@ApplesauceIrishCream's banner p

ApplesauceIrishCream


				

				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					

					
joined 2022 September 06 20:15:39 UTC
				

				

				

				

				

				

					
				

				

				
				
				

				
User ID: 882


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
ApplesauceIrishCream


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 06 20:15:39 UTC
				


				
					

					
No bio...

				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 882


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					Month
					Year
					
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe Zorba said at one point that the system includes a random sample of (unreported) comments as a sanity check.  I've tagged any number of comments as "neutral," and I suspect plenty of those were not human-reported.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 25, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
But how about the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 90s?  Bill Clinton was gung ho for intervention, while Senate Republicans mostly tended to the position "this conflict is literally in Europe's backyard, why can't they solve the local problem, since logistics couldn't be easier?"


Republican foreign policy at a grassroots level tends to be borderline isolationist, unless there is a clear threat to American interests.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 25, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
On the whole, I'd say the first book is very good, but every book afterwards is better.  Also, the scope of the first book is mostly Liscor and some nearby places, but much more of the broader world is introduced in the second book.


One of the things pirateaba does well might be called "character development from the audience's perspective."  You're often introduced to a character and develop the usual first impressions, but your opinion of him may change quite a bit over time for various reasons--you get a second perspective on the character from a different person; you get a part of a chapter from his viewpoint, showing how he thinks; or he makes an unexpected decision that clarifies his priorities.  Everyone is complicated on their own terms; it's just that you aren't introduced to all the layers at once.


Erin is no exception to this pattern--the first view you get of her is heavily impacted by the fact that she's trying to cope with being isekai'd, and it's hard.  Once she finds her feet a bit, different aspects of her character come to the fore.  Much much later, another character from the first book describes Erin as "a puddle that you stepped into and began drowning in."  She's got some excellent qualities, and other things she's bad at, but she makes some mistakes even where she's strongest, and her limitations really do constrain her options.  Erin does use humor as a coping mechanism sometimes, but both she and especially the series as a whole have a surprisingly large emotional range.


It's hard to give much detail without hitting significant spoilers; there are a subreddit and a wiki that are very good, but you'll run into spoilers pretty much immediately, so I would stay away for now.  If you've got any particular questions, I'd be happy to respond.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Can anyone steelman the case for any of the non-standard pronouns?




I am unsure whether the following qualifies as a steelman, but I think it may be an actual explanation some non-trivial percentage of the time.


Social signaling--but specifically, signaling a willingness to acquiesce to someone else's self-conception as the primary driver of that person's social identity.  Note that neopronouns serve this purpose even better than any flavor of standard pronoun, because they are individual.  If I use your specially-chosen pronouns to refer to you, that is a show of deference to you, individually.  This deference operates as a filter--if I am willing to defer in this manner, I am more likely to be aligned with you politically, think of you as an ally, and--importantly--not harm you.


In reality, I think this rationale is not as strong as those who may hold it hope, because there are many environments where this flavor of pronoun use is enforced by social coercion, which undermines the accuracy of the signal.  Someone may bow to the coercion while seething internally, and the obvious target of his ire is the pronoun-person, who may not be the person driving the enforcement!  ("Trans activists" are trans themselves sometimes, but quite often not.)


This dynamic is sort of the inverse of "shit-testing," since the desired outcome is reversed, though both are social probes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No, that does not follow.  You must also think that the statement that God is real is incorrect, but if the person offering the statement is sincere and without the intent to deceive, then it is not a lie.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you liked This Used To Be About Dungeons, you might like other stuff by Alexander Wales, who tends to be well-thought-of in rationalist circles.  Probably his best known work is Worth The Candle.  Wales' stuff is very well written by many metrics, but he does not write characters that I like, which is fatal as far as I'm concerned.


Royal Road has a number of other stories that I do like, but they are incomplete/in progress/on hiatus.  The best thing I've read there is Beware of Chicken, though the first book has moved to Kindle Unlimited and Audible by way of Amazon.  A casual knowledge of xianxia/cultivation stories would help, as it's a genre parody, but isn't essential.  Very highly recommended.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A few years ago (or less?), there was a...we'll call it a debate...within the trans activist community that pitted the so-called "truscum" vs. the "tucutes."


The first group maintained that dysphoria was the essence of trans-ness, since the entire point of social transitioning was to leverage the trauma of dysphoria into a minimizing-harm obligation on the part of others to avoid "deadnaming," "misgendering," and other potential triggers of a painful downward emotional spiral for the trans person.  Various types of dysphoria had already been recognized as real phenomena, so leaning hard on the trauma angle would maximize how much the activists could push for in terms of changing social norms.


