Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
"...Perhaps laughter will then have formed an alliance with wisdom; perhaps only 'gay science' will remain."
User ID: 342
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
2d ago
Starting to understand Putin's complaints about how US foreign policy seems to swerve wildly depending on who's in office.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
3d ago
Super Smash Bros Ultimate: The Meta has converged on Steve and Sonic, objectively the two best characters, who both have extremely boring (albeit very different) play styles. Steve is an ultra-camper, Sonic just runs away until sudden death.
Funny that you bring this up, because I play/watch a ton of fighting games.
I think your thesis about games in general converging on "boring" strategies is basically correct (I might phrase it as something like, "gravity pulls you towards defense rather than offense"). But it's still possible to design games where even the maximally boring viable strategy is quite proactive. Smash Ultimate is an anomaly among fighting games in how much it rewards defensive/passive play. If you look at any of the other current popular fighting games (Street Fighter 6, Tekken, Guilty Gear) they're much more aggressive, partially because the stages are much smaller and you can't really run away for any length of time. So the choices made by the designers do make a difference.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
4d ago
What we learned from the last 40 years is that proprietary wins.
Consumers migrated from closed source Windows desktops to closed source iOS phones.
Yes, a surprisingly large percentage of the world's infrastructure runs on Linux and other open source platforms, and that open source infrastructure is used to run... proprietary, closed source, walled garden web apps (I don't think it's an accident that the most successful open source projects are mainly infrastructure scaffolding and tools for other software developers, rather than products for non-technical users).
Much like how the credentialed expert will usually beat the autodidact, a group of highly organized professionals who are motivated by a big paycheck will usually beat a group of loosely organized volunteers who are motivated by passion for the project.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
4d ago
Right, a lot of people latch onto pronouns, honorifics, politeness levels, etc when talking about how exotic the language is. And those are legitimate differences that are prone to getting lost in translation. But I don't think those things are what makes Japanese difficult to translate.
It has a lot of grammatical constructions (topic/subject markers, verb forms to indicate oddly specific things like an action being done as a favor for someone else, an action being done in preparation for something else, etc) that simply don't exist in English, and thus get flattened out in any translation (this goes both ways of course -- Japanese lacks a future tense, and it lacks articles as well).
It's elliptical to the point that the translator often has to add multiple new words just to get a grammatically correct English sentence, and different translators won't always agree on these hidden context-dependent words.
It's funny that you mention the "punchiness" of Japanese prose, because I think it's actually a rather un-punchy language. The number of words and phrases that Japanese speakers use on a regular basis is simply more restricted than what we have in English, and a perfectly literal translation of Japanese text can come off as subdued, repetitive, and stilted to English ears; translators often feel it necessary to "spice up" the text a bit in order to reach the level of variety that's culturally expected in English writing.
None of this is to say that Japanese is "hard" per se, only that it is legitimately quite different from European languages and the text requires some massaging before you get something that reads naturally in English.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
4d ago
It’s hard (for me, in my limited experience) to imagine a language that translates worse to European languages than Japanese. Similar to what you said about Chinese, it’s heavily context-dependent and relies on a dense web of Japanese cultural associations to express meaning. And yet Japanese media is enthusiastically enjoyed in translation by westerners and people around the world (sometimes with appreciable liberties taken by translators; although I do think it’s basically always possible to find an acceptable translation that respects the original intent of the work).
I know almost nothing about Chinese, so if you’ve studied both Chinese and Japanese and you think Chinese translates even worse to English, I’d be very interested in hearing your perspective.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
5d ago
It appears to me that the death of "classical liberalism" has been greatly exaggerated.
It was legal to own slaves in the US up until the 1860s. Has the US been a classically liberal society since its inception? If no, then we have to establish the start and end dates we have in mind for "classical liberalism". If yes, then classical liberalism is compatible with slavery -- and if it's compatible with slavery, then it's surely compatible with SJWs and Trump and whatever else people are worried about now.
Let's also not forget that up until the early 20th century, many western nations took a much dimmer view of homosexuality, blasphemy, obscenity, etc. -- freedoms that would now be considered hallmarks of any "liberal" society.
I'm just really not sure what people are afraid of, or what they think has "ended". Do people think we're headed for another civil war? We already had one, and yet it's typical to say that the US was a "classically liberal" society both before and after. Do people think Trump is going to establish a dictatorship / one party rule? That's not going to happen, but even if he did, it's not clear to me that even that would be incompatible with classical liberalism, given how nebulous the term is.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
6d ago
None of the points you listed strike me as particularly momentous. It all just seems like another flavor of business as usual (“ICE deportation raids” in particular could be rephrased as “enforcing existing laws”).
My position that “nothing ever happens” is falsifiable. If Trump were to, say:
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cancel the midterms or the next presidential election and declare that he (or his appointed successor) would stay in power indefinitely,
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or immediately halt all legal immigration to the US,
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or even just implement any of the more hardline social policies from Project 2025, like making pornography illegal,
then I would say that yes, things are happening and maybe things really will be different this time. But nothing Trump has done so far meets that threshold for me. His gestures seem largely performative at this point.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
6d ago
I feel like I must be living under a rock here.
Were there any concrete developments that precipitated this post besides the tweet?
Outside of what DOGE has been up to, how are "things moving very fast"?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7d ago
Gayness is a white construct
On the contrary, it’s a colorless reality!
subculture of black men who usually identify as heterosexual
Much the same as how men can’t “identify” as women, your capacity to alter reality through self-identification is quite limited!
