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netstack

The horse embodies the wings a person feels inside.

9 followers   follows 3 users  
joined 2022 September 05 17:27:40 UTC 

				
User ID: 647


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
netstack


								

								

								
								
									
								
								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
The horse embodies the wings a person feels inside.

				
				
				

				

					9 followers  

					follows 3 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 17:27:40 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 647


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What? Maybe you


    

  • disagree with Marx
    • 

  • think that real communism has, in fact, been tried
    • 

  • got disillusioned after Glushkov et al. failed to optimize
    • 

  • value the right to property more than fixing the unfairness of capital allocation
    • 

  • are convinced that a coming era of post-scarcity will make it all moot
    • 

  • actually like having material goods
    • 



Take your pick. I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons why a reasonable leftist would think socialism isn’t actually a good thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Correlation, causation. The Schism has a different political slant, new
user funnel, expected level of effort, etc. Which of those really deserves credit for the volume difference?


I would say that the cost of flouncing back to mainstream social media is generally lower for a left-winger than a right-winger. This makes niche forums lean right even if the underlying appeal is the same for everybody. The Schism counterbalanced this by kicking out more right-wingers, so it just has a tiny userbase.


As an aside: do you remember what the no-no topics were? I remember it being race war stuff, but I could be completely off base.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A couple times a week, amount varying from one drink to five. The latter is only if I’m at home with the wife and we’re hanging out for the evening, playing Minecraft or listening to music together, low-effort social interaction.


I do think that’s too much for me. Today I I went back to sleep after my alarm this morning and was late for work. I feel like an idiot, so I am going to make an effort to cut back.


The complication is that I’ve been getting into mixing cocktails, mostly for my extended family. It feels like a legitimate reason to buy more and better liquor. I…think that might be a bad thing. I’m very capable of overthinking this, so the best thing is probably just to cut back.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Rolling up with the siege mortar, I guess.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
/r/theschism gets a little closer, I guess. It started as a split from the Reddit Motte over how to moderate accelerationists and edgelords. Since that involved a lot of right-wingers calling for violence against protestors/progressives/the DNC, it ended up collecting some of the harried leftists and more compassionate conservatives. I think it has much less material, but what’s there is of high quality.


You’re probably going to get several responses about how (insert outgroup here) is unwilling or unable to have polite dialogues, which I think is patently untrue. I’d say that all such spaces are subject to evaporative cooling, and that by the time you or I hear about one, it’s probably already drifted one way or another.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Incredible work. I’m still reading through the list, but I wanted to comment on one thing.




to isolate this specific substance that is shared between garlic and vanilla and infuse a slab of tofu with it (or at least I hope they haven't).




The phrase you need is molecular gastronomy. This stuff pushes the bleeding edge of what might, possibly, be considered “food.” It’s wild.


See also adventures in fine dining.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was thinking the same thing. A thousand midlevel diplomats can try to hammer out an agreement, but it only takes one guy to torpedo it.


I’m just not sure how to bet against peace.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ah. I haven’t read any of his stuff outside of the Inhibitor books. That would do it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, I think the question is still open. No idea how many of the immigrants post-2014 are fleeing Ukrainians vs. economic migrants, Russian dissidents, Chinese, who knows what else. So if you find  country of origin + time data, let me know!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, we can. The wiki page has a bunch.


No, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t show what you’re expecting, because a giant chunk of the immigration comes from the Baltics and other post-Soviet countries. I didn’t find data which separated those out over time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kto indeed. You are conflating several different groups.


The presidential twitter has more reach than any shock artist. I think you’ll find that most of the people complaining never said anything about Piss Christ at all.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
¿Por que no los dos?


I’m saying that you can lose as much through translation than you do by omitting passages or chapters. Both are dependent on the editor’s understanding of the original intent. In the same way that you can have good and bad translations, then, it should be possible to find good and bad abridgements.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Right. It splits into two questions: Can you act shocked?
And is being shocked reason enough to allow an abortion?


I think the answer to the first question is yes in cases with most any precaution. I’d certainly expect it from your cases 2-4. As a consequence, I don’t think protected sex qualifies as “signing up for baby making.”


Same goes for @FtttG’s tumblr encounter. It would be quite reasonable to say “I signed up for golf, not wasp-induced vandalism!” Even if you’re still responsible for the damage, you shouldn’t be blamed.




For what it’s worth, I think I agree that abortion is justifiable even in the case of recklessness, but that you also can’t get there from violinist-type arguments. It’s the dismissal of “acting shocked” that bothered me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe for unprotected sex.