The second group responded that gender expression is individual, infinitely variable, and unknowable outside of the lived experience, so relying on external validation made no sense.  Besides, without the limits of a dysphoria diagnosis--which had always been vanishingly rare--the "trans" community could broaden the reach of its umbrella by orders of magnitude, increasing the size of the marginalized group that the activists claimed to represent.


The second group won, comprehensively.  Going forward, trans identities could not be externally policed; they were strictly a matter of identification which would not be questioned.  Naturally, the activists weren't going to give up the rhetorical advantages of the truscum position--"deadnaming" and/or other forms of "misgendering" is still literally violence that drives trans people to suicide, even without any form of dysphoria being present.  "Transmedicalism" is a dismissive term of the truscum argument that trans identities derived from dysphoria--that they could be affirmed or negated by a medical diagnosis.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Trans communities have a vested interest in avoiding dysphoria.




What does being trans have to do with dysphoria?  This sounds like transmedicalism; the truscum lost that internal conflict.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 11, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's a joke involving brand names.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I wouldn't be shocked if he aced his SAT math, given MIT Physics major/Math minor, but neither would I be impressed.


Assuming that he was a decent student, but not outstanding in context, and that he organized his classes with at least a half-assed gesture towards efficiency, something like the following describes his math education:


    

  • 

    5 on the AP Calc AB exam to test out of single variable Calculus general requirement (18.01).
    

    • 

  • 

    Multivariable Calculus (18.02, general req) and maybe Differential Equations (18.03, Physics major req) his freshman year.
    

    • 

  • 

    Physics Flexible track with Math as his focus area--three more math classes after DiffEqs.  Let's say Linear Algebra (18.06), Combinatorial Analysis (18.211), and Introduction to Numerical Analysis (18.330).
    

    • 

  • 

    Two more math classes to finish off his math minor.  Possibly Probability and Statistics (18.05) and Principles of Discrete Applied Mathematics (18.200).
    

    • 



(Also, the rest of his Physics major.)


130 IQ isn't unreasonable.  Very smart; not exceptional.  The above courses are roughly the minimum you'd need for his major/minor combo, and nothing I've seen indicates a student that was punching above his weight through grit, determination, and excellent organizational skills.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If it helps, a bit of information about MIT's Science Core, which is one of the graduation requirements for every undergraduate, regardless of major--two semesters of Calculus (single and multivariable), two semesters of Physics (mechanics and electricity/magnetism), one semester of Chemistry, and one semester of Biology.  Also, if you have not completed every class on that list by the end of your freshman year, something has gone wrong.


As one example from the list, the course summary for 18.02 (Multivariable Calculus) is as follows, from MIT's Course Catalog:


"Calculus of several variables. Vector algebra in 3-space, determinants, matrices. Vector-valued functions of one variable, space motion. Scalar functions of several variables: partial differentiation, gradient, optimization techniques. Double integrals and line integrals in the plane; exact differentials and conservative fields; Green's theorem and applications, triple integrals, line and surface integrals in space, Divergence theorem, Stokes' theorem; applications."


I assume that you and a number of people on this board would have no trouble passing these classes, particularly when you were college-age, but the Admissions Office shouldn't be in the business of approving candidates that can't pass hard graduation requirements, and you need a bit of a pushed IQ to get through that material.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am less certain about how much this holds up today, but IMO FOX's goals in development were primarily opportunistic, not ideological.  They wanted to make money and gain prestige, and saw a massive underserved audience in the center and on the right.  Large audience gets you expensive ads, so that's the money.  Prestige is harder, because the tastemakers are on the left, but with a large enough audience, you can become too big to ignore.  The key to everything was audience-draw, so that's why you got so many blonde model-types as news presenters, bold and shiny set design and graphics, etc.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				I feel that people often praise movies that call out or subvert expectations of their genre solely because they do that, even if execution of the subversion itself is not good.
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm more inclined to think that subversion can be done well or poorly, like much else.  Parody and pastiche seem like natural subcategories of subversion, and those require considerable creativity to execute well.  I find less value in the more purely iconoclastic approaches to subversion, though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Where are you coming from if it's more deadly than Australia?!?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think that SBF is unintelligent.  His dump stat is clearly Wisdom--he's not an idiot shooting off his mouth; he's a fool shooting off his mouth.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One of Bush's arguments was that Hussein had a documented history of funding terrorism--specifically, providing funds to the families of dead Palestinian terrorists.  "Iraq contributed to 9/11" wasn't an administration argument; they pointed to Hussain funding Palestinian terrorism and having at least diplomatic relations with AQ higher-ups, and then argued that those starting points could lead to closer collaboration in the future to the detriment of America and the West in general.