In the overwhelming majority of cases, a man who continually seeks out sexual contact with other men is doing so because man ass/dick turns him on. We have a word for such men, and that word is “gay” (or, occasionally, “bisexual”).
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7d ago
Why do you believe men feel the need to use it as a cope
Because they are gay, and they would rather not be.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7d ago
I suppose the evidence (e.g. prison sex) indicates that there is a distinction to be made. Although in the majority of contemporary cases, it’s being used as a cope.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7d ago
I’m rather confused by this post.
Are you trying to say that there are no “gay men” because “gay” is an “identity” and “identities” are “for women”?
Do you believe that there’s a legitimate distinction to be made between “gay men” and “men who have sex with men”?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7d ago
Legitimately based.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
7d ago
It's been stated before that the amount of evidence you provide should be proportionate to how inflammatory your claim is.
One sentence post that says "I hate feminists" = low effort and inflammatory = not ok.
Thorough, thoughtful post that offers "I hate feminists" as a thesis statement and goes into the history of how you developed this attitude, how you contextualize it in broader culture war discussions, what you think this means for the possibility of future dialogue etc. - maybe ok?
Hate is a part of life, it's a natural emotion, and I would hope that TheMotte's rules recognize the possibility of discussing hate in a constructive and civil manner. But I don't know if all the mods agree and maybe some of them would just think that the word "hate" was a violation of the rules on tone no matter what.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
10d ago
Samuel was essentially a troll who delighted in the criticism of his arguments by other Jewish intellectuals in the Jewish press, from Dissent to Commentary.
Do you have any further sources on this? Not doubting you, just curious.
I think his book is great, so if it was written to troll people, that would be unfortunate!
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
10d ago
geography
Sure, the continental US is a valuable piece of land. But as the saying goes, there’s no magic dirt.
demographics
For now. But you have to look at the trend line.
the structure of their economy
Ultimately dependent on and a product of demographics. A high quality population produces high quality conditions, and vice versa.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
10d ago
It means becoming like a Latin American country in terms of racial demographics, standard of living, general texture of the social fabric, etc.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
10d ago
· Edited 10d ago
@2rafa? Your response?
DOGE sets its sights on Medicare and Medicaid:
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is quickly expanding its reach through the federal government. It recently accessed systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Musk and his team are now looking at key payment and contracting systems for Medicare and Medicaid - that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. On X, Musk posted, he believes that, quote, "big money fraud is happening."
Mostly just talk and speculation at this point, but there are clear indications that medicare/medicaid have not escaped the notice of the DOGE.
In spite of the perceived celerity with which DOGE is eviscerating government programs, I'm still mostly in the "nothing ever happens" camp. "Cutting government spending" at this point is akin to rearranging deck chairs on the sinking Titanic that is Western civilization. The slow Brazilification of America is irreversible either way. Nonetheless, I am enjoying the apoplectic response that Musk's antics have occasioned.
EDIT: Oh, and social security was named as a potential target alongside medicare/medicaid as well.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
10d ago
· Edited 10d ago
You know I was actually typing up a reply that argued against @SecureSignals's thesis, as it runs somewhat contrary to the conception of Judaism that I've traditionally held, but then when I referred back to Maurice Samuel's You Gentiles I found this (pg. 74):
But in the Jew, nation and people and faculties and culture and God are all one. We do not say: "I am a Jew," meaning, "I am a member of this nationality": the feeling in the Jew, even in the free-thinking Jew like myself, is that to be one with his people is to be thereby admitted to the power of enjoying the infinite. I might say, of ourselves: "We and God grew up together."
which does seem to lend support to his position.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
11d ago
Fair enough. But that is what I'm here for. I'm happy that there's at least one community on the internet that encourages long-form writing.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
11d ago
Can you name anything (non-fiction) 5,000 words long, written by anyone anywhere, that you do appreciate? Or is this just a hard limit that no level of quality could surmount?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
11d ago
· Edited 11d ago
There is no conceivable award system that WON’T devolve into super upvotes for comments you agree with. This is a human universal. You can tell people to vote on quality and not ideological alignment, but they (typically) won’t. There will always be a bias towards perceiving comments you agree with as being intrinsically higher quality. And that’s fine. Let’s face it instead of hiding from it.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
12d ago
Right, there can be limits obviously. If all available options are so morally repugnant to you that you can’t stand any of them, then you can just not support any of them and you’re entitled to make that choice. But you need to accept the consequences of that choice as well, and you should understand that your calls for enlightened centrism will likely fall on deaf ears.
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
13d ago
The choice you’ve made, is to cast your lot with the fascists currently ransacking our government. To pretend as though the Trump EO on DEI is in any way a reasonable response to a genuine policy concern, rather than the pure expression of bigotry that it actually is, is inexcusable.
Ironic, given that just a few days ago we had people accusing TracingWoodgrains of being too leftist.
As someone whose positions are also sufficiently idiosyncratic that I don't fit in perfectly with either "side", I'm not unsympathetic to him. But this is simply the fate of all "centrists" - that's the reality of it. It would be like someone during WW2 saying "I don't support the British, or the Germans - I'm just neutral!" He wouldn't be looked upon with kindness in either country.
Ultimately if you want to avoid getting crushed by the tidal forces of politics, you have to decide which issues are most important to you, join the side that is most aligned with you on those key issues, and table your disagreements for a later date.
Searle literally addressed this objection in his very first paper on the Chinese Room.
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