks, they never wavered.  It was their country after all. They could never be defeated in any real sense.  And events proved them right. They outlasted the invaders: a Vietcong version of summud.

Gaza, of course, is a much smaller area than Vietnam. So targeting Hamas would be an easier feat.  But among 2-million people, you cannot eradicate a movement the people embrace.  You would have to eliminate all the people to do that.  Which brings me to my next point.

It is very likely, I believe, Israel intends to expel all Gazans.  This isn’t just a war to destroy tunnels, or to eliminate Hamas fighters.  It wasn’t even exclusively a war to eliminate Hamas.  It was a war to make Gaza entirely unlivable.  It is total war in an urban setting.

By total war, I mean one that destroys everything. Everything and everyone.  Leaving the living to bury the dead…or die trying.  The goal is to make Gaza so uninhabitable, that the world will find this version of the Final Solution perhaps unpalatable, but in the end unavoidable.

I can’t think of any modern version of total war comparable to this one.  In every similar attack on a major city, the attacker did not intend to render the place permanently unlivable for survivors.  Even in the case of the atomic bomb attacks in Japan, the US formed an Occupation government which entirely rebuilt the country, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while also creating a new democratic political system. After murdering 500,000 during the infamous Dresden bombing, the city was rebuilt. Only the ruins of the bombed cathedral remained, as a testament to the cruelty and suffering of the War.

There are ancient versions of this, all revolving on conquerors sowing the earth of the vanquished state with salt, so it would be unable to produce anything that could sustain life. In fact, this ancient version of a scorched earth-total war strategy, may originate in the ancient Middle East.

This may Israel’s Total War 2.0: a military strategy “updated” for the modern age.  Preferably, it would be studied in military academies more for its horror than for the innovation of tactics or long-term success in achieving political goals.

The first stage of this process is the one we are in now–genocide by degrees. Eliminate neighborhoods, infrastructure, institutions. Render hospitals, schools, businesses either destroyed or inoperable.  The latest is they’re even bombing water tanks and solar panels.  Because I presume they’re major weapons of war.

People will then die not only from the bombs, but from their untended wounds, starvation, disease, etc.  Despite the savagery of Israeli tactics in this stage, eventually the world slowly becomes acclimatized to it.  What was once horrifying and downright uncivilized, is now the new normal.

That leads to what may be the next stage: Israel declaring, Gaza is now unlivable. It’s a sad tragic fact of war. We had to do it. They gave us no choice, etc. But guess what, the Israelis could say. Let’s start over. Let’s reconceive what Gaza is.

They might have a hybrid approach to how the post-war landscape will look: perhaps Israeli Jewish settlements, interlaced with Gazans carefully screened by the security apparatus, who are permitted to remain.  Or perhaps it would be Palestine-rein (though that might be a bridge too far for a finicky global audience).

Gaza: Nakba 2.0

Israel has already published two separate plans, one produced by a whack job analyst, Amir Weitmann, arguing it would only cost $5-8-billion to resettle Gaza Palestinians in existing or newly built housing stock on the outskirts of Cairo.

In the video below, he tries to tear an RT reporter a new asshole. Pulling an Israeli Rambo, he threatens to personally destroy Russia. Or something.

A mentally deranged genocidal Nazi threatens Russia… 🤷🏽‍♀️#GenocideinGaza #ShutElbitDown STOP THE #GENOCIDE NOW! pic.twitter.com/GrMWMmbc4A — 🗣️📢 𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𓂆 𝕡𝕒𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕖 (@ronnie_barkan) October 20, 2023

The other proposal came from the intelligence ministry.  It was similar in some respects to the other plan.  But it did not offer the newly expelled refugees anything other than tents in the Sinai. As far as this proposal was concerned, Israel dumped them there. It was now someone else’s problem.

Which wasn’t much different than what Israel did after the 1948 War.  It expelled a million indigenous Palestinians and foisted them on neighboring Arab countries: your problem, Israel said.  These countries now have 5-million Palestinian “problems.”

Media reporting on these two documents noted they weren’t produced by the country’s highest level security think tanks and that the intelligence ministry is really an insignificant backwater as far as government ministries go.

But a different strategy may be involved.  These plans may be part of a broader plan.  After they are leaked, the government gives them time to be absorbed by Israelis and the world.  Then the genocide continues. The body count continues to rise.  Savagery even escalates. Pressure builds up.  Then Israel says: hey, we have a plan to end all this. No more killing. No more terrorism. No more Palestinian Gaza.  Are you interested, world?  It is quite possible that so many nations and world leaders will be so outraged by this Israel will pack it in and return to killing business as usual.

But…if Israel preps enough allies, if it gets Biden and Blinken on board. If they lobby the European allies, then Israel may be able to pursue a diabolical plan to its “logical” criminal conclusion. At least that’s what Israel hopes.

Gaza as colony. Israel, US, and European and Arab allies as colonial powers

The US and Israel have cooked up a real stew. They propose that after Hamas is eliminated (a dubious proposition to begin with–but more on that later), an occupation force consisting of American troops would administer Gaza:

The US and Israel are exploring options for the future of the Gaza Strip, including the possibility of a multinational force that may involve American troop…

Plan B involves an Arab multilateral force that would administer Gaza. It has even designated who that could be–none other than the next-up in the Abraham Accords sweepstakes, Saudi Arabia.  Yes, those Saudis did such a bang-up job in Yemen, where they not only murdered 80,000 Yemenis, they also slaughtered hundreds of Ethiopian refugees fleeing from Yemen. We want these humanitarians to work their magic in Gaza.

Secretary of State Blinken summed up the (stupid) thinking behind the plan:

“We can’t have a reversion to the status quo with Hamas running Gaza,” Blinken, who will travel to Israel on Friday, told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We also can’t have — and the Israelis start with this proposition themselves — Israel running or controlling Gaza.” “Between those shoals are a variety of possible permutations that we’re looking at very closely now, as are other countries,” he said.

So you can’t have Hamas running the show. And Israel wants nothing to do with the job itself because, guess what? It tried it and didn’t work well for them: one of the reasons Sharon so unceremoniously withdrew in 2005. A decision which led–you guessed it–to Hamas’ takeover of Gaza. Israel, of course, wants to foist the unwelcome job on someone, anyone else.  Smart move for them. But not for the sucker left holding the bag.

