Throwaway05
7d ago
My guy, can you please explain to me what you find consistently entertaining about underage sex and abuse related litigation?
Throwaway05
7d ago
Very much agree, if you actual read the primary source documents (and some of our users have and passed the knowledge along) it really doesn't look like what the conspiracy theories say.
He even has a good excuse for all the connections and relationships. However - some shady financial business happening at least some of the time would make a ton of sense in a way the sex stuff never did.
Throwaway05
7d ago
Joe Rogan continues to provide some of the most interesting conversations in the world. Yes he seems to have gone down some conspiracy rabbit holes, but he gets interesting people in a seat and has a long ass conversation with them.
Recently he had Vance. A few things popped to me.
-You'll never convince me Vance isn't part of the SSC/Rationalist diaspora, when he goes off of politics he just oozes it.
-For the UFO fans he says he'll keep looking into it but he doesn't have a lot of hope.
-He did a good job defending some of his more questionable personal and political actions (the demon comment, election issues, the current Iran tactics). Less good with some other things like quashing the filibuster.
-Vance states he is an Epstein conspiracy theorist (but not in the popular way), in the interview he focuses more on the financial aspects of whatever Epstein got up to and focuses away from the pedophile stuff, hard to tell if he really believes nothing is there on that end.
-Joe Rogan's haters continue to be annoying and non-credible, he pushes Vance more than I remember seeing him come at most of the political guests I've watched (but is accused of being glazing).
I've been fortunate to be around for or involved in private conversations with "notable" people, it's fascinating. At the same time I'm not a notable person, so even when that's happened I have to just accept the circumstances and hang back. We live in a time where JRE and other things like "In Good Company" (and even smaller things like the brief podcast Enes Y did) give unprecedented access to the thoughts and plans of the profoundly powerful. Previously you had to sit for a public speech or pay for a dinner, now we can really get a bit of a slice of what Vance is about.
What a wonder.
Throwaway05
9d ago
You and other UMC professionals who do their own research are not representative of the super-majority of patients a typical doctor sees in clinics.
To add to this, some of the worst and most misinformed patients are those who come from a background like engineering and have become highly convinced of something that's very incorrect (with or without conspiracy stuff). The less educated and informed patients can be reasoned with or dictated to in a timely fashion where the higher intelligence or education patients who are confidently wrong need a lot of time and space to unpack the incorrect assumptions.
Throwaway05
11d ago
We shall not accept this false butter! For the lord hath clarified the butter, and it has become GHEE!!!!!
Throwaway05
11d ago
I've had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday through Friday plane!
Throwaway05
11d ago
I still think NYNJ was the most hilarious.
Throwaway05
11d ago
I think you underestimate America's ability to come together and be disgruntled, we are still willing to spend tremendous effort on these things (see the pilot rescue).
Throwaway05
11d ago
I'm saying he would be pissed and want to go to war if the Russians did that?
Throwaway05
11d ago
Can I interest him in some ghee?
Throwaway05
11d ago
His revealed personality is not to escalate to high casualty/ground force war which he’s done in both Ukraine and Iran. His revealed preference would be to cover it up.
With respect to Iran, that question hasn't come up yet, I think he'd be willing if he isn't getting what he needs - but the posters like me who think things are going fine feel like the question of ground war isn't being asked yet.
With respect to Ukraine he seems to think this isn't really any of America's business and that our involvement is unnecessary, with a side helping of "Europe needs to solve their own fucking problems." American military support has become necessary because That Is What We Do but he doesn't seem to care about it, and in contrast with Iran because the hostage crisis was a formative thing for men of a certain generation.
I would bet money that part of Russia's political calculus is "how do we approach this without pissing Trump off enough to get him involved and interested."
An assassination would do that.
Note that Russia's threats toward the US have been very mild by their standards since Trump 2 came on board.
Throwaway05
11d ago
I don't understand what this is supposed to mean.
Throwaway05
11d ago
People actively refuse to use common sense or do research when confronted quite often these days, and the amount of people who trust a random person or influencer over an expert even when it is obviously stupid is quite high (ex: listening to a social media influencer who is getting kick backs to sell a product and that's their obvious business model over a physician).
Much of this stuff can be argued to not be new, but the distrust and hatred of actual experts is 100% a new problem and it's a serious one. We are talking patients refusing life saving treatment because of doctor google (or now AI google) or because of some TikTok.
Throwaway05
11d ago
Americans believe you don't fuck with America and Americans. So does everyone else. We are still heavily protected from drug cartels because of a tantrum the U.S. had in the 80s. It's a large part of our foreign policy.
Assassinating a sitting politician on purpose would be true casus belli. By accident would require a significant amount of reparations.
I mean look at how Iran acted when we did something similar.
Throwaway05
12d ago
The idea that Mitch was near-death was plausible. In fact, it’s still possible that this happened and he recovered and that’s why they’re posting about it now. Pneumonia, right?
Yeah he was probably seriously ill in the hospital and I haven't seen any commentary refuting that - the conspiracy theory is that he was dead or brain-dead and it wasn't commented.
