all militaries should spend 50% of their entire budget on assassins. countries will be way more afraid of starting wars if the ruling elite are just as likely to die as the peasant conscripts

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FaceThief9000@reddit

I mean maybe, given most wars are done at the behest of capital interests. If every countries oligarchs have to constantly worry about being taken out it might deter them.

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

I'm not sure if that premise is correct. War is extremely expensive and often unpopular.

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wiiferru666@reddit

Ask yourself what happens with the Money spent during these "expensive" Wars

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You could buy a different product. Instead of buying 1 trillion worth of military stuff why couldn't you just buy every hosehold a PS5 or something? The oligarchs get the same amount of money but the people will be much happier. War just seems like a really inefficient way to embezzle money.

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Empty-Quarter2721@reddit

Happy people are often lazy people, from time to time you have to scare them with a war so they get poor and their dhit gets destroyed so they will work their ass off again and make a lot of post war babys wo also will work their ass off.

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Weisenkrone@reddit

No, you are misunderstanding lol.

The people who push for wars aren't people who are selling PS5, it's companies with interests in selling tools for war.

A company thriving on people being happy about playing video games isn't the one who pushes for a war.

However you might see something like the automobile industry supporting the war effort with lobbying, because they crunches their numbers and realized that invading a country to get a stake on their oil reserves would lower the local price of gas enough to have a noticable impact on sales.

Now make this a hundred times more complex with not one industry but all of them pulling and pushing, with the stock market involved, geopolitics, diplomacy and allies, with politicans stirring the shit bucket and that's what pushes a modern nation to wage war.

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

The MIC is about 2.5% of GDP. Do you really think the other 97.5% don't care about wars going on? Or is the MIC this mythical weak-yet-strong enemy that can out-lobby the entire rest of the economy?

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Pale_Mud1771@reddit

It's not. Part of the reason behind an industrial military complexes is to funnel weapons towards freedom fighters when a opponent refuses to play ball.

Assassin's don't have the same pizzazz as tanks and missiles. An assassinated leader would be replaced immediately. The new guy might want to play ball, but his people won't let him unless they are terrified.

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

It's not. Part of the reasoning behind an industrial military complexes is to funnel weapons towards freedom fighters when an opponent refuses to play ball. It forces less militarized nations to forfeit their wealth for cheap; it much more profitable then an Xbox.

So you're saying they're doing war for geopolitical reasons rather than monetary ones?

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humblevladimirthegr8@reddit

It's harder to justify to the public why you're giving everyone a free random object. If it's for "national defense" or "winning the war" people are less willing to question it, as those who do want to lower the defense budget are often branded as enemy sympathizers

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Dinkelberh@reddit

There's definitely an economic oppurtunity cost to spending money building a tank instead of a tractor.

It's why the EU has been so succesful at preventing war between its member states.

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shponglespore@reddit

You're thinking of it from the perspective of an average person. Consider the perspective of an oligarch who's in the business of building tanks.

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wasabi788@reddit

And who needs the ressources extracted in the country the war is happening in to build the ps5 he's building on the side cheaper

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gdabull@reddit

The war debt following WW1 completely decimated the Upper class in Britain and saw the abandonment of many large country houses.

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That_Account6143@reddit

War is extremely profitable.

But it is at the cost of someone else every time.

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StuckinReverse89@reddit

Actually there is some merit in this. Heard of greed or grievance theory?

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/fr/359271468739530199/pdf/multi-page.pdf

War is generally costly but there are still opportunities to profit if you are in the right professions. There is an argument that although war can start due to grievances and people wanting a better state in life, it gets prolonged by warlords because they personally benefit from war.

War is also honestly a great engine for growth that has birthed a lot of companies. Corporations like Boeing benefit greatly from the military-industrial complex.

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AlarmedStorm1236@reddit

Go read war is a racket

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

I'm not going to read a book over a internet argument. If you have read it you should be able to explain the main examples from the book.

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AlarmedStorm1236@reddit

You can lead a camel to water….

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

Imagine reading an entire book and not even be able to sumerize the most important points. What a waste of time.

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jackfaire@reddit

Expensive for the taxpayers and unpopular with us. The oligarchs profit

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

You could buy a different product. Instead of buying 1 trillion worth of military stuff why couldn't you just buy every hosehold a PS5 or something? The oligarchs get the same amount of money but the people will be much happier. War just seems like a really inefficient way to embezzle money.

