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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • My dude, nothing in that blog supports your claim.

    First of all, it’s talking about the metallurgy of the 16th century and after, which is after Japan had imported blast furnaces. Secondly, it ignores the amount of labour needed to actually produce refined steel from iron sands, which ultimately dictates the quality of the finished product.

    This isnt a debatable topic, any steel made from iron sands before modern electromagnetic sorting contains a large amount of impurities when compared to steel made from rock ore.

    Even during WW2 the Japanese had a hard time producing high quality steel even with the use of blast furnaces, because the iron sands contains a large amount of titanium.

    This blog which falls over itself trying to engage in revisionist history, can only claim that the quality was “perfectly fine”…not good.



  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlcurved it is
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    4 days ago

    You are conflating the elemental molecule of iron with the finished product of an alloy of carbonized iron aka as steel.

    Yes, there isn’t a molecular difference between the iron found in sand vs the iron found in rock ore. However, the medium in which you harvest your iron and how you’re able to heat that iron, dictates the quality not your final product.


  • Lol, my dude. No one is claiming that modern japanese steel is of poor quality.

    Im speaking of the time period contemporary with the accusation. You know, how arguments typically work…

    Do you think the guns Japanese Samurai used were made from steel refined from sand?

    Just pointing out this one because it’s funny. Yes, a lot of the early firearms made in Japan were still made from iron sand (Satetsu). Which was the main source of iron in Japan until the 16th century.


  • According to whom?

    The reason why Japanese iron is inferior is because of the source of the iron itself, they utilized iron sand instead of rock ore. Rock ore can be made up to 90% ferrous material while the iron sand contains as little as 2%.

    This means when you smelt your source material into blooms of iron and slag, the blooms made from sand iron were much smaller. Instead of utilizing a single bloom to make a sword, the Japanese had to work several blooms together. Which is much more labour intensive, and can lead to a lot of imperfections in the final product.

    This is why katanas were made out of so little material, and had to be handled with care. They were much more fragile pieces than similar swords made in Korea and China at the time.

    Plus, the Japanese developed their iron working much later than their mainland contemporaries, as they never independently invented furnace technology. The technology for furnaces was imported, most likely from the Korean peninsula.







  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlCommon ground
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    2 months ago

    Mongolians are mainly known for their horsemanship rather than their marksmanship. They are probably the best marksman on horseback that have ever lived, but as far as historically being known for their archery…that’s the Koreans, and they’re still pretty dominant in the Olympics.


  • That’s just thinking in logical fallacy. Just because the Republicans spent a bunch of effort and time focusing on invalid criticisms, doesn’t mean there are no valid criticisms.

    The DNC being made up of mostly center right pushovers is a byproduct of the Clinton’s popularizing Third Way politics in America. It was a way to get around the gridlock that was dominant in the 80s and 90s in Congress.

    The basic theory was that you would work across the isle on the projects you could, even if that meant making deep concessions. In theory you would end up getting credit for “getting things done”, and eventually become popular enough to leverage your bills through.

    In reality, Third Way politics is only effective until the opposition realizes that they now how the initiative over policy. They get to work across the isle on the projects they want, and that’s usually economic policy.



  • It wasn’t even that long ago, I delivered for Papa John’s in the late 00s. Some of the guys had tomtoms, but they were always out of date, and would lead you astray more often than not.

    We mostly just used a giant laminated map of our delivery area that was attached to the heat shield of the pizza oven. You’d be surprised how quickly you can memorize the layout of a small city when your pay is dependent on it.

    I haven’t been back to that town since college like 20 years ago, but if you gave me an address there, I could still prob pin point it on a blank map.


  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlcrawl, walk, run, fly
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    3 months ago

    Not off the top of my head, no, but my point is that the principles themselves were not Marxist nor Communist

    So, just a vibe check then?

    In what manner? Vibes?

    Lol, in the same way as the Khmer Rouge…you never extrapolated how they were feudal to begin with.

    Mao was not a deinustrialist, nor was he a nationalist. Yes, different forms of revolution are required, but intentionally setting the clock on progress backwards, rather than forwards, is inherently a reactionary position, which became self admitted!

    First of all, I don’t think anyone can rightly claim Mao wasn’t a nationalist. He was an ardent anti imperialist and he wasn’t an ethno-nationalist, but still a nationalist at heart. Secondly progress is relative to the revolution, Cambodia prior to the revolution was for the most part dependent on substance farming. Adapting a centralized apparatus to control the economy is still progress.

    but he was never operating under Marxist principles. At most, he took inspiration from the Chinese revolution with regards to the agrarian focus, but instead focused on deindustrialization and nationalism.

    They didn’t deindustrialze, they were never industrialized to begin with.

    More vibes.

    Hilarious considering your arguments have been completely vibe based. Even when I ask you specify your claims… Nope just vibes.


  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlcrawl, walk, run, fly
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    3 months ago

    He had denounced Marx and created a form of Feudalism.

    When did he denounce Marx, do you have a quote?

    Also, the same accusations of feudalism can be charged at North Korea.

