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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
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User ID: 894
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
13d ago
One thing I find interesting about this is that if we continue to shave "minorities" off of the "minority" list and add them onto the "white" if they vote a certain way, we will have built a more diverse coalition of "whites" than "minorities." "White" now contains Asians, Whites, and Latinos.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
14d ago
We're working with contrafactuals, but if I truly believed that the virus was an existential threat in the way it was sold as, I truly wouldn't know. For better or for worse, I'd see myself as responsible for the people who died. Like I said, I don't know what I'd do, but I can't imagine that it was a simple or easy choice.
Of course, this is all assuming that politicians actually want what's best for the country and are not a cabal of soul-sucking freaks.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
14d ago
You really have to grade Biden on a curve IMO. I'm sympathetic to him on COVID and Afghanistan, and while I don't agree with his handling of COVID, I can't say how I'd react when put into a similar position. Even more sympathetically, it's not clear to me how much he was really in control of the presidency. Is it really his fault that he got Weekend at Bernie'd into being president?
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
14d ago
I'm more more forgiving of Silver than of Selzer. Sometimes the data just indicates that it's just too close and the correct thing to say is that you don't know. And in reality, I think everyone understands that you don't really know. Selzer being not only wrong, but nearly the opposite of correct when she's supposed to be the foremost expert is quite damning in my eyes.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
15d ago
On the other hand, suppose Harris pulls a come from behind victory in the wee hours of the night, should we adjust our priors on the rigability of the election?
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
21d ago
The ones who have elected to stay on the island, in this reading, would be the ones who intentionally chose not to assimilate into America.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Puerto Rico is a part of America.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
23d ago
No I don't think so at all. Trump's been showing up to boxing, pro wrestling, and MMA fights for as long as I can remember. I don't think you insert yourself (or allow yourself to be inserted) to multiple WWE storylines without at least being a casual fan. He allowed UFC events to be held in the Trump Taj Mahal when MMA became legal in New Jersey (which was the start of his long standing friendship with Dana White). Hell, he was one of the main investors in Affliction, the short lived MMA promotion that actually had quite a lot of push at the time. Famously, Josh Barnett killed the promotion by popping for steroids. Trump's definitely been a fight fan for a long time.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
25d ago
Right, when people say they've been especially exhausted by this election cycle, I have to wonder what they were doing 8 years ago. That one was crazy because no one liked Trump
Speaking from a purely entertainment standpoint, it was much easier to root for Trump in 2016 because no one liked him. It almost felt like a movie, where Trump went around and beat down all of the Republican candidates before fighting the final boss. Also, 2016 Trump was a much more fun, energetic, and clever Trump. A lot of the quips he made off the cuff in the debates were legitimately genius. Also, him gimmicking every one of his opponents (Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary) was really fun (Cacklin' Kamala was literally so easy). This time, there's no underdog story because he's already won. He's much slower mentally. He's also much less energetic. In 2016, the Republican debates were legitimately riveting television. There weren't any debates in 2024. The magic is just not all there. It's like if they did a remake of a beloved childhood film. It looks like the film everyone knows and loves, but there's just something missing.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
30d ago
But it’s a clever campaign stunt that plays into his Everyman image.
Has Trump ever had an "Everyman" image? As far as I can recall, Trump has always represented a billionaire business tycoon. Maybe he acts the same way an average person would act if they won the lottery (gold plated toilets, supermodel wives, etc.) but I don't think he was ever a true "Everyman" in the same way Homer Simpson is.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
Thanks for the context.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
Were the Irish categorized as Mongoloid? That would be quite funny.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
if splitting to 3 major races
Excuse my ignorance, but what are the 3 major races? My guess would be Eurasian, African, and American, but if this is the methodology, then wouldn't the results be inherently worthless? I don't see how it can make sense to put Thais and Swedes in the same racial category and have anything approaching precision.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
"Did you threaten to overrule Derrick Lewis?"
On a slightly amusing side note, when I hear Derrick Lewis, I can only picture Hot Balls, Black Beast, Popeyes Derrick Lewis. Woe to the man who threatens to overrule him.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
Without knowing or understanding much of Japanese outside of the few items I've absorbed as a (disgusting) weeb, are any of the three behaviors listed outside of the norm in Japan? To me, friending a coworker on social media and asking for someone's birthday seems to be the norm (the latter especially, in order to plan team celebrations.) Acknowledging that there's a resemblance between a co-worker and a celebrity might be on shakier ground (if she resembled a porn star, for example,) but the person in question was a celebrity chef, so the comment seems as innocuous of a way of commenting on someone's looks as possible.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
I've always wondered why the soy sauces in the packets always tasted off compared to the real sauces I've had. I always just thought that they were of extremely low quality. I never knew that they were simply not soy sauces. Thanks for the heads up.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
They disagree with Lovecraft on the mood his architecture must evoke, and believe it is (for example) very cool rather than maddening.
