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ArjinFerman

Tinfoil Gigachad

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joined 2022 September 05 16:31:45 UTC
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ArjinFerman


								
								
									
								
								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Tinfoil Gigachad

				
				
				

				

					2 followers  

					follows 4 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 16:31:45 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 626


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
							
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In Afghanistan you supported literal Bacha Bazi enjoyers. In Syria you supported the Free Syrian Army.


I find the question bizarre and naive in general. You think there are many militias in the Middle East that don't engage in rape, murder, and torture, that the US can pick and choose from? The only reason you haven't heard about this is that Israel can blast their own cries through a friendly megaphone, while everybody else gets a shrug.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


That's a world apart from the US dropping off some RPGs and training to the Taliban against the USSR.




You were doing that crap up until a few years ago, and that's assuming you're not doing it still. It just comes off as "it's ok when we do it".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nothing, why would it be otherwise? The US and Israel don't answer for every crime of every militant group they sponsor.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


For the sake of US readers here I think it’s worth pointing out that what American right-wing political wonks think of as the long march through the institutions never really did happen in the Central European countries that integrated to the EU and NATO.




I mean... the integration into the EU was the long march. It had it's advantages, like gradually replacing the blatant communist "you better have an envelope with you, if you want to get anything done" corruption with "we follow the law, it just so happens that the law says we need to give money to a network of "N"GOs to tell us to do what we wanted to do anyway" corruption, but the establishment institutions are just as cooked as the American ones.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Please define "acting more rationally"




"Acting proportionally to an aggression" for a start.




What specifically is it about of the US, Israel, and the Gulf States recent dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IRGC that you view as "irrational"




The bombing campaign in itself far exceeds anything Iran has done against US or Israel, and threatening to bomb their civilian infrastructure was psychotic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For the same reason it's happening to Spain or Greece? It doesn't matter what the immigrants themselves ideally would want.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					

Just off the top my head, and I think I recall a similar case about their immigration policy. This is without getting into how the EU pushes it's cultural agenda by attaching strings to investment/infrastructure funds (the Polish case got dropped because they were content to twist their arms that way), or how they blatantly manipulate member states' elections.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's fine, I didn't bet for the money.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The "continuous fights it picks with the EU" are precisely about the EU decision makers not being happy with the type of people Hungary elects for itself, and the domestic/cultural policy it wants to set.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Even after you've decapitated half of their leadership, they're still acting more rationally than either the US or Israel, so quite a lot, actually.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I will again point out that this would still be true, if you reinstated African slavery today.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Hard to say without being able to read someone's mind, and you might as well ask the same question about mass migration supporters.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's a rather lax definition, it lets off the hook every utopian mass-murdering sociopath.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					




Young productive men are functionally slaves in modern western societies. They work for a pittance while the vast majority of their economic output goes to their betters through many mechanisms of taxation and redistribution,




Young productive men are substantially better off now then they have been for practically all of history. Despite taxation, the amount of wealth even the poorer man in the first world can access is still greater than many kings of the past.




The same would be true, if you literally reintroduced African slavery in the US today, and It was probably even true back when slavery was still legal in the US, so I don't see how this argument is valid.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, but how is that surprising? Look at the drama over trans issues, or mass migration, or MAID, or models of criminal justice... people end up with polar opposite values all the time, and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how smart, brave, or loyal they are.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I can see the outline for a counterargument that goes, "race is causative of ethnicity (meaning: race linked culture), which is causative of marital status of parents, immigrant status, etcetera, which are causative of violence." Again, though... You can just filter on the direct causes instead. Fatherless behavior looks similar regardless of race




Sure, I'm quite inclined to see fatherlessness as causative, but doesn't it give you pause that we were just talking about SES, sex, and age as causative, and we're moving on to fatherlessness without skipping a beat?




and regardless of race I would discriminate against young men engaged in it.


(...)


Your goal is to minimize the average likelyhood of the people returned by that query committing a crime against you. In which order would you prioritize removing adjectives from the following list?


[Black fatherless poor druggie young male]


I would go for either "druggie" or "male" first, then after those two are gone "poor", then either "young" or "fatherless".




Look at the numbers from zeke. I don't see how you can put either sex or age before race. You can find similar results for SES.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It literally isn't though. If you keep everything constant except sex, male vs female is still HUGELY predictive of criminality. If you keep everything constant except race, the relationship is much, much weaker.




Are you sure? I don't have a link, but I remember saying breakdowns by sex, age, and race, where the criminality statistics for blacks looked pretty dismal (black women coming out worse than white men).




but that's still not a convincing reason to look at mostly proxy factors for criminality (like race) rather than much more causitice factors like SES.




