FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
And every gimmick hungry yob
Digging gold from rock n roll
Grabs the mic to tell us
he'll die before he's sold
But I believe in this
And it's been tested by research
He who fucks nuns
Will later join the church
User ID: 195
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
17hr ago
No, it's based entirely on the ratio of the trade deficit. A hypothetical country with zero tariffs, whose citizens simply had no interest in US goods but produced goods that US consumers wanted, would still end up with an immense tariff rate. A hypothetical country with ruinously high tariffs, whose citizens nonetheless bought more from the USA than they traded to the USA would not get any additional tariffs at all.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
1d ago
The swing isn't arm dominant, but it will work your whole upper body if that's your weak point.
Congrats! Even it doesn't become a lifelong love, it'll be a fun fling learning new lifts and making progress.
Talking to you actually inspired me to try the "original" program minimum, because I've never really trained the bent press.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
2d ago
You're mostly right. Maybe the "even" should have been reversed there.
My point is the direction of aspiration; it's red tribe to wish you interacted with fewer black and brown people regardless of how many you interact with, it's blue tribe to wish you interacted with more Black and Brown people, regardless of how many you interact with.
Neither attitude is essential to either tribe, but you can't hold the other tribe's attitude.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
2d ago
If tradition is your sole overriding source of moral truth, then we just wind up with the old Euthyphro dilemma: what happens when the tradition that you happened to be born into isn't worth defending? What if it's actively malicious? "Support tradition" is a formal principle because it makes no mention of the actual content of that tradition. If you are living in a Nazi or communist (or whatever your own personal avatar of evil is) regime whose roots extend back further than living memory, are conservatives obligated to support the existing "traditional" regime? Perhaps they're allowed to oppose it, but only if they do so in a slow and gradual manner. You can understand why this response might not be appealing to those who are being crushed under the boot of the regime. And at any rate, you can only arrive at the position of opposing the regime in the first place if you have an alternative source of substantive ethical principles that go beyond the formal principles of "support tradition" and "don't change things too fast".
A traditional criticism of Conservativism has been that it is the "Coalition of the Comfortable." Conservatives are those doing well in the current system. So in addition to your distinction that:
Revolution (defined in the most general sense as rapid dramatic change, as opposed to slow and gradual change) is a tactic, not an ideological principle.
Revolution, and advocacy for Revolution, is also a tell. It's outing yourself as someone who is uncomfortable.
Assuming that one finds the current stratification sufficiently justified, whether it purports to be a meritocracy of talent or effort or blood, then you equally assume that those seeking to overthrow the current regime are losers, whether by effort or by talent or by blood.
So when
we just wind up with the old Euthyphro dilemma: what happens when the tradition that you happened to be born into isn't worth defending?
I don't really care. The tradition I was born into is worth defending for me. The point at which enough human capital, in numbers and in quality, is uncomfortable, then they won't be conservative.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
2d ago
There are many things that blackpill right-wingers that don't upset FanDuel Americans. Eroding WASP norms and new ones that approve of visible tattoos and smoking weed in public? The FanDuel American doesn't know what a "WASP" is, doesn't mind tattoos, and smokes weed himself. Radically changing demographics that's making America less white? The FanDuel American doesn't care, brags about his black friends, and thinks diversity makes his favorite team better. Nobody going to church? The FanDuel American doesn't go either. Everyone wasting money on sports bets and OnlyFans? So does the FanDuel American.
The FanDuel American has some conservative instincts. He likes the free market. He supports the troops. He stands for the National Anthem. He doesn't list his pronouns.
Greer does a good job of Noticing the existence of the FanDuel American, but a bad job of understanding or describing him. ((The pattern of doing a great job of Noticing but a bad job of Understanding is a sight gag here))
Values are best modeled as aspirational in seeking a Red/Blue divide among normies. The important question isn't what you do, it is what you wish you did, or did more of.
