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Left Below

@below-left

Youtube essayist and occasional convention panelist. Popping off non-sequitors into the void.

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Latest posts by Left Below @below-left

Need to get gun-adjacent people thinking *real* hard about the risk of the people they're dealing with. I hate guns but acknowledge most owners are safe, question is driving out mass shooter culture using the legal tools we have.

14.03.2026 13:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Yeah I'm opposed to gun violence but I'm not sure this will go anywhere. The focus ought to be on holding owners and dealers accountable for the (admittedly rare) instances where one of their guns is used. Like that one guy in Michigan jailed due to his son's mass shooting.

14.03.2026 13:20 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It was weird watching this episode after going to see Undertone which was also A Woman's Mommy Issues: The Film

14.03.2026 04:07 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Final effort to purge Hezbollah.

Extremely stupid on Israel's part because Lebanon was finally going to step up there. Instead they'll get the whole country mad at them by turning a 3rd of it into rubble like Gaza.

14.03.2026 02:49 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's weirder. That's the female squirrel from the part of Sword in the Stone where Arthur briefly becomes a squirrel and this female squirrel flirts with him.

Famous in the furry community.

13.03.2026 22:13 ๐Ÿ‘ 23 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

fought one another as in Churchill, probably leads to the answer you're looking for.

Other question is whether the modern information environment is what forces Conservatism to sort into Centrist Liberalism or Fascism.

13.03.2026 19:00 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The historical degree to which Fascism and Conservatism have used (a la the Nazis and Mussolini getting big business and old-guard nationalists on side in order to seize power, or Franco and Antonescu using the Falange/Iron Guard as a vanguard and then discarding them) or/

13.03.2026 18:59 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I think an examination of Winston Churchill is in order to help this discussion along: imperialist, rabidly anti-communist during the Russian Civil War, did not hesitate to throw in with Stalin against Hitler and never suffered delusions about what Hitler was.

13.03.2026 18:57 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

So Kronk is a himbo but someone more intelligent and self-aware like say, Brock Samson, is not?

13.03.2026 16:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 18 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

"Is being wholesome a requirement to be a himbo" is good discourse.

I would tend to agree but that's without any evidence.

13.03.2026 16:01 ๐Ÿ‘ 25 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Certainly that's the aspirational fantasy of Trump and his underlings: not only do you *not* have to filter out your bad thoughts you can actually get rewarded for them!

13.03.2026 15:59 ๐Ÿ‘ 11 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Karp and Thiel are in the crew that thinks we'll never get power again because they run the Cathedral now.

12.03.2026 23:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

30 years ago Clinton would have hesitated but probably sent in ground troops to occupy the Iranian side of the straits.

40 years ago Reagan would not have hesitated at all to do this. Times have changed not just the capacity to fight, but the will.

12.03.2026 20:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Something underappreciated is how society has been demilitarized. For all the defense spending we do, we have but a fraction of the industrial capacity needed to sustain something like World War II.

More tellingly there's a lack of will to spend lives or re-route economies for war.

12.03.2026 20:19 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Recall doing a game theory course in college that said most wars boiled down to information failures (though this was attributing warmakers as being maybe too rational, certainly a lot of fights that get picked are quixotic).

12.03.2026 20:17 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Wasn't the problem that South Vietnam was never really viewed as legitimate by a majority of South Vietnamese the way say, South Korea was by South Koreans?

I've seen it described as a post-colonial rump regime for Vietnamese Catholics.

12.03.2026 20:02 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

was stuck saving for a condo at the time. Thankfully I did a half-step upgrade from a 2021 build in 2023 so I'm not shit out of luck for so long.

12.03.2026 19:54 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

given the lack of willingness to put any troops/ships in harm's way I doubt there will be a Taiwan campaign. Maybe fling ordinance to try and impede the initial crossing and that's it.

Now this lack of willingness to feed soldiers to a meat grinder is good, but strategically limiting.

12.03.2026 12:25 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

worst case being what, Iran figures out that they've got the entire world by the shorthairs and keeps the straits closed until some insane demand is met?

12.03.2026 02:41 ๐Ÿ‘ 66 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

I'd be impressed at the dedication if it were applied to anything remotely productive.

11.03.2026 20:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Demons-from-Frieren discourse stays winning.

11.03.2026 17:24 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

you're calling Daines empty seat over Collins?

11.03.2026 02:10 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

recently was in a Reddit thread on this and people were making the same mistake as here: a farce comedy is not an idiot plot, so Coen Bros classics don't count.

It's more when the characters are contrived to be/act stupid (especially compared to usual).

Think Snyderverse Batman.

10.03.2026 23:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

some sort of biological hazard is involved.

10.03.2026 22:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Mongolian dudes rock

10.03.2026 22:50 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The economic narrative is to help sway people who don't give a shit about the Iranians to support a ceasefire.

10.03.2026 17:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

dicks out

10.03.2026 03:18 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

my go-to example is that you see all of those people in sweatshops for a reason. They came from subsistence farms, they could go back if they wanted!

Obviously they should be raised up out of the sweatshop as well but people today and our ancestors before chose the shops.

09.03.2026 22:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Preview
a cartoon of an angry man pointing at a board that says nothing ever happens ALT: a cartoon of an angry man pointing at a board that says nothing ever happens

He has been forced to sleep for 11 days now. He stirs, ready to awaken.

09.03.2026 20:30 ๐Ÿ‘ 5 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Sometimes I do this only because I can't find the correct product in the lookup

09.03.2026 18:59 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0