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FiveHourMarathon

Wawa Nationalist

17 followers   follows 6 users  
joined 2022 September 04 22:02:26 UTC

And every gimmick hungry yob

Digging gold from rock n roll

Grabs the mic to tell us

he'll die before he's sold

But I believe in this

And it's been tested by research

He who fucks nuns

Will later join the church


				
User ID: 195


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
FiveHourMarathon


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Wawa Nationalist

				
				
				

				

					17 followers  

					follows 6 users  

					joined 2022 September 04 22:02:26 UTC
				


				
					

					
And every gimmick hungry yob


Digging gold from rock n roll


Grabs the mic to tell us


he'll die before he's sold


But I believe in this


And it's been tested by research


He who fucks nuns


Will later join the church



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 195


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It won't last forever, but it'll reset the clock for a while. Every empire will fall, every monument crumble, but the next one will last a while, and so on and so forth. Gibbon wrote a long book. If the reborn United States II lasts a hundred more years instead of twenty, is that such a bad thing to fight for because it falls after that? Impermanence is the simple fact of human events.


One of the things people miss in secular society about Gandhi and MLK for example, is their deep and sincere religiosity. They truly believed that non-violence was sacred, that it was more important than worldly success. When Gandhi told the Jews of Europe to offer themselves to the butcher's knives, he wasn't saying it would work he was saying it was required. That religious duty was more important than success. MLK believed earnestly that the ultimate reward of his efforts would be in heaven, not on earth. Process, not results. THere's no other way for humans to behave.




okay, if we take away women’s right to vote, what will be different this time around? We already had that in 1900 and where did it lead us? Here.




I'm starting to see more people push back to universal male suffrage. Which seems obvious: it's impossible to argue coherently that every man is more capable of voting than every woman. Gender is a bad Schelling point. The problem for much of the right is that any actually good Schelling Point is quite likely to doom the right wing electorally.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


That said, if you look the part, probably moving to California and pretending to be illegal immigrant would also work. You may get yourself an entirely new identity eventually, get a bank account and even vote (which ironically wouldn't be illegal if you were a citizen before).




If I claimed to be from South America, the "when exactly did your grandparents leave Germany?" jokes would write themselves.




RE: Debanking




I mean we don't know what debanking will look like when it happens, because it hasn't really happened yet, but it's not all that uncommon to see accounts frozen but not closed or confiscated as the result of lawsuits. Particularly against businesses, in cases involving tax debts, where the funds are frozen and can't be accessed until the lawsuit is concluded. This is where half the traditional folk-wisdom of keeping some money in precious metals comes from in my family: among small business owners it's a sort of common sense theory that if you have some non-banked assets you can cover bills enough to keep in business for a while and stay afloat. The other half comes from the refugee corners of my family, who figure you're better off fleeing with a bit of gold than without it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I highly doubt this. Gold has always had value, and in any future primitive society would retain that value.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I find de-banking to be a significant enough risk to outweigh the downsides of physical gold. Not enough to build a bunker, or to put my entire net worth in physical gold, but enough to have a few thousand dollars in solid assets that can't be frozen or confiscated with a few keystrokes. The functioning US legal system is the risk that physical gold hedges against, it could be targeted against you for a variety of reasons.


I do find it funny when my father asks how we would prove his stocks belonged to him if Fidelity's "computers crashed." Dude, if Fidelity suddenly and irrecoverably lost all its data, a little stock certificate isn't going to save you, ammunition will be the new currency.


FWIW: I think a big part of this disagreement likely goes back to living situation. If I lived in an apartment and worked in an office building I would probably feel differently.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I remember when Subway used to call their employees Sandwich Artists.


The cultural impact of Subway restaurants is massively forgotten and underrated. Without Subway there is no Chipotle, no Cava, no Sweetgreen.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't disagree, in the year of our lord 2026. But 20 years ago, everyone would have commented on an engineer with hair like that, and it would have impacted his credibility in that room. 50 or 60 years ago, they might not have even let him talk. Find me the engineer with hair long enough to bun in this photo. Long hair on men was a serious, serious CW issue for like a good thirty years! It would have been considered wildly strange and unmanly, let alone unprofessional, for a man to have hair long enough to bun in America before the 60s. And until pretty recently, you could with workable accuracy judge that a guy with long hair did not have a good professional job. Now, you can't, that guy might be your traffic engineer. He might even be a good traffic engineer!