But look at the language of Blinken’s statement. Who’s missing from consideration?  Gazans themselves. They are an after thought.  Or a non-thought.

The only thing colonial powers understand is who will run things. Not who lives there or what they want. But who’s on top. The problem with that approach is it ends up as all colonizing schemes do–the natives reject the guy running things because they want to run them for themselves.  This is precisely the disaster the US is heading for under any of these schemes.

For once in his professional life as a pro-Israel US diplomat, Aaron David Miller is right when he warns:

“The idea of bringing Arab states in to do counter insurgency in Gaza in the wake of the death and destruction that the Israelis have visited is going to be extremely problematic because it would involve Arabs killing Palestinians,” said Aaron David Miller…

You bet.  Not only that. It will involve Gazans killing Israel’s Arab stooge occupiers. That’s a message that would resonate with any Gazan.

Oh and here’s another Biden humdinger:

…One option would grant temporary oversight to Gaza to countries from the region, backed by troops from the US, UK, Germany and France. Ideally, it would also include representation from Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates,

Consider all the vague meaningless unquantifiable terms in this passage: “temporary,” “oversight,” “representation.”  These words mean nothing: tissue paper floating on the breeze. What European country in their right mind would want to station troops in a Gaza tinder keg?

It was bad enough for them when they joined multinational forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.  At least there was some international consensus behind the US invasion (as wrong as it was).  There is no such consensus how to deal with Gaza.  They would be walking into a building already on fire.

Which Arab nations would be foolish enough to join this shit show? Of course, those buddy-movie heroes, MBS and MBZ.  They’ll go anywhere, do anything: Starve Yemen? Check. Murder Shiite clerics? Check. Fund ISIS? Check. Fund anti-Iran terror? Check. Dissolve dissident journalists in vats of acid? Check.

Israel’s friends at the Washington Institute came up with their own plan. It has as much merit as my last Amazon packing slip:

[It] called for a Palestinian-run interim administration, with the UN Relief and Works Agency continuing to provide food, heath and education. “Public safety and law enforcement could be directed by a consortium of the five Arab states who have reached peace agreements with Israel—Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco,” Washington Institute scholars wrote in an Oct. 17 note. “Only those Arab states would have Israel’s confidence, which is essential for this effort to succeed.”

So in other words, some Palestinian stooges, presumably the PA since they’re perfect casting for such characters, and UNWRA, will respectively, feed Gazans and administer traffic tickets (if there any cars left); while Abraham Accord stooges do all the heavy-lifting on behalf of Israel. I couldn’t have come with anything better myself (and I didn’t!).

As if reading my mind, Blinken offered fond hopes for PA’s future stooge role. Just not quite yet:

…What would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza..

If those aren’t a few choice euphemisms concealing his admission that the PA is a bunch of corrupt aged incompetent grifters.

Media reporting on the various plans say Democratic senators were receptive. I wonder: do they have eyes in their head? Do they read the news? Do they remember when we imposed our own version of “democracy” on captive nations in Afghanistan and Iraq?  How well did that end?  If any of these harebrained schemes sees the light of day they should all have their heads examined.

But hey, it’s their own party. Let them make the rules. But remember the Pottery Barn rule, which Tom Friedman so infamously and erroneously attributed to Colin Powell: you break it, you buy it.  The beauty of the these plans, especially for Israel, is that after they break it, they don’t buy it or fix it. They pawn it off on the Saudis and they “fix” it, as only the Saudis do (cf. Yemen). If Biden thinks that a joint military occupation by European or Arab allies will absolve him of responsibility for the inevitable disaster, he should think again. It won’t.  Republicans will see to that.  And for once in their lives, they would be right.

Hamas will last

Whatever happens to Hamas during this war, no matter how decisively it has been defeated (which is by no means certain), it will not disappear. It will not be eliminated. You can kill 100,000 Gazans and you will not eradicate it. Like the Vietcong, it is so part of the people the two cannot be separated.

No matter how much propaganda Israel tries to peddle. For example: Whispered in Gaza, a dog and pony show “hosted” by pro-Israel front-man, Dennis Ross, with his Foundation for the Defense of Democracies sidekick, Jonathan Schanzer.  I tell you: there’s nothing that validates Israeli genocide more than offering Israelis and the west the delusion that they’re actually helping Gazans.  One question? How did they obtain these purported statements from Gazans?  Under what guise or pretense?  Because even if these statements are genuine (not necessarily established), I guarantee that interviewees were deceived as to the purpose for which their statements would eventually be used.  This is plain and simple information warfare. Ross has moved on from US diplomat to propaganda warrior.

That doesn’t mean all Gazans love Hamas. Not all Vietnamese loved the Vietcong.  Not all colonial Americans loved the patriots.  But Hamas fights. It resists.  There is no other force in Palestinian society that fights for its rights against occupiers and oppressors. So until something better comes along, Gazans say this will have to do.

In whatever bright new future the colonial powers have in mind for Gaza, Hamas will not just fade into the mist never to be seen again.  It will be there. It will assert itself and its presence. It will resist whoever calls himself a colonial Lord Jim. Doesn’t matter whether its a GI Joe, Saudi commander, or a Jedi knight.  They’re all foreign occupiers. All unwelcome. It will be the undying mission of Hamas to rid Gaza of them.  And eventually, if it takes a decade or five, it will.  My money is riding on it.  Colonial powers don’t have a very good, or long track record.

Something better could come along if these powers deciding Gaza’s fate recognized a Gazan voice, and compelled Israel to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, including free, full and fair elections.  Never happen. I know. But I wanted to put out the real and only solution that works. Not the one that these colonial douchebags are sticking together with rubber bands and wood glue.

Gaza: the Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser–and they always are–are the Gazans.  At least one can say that in the Saudi scenario, they aren’t expelled and turned into refugees twice in 75 years. But they would now be under the boot heel of a hated, corrupt, despotic monarchy.  If Hamas resonated with Palestinians before–it will even more in this scenario.

The Saudis failed to quell the Yemeni Houthis. In Gaza the conditions would be even less favorable.  Despite their Israel-induced deprivation, Gazans are worldly, technologically-adept, politically engaged, etc.  They are not tribal kinsman from the mountains.  Gazans have as much in common with Saudis as Gigi Hadid has with Tokyo Rose. The Saudis will be as unwelcome occupiers as Israelis.

