100ProofTollBooth
No bio...
User ID: 2039
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
I think this is a very good point. Imagine a defense lawyer who's opening statement to the jury is "You know what, my client did it! hahah...jk, ok, let's get going." I feel that would be close to an instant mistrial and maybe action by the state bar association.
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
(Slightly tongue-in-cheek because I kind of used up my battery on another post ... so, remember to laugh)
Bring back 8th grade bullying.
Not the sadistic / sexual embarassment kind, but the slightly barbed ribbing about "not being able to get a girlfriend" or "no boy is going to ask you to the dance." (Remember! Tongue-In-Cheek!)
The more serious version underlying this is; we have to teach adolescents and young the skills for an imperfect information, yet cooperative mating strategy - and call out the ones who fail to do so. Society wide fertility is a society wide responsibility. Part of growing up through adolescence is mimicking adult behavior, failing, learning, and improving on the next iteration so that when you are able to make serious life decisions, you've got some practice behind it. The "radical acceptance" and "zero bullying" mentality completely ruins this to the point that when young men and women date in college or afterwards, this may literally be their first relationship but nowhere near their first sexual experience. That lack of symmetry is disaster for fertility because a big part of fertility is both parties (but especially the woman) being comfortable in the long term stability of the relationship (that's hard-wired into the brain).
Quite side note: A male-only version of this is fighting. It's important to get into a few scuffles in High School when you're still underdeveloped physically and no one knows how to fight. I've seen bar fights between 25 year old dudes where neither knew what he was doing turn out fucking awful for both parties simply because they didn't know how to throw punches, or how to go down and cover up, or to stop hitting someone when their arms go stiff.
A lot of the other policy recommendations in this and other threads are good from the incentive-seeking rational actor standpoint, and I do support them (sort of generally, not each one individually without exception). But, from a learned behavior perspective, I think they would underperform simply because people's interpersonal development is getting extremely weak because of the super-importance of personal development-of-the-self without regard to society.
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
Separate from any of the parent comments, this seems off to me just looking at the diction alone. This reminds me of those funny fake history quotes people like to shitpost for a quick laugh; "Just like, don't be a dick, lol" - Jesus or "Bitches ain't shit" - Eleanor Roosevelt. The dissonance between the assumed diction and the diction in the quote is the funny part. Here, why would some who seems to be genuinely using language like "my soul is joyous, I am nourished" combine it in the same sentence with "got railed" -- which is a fairly vulgar, slightly violent connotative phrase? I realize I'm way over analyzing a tweet here, but this seems to me to try and play both ends of the spectrum - one the on side is the sort of new-age "sex is a divine experience" aspect and the other side is "whoo ya be a proud slut!" I'm not trying to judge either of those, but I don't think they mix so fluidly? What's the rub? Who's the rube?
100ProofTollBooth
1mo ago
Which generator (DALLE, MidJourney etc.)
And would you be willing to share the prompt? Fucking rad as hell, dawg.
100ProofTollBooth
1mo ago
I agree with your sentiment wholeheartedly even if it looks like there is some distance between us semantically.
I would also say that your (again, God forbid) wife-in-coma scenario reveals what I believe to be the fact that all humans have a natural impulse towards what we would term faith. It may be utterly a- or even anti-religious and its often poorly developed and formalized, but the innateness of that desire remains. I think it has to to propagate the species. There are certainly times where things look forlorn and all available data might point to hitting your own off button to unalive yourself. You need either a strong intuitive volition to not do that (faith) ... or have the mental acuity of Mr. Big Brain himself Sam Harris to jiu-jitsu rationalize your way into it.
100ProofTollBooth
1mo ago
Part of me wants to report this for being incendiary.
But, a larger part of me just sort of likes to contemplate it as a kind of internet modern art.
I am now Cameron from Ferris Bueller at the museum.
100ProofTollBooth
1mo ago
These beliefs being disprovable unlike the bedrock trueness of one of 10,000 religions?
Never asserted this. In fact, a major thrust of my original comment was that religious belief is neither provable in a positivist sense nor falsifiable. Faith itself is an ongoing and continuous act.
What about when religious people become atheist or leave their religion. Have you see what that can do to families and people? Especially in those many many religions that treat an apostate like garbage.
Bad things are bad, I agree. But my comment wasn't looking at people-within-social-circles, it was looking at the self and identity (the self-concept of self).
Your whole unchangeable/unchallengeable forever belief system has crumbled to dust instead.
Forgive me for nitpicking. A belief system is one thing, the anchor to an identity is another. I agree with you that a belief system ought to be informed by rigorous epistemic evaluation. I think identity is a separate concern that cannot be totally built on a simple amalgamation of "facts." It put it up there with abstract concepts like "justice" - these are not definable in a mathematic proof sense.
As you say, hard to have a reality check if you don't accept reality.
Couldn't agree more.
100ProofTollBooth
3mo ago
one law for the red-haired
The only law they need is the law of iron, fire, and pain.
Purge the gingers!