Other "weird" and "alt" aesthetics have developed similarly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I use my costco rewards credit card for 2% cash back, and my costco membership gives me 2% cash back. The markup over spot is typically 1%, and I typically just don't buy it when the markup is higher, but the highest I've seen is 4% over spot which is effectively nothing with the cash back and membership.


Frankly, I don't see the point of gold-linked assets outside of short term gambling. Half the point of goldbugging is what if civilization collapses. I want to have my gold, not a piece of paper that tells someone else that I have the rights to a piece of gold, in that case I'd rather have other assets anyway. My safe is protected from fraud, embezzlement, mismanagement on the part of the asset managers. It is protected from a hostile banking system or government entity freezing my access to it. It is fairly opaque to outsiders how much I have at any given time, it can quite easily be given to someone or spirited away with minimal paper trail.


There are, obviously, risks. Theft, fire, loss. These can be minimized but never eliminated. What I think still makes physical gold appealing is that those risks are uncorrelated with the risks tied to other assets, other than I guess a fire at the property. I'm not advocating for keeping all your assets in your home or office, but I find it gives me peace of mind knowing that I have negotiable assets on hand that don't depend on a financial system that is rapidly turning into a cross between a casino and a social credit panopticon. Much like with crypto, if you don't have the wallet it's not really yours.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree that subcultural aesthetics are kind of pointless now, but it's not so much that Spotify made them pointless, it's that alt aesthetics have gone mainstream, or at least aren't really judged anymore, and hence there is no sacrifice and no meaning in dressing for a subculture. It doesn't tell you anything about the person.


The other day I was at a zoning meeting, the engineer came in to present and he was a youngish white kid with a man-bun. There was a time, and not all that long ago, when at a formal meeting no one would take a guy with a bun seriously. You just wouldn't. Everyone would comment on the guy's fuckin' hair.


Similarly, we've had the conversation on if tattoos are attractive or cool many times over, but one thing that is beyond dispute: they are so normal that you can't really judge based on them and achieve much of anything. In 1960, if my grandmother went to the hospital, she would have pretty much refused service from a nurse with a visible tattoo. In 2026, if you refused service from any nurse with a tattoo, you'd just die in the lobby.


A punk or goth in the 80s got bullied in school. In my high school years they got mocked as emo kids a little ("remember to cut down the road not across the street!") but could fit in as skaters or whatever. In 2026, a goth or emo or punk kid is dressing like and listening to bands that his teachers and parents listened to. He fits in, more or less, the same as he would if he dressed in polo shirts and khakis.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Costco sells about $200mm of gold every month. I think it comes from catering to Asian customers, who love Costco almost as much as they love buying gold.


For the most part, it just matches what Costco likes in a product: it's easy to beat other retailers on service (costco has a minimal markup over spot price compared to a local pawn shop), there's value in reliability and credibility, and it's a simple business as they do it. Costco's philosophy is built around trying to find things they can do better than other retailers, this is a good example.


Now, you can only buy 2 ounces a day, so you can't necessarily launder a drug business through costco. But it's just kind of a simple investment plan that fits into my standard week.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


CHH argues that we gotta stop upping the ante on gift-giving, else the reasonable people among us will be either forced in or unable to say no because it will make them look like assholes. I agree! What happened to simple gift giving? Why must everything be extravagant? If anything, we should be going the opposite way to save money!




I've been slowly adjusting my family to the expectation that I'm good for one really good gift across the whole family per year, and that the rest are going to be phoned in books or something. One year I'm just like, oh I found a tuxedo for dad, mom you got a book about the guy who inspired Charlie Chan. Next year it's, oh mom you got a Barbour coat, dad you got Andrew Ross Sorkin's new book.




"You're single because... [insert a bunch of reasons in a bulleted list format]".






