Rosencrantz2
4hr ago
I do think that there are advantages to not having too high an IQ. I studied maths at Cambridge and met my classmates.
Rosencrantz2
5hr ago
I think people are kidding themselves about how well we understand genetics and the mind. I hereby bet that in twenty years they realise the lower-IQ kids they were screening out actually may have had superior brains and intelligence traits in other respects.
Rosencrantz2
4d ago
Interesting point, I've noticed this and would like to read/think more about why some women are better able to handle such seeming contradictions. I can't help thinking one style of thinking has got something mixed up and I'm not at all sure it's the female style.
Rosencrantz2
6d ago
Do you think it's real though? "It comes down to who you trust, and I trust Trump to fight against the communism of the wokes." That seems like a joke to me, I would hypothesise it could be a liberal false flag post attempting to make republican supporters sound dumb(er).
Rosencrantz2
6d ago
Do we know to what extent these are rural/urban differences vs rep/dem?
Rosencrantz2
6d ago
To be honest my mind would have been broken even if I agreed with you that he is just a bumbling fool and not in fact a cruel and mendacious one. The fact that so many people think a bumbling fool is some kind of brilliant saviour would already (then) have been shocking enough to me to break my charity towards them.
Rosencrantz2
7d ago
I think his motive is attention and the obeisance of others. He has since learned he can get those things without building anything.
Rosencrantz2
7d ago
I think you're right that Trump has a unique effect. He has done on me. I would say in my case he has utterly shattered what used to be an (okay, probably patrician) sense that the average Joe is a basically well intentioned person who is smarter than sometimes estimated and is a canny judge of character. The popularity of Trump has really changed that and made me significantly less confident in the average person's judgement. That so many people can be enchanted by the most naked sociopathy I have possibly ever seen has changed my view of human nature.
If, prior to his first candidacy, you had showed me 100 hours of video of Trump speaking, I would have thought it was some kind of satire.
Rosencrantz2
7d ago
I think the thing with Trump is that like or hate him, he’s not beholden to traditional politics or norms. He’s the guy who wants to get things done and build things.
I am sort of perplexed that you would consider this some kind of statement that one and all would agree with. Does he particularly get things done and build things? I tend to think of him as pure surface and not actually concerned with what he builds at all except insofar as it confirms his self-regard.
Rosencrantz2
22d ago
Suppose #2 were brand-new, and what you saw was exactly as the designer intended it, to the point of intentionally and carefully corroding the steel where the toilet meets the sink with meticulously-collected and -applied urine. Would that make it better?
It might be interesting as art or as a theatre set but very cruel as a prison. Deliberately unpleasant instead of carelessly so.
Agree with your preferences re the gymnasium rooms. Those ones seem most in harmony with their purpose. The classroom is a downer.
Regards your choice of vocabulary – filth, complexity and chaos – I must say I am surprised. This style of architecture strikes me as favouring very simple lines rather than complex ones (which I'd associate more with e.g. gothic architecture). I also don't find them to be especially filthy – in fact, I think they have to be kept in good nick to be palatable. The Barbican Centre would be dystopian for example if not carefully looked after but it's actually really nice to wander around because they mop a lot!
I do admit there is something Lovecraftian about looking on large expanses of concrete, when they are inhuman in their scale. But it's possible to design with this element of 'disharmony' or 'discomfort' while spending a lot of effort on making the building functional and comfortable when it comes to using it on a day to day basis (seating, bathrooms, walking lines etc).
In fact this combo is especially pleasing.
Rosencrantz2
22d ago
All these things can be true! And no, it's definitely not cost efficient.
Rosencrantz2
23d ago
Not doing your series of questions justice, but briefly, the prison cells are awful because they are made so carelessly and cheaply and not looked after. The gymnasium is made with immense care and thought and resources so I find the idea of spending time in it kind of special, even though I don't love it and think it would be better if it used more natural materials and didn't feel so impersonal.
I think a building like the gymnasium has to be well maintained to even recognisably be itself, whereas one could almost say the opposite for the prison images: they're designed to be unloved. For that reason, yeah, it would be good if the gymnasium design principles were used for prison design.
Rosencrantz2
24d ago
Those US citizens living abroad must file US tax returns though and may have to pay US taxes on their UK income (if it's high).
The US and Eritrea are the only countries that tax their citizens overseas so it's only right the US should pay them covid checks too.