    His “agrarian Communism” was an expliciy rejection of Marxism from the get-go, as his concept of deindustrialization goes directly against Marxism

    Or as the maoist say, Marxism with Chinese characteristics. The same charges could have been levied at aspects of the cultural revolution. Different forms of revolution are required for different forms of societal structures and limitations. The vanguard approach is not exactly going to fly in a mostly agrarian culture.

    you have nothing in common with Communism except the name, you have to justify why you believe yourself to be Communist.

    Lol, that’s not up to you to interpret. You are conflating nearly 50 years of history to a single decade. I could make very similar arguments about the Soviet Union based on just the 80’s as well.

    I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re just trying to distance communism from a regime no one can morally defend. Nearly all the arguments you made have been levied at China, Korea, Russia, or Cuba at some point, but we tend to defend them because the ends mostly justify the means.


  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlcrawl, walk, run, fly
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    3 months ago

    don’t believe I made the point that contemporaries criticized their fascism outright, I made the point that they were fascist and rejected Marx. Calling them Communist isn’t accurate in any way, plus they were stopped by the Vietnamese Communists.

    I think what’s pertinent to the original argument was that they were communist while the Khmer Rouge were committing their atrocities. Labeling a country that transitioned from communism to fascism as a purely fascist government is misleading and reductive.

    Also, being opposed to a communist government does not mean you’re automatically a fascist. As we know communist China attacked communist Vietnam right after the US Vietnam war.

    The history of geopolitics in Asia is very complicated and cannot be summed up in a short Lemmy comment

    It’s no more complicated than the history of European geopolitics. As an Asian person, I get told this by western people a lot. I think it’s just a hold over from the western interpretation of the east being based in mystery. Also, the complications of any topic does not validate the type of misleading/reductive comment you made.

    my point was to distance Pol Pot from Communism, because he wasn’t a Communist and denounced Communism, nor did he implement Socialism.

    I think this is completely inaccurate depending on what time you are talking about. I would say Pol Pot was probably one of the most ardent communist of the 50’s, it was just a weird type of agrarian communism. And in the regions he controlled he did attempt to construct a classless agrarian socialist society.

    Pol Pot didn’t really divert from communism until the 80’s and that was a last ditch effort to get the west to support his failing regime. I don’t particularly believe that “We chose communism because we wanted to restore our nation. We helped the Vietnamese, who were communist. But now the communists are fighting us. So we have to turn to the West and follow their way.” constitutes as denouncing Marxism.

    China, the USSR, and North Korea were/are Socialist, and should be judged as such, for better and for worse. Pol Pot and the gang were not, so judging them as though they were is just silly.

    You haven’t supported the argument that the Khmer Rouge were never communist… Now I’m willing to compromise and say they transitioned away from communism as did the Russians, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that they were communist at some point.

    How exactly was Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge not communist in the 50s-70’s?


  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlcrawl, walk, run, fly
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    3 months ago

    Khmer Rouge was backed by the US and was lead by fascists who rejected Marx, like the Nazis.

    I think that’s a highly misleading and highly reductionist interpretation. The Khmer Rouge was supported by the US, but mostly after the conflict had ended.

    The Khmer Rouge was overwhelmingly supported by the CCP, especially during the Vietnam war, and before the Chinese invasion of Vietnam afterwards.

    Also, PolPot wasn’t criticized for his diversion from Marxism until the 80’s, well after the most turbulent times in Cambodia. And even then Deng Xiaoping only criticised the Khmer Rouge for engaging in “deviations from Marxism-Leninism”

    The only person on the left who accused him of being a fascist was Hoxha, but that was after his schism with the maoist. So to him any communist Asian was basically a barbaric fascist.


  • If however a country would be prepared to cut through the red tape and have a standard design developed for say 10 plants at the same time, the price and construction time would be decreased greatly.

    That’s a pretty big ask for a democratic government where half of the politicians are actively sabotaging climate initiatives…

    The only countries where this is really feasible are places where federal powers can supersede the authority of local governments. A nuclear based power grid in America would require a complete reorganization of state and federal authority.

    The only way anyone thinks nuclear energy is a viable option in the states is if they completely ignore the political realities of American government.

    For example, is it physically possible for us to build a proper deep storage facility for nuclear waste? Yes, of course. Have we attempted to build said deep storage facility? Yes, since 1987. Are we any closer to finishing the site after +30 years…no.


  • Yet here we are, talking about it. “There’s no such thing as ‘Bad Press’”, I guess? Are they right?.. maybe. Are they detracting from the plight?.. also, maybe. Am I sure of my opinion of their protests?.. no, not really.

    Right, but we are talking about it knowing the consequences of not enacting changes. In the US fox news is watched by something like 40% of active voters. Meaning a significant portion of voters actively distrust news about climate change, another significant portion do not think about it on a day to day basis.

    Giving the news network ammunition like this only further entrenches these audiences in anti climate change reactions.

    Seems like something I’ll have to read more about.

    Would knowing that this particular ngo is funded by an oil heiress that lives in a 33m dollar home affect your opinion?