Steve Stewart-Williams: As shown in the graph below, the sweet spot was two to four past partners; fewer or more reduced attractiveness. In effect, people wanted someone with a bit of a past, but not too much (which was the title of our paper describing the research).




Is there a link to the study he's talking about anywhere? It seems like there's a lot of confounders here, like age. An 18 year old with 10 sexual partners is different from a 32 year old with 10 sexual partners. That said I found it hilarious how angry Zvi was that the study supposedly found:




Intriguingly, we found no evidence for a sexual double standard: none, zilch, nada. Contrary to what’s often claimed, women weren’t judged any more harshly than men for having a high body count. That’s not to say they weren’t judged for it, but only that men were judged too.






Also, I flat out defy the data on there being no double standard? No way. Even if on some abstract 1-9 scale it looks similar, the practical impact is very obviously totally different. Yes, a male body count of 60+ is functionally a negative, but not at the same level.




Man, people just fucking hate their revealed preferences when it comes to dating. I'm not going to argue for the virtue of sluts, {I'll leave that to the Jaime} but I've literally never met a woman who was single because of her bodycount. I don't even really think it happened historically.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's an inconsistency with almost every other use of the suffix -ology in the everyday use of the English language. Biology, Sociology, Zoology, Geology, Virology. The only other common use of -ology to refer to something other than a science is Scientology, which is kind of a special case. As a child I recall being offended by this, that Astronomy ought to be Astrology, and Astrology ought to be something else entirely.


It's unfortunately unfixable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Periodically when I have the extra cash in the bank and the extra room on my credit card, I buy an ounce of gold at Costco on my way out. I wouldn't want to buy gold futures, as the value of the gold to me as an inflation/TEOTWAWKI hedge is minimized by having intermediaries between me and the gold.


If you have significantly higher value assets than I do, that probably becomes impractical for storage reasons.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Seconded, I liked they're product so much that I bought a bunch of pairs that are sitting in my closet, against the day they fuck with them and they don't fit me properly anymore.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Most of what's being cited as "resupply depots" on twitter look more like the snack table at a fun run 5k or a landscaping cleanup day at a small church. That people on the online right see this as "professional logistics" is deeply blackpilling for me, one of those moments.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've been hunting for the version my own ABG told me to get long ago: the AsiaPac books graphic novel version. I've never been able to find it. It's my white whale of used books. It's out of print. There's somehow exactly two volumes for sale on Amazon for the Kindle, but that's not terribly helpful since it's a ten volume set.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Jeffersonian.


Some questions as usual I overthought. "Should the government be a means to an end and ultimately be abolished" can get Strong Agree from Ancaps or from Communists.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I absolutely hated the idea of obtaining an actual friend or a romantic partner only to be constantly forced by that person to do random things in which I had no interest. It seemed like a continuation of how my parents would torture me by making me join after-school clubs and dragging me to museums, concerts, and weddings.




Only boring people are bored. There are simply very, very few things I cannot enjoy when with my wife or a close friend. If I don't like it naturally, I find a way to make myself like it. The idea that every experience in one's day will be perfectly to one's own taste is a modern conceit.


With few exceptions* my wife and I enjoy almost everything we do together. We're together, so that's nice. And I can find my own way to enjoy almost anything. My wife wanted to invite all her friends over to watch The Bachelor, which is distinctly not my kind of thing. So I found the autists out there doing sports-podcast Sabermetrics analysis of the episodes, and now I had my hook. How long did Madysyn's Hug-Jump last? How did her HuJu compare to Bryttunee's? Will this affect her odds of making the final four and Seeing Sand? I make her go hiking with me, she makes it fun for herself by picking out fun hiking outfits and aesthetics.


Though, in all honesty, I sometimes feel guilty about my relationship with Mrs. FiveHour, because intellectually I buy into the idea that modern marriages are asked to be entirely too much. But she genuinely is my best friend, and that's just how it is.


*colloquially referred to in our relationship as "Harbor Freighting" after my wife's reaction to being in a Harbor Freight store and being violently and instantly bored while I vaguely browsed buying solar panels or a house jack or something else I didn't need


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Why can't we lean on verboten characteristics? No middle aged white woman has ever killed a cop*, very few middle aged white women are good at driving SUVs in tight quarters and really know where their wheels are pointing at any given time.


