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VoxelVexillologist

🇺🇸 Multidimensional Radical Centrist

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joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC 

				
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VoxelVexillologist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
🇺🇸 Multidimensional Radical Centrist

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 64


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I suspect it aligns pretty well with opinions on license plate scanners.  And probably both align with making occasional (federally, at least) illicit recreational purchases.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
As opposed to Andrew Jackson, who is presumably spinning continually in his grave at being featured on the most-used bill issued by an institution he vehemently hated (a federal Bank of the United States).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


and nobody is saying to get rid of cats!




This part isn't even completely true: several island jurisdictions ban them (either completely or just outdoors), and New Zealand at least is planning to eradicate feral cats.


I like cats, but I can at least see the arguments there.  But the original claim feels like a bait-and-switch: I don't trust then not to consider it in the future regardless of current public stances.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I do see those, but I think I've seen "no cash" more frequently within the last few years.  For better or worse, IMO, a new $250 and the obsolescence of the penny and nickel seem to be in a race with the functional end of cash as a medium of exchange.  Credit cards, Venmo, et al are just too convenient, and one less thing to carry.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Gotta say, even the existence of such statistics (ie. there being more than one per decade) already sounds bizarre to me. Cultural differences and all that.




How big are your high schools?  It varies a lot across the US, but OP might be describing a school with over a thousand students per grade level, and you might be able to get meaningful statistics over a few years.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'm curious how many folks here were nothing special in elementary and high school but went on to achieve something substantial academically?




I feel like this describes me pretty well: my parents put me in the normal public school track through third grade, and none of my grades were particularly outstanding.  None of the work was hard, but it was darn boring: who wants to sit there practicing adding multi-digit numbers together or "silent reading" for 30 minutes while the teacher focuses on the couple students having trouble with the concepts.  I didn't do a good job doing the work and only got mediocre grades and messed around more than I should have, and nothing looked too unusual until I finally took a standardized test (the Stanford series) from the district and I scored remarkably well.


At that point, some combination of the teacher and my parents decided that maybe I'd do better in an advanced program, so I transferred to a different elementary school with such a program, and I immediately did a lot better academically because I found the work more challenging (although getting dropped into a new school always has its challenges), and I continued in advanced programs through high school and went to a rather well-ranked university, got a graduate degree, and now I do IMO complex engineering stuff for work.  At each point in there, I'm rather proud I was (generally) able to rise to the challenge and perform well, although I'm certainly no von Neumann or Shannon, and I have a sense of the limit of my abilities.


I'm a firm believer in magnet programs, though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Notably, the Citizens United organization is a 501(c)4, not an LLC.  If you think that "stripping the corporation of rights" isn't a constitutional infringement, the ACLU is also a 501(c)4: can we silence them during election season too?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Having gotten married in my 20s, fresh out of college myself, I think it provided an opportunity for us to grow together as we started careers, before we were individually as rigidly bound to careers, friend groups, and other obligations.  It was a very flexible time in our lives.


I don't regret it, but I can see that friends that are still looking in their 30s and 40s are hauling more baggage that has to fit in the wagon when they get hitched.  Not even bad baggage, necessarily: sometimes it's that you both would have friend groups you've made and standing plans five nights a week.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But you're still describing a values violation and deep regret, not a clear physical assault.




Our statutory rape laws are (generally, in the US) written as strict liability and don't require physical violence (which would probably trigger additional charges), seemingly because we do see it as a values issue.  And I'm not sure that's wrong, personally.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've started listening to SCOTUS oral arguments as a podcast, and some of my consistent complaints are the lack of statistical literacy, and some justices really wanting to lean on "scientists" as an unelected fourth branch of government.


I think your suggestion here is the right one: let Congress interpret the science in writing laws; don't have the Judicial branch try to do scientific literature reviews.


It's not like we don't have lots of evidence of negligent or even outright fraudulent publications in even reputable journals.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 24, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I go back and forth on the viability of that in the modern era: there are certainly solo discussion influencers on social media that shape ongoing politics, if not as directly.  This site has loose associations with several such folks.


But it certainly would take a Wiggin-caliber poster to make it viable, and to have that much sway.  But I also don't see any of the current crop parlaying it into global political office.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have always found "fleet in being" an interesting way to look at this question: a bunch of ships can have strategic value even without leaving port, just to tie down enemy resources to use against them because of the implication.


Of course, if nobody ever sails their fleet, the hypothetical threat isn't quite as credible.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Given the, uh, rather mechanical ways in which models are trained, I could see a precedent that they're not copyrightable as a potential outcome: does it involve more creativity than a phone book?  "Turning the crank" doesn't make something a creative work in the US.