[caleb-marlowe]

Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State for the US. His legacy is:

1. Organizing detente with China. Which would lead to normalized relations with China leading to the China of today, which depending on where you live today might either make you happy, sad, concern, or furious.

2. Advocating for the unrestricted bombing in Cambodia to stop the Vietcong from using the Ho Chi Minh trail, a complete fucking war crime as Cambodia was not involved, was at peace with the US and had little to do with Vietnam. This laid the groundwork for an upswell of support for the Khmer Rouge, who then went on to commit genocide. Even after the genocide, Kissinger advocated for friendship with the Khmer Rouge, as they were more aligned with Beijing than Moscow.

3. He supported Pakistani military dictators and generals against Bengal's war of independence. The Pakistanis were committing what has been called "selective genocide".

4. He worked towards detente with the USSR and Brezhnev, including SALT 1, aimed at limiting nuclear proliferation.

5. Kissinger didn't tell Nixon immediately about the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war, as he worried Nixon would get involved before the situation would be beneficial to Israel.

6. Kissinger was a key player in having Allende assassinated in Chile, replacing him with the right-wing dictator and murderous bastard, Augusto Pinochet.

7. He supported the Argentinian Junta for couping Isabella Peron, who had won her democratic election. This junta would go on to murder and disappear tens of thousands, culminating in the Falklands war.

8. Kissinger was a proponent of Brazil getting a nuclear weapons program, mainly because it was a right-wing junta in power.

9. Kissinger publicly engaged in talks with Rhodesia to put an end to the war, and transition to black majority rule. Privately, he told the racist, apartheid loving Ian Smith that he admired him.

10. Following the breakdown of Estado in Portugal (Salazzar's dictatorship), decolonization started for what remained of the Portuguese empire. One of those was East Timor. Sudharta, Indonesia's military ruler, decided he would annex the territory, and damn the wants and desires of local East Timorans. Kissinger supported the Indonesian president, in an on-going occupation that has killed many, many tens of thousands. It's possibly worse and more brutal than the Israeli occupation of West Bank, but no one cares.

11. West Sahara, a problem area to this day, was forcibly conceded away from Spain. Kissinger supported passing this territory, despite the locals desire for independence, and didn't inform President Ford about an upcoming Moroccan invasion. Another whoopsie moment, I guess.

12. Aided in behind-the-back talks with Vietcong forces to keep the Vietnam War going, sabotaging peace talks with Johnson and South Viet government which prolonged the War another five years (!) until Nixon could conveniently end the war. As well as Operation Menu and Operation Freedom Deal, Vietnam War era atrocities ordered by Nixon and Kissinger to bomb the ever-loving shit out of Cambodia, with an estimated 55,000-150,000 civilian deaths and causing a massive refugee crisis, and to this day the soil in that region of Cambodia is thick with unexploded bombs.

Via Reddit, u/JustMyOpinionz

[some-complete-idiot]

You know while I’m thinking about Hotline Miami I’m gonna rant about something.

Let me first show you a completely wrong (in my opinion) image

Jacket is no villain.

RANT BEGIN!!!

Also! There will be spoilers for both Hotline Miami 1 and 2! If you’re at all interested in playing some ball busting games that are so fucking good, go get them now!

Now I can understand why you could call Jacket a villain, but I feel that completely undermines his whole character and story arc!

The quick and simple way to explain why Jacket isn’t a villain is by this comparison,

Calling Jacket a villain is like calling The Punisher a villain.

You’re not completely wrong, they both do things that are barely redeemable, but the difference is that The Punisher keeps trying to find new scapegoats for his family’s death. While Jacket only goes after the people he considers to be the cause of his problems.

That’s why at the end of Hotline Miami 2 (from now on will be referred to as Wrong Number) you see Jacket just sitting in a jail cell. He’s content with his fate, for he finally got back at the people who hurt him, and his friends.

Jacket’s Reasoning

Here I’ll give you an outline of what Jacket’s reasoning for his rampage of Russian Mobsters was for.

You see, Jacket is a veteran! And he was on this super special team with 3 other people, including the character known as Beard.

Now in Wrong Number we get to see what Jacket did in his service years, he was stationed in Hawaii and was tasked with pushing out the Vietcong that had invaded. (I think? lol) Him and Beard were already good friends, hell they got a war reporter take their picture together! Very wholesome buddies* in my opinion. Every person on Jacket’s team all had their own things they wanted to do after the war, but only two, including Jacket, ever got to leave Hawaii in one piece.

You see, Jacket’s team was tasked with taking out some enemies that were hulled up in a power plant, Jacket was heavily injured, but Beard saved him and got his ass out of there. But there was still one more squad member left behind, so another one of Jacket’s squad that got out went back in to save the MIA member.

But sadly, the only survivors of the mission would be Jacket and Beard.

Skip ahead to after the war, Beard got to do what he wanted to do after the war, open up a small shop in San Francisco…

But in war, it’s winners are the one who get to write the history books, so Russia decided to nuke San Francisco to win the Cold War.

Now Jacket is the last of his squad.

How Jacket Grieves

I consider Jacket’s actions in Hotline Miami, for the most part, be him grieving in a strange, twisted way.

I mean, if you were given a mask by a random organization, told to go to an address, and found a bunch of Russian Mobsters who you in part believe are the ones who caused your pain, you’d be bashing in skulls as well.

But I do believe that Jacket does have a sense of who and who not he will kill, an example is that after you complete the first level, you go to throw away a briefcase you got from the scene of the Russian Mobsters. But when you throw away the briefcase when, RANDOM HOMELESS MAN ENCOUNTER!

Jacket is forced to kill the man, and while you begin to walk back to your car Jacket stops himself and takes off his mask and pukes. He clearly doesn’t like to kill people who are not involved with his pain.

Jacket and Girlfriend

Now this is what I constantly point to when people just call Jacket a villain, in Hotline Miami, after one level Jacket finds a poor girl who was being tortured by the mobsters that were in the building you had just cleared out.

The woman fully expects Jacket to kill her, but instead he takes her in and nurses her back to health. And he doesn’t force anything out of her, he gives her all the space she wants and she ends up becoming someone that seems to help Jacket.