Specifically to the hate crime. (Or to be more precise, he pled guilty to killing Shepard having been driven to temporary insanity by a fit of gay panic after Shepard came onto him.)
Rosencrantz2
24d ago
The way it works is that they are contrasted with hormones, which are deemed irreversible, and sold as a way to give someone time to think. I see no way to describe them as "reversible" in a way that hormones are not.
They are reversible in that puberty resumes after you stop taking them. Whether it's just the same as the puberty you'd have experienced is a good question. Whether the possible side effects while you are taking them could have permanent repercussions is another – if so then it can be argued they are not reversible. But I guess I don't think 'reversible' is inherently misleading because it distinguishes them from some hypothetical puberty blocker which blocks puberty permanently.
The NHS in the UK took 'reversible' off their communications following the Cass Report though, and broadcasters became more circumspect. (That'd be an example of people modulating their claims in order to stay elite.)
If there is no evidence indicating an event happened that certain way, isn't that a hoax?
Well from what I have read (which is by no means everything) there is some evidence – namely that the killer confessed – and the facts of the case continue to be disputed.
Rosencrantz2
24d ago
Well no doubt there are others in the world who can be grouped in with Trump as shameless lie milkers, but his prominence coupled with his attitude to the truth is why I'd single Trump out.
Anyway, it depends who we are talking about. If it's someone who properly caveats a statement like 'Puberty blockers are reversible', then that sentence could be part of a full and true accounting. If it's someone who implies 'Puberty blockers are reversible, period, and there's nothing more to say about them', then I think that person will find their status and ability to ascend certain social ladders quietly reduced.
Re: the gay hate crime 'hoax', one of Matthew Shepard's killers' legal defences was that he did it in a moment of gay panic. Now there is fog around the case, but I have not (so far) seen enough to justify the term 'hoax'. Some people want the story to be a certain way, that much is true.
Rosencrantz2
25d ago
Divination, coursing and astrology have been of vital importance to the thinking of ordinary people and elites throughout history, providing external stimuli and hypotheses about what the future may be that people can react to and think about. They provide an aspect of randomness that ensures we consider many eventualities and possibilities, and don't get into ruts of thought. They also provide an anchor (albeit a random one) for narrowing down thinking about the future when we would otherwise spiral and feel overwhelmed by its possibilities.
Maybe the male/female divide is to do with astrology providing test scenarios for thinking about and imagining that tend to be to do with love, social and family life and psychology. Women are often more interested in and better at thinking about these things and they want to keep this ability sharp.
I would also venture that the internet's algorithms are spewing all kinds of scenarios and perspectives at us these days that largely meets our needs for divination, which is why astrology and its ilk are in fact really quite unpopular by historical standards.
Rosencrantz2
26d ago
Those who maintain those things are somewhat excommunicated imo.
Rosencrantz2
27d ago
I don't know how that works to distinguish the Trump style from the mainstream political style. Trump is the one really milking lies for what they're worth. The others stop before the full value of a deceit has been extracted (i.e. before the less information-literate parts of the audience can see through it). Why? Because they are fearful of being excommunicated by other elites whose respect they don't want to lose. They are ashamed to continue knowing a portion of their peers are onto them.
Rosencrantz2
27d ago
Shame is the mechanism for the updating! What else drives it? Without shame, one can employ Trump's strategy of maintaining the indefensible position. He is shame-less, so just doubles down.
Rosencrantz2
27d ago
Finely tuned deceitful narratives deliver much more information and can be nitpicked with fruitful results. Importantly there is a shame+update mechanism whenever sophisticated lies become too obvious. Whereas pure Trumpian bullshit must be simply ignored. There is no path to anything better, if we allow it to dominate public discourse.
Rosencrantz2
28d ago
I'm the same as you and on dealing with bullshitting estate agents simply have to leave their presence and essentially dismiss them completely from my life.
I notice that I am also allergic to lying club-promoter type politicians and much prefer to be around lawyerly narrative constructors, which makes sense of my political preferences I guess.
Rosencrantz2
29d ago
Yes, and it also gets at a preference that is more primal than political. Would you prefer to hang out with a lawyer who selects their words carefully or a sales guy who's always bullshitting?
Rosencrantz2
29d ago
The position that you can be a habitual liar without deceiving seems like a difficult needle to thread!
Maybe I'm not evolving the discussion much but I think he is unique or at least extraordinarily unusual in his shamelessness.
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