ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
No bio...
User ID: 1012
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1mo ago
I think OP is agreeing with you about the Republicans. Their reputation is "the fiscally conservative, small government party" despite them actively increasing the debt and expanding government for decades. See also "the party of Christian family values" despite doing little to nothing to oppose the normalization of progressive values.
America is over, and so, okay, then what?
you have the answer already:
be selfish and just try to grab what I can and hope I'm dead before the shit really hits the fan
Hard reforms may have been possible back when America was a nation. Here in Japan, people are just buckling down and weathering the long running currency devaluation because (they believe) the alternative is worse. There's a sense here that everyone is suffering together which makes it bearable. Unfortunately, America is not a nation anymore, it's a multiethnic, multicultural, multi-faith empire that include groups who bitterly hate each other, which means it's nearly impossible to get all the different groups game-theory-cooperate to avoid disaster (barring an existential threat, and even then...). Instead, we will have factional war to the knife as the coffers run dry and systems gradually break down.
I don't expect a collapse that will make good TV, rather it will be a slow version of South Africa where everything gets gradually shittier, punctuated by sudden slips along regional/local political and social fault lines that result in brief but bloody spasms of violence.
So yeah, I think you would be wise to start grabbing what you can now while praying for a unifying moment that will help us avoid that future. I also recommend moving to a place where you're around ideological, religious, and or ethnic allies so that you're not the odd man out when broadcasts from Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines start to reach your neighborhood.
You forgot massive self-inflicted economic damage (inflation, shuttered businesses, layoffs) caused by the lockdown ands insane money printing. All for basically nothing other tha our leaders indulging their "don't just stand there, do something!!!" impulse. I think about that every few days and I'm still angry about it. Really fucked up my plans, and I think I got off better than most.
Oh, and the insane powegrabs by literal-whos at all levels of federal, state, and city bureaucracy. Pencil necked losers in gubmint jobs suddenly issuing edicts about what free citizens of republic can and cannot do. And people obeyed. I will never be able to unsee that.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
23d ago
They've never been super high quality IMHO but recently they seem like almost pure shitflinging.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1mo ago
"Ship of Theseus" existential, not "Destruction of Carthage" existential. Mass immigration and erosion of the civil religion threaten to transform the United States into something unrecognizable. That already happened once with Ellis Island immigration, and it is currently threatening to happen again as a consequence of the 60s cultural revolution.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1mo ago
Supposedly becoming a dad is (used to be?) good for your career because people are (or were?) more generous with raises for a family man.
This sounds to me like something that happened in the 50s and 60s back when ~lifetime employment and "being a company man" were still possible. But I still think there's a weak form that survives. There's a sort of brotherhood of fathers that I've noticed in interviews, both as an interviewer and interviewee. Being a father shows that you've got a definite course plotted out in your life, that you know what you want, that you've got obligations to meet, and that you've got a certain level of resilience. You can append asterisks to all of those qualities because there are of course massive exceptions, but the odds are good. I definitely give fathers a few bonus points during interviews, and I'm closer to my colleagues who have kids.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
28d ago
I had to Google the bonesaw reference. The Khashoggi(?) guy, right? Didn't that blow up just because he was a WaPo writer and because he crossed state lines got chopped up in an embassy? That was one of my earliest noticings about "current thing" programming. Suddenly 10,000,000 reddit threads about some literal who nobody cared about the day before.
People would probably listen more if the leftists hadn't been crying wolf for the last 8 years. At this point, I assume that any statements like the above are just crybullying in the vein of "I feel unsafe" designed to scare or shame non-leftists into letting down their guard so that leftists can abuse their dominance of the media and deep state to undermine and destroy literally anything my side tries to do. So, too bad. I guess we'll just have to suffer some corruption and incompetence as a country. You kept distracting us and nudging our arm when we tried to use the scalpel, so now we're using the chainsaw, because we've got to do something soon.
ETA: Is this guy just a troll? He made a few other posts recently that boiled down to "things are terrible now" without any effort to convince and keeps deleting posts. This post seems tailor-made to push buttons.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1mo ago
they serve overpriced "funeral food"
What does this mean?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Luckily it's in an existing neighborhood in a residential area at the center of small town, so I don't expect to have much trouble with utilities.
I need to do more research on what I'd need for hurricanes, as I'm only planning on adding storm shutters and a generator. I assume your recommendations about the pump only apply to houses that rely exclusively on well water?
We're looking at a conventional build. I was thinking of building on a slab for insulation and because the idea of a crawlspace in the deep south horrifies me. Also termites. We're not in a flood zone (officially), but I want to double check the soil to make sure it's suitable for a slab. I should probably ask my future neighbors about this as well.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Re. flooding, that makes sense, thanks.
Re. segmenting the house, after living in a place with poor insulation, I can definitely see the value. That house was at least designed so that you could essentially separately heat and cool different floors. They did this by adding a sliding door on the staircase landing. It sounds like I might need to work with an architect to accomplish this though.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Damn, this is gold. Thank you.