Using Church attendance as a jumping off point: in a few weeks I'm going to go up to my in-law's beach house, and go to the local church for Easter Mass. Many of the people in the pews will be Easter-Christmas Catholics, who go to Mass maybe three times a year. Some of those Easter-Christmas Catholics will be liberals, and some will be conservatives; the difference will be not in how often they go to Mass but in how often they wish they went to Mass. A liberal blue triber wishes they went to church less often than they do, a conservative red triber wishes they went to church more often. The blue triber is sitting through Easter Mass thinking "I wish mom didn't drag us here, no one cares, and we have so much to do before dinner!" while the red triber thinks "I really ought to go to Mass every week, I've been trying to go but, work, and chores, and early football games, and hangovers..." The Blue Triber resents the presence of religion, no matter how minor or major the inconvenience; the Red Triber thinks religion is good and vaguely wants more of it in his life, even if he makes pretty weak excuses as to why he doesn't do it.
This pattern can be extended across many fields. The Red Triber uses pornography or OnlyFans, but thinks that the models are trash people, and might vaguely wish he didn't use it; the Blue Triber thinks the models are good people, and vaguely tries to seek out pornography that women claim they enjoy making. The Red Triber wishes he was more involved with his kids; the Blue Triber thinks single moms are just fine. The Red Triber thinks drug users are scum and is vaguely uncomfortable with them, even if he makes an exception for himself because [reasons]; the Blue Triber thinks that drugs are fine and that hallucinogens sound cool and vaguely thinks he should try them even if he himself barely drinks. The Red Triber thinks black people aren't ultimately as good as white people, even if he makes exceptions for his friends or his favorite athletes or rappers; the Blue Triber thinks Black people are as-good or better than YTs and diversity is our strength, even if he doesn't have any actual black friends. The Red Triber wishes he made more than his wife, or that she didn't work at all, and that she was more obedient and he more authoritative; the Blue Triber wishes that his wife made as much as he did, and that she didn't defer to him as much as she does.* The Red Triber who doesn't own any guns really thinks he ought to get one and totally plans to any day now; the Blue Triber that does own a gun makes a dozen weird excuses as to why he specifically likes them and offers extensive explanations of how safe he is in the storage and handling of the firearms.
To a certain extent, this is normal: humans are imperfect and moral ideals are perfect. We could probably play this game in Classical Athens with guys who wish they slept with fewer women and more boys, and guys who wish they slept with more boys and fewer women; or in Tolstoy's Russia with nobles who wish they had fewer serfs and nobles who wish they had more serfs. It's nothing special that the majority of American conservatives and liberals don't live up to their political ideals. But you can't understand people just from what they do, you do have to consider what they want to do.
*Thinking about these couplets personally: I wish I went to Mass more even though I go frequently and I wish my wife would consent to at least vaguely learn about our banking and bills instead of just depending on me to handle all money matters. C'est la vie.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
6d ago
Interestingly, racing greyhounds display similar size differences to humans but race together.
Maybe just interesting to me.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
March BJJ Update: Promotion Day Blues
So after class Tuesday was promotion day at the gym. It was cute for the comp-team teenager who got his blue belt, and a couple other guys were excited to get whatever the stripe is that comes right before your belt promotion. I had no problem clapping for everyone. But then they got to "FiveHour get up here" and I got my first stripe, a piece of electrical tape wrapped around the white belt. I felt embarrassed and ridiculous, somehow combining a sense of meaninglessness of the participation with the level and still feeling a sense of imposter syndrome or that it was given out of pity because I don't know squat. I know less than squat. Squat and I could go to dinner and Squat could wear an "I'm with stupid" T shirt.
Which is fine whatever I was embarrassed. But then I was surprised the next day, when my friend who I started going to BJJ with, B, called me and said hey congratulations, and sounded genuinely jealous. He said he really felt like he was falling behind last time we had rolled; he was coming off an injury and I was able to dominate position pretty emphatically. B decided that to make more progress, he wanted to start doing private classes in addition to the scheduled classes, and the professor had told him that it was better with two people rather than one, as it is essentially impossible to do BJJ by oneself, so B asked me to join him and we'd book some private classes together. Which, honestly, at the price quoted I don't mind doing maybe once a week, I can pick a time where it makes scheduling easier for me, and it'll probably be good for progress, and I don't mind paying a bit of extra money because I feel like it's been such a good deal so far for me.