But I wouldn't put a huge bet on any particular outcome there.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


breaking into an artistic industry becomes even more difficult than it already is.




I vaguely expect analog artistic media to rise in popularity.  Paint brushes, pens, and such are clear "not AI" status marks.  Also live music.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The actual story of the MissingNo bug feels pretty unrealistic, but fits the bill too and wasn't a lie.  It did probably make the others more believable, though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Under the new rules, that's a boomer.




I think I'm going to have to come up with some jokes to associate people making these claims with the University of Oklahoma, or the state more broadly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sadly, I'm not sure these two statements are necessarily at odds in 2026.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


images of the absolute spiderwebs of spent drone fiberoptic cables covering forests and fields and towns




Are those bare fibers plastic or glass?  Given the optimization for weight, I assume they're not that strong as fibers go, but I guess I don't have a good sense of how either would break down over time given the odd shape.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


these types of arguments are increasingly looking like the ones used against self driving cars




As someone peripherally close to this field, I think there is a categorical distinction between a self-driving car tuned to drive against random road occurrences and an adversarial model that is actively looking for weaknesses and forcing the worst decisionmaking situations.  As a concrete example, self driving cars of today probably don't worry about murals of tunnels adjacent to roadways (Roadrunner style): it's not a common occurrence.  But in war you'd absolutely want your self-driving tank to not drive into such traps, and you'd expect your enemy to mass deploy paint to make it happen all at once.


A bunch of traffic cones on hoods seems able to stop Waymos, for example.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


How many "unanimous" rulings have happened because one or two Karens made up their minds and then hen-pecked everyone else into agreeing with them using social tactics instead of logic and reason?




Isn't this dynamic just the plot of Twelve Angry Men?  It's not strictly bad in the context it's played in, nor is it necessarily gendered.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's worth noting there has also been the additional "end of history" meme where people seem to broadly think "wars requiring a draft" are a thing left behind in last century.  Obviously there are examples like Ukraine even today, but I don't think the modal Western man realistically fears being called up by the draft board.  And I'd like to think that such fear would be misplaced --- obviously the ending there is not yet written --- and it seems drones may fill a large fraction of that role going forward (see Ukraine).


In that context, specifically, "but men have the draft" seems a hard-to-win equality argument.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


siphoning of scarce youth labour to subsidise the abundant elderly,




This seems like the start of an argument to means test Social Security, which has historically been a very unpopular argument.  But it may be one that has to be made, absent Fully Automated Gay Space Communism happening within my lifetime.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Citation needed, for such a bold sweeping claim. I have taught CS at a fairly high-tier US school for a long enough period of time, and we did not hand out As if you just "turn up".




Maybe not at your school, but Harvard (hardly a no-name example) currently awards something like 85% of its grades as 'A's.  It's gotten bad enough that the faculty plan on capping the number of 'A' grades handed out starting next year, which has spilled a nontrivial amount of ink in arguments back and forth.  Yale is also considering similar actions.


I don't think it's quite universal (it seems more an issue at top-tier schools), but it is often acknowledged as a problem.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Iran's drone and missile arsenal doesn't depend on the power plants and oil refineries.




Not in the short term, certainly, but it would impact the long-term economics of a future regime pretty negatively.  IIRC Iraq didn't manage to fully rebuild its damaged infrastructure from 1991 until after 2003.  Missile factories require power and raw materials.


But actually destroying it isn't cheaply or quickly reversible, and makes a friendly future regime less plausible.




Even if they don't get killed after surrendering, they would probably get Maduroed, their lives as they knew them over.




If anything, it seems the Trump doctrine is more flexible with this than the Bush era: the rest of that regime is still running Venezuela, with the, uh, implication leading to some foreign policy changes, not "we're bringing democracy and planning elections".


And honestly the changes being requested don't sound that onerous to me: stop funding proxies and instability in the region, stop enrichment, and probably tone down the rhetoric on US/IL and internal jackboots, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.  Not saying it's an easy ask, but it doesn't seem to include "submit to international war crimes/human rights trials".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


in a scenario where banking and payment infrastructure is shut down entirely, what problems am I trying to solve with cash?




I think this is a worthwhile question: I don't use cash often, but a few times I've needed to settle up things like group meals ("no split checks", ugh) it's often a hassle to deal with change since nobody has much.  Can't pay $27 with just twenties, but people aren't ready to round to the twenty.  Few carry enough smaller bills to break a twenty.  We usually end up doing Venmo or whatever.


Not sure what to suggest, honestly.