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jackfaire@reddit

Because war profiteering often means selling to both sides

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not_a_bot_494@reddit

What are some examples of US manufacturers/allies supplying nations we are actively fighting?

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jackfaire@reddit

I'm talking historical precedent. And we aren't the only country that fights wars.

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Jaymoacp@reddit

I mean they kinda do. We have special ops and cia n shit that probably kill people all the time.

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Separate_Wave1318@reddit

That is if you ignore what motivates leaders to go war.

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Interneteldar@reddit

Self-interest, no?

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Separate_Wave1318@reddit

Yes. So leaders have no reason to invest in getting rid of opposing nation leader as they are often more of co-worker than a nemesis.

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Interneteldar@reddit

Then no one would invest into nukes either.

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Separate_Wave1318@reddit

Having nuke can definitely work as a leverage against major power no matter the leverage is used for personal interest or national interest. If you are a corrupted dictator that wants to fend off foreign intervention as long as possible, nuke is a great option.

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Interneteldar@reddit

Way would you invest into a nuke if you didn't want to signal to other countries that you can obliterate them (including their leadership, and potentially pulling down all of humanity with you) if they want to mess with you?

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Separate_Wave1318@reddit

They DO want to signal other countries that they are capable of bring down offender with them. That is the whole point of asymmetric war including nuclear armament.

Raising assassin is different. It is a tool exclusively made as a surprise weapon. If you talk about it too much, you'll likely expose its weakness along with warning others.

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Interneteldar@reddit

OP implies that everyone knows about assassins existing in significant numbers. It's mutually assured destruction (since it's hard to catch every assassin out there) without nuclear winter and billions of innocents dying.

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Separate_Wave1318@reddit

Surely it's a different tool for different job. But assassin is easy to defend against if you are already at the state of war. Just go in to bunker or fly. It only works reasonable when target is not alarmed.

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ThePartyLeader@reddit

This would devastate window manufacturers.

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chef-rach-bitch@reddit

If anything it would be a boon.

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scoby_cat@reddit

This was in Dune! The reasoning is a war of assassins is more moral and leaves the economic engines intact

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LGBT-Barbie-Cookout@reddit

Until someone just ignored the rules and was powerful enough to not be stopped, whilst everyone else nominally still followed those rules.

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scoby_cat@reddit

That would be up to the landsraad

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LGBT-Barbie-Cookout@reddit

Which notably to Paul's best knowledge did nothing of consequence about the situation.

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scoby_cat@reddit

Yeah all the checks and balances pretty much failed.

Factions annoyed but doing essentially nothing

Landsraad (as mentioned)
CHOAM
Spacing Guild

Tried to do something but were too weak

Bene Gesserit
Bene Tleilax

Folded quickly and basically didn’t do anything because they didn’t care about the change much

Ixians

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V1keo@reddit

So it’s relevant to real life!

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CatFancier4393@reddit

Maybe someone nerdier can correct me.

CHOAM: Part of the deal for sparing house Corrino was to get all of their shares in CHOAM. Paul then became the majority owner.

Spacing Guild: Paul blackmailed them. Do what I say or I destroy the spice fields. Navigators are addicted to spice and will die without it. They do his bidding.

The Landsraad: Have no means to fight back, they can't transpirt their troops withoit the Spacing Guild, who work for Paul now for the aformentioned reason. With a monopoly on interspace travel Paul is able to divide the Universe and jihad one by one.

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scoby_cat@reddit

It won’t be me! Thanks for the summary

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WanderingFlumph@reddit

Hmmmmm I might have to watch Dune

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scoby_cat@reddit

You’ll have to READ Dune !

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TG1306@reddit

Is it really worth the read. I Watched the first movie because I knew the books were highly regarded but I found the movie to be pretty bad. So my first thought was maybe I should just read the books, but any time I think I might I remember how bad the movie was and become discouraged.

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Sunhating101hateit@reddit

Bad? Oo

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scoby_cat@reddit

My favorite is the 4th one, personally

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WanderingFlumph@reddit

Hmmmmm I might have to learn how to read for Dune

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lord_machin@reddit

I'm listening to them in audiobook format.

