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PaperclipPerfector  10d ago (text post)   33684 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

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It is a bit odd how worried people are about credentials. Look at the last number of HHS secretaries. Do they really have better credentials?

It is a bit odd how worried people are about credentials.

"Remember, a lone amateur built the Ark. A whole team of professionals built the Titanic."

This is insightful. Xavier Becera is a completely empty suit, devoid of any substantive (object level) merit. And somehow we're willing to chalk that up to normal politics.

In truth, I think it might actually be directionally correct. An actual idiot that does nothing and thinks nothing of substance may actually be preferable to someone that knows enough to confidently fuck up.

Call it the Sorcerer's Apprentice Curve -- the utility function is concave in intelligence.

what substance he had was quite partisan - he argued against Little Sisters of the Poor, for instance

Of course he did -- any D appointee would have. That wasn't some personal view he brought with him to HHS.

In this case, being anti-vaccine and alt-health should be considered actively malicious.

The problem of the US are the high prices of finding and getting good care, and the byzantine system. The frustration of that has been successfully redirected into whole-system skepticism.

Which, fair enough. But outbreaks of preventable disease are bad. In the end, it will be interesting to see if RFK and the gribblers end up biting off more than they can chew by going after the immovable corn lobby.

The current HHS head is a HerbaLife fan.

I’d love to have better options, and I’m disappointed that the Trump one is this, but I think people badly underestimate how bad our institutions are.

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