CSsmrfk
1mo ago
Putin will sell oil in U.S. dollars
Putin has not explicitly stated whether he will or will not sell oil in U.S. dollars. Due to the sanctions, Russia is actually unable to sell oil in U.S. dollars.
Russia has not sought after and does not seek after rejecting the dollar use, President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club.
"We - Russia in any case - do not reject the dollar and do not intend to do this. We were merely denied of using the dollar as the payment instrument," Putin said. "In my opinion, this is very foolish from the side of US financial authorities because the entire power of the US to date rests on that, on the dollar," he noted.
Russia is not struggling with the US currency but is thinking of creating new instruments in response to new trends of global economic development, he added.
CSsmrfk
1mo ago
Most results I see are from the last 24 hours. Could be Google running A/B tests, or maybe the constant election updates are affecting search rankings. Doubt it's anything malicious though.
CSsmrfk
1mo ago
Yes, that’s it. Thank you.
The article refused to show up in my Google search results, even though I literally searched for 'shadow,' 'Trump,' 'election.' Those same keywords worked last week. Yandex finds it, though.
CSsmrfk
1mo ago
Does anyone have the article about how the deep state saved America by resisting during the Trump presidency in 2016? It was written from a pro-establishment, liberal point of view and was published by The Atlantic or a similar publication. I can’t seem to find it on Google anymore
"Bayesian" has been the hot new word in my (non-rat) part of the internet for the last few years! And now I'm starting to hear rationalist argot in real life, which feels surreal.
This is not at all surprising (though the people over at /r/slatestarcodex seem to be surprised), given his association with Peter Thiel, whom he met in 2011 and has worked with/for over the years. Thiel played an important role in Vance's political career, donating $15 million to his successful Senate campaign. Thiel also helped "smooth over" JD Vance's relationship with Donald Trump in 2021, according to the New York Times
Even without this obvious connection to Thiel, I think it should be pretty evident from how he talks and conducts himself. He's young, smart, and went to a good school, is right-leaning and somewhat of a contrarian—why wouldn't he be aware of Scott's blog?
I mean, has mentioned Curtis Yarvin before on Jack Murphy's (cuck) podcast back in 2021:
"So there's this guy Curtis Yarvin..."
It's actually quite funny how easily you can spot other "rat-adjacent" people in the wild nowadays. I've met a few at a completely unrelated event. This didn't use to happen before. But, now, I could tell from just a few words into our conversation. So maybe the event wasn't all that unrelated, after all. Apparently, there's demographic overlap between these seemingly disparate interests. I don’t know if I like that there are others like me.
To Scott Alexander's credit, he has had an outsized influence on intellectual discourse online, which is now beginning to spill into real life. Looking at Google Trends, the search volume for "Effective Altruism" peaked in 2021-2022. This matches my perception of TheMotte's popularity at the time. But that peak might've only been the beginning.
The growth of the "gray tribe" in that period, whether they (you?) like it or not, follows a tangible "vibe shift" in culture. As Curtis Yarvin is quoted musing in a 2022 Vanity Fair article, the liberal regime will being to fall when the "cool kids" abandon its values and worldview. We've seen it already. A pretty funny example is Red Scare, who, following the winds of culture, went all the way from Sailor Socialism to larping Tradcath aesthetics. And with JD as VP, maybe it'll go truly mainstream.
I have felt the effects of internet gentrification and cultural appropriation over the years, as different obscure niches have gone similarly mainstream. I feel validation but also resentment and frustration at the loss of exclusivity and ownership.
"Everyone dresses like a duck hunter now [in 2022]."
But also Brandy Melville is in, Ozempic is in, being thin and pretty is back in fashion. Thanks, I guess? I like it (I like pretty, thin women), but I also hate it (I hate the lack of edge).
Terms that were popular only in small, socially ostracized circles of internet weirdos and incels are now mainstream. "Looksmaxxing" no longer scares the hoes away—it's all over TikTok. Why did people have to learn what the maxilla is?
