TitaniumButterfly
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User ID: 2854
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
I think the more relevant way to look at the matter is whether there are important IQ floors below which substantial efficacy is lost. Replacing hard men with above-floor IQs with much softer men who happen to be even smarter wouldn't go great, I think, no. I also don't think it's especially pertinent to mention.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
See here:
The Effectiveness of Rifle Fire Across Cultures by Kulak.
Long story short, even with the same guns the minds of the people using them count for a lot.
Does the moral status of 'pogroms' change when less-unpleasant approaches have been attempted and failed?
People get arrested over there for expressing concern about it. I don't know what they're supposed to do, exactly.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
Just so.
Though the encroachment of violent, crime-prone minorities like blacks and Mexicans into previously-white areas might serve as a counterpoint. Many of the same problems, and nothing was ever really done, except moving further away. This strategy is also wearing thin.
I think a dictator must by nature either be vastly more competent than most others (because competition) or else at least controlled by someone who is. Little such pressure in a democracy, and especially a two-party democracy.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
I'm watching videos of -- allegedly -- mobs roving door to door searching for migrants and torching the place if any are found. While it's certainly small potatoes compared to a full-blown reconquista, it sure looks like a significant step in that direction to me, and while I haven't spoken to Kulak in a while I have little doubt that he approves.
Much will depend upon the scale, efficacy, and above all optics of the official response here. Because whatever else can be said, precedent is being established.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
I like quite a few of the Killers' songs and have listened to them a lot which is what makes this even crazier to me. Although now that I've looked into Mr. Brightside I find it an unpleasant enough experience that I'd probably have just screened it out if it came up in the wild.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
It's funny because I have seen references to it for years but was finally only nagged into finding out what it is once this place spontaneously generated a ton of discourse about it.
Going to jump in with what I want to see discussed:
Police and political leaders in Northern Ireland call for calm after Belfast knife attack.
What we know is that a MENA immigrant has attacked a native in the street, gouged out his eyes, and was attempting to behead him when stopped by passers-by.
Details beyond that seem shaky. I've seen the attacker described as Somali, though Sudanese is more consistent. I've seen the victim described as a man in his 40s, though 15-year old boy is also popular. And I've seen that the victim's life was saved, but also that he's perished in the hospital.
What's certain is that the major concern of the people in charge is, of course, that this is liable to upset the native population.
Perhaps that's more understandable than usual because of where it happened. Belfast! A storied town. Across twitter I see various historically-enemy paramilitary sympathizers calling to set aside their differences and unite against the common enemy; that it doesn't matter who controls Northern Ireland unless there's any such place left to save.
Last I heard, all major transport routes into and out of the city have been shut down, businesses are forced to close at 17:30, and curfews have been established. The place seems to be gearing up for major rioting.
Is it just me or have the straws been landing more heavily, lately, on the camel's back?
And, provided that the historically-armed underground belligerent factions of the area haven't withered into insignificance; provided that they do get serious about uniting and using force; might they serve as a template, or at least an inspiration, for other places?
I believe Kulak once predicted that the flashpoint for organized European resistance would happen in Northern Ireland.
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
Am I the only person in the world who wasn't familiar with the song "Mr. Brightside"? Just looked it up and I'd believe I might have heard it once or twice in the past, but maybe not. It's musically chaotic and the lyrics are completely unintelligible to me.
TitaniumButterfly
3d ago
There's at least a few of us.
TitaniumButterfly
7d ago
A friend of mine once told a friend of his, a cop, that what the cop interpreted as respect was in fact mainly just fear. Seemed to blow his mind, he said.
Can't say this doesn't match my experience.
I was once accosted for almost three hours (though not technically detained) by a couple of cops who'd decided I was doing something wrong, though they weren't sure what exactly, and seemed to think that if they just badgered me enough they'd figure it out. Long story and I don't want to get into the details but eventually I figured out a way to make them lose interest and leave. In the meantime it was just dominance display after dominance display.
TitaniumButterfly
7d ago
This is my parents. It's been very stressful to us all every time I've tried to suggest to them that the US is no longer majority white Christians.
TitaniumButterfly
7d ago
From a purely practical standpoint, while not ideal, that rubric would get much better results than the current one.
TitaniumButterfly
8d ago
I don't know how Britain allocates its immigration quotas, but the obvious main difference would be that the US has been selecting for ability to qualify for H1-Bs and Britain has not.
TitaniumButterfly
8d ago
Why bother? Anyone who can't contain their urge to use a term like 'sky man' is outing themselves as too obnoxious to worry about. If it were marginally easier to do so I'd probably just hide all comments with such strings.
My barely-informed understanding is that the United States has mostly been getting higher-caste Indians for a long time via H1-Bs and so on, whereas Britain has been getting random Pakistanis and Punjabis. Canada started with higher-caste Indians and recently has been flooded with more miscellaneous ones.
TitaniumButterfly
8d ago
I don't really think so. Failing spectacular catastrophe, 'poverty' isn't really a problem any more, at least when it comes to nutrition, access to healthcare, education, and so on. Quite the opposite, really.
Bad mothers, yeah. But would you rather have some unpleasantries in life -- which often result in growth, anyway -- or not live at all?
The world will never be what children deserve and this attitude is prone to running away with those who hold it.
TitaniumButterfly
9d ago
Diamond Age is my favorite but nothing really compares to the Baroque Cycle.
TitaniumButterfly
10d ago
I'd swear I read every top-level in most threads, and especially the CW thread, and yet every time one of these comes out it's the first time I'm seeing at least a third of them.
TitaniumButterfly
10d ago
Two main reasons.
The obvious one is that with ultimogeniture you get longer reigns, since your heir is younger when you die. Since a lot of the game is re-consolidating after succession, this helps a lot.
But the more interesting and admittedly gamey angle is that with primogeniture you're more or less stuck with your first child as your heir, which is quite the roll of the dice, whereas with ultimogeniture you can just keep having kids until you get a good one, then stop. So not only is your next ruler going to have a long reign but he's also going to be a strong attractive genius. Or something in that direction, at least.
Main downside is that if you die early or keep having kids well into old age, he'll have to deal with a regent and, possibly, jealous older brothers, but in practice this isn't too hard to manage and is well worth the hassle.
TitaniumButterfly
11d ago
I do have a lot of advice here generally (ultimogeniture is much better) but in my analysis our colleague seems to have inherited a more or less intractable problem. Should have thought of this generations ago.
In any case his position can probably be improved by invading Brittany, and provided he hasn't pissed the Jews off recently they should be good for a loan.
TitaniumButterfly
11d ago
My high school had about 500 seniors but about half of them didn't graduate -- I barely did, on such thin margins that it literally came down to my grade on my math final -- so I guess our graduating class was also 250ish? Not sure how that works. There seems to be an assumption implicit in the term that pretty much everyone will graduate.
Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like to show up to a reunion. Can't imagine many do. Not even sure they happen.
How can you love a football team consisting of a rotating selection of foreigners and guys born on the other side of your country? And sold to the highest bidder, who also happens to be foreign a lot of the time, if not a literal multinational conglomerate?
But people do. (shrug)
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