That’s what makes the death of Girlfriend even worse when it happens.

Jacket is no Hero

I would like to also say that Jacket is no hero either, I believe his worst action was raiding the police headquarters and killing the cops in there just so he could learn why the person who killed Girlfriend (another person who was getting calls) did so.

But the ending of Hotline Miami is what I feel like shows off his character, Jacket kills the head of the Russian Mob in Miami and walks out to a balcony. He lights a cigarette and pulls out a Polaroid picture, he looks at it one last time before he lets go of the picture.

Because he’s avenged the person who saved him back on Hawaii; Beard.

Conclusion

In conclusion, calling Jacket a villain in my opinion is somewhat misguided.

While some of Jacket’s actions don’t feel justifiable I do feel completely condemning him is completely misunderstanding his character and motives.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk :)

[dancingdorito]

i think it's so funny when i see ANYONE on ANY of the star wars social medias saying they've "gone woke" when star wars HAS ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL.

like i saw comments on the Ahsoka trailer that were like "disney is forcing its woke agenda on us", like im sorry how is a star wars show with female leads inherently woke??? like it's not even like any of them are officially gay or something like that. they're just women that happen to be leading and show and are anti-fascist. we've never gotten a female led SHOW before, and people act like star wars hasn't always been anti-fascism and pro-equality.

I know that star wars has not always been inclusive, but why is it so hard for people to believe it can be now. like in the 80s people were racist as fuck about lando calrissian, and now that ONE live action show is centered around women, 2 being ALIEN women, people get mad... because what??? because they're poc women???

its funny because i dont understand how conservatives and people that are right-leaning watch star wars and think "oh yeah go rebels!" and then directly support fascist politicians that george lucas deliberately based the empire ON. george lucas has said himself that the empire is based on american imperialism, and the rebels are based on vietcong rebels. how conservatives watch star wars and think stupid shit like gay people don't exist in a huge galaxy where people can move shit with their minds is beyond me.

dear conservative star wars fans,

you are not mad that ahsoka is political, you are mad because it has two female leads that are women of color. its just misogyny and you don't even hide it.

so ill say it again: YOU CAN NOT BE REPUBLICAN AND LIKE STAR WARS. ITS DIRECTLY AND HISTORICALLY HYPOCRITICAL.

[kamzil118]

The Absurdity of Victoria: 4th Generational Warfare

There's this book called Victoria: 4th Generational Warfare and the initial name sounds really appealing at first glance. It's a glimpse into the madness of a man who didn't like to be proved wrong and hated how the world changed.

The "novel" - it really does not deserve to be called that - was written by William S. Lind. If you watched Lazerpig, you would completely understand. Now for the uninitiated, the author was part of a military movement known as the Reformists.

So to give a bit of background, when the Vietnam War had come to a close, the US military wanted to learn what it did wrong and what it could do to improve and develop its combat capabilities in the future. This is where the Reformists came into that picture and what they wanted was to sorta look to the past and try to emulate some of the tactics of the Vietcong or refuse to adopt more modern expensive technology for the "rugged" technology - this is a key detail that gets brought up throughout the novel. We do see their influence with stuff like the LAV for the US Marine Corps or their talking points surrounding the positives of the A-10 Warthog and the negatives of the F-35.

Everything would change when the 1st Gulf War happened. Main battle tanks wiping the floor with the Iraqis at 73 Easting or the Coalition Air Forces performing SEAD - Suppression of Enemy Air Defense. The Reformists didn't want these examples to be taken to heart but the proven effectiveness of the tactics and the successful application of modern technology had settled in the minds of contemporary generals. This meant that the entire philosophy of a low-tech approach to warfare proposed by the Reformists had been discredited and their reaction to this moment in history had made most of them go off the deep end.

Yeah, they went on a massive binge of coping with reality proving them wrong. This should really set the tone of what this book is about... among other issues that have not aged well.

So our first scene begins with the protagonist burning a woman at the stake. Her crime? There's no such thing as a female priest.

Welcome to Hell, ladies and gentlemen, where even the Devil would hold your hand to protect you from this nonsense.

Now I won't summarize the entire book in a single post because we could be here all day. If you want to take a look but also don't want to spend a penny on absolute trash, there are a couple of Let's Reads on the xenoforum of SpaceBattles. There, you can get some entertaining reactions from the posters there with a few gems of my own.

So, where would you like me to begin with the nonsense? Let's start with the author's hatred for modern technology and boy does it show up here. There's a concept in the book, "Retroculture" meaning that anything after the 1960s is invalid and not worthy of true civilization both technologically and socially. So picture that level in the original Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 where the Russians invaded the United States. If Lind was in charge of America's defense, he would try to issue out M1 Garands with iron sights and World War Two flak jackets to the infantry to face off against kevlar-wearing Russian paratroopers with assault rifles and modern optics. Then declare that the average American infantry would win because the Russians were a bunch of pussies for relying on modern technological advances.

This even applies to vehicle warfare on land, sea, and air.

Federal troops have Bradley IFVs? Deploy the T-34s with the shitty gun sights.

Pirates on fast-moving boats with machine guns and RPGs? Send in the torpedo boats of the 1870s.

Multirole fighters with anti-air heat-seeking missiles and autocannons? Bring out the airships of World War One.

Hell, the author has gotten to the point where he treats video games as morally horrible as drugs. The novel has a moment where you have hidden alleyways where shady-looking gentlemen in cloaks are trying to sell you hard copies of God of War 3 or Fallout New Vegas because the fun police think it's unChristian.

Do not get me started on the tactics and strategies.

It really comes down to Lind trying to peddle his Reformist nonsense. Even if you might find some form of meaning in supporting his points, he's incredibly selective about it. He will look at the Taliban's efforts in Afghanistan or the Toyota War and shake his head screaming, "They don't count!" because they're not white Anglo-Saxon protestant Americans.

The book has its moments where the characters emphasize light infantry to such a degree that they are practically the mainline fighting force because Lind doesn't want them to be bogged down by dragging helicopters and artillery. He forces the protagonist to relinquish the skies because he truly believes that air support is stupid. Yet, it has a funny opportunity that any air transports have to be escorted in friendly airspace because those "Muslim terrorists" have Ace Combat/Project Wingman pilots who can perform air operations deep in hostile territory. Shame that he doesn't realize the flaw in that part of the story. To go even further, the protagonist has to invade feminist California from New England and the most optimal choice is to go full Oregon Trail with authorial fiat despite the state's military having one of the best air forces in the region of Warlord America.

