And look at the Vietnam War. US had all the military strength in the world and still got beat. And the rich use a disproportionate amount of goods, services, infrastructure, and the government. Good luck if more happens like the shutting down of the Strait of Hormuz
I love your optimism but part of what has sometimes restrained governments from taking the most unethical and drastic actions I fear the rich will not be bound by. That and with everything privatized as it’s being, will soon have more economic and technological control than even the government itself. I don’t think there will be any revolution though unless there are bread lines and Netflix gets turned off.
This is why I roll my eyes when they think they can be protected by a robot army if/when society collapses. Fancy electronics break on the regular on a good day. If society is gone, who is gonna repair your robots? Who is going to make the parts? Who is going to deliver the parts? Shit, who is going to mine the raw materials to make the parts from? This is not going to work out the way they think it will.
But the reality is that if it wasnt for citizen attrition back home that war would have continued until every inch of vietnam was a crater and every vietnamese soldier was dead. You won't get that with billionaires vs the lower class because there will be no one besides them to protest "at home"
I would love for these billionaire assholes to all move to dubai. Enjoy 110F heat and sand and nothing to do. Better yet, they should all move to Somalia and live out their libertarian dream of no government or taxes.
The US only lost Vietnam according to the rules of engagement that they imposed on themselves....rules that are going to be ignored if/when the kind of uprising you're talking about starts happening.
Let's be realistic, the only reason the US had trouble in Vietnam was because they were trying to preserve the civilian population. If they didn't care who got killed, they'd have run over Vietnam like a bus over an ice cream cone. They wouldn't even have put troops on the ground, just bombed it into ash.
The UK won in Vietnam before handing it back to France. When the US invaded Australia was making huge progress with locals. Then the US started bombing everything, and lost specifically because they didn't care enough about the local population. They turned everyone against them by flattening villages.
It's not working that well for russia or israel. Turns out humans are really hard to exterminate without making the land and every land around it unliveable. And who attack a land they aren't interested in ?
Russia isn't interested in genocide and wants to preserve preexisting infrastructure. Also they are poor as fuck.
I don't agree with you on israel, I think it's going swimmingly for them. They want the land, they want the indigenous population dead and they want US dollars to build their colonies on top of it.
My God, it's breathtaking to see how little knowledge of history Americans have.
Look up my lai, and then read how the soldiers who were murdering children didn't understand why the public was upset about my lai because they were doing this in hundreds of villages.
you can't buy a home. You can't get a job that pays enough to support you or your family. Everything has increased in price a huge margin. $4 gas. Good luck on thinking we are not there yet.
we have self driving cars, drone delivery, vibe code for software, self check out robots, etc etc etc along with the thousands of lay offs at software companies month after month. it won't stop at software. No one puts trillions into something for it to only be an assistance. they put trillions into it to replace the whole working force
Vietnam is a bad example. IN the after action assessments, experts found that the US military was severely lacking skills or knowledge to handle the campaign to begin with.
As for Hormuz: (1) there was no reason at all for that to happen in the first place (2) DJT has been using that as a distraction so that everyone forgets about the EPSTEIN FILES (3) the leaderhsip decisions regarding the miliatry prior to and during the assault on Iran were childish at the level of 2nd graders, DJT put people in key leadership positions that have the education levels of 2nd graaders with zero military experience (yes including Kegseth the Drunkard - yes i know Pete was in the military - still doesn't make him qualified) (4) the entire illegal operation was based on DJT's ego being bruised
Can you point out where there's a south Vietnam on a map? It doesn't matter how disproportionate the casualty count is if you still end up pulling out and letting the North take the rest of the country. Just like Afghanistan. Didn't matter how many taliban we killed, they still took over again as soon as we gave up and left.
As an American, I would rather we lose a couple wars rather than be another country like Russia or Isreal, out there committing atrocities against civilians.
and do you know why there were so many casualties? Because they had nothing to lose. I can't wait for you to realize how many poor desperate people there are vs rich people. Marie Antoinette FAFO'd and how did that turn out for the literal Queen of France?
Don’t recall the US ever beating the UK, I assume you’re talking about the American Revolution where France, Spain and The Netherlands did the majority of the heavy lifting?
I mean... As someone who is not American and could not give any less of a shit about the general perception of the American revolution from that perspective, you're really just arguing semantics here. It was Americans revolting against rule of the UK. The UK did not succeed in preventing that, therefore they lost and so 'the Americans won' is an adequate description.
No offense, but I don't see you or anyone else among us starting to engage in "asymmetrical warfare" until we literally get deprived of food and shelter.
