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4bpp

Now I am become a Helpful, Honest and Harmless Assistant, the destroyer of jobs

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joined 2022 September 05 01:50:31 UTC

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4bpp


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Now I am become a Helpful, Honest and Harmless Assistant, the destroyer of jobs

				
				
				

				

					3 followers  

					follows 2 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 01:50:31 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
To hit the Republicans where it hurts, it should probably either be pamphlets about the joy of toiling and dying for Israel, or something about tax breaks for the rich. The problem is that both would be wide open to comebacks about the underlying policies also having nontrivial support among Democrats.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My sense (from the small sample of people I know and the slightly larger sample of people I consider to be tempted by it) is that for both sides, it's the greater relative heaviness of gender-related expectations against a background where all other expectations of young people have been systematically dismantled, coupled with systemic misinformation about the ease and social boons of transitioning and general anomie/lack of avenues for self-actualisation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That design looks fine to me. There a certain look to the Twitter-friendly woke reboot female protagonist, and it's not present here; I figure the chud half of the outrage machine has just gone through its own purity spiral, and arrived at a consensus that everything short of the cookie-cutter babyfaced vaguely Asian kitten with giant tits and random holes in the outfit must be part of the media conspiracy to keep them down.


Castlevania had a borderline trademark on the Japanese fake-aristocratic-Western androgynous bishie look with its male characters for the longest time. Going for something that fits with the "prince-like" Takarazuka female CEO dressed like a British bellboy aesthetic is a perfectly reasonable mirror image of it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In Germany Pelicot seemed to stay first-page news for months. Also, the ethnic extraction of the perpetrators was never mentioned, and if it was just 24% this seems like child's play for the media to sweep under the table.


To begin with, a lot of the diversity stuff works psychologically by exploiting some nonmathematical sense that equality means equal numbers for every class. So if anything, "24% Arabs" naturally spins into "majority native", and comparing to baseline population figures can be framed as "racist weirdo math, just trying to follow along with the reasoning will morally taint you" or "are you trying to exploit the injustice that Arabs have less than 50% in some other aspect to also slander them".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's adjacent, but much more of it is essentially Le Petit Prince: main character encounters a sequence of individuals or societies who are a caricature of some idea taken to an extreme, and the reader gets a Teachable Moment (mediated through the eyes of the protagonist, who by way of detachment or naivety presents themselves as a neutral observer). Pure travelogue-styled slice of life, including Frieren, is less transparently preachy, as conveying the author's expansive opinions on society is not the intent.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I mean, given that 'slut' is more or less defined as a woman who is more promiscuous than average, you could say that there's no such thing as a 'normie slut'.




I don't think this line of reasoning stands; normie status is not principally or overwhelmingly conveyed by about-average promiscuity, and especially here I mostly meant the word to denote "not unusual on any axis similar to the axis that defines rationalists as such". (It might be less persuasive if I could only argue that furries, or Scientologists, or students of classical literature also do slutcons.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, I've seen ads for them plastered at a density rivalling political campaign posters in the cities I lived in Germany (apparently here's a list), and considering the number of days they run for and the size of venues where known, they can't be that small. In most towns, you also can't walk down a main street without seeing a dozen loudly advertised "sex shops" with similar branding.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It being a Turkish protectorate surely played a role too. The Turks previously got away with North Cyprus as well, and have even been getting away with shamelessly whopping the arses of America's Kurdish girlboss proxies, because they are too important to let flip and have too well-developed national consciousness to subvert. (Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't more of a chorus of "based" cries cheering them from the Right.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It uneasily aligns itself with a genre (bittersweet to downright melancholic slice of life; perhaps a more cliché-friendly weeb would want to name-drop mono no aware) that used to be much more abundant in anime and manga, and had its own contingent of devoted fans who consumed everything in the genre and little outside of it. (I would list Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as the defining example; Ashinano Hitoshi's later Kabu no Isaki; The Sky Crawlers; Haibane Renmei; Mushi-shi; ...)
Not only have those fans been hanging around the periphery of anime culture and starved for content (all of the above are pre-2010), but the predisposed demographic itself also went nowhere. The only bone that was thrown to them in recent years is Girls' Last Tour/Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, and that one was condemned to remain more niche because of the artstyle and because of the author being a bit too far in the corner of depressive behaviour patterns where you deflect with inappropriate humour. So it makes sense that this audience came out in force when they finally got a high-production-value work that they can admit to liking in public.