Then there are the action scenes. They're so god-fucking-awful to read through. I've put more effort into my fanfiction involving Frozen and Metro 2033. The reason he doesn't have good combat scenes is that he needs more room to make statements like how African-Americans have a natural affinity to agriculture thanks to their racial upbringing or women having a purpose in the kitchen unless they want to be shipped as an Arabian sex slave to break their independent thinking. It's also not helped when there's the inspiring "assistance" of the Russians and the Chinese because he would rather sell out parts of the United States to foreign authoritarianism than let it live with its "Marxist culture" within the borders.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by a man who slept through briefings and has a massive distrust of the officer corps of all the branches.

[aroundtheworldin214days]

May 28, 2023 - Day 154

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

Even though the official title is Ho Chi Minh City everyone that lives there call it Saigon. There is a huge cultural difference between what I saw in Hanoi and Saigon. In Hanoi everything is about communism and Ho Chi Minh. In Siagon there is still a lot of resentment about what they call the civil war. The wealth is centralized within the controlling party and most people live on a income of $300 US/month. You have to pay to go to school and you see children on the streets selling lottery tickets to live. All the boys are required to go in the military for two years. Vietnam is really worried about China and the islands it has in the South China Sea so 60% of the drafted men go in the Navy. One of the guides told me that the Vietnam relatives in the States send 20 billion dollars into Vietnam each year.

The thing that impressed me the most was all the motorcycles. There are 7 million 150 cc motorcycles in the country. There are special lanes for the cycles but there are still many accidents with 25 people killed each day. New they cost $1650 US dollars but many go to Cambodia to buy used motorbikes. There are cars but the sales tax is 250% of the sales price so only people associated with the government have one.

There are 20 million people in Saigon and 100 million in Vietnam. There are 20 different dialects of Vietnamese spoken in the country. The main industry is farming with 2 million metric tons of rice exported every year and the country is the second largest exporter of very good coffee after Brazil.

We visited the Mekong Delta area where we saw a large fishing industry. The boats have large very bright lights attached to the boats to attract squid. If you look close at the boat photos below you will see them. The boats go out for 20 days. The delta is 3 km across.

I visited the Can Cu Vietcong tunnel area located West of Saigon. There are 200 km of tunnels spread over 80 square miles. It was the main planning aret for the Vietcong in southern Vietnam. It was used by 4000 people as a bomb shelter when the US B52 bombers attacked the area. I went into one of the tunnels and it was not a pleasant place. The lady in the video is making rice paper.

I didn’t have to go to Vietnam during the war but had many cousins and friends who did so it was interesting to visit Vietnam to see how things have evolved. There is still a very strong American influence in the country and the country is still evolving. The government has a very tight controlling grip on the country thru the military and police but the people certainly practice free capitalism. They have to be very careful about saying anything negative about the government or they will be severely punished. Real freedom comes at a cost.

[laguerrasenlahistoriadelmundo]

La Guerra de Vietnam

La Guerra de Vietnam fue un conflicto que tuvo lugar durante la Guerra Fría, enfrentando al gobierno comunista de Vietnam del Norte, apoyado por la Unión Soviética y China, contra el gobierno de Vietnam del Sur, respaldado por Estados Unidos. El origen del conflicto se remonta a las Guerras de Indochina de los años 1940 y 1950, cuando el líder comunista Ho Chi Minh luchó contra el dominio colonial de Francia. Tras la derrota francesa en 1954, Vietnam se dividió en dos, con el norte bajo control comunista y el sur apoyado por Occidente. Las elecciones previstas para reunificar el país nunca se celebraron, lo que profundizó la división.

Estados Unidos, temeroso de la expansión del comunismo en Asia, comenzó a apoyar al gobierno de Vietnam del Sur. Bajo la administración de Dwight D. Eisenhower, se implementaron programas de asistencia militar y paramilitar para contener la influencia comunista. En la década de 1960, el Vietcong, un grupo subversivo apoyado por Vietnam del Norte, aumentó su poder en el sur, lo que llevó a Estados Unidos a enviar más tropas. A medida que el conflicto se intensificaba, la guerra se convirtió en un enfrentamiento entre el comunismo y el bloque occidental.

La guerra se prolongó durante años, con Estados Unidos enviando más de 550,000 tropas al terreno. A pesar de que las fuerzas estadounidenses lograron victorias militares en varios combates, el costo humano y financiero fue muy alto. A fines de la década de 1960, la creciente oposición en Estados Unidos a la guerra y la falta de resultados significativos llevaron al presidente Lyndon B. Johnson a negociar la retirada de las tropas. En 1973, se firmaron los Acuerdos de Paz de París, pero los combates continuaron hasta que Vietnam del Norte logró la victoria y reunificó el país bajo un régimen comunista en 1976.

La guerra dejó una enorme cantidad de víctimas, con más de 2 millones de civiles vietnamitas muertos y 1.1 millones de combatientes del norte y el Vietcong fallecidos. Estados Unidos también sufrió bajas, con alrededor de 58,300 soldados muertos. La guerra terminó con la victoria de Vietnam del Norte, que logró unificar el país bajo un gobierno comunista, lo que se considera un fracaso para la intervención estadounidense, que no logró evitar la expansión del comunismo en la región.