I feel robbed.
I need to find something new. I am obsessed with trend forecasting. I need to find a niche to gatekeep.
Any suggestions?
The core of any FPS game is mouse control. You need to react quickly, flick your crosshair onto the enemy's head, and shoot before they shoot you. All else being equal, the player with better aim will always win.
With the rise of games that demand this kind of precise aiming (eg., Overwatch and competitive Fortnite), a demand for synthetic aim trainers also emerged. The goal of these trainers is to improve your "raw" aiming abilities, that is, hand-eye coordination and fine muscle control, skills that can transfer from one FPS game to another.
In aim trainers like KovaaK’s or Aimlabs (the two most popular), you choose from a variety of scenarios, each designed to target a specific aspect of your aim. In one scenario, you stand in a greybox room and shoot static balls that appear on those grey walls. In another, you shoot moving balls, still in that same grey room. Three, four, five balls. Or you track those balls instead.
The choice of scenario depends on the aim mechanic you’re trying to improve. Training routines for Dynamic vs. Static clicking or Precise vs. Reactive tracking, for instance, will vary greatly.
It's like targeting a muscle group in the gym.
The idea is to use an aim trainer as a tool to help you get better in the actual game that you're playing. But a subset of people will just never leave the aim trainer. They enjoy grinding these benchmarks for hours on end, trying to beat their own high scores. It's addicting.
It is somewhat comparable to those who get very good at solving Leetcode problems, but struggle with applying these skills practically.
This is the aim community.
Artisan mousepads are very popular in the aim community. They're pricey, but the quality is good. And in terms of mice, the current trend is for ever lighter, smaller models. The zerømouse is an extreme example, but it's indicative of the general trend. Mouse preference depends entirely on your needs. Unless you’re playing aim-intensive movement shooters, there’s absolutely no reason to get a 26-gram gaming mouse. That said, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight is regarded as a good all-around mouse. At 63 grams, it's still lighter than most mice out there, and I think it will work great for most people and most use cases.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AXfZ8remiDE
This video is exactly about this. The guy is promoting his (future) business, but what he’s saying still holds true.
I wouldn’t trust data broker removal services.
For these services to remove your information from the internet, you first have to give them all your details.
Then, they either spam companies with emails requesting that the pages be removed or outsource the form filling to Indians or Pakistanis.
They also usually take down your info from completely irrelevant websites that Google doesn’t even index. To actually get the results you want, you’d have to pay for their more expensive tiers or whatever.
People are throwing every kind of insult at Kamala to see what sticks. Many are very sexist and very racist, which I imagine would push any non-misogynistic, non-racist moderate away from voting Republican. It's all pretty vile, but workshopping takes time. I'm sure Trump will eventually come up with something.
With Kamala as the Democratic nominee, Trump will have to pivot in his rhetoric. He was already pretty mellow in his debate with Biden, at least compared to his usual self. The assassination attempt reportedly mellowed him out even further. His RNC speech had to be scrapped and re-written with unity as the central theme.
But Trump's platform of unity lasted only a week. I believe that unity is no longer a working, winning strategy now that Biden is gone.
CSsmrfk
5mo ago
So going by the Home Depot lady’s logic (or rather, your logic): she is part of the problem responsible for the current state of political affairs. She fucked around and found out. Her losing her job is only fair.
No, OP said that expressing political opinions should not get you fired. This is the assumption we're operating from.
The only discussion we can have here is whether or not wishing the death of a political figure is tantamount to violence. (It's not)
This one includes an implied threat of violence. I don’t think it’s that hard to follow.
If it’s not that hard to follow, please explain it to me, because I don’t see any implied threat of violence here.
CSsmrfk
5mo ago
businesses are perfectly free to have policies that forbid violence or threats of violence
There was no actual violence or even incitement of violence in what the Home Depot lady said. You implicitly acknowledged this by making your hypothetical non-political since wishing a politician's death is just another political opinion.
If the person she posted about wasn’t famous in any way, would you still see it as “just an opinion?”