I was just so surprised that where I felt like getting the stripe was a participation trophy and mildly embarrassing to even get at 33, B was mildly upset about not getting it. Which he was wrong about anyway: he simply hadn't showed up for class that day, he got it tonight. Just such an odd shift of perspective.
I've made a lot of progress the last few weeks, and I think a big part of it is altering my scheduling to go four days in a row three days off, rather than four days sprinkled through the week. The way the gym structures things, every week every class is devoted to one position or type of move. So half-guard week, armbar week, Judo week, etc. I've noticed that going three days in a row, I start to actually use the moves more, because I'm practicing it in quick succession. Interestingly, BJJ is a very intense workout every time, and I'm noticing physique results, but it doesn't have the same muscle-soreness or necessity of rest days that lifting and rock climbing do for me. I couldn't do the same lift or climb four days in a row without dropping the intensity close by a lot on the second day. Where with BJJ I can roll every day, and while I probably wear down eventually, I feel like if I manage my energy and warmup well that day, I'm fine each day. Picking up soreness or a knock is more idiosyncratic, a matter of getting caught in a bad position and fighting it too long, rather than just pure muscle soreness and weakness with lifting, or the way I need to rest my fingers in between climbing days.
This made me think, along with chatting with @oats_son about kettlebells, about the roll of the 30 Day Challenge in my fitness history. I first started with kettlebells doing the 10,000 swings in 30 days thing, and after that I've never been scared of swings. In law school I did a 30 days of yoga things, and it permanently improved my yoga practice. These brief focused efforts lead to long term improvements! On the other hand, I did Smolov Jr. for Bench and Strict Press over the years, and while I hit PRs after the program, the value didn't hold over for long after.
My biggest frustration remains my limited vocabulary of moves. I don't think there's any way out of it except time. But I hate the feeling of getting mount, as I did last time, and then not having the moves or the confidence in them to go for a sub; or sitting in guard and being good enough to avoid getting swept or subbed, but not good enough to pass, and just wasting time stalling. My defense is progressing faster than my offense.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
Since the explosion of obesity from the early-mid 1970s, classical notions of beauty have been complemented by what I guess you could call the “butterface”, someone facially unfortunate or mediocre (mid) but who has a somewhat more attractive - by virtue of not being fat, usually - body. In 1950, being skinny with an ugly face put you in the bottom quartile of hotness. In 2020, it probably put you around the middle, maybe even somewhat above average in the fattest places. Now, the value declines again, and the face card returns to its position on top.
I don't think this concept is exclusive to the modern obesity epidemic, or that it will end with the Ozempic era. The concept of the butterface, a woman with a great rack and an ugly face, exists in earlier men's writing, but it's a crass concept that only a real horndog male would talk about, and up until recently that wasn't the kind of stuff that was typically written down, and if it was written down it wasn't the type of stuff that typically survived. Certainly if you read Playboy issues from the 50s and 60s the idea of a woman with great ass tits and a mediocre face comes up pretty often, typically as a desirable temporary partner but less marriageable.
Especially given the variable impact that weight loss will have on breasts, the varying adequacy of surgical substitution, and the known tendency of women to go too far with it, and the general degradation and crassness of modern culture, guys are still going to talk about butterfaces.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
Idk that version looks annoying to me.
If you don't want to just pay the $10 or borrow it from the library. At any rate the basic concept is something like: Do a bunch of KB swings, do a bunch of Turkish Get Ups. Don't worry too much about doing "more" reps, and don't add weight, just try to do the exercises and keep your muscles under tension. Both Swings and TGUs are exercises where you have to focus on form and they're easy to pretend to do. The program minimum will not take long each week, will work your whole body, will accustom you to lifting weights. If you can master the swing, it gets you ready for everything else, it's the basis of the clean and jerk, the snatch, all the fun stuff.
Buy literally any cast iron 16kg kettlebell. I splurged on Rogue MiUSA ones, but that was after I already loved kettlebells and had spent a ridiculous quantity of time working with them so I didn't mind spending extra, and I was ordering enough stuff from Rogue to get free shipping. I also have some random enameled ones I got at a local store 14 years ago, and some off-brand Amazon ones in heavier weights I ordered because I got free shipping. AVOID GETTING KETTLEBELLS MEASURED IN POUNDS, GET THEM IN THE CLASSIC 8KG INTERVALS. I started with 50#ers I picked up at a local store, and it didn't matter to me at the time, but years later it pissed me off because the classic benchmarks are measured in KG and mine were always a little off.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
You really just need the 16kg to get started, then a few months later the 24kg.