[flying-jukebox-01]

I feel like I'm fixin' to die rag👍🎶

Gimme an F… Gimme a U… Gimme a C… Gimme a K…

What's that spell? What's that spell? What's that spell? What's that spell? What's that spell?

yeah, c'mon on all you big strong men Uncle Sam needs your help again he's got himself in a terrible jam way down yonder in Vietnam so put down your books and pick up a gun we're gonna have a whole lot of fun

and it's 1, 2, 3, what're we fighting for? don't ask me, I don't give a damn next stop is vietnam and it's 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates well there ain't no time to wonder why whoopee! we're all gonna die

well c'mon generals, let's move fast your big chance has come at last gotta go out and get those Reds the only good Commie is one who's dead and you know that peace can only be won when we've blown ‘em all to kingdom come

well c'mon on Wall Street don't be slow why this is war a-go-go there's plenty good money to be made by supplin' the Army with the tools of the trade just hope and pray that if we drop the bomb they drop it on-the Vietcong chorus

well c'mon mothers throughout this land pack your boys off to Vietnam c'mon pops, don't hesitate send ‘em off before it's too late be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box

and it's 1, 2, 3, what're we fighting for? don't ask me, I don't give a damn. …

[andreaskorn]

Game Screenshot Archiv

Game Titel (T-Z)

Update: 20.08.2024

Titel / Jahr / Gameplay Screenshots Option Screenshots

Tactical Ops (2003) 2003 15 7 Terminator 2019 177 32 Test Drive: Unlimited 2006 47 74 The Darkness II 2012 76 13 The DaVinci Code 2006 6 15 The Outer Worlds 2019 112 31 The Solus Project 2016 166 9 The Swapper 2013 2 7 The Thing (Gamestar) 2002 11 3 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter 2014 13 13 The Witcher 2007 41 20 The Witcher 2 2011 5 95 The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt 2015 218 23 Thief 2014 8 25 Titan Quest 2006 65 27 Titanfall-2 (Multiplayer-Player) 2016 44 62 Titanfall-2 (Single-Player) 2016 15 7 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2006 8 7 Tomb Raider (2013) 2013 22 26 Tomb Raider 1 1996 8 0 Tomb Raider 2 1997 10 0 Tomb Raider 3 (Adventures) 1998 6 0 Tomb Raider 4 (Letzte Offenbarung) 1999 5 0 Tomb Raider 5 (Die Chroniken) 2000 5 1 Tomb Raider 6 The Angle of Darkness 2002 20 1 Tomb Raider Anniversary 2007 29 7 Tomb Raider Legend (7) 2006 53 11 Tombraider Underworld  2008 24 12 Torchlight 1 2009 16 22 Torchlight 2 2012 17 17 Tourino  2006 32 11 Tron 2.0  2003 26 6 Turok 1997 6 0

Undying 2001 5 5 Unreal 1 1998 11 4 Unreal 2: The Awakening 2003 0 1 Unreal Tournament  1999 17 15 Unreal Tournament 2003 2003 4 1 Unreal Tournament 2004 2004 15 25 Unreal Tournament 3 2007 27 19

Victor Vran 2015 8 11 Vietcong 2003 26 4

War and Peace 2002 6 12 Warcraft 2 1995 1 4 Warcraft 3 Reign of Chaos 2002 15 15 Watch Dogs  2014 31 45 Watch Dogs 2 2016 47 19 Will Rock 2003 19 3 Wing Commander IV 1996 1 5 Wing Commander V (Prophecy) 1997 21 10 Wolfenstein II New Colossus 2017 377 43 Wolfenstein The New Order 2014 2014 196 53 World of Warcraft 2005 38 0 World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria 2012 6 18 World Racing (1) 2003 36 13 World Racing 2 2005 14 11

X 3 Terran Conflict 2008 25 17 X2: Die Bedrohung 2002 20 21 X3 Reunion 2005 32 0 XIII  2003 59 8

Yager (Demo) 2003 7 0

Zork: Großinquisitor 1997 4 3 Zork: Nemesis 1996 4 2

Dr. Andreas U. Korn, 20.08.2024 + + +

[amostdelectablescribbler]

Ok i have to write this down.

It’s the political opinions of someone with an opinion most people here won’t like. Reader discretion is advised, and read the full thing if you’re going to read it at all before you form opinions or verbally attack me.

TL,DR; war is more complex than people realise. Read more than media.

This fucking isreal gaza war is a propaganda masterclass. Palestine has mastered garnering support from the people here, and masterfully swept away from the public consciousness the decades of tension and jabs in the two countries histories. Isreal was made a place on the map by the british. It was british territory, and was given to the jewish after ww2 since lots of people needed somewhere to go where they could be the majority. Israel has been doing great since. Some of the best medicine and tech in the world. Palestine, formerly british territory to begin with, weren’t chuffed at all and so took up a retaliation with what means they had.

Many of those means were terrorism.

3,200 civilians have been killed in terror attacks in israel since 1993. It looks like a relatively smaller number. This is despite numerous attempts at negotiation. This is a complicated conflict that has been going on for longer than most people on tumblr with opinions about it have been alive, including myself.

Part of the issue is fanaticism. It’s massively common in the middle east that people think that the other side are infidels and they’ll be made saints for their sacrifice by bombing the others. Funny that they worship the same god, so he probably wouldn’t want them to fight at all. There’s no reasoning with that, though, as they genuinely believe it with all their heart and you can’t talk someone down from there.

Worse, is Hamas. A good old fashioned terrorist organisation, who are a household name for people who read about this. They are another fanatic group, and they have dug hundreds of miles of tunnels under gaza in order to sneak people with bombs in and civilians out. This is important because;

1–it is quite obvious that if there are tunnels underground you need to vaporise some ground to get to them. Artillery is good for this. The only solution to “we know there are tunnels in this general area” is to sink that general area below sea level to find them. The annoyance is that there is an entire gaza strip of people in the way.

2–building from this, the palestinians can absolutely rat out Hamas and tell israeli soldiers where the tunnels are. They do not. The fanaticism of the area pervades both sides enough that everyone thinks the other side are sods, with no talking about it. They could if they liked tell the many patrolling Israeli soldiers where the tunnels are, but they don’t, because they are infidels and must be punished. This also means that Israel can only rain gunpowder from above and make a hole big enough to find the tunnels.

An analogy; Scorpions in an Anthill.

There are scorpions hiding in the anthill, and the ants won’t tell you where they are, but the scorpions keep biting you hard, so they have to go. You can’t go in the anthill and look for them, because you’ll get chased out by ants and the scorpions will get you, so you can only flood the anthill with water or bleach and flush the scorpions out. The ants will die too, but they chose a side, they sting you whenever you try and get the spiders out because the scorpions told them you are evil and must be punished.

And already the analogy gets convoluted.

Nobody wins in war.

