ulyssessword
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User ID: 308
ulyssessword
4mo ago
You don't need to be part of a group to write letters to politicians. Same with attending town halls, donating to lobby groups, or voting.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
That's not quite it, but it's related. If I look back at the canon, the closest ones I can find are Epistemic Learned Helplessness and Semantic Stopsigns.
People don't want to evaluate the merits of some particular case because it's quite complex (Trump bad? Covid's transmissibility and risks? White supremacist messaging?). They find a simple and authoritative answer to one small aspect of it (Convicted! The Health Ministry said you can X! The NGO said OK is a symbol!), and then not only do they stop looking at the issues, they try to impose that same stopping point on me as well. The counterarguments are simple and the inadequacy of those claims is (IMO) obvious, but they're still heresy.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
There's a problem with this inability to recognize evil as evil that is endemic here.
A felony is a kind of serious crime.
A felony is words on a page. I don't let the Word of God bypass my moral reasoning (I'm not a very good Catholic), and I definitely won't let the US Criminal Code bypass it either.
Let me turn the question back on you: If/when Trump successfully appeals that verdict, will your moral judgment change? He literally would not be a felon, and you are placing a lot of importance on that. Assuming that his felony-free status wouldn't change your mind, why would you think that his felony-convicted status would change anyone else's?
For a lighter story about how the law can be misaligned with morality, see this article:
And even though it might be the morally right thing to do, Der said breaking into a car is still considered property damage, which is a criminal offence — even if the person's intention is to save a pet.
There's a certain debate strategy that gets on my nerves. I'm sure there's a formal term for it, but I call it a "prohibition on reason".
I see it here, with "felon = evil". I saw it during the pandemic, where public health measures were treated the same as risk factors ("The virus knows if you're sitting or standing, so it's only safe to sit unmasked in a restaurant"). I saw it in cancellation campaigns where an activist NGO is treated as infallible ("The 'okay' handsign is a white supremacist dogwhistle. The trucker should be fired.")
ulyssessword
4mo ago
MASH (1970) Possibly the only time in recorded history that the TV show was actually better than the movie it spun off from.
Stargate??
ulyssessword
4mo ago
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ulyssessword
4mo ago
One of my favorite blog posts:
Since I did, in fact, study game theory, I constructed a payoff matrix in my head before the game had started. I noted that I have little chance of acquiring the gummy bears, and also little desire to do so. My real matrix was as follows: [Spoiler redacted]
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Yeah, I believe that. Furthermore, "If you disagree with our political positions, you're dead" isn't merely acceptable on reddit, it's so obviously acceptable that reporting it is abusive and I caught a tempban from the admins.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Bud Light is a brand, not a person. Dylan Mulvaney (of Bud Light fame) had the potential to be cancelled, but as far as I can tell it didn't happen. Was there even an attempt against her?
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Right wing cancel culture is a thing-
Not much of one. If you added up the top 10 people cancelled by the Right, do you think they would reach the prominence of James Damore? Google Trends could quantify it if you want to check.
remember when homosexuality could get you canceled?
No, I literally don't. Jack Black probably does given his age, but homosexuality has been (at least) tolerable for as long as I've been politically aware (though that could be a Canadian vs. American difference).
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Watching people post these sentiments publicly online as if they are completely unaware that advocating for the assassination of your political opponents is really bad and completely unacceptable has left me amazed. How can people not realize that it's a bridge too far?
Have any of them ever seen anything be a bridge too far (to the left)? That's an honest question, because I can't think of any popular news stories where someone had their reputation damaged by too-far-left comments. Sure, a few people have been fired or harassed, but that's always painted as inappropriate backlash.
I'm not surprised at their sense of invulnerability, given the stories I've heard about.
Today, Jack Black cancelled their tour and appears to have killed the band.
As an aside, I may have found the funniest way to bypass their paywall.
It blocks half of your screen with the pester message and prevents scrolling, so simply get a bigger screen (and/or one set in portrait mode) and zoom out. Voila, you can see the entire (short) article in the unblocked half.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
I want people to know that it's possible to make fandom.com more readable than an average website. It just takes uBlock Origin and a couple dozen custom filters.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
That seems like an appropriate response to a prospective assassin. It's not like the crowd is attacking the dignity and respect that he should have.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Interestingly, the New York Post describes the shooter as “a Chinese man.”
As of now, it is (emphasis added):
The gunman believed to have been behind the attempted assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump Saturday was shot and killed by Secret Service, sources told The Post.
The shooter, identified only as a white male, was in a sniper position located hundreds of yards away from Trump’s podium in Butler, Pa. as he spoke to a campaign crowd, sources said.
Yes, an agent(?) said the shooter was dead before they left the stage. As far as I can tell, there still hasn't been official confirmation, but anonymous officials are repeating it.
EDIT: adding more
video link, just before the shots
6:50-6:58, 7:07 Shots fired
7:32 "he's down", "Shooter's down."
I'm curious if the agents shot the would-be-assassin with that last shot. It sounded the same as the rest, but I don't think gunshots are that distinct based on angle and caliber.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Yeah, sometimes security really is that bad.
For a less serious example, "somebody" walked into the phone store, asked for a replacement SIM for my account (providing the phone number and possibly my name, but no other information), and walked out a few minutes later with the old SIM deactivated and the new card in their possession. That person was me, but they had no way of knowing that because they never asked or checked.
I think elections should at least be protected against that level of fraud.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
...but none of the latter?
Are you sure about that? A study associating poverty, cortisol, and low muscle mass is boring, which sounds like a fatal flaw when searching for funding. Maybe we aren't seeing it because nobody has bothered to look.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate
It used to link directly to the ant page, but was updated in August 2021.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
From the article:
In particular, Gerard gradually started mentally associating LessWrong with neoreaction, though for a time he acknowledged he only saw incidental encounters between the two.
Also note that the claim is "more-or-less fabricating"
now-known neoreactionaries like hanson
Wait, what? That's news to me. Could you share a link, or perhaps a Reliable SourceTM?
ulyssessword
4mo ago
truism
Except when it means the opposite. English is great that way: https://imgur.com/2t7jXIz
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Not me, but a friend bought an Insinkerator instant hot water dispenser. It actually makes their kitchen more functional and luxurious, unlike traditional "luxuries" like stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. You can start steeping tea immediately, make instant oatmeal instantly, and cut a decent fraction of the cooking time for pasta.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
I hope they have an instant hot water dispenser.
ulyssessword
4mo ago
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Sounds like removing the headset would be the most realistically valuable thing to do in that situation. It's also a slip, mistake, or poor habit to over-rely on the headset, so it would warn you away from it.
Every objection to the headset can be countered with "but it'll do good things instead of bad!"
ulyssessword
4mo ago
Part of the problem with omniscient omnibenevolent omnipotent hypotheticals is that they have an answer to any possible objection. Maybe the headset would tell you to do some quick and effective intelligence-and-agency strengthening exercises.
I wonder how far we are from forging a voice being as difficult as forging a signature. Hopefully that's paired with widespread doubt about it as a method of authentication, but you still hear (occasional) stories about forged signatures being used for fraud in the age of photocopiers.
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