CertainlyWorse
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One of the great unwashed.
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CertainlyWorse
No one is coming to help. It's just you.
1d ago
It's no surprise then that when Trump reached out to industry leaders earlier this week, reps from companies like Exxon and ConocoPhillips said point blank that they had no interest in resurrecting the Venezuelan oil industry with prices at five year lows. It's almost as if he doesn't understand how the laws of supply and demand work. If he were really concerned with how much American consumers are paying at the pump—which isn't much, historically—he'd strike a deal with Maduro to flood the US market with Venezuelan oil and use whatever money he had planned on spending on the war and use it to subsidize the US oil companies outright. This is a terrible policy for a number of reasons, but it's still better than the idiocy we have now.
This is exactly what I'm saying. Some of these reasons seem to be a casus belli based on publicly available (semi-plausible?) information but don't seem to hold water when you dig into them.
CertainlyWorse
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1d ago
I'm curious about Mottizens' opinions about the US administration's motivations for the regime change push in Venezuala.
I think its multi-factoral. Monroe doctrine cleansing of Iran's influence (shadow fleet, drone technology sharing) as well as potentially stopping sharing of a cleaner less high-sulphur based crude oil to China which is easier to process for US's rival.
Reclamation of oil industry nationalised assets doesn't quite sit right as Grok says in 1976 they got paid 'fair market value' and there was varied compensation in 2006 (although they straight up seized assets from Exxon-Mobil).
I believe Fentanyl/cocaine has practically nothing to do with it despite the administration's claims.
Thoughts?
This ties into the Nick Fuentes issue where he is crudely outlining these sorts of arguments. In addition to the lack of (or deliberate multi-generational suppression of) ingroup ethnic solidarity, White men in positions of seniority have pulled a 'Fuck you, got mine' and pulled the ladder up behind them, leaving the field to 'minorities' (a group that includes women somehow). Basically, throwing the next generation of young white men to the wolves in order to ensure that their own positions are unchallenged until retirement.
Its not fair competition, its DEI discrimination, combined with 'you need to compete with the best from the entire world'.
Edit: More fuel for the theory that JD Vance reads this forum here.
CertainlyWorse
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3d ago
On the other hand what liars. Is politics actually just Kabuki theater to the elites?
I think there's a lot of this. I wonder if political views are to be worn and discarded for politicians like the latest season's fashion. I've seen all sorts of political opponents sitting down together in private moments. I think your average politician is just a shameless opportunist and doesn't believe most of the things they say.
CertainlyWorse
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4d ago
Yeah, I think its just a jew post wearing a semite-phile skin suit.
CertainlyWorse
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7d ago
I played a few MUDs in the mid 90's. Real social experience. Its also where I learnt about ganking, PvP and trolling in general.
First thing kids do with games like that is griefing. Fun times.
MUD's were kinda proto-mmorpgs, but really were just colourful chatrooms where you could fiddle with the content while meeting and catching up with people. Also back in the day, the internet was a new frontier so moderation was very loose. I got exposed to stuff that probably wasn't normal for kids to see until well into adulthood.
CertainlyWorse
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7d ago
Better yet, 'Bring the movies'.
CertainlyWorse
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9d ago
I think most here would be fine with reading slightly worse grammar and spelling along with the certainly that they aren't reading AI stuff.
Finally, my time has come!
CertainlyWorse
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10d ago
These 'non-crime hate incident' investigations and other 'hate crime' investigations seem to be clearly directed at white heritage British and not at minorities. Its why there are claims of 'two tier policing'. There's plenty of YouTube clips out there comparing similar behavior between the majority/minorities and the differing official response.
I didn't see the need for American style free speech norms until I saw the path that the UK has chosen to go down. Other Western nations are struggling with how to respond with mass migration and multi-culturalism and suppression of the heritage majority seems to be cheap low hanging fruit for their governments.
The larger problem is that England in particular has always used suppression of speech (See 'D' Notices) liberally to keep the peace. This was culturally supported as traditionally the English have by and large enjoyed their peace and quiet. This vestigial cultural limb has now metastasized into something else entirely.
I just don't think the UK govt has the funds to police itself correctly so it is using its traditional tool of suppression of communication instead of dealing with the root cause of ethnic tension and cultural instability.
Edit:
This was culturally supported as traditionally the English have by and large enjoyed their peace and quiet.
This isn't quite accurate. It's more because there was a significant degree of trust that such non-legislated 'powers' (which were more of a gentleman's agreement) would not be abused and only used in genuine cases of national security. It still created a cultural precedent.
Also London was known for having one of the highest known levels of cctv surveillance in times past. Again, this was a sign of great trust in govt and authority. It was accepted on the presumption that such things would not be abused.
CertainlyWorse
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15d ago
Lower temperatures make sleep easier, but wouldn't temperatures drop later in the night? Unless he's got his A/C on a timer.
CertainlyWorse
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15d ago
Not just that, its also grade inflation where due to the erosion of standards and enforcement, 3 year bachelor degrees are often not enough for professional graduate intakes. Also some 'blue collar' positions now require college time (eg NYPD needs 24 semester credits / 1 year of college time), or a degree where it used to be trade school (nursing in some Western nations).
CertainlyWorse
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17d ago
In addition I think there is currently a strong attempt by the Democrats to force meme 'don't obey unlawful orders (read: any orders given by the administration)' into the zeitgeist. Apparently, the FBI have opened an investigation into the video made by military and intelligence officials, presumably to see if it reaches the benchmark of 'sedition'.
