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BurdensomeCount

Unable to escape TheMotte's cycle of Samsara...

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joined 2022 September 05 16:37:04 UTC

The neighborhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines and "The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favorite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the"bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco performances.


				
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BurdensomeCount


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Unable to escape TheMotte's cycle of Samsara...

				
				
				

				

					6 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 16:37:04 UTC
				


				
					

					
The neighborhood of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines and "The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural as the favorite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending to be the"bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco performances.



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree with HBD. That doesn't mean there are no 130+ IQ Africans that it's good for a country to bring in. Yes there's some reversion to the mean but that just means increasing the thresholds on what you admit people so that even their children are still significantly above the western average.


I do dispute the Lynn IQ numbers. They're really not accurate. Sasha Gusev had a pretty good writeup a while ago. But that's neither here nor there for my main argument.


I agree IQ is a very good measure of who you want vs don't want. I agree it's fine to make probabilistic judgments. What happened with Indians in Canada was Canada's own stupidity in importing low IQ Punjabi farmers by the boatload, which they are now paying for, it's got nothing to do with importing top tier human beings. The reason low tier people are imported is that there are lots of low tier jobs that must be done which top tier foreigners or low tier natives refuse to do at reasonable wages, it's a completely separate problem to that of high skill immigration. I'm perfectly in favour of a policy which puts the yoke back on the necks of low tier natives so that they do low tier jobs for proper pay (thereby removing the need for low tier immigrants, what I find galling about low tier natives is not tha they are low tier, but that they are low tier but pretend to be equal to their betters) but democracy means they have more votes than me...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nah, I'm happy here in the UK, I'm in one of the few industries where the pay disparity between the US and UK is tolerable (plus the pay is high enough anyways). Since the Trump election (and even for a while before then) I've found the charms of Old Blighty (minus the people) growing on me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I thihk the best pathway would be for the best and brightest to go back to places of origin and work super hard to develop their own competing paradigms.




This is going to bite the US in the ass so hard in the next 15-20 years. It's already happening with China etc., see how good Kimi K2 Thinking is as well as GLM-4.6 etc.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A large portion of people get dissuaded from making significant purchases based on a single extra click being required (hence the huge amount of money platforms like Amazon pour into optimizing their process). This effect isn't particularly dependent on intelligence either, smart people also get put off by a significant degree due to needing one more click to buy a product.


Similarly even the fact that there's discussion of a 100k charge going around will be enough to dissuade some of the best and brightest on the margins, let alone actually implementing a policy like that.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ins't the US age of consent 16? Now you can well argue that these 16 year olds were coerced but then having sex with them would be rape regardless of whether they were 16 or 21 so the age factor would drop out of the equation completely and it just becomes "Trump used coerced prostitutes" which is a much weaker story and would have dropped out of the news years ago (see the Stormy Daniels saga, although she wasn't coerced). The fact that it's continuing means at the very least some of the people were under 16 when the relevant events happened.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've slowly come over to the view that it's a good thing Trump was restricting immigration of the best and brightest so they instead went elsewhere. As they say: Democracy is the belief that voters know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. We've seen the humiliating climbdowns against China and if this policy of being unwelcoming to high end immigrants continue I suspect we'll see plenty of self-flagellation from the US 10 years down the line when it's trying to rebuild up its attractiveness for such people.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Completely agreed. The filibuster is idiotic and not well suited to a political system that has just two major parties which means effectively both parties position themselves to capture around 50%+epsilon of the seats. In the long run getting rid of it helps the dems so much more than the reps because the dems at least have some sort of positive vision for how society should be rather than trying to go back to the 1960s.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I second the recommendation to study rhetoric, changed my life for the better and won me a bunch of prizes back in the day.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Oh come on, I can't believe this, every time I make a top level post we get people going "5 secret and esoteric knowledge reasons why BC is actually trolling even when he says he's sincere" that there's no good response to other than going "no" because with text anyone can make up anything to support their viewpoint and make it sound plausible (see your average literary analysis magazine or Scott's Recent Anti-Christ lecture).




If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. - Cardinal Richelieu




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


You are far more likely to meet high quality women in a biology lab




Endorsed. Quant finance is sub 10% women and even the women we do have are very much not "tradwife" types.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I feel like one of those famous artists who puts certain elements in his painting because they look good to him there full stop only for art critics 100 years later to write essays on how "the contrast between the bright cerulean blue of the sky and the complementary colour muted orange of the Autumn hilltop is a very clever trick employed by the artist to enhance the strikingness of the image for the viewers eye" etc. etc. going out to 20 pages of "analysis" when such a thought had never even crossed the artist's mind in the first place.