(If you liked Frieren, especially for everything other than the exciting battle scenes, consider every other thing I mentioned above a recommendation.)


(edit: I shouldn't have forgotten Fumetsu no anata e as another bone thrown recently, but that work went downhill too quickly after a strong first few arcs, and also put too many stat points into action battle.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


In this case it is about how military landgrabs are supposed to be a breach of rules enforced by western countries.




This is omitting a pretty important part about who the "rules" actually apply to (evidently Western countries and allies are not subject to them with respect to targets who are not). Between Israel, Kosovo and North Cyprus, and dozens of smaller examples (Pakistan/Afghanistan, China/India...) that simply don't matter, it's clear that there were never any uncircumscribed rules; beyond that it's just a matter of putting the wordcels (or, perhaps nowadays, LLMs) to work to convince the general public that all is kosher.




Likely because most equipment is being used in Ukraine. If Trump gets his way and Russia wins, equipment will be freed up that could be handed to their allies.




Since Ukrainian tolerance for casualties is much higher than American or Israeli, the same piece of gear would go further in Iranian hands (and thereby allow the Russians to extract concessions from the Americans). It is in fact conceivable that something like this happened.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Europeans generally understand themselves as allies of something like "the US minus Trump+supporters", thinking, whether rightly or wrongly, that this makes them allies of the essential part of the country. Indeed, it's easy to forget now but before the multiple-year-long media campaign, the cause of post-Maidan Ukraine was understood to be a geopolitical concession to/imposition by the Americans (see Victoria Nuland, Biden's constant threats and pressure to suspend Nord Stream in favour of US LNG, etc.). If Trump is now visibly reluctant or obstructive towards Ukraine, this reinforces that European understanding: Ukraine is a proxy war between Trump+Russia and Dems+US deep state+Europe.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


America no longer gives a shit about the rules-based world order




Can you explain what exactly you mean by this term and in what sense it was giving a shit about it before? I find its use quite vexatious, since it forces you to either accept a highly tendentious framing of the goals and practice of US foreign policy or get bogged down arguing about terminology where the other party has a plethora of official sources to legitimise their usage. Compare perhaps to the labelling of leftist street violence as "anti-fascism".




Iran




The alliance between Russia and Iran has always been transactional and ridden with mutual distrust. It is not unsound policy for the US to try to pry them apart (and indeed, I fully expect that any agreements they make with either include secret addenda stipulating to betray the other). Manifestly, any Russian support for Iran so far has fallen far short of the theoretical possibilities.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What's a movement that does not fail the implied "no prominent member ever beclowned themselves in a way that can be vaguely associated with stereotypes about the movement while violating its declared ideals" test?




At least the average human hasn't pulled off an Enron in recent history.




Neither has the average rationalist. Given that there are apparently 170something convictions for securities fraud in the US per year, it's not even obvious that the percentage is higher than in the general population!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Normies regularly hold slutcons at every scale from Cornell frat parties to actual porn industry conventions. It's only a topic when the slutcons are thrown by those you feel should not have access to sluts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If this is the framework you apply to putative instances of TACO, then a corollary of applying it to the would-be televised execution is that Trump also sees his relationship with the American electorate as an adversarial negotiation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I did mention those. Is it a problem, though, if the city gets plundered, if you are just running it for the benefit of the host nation with the intent to eventually hand it over to them anyway? If they have the most basic sense of what's good for them, they will at least let you develop it for some time before plundering it, which gives you some years to (right-wing view) educate the natives in your image or (left-wing view) let the natives benefit from safety, money and good governance, and moreover if they have the sense they will let you start a new one after plundering the old one. If you don't value the third-worlders, in your eyes this will be throwing the same money down the drain regardless of whether the city is reverted peacefully, operated by you in perpetuity, plundered/captured forcefully, or you let the same people move to your own country to feed/clothe/police them here instead, with the added benefit that unlike in the last option, they do not wind up in your country, and perhaps even that you are making some infinitesimal progress towards making the humans you have to share the planet with better. If you do value them, you are still spending the same resources on them, and in addition are actually improving things in their home countries rather than simply draining them of everyone capable of leaving.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Keep in mind that there is a less-polite two-sided version of the paradox, too: not only do you not notice the unfunny plain people, the people who are funny and beautiful also go so far in life that they do not have to put themselves in front of the likes of you. There are more pleasant occupations out there than "stand-up comedian", if someone abundantly blessed with both wits and looks even has to work at all (as opposed to, say, being a cocktail party regular on some rich guy's yacht).