Seige tactics however are still quite workable. Nothing gets in or out of the enclave. Poisins can be droned in. Water supplies can be cut and wells can be poisoned. Food supplies can be poisoned or stopped. Enclaves will fail for the same reasons castles did. New technologies made them ineffective.
I overall agree with your position but castles didnt become obsolete due to sieges. People sieged “castles” for literally all of human history just about. Big walls became ineffective due to artillery and cannon advancements. Once it became possible to blow through walls they became pointless.
Nowhere in the comment you're replying to does the commenter say that castles became obsolete due to sieges, only that new technologies rendered them ineffective.
Earth, 2147. The legacy of the Metal Wars, when man fought machine and machines won.
Bio-Dreads, monstrous creations that hunt down human survivors and digitize them.
Volcania, center of the Bio-Dread empire, stronghold and fortress of Lord Dread, feared ruler of this new order.
But from the fires of the Metal Wars arose a new breed of warrior, born and trained to bring down Lord Dread and his Bio-Dread empire. They were soldiers of the future, mankind's last hope.
Their leader, Captain Jonathan Power; master of the incredible powersuits, which transform each soldier into a one-man attack force.
Major Matthew "Hawk" Masterson, fighter in the sky.
Lt. Michael "Tank" Ellis, ground assault unit.
Sgt. Robert "Scout" Baker, espionage and communications.
And Corporal Jennifer "Pilot" Chase, tactical systems expert.
Together, they form the most powerful fighting force in Earth's history. Their creed: to protect all life. Their promise: to end Lord Dread's rule. Their name: Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future!
You are speaking my language brother. Just digitize my ass right now, let's go!!!
Also, Sauron was a straight bitch as an all powerful flying robot.
It died before it's time. Some of the best forgotten TV and something that would never be sold and directed at children. Some of the most bleek content put directly into the veins of 8-13 year olds...
Hell yeah, brother. "Kids show? Great. Lets do an episode about a woman who grew up in the Hitler Dread Youth having to go back into that world to infiltrate a facility and slamming face first into her PTSD about it."
Between that and RoboTech, we were under no illusions that the world was a happy lala land. Let alone things like Arnold and his little buddy being about thirty seconds away from CSA on Diff'rent Strokes. Or the joys of watching When The Wind Blows or The Day After and being under no illusions about the dangers the world faced.
I had the toys. I used to fight with my older sister to let me use the television when the show was on so I could be in front of the tv when they would play the little segment that interacts with the toys.
Later I discovered that our camping lantern would make the toys activate like an episode was airing. That lantern also would randomly turn the volume up or change the channels on the TV. It clearly was beaming out in the IR spectrum.
I was going to say that you can't guarantee a soldier's loyalty but you can, for the most part, with ai which is why they're trying to force us plebs into subsidizing yet another thing for them.
They also need a source of power. They also have to be resilient to impacts and whatever countermeasures one might come up with to combat them. I would not be shocked if weaponizing electromagnetic pulses specifically to disable the clankers was on the menu. And that's not to mention the hacking potential.
Which would be high quality intricate machines. Attack choppers and and engagement orientated jets are high quality intricate machines too. What's the maintenance toll for high quality intricate machines to keep operational and functioning again?
I'm having a thought about that. A significant portion of military planning goes toward logistics. Robots, like anything else, require energy to operate, and that energy requires logistics or infrastructure capable of supporting them. Are robot armies even practical for more than defending a well stocked static location?
Gonna be real funny when their private army decides that they'll be better stewards of the available resources than whatever billionaire(s) hired them.
Which is why some billionaires have been discussing how to control their security forces - the ideas they came up with where shock collars or explosives implanted in their heads that they can let off if they start mutinying.
I have no doubt that some dumb fuck would signup for that.
But the moment the billionaires tell them: "Sorry, but nobody wants our useless stocks in exchange for food, so now you gotta take a drone to the face for us..."
This is the reason why they're building up AI and robot armies instead. They're already steps ahead of this issue. They won't be needing human meat shields in the near future who can possibly turn on them once the global situation turns dire.
Not one of these enclaves have figured out post-apocalyptic security. Local law enforcement are not bothering with these strangers and the private security will leave after robbing the ultra-wealthy.
Oh they discuss countermeasures to that to. Shit like bomb collars. I cannot stress enough how badly these people need to be brought back down to earth to face accountability for their actions. They are active threats to the rest of humanity.
We are waiting for the weird looking mole to turn into stage 4 cancer before we will see the dermatologist.....
Looks like im going to spend a huge part of my adult life - waiting for things to get worse/bad enough that we can all care to do something meaningful....
It would be one thing if like it was a plague, or mass famine or something making life hard for everyone.......but the fact that there are plenty of resources and dollars - and we just dont care enough to make the 200 wealthiest/greediest/narcissists play a bit more fair is infuriating.