Trump is not just any person. This comparison doesn't make sense because Trump is literally the presidential nominee. The opinion expressed about Trump's shooting is a political one.
You specifically stated that political expression should be tolerated. If you were to adhere to monarchist, communist, or Nazi beliefs, you would be advocating for even more violence. And this would be actual violence, not just wishing someone be dead.
To make the equivocation you want to make, this "drunk uncle" would have to be himself at fault for getting robbed. The uncle, after getting drunk at the local pub, looking for a fight, approached some guy on the street. But he messed with the wrong guy and got himself robbed at gunpoint.
What your hypothetical person would say is, "fuck around and find out." Because this is what many liberals believe.
The Home Depot lady, like many liberals, likely believes that Trump is a threat to democracy and that he is responsible for the current state of political affairs. Trump is at fault for destabilizing politics and, consequently, almost getting himself assassinated.
From this point of view then, it makes sense to wish that the sniper had not missed. Trump fucked around and found out (almost). It would have only been fair.
CSsmrfk
5mo ago
Being a communist will upset some customers too; however, it shouldn't get you fired. OP stated that employees' political expression should be protected as long as it doesn't "affect your ability to do your actual job":
I think not only should it not get you fired, but it should be protected with the same sort of rules that religion gets — you shouldn’t be able to fire liberals or conservatives for simply stating something you disagree with...
I do not think that the Home Depot lady's opinions affected her job performance. If, instead of saying that the shooter shouldn't have missed, she had expressed literally any other political opinion, I assume OP would have defended her.
But OP's standards for who to fire suddenly change here. This political expression is out of bounds. But why?
Politics will inevitably make some customers uncomfortable. If you decide that employees have the right to express their political opinions, then you, as an employer and business owner, will have to just suck it up and deal with the uncomfortable customers.
Yeah. Saying, "too bad the shooter missed" isn't incitement, so the employee shouldn't be fired.
CSsmrfk
5mo ago
Having said all that “too bad the shooter missed” isn’t political, it’s condoning violence.
I disagree. Wanting Trump dead is political. But a line has to be drawn somewhere, and you draw it here. I feel it's arbitrary.
If political expressions of employees should be defended, then even the wackiest of nutjobs should be safe from getting fired.
What is uniquely bad about violence? Would you say that violence is an assault on the system that protects freedom of expression and freedom of political affiliation? That because the employee rejects this system, he no longer deserves its protection?
But what if the employee is a rabid monarchist, a communist, or Nazi? The explicit aim of these ideologies is to dismantle the current democratic system, to overthrow the government, and to impose authoritarian rule. Fired?
CSsmrfk
5mo ago
both my kids knew lion, camel, rhino, elephant, dinosaur etc. well before their second birthdays
And similarly, people learn the names of women. But when suddenly approached on the street, they struggle to name one! While a cognitive test setting is different from a guy asking you questions while waving a dollar in your face, I would be afraid of forgetting "rhino" under pressure.
CSsmrfk
5mo ago
lion, camel, and rhino
Do you know why use specifically those animals?
I can totally see someone forgetting the word for rhinoceros under the pressure of the test. The animal is quite unique, and unless you live in Africa, I doubt that you think about rhinos a whole lot.
Or is that the point? Because I'm really afraid of failing a simple test like this.
CSsmrfk
6mo ago
How do you find so much time to watch videos? Are you just much more patient than I am?
I can't stand watching videos at less than 2x speed and often speed them up to 3x or even 4x.
The problem is that most YouTube videos are poorly scripted, edited, and paced. Watching them at their original speed feels like torture.
I don't feel like I miss anything important. There's no loss in comprehension. And I think that everyone should at the very least try increasing the playback speed. It's really just a matter of getting accustomed to a faster pace. Once you do, you'll never go back.
I would have assumed that a question like this would select for the outliers, people boasting about their content consumption speed. But it seems like I'm the only one here. Anyone else?
https://mrgirl.substack.com/p/the-destiny-report
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