Pretty sure you’re correct. Seems like it’s just a miscommunication around the word ‘deep’, with one person meaning deeply hidden and the other meaning deeply ingrained.

But then what will I gnaw on like a beaver in order to collect the final, crispy fragments?

Oh, certainly. I’m not saying it’s as common as it was in antiquity or anything (that’s why I used the word can, same as you) just that 1-2%, while still horrific in the context of modern, industrial population sizes, doesn’t come close to our all-time greats of genocidal fuckery in the modern era.

Iirc Poland lost like 20% of its population in WW2, so modern warfare can definitely put up some numbers too.

Pretty much everyone I know (bar for those few still religiously devoted to doing their best impression of a boot polish sommelier) seems to be on the same page about how nearly everything Trump does is a distraction from the files, and that’s been the consensus for months now, even before the Iran War.

That said, I run in very different circles than those who make up the loyal core of MAGA, and I’ve learned to never doubt my countrymen’s ability to achieve new and rarified heights of stupidity and cognitive dissonance. I also never felt like most people even tolerated the idea of Donald Trump, and that led to an extremely unpleasant surprise in the wake of the 2024 election, so my social circle probably isn’t a particularly representative cross-section.