Dead Carl
@deadcarl.bsky.social
www.deadcarl.com
Writer on Clausewitz, international relations, and German history. Words in American Purpose.
Kiran Pfitzner
Writer on Clausewitz, international relations, and German history. Words in American Purpose.
Kiran Pfitzner
Pinned
Dead Carl
@deadcarl.bsky.social
· Nov 14
The Myth of Military Logic
How "military necessity" became the key-stone of militarism
www.deadcarl.com
Since there's a lot of us migrating, I figured I should make a thread of some of the better things I've written as an introduction (and of course, self promotion:
Reposted by Dead Carl
this is exactly why I am absolutely not willing to overlook anyone who was once “advocating for ending USAID” as merely committing a little oopsie-daisy-booboo, by the way
The Project 2025 author is using millions of dollars in USAID money for his own security detail.
It is estimated that 762,000 people have *already died* as a result of Elon Musk and Russell Vought’s obscene murder of USAID, including more than 500,000 children.
Vought is a mass murderer.
It is estimated that 762,000 people have *already died* as a result of Elon Musk and Russell Vought’s obscene murder of USAID, including more than 500,000 children.
Vought is a mass murderer.
Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show
The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief and an archit...
www.reuters.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:50 AM
this is exactly why I am absolutely not willing to overlook anyone who was once “advocating for ending USAID” as merely committing a little oopsie-daisy-booboo, by the way
Reposted by Dead Carl
🧵: I'm uniquely qualified to frisk this. From 2010 to 2014 I was the Cultural Advisor to the Commandant & Professor of National Security & Strategy at US Army War College & the Deputy to the Director of the US Army Culture & Foreign Language Directorate. I'll explain what that meant at the end. 1/
The worst thing you will read today. I used to be a WaRrIoR until I had to wear a suit at the war college!
amgreatness.com/2026/02/16/m...
amgreatness.com/2026/02/16/m...
Making the War Colleges Great Again › American Greatness
As President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth work to restore the focus of America’s military on lethality and warfighting, one of their major tasks has been to reform the institutions…
amgreatness.com
February 16, 2026 at 8:52 PM
🧵: I'm uniquely qualified to frisk this. From 2010 to 2014 I was the Cultural Advisor to the Commandant & Professor of National Security & Strategy at US Army War College & the Deputy to the Director of the US Army Culture & Foreign Language Directorate. I'll explain what that meant at the end. 1/
Unless Republicans are looking incredibly vulnerable come 2027, I would expect Dem primary voters to be too cautious to favor AOC. Considering AOC’s youth and outsider status, if I were her I’d wait for a cycle where primary voters will be more amenable to risk taking.
from the perspective of someone who might want to be president, the best time to run for the white house is now, not later. so if AOC is thinking about it — if the white house is her ambition — then her best bet is to throw her hat in the ring
You Know What? Maybe the Time Is Right for an AOC Presidential Bid
She’s only 36, and there’s a good argument that she should run for Senate and bide her time. But she also could be a formidable White House candidate.
newrepublic.com
February 17, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Unless Republicans are looking incredibly vulnerable come 2027, I would expect Dem primary voters to be too cautious to favor AOC. Considering AOC’s youth and outsider status, if I were her I’d wait for a cycle where primary voters will be more amenable to risk taking.
Reposted by Dead Carl
Every “apolitical military professional” the moment they decide they don’t like policymakers telling them what to do:
February 16, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Every “apolitical military professional” the moment they decide they don’t like policymakers telling them what to do:
Reposted by Dead Carl
Man I don’t know, sometimes for me social media isn’t about trumpeting my own righteousness? Sometimes people do convince me of stuff? Sometimes discussing things with people helps me realize stuff and hone arguments?
February 16, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Man I don’t know, sometimes for me social media isn’t about trumpeting my own righteousness? Sometimes people do convince me of stuff? Sometimes discussing things with people helps me realize stuff and hone arguments?
