Foreign Involvement #

In the US, we have the Department of Defense - the DOD. Whenever I think about that name, I can’t help but think about that quote from 1984. The Department of Defense is primarily concerned with war.

But, literally Orwellian naming aside, what does it matter? Are there any just wars? And even beyond war, what should the role of a nation be in an international community? Should each nation look after their own first, should nations intervene when rights are not respected? Should we try to feed starving children across the world? How do we tackle climate change as underdeveloped nations start to industrialize? Should borders be open or rigidly closed - both for trade and for residence?

War & Defense #

Just war theory #

Denuclearization #

Localization #

• Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Name
• The Problem with Time & Timezones (YouTube)
• Google Maps is Different in Other Countries (YouTube)

US Tampering in Foreign Affairs #

This embeddable version of this video is a re-upload. The original, from ‘Second Thought’ on YouTube, is here but has been age restricted and has been shadow-banned by YouTube. The entire situation just proves the point, here’s the video creator’s twitter thread on the issue (click to see the entire thread)

This is going to be an important thread. We need to talk about YouTube, and private media operations in general

This thread was prompted by YouTube’s shadow ban of my new video, but that’s really just a minor inconvenience. The whole story involves YouTube, the DHS, and the CIA

— JT Chapman (@_SecondThought) November 28, 2020

But to me, the stand-out tweet is this one:

That video earned me a visit from the DHS, who asked me about "Anti-American sentiment" in my videos. That was the first time I realized, wow, I guess people really are monitoring what we say and are willing to try to intimidate us, even if what we say is objectively true.

— JT Chapman (@_SecondThought) November 28, 2020