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CapitanM@reddit

The comic by Raúl Allen is a perfect adaptation

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scoby_cat@reddit

gud luk!

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DookieShoez@reddit

What?

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chaoss402@reddit

I wouldn't advise it. Reddit gets really shitty if you can read what people are saying.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

There are audio books.

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coltrainjones@reddit

Fine I won't look into dune at all. Thanks a lot

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scoby_cat@reddit

“Everyone ruins everything!”

(Runs off in tears)

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Sobsis@reddit

Read it. The movie doesn't discuss these intricacies. Movies good too but it's more a fun watch where all the content is actually in the book. Should read it first.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

Every single one of the movies tries pretty hard to be true to the story, but technology isn’t there yet, and of course, to tell it properly it would be a 20 hour long movie.

But I have always been impressed that, unlike other IPs, the Dune IP always has people doing their best to tell the story faithfully. Even going back to the earliest movies/miniseries.

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CatFancier4393@reddit

Movie adaptation was great! Faithful to the theme and moral of the books which the 1984 movie unfortunitally got wrong.

You're right tho, a "true" adaptation would be 20 hours long and involve telepathic baby ninjas.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

There are at least 3 movies and a couple mini series. All have strengths the others lack, and all are very good, for their time.

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Mediocre_Daikon6935@reddit

There are at least 3 movies and a couple mini series. All have strengths the others lack, and all are very good, for their time.

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1halfazn@reddit

The technology is there. The budget isn’t.

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Sobsis@reddit

I more meant that it won't explain in depth what kanly is.

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SummertimeThrowaway2@reddit

I watched it high as fuck and don’t remember a single thing

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chaoss402@reddit

I wouldn't advise it. Reddit gets really shitty once you can read what people are saying.

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Emergency_West_9490@reddit

Just let world leaders arm wrestle for territory. We will likely end up with an Icelandic strongman ruling us all but at least no more wars. Good enough for me.

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Vacuousbard@reddit

The problem is that assasin can't hold territory. Also, they're harder to take care of once they've gone rogue.

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gtbot2007@reddit

Idk I think it’s harder to take care of a rogue military

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burblity@reddit

A rogue military would be very easy to defeat, rogue is primarily a utility class

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rilly_in@reddit

Tell that to all of the countries that have had coups then right wing dictators.

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uvmn@reddit

Woosh

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SummertimeThrowaway2@reddit

Militaries have a strict structure of command, if one guy wants to steal a tank and go rogue, he will be killed or at least stopped before he even makes it out of the gate.

But if an assassin goes rogue you have to find them first

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itchylol742@reddit (OP)

this is r/crazyideas not r/sensibleideas

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AM-Thoughts@reddit

I mean, they kind of do already? I mean let's ignore the most practical methods of assassinating people with military-grade hardware (missile strike from a drone?), what exactly is it that you think special forces do?

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Spade9ja@reddit

What exactly do YOU think special forces do?

Lmao

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Spade9ja@reddit

This is the most “I watch way too much anime” response I’ve ever seen

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TacticalSunroof69@reddit

Didn’t they do something like this in the mid east like 1500 years ago?

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TeamSpatzi@reddit

Is you hadn’t noticed, world leaders treat each other as members of the same elite club.

It’s not a lack of ability, it’s a lack of interest.

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Restryouis@reddit

It's very naive to think that the ones profiting from war are not playing both sides.

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WF-2@reddit

This idea is far more effective and ethical than nuclear mutually assured destruction.

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Usual_Zombie6765@reddit

I mean the U.S. was doing this in the early CIA days. But it was too destabilizing. So they moved to other forms of statecraft.

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Nuryadiy@reddit

At the same time, countries could just send assassins to take out their oppositions and fill the seats with their allies

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Epicsaber@reddit

That's naruto

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dwarven_cavediver_Jr@reddit

The morag tong IRL

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redbo@reddit

Army, Navy, coast guard, and John Wicks.

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Ambitious_Display607@reddit

Don't forget about space John Wicks!

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Zuzcaster@reddit

Sounds like some of my total war game runs.

as for RL:

loyalty. little to stop the assasins from pulling a coup.

also, incentivizing that skillset to be widespread ... many knockon effects.

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JumpInTheSun@reddit

An explosive device implanted into the base of their skull.

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justdidapoo@reddit

Genius bot.