List of conspiracy theories.
Look at this almost all of these are things that people KNEW were fake at the time. They weren't conspiracy theories where something was being hidden, it's that the dominant narrative was ass. The biggest exception is the Mandalay Bay shooting....but nobody has any firm theory with any evidence behind it or anything beyond "that was weird af" and pure speculation.
This probably extends to your next point - conspiracy theories are getting dumber because stuff that would previously be a "conspiracy theory" (like MK Ultra) has enough penetrance that anybody interested in knowing or learning about them does.
Although plenty of conspiracy theories were always super dumb - ex: moon landing faked.
Throwaway05
12d ago
I mean it makes sense, Graham dying and it being announced immediately would just raise more questions about the lack of updates. Although it's entirely possible it was just timing.
Throwaway05
12d ago
Trump seems to personally love American power and want to retain it, hiding the assassination of a high profile public figure goes against everything he's done with his presidency and his revealed personality.
At the same time he'd have two MAJOR prongs trying to force the information out there - the majority of the American political and military establishment (which supports pressure on Russia) and any adversaries who find out (because Trump hiding it and then it being revealed would be a massive embarrassment).
It doesn't make any sense.
You would also need to hide it from his family who would presumably have similar political inclinations.
Throwaway05
12d ago
Mitchel McConnell and the Collapse of Common Sense.
Before I start -
-Please don't feel personally attacked if you bought the FUD, you are not alone.
-It could totally turn out that the recent releases are doubling-down in which case whoops, and feel free to judge me later.
Anyway.
After weeks of speculation, Mitch McConnell appears to be alive (per CNN, Fox). This is good news (because death is bad, and also because he is one of the most competent people remaining in American government). It seems like he and his family wanted some privacy and that he was sick (probably held down by some pneumonia it seems?).
This was always the most likely outcome.
Despite that we've seen a crap-ton of conspiracy theories, and I think these are a microcosm of the decline in America and perhaps the modern world. On reddit and most of blue social media this was painted something that the evil Republicans were doing for evil Republican reasons (with a sidebar of his wife/handler immediately fleeing to China). The mainstream media bit into it as a tabloid chaser (...how far we've fallen) and as a cudgel to hit the Republicans with, and of course you can also blame the 24-hour news cycle.
Posters here and more moderate/right-leaning spaces did better but some still went in on conspiracy theories.
Lest we think it is online only I deliberately polled some people I know in real life.
This never really made sense though. The political hit from having been caught lying about this would be high (well for Republicans, anyway). The benefits on stalling are murky. The amount of family and other people you'd have to keep in the dark was high.
It was silly. Perhaps some people didn't mean it seriously, but that's the problem isn't it.
Too much of politics is low information, demanding people have an opinion, and that opinion is valueless and sometimes more of humor thing or as we talk about with woke a religious stance more than a policy position.
People being stupid and silly isn't a new invention but people are asked about or forced to state their opinions more often and can do so publicly and without later shame for saying something ridiculous. On the other hand the people we used to look to for information have fallen off the rails, and on the gripping hand people feel entirely comfortable completely throwing out experts because the experts have lost a step, not realizing random individuals or influencers really aren't doing any better.
And of course we have what we see anytime a Republican aligned figure is ill or dead - the grave dancing.
The whole thing has been tremendously gross but I can't help but think we'll get more of it.
Throwaway05
12d ago
Update: he, his office, and his physicians have now been making public statements.
I hope everyone updates their priors!
Throwaway05
12d ago
What would anybody gain by hiding this? If he was killed by the Russians that would be a tremendous leverage point in negotiations, probably infuriate Trump and bring him in line with the average governmental employee about Russia.
It would justify WHATEVER with a large portion of the American public.
You'd also have to work tremendously hard to hide the outcome from his family.
Some military deaths are sus - those usually involve the bodies being unavailable and no utility in revealing the truth.
This is not that.
Throwaway05
12d ago
So it helps that he's on twitch more than YouTube from my understanding, which means that more volume and less filtered content.
I'm no expert on the guy since most of my knowledge about him is served involuntarily, but I have seen stuff that credibly is authentic (for example: when they committed a crime and had to go court, the girl who was caught cheating on her bf with him on twitch, the time his fans were pissed because he made out with someone who was trans). Also sometimes it def looks like he's paying people to be there. Also he gets blown off. Def a mix, but anything who believes that girls in their late teens or early 20s don't eat that shit up missed a lot of formative experiences.
Throwaway05
12d ago
That's exactly what had happened, though. The US accepted and signed very unflattering terms.
Did they sign unflattering terms or did they agree to things they would never have to act on because Iran, Israel, or the US would promptly renege?
Throwaway05
12d ago
I mean he doesn't succeed "all" the time and disgruntled people want to signal boost when he fails, but you can find lots of footage of him succeeding with no effort or when he shouldn't.
Notably, people online tend to claim that he has paid the people who it does work on.
Throwaway05
14d ago
Yes. OB spends more on malpractice insurance than most people make in a year.
It's less about any particular instance and more about the pattern.
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