Reposted by Dead Carl
Evidently, something was broken with the other link. So, here, I've written about the right-wing attacks on PME and civilian educational institutions.
othermeans.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
othermeans.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
The Myth of the Warfighter
The Soldier and the Educational Institutions
othermeans.substack.com
February 16, 2026 at 9:59 PM
Evidently, something was broken with the other link. So, here, I've written about the right-wing attacks on PME and civilian educational institutions.
othermeans.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
othermeans.substack.com/p/the-myth-o...
Reposted by Dead Carl
I really do think this is very instructive of the ratfuckery that any Dem (not just AOC if she does run) is going to face unfortunately and I’m not really sure how you deal with it
Have you ever once seen the New York Times quote Trump like this?
February 16, 2026 at 8:04 PM
I really do think this is very instructive of the ratfuckery that any Dem (not just AOC if she does run) is going to face unfortunately and I’m not really sure how you deal with it
Reposted by Dead Carl
>we shouldn't have people thinking of politics when their job is warfighting
>proceeds to insert a political judgement about the efficacy of the use of violence to achieve a strategic end
curious
>proceeds to insert a political judgement about the efficacy of the use of violence to achieve a strategic end
curious
February 16, 2026 at 6:29 PM
>we shouldn't have people thinking of politics when their job is warfighting
>proceeds to insert a political judgement about the efficacy of the use of violence to achieve a strategic end
curious
>proceeds to insert a political judgement about the efficacy of the use of violence to achieve a strategic end
curious
The coalition had a peak of around 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, a country of 40 million people. It’s more than a little absurd to suggest that no amount of military force could have altered the outcome.
February 16, 2026 at 7:16 PM
The coalition had a peak of around 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, a country of 40 million people. It’s more than a little absurd to suggest that no amount of military force could have altered the outcome.
Every “apolitical military professional” the moment they decide they don’t like policymakers telling them what to do:
February 16, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Every “apolitical military professional” the moment they decide they don’t like policymakers telling them what to do:
“The subordination of the political point of view to the military would be contrary to common sense, for policy has declared the war; it is the intelligent faculty, war only the instrument, and not the reverse.”
-Carl v Clausewitz
-Carl v Clausewitz
State department budget: $58 billion
DOD budget: $850 billion
DOD budget: $850 billion
February 16, 2026 at 6:36 PM
“The subordination of the political point of view to the military would be contrary to common sense, for policy has declared the war; it is the intelligent faculty, war only the instrument, and not the reverse.”
-Carl v Clausewitz
-Carl v Clausewitz
Reposted by Dead Carl
Platner's dismissive comments about sexual assault in the military were so disgusting that a candidate who had experienced assault in the service dropped out to endorse Mills rather than risk Platner getting into the senate. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/progressiv...
Progressive Candidate Has Dropped Out Of ME Senate Race
Not Platner. Daira Smith-Rodriguez
www.everythingishorrible.net
February 15, 2026 at 7:10 AM
Platner's dismissive comments about sexual assault in the military were so disgusting that a candidate who had experienced assault in the service dropped out to endorse Mills rather than risk Platner getting into the senate. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/progressiv...
If we’re serious about restoring civic virtue, it starts with holding our own side to standards.
It suggests to me that you don’t take bigotry serious if you don’t the intellectual honesty to hold back from spurious but personally advantageous accusations.
February 16, 2026 at 6:28 AM
If we’re serious about restoring civic virtue, it starts with holding our own side to standards.
Reposted by Dead Carl
One of my black pill moments was that Biden actually focused on lifting the lowest quartiles up at the expense of the rich and the online left screamed at him about student loan forgiveness.
The vibecession was primarily driven by lower sentiment among the upper and middle classes, not the lower classes.
February 15, 2026 at 10:05 PM
One of my black pill moments was that Biden actually focused on lifting the lowest quartiles up at the expense of the rich and the online left screamed at him about student loan forgiveness.
Reposted by Dead Carl
What I really fucking love about Hot Fuzz is that it is a rare piece of artwork that unapologetically defends liberal modernity.
