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Apollo had Vietnam, Artemis has Iran...
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this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
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If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
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Start with the thousands of contractors who drift back and forth between NASA and military contracts.
That's not millions of links, though. It's just that building rockets is a thing only a handful of companies are equipped to do.
The better metric to look at is which country is the US trying to show up. In 69 it was Russia, and today it's China.
Each contract worker is a link. Each company is a link. Each congress critter playing for missile pork projects in their district is a link. And this isn't just about the missiles, as you say: who are we trying to impress? What are we trying to get in exchange for that impression?
It's not about getting something in exchange. It's about showing off with a display of power.
So, by "in exchange" I don't mean quid-pro-quo China ships the U.S. 25 tons of Rare Earth metals because they're so impressed, I mean: what results are they expecting? Congress critters generally are looking for re-election and all the perks that come with long term tenure in a seat. Lobbyists are generally lookig for more pork from their critters. Contractor firms are looking for that pork as "contracts" they can overbill and under deliver for with impunity, etc. etc. There are international results expected as well, such as greater negotiating power to get more advantageous positions in agreements.