How does wainscoting help reduce flood damage? We're not in a flood zone, but along the Gulf Coast you can never truly be sure.
Why minimal backsplash for the kitchen sink? How does that relate to selecting the outlet and sink? We cook a lot at home, almost every day, so we're planning on shelling out for a nice kitchen.
Did you build or buy? Did any of these items add significantly to cost?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Tell us more.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Thanks, these tips all make a lot of sense. After living in houses both with and without, I strongly suspect two sinks in the master bath correlates strongly with lower divorce rates.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Re. 2, how do you recommend planning for it? Do you have an example?
Re. 3, we have four kids and may have more. Our thinking is:
- 1 master bedroom
- 1 home office (wife and I are WFH)
- 1 older boys' room
- 1 older girls' room
- 1 younger kids' room
- Guest bedroom somewhere, maybe? The design we're looking at is 3,300 sqft. Do you think it would be possible to get away with less house? I'd actually prefer not to have to clean, cool, and maintain a huge house.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Ah yeah, good call. I am 100% sure I'll get Ethernet everywhere but I hadn't thought about installing conduit just in case.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
12d ago
Re. 2, how did you draw up your own plans?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
16d ago
I'd subscribe.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
2mo ago
I'm disappointed that I missed @coffee_enjoyer 's post on audience manipulation in Adolescence. It vindicates an intuition that I've long held (since high school at least) that the average person is completely defenseless and unaware of the psychological damage that is being done to them by popular media. It's the mental equivalent of being a radium dial painter or a pre-modern lead smelter.
Another poster in that thread asked you for your research notes. Do you know of any accessible articles or books on this subject that I could share with normie friends and family?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
23d ago
I've heard some Christians explain this away by saying that "nah, doesn't matter because Jesus, new covenant, we're all God's chosen, etc. etc." but I don't think that holds out when you read through the Bible.
Why doesn't it hold, in your opinion?
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1mo ago
Hopefully he enjoyed the assault more than you were upset by it, thus increasing the net happiness in the world.
Caught me off guard and made me chuckle. Impressive, very nice.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
28d ago
Remember ~nobody relevant believed in Communism in the USSR in the eighties either
Interestingly, I've read recently that this common perception was actually the opposite of the truth -- the rabble and many of the mid and low level bureaucrats (i.e. people who were not fully insulated from the real world) no longer believed, but the relevant people in the upper echelons of power still mostly believed, and some quite fervently. Gorby himself did not plan to abandon Communism, he just wanted to release enough pressure to right the ship.
pierced septums
Truly repulsive. The small ones make me constantly want to wipe their nose. Like a small booger. Gross.
tongues
Probably severe daddy issues and or some sort of drug problem. Also I assume they suck dick.
gauges
Disgusting and... confusing? I have no idea why people do this. Piercings are a sort of jewelry, kind of like a ring or necklace, I guess. But gauges are ugly disks that stretch and distort a very visible part of your head? Why? Making yourself ugly for "fuck you" shock value? If so, pretty cringe.
nose studs/belly button piercings
Trying too hard. You can look edgy or interesting just by dressing better.
earrings
Tiny ones are cute, preferably something simple or whimsical. Bigger ones are meh unless it's part of your overall aesthetic.
tattoos
Nearly always horrible, and now so mainstream that even the "good" ones are pretty mundane. Might work if you're a career criminal.
I was raised middle class in the South where, besides earrings, none of that stuff was done.
ActuallyATleilaxuGhola
Axolotl Tank Class of '24
1mo ago
Called it, you're a Brahmin.
I understand the covenant as God having had a relationship with the righteous Hebrew nation. He did not have a covenant with those outside the righteous nation. Not with gentiles, obviously. But also not with Hebrews (= pre 70 AD descendants of Abraham) who abandoned the Law and adopt gentile worship and customs. If having the tiniest shred of Abraham's DNA made you one of the Chosen, there should be more consternation in the Bible about the Babylonian captivity or the children of kidnapped Hebrew women, but those people are just treated as gentiles AFAIK.
I think God probably gave the Hebrews living after 33AD a grace period, but the He really underlined His point in 70AD, after which AIUI it was no longer possible to continue the traditional Hebrew religion as commanded by God. So, after a brief period, the Hebrew diaspora (=Jews) created a new tradition partially rooted in the pre-70AD religion. I don't think God recognizes this new tradition as legitimate, and the NT says that the Christian church is the new Israel. There's the question of the 144,000 in Revelation, but I don't really know what to make of that, maybe some special mercy for descendants of Abraham of good conscience. Or some people say it means Christians. I don't know.
Edit: IIRC God promised the Hebrews: land, descendants, a relationship (one god/one people), and a messiah through the line of David. The land is now the whole Earth (evangelization), the Hebrews have myriad spiritual descendants, the God/people relationship remains intact, and the Messiah is Christ.
More options
Context Copy link