(Having some fun this morning, that's all)
100ProofTollBooth
6mo ago
I'll accept the nonchalance of gun rights folks over the bad faith, willingly under-informed righteousness of the gun control people. When you haven't done the basic homework to know that saying "thirty magazine clip" is nonsense, I can't respect your credibility or good faith in the argument. Much less when you start extending squishy gun aesthetic terminology to other weapons (what the hell is a military style knife?)
The emotional-memetic takeover of the firearm debate is pretty much complete. It's actually a non-issue in the popular consciousness. When it does matter, in SCOTUS rulings, the court is moving ever towards more permissive gun laws because it's literally the second amendment to the Constitution. It's a bit paranoid and jaded, but I have the thought that when your average twitter warrior launches something like "another mass shooting in the U.S., when will we learn?" their fatalism is actually a tacit admission that they don't want to push the issue because they know where that ends up in the judiciary. Phrased differently; they don't want to legally fuck around and find out.
Plus one to @2rafa's support for re-institutionalization. It's yet another bizarre walking contradiction on the left; "Everyone needs therapy. You should go to a therapist!" only applies to PMC pseudo-depression and anxiety. When you're so schizophrenic that you can't see, on the other hand, it's "people have the right to be unhoused on their own terms!"
100ProofTollBooth
7mo ago
Agree, but the punishment is only the first half of the re-calibration. You can point to something and say "That's bad, don't do that," but people will naturally respond, "Well, fine, what's good?"
And then society, culture, and all of the relevant institutions are going to have to start really getting behind the idea of stable nuclear families, courtship rituals that are defined (heavily) by gender roles, and explicit pro-natalism. Personally, I think of these are stellar ideas. But there are some absolutely bananas divergences in opinios on that. This is why, I think, the trashfire that is contemporary dating endures - there isn't a well articulated alternative and even vague attempts to develop one are only at the margins and oriented around fine-tuning and optimization. The recent article-and-comments on "Date Me" docs over at Scott's Blog is case in point.
Then again, what's old is new. People really like to fuck. Like, a lot a lot. Society has been dealing with this with great difficulty forever. At the societal, pro-social level,packing away women in burlap bags probably isn't a good move, but neither is broadcasting luxury strip clubs as empowering art. I'm not going to weasel out and say "it's a balancing act." No, the assertion that ought to be made is "sex is one of the most basic social contracts you engage in. Yes, it's personal and fun, but it isn't something to be taken lightly." Then, taking the next step up in the responsibility chain, "you should have sex in an already stable pair bonded relationship with an eye towards longevity." No, don't criminalize one-night stands and don't jail the town harlot or village lothario - but hold them up as examples of what not to do.
100ProofTollBooth
11mo ago
Mash both together.
Multi-day arduous hike with friends who you would call closest or just one circle outside of that. I would recommend all the same sex, but I don't think that's a hard and fast rule for everyone. Get fucking broken together (not literally, safety first, I just mean hours of hard hiking). Experience what hours of shared silence is like. Notice how your emotions start influencing one another. You know you're doing well when you start knowing when each other need to eat or shit.
Mentally multiply this by 1000. That's Men in Combat.
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
Starting Strength. Has a YouTube channel and a few related books.
Important caveat: Stick to the program, but adjust at the margins based on your own feedback loops. Rippetoe gets dogmatic and I understand why [^1]. Do your thing ... but also be aware of the extent to which you've drifted from the program. Bicep curls are the devil.
I would recommend against the marathon. It occupies this place in western pop-fitness as a great symbol of overall health and fitness when it is, in reality, a hugely specialized performance. For overall fitness, resistance training is the base and cardio should be varied but mostly below 45 minutes in terms of duration. If your 5-mile time falls below 35 minutes, then you can go train for a marathon, which will mostly be a lot of boring long runs.
[^1]: Rippetoe exists as the anti "amazing new fitness routine" anchor of the world. His entire career is "do the basics right and consistently for years." Which is what is appropriate for >95% of people. When Muscle and Fitness publishes an elite bodybuilder's routine, it make no sense for the average lifter because that bodybuilder's routine is designed to move him or her from the top .1% to the top .07% of lifters. They're extreme because they're at the very limits of diminishing returns. Most people will never get there, so using it as a starting point is useless. Where Rippetoe fails, imho, is in letting people who have put in a baseline of work with the basics tweak based on their own feedback loops.
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
Articles like this one (from the Guardian, no less) would point to a pretty direct connection between BLM and overall law enforcement policy (which is even more enduring that personnel shortages, changes in tactics, etc.) You quite literally had DA candidates for one of the biggest metropolitan jurisdictions in the US interacting with BLM activists.
100ProofTollBooth
16hr ago
This just makes me want to start sponsoring Knight of Columbus Taverns all across the country. Bolt 'em on to the local parish. Have to be a local or sponsored by one to attend.
Perhaps the Holy Spirit - in the form of the fully alcoholic blood of Christ and its various Irish and Scottish cousins - can move the younguns to form holy unions.
100ProofTollBooth
20hr ago
I really like this response, I just want to pull out some more details.
"The missing step A" -- Is this the initial meeting between two young people? From what I can gather, it looks like you're saying that tradcath communities are great for getting a young couple on rails into a marriage, but bad at getting Harry to meet Sally at the dance. Is this accurate?