If you catch the bug like me you'll end up with a bunch over the years.
Don't buy an adjustable they're shit and gay.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
So a class that has significant big lifting mixed in is CrossFit. You get competition, you get teaching, and you get lifting and cardio.
For Kettlebells any of the classic Pavel programs from Enter the Kettlebell will work and are simple to follow. Start with a 35#/16kg if you're a normal size man, and work to get to a 24kg/53# in a few months. Stick to the 24kg until you can complete the 100 snatches in ten minutes test. By the time you get there, you'll be in pretty good shape and pretty strong, go back to barbells and you'll be shocked at your strength in the DL and squat.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
Do you have any evidence that is the case, or just speculative? I have to discount the trolling hypothesis, it's kind of evidence free.
At any rate I'm not sure it would really make me feel much better to say 15% of people are super duper innumerate."
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
That's not really a useful way to examine weight classes relative to @WhiningCoil 's assertion that HW is the prestige weight class. HW is the "open" class that any fighter could enter if they were better, they're the "real" champion, any other weight class whether at 200# or 125# is a "fake" champion by comparison. The assertion made wasn't "people like watching bigger fellas" it is "people like watching the 'real' champion, not a 'fake' champion protected by weight class regulations."
The real pattern you see is that fans like watching fights with great champions and great challengers, they like seeing great athletes compete against other great athletes, regardless of weight. This holds throughout boxing history: HW was big when you had multiple challengers passing the belt around in the Ali-Frazier-Foreman era, and decayed when the Klitschko's dominated it; Leonard, Duran, Hagler, and Hearns made middleweight great and their fights are still legendary today. Mayweather has the biggest three purses of all time. It's how it works.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
7d ago
The existence of weight classes proves that the featherweight's objective!weakness is high-status.
That's why I brought up Topuria specifically, because he is in a smaller weightclass on a UFC scale, but at his walking around weight he is essentially an average American male. In my view, that makes him objectively athletic, because he's outperforming the majority of men. And the market agrees! The most famous UFC fighters of all time are Connor Macgregor and GSP, who fought primarily at 155 and 170 respectively. The highest earning divisions have historically been between 155 and 205, rarely above or below. There's a deeper and more interesting talent pool that puts on good fights.
The assertion regarding lower-weightclass athletes or female athletes that:
It wouldn't take much for the average man to outperform her.
Is the purest fentanyl-strength copium. I know a few dozens of women that climb 5.13b, that's not a trivial achievement for a man. Neither is a 3:13 marathon, or sinking three pointers, or playing scratch golf even from the women's tees, or any number of other female athletic achievements we see.
Really, I agree with you that athletics is about status, but I don't think the adverb "objective" belongs anywhere near the adjective athletic. Because there is no being "athletic" in some platonic ideal sense, there is only being more athletic than and less athletic than. And the question as to calling someone athletic when we get into weight classes, women's divisions, "master's" age classes, is probably whether such people are either "more athletic than the average person" or "more athletic than the expectation."
So I guess the status I'm interested in conferring on others when I call them athletic is that they are more athletic than you'd expect.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
8d ago
@PutAHelmetOn ((Because I'll cite back to this in my reply to you))
This is less true than you think it is in modern fight sports.
Average Purse for Boxing By Weight Class:
🔹Heavyweight: $20M
🔹Bridgerweight: $1M
🔹Cruiserweight: $3M
🔹Light Heavyweight: $5M
🔹Super Middleweight: $25M
🔹Middleweight: $2M
🔹Jr Middleweight: $3M
🔹Welterweight: $10M
🔹Super Lightweight $5M
🔹Lightweight $15M
🔹Super Featherweight $1M
🔹Featherweight $1M
🔹Super Bantamweight $4M
🔹Bantamweight $1.5M
🔹Super Flyweight $2M
🔹Flyweight $500K
🔹Jr Flyweight $1M
🔹Minimumweight $200k
You clearly see that Super Middleweight (168#) tops the charts, and that lightweight and welterweight are both vastly higher than any of the weights between Super Mid and Heavy.
