Chattooga
5mo ago
If I’m reading it correctly, there’s not really anything wrong? FEMA has access to the funds it needs, and if your issue is with the money being spent on immigration related issues, that’s a directive from Congress.
Chattooga
6mo ago
Well, I don’t think trump’s thinking was influenced by it because I don’t think Trump has coherent thoughts on policy. The less catchy version would be that the people staffing a future Trump administration would be influenced by the agenda outlined in project 2025. I don’t think that’s far off from what’s being said, is it?
Chattooga
6mo ago
I think this is pretty rational, isn’t it? Stability and security are extremely valuable things, especially for people with a lot to lose.
Chattooga
6mo ago
I grew up in a Christian family, not fundamentalist, but I went to church every week and was active in youth programs. I fairly quickly stopped believing around 15, and to be honest I have never looked back.
I’m curious what drew you back to it?
Chattooga
6mo ago
Assuming that there are in fact not reports of Haitian immigrants eating cats, then I think it’s pretty fair to say Vance was lying.
Whether “people who shouldn’t be in this country” was intended to imply illegal immigrants or just immigrants generally is unclear, but it’s also secondary to the eating cats thing. That’s the main thrust of what Vance said and it doesn’t seem to be true.
Chattooga
7mo ago
While I wish public health was actually a large issue, for either party, I don’t see any evidence that Kamala or democrats broadly are celebrating people getting fat.
While ‘body positivity’ is generally supported, ‘Fat acceptance’ is still extremely online. At least, I’m assuming, couldn’t find polling at a glance.
Chattooga
7mo ago
I find it extremely unlikely Walz honestly believes the couch thing. It’s well known that it’s fake, it’s just become a meme.
Chattooga
7mo ago
I haven’t seen anybody notable arguing that Khalif is a trans icon; she’s not trans.
I think ‘Team A’ broadly assumes she has a DSD, but is considering social identity over genetics. And it’s mostly speculation from both sides since nothing is confirmed about her genetics or hormones.
Chattooga
8mo ago
I don’t think you can just say that there’s something wrong with ‘axe’ over ‘ask’. It’s an arbitrary change, and aren’t most changes in language like that?
There are obviously cultural/educational assumptions about person who says axe, and that influences whether or not it’s beneficial to say it, but if tomorrow every English speaker switched and only ever said ‘axe,’ then what’s wrong with that?
If the rules of language change or dialects form, then there will always be intermediate points where people say a mix of things
Chattooga
10mo ago
The sexual revolution is basically a prolonged experiment in what happens when you take away the personal incentive not to be shitty to girls that you want to fuck but don't want to wife.
But isn’t the increased social atomization caused by changes in technology? I don’t think the sexual revolution is what broke down regular social connection
Chattooga
10mo ago
Because it prevents you from having a normal social connection. That type of thing is best mediated through interpersonal contact, because that’s how we evolved to deal with it.
It’s one of the reasons people behave radically differently online than they would in person.
Chattooga
10mo ago
What’s different in this instance is the systemization of it. Sure, everybody knows men find women varying levels of attractive, but I think keeping a logbook of all the women you know and their rating would generally be considered ‘freak behavior’. (Think of Don Giovanni.)
There are many things that are not inherently bad, but signal some maladaption, and they often involve specifically codifying vague norms. If you found out a friend keeps a ranked spreadsheet of everybody he knows, and writes down his judgements of all their actions, that would be understandably off putting. Sure, it’s something we all do unconsciously, but the very act of making it explicit causes problems.
The connection to sexual violence likely comes from the ‘unrapable’ label. It’s clearly implying that the boys are contemplating the ‘rape-ability’ of their classmates. Even if it is an edgy joke, it’s absolutely unacceptable from a school’s (and likely parents’) perspective. The same spreadsheet ranking them from 1-10 would still warrant action by the school, but likely wouldn’t reach national news levels.
Chattooga
1yr ago
Remind me not to get into a factual argument with a lawyer.