Hamas won’t respect a ceasefire, and Palestine won’t stop crying. The children being bombed are the same ones being raised by parents who were raised by Hamas. Those are children who will grow up in a warzone being told “Israelis are evil, they must be punished. If you die killing them, you’ll be made a saint.” Their parents believe it wholeheartedly, because their parents told them the same.

Nobody will win this war. Either Hamas will be crushed in their vietcong style tunnels and burned from their anthill, or are pushed out by the artillery caving their tunnels in or exposing them. Israel cannot lose more innocent civilians to Hamas. Palestine and Hamas cannot parlay with the infidels.

Everyone who sees this from the outside, not asking why, only sees you pour bleach in an anthill and the adverts from the ants saying “stop killing us”, not knowing the scorpions are inside and are being sheltered by the ants.

Quite frankly, the Israeli Government has every right to wage this war.

Much worse has been done over less, and you cannot talk to someone being violent. Only greater violence stops violence.

Palestine and Gaza have every right to be upset, their land was taken from them (although the English did conquer the place fair and square) and they are losing their loved ones left right and center. They also refuse to negotiate with the infidels, and refuse to rat out gods servants as they enact their holy duty to condemn them to eternal damnation. Israels only course of action is to flatten the place with artillery. Think through any other course of action in your head before you come at me. You cannot feasibly do anything else without risking your people, and the government of a country is entirely to act in the interest of its people.

In the words of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, “You wanna win the war? Know what you’re fighting for.”

[maximuswolf]

Its time for these AAA game studios to stop being afraid to cover certain "controversial" wars. Games like Call of Duty have no excuse to be running out of ideas.

Its time for these AAA game studios to stop being afraid to cover certain "controversial" wars. Games like Call of Duty have no excuse to be running out of ideas. I mean Call of Duty is a prime example of video game companies, especially for FPS games, are just running out of ideas at this point. I mean you have 2 wars that have been barely touched and would be a big refresher if a video game company grew a pair and risked centering their game around the Vietnam war or the early 2000s war in Iraq/Afghanistan (circa 2004-2008). I get it some bad shit happened in those wars but bad shit happens in every war. I mean for God's sake CoD WW2s campaign portrayed the holocaust, MW 2 let you mow down innocent civilians in an airport, and you have the GTA games which are literally about committing crimes! Sure some games have had small sections portraying these wars as a side story or flashback and even DLC but never the whole story. Side note indie games dont count for the record im still talking AAA studios like Ubisoft, EA, Activision etc. And even when a game company tries it always seems like they are dancing around it instead of fully committing. Like for example: a story will take place in the middle east and instead of fighting an actual enemy in that area you fight some made up middle eastern private paramilitary force that is funded by some kind of russian black ops group with like some private spec ops mercenaries from China with some unrealistic goal like world domination instead of just fucking making the enemies like the Republican Guard/Al Queda, Taliban stuff like that where you dont need to spend months trying to figure out some crazy elaborate story. And as for the good guys enough with the special forces operators and made up rag tag groups of special forces dudes in plain clothes with plate carriers, helmets and heavily modified weapons who are coming out of retirement for "one last hurah to save the world" and just have a good story following a basic infantry battalion of 11 Bravos in normal issued gear (no backwards hats, big beards, or plate carriers with some lame patches on them that say like "lets roll" or some shit) with normal standard issue weapons like M4s and M16s and the only attatchments being an ACOG scope, foregrip, and maybe a flashlight/laser combo. And have the story vibe be similar to COD ww2s campaign which has been the best war campaign ive played in years. Same standards go for a veitnam war game no guys in red bandannas dual wielding pistols taking on like 20 vietcong just have normal infantry dudes taking out vietcong in conventional warfare. No excuse to be so obviously running out of ideas for shooters when all these game companies have barely touched these gold mines of content! Submitted July 14, 2024 at 03:03AM by nrizzo24 https://ift.tt/cLuomF2 via /r/gaming

[umichenginabroad]

Visiting Vietnam Part 2 (Week 17)

With one day left in the Hanoi area, we scheduled a day tour to Ninh Binh where we biked around rice fields surrounded by mountains, took a boat trip down a river in Tam Coc which went through three different caves, climbed up steps to Lying Dragon Mountain, and visited Dinh King temple. The various mini-adventures were all stunning, but it was hard for me to properly appreciate them after spending three days in the most beautiful environment I’ve ever laid eyes on. The intensely hot and humid weather (which wasn’t a problem in the mountains of Ha Giang) didn’t help either. Just a few minutes of walking outside was followed by sweat and dehydration. If anything, this weather encouraged us to always have a smoothie or juice of some sort in our hands. For $1-2, the drink options are endless and we sure took advantage. Once we returned to Hanoi, we quickly made our way to the airport and flew to Ho Chi Minh City where we were spending the next two days.

^ The view from Lying Dragon Mountain

Our first day in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was spent exploring the city and doing a food tour in which we once again rode on motorbikes, but this time in the city. Let me tell you, being on the back of a motorbike in a Vietnamese city is not for the faint of heart. Bikes and cars are constantly appearing out of nowhere and are often on a collision course with you until the very last second. The stream of vehicles never stops — not for pedestrians, not for other vehicles, sometimes not even for an ambulance. A perk of the food tour was that our three drivers were young university students who knew a good bit of English, so we could finally ask questions about their lives and experiences as well as Vietnamese culture. The other highlight was the food. I had the guides help me make a list of all the foods we tried:

Bun bo hue - spicy noodles soup

Banh xeo - Vietnamese pancake/crepe eaten in lettuce wraps with shrimp, bean sprouts, and a variety of leaves including basil and mint. It is dipped in a sweat sauce. (This was a personal favorite)

Dim sum

Banh mi - Vietnamese sandwich

Banh trang nuong - Vietnamese pizza

Bo lui xa - grill beef and lemongrass

Kumquat & sugarcane iced tea (personal favorite)

Coffee Banh flan - flan cake (personal favorite)

^ Banh Xeo - A very yummy dish which requires skilled rolling to produce.

^ Banh flan - literally the best flan I’ve ever had over a bed of crushed ice and coffee.

