TheFooder
18d ago
That was my tactic with the Anthrax vaccine back in the 90's. It was double-plus hard because I was in the military, but I dodged it anyway. No regrets.
TheFooder
18d ago
I, for one, enjoyed it. But I don't think I'm in the same solar system as anyone you might be aiming this at.
TheFooder
21d ago
With decades of seeking I've yet to find a group anywhere close to the Motte for interesting and thought-provoking conversations. Substack is a watered-down version that I don't fully appreciate. I've learned more and seen more in this forum than any other. All else is tribalism.
TheFooder
25d ago
Isn't that the general precedent? Top-level big thread, keep it out of CW thread? My $0.02 = no reason for a ban.
TheFooder
1mo ago
Are you saying a fool would never admit they were wrong? Why not? Fools do all kinds of things some of which might not be foolish. Hannaia's problem is that he's wrong all the time. Maybe he's a terminal fool and should sit down for a while. Just admitting one was wrong isn't enough of a reason to consider him a meaningful intellect. There are many public intellects I disagree with but still have valuable analysis. Hannania is not one of them.
TheFooder
1mo ago
Really...Hanania said that? Another reason to dismiss him as a fool. It should have been obvious from the start the bromance would sour over time. Had it been a prediction market (I was aware of...) I would have definitely taken that bet, though I must admit the honeymoon laster longer than I expected.
TheFooder
1mo ago
The thing that gets me--and I will admit my loss of facts over the years-- is there's no counterfactual for how effective the vaccines were. I presume the peak numbers would have come down a little, but vs. what? Overall, it doesn't seem to me there's much evidence that the vaccines did anything as the course of the covid outbreak followed every other pandemic just at a different scale. All I get is, "Of course they worked, it's obvious. You're stupid."
TheFooder
1mo ago
I was surprised by this as well. All he had to say was, "I'm not familiar with Cooper's work." Heaven forbid Douglas Murray not have an opinion on something. My weak-man take is Murray made an ass out of himself, but I only watched snippets and reactions. Rogan is too long and meandering for my tastes.
TheFooder
1mo ago
400 is such an outrageous timeline why would they bother? Was it a joke? Was there one or two certain tasks that sucked up most of the timeline?
TheFooder
1mo ago
Academics sound extremely lazy and whiny about trying out the most obvious solution: ditch all course-work based grading in favor of oral examinations and comprehensive graduation exams.
I see you there, trying to put Scantron out of business.
TheFooder
2mo ago
here's my current project: https://lefthandscorpio.bandcamp.com/album/test-drive
Got the next track in the pipeline, but since we're sharing...
TheFooder
3mo ago
I have this idea I call 'Mistake Theory' which posits that the only official acts that benefit the public are mistakes. US Politics exist solely as a way to screw the ninety-percenters and the POTUS is the perpetual enemy of the people. So a wildly chaotic moron is better than an effective genius because there's the teensy-tiniest chance something good might happen.
As far as I'm concerned, the collapse is well underway. The only thing Trump did was rip down the curtain. The 'national nightmare of prosperity' ended on 9-11-01 with every political and economic act afterward serving merely as a way of jamming the door open for looters. Better now than 5 years from now when we'd have even further to fall. Democracy has been nakedly exposed since...Obama? Bush v. Gore? earlier? The only question that remains in American politics is which flavor of authoritarianism is going to win--unless...someone makes a huge mistake!
America: I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.
TheFooder
3mo ago
Yeah, I had to delete my OP because I made it offhandedly while I was both working and exhausted. I agree that there are 'more-informed' vs. 'less-informed' people, but I don't think there are actually 'High-Information Voters.' I think that's a story some people like to tell themselves so they can look down on 'Low-Information Voters.' The biggest issue with information is the quality and usefulness. For the longest time anything /true/ seemed useless and everything /useful/ has seemed designed to mislead. Information is too loaded of a term for me these days.
TheFooder
3mo ago
No Culture War articles today? Have we achieved Culture Peace?? No one wants this!
TheFooder
3mo ago
Sure. If cocoa beans do not grow in a country, its citizens should go without chocolate. If they don't have oil, they shall go forgo petrochemicals and combustion engines. If they can not support a semiconductor production chain, they shall not have computers. The population shall acquire disease resistance the hard way until they can develop a vaccine, just as God intended.
Is it go without or 'only the wealthy and the black market?'
TheFooder
3mo ago
Then I would ask what is your vision of the first amendment? What principle(s) underline how we enforce it? What limitations are acceptable and how do we determine when a line has been crossed?
TheFooder
3mo ago
I was speaking broadly. The criminality is what bothers people, not the speech.
TheFooder
3mo ago
Regarding Yemen, I believe it all started with the Saudis. Anyway, American interests there go deeper than Israel.
TheFooder
3mo ago
Why not just defund the schools, shut down students' access to loans and grants, tax the shit out of endowments and work to obliterate the university scene altogether? Why is speech the problem and not the schools?
TheFooder
3mo ago
Something I can't identify sticks in my craw. I think it's the "interests of Americans and the United States" bit.
Like, what even is that? Who could possibly agree on what it is? I think by your definition we'd be deporting (non-citizen) supporters of Israel too.
Frankly, I thought coming to the US and saying whatever hot garbage you wanted to say was part of the allure. I am finding it impossible to see this issue as something that we can somehow carve out from the broader mission of liberty. I think people are just mad they can't punch college students in the face for being wankers.
Why is speech the problem anyway? Isn't the actual problem that there is criminality--vandalism, attacks, things that clearly counter school policies. Why not focus on that?
TheFooder
3mo ago
But they kinda do have a stake, no?
If the green-card holders and legal residents (who have never needed to fear deportation for speech acts--to the best of my knowledge) knew Trump was going to go after them, then they would have a very real stake in the outcome of the political process.
TheFooder
3mo ago
Sorry, 'ops-sec' is not the correct term. the 'Ops-sec' was the failure. I think I meant something similar but specifically with the technology...Tech-sec or something.
Signal is the correct app to use if you're going to do these things--at least from what's on tap.
I think people are shocked that they didn't all assemble int he 'war room' to make the weighty decision to drop some bombs. The halcyon days of Dr. Strangelove are over, my friends.
I wonder if we'll even remember this happened in 3.75 years. Things are so whackadoodle, I can't tell if this is actually a scandal or not. Seems...not?
In the story the journalist wasn't a lib, just playing the role. The joke is that she was more conservative or based or w/e than the Bannon-ites. My read: the purported beliefs of most MAGA types, or typical young conservative, aren't anything beyond memes that make them feel good about themselves and the real ubermensch have no respect for them and will take them down too.
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