Randy McDonald ([info]rfmcdpei) wrote,
@ 2004-01-15 16:18:00
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Let's hope Bush is thinking differently
More lunacy from Adam Yoshida, this time literally so:

More to the point, space is the key to the American future. Whoever owns the stars will be the master of all humanity. No other nation, no other civilization, or other race can be allowed to take his honor. Space must be American just as Virginia or Colorado is American. It is our collective destiny, our birthright.

[...]

Some will ridicule those who dream of ‘Space Empire’ or speak of the future colonization of the Moon and Mars. Yet these will be the realities of the future, whether we are willing to accept them or not. The control and colonization of space will not only render humanity less vulnerable to the random chances of fate (an asteroid strike, for example) but it will also forever forestall the rise of another great power upon the Earth.

Think about it for a moment. A single Star Cruiser, maneuvered into position, could drop dozens of weapons onto a target seconds after launch. Defending against such an attack, short of the use of other space vessels, would be essentially impossible. A handful of such ships could, if necessary, wipe an entire nation off the face of the Earth. In the face of such power, most rational nations would have no choice but to accept permanent American world rule.

[...]

It might also be worth pointing out that, if aliens do exist, there is little reason to assume that they will be, as most have postulated, more advanced than we are. There is an equally good reason to believe that they will be less advanced. Would it not be prudent then to be prepared to restrict various alien races to the surface of their home planets?

[...]

It may even be that we will find alien races that will have to be destroyed, lest they pose a threat, or that we will find races of servile aliens which might prove useful to us in other ways. I don’t know if we will, and we won’t know unless we try.



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[info]eclips1st
2004-01-15 02:00 pm UTC (link)
Do you think it's all an act for him?
Sometimes I hope it is...

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-15 02:07 pm UTC (link)
I'd like to think so too. Unfortunately, I've had the fortune to be acquainted with him from the newsgroup soc.history.what-if, and he seems to really be like that.

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[info]eclips1st
2004-01-15 02:09 pm UTC (link)
just a troll, perhaps? Like he has another site/journal where he's like "*evil laugh* these people believe me *evil laugh*" ;o)

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-15 02:26 pm UTC (link)
I'd like to think so, but I doubt it. Adam also has a real-world presence that is similarly extreme--he campaigned against gay rights at his high school, for instance, and after 9/11 he called Sumera Thobani a terrorist in a letter to a Lower Mainland paper, et cetera.

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[info]eclips1st
2004-01-15 02:29 pm UTC (link)
one can hope :oP

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[info]mrfnord
2004-01-15 02:02 pm UTC (link)
You know, I'd be outraged, but fuck it. It's Yoshida; he never made much sense to begin with.

Admittedly, I'd love to know where NASA's going to get the Star Destroyers from...

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-15 02:11 pm UTC (link)
I'm not outraged, actually, so much as amused.

re: the Star Destroyers, all that I can imagine is that he identifies strongly with Darth Vader and his Empire.

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[info]lifein2x3
2004-01-15 03:55 pm UTC (link)
Or Herr Bush and his.

I'm almost insulted on my state's behalf at his mention of it. Virginia is pretty fucked up, but still!

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[info]mrfnord
2004-01-15 04:04 pm UTC (link)
That actually makes a lot of sense considering that Darth Vader started out as a whiny little shit, too. And look where that got him...

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Why oh why
[info]orlandobr
2004-01-15 02:03 pm UTC (link)
Our collective destiny, our birthright?

Forever forestall the rise of another great power? Forever?

Servile aliens?

Why he insist in writing such idiocies?

You're Canadian too, you must know something! :D

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Re: Why oh why
[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-15 02:09 pm UTC (link)
You're Canadian too, you must know something! :D

Actually, we disavow him--certainly, since he seems to think Canada is an immoral polity (whatever), he's disavowed us.

It certainly isn't, say, a secret Canadian conspiracy to subvert the US from within, by destabilizing internal American politics to the point where the Maple Leaf Conspiracy (tm) can easily take over and convert our southern neighbours into our vassals.

Certainly not. ;-)

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Re: Why oh why
[info]orlandobr
2004-01-15 02:38 pm UTC (link)
No, of course not.

There’s no such thing as a Maple Leaf Conspiracy (TM).