For the UFC, the top ten highest paid fighters of all time includes four heavyweights, but also two lightweights top the list and it also features middleweights and welterweights. In the UFC in particular, among fight fans HW is often seen as a bit of a sideshow, with a shallow talent pool and sloppy fights; the biggest stars and best fights have normally been between 155# and 205#, where the fighters tend to land at "normal male" heights of between 5'9" and 6'2".
That's what more fans are tuning in for, rather than the Universal Championship at HW.
Historically in Boxing the Heavyweight Championship was the ne plus ultra of sports, but back then your heavyweight champions were Rocky Marciano at 5'10" 190#, and Mohammed Ali at 6'3" 226#, a big fella but not a mass monster by any means. I'm on the bigger side for my BJJ gym, and I'm a few pounds bigger than Marciano; the biggest couple guys in the gym are significantly larger than Ali.
The problem might be talent pools: basketball and the NFL soak up too many of the really athletic big fellas. Jalen Carter or Micah Parsons might be HW contenders if they had trained for it, but they make twice that fight purse a season in the NFL; and forget what guys like Lebron and Luka make in the NBA without getting hit in the head too often.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
8d ago
Sports are contact with reality. Just as Jackie Robinson and Mohammed Ali were the the most important figures in the Civil Rights movement; Nikola Jokic and Cooper Flagg are going to cause a crisis in American culture within a few years.
The most important myth that lifting destroys is learned helplessness: starting lifting is the experience of putting in effort and seeing results. There's a strong debate about privilege hidden under there, in that for some people it will be easier than me and that for some people it will be harder than me, but for everyone there is effort put in and there are results.
Most women I know can't move a couch or other large furniture (yes some of this is driven by social class and racial dynamics and so on) but if she can you are doing good!
Find yourself a strong beautiful Slavic woman.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
8d ago
Do you have the same feeling about weight classes? Would you say that the flyweight UFC Champion is athletic? Would it be accurate to call him tough, despite weighing 125# (fighting weight) at 5'5"? Or is it inaccurate in the same way "athletic woman" is inaccurate because he would be toast against any higher weight class fighter? What about Ilia at featherweight, 145# fighting weight and 5'7", but reportedly closer to 180# walking around, who probably stunts on most average men but would be similarly stomped by a LHW or HW UFC fighter? Or do we consider p4p for men, but not women?
This kind of discussion confuses me sometimes, because a lot of men who aren't running 3hr marathons and can't climb 5.13b and can't sink a three pointer on an open basketball court love to shitpost about how stupid the idea of an athletic woman is. The existence of someone better doesn't seem to preclude the use of the word athletic in my mind.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
8d ago
Sure, but I'd imagine she does so more rarely than most women. Men she meets frequently comment on her shockingly strong handshake.
But the margin between my wife and I is obvious, because we lift together. I'm aware that her max is my warmup weight, and that her forgetting to rerack her weights is just annoying to me, while if I forget to rerack my weights she's basically helpless to clean up my deadlift.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
8d ago
Have any of you guys tried it? Did it make you feel noticably different? Was it easy to quit? Any suggestions regarding dosage?
I've long been an occasional cigar or drunk-cigarette smoker, like a couple times a year. I never felt any compulsion to smoke regularly. Last year I tried Zyns. I quite like them. They deliver a pleasant buzz and burst of energy when doing something, give a little hint of taste to stimulate me without calories or the gallon of diet coke or green tea I'd drink on a long drive, they're totally unobtrusive when walking around, and there's not really any gross residue. I use them a couple times a week, and rarely more than one a day. I've never gotten a craving or a headache on a day I don't use them.
But I perceive that I have a non-addictive personality when it comes to substances (less so when it comes to other things). I just don't ever really feel the urge to use weed or alcohol or nicotine. So Your Mileage May Very Very Much Vary.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
8d ago
One of my favorite examples: Americans trying to estimate the size of minority groups.