If you read both of the descriptions that I posted, you'll notice that the descriptions don't actually describe the buildings in any real detail. Instead they describe how you're supposed to feel about them, and let you do your own imagination about what they are supposed to look like. So if I'm imagining something that's a "tangible substance of earth’s supreme terror," "nightmare corpse-city," or "monstrous perversions of geometrical laws and attaining the most grotesque extremes of sinister bizarrerie," and the architect in question expresses an interest in bringing these to real life, it's not an easy sell to then downgrade them into "curious" or "strange."
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
Lovecraft uses language to imply the existence of an architecture that is curious, strange, and challenges notions of the architectural norm.
Again, this is doublespeak. Cthulhu rising from the sea can also be "curious" or "strange." Speaking of Cthulhu, here's an excerpt from "The Call of Cthulhu" describing the drowned city of R'lyeh: "Then, driven ahead by curiosity in their captured yacht under Johansen’s command, the men sight a great stone pillar sticking out of the sea, and in S. Latitude 47° 9′, W. Longitude 126° 43′ come upon a coast-line of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth’s supreme terror—the nightmare corpse-city of R’lyeh, that was built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars."
Here's a description of the architecture of The Elder Things from "At the Mountains of Madness": "The effect was that of a Cyclopean city of no architecture known to man or to human imagination, with vast aggregations of night-black masonry embodying monstrous perversions of geometrical laws and attaining the most grotesque extremes of sinister bizarrerie".
If your reading of those passages is that these places simply "[challenge] notions of the architectural norm," then I don't know what else to say.
But it says Lovecraft therefore they must mean they want to replicate the worst aspects of Lovecraftian
"Lovecraftian" specifically refers to a type of dread, terror, awe, and hopelessness associated with the knowledge of humanity's utter insignificance when compared to the alien creatures, gods, and beings within the unknown universe. This knowledge, in Lovecraft's stories, generally drives normal people to insanity. So when an architect invokes a "Lovecraftian" design in his or her architecture, you'll have to excuse me if I don't believe that he or she is trying to produce something that stops at "curious and strange."
If I'm being the best faith possible, it can be the case that the architect had merely misread Lovecraft and had invoked him to merely tie his or her works to something recognizable, but if that's the case, the architect would still merely be inept.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
The use of the term "Lovecraftian," as described by the original comment you were replying to.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
imagin[ing] architecture that similarly alludes to a deeper or alternate view of reality is an appealing opportunity.
That's just doublespeak. The sentence is so abstracted that it doesn't mean anything. Madness is literally just an alternate view of reality.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
How does the taste for Lovecraft fit in? Aren’t these people specifically “moving on from Eisenman”?
I think his point is that things have gone even further from the merely normal extremes of "pain" or "discomfort." Architects are now, by their own description, deliberately trying to induce madness with their designs, which to me would seem to be somehow even further beyond the pale than the previous goals of "pain" and "discomfort."
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
Depends on what you mean by "really good." I just used mine out of the box and it's better than the others I've used.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
I bought and used one for months before my teammates staged an intervention.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
Keychron Q6. Full sized, simple, easy to use, and customizable. I never customized it, but it is. One negative is that it's heavy, but I prefer it that way.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
Kudzu. What used to be a useful plant when planted, farmed, and cultivated became a natural version of The Blob when released into the wild. Because it grew uncontrollably, it's literally smothered millions of acres of other plant life by blocking out the sun. It's almost impossible to kill chemically without also destroying the natural habitat. While grazing by farm animals can help control the problem, it does not kill the plant itself. Even burning the plant doesn't solve the problem because the vines can grow back from the roots themselves.
Asians have already been put in the White category for overperforming other minorities (and even whites) in school grades and earnings. Further, I think that they're way more fickle than a lot of other demographics. (East) Asians are much less political than other races until someone messes with their schools. You see this repeatedly in California, where every single initiative to make schools more "equitable" guarantees that Asians vote against it.
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