Again, I'm pretty sure SES is  also just a proxy, and actually a poorer one than race.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ok, in that case they're co-owning to strait being closed for two more years, but without Iran being bombed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Looks like you are right. The US is truly the vampire of the world.








In the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, the U.S. Congress mandated the use of biometrics in U.S. visas






Shout out to the nice customs people who, the one and only time I went to the US, thought it would be fun to play ping-pong with me:


- [After waiting in line] you're at the wrong window, you have to go to that one over there

- [After waiting in another line] No, you have to go to that window over there

- [One more time..., and this may or may not have been the first window I came to...] Man..., you gotta speak up for yourself, you can't let people treat you like that....


I suppose I should be grateful for the free lesson.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Mark Levin may be a shill, but he's more of a Trump shill at this point than an Israel shill. I flipped over to Hannity late last night and all he (Levin) could talk about was what a great deal this was




So... I originally replied (without reading more than one sentence) asking if the guy isn't having a meltdown, because I saw second-hand reports about it. Then I read the second sentence and deleted my comment, and now I ran into a tweet of his, where seems to, indeed be taking it badly... is he doing ok?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think of surrogacy as probably involving the implantation of a fertilized egg that does not originate with the surrogate.  This way, a mother without a functional womb would still get to pass on her genetic material, and it would also make it so that surrogate-purchasers would not be forced to use the surrogate's genetics




I'm well aware, and I suppose I have to go back on what I said about gay surrogacy, as this clearly shows it is actually worse than the heterosexual version. If we just take the moral dilemma from the end of your comment




My view is that the child clearly belongs to the woman who provided the egg.




We can see that this is not what's happening in case of gay surrogacy, where neither woman gets any claim on the child. It is therefore not a result of a good faith attempt at attributing motherhood, but a deliberate attempt to weaken the legal position of anyone on the seller side of surrogacy, and just adds to the moral horror of the situation. And no matter how you do attribution in this case, be it surrogate, egg donor, or mixed, someone is definitely selling a child there.


Now, back to the heterosexual / general case of the scenario, I'm much more inclined to side with the woman actually giving birth. Exceptions make bad law, and your "ovary heist" scenario is implausible and would extremely rare relative to a much more common one: IVF with an ovary donation. Your approach would presumably hand over the rights to over the child to the donor, if she changes her mind? Or do we go "contracts ueber alles", and the donor has no rights because she signed them away, but the ovary heist victim does, because she did not? Is this a general framework, and people can sign away any right in your opinion, or does it only apply to motherhood?




which is potentially very desirable for both sides of the transaction.




"Potentially" doing a lot of work here. I see only one side clearly benefiting from this. If, at any point, the surrogate has a change of heart, this arrangement only disadvantages her.




The financial transaction here is selling the use of the womb, which seems sufficiently icky for someone to reasonably find it unacceptably unaesthetic, but it does not really seem like selling a child unless the birthmother's egg is being used.




A womb is not a disembodied part that can be rented out while you're not using it, and the experience of childbearing can't be sequestered to just it. It's something a woman goes through with her entire body, and which has a significant impact on her mind as well. This is seen in the surrogacy contract itself, which often includes dietary and health clauses.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Tinker Tuesday for April 7th, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Still not much progress on the background generation. Mostly I've been goofing around with benchmarks, trying to see if the previous changes did actually boost performance. Indeed I'm now able to run the simulation with +/- 640K monsters at reasonable framerates (for as long as the laptop doesn't get hot), whereas previously I could only reach +/- 250K. However, this only works when I turn off the bullet simulation. It's not surprising it turned out to be a bottleneck - I basically copy pasted the monster simulation code, just to have something working for now, and I had the thought I'm doing the collision detection the wrong way around:


    

  • Currently for each bullet, I check if it hits any monster. There already is a spatial sorting mechanism for the monsters, so it's relatively easy to look up the ones in the neighborhood of a projectile. However, due to the nature of how they move (in a straight line, and separated from each other), each projectile is likely to have a different neighborhood, and this will cause thread divergence
    • 

  • Instead, I think I should add a similar sorting mechanism for the bullets, and check collisions from each monster to each bullet in the neighborhood. Monsters are more likely to be clumped together, so their neighborhood will be the same, and they will be doing the same lookups, and not cause any divergence. Hopefully... in theory...
    • 



That said, I'll leave that alone for now, and get back to the background generation thing.


How have you been doing @Southkraut?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm surprised that no one brings up the option "MAGA are Trump supporters by definition, so you're more likely to see the group itself shrink, than to see the percentage of positive responses drop".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How do we know he actually wanted to win, rather than make compelling drama?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The Iranians know the Democrats actually stand by their word, so when we come back to power, we’ll negotiate a better deal ourselves




Even if people bought the argument, they'd also have to explain how two more years of being bombed would make them more likely to negotiate. It looks like co-owning the war either way.