ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
No bio...
User ID: 1012
Does campaigning in swing states make a difference? If so, how? Are there people who weren't planning on voting for Kamala/Trump who suddenly will make the effort just because they delivered a speech somewhere in the state? Or does this effect only work on people who actually show up to campaign rallies? And if so, does it help at all, since I doubt there are truly undecided people who would spend time going to a campaign rally?
And who goes to these rallies/speeches, anyway? What kind of person thinks that's a fun afternoon? I'd rather Google what Trump/Kamala believe, make a decision, and then do pretty much anything else. I'd probably rather go to the dentist to get a cavity filled than sit through a political rally, at least I'll leave the dentist's office better off.
Does anyone go (or know folks IRL who go) to these? Can you explain why? And do they really increase voter turnout or generate new votes?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
1mo ago
Working out until exhausted.
Getting laid.
Going on a hike or chilling by the water.
Venting to friends and family.
Martial arts sparring.
Alcohol, sometimes. But really not a good road to go down.
Key is to put your mind and body in a different context so that you see the thing that angers you from a different perspective and realize that there's more to life than that.
t. coping with seething about work for months now
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
1mo ago
That's really rough luck. You and your daughter have my family's sympathy and prayers. Hope the adjustment isn't too painful.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
"But I have not yet gone to college."
I'll keep an eye out for the first installment.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
I think that's totally fair and reasonable, since for some reason Jew-haters seem uniquely dedicated and patient in carefully drawing people into "JQ" discussions and barraging them with an endless supply of factoids. I can't prove I'm not a troll, but FWIW I don't believe in any kind of global conspiracy to control non-Jews or suppress The Truth or anything. Jews just seem to me like an exceptionally powerful ethnic group who are very effective at leveraging their economic and political success, like Indians or Chinese. If Chinese could get American children to learn about and feel bad for the Century of Humiliation, I'm sure they would.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
Now, please give me your evidence
I can't provide you any evidence about an alternate historical scenario that never took place. I'm openminded, what do you predict would have happened had Germany won? Jew-hatred appears to me to have been an expression of German paranoia and and inferiority complex, once geopolitical rivals have been vanquished and the German people felt strong and unchallenged, would it have continued at such a fever pitch? It seems like it would have become politically unnecessary in peacetime and probably a diplomatic liability.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
I wish there were more shades of difference between the binary of "Holocaust Denier" and "Holocaust Believer(?)". I don't think I'm a "Denier," I believe that some holocausting surely did happen, I don't know/care what the exact numbers are, because 6,000,000 or 300,000 is still an incredible tragedy either way. But I've come to care much less about it because AFAICT Holocaust remembrance is almost exclusively used as a heavy rhetorical cudgel for character assassination and silencing dissent, and it really seems to lend credence to the idea that a lot of Jews are Jewish first and second. I don't even necessarily think that's a terrible thing, I'd say I'm Catholic first and American second (sorry pre-JFK Catholics). But more people realizing/admitting that would prevent Jews from having their political cake and eating it too.
I guess I'm "Holocaust Indifferent" in the same way that I'm indifferent to the Armenian Genocide. I weakly hope a second Armenian Genocide never happens again, because genociding people is bad. But I'm not Armenian, so I don't think I'd be willing to spend much of my country's blood and treasure to prevent it (sorry). And if someone tried to tar an author or political opponent as an "Armenian Genocide Denier" or "Anti-Armenian" I would probably find that mildly interesting but it wouldn't stop me from voting for that person or buying their books. I wonder how manynother millennials feel this way. It really seems like it's mostly the boomers who are completely steeped in the Holocaust mythos.
Like I said in another comment, I'm not a mind killed Jew hater so I'm open to hearing other perspectives.
And two: his unhinged Twitter takes
I guess I'm finally no longer able to see both of the"two movies on one screen." That doesn't seem unhinged to me at all. Slighty provocative (only slightly because "nazi" has been abused so much that it stings about as much as "commie") but to me fairly obviously true. Jew-hunting was likely transitory and once the exigencies of war vanished would very likely have disappeared*, while the near complete destruction of the family and basic relations the sexes is something that it's not clear a society can ever come from. So Jesse's outraged pearl clutching to me reads as "it's okay for a a country's native culture to be completely corrupted as long as no Jews die." I'm no white nationalist or jew hater, but come on.
*I guess this can be argued, but I just can't see a sustained long term appetite for murder of Jews after the war. I'd guess they'd reach some sort of emancipation agreement with the governments of the German puppet states and probably would have been encouraged to move to Israel. Not very nice I guess, but that still seems less terrible than the complete degradation of a nation and its identity to me. I wonder if Jesse would have preferred Israel to adopt strong Laicité and import tons of Arabs rather than fight to keep its national character by hook or by crook
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
There are varying degrees of countryside. We live within several hours of a tier 1 city, and covid outmigration put upward pressure on rents. If you live somewhere tucked away in a valley 12+ hours away by train from any major city, rent is probably stable.