I'm just giving my genuine honest views but some people here choose to interpret that as me playing 6D chess with time travel...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Some people here, including yourself, seem to have developed the view that I'm some sort of evil genius who has nothing better to do than spend my free time honing the art of the bait and trying those skills out on the people here like some sort of lab experiment. The truth is a lot more mundane (as life often is): everything I say is certified 100% organic and genuine with no artificial preservatives or colouring.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Trust me, I'm not a leftoid baiting. You'll notice the conspicuous absence of any mentions of Rosalind Franklin in my post, which would be the number 1 point anybody of a left wing persuasion would attempt to make here.


Instead I fully and freely acknowledge that Rosalind Franklin has been massively overrated, the narrative about how Watson and Crick somehow "stole" her work (never mind the fact that it's very unlikely she would even understand the implications of the images she produced, it's very non trivial to go from this to realizing it implies DNA has a double helix structure) is completely discredited and her contributions were nowhere near those of the people who actually got the Nobel prize.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You think "sunlight exposure is the reason behind 'Latin lovers'" is defensible under any reasonable interpretation? Indians must be drowning in pussy where ever they go if that's true.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
RIP James Watson


And so we lose one of the 20th Century pioneers of DNA research. He made it to a nice and comfortable 97 so at least he got to live a full life. His contributions were undeniable but we are all aware of what happened to him in his later years when his awards and honours got stripped because he talked to liberally about HBD. Back then I interpreted all this as yet another example of "Woke gone mad" left wingers who couldn't attack the argument so decided the best shot was to attack the man himself.


Other than the HBD stuff I thought he was a perfectly normal retired scientist, a bit wacky maybe but that's almost obligatory if you have a Nobel prize.


However I have very recently (in the last hour after news of his passing broke) learned that there's more to the sorts of things that Watson said than merely "respectable" HBD. For example there's this quote:




“Most men in bio are short because they can’t get women, but because you’re tall I know you’re genuinely interested in bio”




and this:




“Women at Oxford and Cambridge are better than Harvard and Yale because they know their job is to look pretty and get a rich husband”




and this:




“There is a biochemical link between exposure to sunlight and sexual urges.. that’s why you have Latin lovers”




and then there's this:




“Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you’re not going to hire them”




This new knowledge has made me reevaluate my views on him. Now my new provisional views on him are that he clusters with Brian Josephson: academically brilliant but kooky in the head:




In the early 1970s, Josephson took up Transcendental Meditation and turned his attention to issues outside the boundaries of mainstream science. He set up the Mind–Matter Unification Project at Cavendish to explore the idea of intelligence in nature, the relationship between quantum mechanics and consciousness, and the synthesis of science and Eastern mysticism, broadly known as quantum mysticism.[6] He has expressed support for topics such as parapsychology, water memory and cold fusion, which has made him a focus of criticism from fellow scientists




except that Watson's views were even more corrosive to modern civil society than Brian's. The more you know, as they say...


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Fair point. I hadn't been paying much attention to the race so all I knew about him was that he was the Republican candidate who wore his red beret everywhere which is suspect but not that crazy, however looking at his Wiki page I see he's been arrested 75+ times...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
President Schwarzenegger would have been so so cool.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Whisper it but I'm actually a fan of Mamdani. Not of his policies, but it's not like the Trump faction has any better policies so it's a wash on that front but Mamdani wins hands down on everything else. Speaking from an ocean away I hope he gives the right a taste of their own medicine.


Truly the Dramatard candidate of choice...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


WE'RE PROBABLY GONNA FIND OUT.




Time for the modern version of Lysistrata? Will the men fare any better this time around?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Phyllis Schlafly




Sounds like a venereal disease...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Officially it wasn't a legislative body but practically it had significant influence on the Praetors and the popular assemblies to the point that their edicts were almost always followed by the magistrates.




and the republic was destroyed by a political yo-yo driven by the lack of checks and balances




And what do you think is happening now in the modern US given the lack of checks and balances placed on the executive by either the legislative or the judiciary?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Anyone reminded of the Senate during the late Republic?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think self@firstnamelastname.com is a very clever ingroup signal that one has at least decent tech skills.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would agree, provided the other animals accepted they were inferior to the Little Red Hen and accepted their place as lesser beings relative to her.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Under the Romans during the time of the republic the paterfamilias (oldest male head of the household) had full powers of life and death over his progeny, even when they were adults and had been married off, see how during the Catilinarian conspiracy a conspirator was killed with no trial whatsoever just on the command of his paterfamilias.


That too is part of "European Culture" as you say but it's a good thing we have decided as a society that parents killing their children is abhorrent and to be made illegal (this power of life and death was de facto outlawed during the early stages of the Empire, the practice of exposing newborns still continued despite being made illegal but that's a different thing than killing a 20 year old), a very similar argument can be made with Elder care when the elders are those who took and took from society back when they were young without contributing enough and now want the younger generations to cough up more so they can go to the grave living the high life with no regard for what happens for society when they are six feet under.