A representative of the impartial, uniform rule of law & depersonalized state beings justice to a lawless, backward community run by a wretched clique of local grandees.
A representative of the impartial, uniform rule of law & depersonalized state beings justice to a lawless, backward community run by a wretched clique of local grandees.
February 16, 2026 at 5:44 AM
What I really fucking love about Hot Fuzz is that it is a rare piece of artwork that unapologetically defends liberal modernity.
A representative of the impartial, uniform rule of law & depersonalized state beings justice to a lawless, backward community run by a wretched clique of local grandees.
A representative of the impartial, uniform rule of law & depersonalized state beings justice to a lawless, backward community run by a wretched clique of local grandees.
Reposted by Dead Carl
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
November 28, 2025 at 7:01 PM
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying.
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
Reposted by Dead Carl
Like cheap liquor, jello shooters, and beer bongs, Marxist analysis is fun in undergrad but it should stay there.
February 15, 2026 at 8:55 PM
Like cheap liquor, jello shooters, and beer bongs, Marxist analysis is fun in undergrad but it should stay there.
Reposted by Dead Carl
my take is that vibecession was a product of two really nasty global supply shocks (COVID and Ukraine), the general disruption of life from COVID and its aftershocks, ZIRP dying and cheap credit disappearing, and the pop-up COVID welfare state poofing out of existence
"People were doing materially better in significant ways but economic sentiment was in the toilet during COVID" really feels like maybe the issue is COVID and not other stuff.
February 16, 2026 at 12:11 AM
my take is that vibecession was a product of two really nasty global supply shocks (COVID and Ukraine), the general disruption of life from COVID and its aftershocks, ZIRP dying and cheap credit disappearing, and the pop-up COVID welfare state poofing out of existence
Reposted by Dead Carl
So like, this is extremely close to explicitly saying Germans shouldn’t be ashamed of the Third Reich, right?
February 15, 2026 at 10:47 PM
So like, this is extremely close to explicitly saying Germans shouldn’t be ashamed of the Third Reich, right?
Reposted by Dead Carl
No bastard ever won a war by dying for his multicultural economic zone. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his autarkic ethnostate.
“You’re gonna die for a ‘multicultural economic zone?’”
“Someone is.”
“Someone is.”
Also, here’s a photo of people dying to defend a “multicultural economic zone”
February 16, 2026 at 12:13 AM
No bastard ever won a war by dying for his multicultural economic zone. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his autarkic ethnostate.
Reposted by Dead Carl
It’s extraordinarily dangerous twice over: we convince ourselves that we can be popular by enacting the exact policies that just failed to make us popular, AND we alienate people who gambled on our policies by refusing to acknowledge they enacted them
February 15, 2026 at 11:06 PM
It’s extraordinarily dangerous twice over: we convince ourselves that we can be popular by enacting the exact policies that just failed to make us popular, AND we alienate people who gambled on our policies by refusing to acknowledge they enacted them
Reposted by Dead Carl
Biden was the most economically progressive president since LBJ at least, he pursued a full-employment economy at huge political risk, it worked spectacularly.
And what happened is that the entire progressive universe decided that he must not have done any of it, or else he would have been popular
And what happened is that the entire progressive universe decided that he must not have done any of it, or else he would have been popular
Are the progressive economic policies in the room with us right now?
February 15, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Biden was the most economically progressive president since LBJ at least, he pursued a full-employment economy at huge political risk, it worked spectacularly.
And what happened is that the entire progressive universe decided that he must not have done any of it, or else he would have been popular
And what happened is that the entire progressive universe decided that he must not have done any of it, or else he would have been popular
Reposted by Dead Carl
calling this @irhottakes.bsky.social's law: as a default, be suspicious of any doctrine popular on social media that allows you to render a group of people Homo Sacer
February 15, 2026 at 1:30 PM
calling this @irhottakes.bsky.social's law: as a default, be suspicious of any doctrine popular on social media that allows you to render a group of people Homo Sacer