Ahem…

Yes.

Why don’t I ever get the fucking sniper rifle?

Geometry.

The first clocks were sundials, which worked by putting a line on the ground. As soon as you comparing two different lines on the ground, you are doing geometry to represent time.

When you start messing around with geometry, you need an easy way to describe the angle of an equilateral triangle. 1/6th of a circle, or 1/3rd of a line. Trying to represent 1/3 or 1/6th in base 10 is fugly. Trying to divide a circle into 10 equal sections is just as fugly.

Dividing a circle into 6 equal sections is trivial: after you draw the circle with your compass, walk the compass around the perimeter. You have just inscribed a hexagon.

You’re still missing the angle of 1/4 of a circle: the angles of a square. Those are pretty important in geometry as well. It’s fairly trivial to draw another 6 points between the first 6 on your circle.

We use a 12-hour clock because of basic geometry. The 360-degree circle is the bastard child of basic geometry and a base-10 number system.

Broken Clock.

That makes sense from an outside perspective, sure. But your criticism was about Americans turning a blind eye to the “cultural” problem.

Within the US, blaming gun violence on “culture” means pointing out that 13-17% of the population commits (and are the victims of) 55-65% of the murders. Blaming “culture” means pointing out that mass shooters are predominantly white, they also account for less than 1% of all murders.

The Americans broadly adopting your “cultural problem” argument are MAGAts. Normal Americans are turning a blind eye to that viewpoint, rather than being lumped in with those racist pricks.

We “tend to turn a blind eye to it” because “cultural problem” is primarily used as a racist dog whistle.

If your intention was to point at the underlying cause, you need to be talking about systematic impoverization, lack of generational wealth, devaluation of labor, etc.

Waffle Stomp!

and part of that is that adults absolutely do buy stupid status symbols to flex on each other.

Exactly. And when they do, we don’t say “Well, that’s just what humanity does”.

We say “Despise these covetous pricks”.

The alternative is some variety of private mortgage insurance. The insurer bets that housing prices will rise, so that you won’t default. If you do default, they reimburse the lender on their losses associated with your default.

I use “philosophy” to mean one’s individual, personal relationship with reality: how they choose to interact with the world around them. I understand this is a somewhat atypical use. There is probably a better word for that concept. It eludes me at this time.

As I used the term, “Christian teachings” (etc.) would only qualify as a philosophy if the individual actually adheres to those tenets. If not, those teachings are just a work of fiction.

There certainly are “striking similarities” throughout the the populace and time. My point is that we don’t need to accept, excuse, explain, or tolerate those widespread behaviors simply because they are widespread. As I see it, “Human nature” is a slightly more egalitarian synonym for “boys will be boys”.

What’s the culture where people don’t covet meaningless status symbols?

While there are numerous examples of such philosophies and cultures around the globe, I don’t actually need to identify such a culture to demonstrate my point.

If one can remain human without engaging in this behavior, this behavior is not a characteristic of the human condition.

The question before you is whether the members of such a hypothetical culture are inhuman specifically because they do not engage in that covetous behavior.

The abhorrent behaviors being described are conditions of ideas held by certain members of the species. The species is not lessened by the rejection of such ideas. The “certain members” are lessened by their adherence to those ideas.

Jet-A is kerosene and a handful of additives, mostly to prevent gelling at low temperatures. The ability to produce jet fuel from sea water would be extremely useful, but I highly doubt they have developed a feasible system on board a carrier.

Don’t pretend we’ve ever been better than that as a species.

Will you make the argument that people who refuse to follow such fashion trends are somehow inhuman?

If you are unwilling to make such an argument, I will not accept your premise that this is a trait of the “species”.

What you (and the parent comment) are describing is a characteristic of certain childish behaviors, philosophies and cultures.

The sophomoric behavior of these geriatric children is not an indictment of humanity in general.

Those aren’t adults. Those are geriatric children.

Don’t touch our boats.

If you get rid of the US’s 11 CATOBAR supercarriers and only use its STOVL “amphibious assault ships”, the US Navy still has more planes than any other navy in the world.

With the supercarriers, the US Navy has nearly twice as many naval aircraft as the rest of the world combined.

Nope, sorry, Israel isn’t going to be enough of a distraction from all the

Child Rape.

That would be my preference, too. But I can settle for the latter.

Child Rapist attempts yet another distraction.

I’m not an unreasonable person. In lieu of the Epstein Files, I’m willing to accept your obituary.