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Nate Ledbetter

@nhledbetter.bsky.social

3.2K followers 260 following 10K posts

ABD, Princeton, East Asian Studies. Instructor, Asian History, Rider University. Perpetually writing my dissertation (warfare in 16th C. Kyushu, Japan). He/Him/あいつ/"That Nagashino Guy." At some point I'll start posting useful stuff here. Maybe.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · Nov 9

Since I've got double the followers from a week ago, guess it's time for an intro thread. A post per topic I habitually post about:

I'm a PhD candidate at Princeton, very slowly working on a dissertation on 16th C. warfare in southern Japan (centered around the Shimazu family). 1/

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The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

U.S. Military Carries Out Strike On Scuffy The Tugboat https://theonion.com/u-s-military-carries-out-strike-on-scuffy-the-tugboat/

U.S. Military Carries Out Strike On Scuffy The Tugboat
Pentagon Claims Little Red Vessel Working With ‘Narco-Terrorists’

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, that sort of follows, given the subject matter.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 1d

Well, you know samurai in sequins are my thing.

a man in a kimono is dancing with another man in a green kimono

Alt: a man in a kimono is dancing with another man in a green kimono

media.tenor.com

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

They're opening a Kura Sushi here in my town sometime in the (waves hands) and I don't think I've ever been so excited for a restaurant opening. Between this and the Kpot that just opened, I'm set.

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Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 3d

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

CFP: A Time of Monsters

The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

contingentmagazine.org

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ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 3d

The fact that life is miserable in the armored brigade combat teams doesn't help. Endless maintenance for vehicles that are falling apart, high optempo deploying to boring locations with no real missions, and an officer corps that acts like CTC rotations are life or death.

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 3d

And this all starts right out of the academies or ROTC, are the top of the class going into arty or armor or logistics, no they’re all going to the 173rd airborne or ranger school, so you can see how the army has become so light infantry/SOF centric

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

"She wins for best female yak!"

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

"There is nothing cooler than a yak."

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

I would rather be imprecise about fascism from an academic view than let pass statements that many lay people would interpret as "oh, it's not X? That must mean it's not actually that bad."

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Well but he hasn't gone and executed all the Dems YET, so we're not quite to full fascism...gosh everyone should just calm down.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump to the Navy: "We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats."

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 3d

US conservatives under Obama would sometimes wistfully post training footage of Russian special forces, like "look at what the real manly countries are doing instead of our woke baby military" and then all those VDV guys got annihilated within the first 3 days of the Ukraine invasion

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 3d

And the cult of SOF is a real problem given that, if we've seen one thing in Ukraine, it is that in a near-peer conflict, highly-trained, ultra-elite infantry cost a lot to form and field but get shredded by firepower at exactly the same rate, if not faster than, regular infantry.

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 3d

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Seems she learned a few things by the time she did the Siberia and Mongolia episodes, but also the groups she is visiting in Siberia and Mongolia are less "outsider" nomads than the Rauthe in Nepal. Less conflict with others, so there was a lot more reason for the group to be "who is this woman?"

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

I don't know, man. That whole episode was unintentional comedy gold. The Siberia episode was less amusing. About to start the Mongolia episode. Will report back.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Never seen Titatinic OR Shawshank Redemption.

Hannah Fearn @hannahfearn.bsky.social · 3d

Inspired by a post I just saw in which someone admitted they hadn’t seen a single episode of Friends nor the film Love Actually… what cultural hole do you have that’s a bit weird for your generation?

I’ll go first: I haven’t seen Dirty Dancing.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Look, if I could figure out how to just cordon off the old Commentariat and only speak to y'all, I def would.

Reposted by Nate Ledbetter

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 3d

It’s pretty emblematic of today’s US Army, if you didn’t go to jump school, Ranger school, or some kind of SOF course, people question whether you were really “in” the Army at all, thus a whole bunch of officers who could be helpful self select out

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3d

usual rates of death and wounding, and so erode more quickly than the
general mass of the force.7
This selection-destruction cycle means that a force with too high a proportion of elites—an army with too many special forces units, a navy that
diverts too many of its most aggressive junior commanders into the submarine arm, or an air force (like that of imperial Japan) with aircrew standards
that prove unsustainable over a long war—can actually damage its adaptive potential. Such a force experiences a brain drain, where individuals
who would have been leaders in regular units (and would likely have
survived to spread their knowledge to others) are instead segregated into
subgroups where, even if they survive, their talents are lost to the wider
force. Meanwhile, major combat formations can cease to be much more
than feeders for specialized units, providing the recruiting base for elite
forces that increasingly usurp normal combat roles, exacerbating both the
brain drain and the selection-destruction cycle that Beaumont describes.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Sometimes I really hate y'all. And you deserve it.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, I was really looking to spend my Sunday afternoon looking at Mussolini rather than making a comment about Nichols, you are correct. Glad that you really honed in on what's important.

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

The point is that the whole "fasci region of Italy or it's not fascism" type argument that Nichols makes is stupid. The point is the government is doing bad things. Quibbling about if it's reached some arbitrary "fascism" threshold is dumb.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Disagree, but somebody else already wants to fight me about this and I really am not interested. Guess we have different ideas of what "fully-formed" means.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Cool.

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Power, yes. And took another 3-5 years to fully form a complete fascist government, including having to pass laws and "win" (such as it was) an election. You're putting forth a lot of effort in support of Nichols here on a technical point that really doesn't matter, but hey, have fun.

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Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

Keep reading.

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

and was appointed PM by the king, and then took 5 more years to fully consolidate power. But yes, ok, fully-formed.

Nate Ledbetter @nhledbetter.bsky.social · 3d

According to Mr. Nichols, fascism only exists full-formed; it never is implemented in stages, you see. One day, BOOM, you've got a Mussolini.

Silvia Secchi @profsecchi.bsky.social · 3d

I don’t know who Mr. Nichols hangs around with, but people have absolutely been erasing their social media accounts and keeping their heads down. Green card and visa holders in the US already have plenty of evidence that their social media presence is being monitored and used by the administration.

Tom Nichols post reads:

If we were living under fascism, none of you would be here daring to post things. You'd be erasing your social media accounts and keeping your head down; you'd know that peacocking your faux-bravery on a network would expose you to being disappeared.
You have no idea what "fascism" really means

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