Tom > Recent Status Updates

The positives of Christian morality are striking, and the truth is that those who actually believe in the tenants of Christian philosophy can commit many evils but there is a clear limit. A line that can only be broken by someone who does not believe in either rationality or morality.

I need to start reading again. Been taking a huge break due to the heat but where I am now, it's nice: windy and cloudy. Perfect weather to finish Evans' Third Reich trilogy.

It's not "mind blowing" to just have the obvious obviously laid out. The Nazis were subhuman, and far more evil than anything the Soviets even wished of doing.

It really isn't a debate.
(I'm not a Holocaust exceptionalist, but I'm def. on the defensive when it comes to comparing the Nazis and the USSR because the vast majority of people who make these comparisons are HC deniers.)

Besides seemingly one, the German army was not against murdering civilians on principle, merely due to the prospect of disobedience introduced among the troops.

Like all propaganda, Polish discrimination against ethnic Germans was true in reality, even before the outbreak of hostilities. 2000 Germans were killed (murdered?) by the Polish forces in the opening of the invasion.

It's elements like this, that sides who were objectively good still committed bad acts that shortcircuit the brains of idiots who then cry "it was morally complicated!". See also: Ukraine and Israel.

Really excited to read this one. I think it will end up being my favourite.

"As always everything worked flawlessly."

And Stratt is just a terrible character. Zero resolution. Just a "bad ass girl boss".

I'm not even bothering to comprehend the science stuff. Each problem gets an automatic solution and all I need to know is that we are now on Plotpoint B from Plotpoint A.

It's hard to tell when Weir is writing an annoying character on purpose because They. All. Sound. The. Same.

I simply do not believe that these are people talking.
We have a book full of bacon science redditors, purposely bitchy girlbosses, stereotypes, and 'i haz cheeseburger'.

Okay. First these poorly-designed flashbacks had some sort of in-story reason for the pacing, as it was literally Ryland having a mental flashback and his conscious sort of pauses and resumes as he absorbs the information.

Now. They are incredibly boring but now also, despite there being reveals, Ryland just doesn't react and neither does Rocky. Are these boring segments just for us now?

Basically halfway through this book and there is absolutely no point to this book. The flashbacks scenes are a painful snore-fest with obnoxious characters. And the prose is still awful.

Now that the plot has progressed to a decent percentage, I have to say that I expected *too much* plot-wise because that was really the only thing left keeping me reading.

The prose is getting a bit less unbearable now.
The dialogue is fine, if a bit juvenile but people do talk like this, especially like Ryland.

I am intrigued and the science explanations are fun to follow, but I am probably never going to be the target demographic of this book - even if I want to laugh at the idea of there being "no politics" in this book.

Each chapter ends with a: "Oh my god- It's actually [blank]!"

PHM seems to take place in an alternate dimension where Elementary Globalism turned out to exist in the real world of geopolitics. It's hard to take seriously but the book was written in 2020...so maybe I can't be *too* harsh as that was probably the last moment when cooperative internationalism existed before dying a brutal death.

Laughing b/c Weir said he dislikes "politics in books" - I see why.

Actual plot set-up is okay, even if Weir is simultaneously trying to absolutely make sure that you remember your high-school physics class but also info-dumping a nonsensical email with the same sort of "science speak".

The prose is terrible. Present tense is fine. The Hunger Games was written in present tense, but it didn't beat you over the head with Reddit tier humour and actually trusted your intelligence.

I just don't believe in the collective might of supposed "strong powers". "If only, if only" - just look at what's going on today and realize that nothing could have been done.

With the exception of Poland, it is agreed upon that Romania and Hungary were quite terrible and the policies/aspirations of the far-right in all three of those countries were pretty similar. Though allegedly, Poland didn't subscribe to race-based antisemitism - at least not to a considerable degree.

So I never agreed with the idea that Germans were uniquely evil or even uniquely apathetic. Fuck nationalism though.

That one family who begged to be the "exception" to the Nuremberg Laws and despised the "Eastern European Jew" b/c they agreed with the Nazis very much is f*cking wild.

How far does this radicalization get? When do the "Aryan" Germans start frothing at the teeth toward Slavs, Roma, and Jews?

Not even the Nazis could "force" women to increase the birth rate. However, the Nazi movement, in terms of its votes, was supported by women quite a bit. You could even argue that bourgeois women were some of the biggest supporters.

The obvious conclusion is that the Nazis did not care about 'society' beyond the symbolic symbols of change. None of their goals rested upon the material - merely the spiritual elevation of the German people. The ultimate goal: war.

But beyond war, the goal was so obviously - like those who try to bring back fascism today (though this time capitalism has progressed enough to bring this much on its own) - death.

The economics section was a bit dull, too many numbers, but that's mainly because I know nothing about the entirety of economics (I should fix that I know).

Self-justification.