It goes without saying that we left that food tour with happy stomachs and a strong desire for a nap. Later that day we did some shopping! It turns out that Vietnam has endless stalls of knock-off (but very high quality) backpacks, bags, clothing, and so much more. We were particularly eager to buy backpacks and fanny packs which were significantly cheaper than normal prices. As crazy as it may sound, over those two days in Ho Chi Minh, the three of us bought 13 bags/backpacks for us and our friends/family in addition to other clothing, coats, and souvenirs. To this day I will never know how I managed to bring everything I bought back to Sydney in addition to my already full backpack and one-weeks-worth of clothes. I do always love a packing challenge!

With one day left in Ho Chi Minh, we had to take a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels not too far away. These tunnels were the site of many battles between American forces and the Vietcong during the Vietnam war. In addition to getting to see several traps used by the Vietcong and learning about how the Vietcong formed (and survived in) the tunnel system, we got to walk 100m in the tunnels ourselves! Walking so far crouched over in a tunnel with a height of 1.5 meters was not easy, so you can imagine our shock when we got out and learned that the tunnel we went through was made 1.5x larger than the actual tunnels used in order to accommodate tourists.

^ examples of traps used in the Vietnam War

^ A cross-section view of the underground tunnels used by the Vietcong. Traps were set at the entrances and throughout the tunnels in case intruders found their way in. The kitchen was strategically designed so that smoke from a fire would leave through incremental holes making it less visible near the ground. To prevent wild dogs from approaching the smoke and revealing its position, spices were mixed with water and poured around the smoke’s backdoor to scare them away. The tunnels were only built at night as well so as not to draw attention, and all entrances were covered with leaves to blend into the environment.

Between the nature, people, culture, food, and shopping, Vietnam was hands down one of the best trips I had the chance to go on and I can’t wait to return one day. Cheers!

David Bayer

Biomedical Engineering

University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia

[otnesse]

Fully agreed with this post. There are plenty of takeaways you can do with science fiction that DOESN'T have to deal with a socio-political overlay (in fact, science itself should be the focus, and science that's NOT mired by politics either). That's actually one reason I'm downright FURIOUS with the likes of George Lucas for forcibly reducing Star Wars to basically being a metaphor for the Vietnam War, or more specifically a promotion vehicle for the Vietcong and demonizing even the concept of having a military. I never got into Star Wars to support a bunch of psychopathic mass murderers who turned Vietnam into a wasteland ESPECIALLY after we left them after the War. Actually, if anything, I was perfectly content to envision the Empire as the British Empire and the Rebels as the Minutemen, or heck, the Empire as Nazi Germany and the Rebels as the Allied Powers/French Resistance, or even the Empire as the USSR and the Rebels as the Free World. And the wars weren't even my main draw to the franchise, it was the vehicles and technology, the Force, even the aliens. When Lucas bragged he actually had the Vietcong in mind for the Rebels, you won't believe just HOW hurtful that really was to me, that all this time I was unknowingly rooting for Communists. Thanks in large part to that, I defected from the Rebels and started, quite literally, rooting for the Empire. I also had similar complaints with Kojima as well and his handling of Metal Gear Solid 2. I was willing to envision the Patriots as being standins for the Nazis or various Communists, but when Kojima revealed that, no, the Patriots were actually meant to embody American ideals (implicitly including Founding Father Ideals, the ideals Solidus Snake, the anti-villain main antagonist, was fighting for), he lost me there. And don't get me started on his Che worshipping nonsense in Peace Walker, despite the fact that said praise didn't fit Big Boss at all, even taking into account his actions in the MSX2 games (a rather blatant aspect contradicting that is Solidus in MGS2. That guy, at least post-9/11, aimed to restore America back to its founding principles, and also was the only one of the Les Enfants Terribles clones to truly admire his "father", Big Boss, to such an extent that he was downright happy that his adopted son Raiden shot his eye out precisely BECAUSE it made him resemble his father more. That bit would imply Big Boss was more of a Constitutional Conservative in overall outlook).

So obviously, the most obnoxious and useless sort of science fiction criticism is provided by angry dumb guys screaming into microphones about things being "woke"; but I also get annoyed by the people who insist on applying a sort of "roman-á-clé" reading, where everything in the story is merely a disguised stand-in for some real-world human political issue. Like, yes, obviously, sf is used for social and political commentary a lot of the time; but it's *also* used to just kind of play around on the frontiers of possibility. And it frankly seems kind of demeaning to the genre to pretend that its alien, its bizarre, and its inhuman features are necessarily just stand-ins for some mundane, real-world concept. Like, yes, clearly The War of the Worlds is about colonialism; but it's also about alien life; it's also about evolution and ecology; and it's also about "Wouldn't it be fucked up if THIS happened!?" And all of these are irreducible from the genre. Is your robot autistic? Well, maybe you can read it that way. Maybe it's a sincere attempt to imagine a nonhuman mechanical intelligence. Maybe it's both. Sometimes, you write a story strictly for "Wouldn't it be fucked-up if..." purposes and it ends up shedding a whole new light on the human condition; in fact, I think that, if you're taking your concept seriously, it should do this by default. But you have to take the bizarre on its own terms or you might as well be reading realism.

[maren-abroad-blog]

Tag 2 - Cu Chi Tunnel

Nach einem gemütlichen Morgen mit Ausschlafen und Frühstück im Hotel haben wir nachmittags eine Exkursion zu den Tunneln von Củ Chi gemacht. Die Tunnel wurden während des Vietnamkrieges von den Vietcong genutzt und sind insgesamt über 200km lang.

Unser Tourguide demonstrierte die Tricks und Waffen, die von den Vietcong im Kampf gegen die Amerikaner eingesetzt wurden und wir bekamen selbst Einblicke in das Tunnelsystem. Schließlich konnten wir uns sogar selbst an einer Waffe versuchen - wir haben die M16 getestet. War einmal interessant, aber brauche ich nicht noch einmal.

Nach unserer Rückkehr in Ho Chi Minh City haben wir noch eine zweite Walking Street erkundet. Diese war aber weniger familiengeeignet - mit vielen grossen Bars/Clubs, lauter Musik und Frauen und Männer, die in kurzer Kleidung auf kleinen Bühnen vor den Bars getanzt haben. Wir haben uns schliesslich für einen gemütlichen Abend im Hotel entschieden, mit Cocktail auf der Rooftop-Terrasse und anschliessend einem Film auf unserem Zimmer mit leckerem Obst von einem Strassenstand. Endlich wieder Mangosteen!😍