100ProofTollBooth
1mo ago
Awesome. Thank you for the well articulated reply.
One more piece of anec-data to take or leave; It seems to me that my strength training (heavy compound lifts, think Starting Strength protocols) directly improve my runs as well. I'm sure there's a frontier to these when additional weight starts to retard progress. However, as of now, it feels like a free lunch.
100ProofTollBooth
1mo ago
Korwa.
100ProofTollBooth
3mo ago
The vast majority of kids don't abuse knives. Why can't it be the same with recreational drugs?
The intent of recreational drugs is to "use it on yourself."
The intent of a knife is never to "use it on yourself" except for exceedingly rare medical emergency situations or incidents of self-harm that are universally recognized as bad.
I think that porn has helped me to become more comfortable with my sexuality.
Bully for you.
I don't think that there is anything shameful whatsoever about watching porn.
Would you be alright with a stranger watching porn next to you on an airline flight? Or in a library? Or around children?
100ProofTollBooth
5mo ago
If you're in a powerlifting cycle of any sort, you've already move past the beginner lifter phase which, I believe, was OP's situation. We're talking about two different things.
100ProofTollBooth
5mo ago
entering the shadow realm
Peace be upon you, fellow gym-meme brother/sister.
Re: "20 pullups, but no deadlift?" The case that comes to mind was a long distance runner who I saw doing a PFT. Rail skinny, but did kill his pullups. By sheer insane coincidence, ran into him at the post gym later that day. 2 plate deadlift, had to cat-back it by the third rep. My theory is that the hyper-specifically trained for his pullups on the PFT by doing .... a shit ton of pullups for several months. I can see how that would over emphasize biceps-to-lats but not actually develop the full posterior chain through the glutes and hamstrings. I think you're also probably correct in the "form" argument - he had no conception of how to use his legs to start the rep.
Now, would've been able to rack pull 225? Hey, maybe.
100ProofTollBooth
5mo ago
I apologize if this is better suited to a Sunday thread, but it's top of mind for me right now.
Any recommendations for reactionary reading? I want to be specific that I have no interest in the "Dark Enlightenment" Yarvin/Land side of things as I've read enough of that to know it really is permanently-online neo-reddit-Edge-Lord content.
To maybe give a bit of a Customers Also Liked vibe; I'm moving through the works of James Burnham and have read a lot of Russell Kirk and Willmoore Kendall. I know these folks would be more in the traditionalist conservative camp, which I have enjoyed. Wondering if there's anything beyond them that doesn't actually drop into out-and-proud monarchism / theocracy.
100ProofTollBooth
11mo ago
I can't say with a lot of specific certainty as I don't know those policing systems much at all.
I know that the concept of civil liberties and privacy are fundamentally weaker. For instance, I know that there has been at least an official police visit to folks who have posted offensive language on twitter. Not an arrest, per se, but an official sanctioned visit to the domicile. The threshold for what would take a warrant in the USA is much lower. I believe the language is "vital to an ongoing investigation" at the discretion of the police themselves - no judge needed.
So, assuming I'm not wildly off base with my statements above (which are, admittedly, fuzzy at best) ... A constable in the UK would hear that Leroy Brown is a bad dude from the local toughs and then, presumably, launch and official investigation. This would allow Constable Fish-N-Chips to surveil Mr. Brown and search his domicile (again, I think) with near impunity. No such thing as off-limits or 'non-pertinent' information. It's a 24/7 (or as much time as the cops feel like) surveillance and waiting game until Mr. Brown somehow commits a crime with prosecuting.
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
Largely, yes. The bright side, however, is that there is more than enough good stuff that you'll never have to fall back to the personal novellas.
I'd personally recommend jumping in the deep end: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Remember it was published in the 1980s and probably penned throughout the 1970s. I wonder if any editor at a publishing house today would even read draft chapter nowadays.
100ProofTollBooth
1yr ago
This is a great point. Also love the phrasing. Bravo.
Genuine question - have you ever been in a fight or other violent situation that escalated suddenly? Not like a shoving match that turned into a sort of wrestling match with a few frat boy haymakers thrown in. A real unexpected fight. Maybe someone tried to mug you.
Because even though I haven't personally seen a schizophrenic on the subway get to the point of committing attempted murder, I routinely saw the near potential for it. As in, being fully aware that that smelly weird dude could be hammering on some passer-by within 5 seconds. Why/how? My own personal experience with violence.
As a good research exercise, go watch some videos on the "Police Activity" channel on YouTube. Choose any that involve a shooting. These showcase just how quickly a "calm scene" can turn into dozens of shots fired. This will also show the utter lunacy of ideas around "warning shots" or "deescalation" by cops.
A friend has a good metaphor about human (esp male) latent violence - it's like a garage door spring. 99% of the time, it's this utterly forgettable thing that you are completely unaware of even as you are very close to it. In the rare situation in which it makes itself known, it is incredibly fast and violent (garage door springs can fucking end you).
But that explosive lethal potential is always there. But you don't see it, do you? Isn't that exactly what @HlynkaCG said?
More options
Context Copy link