@Primaprimaprima's banner p

Primaprimaprima

...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.

3 followers   follows 0 users  
joined 2022 September 05 01:29:15 UTC

"...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.

				
				
				

				

					3 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 01:29:15 UTC
				


				
					

					
"...Perhaps laughter will then have formed an alliance with wisdom; perhaps only 'gay science' will remain."



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 342


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					Month
					Year
					
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There is no health as such,
and all attempts to define such a thing have failed miserably. Deciding
what is health even for your body depends on your goal, your horizon,
your powers, your impulses, your mistakes and above all on the ideals and phantasms of your soul. Thus there are innumerable healths of the
body; and the more one allows the particular and incomparable to rear
its head again, the more one unlearns the dogma of the 'equality of
men', the more the concept of a normal health, along with those of a
normal diet and normal course of an illness, must be abandoned by our
medical men. Only then would it be timely to reflect on the health and
illness of the soul and to locate the virtue peculiar to each man in its
health - which of course could look in one person like the opposite of
health in another. Finally, the great question would still remain whether
we can do without illness, even for the development of our virtue; and
whether especially our thirst for knowledge and self-knowledge do not
need the sick soul as much as the healthy; in brief, whether the will to
health alone is not a prejudice, a cowardice and a piece of most refined
barbarism and backwardness.




The Gay Science, Book Three, §120


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for March 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was going to write a top level post about it but I decided not to rush it. The situation is still evolving by the day with the potential for outcomes to swerve wildly, and it will take at least a few months or more to really get perspective on Trump’s actions over the past two weeks.


My main fear here is that we’re going to end up with the worst of both worlds. Europe is already talking about canceling deals with American defense contractors… which is, ok fine, people voted for more isolationism so more isolationism is what we’ll get. But the problem is that we’re still sending aid to Ukraine, on top of freaking out our allies in Europe and making ourselves seem like a less reliable partner.


The idea of being more isolationist is that we get to stop throwing money into the black hole. If we’re still doing that, and everyone hates us anyway, then what’s the point? You either go all in or all out, don’t half ass it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is that relevant to your evaluation of whether DOGE should be allowed to seize their headquarters?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Elon Musk’s DOGE Uses Police to Seize Independent Nonprofit




Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency staffers used police and private security to forcefully take over the U.S. Institute of Peace on Monday.






The USIP, an independent nonprofit founded by Congress, had its president, Greg Moose, and its board fired last week by the Trump administration. The Associated Press reported that DOGE workers on Monday had law enforcement escort them into USIP, which is not located in a federal building, after previously being denied access.






“DOGE just came into the building—they’re inside the building—they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” USIP lawyer Sophia Lin told The New York Times as she and other staff members were forced out of the building.




Obviously, if you wanted to paint Trump as a dangerous authoritarian fascist, this is exactly the sort of thing you'd point to as Exhibit A.  So I'm trying to determine if this is actually as bad as it sounds, what the steelman is here, and the extent to which this may or may not have been under the purview of the executive branch's legitimate authority.


The linked article and their website describe USIP as a "private" nonprofit that was "founded by Congress".  Obviously, the government using the police to forcibly seize private property due to political differences is not a good look.  Presumably there are legal minutiae here that would determine the extent to which this organization is or is not still subject to the government's authority (is any organization "founded by Congress" subject to federal government control in perpetuity?).


As a side note, the Trump administration seems to REALLY hate US assistance to foreign countries and they're doing their damndest to shut it off.  USIP describes itself as an "independent organization dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The tacit agreement was that they wouldn’t have to be capable of fighting their own battles (and in the case of say Germany, a lot of people didn’t want them to be capable of fighting their own battles — the memory of WW2 was still quite fresh when the Berlin Wall fell). For the sake of stability in Europe, the agreement was that countries would become semi-vassals of the US empire in exchange for the US’s protection.


Not to say that the terms of this agreement have to be binding for all eternity. If a new arrangement is needed then so be it. But this idea that European countries did something “wrong” by not maintaining a larger military presence is, I think, lacking in historical context.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You could argue that the mere act of creating art at all is already an admission that there is something deficient or lacking in nature such that it needs to be supplemented by human creation.


And artificial/non-natural subject matter has always existed in art, see for example Hieronymus Bosch or the three headed Jesus paintings.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If all of the policies that would reverse this state of affair are firmly outside the Overton window, then unfortunately it is an inevitability rather than a choice.  The choice was made a long time ago.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Close.  The issue is that they think they can have European urbanism without a European population.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"Sensible cities and walkable environments" is code for "we want to force people to use public transportation because cars give you too much freedom".  And you really do not want to be forced to use public transportation in America.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


People in general far prefer natural environments to man-made ones, studies on the topic have tended to show that people find landscapes that depart far from the rule of nature more uncomfortable than those that don't.




Right, but there's a high correlation between the types of people who tend to prefer man-made beauty to natural beauty, and the types of people who tend to become artists.  So their own aesthetic preferences get amplified and displayed to the public.




I would be fine with architects building these things if they were just making art for display in a dedicated space.