Americans routinely think that 20% of Americans are making $1mm a year, are transgender, are Jewish, are Muslim, are East Asian, live in NYC, are Bisexual, live in Texas. The proportions they attribute to tiny minorities are literally impossible to square with each other, unless you assume some huge number of trans millionaire bisexual Chinese Jews splitting their time between Dallas and Manhattan.
While they routinely think that only two thirds of Americans own a car, have flown on a plane, or received a high school diploma
Whites, homeowners, Christians all also lose significant percentage points in estimation.
What's most fascinating to me is that Conservative Republicans, who can broadly speaking be assumed to be more pro-white and anti-gay and anti-Muslim, are more likely to vastly overestimate the number of gay people and Black people and Muslims in the country, while actual Black people gay people and Muslims tend to underestimate it.
People are innumerate.
I think he comes across as blaming the world for giving him a false impression and thinks the world should change to fit his neurotype
More that he has built his life in a way where the maximum required level of strength for any task he performs is within the range of a reasonably athletic woman. My wife is in great shape, we can move furniture together in most Craigslist pickup cases. If "moving a couch" was the most strength I ever expected to display in life, I wouldn't really have much of a test to prove one way or the other how strong my wife is relative to me. I don't know that I would even call this author to help me move, so he might be below that level of maximum displayed strength. Jean ValJean never reveals himself if he never sees that cart in the street.
Certainly if this man is as wildly unathletic as he purports himself to be, he would experience hearing from PMC women in his circle about athletic feats they've performed that he would be unable to perform, with very little context for what he might be capable of. Hell, I know a half dozen women who have qualified for the NYC Marathon which in my age range is a 3:13 Marathon, and I sure can't do that. If I never looked up the qualifying times for men, I'd just hear that they ran a marathon in three hours and change, which would also be a pretty good time for a hobbyist man, and assume that if women tried they are just as good. Similarly in rock climbing, I know lots of women who could smash everyone in this forum by grade.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
9d ago
Exactly.
None of this actually increased the rights I had in college, instead it narrows them further.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
9d ago
My question is how you guys keep this kind of routine up for any extended period of time.
Suggestions:
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You might just not like the Stronglifts format. I used 5x5 when I started, and it's very valuable for getting started, but rarely have I gone back to it over the decade since. Mostly, I find something like the Bulgarian Lite method, where I'm trying to hit a PR on something. Rarely do my lifting sessions last longer than 45 minutes. When they do, it's normally that I am enjoying them.
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You might not like barbells. Try kettlebells instead. They're easy to store and use at home, they encourage a certain degree of "owning the weight" and focus on reps and density rather than increasing weight, they're a little more explosive and athletic and fun than the classic powerlifts.
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There's no real reason you have to or should keep the same routine for longer than three to six months. You're likely to start to stall out after more than twelve weeks on the same routine. At that point, you should always be switching to a new routine, whether that's the same format with new lifts, the same lifts with a new format, something other than weightlifting entirely, just something new that you're stoked on. In the past year or so I've focused on the barbell clean and jerk, the moonboard, the kettlebell pentathlon, push pressing a 97lb kettlebell for 32 consecutive reps, hitting a max on the Landmine Jerk, and for the last four months on BJJ. I still mess around with the other exercises in between, but I'm only ever focused on advancing one at a time. When I start getting bored of one, I move on to the next. I'm 33 and I'm not making the olympics in anything so what does it matter if my progress is slower? I'm getting strong and having fun.
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You might like more of a social/class format like Crossfit. Crossfit is where I started lifting, at any decent box you will get good at the big lifts, and I think most of the people talking shit on it are either fat or not nearly as strong as your average Crossfitter.
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Home gym master race.
Because it isn't overvalued, it isn't expensive, it doesn't take up much time done right. Lifting weights and working out is massively undervalued, it's the best thing you can do for yourself. Strength is the master trait that makes everything else easier. Rock climbing, when I took it up, was easier because I was strong; BJJ is easier because I was strong when I started; team sports and living your life in general will be better and easier. The only thing it makes worse is getting dressed.
Also being a city with no hinterland, in which virtually every citizen travels abroad regularly.
Singapore's policies aren't going to apply to the USA without accounting for scale.
That said, I'm pro public caning as a punishment rather than incarceration.
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