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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025

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I oppose the position of banning difficult-to-crack encryption for government convenience

Even to get at the wokies?! I oppose ridding ourselves of all research, even to get at the wokies.

I do think that's a lot of what's going on with the objections to the science stuff

Please speak to me as a person.

it's not indiscriminate

From what I've heard through the grapevine from people at funding agencies, it's absolutely wild right now. And people here are literally calling for it to be indiscriminate. If you disagree with them, then you agree with me.

Even to get at the wokies?! I oppose ridding ourselves of all research, even to get at the wokies.

Yes, I would oppose banning difficult-to-crack encryption even if that made it harder to get at the wokies. But if someone proposed an encryption system that somehow deliberately produced a satoshi a year for woke causes, I'd sure oppose that.

Please speak to me as a person.

I'm not speaking about you alone. Nor, are you, I think, speaking about me alone when you say things like "people here are literally calling for it to be indiscriminate".

From what I've heard through the grapevine from people at funding agencies, it's absolutely wild right now.

But they'd probably act that way if $1 was being cut, or they weren't getting an accustomed-to increase.

Yes, I would oppose banning difficult-to-crack encryption even if that made it harder to get at the wokies.

That's how we know that we need to kill you and yours indiscriminately. You're not celebrating or showing any relief. Obviously, you have pledged fealty to the wokies.

From what I've heard through the grapevine from people at funding agencies, it's absolutely wild right now.

But they'd probably act that way if $1 was being cut, or they weren't getting an accustomed-to increase.

No, that is not at all what I've been hearing. Do you think the reality of the situation is that $1 is being cut or that they're just not getting an accustomed-to increase?

That's how we know that we need to kill you and yours indiscriminately. You're not celebrating or showing any relief. Obviously, you have pledged fealty to the wokies.

If you want to fail to recognize real distinctions, there's not much I can do about it.

No, that is not at all what I've been hearing. Do you think the reality of the situation is that $1 is being cut or that they're just not getting an accustomed-to increase?

Certainly they're trying to cut more. But my point is that it is impossible to tell from the funding agency reaction whether the cuts are not enough, enough, or too much.

If you want to fail to recognize real distinctions, there's not much I can do about it.

Then by all means, make a real distinction.

But my point is that it is impossible to tell from the funding agency reaction whether the cuts are not enough, enough, or too much.

Perhaps from your position. I have a bit more of an inside scoop. A bit of a grapevine, yes, but more specifics rather than just general complaints. In any event, I'm glad that you seem to be in agreement that just complete, indiscriminate, chemotherapy shutting down of everything would be bad; at this point, it sort of boils down to an estimation problem, which sort of boils down to one's sources of data signals.