There have to be limits of some kind, of course.  But within reason, I generally lean on the side of privileging the freedom of the (public) artist, regardless of the aesthetic preferences of the public who will be exposed to their work.  If it's that important to you, then you should consider becoming an artist too.  And if it's not sufficiently important to you, then you are at the mercy of the people to whom it was sufficiently important.




it's a bit unclear where the defence of Eisenman starts




The most relevant section is everything between "McGowan and Engley" and "the Aristotelian idea of the virtuous mean".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Why is modern architecture so bad, and so common?




I know you said that you wanted to talk about "modern architecture" as a whole and avoid quibbling over the details, but, it really depends on what you're talking about specifically.  It varies from building to building.  I think that some modern architecture is quite pleasant!  Many people hate the "stroads" of America for example, but I find them to be comforting and nostalgic.  Where other people see a dystopian late-capitalist hellscape, I see the familiar sights of the family road trips of my youth.  YMMV.


Admittedly I'm a complete plebian and philistine when it comes to architecture.  I've never made any attempt to study architecture qua architecture at all.




Another study from the same year found that architects tended to prefer the person-built environment, whereas non-design students tended to prefer natural settings. This is relevant considering the fact that much modern art and architecture tended to be highly conceptual and focus on rejecting the rule of nature in favour of designing for the new era of machine, as described by Jan Tschichold in his book "The New Typography".




This goes back to at least Hegel (and by that I mean, he was certainly not the first human to ever find man-made beauty superior to natural beauty, but he did give it articulation as a self-conscious philosophical principle):




Our topic proper is the beauty of art as the one reality adequate to
the Idea of beauty. Up to this point the beauty of nature has
counted as the primary existence of beauty, and now therefore the
question is how it differs from the beauty of art.






We could talk abstractly and say that the Ideal is beauty perfect
in itself, while nature is beauty imperfect. But such bare adjectives
are no use, because the problem is to define precisely what constitutes this perfection of artistic beauty and the imperfection of
merely natural beauty. We must therefore pose our question
thus: why is nature necessarily imperfect in its beauty, and what
is the origin of this imperfection? Only when this is answered will
the necessity and the essence of the Ideal be revealed to us in
more detail.






[...] spirit cannot, in the finitude of existence
and its restrictedness and external necessity, find over again the
immediate vision and enjoyment of its true freedom, and it is
compelled to satisfy the need for this freedom, therefore, on other
and higher ground. This ground is art, and art's actuality is the
Ideal.




Focusing in on some specific examples:




Peter Eisenman's House IV is one of the most infamous examples of this, a fantastic example of utter psychosis where he split the master bedroom in two so the couple couldn’t sleep together, added a precarious staircase without a handrail, and initially refused to include bathrooms.




I've always thought that House IV was quite lovely!  Whether I'd actually want to live in it is a separate question; but I don't judge a painting or a film by how much I'd want to live in it, so it's not clear why that constraint should be applied to architecture.


I previously wrote some remarks defending Eisenman's philosophy of art if you're interested.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


not because I felt it, but because a hundred thousand voices agreed




Strong “in this moment I am euphoric” energy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Although not "culture war" in the traditional left vs right sense, the development of AGI still has wide-reaching cultural, political, and ideological implications.  The more theoretical/philosophical AI posts are a pretty natural fit for the CW thread.  News items about more specific/incremental AI advances maybe not so much, but starting with the first ChatGPT there was a period where there was a lot of interest in AI on TheMotte and people got used to talking about it in the CW thread, so, it just kind of stuck.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It is worth talking about! There’s a lot you could say about the role that the stock market plays in the right wing imagination, its relation to anti-elitist attitudes, etc. You could turn that into a great post. But you have to actually write that post. You can’t just post a bare twitter link and say “take a look at these jackasses”.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Let me try to cut right to the chase.  I can confirm much of what you say here.


Yes, I do wish that my philosophy had a better spokesman.  Certainly.  I'm concerned about how Trump's behavior has seemingly become more erratic since his first term.  I wouldn't say I'm "alarmed" yet, but I am concerned.  I don't in any way support his aggressive rhetoric towards Canada.  Maybe he's going senile, maybe this is just what he always would have been like in the absence of guardrails, I don't know.  It's not ideal.


But nonetheless my support for him remains.  The anti-woke vote is always the correct vote, full stop.  That's basically the long and short of it.  I mean, these people literally can't help themselves.  They can't stop themselves from hating white people.  They're running around with their hair on fire about the collapse of the rules-based global order and yet they still manage to find the time to get their jabs in at white people.  Any action which decreases the cultural and institutional power of these people is ipso facto correct, even if it's risky.


So, yes, I'd prefer a more competent figure at the helm.  But if Trump's the best anti-woke option we've got then so be it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I support:


    

  • 

    Reorientation of Russia/Ukraine policy
    

    • 

  • 

    Offering asylum to white South Africans (assuming he actually follows through on that)
    

    • 

  • 

    Strengthened border enforcement and ICE raids
    

    • 

  • 

    DOGE and the general plan of reshaping the civil service / deep state to be more right-leaning
    

    • 



I oppose:


    

  • The bizarre threats towards Canada and Greenland
    • 

  • The crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters
    • 



I'm neutral/unsure about:


    

  • Threats to withdraw from NATO
    • 

  • Tariffs
    • 



So overall I'm still happy with my vote.  No regrets.  Honestly nothing earth-shattering has really happened yet, we're largely still in "nothing ever happens" territory despite what the breathless 24 hour news cycle would have you believe about the "abdication of American soft power".


