HalloweenSnarry
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User ID: 795
HalloweenSnarry
1d ago
Holy shit, wow.
HalloweenSnarry
1d ago
the UN judge getting convicted of slavery in the UK
The what
HalloweenSnarry
2d ago
What makes these explanations not necessarily correct, would you say?
I do agree with this take, though, I think there's examples of legacy-corpo family heirs who are both stupid-rich and very progressive.
I get to use my taxes to (indirectly) pay for the gun the Camden gangbanger uses, a gun I'm not permitted to have.
What, exactly, is the mechanism by which this happens? I'm genuinely curious as to how this "also my tax dollars somehow" thing works, as you allege.
HalloweenSnarry
3d ago
Huh.
HalloweenSnarry
3d ago
Jeez. Good thing the cyclone wasn't that bad in the end. Any clue as to why people are so miscalibrated? Is it purely culture war-y reasons, or is it purely being calibrated on genuinely bad storms?
HalloweenSnarry
4d ago
Do the Azeris have any significant grudges against Iran? I'm not too familiar with the history there.
HalloweenSnarry
4d ago
For comparison, see, for example from 19th century, war of 1870. War ended with great victory for Germans, great humiliation for French. France lost two provinces, lots of cash and honor.
What happened afterwards? Peace. Bad feelings remained, but diplomatic relations were restored, French could travel to Germany and vice versa, no walls and barbed wire on the borders. Not thinkable today.
It was precisely this war, however, that deepened Franco-German resentment, which contributed to both World Wars, as both empires sought to see the other ground under their heel in the name of their blood feud.
HalloweenSnarry
4d ago
As far as I can see it, the efforts required by the frustrated and resourceful people of places like Venezuela are "demonstrate and coordinate sufficient violence to force the Maduro regime to either step down or be thrown down." This is a tall ask, but it is the bar that the Maduro regime has set, given the multiple rigged elections, suppression of political opposition, and militaristic displays of tyranny. Peacefully forcing change looks very unlikely over there nowadays, unless Maduro dies in office and his successor forgets to rig the election that's supposed to let them take over in his place.
HalloweenSnarry
4d ago
Although the reactions up here to the recent cyclone are heartening - competency crisis has started being a bit of a normie meme.
I'm a bit curious to know more.
HalloweenSnarry
4d ago
Some people here claim that the old, pre-edited version of Meditations is better. I haven't actually sat down to compare any changes, and to be frank, the archived version was one of the first results that came up on DDG...and not Scott's actual old blog, for some reason.
HalloweenSnarry
5d ago
There is a thorny tension in that, yes, there are challenges that seem difficult to solve without massive coordination--and suborning lots of polities to a higher power is a decent way to sidestep the usual difficulties of coordination problems (Sidenote: also available here!). However, some of these same challenges are the ones that are so high-stakes and consequential that getting it wrong can be really bad, and worse, "getting it wrong" can also scale too well. I think the "experiment" mindset is the right way to go about tackling these issues, when it comes down to it.
HalloweenSnarry
5d ago
I think the disagreement here is that YFR and others see the spending-versus-results conundrum as a matter of cost disease/"the dose makes the poison," where the cost-benefit ratio is so miserable that no increase in spending can be stomached, whereas you seem to see the problem as a "more dakka" one, where we could actually do better if we just invested more.
HalloweenSnarry
5d ago
Is this supposing that the inflows of immigrants are high enough that, if one were to indoctrinate, train, arm, and organize them, that they could be a force large and powerful enough to overthrow Maduro and suppress Chavismo into oblivion? This might be true, but I would like a reminder on the numbers involved.
HalloweenSnarry
5d ago
But importing millions of indentured labourers every generation is not going to work as a long term solution.
Hell, what happens if, by some nebulous social mechanism, the immigrants just stop wanting to do the shit jobs for sub-par pay, but keep coming anyways?
Pretty much this. If we really wanted to stop some illegal immigration, the most optimal thing to do would probably be to delete shit governments from across Central and South America--but very few people have the appetite or political will to even consider such a thing.
HalloweenSnarry
7d ago
Pretty much this. Does SS wish the "American Empire" was a real thing? It seems to me that the current tension between the US and the EU boils down to the fact that the alliance of old was forged to create a united front against the Soviets. The Soviets are no more, and with them, an enemy that the "free world" could stand against. Nowadays, we just have a broad, semi-vague "axis of evil" of clear, yet not overt rivals. I think the only remarkable thing is that it has taken so long for the US-Europe alliance to fracture once the USSR was a thing of the past.
HalloweenSnarry
10d ago
I have developed the impression that Peter Thiel and his creatures, and Palantir specifically, are fairly well connected in the current American establishment.
I am under the (admittedly probably incorrect) impression that Thiel works from the sidelines, and even if he is well-connected, will not exploit these connections and opportunities to the hilt so as to keep his exposure to risk within an acceptable level. I say this because I think the single most overt political act he ever did was bankroll Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker, and he only seemed to do that because it was personal. After that, it's mostly just donating to political campaigns. Palantir, I have no clue.
HalloweenSnarry
10d ago
I think you duplicated one of your paragraphs near the end.
HalloweenSnarry
11d ago
I do always think of the local-ish story of the Native American law student forced to take math classes at ASU. Now, sure, depending on the specific field of law, math may actually prove to be a useful skill to have, but I could probably imagine some areas of law where it's not really necessary.
HalloweenSnarry
11d ago
Weighted fonts are one method by which things can be made easier on dyslexics. Notably, Comic Sans is surprisingly useful as one in a pinch, though still beaten out by purpose-built fonts.
HalloweenSnarry
11d ago
or is there room for people doing "just OK, slightly below average, could've been amazing at something else" to keep the show going on?
"Field Fillers" and Jobbers are a thing in the more entertainment-oriented sports, at least.
Yeah, if this were the peak of the Cold War, an antagonistic nation would probably spurn Western aid.
Heck, if you swapped the name of the President in the headline, you could even argue that we "punished South Africa for independence" during Apartheid. Now, granted, the main consequences of the embargoes on South Africa were things like "Israel is one of the only countries they can trade with" and "there's basically no foreign-made shows on TV besides The Sweeney," and possibly not things like "AIDS will ravage the population."
HalloweenSnarry
14d ago
I must begrudgingly second FC here, your assessment does not square with how I remember the political climate of the 2000's, unless you really want to lump Michael Moore and Adbusters in with MAGA.
(Admittedly, Moore himself did make comments around 2016 to the effect of "Trump and MAGA is what the neoliberal establishment deserves.")
Yeah, I think conventional explosions could still cause blindness, assuming sufficient yield, no neutrons necessary.
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