But you also have to consider that housing that's >20 years old (a generous estimate) is essentially condemnable in the minds of the Japanese public, so when there's upward rent pressure, it's on a small fraction of the housing market (recent construction) which magnifies the effect. I've seen apartments near the station in my medium sized town, which is in a prefecture that does not border a metropolis, that are now asking near the same rent as in the suburbs of a metropolis. Truly nowhere is safe in developed countries.
Apologies in advance for typos as I'm enjoying some fine sake this evening.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
Please no, rent is already increasing enough out here as it is.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
Japanese politics never ceases to disappoint me. How things got so bad used to be a mystery until I began working for a Japanese company. "Wait, the entire society is just one gigantic bureaucratic logjam?" "Always has been."
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
Raising the status of mothers is the correct answer. When we have lived in close knit communities where my my wife's peers were other mothers with 3+ kids, my wife was very happy. When we've lived in metropolises where restaurants, transportation, and general social life are all very unfriendly to mothers with children, she was miserable. Simple as.
How to do at scale? It has become apparent to me that egalitarian liberalism is a civilizational injury that an ER doctor of nations would diagnose as "incompatible with life," so I'm blackpilled on the prospects of liberal democracies mustering the fortitude to sit up on their sick beds long enough to even begin to do something about this. In my own life, I'm preparing to participate in a more heavily armed version of the Benedict Option and to pour my human capital into strengthening that community and its mothers without regard for, or even at the expense of, the surrounding economic zone "nation."
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
The Magician's Nephew with my daughter. Still just as fun as when I first read it. It might be my favorite book of the series.
Dick & Jane with my boys. Simple is best. They like the simple, classic art and it's easy for the older boy to read.
The Shadow of the Torturer has been on my shelf for a while. I got 20 or so pages in a while back and put it down. I need encouragement to pick it up again.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
It's because you know, and the Used Car Salesman knows that you know, that you're rounding everything he says down by 50% and probably just straight up ignoring some of it. It's a game you're both playing. If you called him out on his BS, he'd probably concede immediately "Well okay not quite zero to sixty in 2 seconds, maybe more like 5 seconds, but she's zippy! You're gonna love her!"
Whereas when the Lawyer lies to you, he thinks he's the only player in the game -- you're too dumb to play. He either sincerely believes you're too stupid notice the subtlety of his lie, or he knows that his lie-by-omission is well-crafted enough that refuting it would take an order of magnitude more time and energy and make you look like a fool for trying. If you call him out he will not concede, he will just persist in his bold-faced lie. Glib, simplistic political slogans are a closely related type of lie, which is why they are so effective at enraging political opponents.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
Nitpick, but plenty of lower middle class and what we Americans would consider "white trash" people drive in Japan as well outside of Tokyo. There's even a stereotype that if you have fake blonde hair, heavy make-up, and buy your clothes at Don Quixote, you probably drive a Toyota Voxy. My wife wouldn't let me buy one because it's a lower middle class marker.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
Just like America, as soon as you get outside large metros, everyone in Japan owns a car. And even in Tokyo, once you get to the "outer" wards (e.g. Adachi, Suginami, Setagaya, Katsushika, Nerima, etc) many people own cars. I live in a medium side city in a rural prefecture, and every functioning adult I know owns and regularly drives a car. The city does have bus lines, but the few times I've taken them there are only tourists or the very elderly aboard.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
The right is so pessimistic and honestly nihilistic for what's supposed to be the party of God and goodness and strength and masculinity.
I think that demoralization and stigmatization have just been that effective. It's hard for me to imagine creating a political organization that champions God, virtue, and masculinity that wouldn't immediately be tarred as anachronistic, hokey, and LARP-y not only by the unfriendly omnipresent progressive media machine, but worse still by conservatives themselves who, having been raised by that media machine, instinctively and reflexively cringe at any overt, unironic celebrations of their own values. It's a problem that I've been wrestling with solving for a while. For now, the only solution I can think of is to first have one's target audience unplug from the machine long enough to recover from irony poisoning before trying to pitch such an organization. But that's a tall order -- you'd have to replace it with something else, but large-scale dissident media efforts are not tolerated by the machine, and so you'd have to do stuff in meatspace, which essentially mean's you'd have to first create a physical intentional community. "Just start your own bank nation, bro."
But it also definitely speaks to the contempt that a lot of grassroots Republicans felt, and feel, towards the GOP. There's a feeling, grounded in truth, that the GOP never fights and never wins, they just keep compromising, while the left keeps winning.