A lot of the stock market is probably fake and gay anyway and as others have pointed out a correction could be healthy in the long run.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How is it going to fight NATO if it can't even take more than 1/5th of Ukraine?


Yes Russia's progress has been slowed heavily thanks to US aid.  But presumably "fighting NATO" would imply levels of direct involvement from the US and its allies beyond what we've seen in Ukraine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Remember that whether Ukrainians live under oligarchic control in corrupt Ukraine, or oligarchic control in Russia, hardly affects their lives. Farmers will farm, miners will mine, CounterStrike players will бляt. From the standpoint of a prole like me, I can see the Slavic Christian happy in either region of control, having their basic needs quite met, hopefully reproducing.




Thank you for making this explicit.  This is the principle ideological question at issue.  Reasonable people can disagree here, of course, but all parties to the debate do need to make their position on this question clear, and anything else is just obfuscation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Russia is our biggest foreign military threat




I don't understand why we're required to take a permanently antagonistic stance towards Russia.




But what about the Ukrainians? As long as they're want to keep fighting, we should support them.




I don't think that Ukraine's continued participation in the war is tethered in any direct way to the "will of the Ukrainian people" (and I'd say the same for basically any other country in a similar situation as well; Ukraine is not unique in this regard).




you personally don't give a fuck about whether Ukraine survives because you only care about America




I don't give a fuck about Ukraine as an abstract political entity, no.  But I do care about the lives of individual Ukrainians, I assure you.


If I were Ukrainian my choice would be to lay down my arms and join up with Russia, without hesitation.  Some things are worth fighting to the death over, and some things are not.  If it truly is the "will of the people" to fight to the last man, then that too is their prerogative.  But I see no reason why we should be obligated to support them in an effort that I regard as futile and self-destructive.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think it just tends to happen every time current events are moving fast and there are a lot of big headlines to talk about.  More people wanting to talk politics = bigger chance of some of them having dissenting views.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


What does leftist mean to you, surely not just opposition to Trump?




I said "leftist, or at least anti-Trump".  I'm aware they're not identical.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'll eat crow (and probably cheer from the roof tops, I can't lie) if Trump uses this as an excuse to start a 1000 Year Trumpenreich.




Yeah I wouldn't exactly be opposed to it either.  Which is how I know it won't happen.  Reality is always maximally disappointing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Signs point to Donald Trump soon invoking the Insurrection Act (paywalled, but you can get around it with Reader View):




The clock is ticking down on a crucial but little-noticed part of President Donald Trump’s first round of executive orders — the one tasking the secretaries of the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to submit a joint report, within 90 days, recommending “whether to invoke the Insurrection Act.”






Many of us are now holding our collective breath, knowing that the report and what it contains could put us on the slippery slope toward unchecked presidential power under a man with an affinity for ironfisted dictators.






Adding to the suspense was the recent “Friday Night Massacre” at the Pentagon — the firing of the nation’s top uniformed officer and removing other perceived guardrails (i.e., the top uniformed lawyers at the Army, Navy and Air Force) standing between the president and his long-stated intention to declare martial law upon returning to power.




And here's the linked EO they're referencing:




(a)  Within 30 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the President, through the Homeland Security Advisor, a report outlining all actions taken to fulfill the requirements and objectives of this proclamation; and






(b)  Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.




The Insurrection Act of 1807 essentially allows the President to declare martial law by deploying the military to "suppress civil disorder, insurrection, or rebellion".


I still don't think that Trump is going to make a serious attempt at establishing permanent one-party rule.  What would be the play, exactly?  Declare permanent martial law and then cancel elections in four years?  I don't think there's much appetite for that, either with him or with the members of his inner circle.  But then again, I also never predicted that he would cut off military aid to Ukraine either, so my predictions have already been wrong once!


It seems like we've had a slight uptick in leftist (or at least anti-Trump) posters lately so I'd be particularly interested in hearing their thoughts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Honest question: if there is a covid-sized pandemic in the next four years, is there any possible scenario where The Cathedral doesn’t blame it on Trump?


And if their answer is always the same regardless, why should we care what they say?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'm seeing people who had long term and stable government contracts, sometimes decades, being let go.




Uh, welcome to life I guess?


This kind of thing happens all the time in the private sector.  About a year ago my company went through a round of layoffs that hit a lot of people who had been with the company for 10 or even 20 or 30 years in some cases.  Yes we appreciate your service and dedication, but profitability was down this year, we can't afford to be a charity anymore, and we've identified that you don't actually do much anyway, so, buh-bye now.


The shock and confusion coming from a lot of federal employees over the fact that they, too, are capable of being let go shows just how unique and privileged their position was.