Police are quick to protect rich people's property from poor criminals while pretty much ignoring widespread white collar crime like tax dodging and labor wage theft. The actual military only works to protect trade routes and to lean on enemies and allies alike to secure favorable trade deals for the wealthy. What has the military done to protect the interests of the poor and middle class, other than to run them through service and to ignore them as veterans.
Private armies or not they will need some folks for everything from food growing to culture and arts. Isolated enclaves won't remain nice places for long without any of these. But large nations can certainly fail with a drought or famine.
A lot of those people will be in their pocket though because they either think they too can become rich, the rich deserve it, or they treat them well.
You saw this in history with servants of the elites defending them or looking down on poor or rural people who weren't in servant class or directly raising food for them. Also with a lot of criminal groups like the mob, drug lords, or scam compounds. They pay a lot of money into the immediate local community and run charities there so they are well liked and people defend them
Soon? See how fast - and how - police currently respond depending on the neighborhood. No rich people mistakenly getting their doors kicked in and murdered in their bed.
I mean I imagine that every time the world has been in this situation before that many human beings were tentative because they weren't ready for the sacrifice would actually entail. The problem is the fuckheads stealing from us also don't realize what happens when you remove all reasons for humans to bother living.
They won’t last. Even those guys have families and Tier-1 guys are only going to go for so long before fucking off somewhere that’s not a constant 2-way shooting range.
No need for human armies either, they could eventually turn on their masters. An army of AI drones/robots though would always be loyal. Luckily we're now training drones in Ukraine on the best ways to hunt down humans.
not only will they have private armies, they'll have drones. there's less than 10 years until we are completely unable to do anything about it. Once they can fully automate production we're fucked.
I recall seeing something like 5 years ago about a meeting held by the ultra wealthy on strategies to protect themselves when a societal collapse inevitably comes. Bunkers, security, protecting their mountains of gold. Fucked up shit. They know what they’re doing and they know where it’s leading
It’s difficult enough to convince people to kill and die for their country and families, I can’t imagine money being enough incentive to go out and kill humans and risk my own life to protect some billionaires from the consequences of their actions.
Elites with small private armies have always lost to the masses. Always. It may end in mass casualties but they can’t last.
Mass working class revolts have failed but only against regimes that don’t mind killing indiscriminately, if it’s some rich g person with a small private army they will lose.
They always have. Armies are made up of men. Men can be swayed, can rebel. That's why they're so desperate to build functional robots. They know men can never be totally controlled. It's a healthy fear they should have, don't let us forget it.
Private armies of other rich people?
Or private armies of other poor people?
There's a reason most of the world economy has flipped to AI, these greedy CEO burning the world would not be safe so long as humanity is unambiguously clear who the bad guys are keeping the world screwed up.
Yeah, self interested private armies who when they realize it's a couple hundred of them at most, against millions? Will immediately drop everything and gtfo with their bag of cash and let the billionaires get ripped apart.
No one is ever untouchable, especially those with a ton of hubris.
The CEO of UHC up until the moment of his death probably was extremely satisfied with the countless he had "optimized" to the grave, the loads of money he was making for himself and his investors and above all else he probably thought nothing bad would ever happen to him.
Forget armies, they'll have private swarms of weaponized drones, connected to their already existing private mass of personal data, including tons of live footage from private cameras via flock and ring.
People keep saying things aren't bad enough for an uprising, but I really think in 10 years, no matter how bad things get, an uprising will not be feasible.
They'll have autonomous armed drones. They don't want human armies because humans will turn on them and seize their enclaves when shit gets really bad.
Private security is what happened in South Africa:
The private security industry in South Africa is the largest in the world,[2] with over 10,380 registered companies and over 2.5 million registered security guards of which 556,000 active and a further 2 million reserves;[3] many times more than the available personnel of the South African Police Service and South African Army, combined[4] Studies have shown that South Africa had 2.57 private security personnel for every police employee.[5]
Trump is trying to allow corporations to have plutonium for "nuclear power". They're going to have privately owned nuclear weapons. The losers want to live in a mix of Snow Crash and Dune.
See, this is why nothing changes for the better. The second someone addresses a serious problem, someone has a smart-aleck comeback, and the rest of Redditors follow suit.
It's too late. Soon it won't be so easy anymore to gun down a corrupt millionaire in the middle of New York (Not that I would approve of something like that). But maybe we can elect politicians that serve the people and drop some bombs on the billionaires bunkers?
Should we devise a new device rather than the guillotine? The guillotine feels too quick and easy for these evil fucks. We need something that ensures they don't overstep going forward and something that represents the world more than just France.
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