• 216 Posts
  • 1.03K Comments
Joined 9 months ago
Cake day: August 1st, 2025
  • Sergio@piefed.socialtoComic Strips@lemmy.world•Deathbulge #281English
    8·
    6 hours ago

    In the video, Jackson and the other dancers perform a lean that appears physically impossible.[17] The dancers lean forward 45 degrees with their backs straight and feet flat on the floor, and hold the pose before returning upright.[17] The lean moves the body’s center of mass further than it can support.[17] The illusion was achieved using cables and a harness.[18][19] In October 1993, Jackson’s team patented a method of performing the lean in concert using specially designed shoes that hook into pegs that rise from the stage.[17] Even with the shoes, the move requires good athletic core strength.[19]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smooth_Criminal

    So you could do it in public without the apparatus, if you had the specially designed shoes and placed the hooks ahead of time. (and had good core strength)

  • Sergio@piefed.socialtoHistoryPhotos@piefed.social•Some 'results' of the 10-day hunting expedition of King George V of the British Empire, Nepal, 1911English
    1·
    2 days ago

    I don’t think “Europeans violated human rights and conservation in the past, therefore, they won’t be listened to by others” has much validity considering the universality of human rights violations by major cultures, and the lack of serious conservation efforts by modern countries.

    Yes, if Euro-American colonialism hadn’t happened, those countries would still have problems with human rights violations and lack of conservation efforts. Yes, the contrary argument has little validity from an academic perspective.

    But from a diplomatic, commercial, or activist perspective, it’s essential to recognize that Euro-American colonialism did happen, and that in many countries blaming problems on us is a rhetorical strategy that still resonates among many populations, and thus must be managed during interactions.

    you said:

    the original commenter accused them of racism and Eurocentrism for asserting that the non-European world in some way ’needed’ permission from Europe to commit atrocities(???).

    what @UnspecificGravity@piefed.social said was this:

    The flaw in your reasoning is the racist and Eurocentric view that people in other countries need license from the west to commit atrocities in their own countries.

    I am not saying that this makes it OK to commit atrocities, although I am not surprised that you are pretending that I did because that is a typical response from people like you. What I said is that this is why THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE OPINION OF EUROPEANS regarding human rights or conservation.

    I think UnspecificGravity is actually agreeing with your position, and is saying that non-western countries would indeed commit atrocities even if European influence were nonexistent. (i.e. it’s a flaw to think that European license is needed.) Their language is not very diplomatic, but these are highly emotional subjects. In fact UnspecificGravity is not even blaming Europeans for human rights or conservation problems, but rather they are stating why non-Europeans often do not care about the opinions of Europeans regarding these topics.

    UnspecificGravity seems to be approaching the problem from something like a diplomatic, commercial, or activist perspective, and from such a perspective I think their comments make sense.