*In the line of duty, some have killed boyfriends who happened to be cops


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What gets into people that they have fights about what is ultimately just a bunch of guys hanging out?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think the stronger argument against ads is more that the median ad that makes someone purchase something is causing them to make a purchase that they probably shouldn't in a more ideal world, and people both do that and accept their time being wasted with extremely repetitive advertising because they're bad at making tradeoffs.




Once you start with this logic, you end up somewhere between the khmer rouge and the Uncle Ted. Which, fine, make a much bigger argument for that if you want to, but it's way outside the bounds of OP or the essay he's citing back to. I don't think a mass consumer production economy is possible without branding and advertising. But then when you say:




And idk if the internet or sports would be doomed or particularly harmed without this much advertising, the economy is an equilibrium, people really like sports and the internet and would find other ways to pay for it.




There's a big difference between "Advertising should be more strictly regulated and limited" and "Advertising should be illegal." I don't even think you can really get from one to the other in terms of consequences.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think this is one of those cases where the things people complain about in romantic partners (problematic beliefs in men, women being "crazy" or demanding) are actually more like revealed preference in favor of associated attributes than they are negative judgments.


People complain about downsides belonging to partners they made love to, they aren't even aware of the downsides of those they don't.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Actually, the two are more related than you think. A lot of Youtube's censorship decisions come from advertiser pressure. They don't want to see their brand next to a "brand risk", so Youtube decides to ban the content rather than risk losing advertisers.




That's actually a pretty good point.




If the water company in your area suddenly became private and had the legal right to refuse service to anyone, and they started forcing you to use certain sinks of theirs that had advertisements, would you really say that they're not polluting the commons, because it's not the commons, it's their party and you have to play by their rules?




I have a well.


And the analogy here would be something like, the water company allows people to get free water service in exchange for watching ads, or you can just pay for the water service. If the water company introduced a brand new service where poor people got service for free in exchange for watching advertisements, I don't know how that can possibly be considered a bad thing for the consumer? Is the argument that by offering a free-to-use service they are polluting the commons? People have to pay for their water service because otherwise the consumer is choosing to pollute...themselves?


If you want to argue that Youtube should be a subscriber only platform, with no free access to anything, argue that. Hell, if you want to argue that youtube should be nationalized, that's insane, but argue it. But arguing that a private actor should be obligated to host and provide free content is asinine snailbrained socialism.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It's like if you had a big lawn that could host a billion people, and you let anyone hang out there for free, and there were certain people who were giving speeches drawing crowds of millions on your lawn, and them moving their speeches elsewhere was just prohibitively expensive for some reason such that basically no one ever did it and we laugh at the ones who tried because they all failed miserably.




I would still own the fucking lawn. It doesn't matter if my lawn is cool, or if I invite some people and not others, or if I used to let anybody on for free but now I require you to take a copy of Watchtower if you want to hang out here, it's still my lawn. If you want to come to my party, you have to agree to my terms, because it's my party.




I think it's clear that Youtube has quite the monopoly on online video distribution.




Leaving aside whether this is a true statement or not, what does this have to do with advertising? Is the argument that because they have a monopoly, it cannot provide the service ad-supported and must rely on a subscription model?


If we want to rehash the political free speech moderation argument great, but that's a totally different "digital commons" argument than the one being made in OP, that advertising must be banned so we don't have to see it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


For other countries defending themselves or acting in defense of others it seems like a just war though.




It's a whole bucket of pickles once you get into just conduct of the war (Stalin was justified in fighting Hitler, probably not in mass rape), and in the leadup to the war (Stalin equipped Hitler and partnered in the invasion of Poland; the West supported Fascism over communism; etc.)


This isn't a simple question.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Personally, I just wish they would let me pick ad categories. I would never bitch about ads again if they just let me pick ads that were A) pleasant and B) relevant to me. I don't have chrohn's disease or eczema, I'm not buying tampons, and I hate that asshole in the state farm ads (the one race flip in casting that ever truly offended me).