In the US, Bush's arguments were WMD, funding terrorism, and genocide/human rights abuses.  At the UN, the Bush administration focused on the WMD angle, because non-proliferation of nuke/bio/chem was the strongest argument (both practically and legally) for getting one or more resolutions through the Security Council.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
...This would be the perfect moment for a particular poster to interject with "There are dozens of us!  Dozens!"


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It sounds like you are skeptical of the efficacy of magic beans?  Yeah, in that case, it looks like just the worst combination of some form of quokka-ness with enough of a veneer of "trust me, I've done the utilitarian math, and it says that Democrats are surprisingly underfunded!"  High-minded principles got suckered by a grift (well, to the extent that principles were involved at all beyond providing a fig leaf, which is worth questioning).


That said, as a practical matter, EA looks especially vulnerable to grifting exactly because its focus on big-picture analysis tends to dismiss individual failures.  On the principles side, EA is an attempt to speedrun morality, which to me raises more red flags than a Chinese military parade.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This may be a bit oversimplified, but a core part of utilitarian ethical calculus revolves around optimizing tradeoffs.  EA takes that ethos, and tries to apply it to the real world, identifying places where minimal resources may be expended to reduce the most human suffering--mosquito nets in Africa is one of the central examples.  EA looks for efficiency, opportunities for optimization, and benefits that scale cheaply and easily.  Very much for better and for worse, EA is a big-picture-focused approach to practical philanthropy.  Many other strains of philanthropy are individual-focused; the EA critique of such measures is that they are inefficient and do not scale well.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If one feels that local widows and orphans are sufficiently well taken care of, there has been another strategy used to deal with the "starving children in Africa" problem.  A local group decides to subsidize sending one of their members to a village in rural sub-Saharan Africa, and their agent is to live in the village and exchange knowledge with the villagers over a period of months or years.  The agent reports back things like "the villagers want to dig a new well, and a sturdy pump would improve their lives significantly," so the home group fundraises and delivers payment for the needed pump.


This process is hard work, but note how well it accounts for information management (specific and individualized needs are identified and communicated to the backers) and cash security (cash passes through very few hands, and is assigned on a project-by-project basis, not commingled into a slush fund).  More organized charitable infrastructure usually claims to be more efficient, but it's important not to lose the benefits of direct personal accountability and immediate knowledge of hyperlocal needs that almost certainly vary from place to place.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe this accurately describes the beliefs of "the press," broadly speaking.  "Trending hashtags" become more right wing; in response, the press declares that hate speech is taking over Twitter.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Tolkien was English, not American, and the cultural groupings don't entirely translate.  LOTR is conservative, across a great number of definitions, but different aspects of Tolkien's creation have resonated with various groups across the political spectrum.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I would say the difference is how far you extend the concept of original sin into its Christian context before applying the analogy.


Let's say you describe original sin narrowly as follows: "When you first came into being, the weight of original sin was already upon you.  It exists both prior to and independent of any moral choices that you might make."


I think that definition works in both a Christian context and a woke context.  But if you broaden the scope of discussion to things like "where did original sin come from," "is there a solution to original sin," "is original sin something that is universal among humanity, or only a subset thereof," etc., then you start getting severe divergences between the two contexts, and the analogy quickly breaks down.


That said, I believe that the analogy based on the narrow definition is on point, and the surrounding differences may also be usefully contrasted.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is that supposed to be read as "Stop 'Hate For Profit'", or "Stop Hate, For Profit"?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think I understand your objection.  I was under the impression that "entryism" was a strategy based on infiltration and subversion, but not necessarily sabotage.


Here, the claim seems to me that 1) the standard goal of sports and scouting for boys is recreational, 2) pedophilic coaches/scoutmasters joined the organizations to gain access to children for illicit purposes, and 3) these purposes are sufficiently divergent from the standard goal that entryism is a fair description of this infiltration/subversion process.


For example, one of the classic examples of entryism is the long march through the institutions, like academia.  I don't think that Marxist entryists into academia wanted to "ban" colleges and universities; they just wanted to use the accumulated prestige to advance their own ideological mission.  So long as the universities maintained positions of prestige, the entryists have no reason to undermine their continued operation.