Dervish

An Observation Before I go to bed

An observation before I have lunch: ActRaiser shouldn't post shit before going to bed.

It's Snowing.

Goldmarble said
Doesn't everybody?No brutal heat and humidity in the summer, no -50 in the winter with 10 foot snow drifts...

3 days of sunshine a year, endless rainfall...

Enchantment?

Awson said
Enchantment!

Hodor!

Saturday Night Fever

natsumehack said

I actually laughed pretty hard at this. More witty replies, Nat.

As for the topic, couldn't really tell you. I have a lot of good memories from nights off, but weekends off wasn't really a thing since the last 3 years.

But chances are, it involved some form of camping trip with friends.

It's crazy how many times

Text makes for a wonderful communication medium because it's hard to tell anperson's tone by written words.

Makes you wonder how all those old famous writers got by without plastering emotes over their work.

"Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore!' :["

Superpower For Hire, AKA PMCs

Jett Ryu said
Ohhh I see. When put that way, I can see why PMCs get a bad rap, and make great villains.

It's also not exactly great to think of mercenaries as strictly villains. Just because they are motivated by high pay doesn't mean they necessarily have no morals or do good work. Sure, some get in hot water for doing awful shit, but never forget they're former soldiers for the most part and just because someone waves a shitload of money in their face doesn't mean they are obligated to take the contract.

It also doesn't do your company any good if you're known for taking jobs from warlords who kill innocent people. It's why Blackwater making the news for doing awful shit was huge; it would not have become headline news if it was the norm. Yes, a lot of mercenaries do shitty, awful things. So do soldiers. Butwe as a society like to think that all soldiers are doing their jobs based off similar noble principles like we say about WWII vets. We think corporations are evil and amoral, so someone who is at war for a good pay check with no nationalistic loyalty must be a thug, right? Not a good line of thought. Nothing is ever black and white.

Superpower For Hire, AKA PMCs

Jett Ryu said
I see your points. But war is profitable. Just look at Germany after the Nazis started WWII. During the war the economy was very strong. Same goes for America, Japan, and England. But other than food for thought, the idea might make some good RPs on here.

Other than what Magic said, the boom of a war is followed by a bust. As soon as a country doesn't need to pump out billions in equipment, the jobs are gone and don't forget most countries had to repay war bonds and go back to a peace time economy where there weren't enough jobs. In the US, for instance, there was a very real fear of the country sliding back into a depression. Japan and Germany ended up receiving massive amounts in aid because nobody wanted them to go back to conditions that would breed divtators and fear of Soviet influence.

A topic about topics: Argument concerning arguments

Pretty much, it's an ego thing. People get a "rush" about proving somebody wrong and "winning" a fight. It's usually less about learning about something or trying to determine what's right and more about trying to prove somebody wrong so you can look smart.

There's a reason I don't really feel like jumping into massive, multi-quoted passive aggressive to slanderous debates/arguments/e-peen stroking fests for the most part. Whereas I mainly like to talk about things, get educated about something I want to know more about, or put in my two bits about something that I am certain is factually correct when I see something that's wrong (like, actual facts, not something subjective like say if God exists, the ethics of suicide or anything like that). Of course, I like anyone get sucked into things from time to time, but I don't exactly go seeking it out or deriving some kind of pleasure with arguing over something that's almost certain to not reach a mutually respective conclusion where both parties feel satisfied with the discourse. Most of the threads you see in Off-Topic that are pages upon pages and hundreds of posts usually go completely off the original topic as somebody's trying to illustrate an idea to prove their own position, and then it escalates when somebody else counters the tangent with something else and blah blah blah. In short, it's less about learning and more about "winning".

If you can ever call being a part of an internet slap fight that.

Superpower For Hire, AKA PMCs

Mercenaries have been a part of warfare since people have had currency to hire extra fighters, and back in the iron age, it wasn't uncommon for massive portions of any army to be made up of mercenaries. None of that is really anything new; it's just that it's becoming trendy to start paying attention to it. You name a war and large groups of mercenaries are present.

I'm pretty much working on a darkly comedic and over-the-top RP that has the premise that nations are second to massive corporations and mercenaries are pretty much the most viable occupation in the world, so it's not like it's the most unheard of idea that people are worried that PMC groups are going to become more powerful than nations, but good luck finding one that's going to try to try to take over a country without being paid to do it. They're a business, first and foremost. It's a lot easier and cheaper to focus on fighting a war on behalf of a country and let them deal with the logistics of governance and the PR game. They only make money if somebody is fronting the bill, which is exactly why PMC groups can afford all the top of the line hardware that your average soldier can't dream of obtaining. If one decided that they wanted to overthrow and rule a country, even if they did somehow out-battle and defeat that country's military (not really an easy feat, considering that the only countries worth taking over probably have more funding and military power than the PMCs will ever hope to have, and there's a very real threat of that country's government freezing that PMCs assets and screwing them financially), then they have to deal with the threat of a civil uprising and inherit all the problems that that country faces just running the damn thing, and as soon as people find out that there's a rogue PMC group, good luck to them ever trying to get work again.

They have nothing to gain and everything to lose if they, according the end of the video, "Decide to stop taking orders."

Oh, and then there's things like they probably wouldn't be able to leave whatever country's airspace that hired them because if they did have air assets, they'd be intercepted, and if they tried to take an airport out, they'd probably have their passports revoked. Really, it's nothing more than a fun fictional idea with no practical weight behind it. Once again, their success and wealth depends entirely on nations bankrolling them. They'd never do something so stupid as to lose that support.

And if for whatever reason they were hired by another country to attack another country, than that's still country A declaring war on country B, so nothing changes that way.

Sometimes I give myself the creeps.

Smiral said
nigga have you heard master of puppets

The radio refuses to not let me hear it.

It's not bad. Just a bit overhyped.