No, I’m sure. :D

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Americanada
(Anonymous)
2004-01-16 06:40 am UTC (link)
I remember a Saturday Night Live skit from way back in the '80's when SNL was still worth watching on that subject. Canada bought up all of the debt that we were piling up under Reagan and then did a debt-for-equity swap, taking the whole US over. Most Americans didn't notice because it happened on Super Bowl Sunday. But, in a retrospective from "twenty years later" a few old timers complained that everyone was now ending their sentences with "eh?"

FWIW, the skit was done in response to a right-wing made-for-TV movie called Amerika in which the Soviets, Cubans and Nicaraguans (sic) conquer the US and impose a communist dictatorship. Twenty years later, a handful of teenagers resist in the mountains, and successfully drive out the entire occupying force.

No doubt someone in one of the networks -- probably Fox -- is right now planning a made-for-TV movie called Ameriqa in which Iran, Syria and Sudan conquer the US and impose an Islamic state. Twenty years later, a handful of teenagers resist in the mountains and successfully drive out the entire occupying force.

Plus ca change . . .

Alexander

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Re: Why oh why
(Anonymous)
2004-01-16 11:06 am UTC (link)
Servile aliens?

Hey, good help is hard to find.

Jonathan Edelstein (http://headheeb.blogmosis.com)

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Re: Why oh why
[info]orlandobr
2004-01-16 11:33 am UTC (link)
But not impossible!
In one sentence, Mr. Yoshida managed to find a good reason to fund SETI programs: cheap man…erh, alienpower!

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You couldn't make it up
(Anonymous)
2004-01-15 07:11 pm UTC (link)
You couldn't make it up, could you. The funny thing is, Yoshida isn't even American, he's Canadian.

(On the same lines, Napoleon wasn't French, Stalin wasn't Russian, and Hitler wasn't German -- transferred nationalists often feel a need to be more nationalist than the people who were born wioth that identity).

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[info]rdi
2004-01-16 10:13 am UTC (link)
He really is a wanker, isn't he? I mean, no one could come up with this sort of stuff in jest.

I must say I feel safer knowing that his obsession is with the US, where sadly he'll never become President, rather than with his home and native land. Though I dare say he's a little out there for the Canadian right anyway, which probably explains why he's so obsessed with the US.

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-16 11:09 am UTC (link)
I must say I feel safer knowing that his obsession is with the US, where sadly he'll never become President, rather than with his home and native land. Though I dare say he's a little out there for the Canadian right anyway, which probably explains why he's so obsessed with the US.

True, not that the US would elect him. (The odds of declaring "economic thermonuclear war" on China, frex, are rather low.)

He's gotten weirder over time. It remains to be seen whether he'll do some Waco-style miniature apocalypse in protest against water fluoridation, or something.

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[info]ex_taem158
2004-01-16 10:14 am UTC (link)
Hmmm. His military thought is pretty shoddy as well. I mean, beyond his being completely insane.

This 'Star Cruiser' sounds like a big mother ship. We have these things on earth called missiles - they're surprisingly easy to shoot into space. And they also track remarkably well.

And 'servile aliens'? Would that be referring to slavery, mayhaps? This fellow would have been at home in the southern States 150 years ago.

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-16 11:16 am UTC (link)
His military thought is pretty shoddy as well. I mean, beyond his being completely insane.

And surprisingly, both Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan have linked to him, citing his strategic thought on Iraq as arguments in favour of the US occupation there.

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-18 02:33 pm UTC (link)
Impressive, of sorts, in its jingoistic lunacy. Let this sort of people rant in public and I'm certain antiamericanism has a bright future.

But who is this Yoshida fellow, and where can one find more about his thinking (or however the neural activity predating his writing can be properly categorized)?

/Tyge

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-18 04:47 pm UTC (link)
Briefly put, Adam Yoshida is a Japanese-Canadian from British Columbia who's in his early 20s, yet has managed to accumulate a rather appalling history of bizarre Ameriphilic jingoism and knee-jerk reactionary policies, all communicated via a writing style described nicely by a friend of mine as akin to Winston Churchill's on crack.

You can read his old postings on USENET. This posting of mine from October gives a brief run-through, as well.

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-18 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Wow, I'm impressed. Absolutely amazing, and an unbelievable aggressivity to match. I wonder what he's been through to think like that?

His entire piece on "Into the Stars" - not just the parts you quoted - is a hoot, including referring to "the immutable laws of history" (wasn't that a Nazi "argument" too?) and "We live in a system of planets, all of which are ours- even Europa, despite what some might say."

(Some might for starters say that Europa is no planet, it is a moon...)

