Makes sense, especially in light of how many comment sections devolve into political shouting matches even when the original post/news story wasn't political. Everything is either for or against my team.
I would frame this differently. It isn’t about binary conflict, it’s about competition verses cooperation. Team sports are strictly competitive. Individual sports are as well, but they introduce the concept of personal best. The arts should never be a competition. It robs them of their individual greatness and universality. Our individual strength might benefit from some level of competition, but our humanity as a whole and the good of our ecosystem depends on sadly deemphasized cooperation. Until we lean to value cooperation more than competition, we will never truly progress.
Here is some more telling about America. In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. In his 2013 book America’s Deadliest Export, William Blum reported that the United States after World War II: worked to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments; interfered in elections held by 30 sovereign nations; tried to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders; bombed more than 30 nations; and tried to suppress nationalist, leftist, and populist movements in at least 20 nations. (These numbers need to be updated for the last three years of the Obama administration and the Trump and Biden presidencies to include, among other things, US funding and protection of Israel’s 2023-20?? genocide in Gaza, Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela’s sovereign elected president, and Trump’s reckless and failing fiasco of a war on Iran.) The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice) and has brought the world remarkably close to nuclear annihilation on multiple occasions. It is the clear leader in the global march to societal collapse if not human extinction via climate collapse, ecocide (broadly understood), nuclear proliferation, pandemicide, and artificial intelligence
"The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice)", I agree with your entire post except this one. The poor Marines that were drug into the war by the powers in charge of the U.S. could not invade anymore islands controlled by the Japanese without massive casualties. Read "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge and you will understand why war is so bad and you would never volunteer to fight in any wars. Those Marines suffered enough and the atomic bombs ended their suffering.
The fact the Russians were landing in Japan not the nuclear bombs ended the war. Bombs do not end wars.Reearch that before you give a reactionary response.
Sport rivals or opposing political parties need each other, the way you can make a perfectly serviceable Batman movie without Robin, but take away The Joker and Batman goes from "The Dark Knight" to a LARPing weirdo who takes himself way too seriously.
I think they are trying to defuse the competition in these situations. If they had two contestants the show would be more intense, and the producers are aiming for entertainment not combat. Three contestants makes it more like a talk show or reality show. This is even more obvious on the earliest game shows with three players (I've Got a Secret, Queen for a Day, The Dating Game, etc.).
Makes sense, especially in light of how many comment sections devolve into political shouting matches even when the original post/news story wasn't political. Everything is either for or against my team.
I would frame this differently. It isn’t about binary conflict, it’s about competition verses cooperation. Team sports are strictly competitive. Individual sports are as well, but they introduce the concept of personal best. The arts should never be a competition. It robs them of their individual greatness and universality. Our individual strength might benefit from some level of competition, but our humanity as a whole and the good of our ecosystem depends on sadly deemphasized cooperation. Until we lean to value cooperation more than competition, we will never truly progress.
Many of those Nazis who went home at night and listened to Beethoven also had stomach ailments.
Here is some more telling about America. In his book Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, the political scientist David Michael Smith calculates that the US has been responsible or shared responsibility for the death of 54 million people between 1945 and 2020. Add in domestic social killing and move the time back to the founding of the American Empire in 1776 and the body count climbs to 300 million. In his 2013 book America’s Deadliest Export, William Blum reported that the United States after World War II: worked to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments; interfered in elections held by 30 sovereign nations; tried to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders; bombed more than 30 nations; and tried to suppress nationalist, leftist, and populist movements in at least 20 nations. (These numbers need to be updated for the last three years of the Obama administration and the Trump and Biden presidencies to include, among other things, US funding and protection of Israel’s 2023-20?? genocide in Gaza, Trump’s boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuela’s sovereign elected president, and Trump’s reckless and failing fiasco of a war on Iran.) The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice) and has brought the world remarkably close to nuclear annihilation on multiple occasions. It is the clear leader in the global march to societal collapse if not human extinction via climate collapse, ecocide (broadly understood), nuclear proliferation, pandemicide, and artificial intelligence
"The United States is the only country to have attacked human beings (unnecessarily) with nuclear weapons (twice)", I agree with your entire post except this one. The poor Marines that were drug into the war by the powers in charge of the U.S. could not invade anymore islands controlled by the Japanese without massive casualties. Read "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge and you will understand why war is so bad and you would never volunteer to fight in any wars. Those Marines suffered enough and the atomic bombs ended their suffering.
The fact the Russians were landing in Japan not the nuclear bombs ended the war. Bombs do not end wars.Reearch that before you give a reactionary response.
Sport rivals or opposing political parties need each other, the way you can make a perfectly serviceable Batman movie without Robin, but take away The Joker and Batman goes from "The Dark Knight" to a LARPing weirdo who takes himself way too seriously.
Ted: How does your binary thesis explain the popularity of Jeopardy!? Every episodes is a three-way competition, not a two-way one. Same with Wheel.
I think they are trying to defuse the competition in these situations. If they had two contestants the show would be more intense, and the producers are aiming for entertainment not combat. Three contestants makes it more like a talk show or reality show. This is even more obvious on the earliest game shows with three players (I've Got a Secret, Queen for a Day, The Dating Game, etc.).