This is it. The momentum that @laxam mentions was momentum in favor of the neocon/neoliberal/uniparty faction of the GOP. As someone in the social wing of the party, I'm glad it hit a brick wall and splintered. Better to open the field for some sort of real opposition than to be stuck "voting harder" for Republican swamp creatures and desperately hoping they won't pull the football away at the last second yet again.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
2mo ago
I do feel like republicans just don’t have near the strategic thinking necessary for this sort of thing
IME rather than a lack of thinking capacity it's a stubborn belief that "doing something like that would make us just as bad as them!" The right is still unaware that this a Culture War and I'm increasingly certain that this ignorance is willful and cowardly.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
3mo ago
Still there.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
3mo ago
That's actually really interesting, is there a name for the loophole?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
3mo ago
I've been married ~10 years, am in my mid 30s, and have a bunch of kids. I'd say our marriage is very happy, to the point where I think we've only met 1-2 couples that seems to get a long as well as we do (though you never know, could be more or less). This is what I think has made it work so far:
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Don't stay mad, and don't let your husband/wife stay mad. Hash out whatever the issue is at the earliest possible time you two can get undivided alone time
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Be attractive, don't be unattractive. I stay in good shape and dress well, and I give her all the opportunities she needs to do the same. You don't want your favorite person in the world to be married to someone who looks like they don't respect themselves?
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Don't forget to be wife's boyfriend/husband's girlfriend sometimes, ideally at least once a week or so (this is doubly important if you have kids!). Otherwise you risk slipping into full-time buddy/parental unit mode.
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Have sex (shinzo.png) often. It bonds you together and makes you kinder and more forgiving with each other.
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Laugh at yourself and each other once a day. Adult life is grueling, but it doesn't have to be all serious all the time. Tickle him. Smack her on the butt. Make a dirty joke about last night over morning coffee.
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Be generous with each other. Say sorry while she's still mad. Don't raise your voice when you remind him that he didn't do that thing he said he was going to do, yet again. Do a chore she hates. Go join him in one of his boring hobbies with an open mind. Ask her what's she's reading and listen with as much interest as you can muster to the plot of the literary fiction novel she's reading.
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Say thank you to each other ALL THE TIME. My wife actually taught me this one. She would thank for doing tiny things through the day ("Thanks for getting me water." "Thanks for helping me carry that." "Thanks for taking my plate to the counter.") Initially I thought this was weird. My friends and family don't do that, we might say it for big stuff, "thanks for cooking dinner today," or "thanks for helping me move out of my apartment." But saying thanks for little things helps us avoid taking each other for granted. It feels weird at first, but it works!
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Be traditionally masculine/feminine. We've gone from "suit-wearing career woman" and "skinny babyfaced hipster boy" to "handcrafting, home cooking trad mom" and "physically fit career dad." Hate to say it, but It Just Works™. My wife is better at running the household than me (a complex task with four small children of different ages) and taking care of the littlest ones, and I'm better at balancing work/life stress, chasing income potential, and dealing with the outside world.
I can probably do more if anyone cares and has specific questions.
I'll go first. I work as an SRE. As far as predictions go, I'm not connected enough to make a strong one. ChatGPT handles mundane chores I would have handed off to newbies in the past, so that probably reduces the demand for junior devs. Certainly my dept has been pushing me to hire intermediate/senior even though the salary we're offering is kind of insulting.
Increased interest rates mean that borrowed money has to produce more, so there are likely fewer "throw shit at the wall" projects to staff now and thus less demand for SWE headcount.
My previous company had several rounds of layoffs, and I jumped ship in between one of the rounds when I saw the writing on the wall. My current company is trying to hire, but the strong dollar makes it really hard to attract folks, and the domestic (Japanese) market is mediocre. At the same time, hiring managers at other places seem really picky, so maybe my company is just doing a poor job attracting people. I also feel like I'm seeing even more Indian applicant/recruiter spam than usual.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '21
3mo ago
We have a lot of tech workers here. What's your read on the current and future tech job market, specifically for SWEs? Now that the ZIRP money faucets have turned off, will there be permanently reduced demand for SWEs? What impact will AI have? What have you seen at your own company in terms of layoffs and hiring patterns?
You're missing that this has been continuously violated for decades. The state will gladly fund and evangelize for belief systems based on essentially religious principles ("equity," "egalitarianism," "blank slate," etc) as long as the belief system can disguise itself as "secular" and "basic human decency." This isn't punish violation of "separation of church and state," it's punishing heresy. An extracurricular about LGBT identity (theology/catechesis) or civil rights history (church history) would face no such scrutiny.
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