And the asteroid gold strategy he mentions is a phenomenal combination of similar economic and astrophysics know-how.

As a teacher I can also recommend his piece on the school system. See which Heinlein novel you think served as inspiration...

/Tyge

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-18 08:34 pm UTC (link)
Wow, I'm impressed. Absolutely amazing, and an unbelievable aggressivity to match. I wonder what he's been through to think like that?

Apparently he's had a fairly normal suburban Vancouver lifestyle.

(Oh. He has also managed to make Tom Clancy an enemy of sorts, by impersonating him on USENET.)

His entire piece on "Into the Stars" - not just the parts you quoted - is a hoot, including referring to "the immutable laws of history" (wasn't that a Nazi "argument" too?) and "We live in a system of planets, all of which are ours- even Europa, despite what some might say."

(Some might for starters say that Europa is no planet, it is a moon...)


His grip on reality is, well, problematic to say the least.

And the asteroid gold strategy he mentions is a phenomenal combination of similar economic and astrophysics know-how.

Americans can do that, though. If you disagree, then you're clearly a pinko.

As a teacher I can also recommend his piece on the school system. See which Heinlein novel you think served as inspiration...

I've never read Heinlein, unfortunately.

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-19 12:33 pm UTC (link)
The Europa thing was a joke. At the end of 2010, Dave Bowman informs everyone else (after Jupiter has been transformed into a second sun),
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there."

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[info]rfmcdpei
2004-01-19 01:54 pm UTC (link)
Hi, Adam!

Don't worry, people get that you were trying to joke. It just wasn't particularly funny, to say nothing of being badly presented (why not use "worlds" instead of "planets" in your run-up to that joke).

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-18 04:33 pm UTC (link)
A single Star Cruiser, maneuvered into position, could drop dozens of weapons onto a target seconds after launch. Defending against such an attack, short of the use of other space vessels, would be essentially impossible. A handful of such ships could, if necessary, wipe an entire nation off the face of the Earth. In the face of such power, most rational nations would have no choice but to accept permanent American world rule.

You know, isn’t this just a magnification of one of the dominant strands of US military policy, namely: ‘overwhelming aerial firepower with incredibly limited political aims’ and almost zero chance of combat causalities or retaliation carried to extremes? Of course, as we know reality isn’t so simple.

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-19 04:02 am UTC (link)
From Conrad:

Whoops, above comment was from me, inadvertently omitted my name.

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-19 12:34 pm UTC (link)
It is, after a fashion, a revival of the old "American way of war"- peace through superior firepower. The use of massive firepower to destroy any enemy through attrition.

The goal isn't to fight: it's to be so powerful that no one wishes to fight you.

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[info]schizmatic
2004-01-19 06:57 am UTC (link)
I see that you, too, are drawn to his site with a morbid fascination. It gets kind of fun to examine, "What lunacy will young Adam propose today?" It is, quite frankly, amazing the extent to which the boy is losing contact with reality. Okay, I can maybe understand his bizarre non sequiter that allowing the expression of dissent will help Al Qaeda nuke the U.S. I have a bit more trouble following that he would rather incinerate all Asia than have even the shadow of a threat posed to America. But when he gets a great big chubby over enslaving not only the rest of the world, but other worlds as well, he has totally lost me.

If I hadn't read so many of his usenet posts, I'd think he was trying to be as over the tope as posible. I mean, not even Heinlein advocated finding less advanced alien races and enslaving them. I think that Yoshida is really, really confused about a definition of "freedom," which I think he identifies with "Anything having to do with America."

On a final note, the lad really pisses me off because he is quite clearly a fascist. Idiots like him also give ammunition to those people who conflate "conservative" with "fascist."

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(Anonymous)
2004-01-19 03:11 pm UTC (link)
Oh, I agree entirely. The sort of argumentation fielded is counterproductive both to those of us on the right side of the political playground in general and to advocates of specific goals, be that a constructive American role in leading the world, space exploration, education reform, protection of liberty etc.

Such people might well end up harming, in what limited power they ever have, what they seek to protect. Some friends are worse than enemies. I mean, show some of the stuff to a suitably deranged anti-american fanatic and I bet they won't be less inclined to shoot a defender of the United States, like the guys and girls on duty putting their life at risk in Iraq.

Hell, I once considered myself to be quite pro-American, not that I like _everything_ about the US or did so unconditionally, but every jingoist self-proclaimed patriot with World Hegemony dreams out there serves to convince me otherwise.

/Tyge

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