Overall I found the argument that Epps is a federal informant extremely unconvincing. It seems like what was presented in the podcast wasn’t so much evidence that Epps was an informant as it was presenting a narrative that is congruent with Epps being an informant.
If you want to say that Epps got a uniquely easy deal compared to others on the FBI seeking information list, then like… show me. Are those records not public? Couldn’t somebody go through and theoretically demonstrate that he got a light treatment compared to others on the list?
If you want to tell me that Epps being removed from the list is suspicious timing, then I would want to see a timelines of names being removed, of when the FBI talked to Epps, of what the media was saying about him. Based on what I heard it seems just as likely that the FBI didn’t bother updating their list until he became a public figure.
A few random thoughts-
While I don’t see any evidence of govt. efforts making J6 worse, I do concede the idea that just a few individuals can whip up a crowd. I think crowd dynamics are somewhat conformity based- At a given protest every member of the crowd has a particular proclivity to jump a police barrier, for example. As soon as one or two people with little restraint do that, it makes it much more acceptable, leading to more people doing it, compounding the effect. Thats why police fight so hard at these barriers initially. They don’t need to stop the entire crowd from jumping the barrier, just the first few people.
Obviously you still need people willing to do it, I’m not saying this is an excuse. But as it becomes more normal, it makes the actual action less notable. There were plenty of people who ‘trespassed’ on J6 by crossing the police barrier, but aren’t worth prosecuting since at that point the barrier had been basically erased. (I have an aspiring journalist cousin who even climbed the scaffolding to take better pictures. As far as I know he’s never been contacted about that.)
I don’t particularly buy the idea that Epps ‘thought the capital was open’. That does sound like covering his ass after the fact. I think a reasonable guess is that he was simply talking a big talk, and when confronted with actually fighting police, he wises up/chickens out/realizes people will get hurt.
Chattooga
1yr ago
I hear a lot of people talk like this and I genuinely wonder what ‘experts’ means here.
If it’s the statements of scientists as filtered through news or politics, then I don’t really think of that as ‘expert’ since it’s mixed with other idealogical frames. I don’t actually know what the expert is saying in that case, or if they even represent a qualified authority.
In general, when a headline references ‘Experts’ or ‘Researchers’, I replace it mentally with ‘Some guy’. Not because I don’t trust experts or researchers, but because broadly the media has a bad record of science communication.
Chattooga
1yr ago
Generally, complaints over grammar or language use are held up as examples or causes of society degrading. Pointing out that language changes isn’t so much about is/ought, as it is to say that this change isn’t new.
I agree that grasp of the rules is an indication of conscientiousness, but you also have to acknowledge that those rules are arbitrary. I would dress nice when showing up for a date to signal my competence as a mate, but I also know that the specific character of my clothes is arbitrary. Chances are my grandparents would find jeans and a henley vastly too casual, but it works today.
If I had to be held to a standard, I would say that the only way a language could get worse is if it somehow lost the ability to express certain ideas or concepts. But as far as I can tell any idea can be expressed in every language, so that seems unlikely to happen.
Chattooga
1yr ago
This seems to be a very charitable read of what Johnson is saying here. The broad evangelical position is not a nuanced conception of sexual behavior and how it can be influenced, it is a belief that homosexuality is morally wrong, disgusting, and dangerous to society. Johnson is not expressing that sexuality is malleable, he is saying that sufficient religious prayer will remove wickedness from a sinner.
I’m sure sexual behavior and desire can be changed in all kinds of ways, (I doubt that there were Mesopotamians with a latex fetish) but I think giving Johnson credit on this is misunderstanding his position.
It’s because this isn’t a money problem, it’s a logistics problem. Israel and Ukraine are already managing their responses, so it’s easy to give them aid. With the hurricane you have to figure out what goes where, and how to get it there, which is a difficult problem.
Also, I believe the majority of the value of the aid given to Ukraine in particularly is not cash, but arms, ammo, and loans.
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