I don’t think we apply such a black and white understanding of causality to every risky activity. Is there some point at which you’d say “yeah, neither he nor she could have reasonably expected a pregnancy?”


The reverse came up last time we discussed miscarriage. A surprising amount of fertilizations don’t result in a viable pregnancy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.




It’s not impossible to have a civil discussion about this brand of drama, but you’re not going to get it by coming in guns blazing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ve always been a bit confused about that. What’s in Tarkov that’s worth facing down a couple dozen psychopaths, some of whom are highly trained and/or awfully resistant to bullets? I’m not even sure what you’re collecting in Arc Raiders or Marathon.


Out of the extraction non-shooters…Quasimorph acts like almost everything you loot was available, just to someone else. It’s more piracy than mining. Maybe the quasistuff counts.


At least Duckov has a sensible goal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Devil’s advocate: that ship sailed immediately. Even the earliest collected versions did shit like spelling the title “Monte Christo.” Who knows what else was modified?


And that’s for the original French. I’m not sure if Dumas wrote much English, but he never published his own translation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Anyone know of post-apoc fiction that features storage units?


It feels like half the new construction in my town consists of these stupid, chunky self-storage buildings. Incredibly cheap materials. Similar but not identical layouts. They are fundamentally dead buildings, existing to facilitate brief visits and long periods of quiescence. Mausoleums for consumer goods.


This brought to mind the sci-fi tropes of “tech-mining,” delving the ruins of the past for lost and valuable resources. It’s a big part of certain genres of post-collapse sci-fi. Starsector (probably by way of Revelation Space), Hyperion Cantos, Battletech, arguably Foundation. I most recently saw a version in Iain Banks’ Matter, where an eroding waterfall progressively excavates the long-lost city  buried beneath its cliff. The advanced alloys which withstood all that water are salvaged for building materials by a subsequent civilization. Evocative.


These tropes surely owe a lot to the post-apocalyptic genre. A Canticle for Liebowitz begins with a monk uncovering relics in a lost fallout shelter. Not anything useful, mind you, but cultural artifacts of immeasurable value. An apocalypse is perhaps the easiest explanation for how the ancients had something we can no longer get for ourselves.


There’s a game called Caves of Qud dotted with ruins from a long-dead civilization:




Here crumble the mysterious Eaters' vine-swathed works, spun on the cyclopean lathe in an ageless past. Chrome steeples and parapets that rise above the clutches of shale hint at the labyrinths beneath them.




You can trudge through a futuristic jungle only to stumble upon these bones of the former world, populated by tribal robots and sentry turrets. Descend into the caves like a true arconaut, and you’ll find even greater treasure…


In our current reality, how much of that “treasure” is piled in storage units? Boring-ass grids of concrete with one, maybe two garage doors between the loot and the outside world. If the bombs dropped today, any future generations would face the most boring, practical version of tech-mining: cleaning out the attic. “Yeah, we cleared out the mutants from sector 35. Found another one of those metal crypts. Bring the boys over; we can probably find each of them a golf club.”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unrestricted submarine warfare was very much not the same thing. It was obviously departing from existing blockade law; the debates were over how much could and should be done to enforce those laws. Note that the first few incidents were handled with reparations and apologies rather than a declaration of war.


In your hypothetical, the U.S. might or might not choose to respect the blockade. We have that privilege. This does not provide a general argument for or against such tactics.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Military access through an extremely weak third party.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for April 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Hell yeah. I got married last month after a similar dating period. Even though I didn’t really expect it to change anything, I keep finding myself grinning like an idiot.


Congratulations!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Spoken like a true heretic schismatic.


When was the last time that an antipope acquired any real momentum? Nowadays, independent Catholics are just filed alongside the Protestants.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m feeling strange deja vu…have we had this argument before?


Both of those articles support the common economic wisdom that, ceteris paribus, competition lowers prices. This is not sufficient to show a quality of life improvement or to demonstrate technological advances. You lose out on specialization of labor. You have to give up coordination problems. There is less economic slack to search for more efficient investments.


China absolutely flooded its labor pool with cheap immigrants. This has been widely regarded as a bad move.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m not sure that model would have predicted the initial attack.


Trump does what he thinks is on-brand. If somebody convinces him that breaking the ceasefire will totally get Iran to fold in a week, he’ll do it. Iran will have done something hostile in the meantime, so he’ll even be able to blame them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How many people are really in that first category?


I have learned to stop betting on a splinter faction of principled dissenters. Most of the people who wanted off the Trump Train got their wish over the last few congressional elections.