CertainlyWorse
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17d ago
One thing that has really stuck in my craw in the modern era are TSA agents stealing items from luggage. It was (is?) an epidemic, and I really can't see how you maintain trust in a system when the people tasked with enforcing the rules are the ones violating them flagrantly. And, oh dear, I have to note that A Majority of the Security Screeners are nonwhite.
Under Australian Common Law 'Stealing as a Servant' or 'Larceny as a Clerk' are their own particular crimes with harsher punishments, explicitly to combat the exploitation of a vulnerable situation. If people believe that cops, workers or other roles with access and authority are corrupt, then the entire system will grind to a halt.
CertainlyWorse
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17d ago
If "Izzat" culture at all looks appealing its because they are running a scam on scammers. Probably recruiting for some sort of pyramid scheme. Think of it like a recruiting message for a company where the top salesman shows off his cool company car and brags about his company vacation. Meanwhile at that company most of the sales people joining are just doing cold calls and feeding that salesperson at the top promising leads, and then earning close to nothing on the commissions.
Reminds me of multi-level marketing. In another (quokkaest) life I joined Amway and wasted a lot of time helping someone else make money.
CertainlyWorse
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17d ago
One of the things I see people talk about regarding India is this superposition of hateful gloating blended with crying supplication, like code switching back and forth to whichever seems most advantageous.
There's an assumption that those that are bullied, being the weaker party, are somehow better or more honourable people. This is not necessarily the case. There are those that as soon as you take the boot off of their necks out of pity will betray you as soon as they are able (think Gollum from Lord of the Rings).
I've seen this concept in many other circumstances. Palestine for instance (at least from my perspective). China after the Opium Wars and gunboat diplomacy seems to be another where they act like a bullied child that has finally grown up and joined the cops to exploit authority over others.
There are those that are unfairly bullied. I know what that feels like. There are some that are fairly bullied (as individuals). You can't collective guilt an entire culture, but there are certainly those among them that deserve to be called out for bad behaviour. The real problem is sorting the wheat from the chaff.
CertainlyWorse
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18d ago
This f'ing guy. <3
I’m ‘stolen valoring’ a post from the Sunday thread and reposting it here for higher exposure (ht @odd_primes):
This post on "izzat" an Indian cultural honor system, went viral recently. I know we have at least a few Indian users here - how accurate is this characterization? Of course it's probably hard to generalize too much given the fragmented nature of India along cultural, linguistic, religious, and ethnic lines.
Here is the text in a non-image format from /r/askindia - the wide range of responses is interesting.
Recently there was a viral explosion on Kiwifarms > Twitter about a nebulous low trust Indian cultural behavioural trait. This honor culture trait isn’t something that is unique to India. There has however been a huge influx of Indians into the West both through immigration and through internet presence that has left cultural ripples. The memetic word is called ‘Izzat’ even though this is an Urdu word that only vaguely venn diagrams against the concept.
I’m beating around the bush, but I’m pretty much talking about scam culture, being the winner, getting one up on the people that are outsiders to ‘my group’, and getting status points for exploiting my outgroup.
I’d like to reiterate that this isn’t an Indian only issue, but it’s a culture clash between high and low trust cultures and is worthy of discussion.
Edit: Don't drunkpost. This is a culture war issue that should have been given better care in an OP.
2nd edit: Actually quoted the post.
3rd edit: Added a link to the 'patient zero' tweet.
CertainlyWorse
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18d ago
You aren't the guys they're talking about. Clearly there are Indians that integrate very well into the West. We are lucky and happy to have you.
The label and description is hazy, but the concept of low trust scam, exploitative, backstabbing, win-at-all-costs behaviour is a cultural trait and the reason that India is not Wakanda'ing its way to global dominance. It is not unique to Indian culture. Corruption and low trust cultural behaviours are the reason that non first world countries are not first world.
CertainlyWorse
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18d ago
Thanks for this.
CertainlyWorse
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18d ago
#Slowpokeisslow, but how is EU5 compared to EU4. I had a bad experience with Crusader Kings 3.
CertainlyWorse
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18d ago
Not sure why the Urdu term would be any better to use than any other meaning "honor culture" and describing common failure mode of honor cultures.
You're correct. The Urdu word was the one that went viral first. It could have been Sanskrit, Bahasa or WingDings, but the first one out the gate normally has the most memetic gravitas.
Funnily enough when the concept started going viral there were many Indians that immediately started to 'Well acktually..' away the accusation which helped Streisand Effect the word into virality (source: go look at the replies to the patient zero tweet)
edit: couple of words and links
CertainlyWorse
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18d ago
I'm slowing down in my reading of the Aubrey-Maturin series because I don't want it to end. I can just reminisce about it and pretend that there is a lot more to come. I can't remember the last time I caught myself doing this with a series.
The speedboats exist and I believe they are full of drugs, piloted by drug runners. Clearly there's some intelligence team (DEA/CIA/DIA/whoever) landside that has verified that the boats are being loaded with drugs and when they will leave. I think details about this ISR are suppressed for 'sources and methods' reasons. I personally think its great that they're being obliterated for deterrence and supply constraint reasons.
I don't think Fentanyl is coming out on those boats though. My understanding is that fentanyl production happens in Mexico under the Sinoloa Cartel and not in Venezuala by the Cartel of the Suns linked to Maduro.
Cocaine, sure. Fentanyl no. Does the Fentanyl crisis have more political gravitas that can be used as a regime change justification? Sure. Is the regime change cassus belli another 'directionally correct' Trumpism where cocaine is the real driver? I don't know. I still think foreign influence of America's rivals in Venezuala is more likely a factor and runs afoul of the Monroe Doctrine.
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