BadCivilization
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User ID: 1037
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Why would anyone "consider" that "possibility" when what happened is extremely clear? "Dozens of the most prominent civil rights groups and nonprofit organizations in America issued a joint call for advertisers to pause their spending on Twitter amid concerns about the social media platform since Elon Musk’s takeover several weeks ago".
BadCivilization
6mo ago
"Midwit" is exceedingly generous for the people piling on this specific Musk criticism. It takes about 2 minutes of internet research to check how much Wikimedia Foundation spending actually goes towards providing Wikipedia.
Other takeaways are that contra claims that homeless populations are traveling to California for warm weather or social services, 90% of interviewed participants said they were from California (and 75% from the same county they were homeless in), and backed it up with various details about their hometowns and whatnot.
This does not appear to be true. Those numbers are not about where the respondents were "from" but instead where they were last housed, which could even have been preceded by other homeless stints. Elsewhere the report states 34% were born outside of California. I doubt 34% of the homeless in WV were born in other states.
On top of that, these numbers don't start with the problematic homeless population most people are interested in. If I am reading this right, 21% of them have cars.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
I would not want to be a police officer tried for misconduct before jury of that 21%.
BadCivilization
9mo ago
At least one case was publicized: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10222207/Virginia-cop-fired-anonymously-donating-25-Kyle-Rittenhouse-fund-demands-job-back.html
The donation actually was supposed to be anonymous but the donor list was exposed by hackers and The Guardian ran an article about the donors.
BadCivilization
9mo ago
People lost their jobs for donating to Kyle Rittenhouse's legal defense fund, so donating to the defense of actual white supremacists who are borderline neo-Nazis seems like a very risky proposition. Can't imagine a "right wing" NGO wanting to be associated with them either.
It takes a neutral civil rights intermediary like the ACLU of yore to handle stuff like this.
BadCivilization
9mo ago
The prior charges were politically motivated, but these charges are an attempt to openly criminalize dissent itself and hence an existential threat to our democracy.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Given that the total illegal population has been stable or declining since 2007, at something like 10-12M, I find this rather unlikely. Source 1, source 2
These methodology behind these numbers is bad and a better methodology based on inflows, outflows, and demographic data suggests the illegal population is twice as large.
We have more direct data on new arrivals anyway. Ignoring people who aren't caught, border patrol has stopped about 1.8M illegal entrants this year so far. It seems Biden is now expelling about 40%. 1.8M*0.4/35 = 20.5K annual flow, not too far off.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
I don't see how Tucker Carlson could have been fired over the Dominion Lawsuit because he wasn't the one pushing the allegedly defamatory allegations. They were mostly on Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo's shows, and Bartiromo still has a job.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Most people, even YIMBYs, support the right of a community to impose some restrictions on activities with large externalities. Only the most extremist libertarians think anyone has the right to build a fish cannery or paper mill in a residential area.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
I think it is poor etiquette to start a top-level post about this instead of just replying, especially given how extremely recent the original post was.
Anyway, I haven't followed the issue very closely but I have seen claims relating to an internal email that appears to show that the people running the election were aware of "issues and concerns" related to the use of Sharpies and instructed that ballpoint pens be used for early voting but sharpies on election day. The article I cited refers to this as a Conspiracy Theory but despite that seems to accept the email as real.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
The Last Kingdom is not technically fantasy but it's set in England in the dark ages and has similar vibes. Very well made show and complete.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
This becomes untrue if democracy is sufficiently local.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Switching from a career that is going ok in IB to law is insane. It's a lot of work to get the degree, you still have terrible work-life balance, it's unlikely to be more fulfilling, it's not going to improve your financial prospects, and you have many years of uncertainty as you try to make partner.
VC is probably more exciting and is more definitely more tech related than PE and people often switch into business roles at startups. Might need to do an MBA to break in though, and then realistically you can't drop out for four years right after.
Personally, I would focus on the family stuff over career ambitions beyond bringing in enough money to be happy.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Read that as Contrapoints at first and was very confused by the description
BadCivilization
1yr ago
If I take and publish an upskirt photo of AOC, would you classify that as "saying true things about powerful people"?
BadCivilization
1yr ago
What exactly does it mean to pander? If we reduce it to making a product that appeals to some subset of the audience, writing good books is just pandering to people who have good taste.
I don't think the shift in awards is just a matter of "pandering" to a different audience. The Left Hand of Darkness is actually pretty similar in terms of themes and political orientation to a lot of the crap that won this year and it won both the Hugo and Nebula best novel awards 50 years ago.
It is true that the writing and character development are weak points in a lot of sci-fi classics, but it's not like these new winners are any better in that regard.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Spending more money on running shoes gets you more comfort and support, not durability. It may actually get you less durability because that support will generally wear out a lot faster than the soles. Still worth it to me but ymmv.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
How you can interpret that anodyne message of "everyone should have the right to speak / let's have a conversation" as an endorsement of Kaepernick's message, or as "conveying that Kapernick didn't intend the protest to disrespect the military or the country" seems quite incomprehensible to me.
The part of the narration that says "the first time I heard about Colin Kaepernick, I thought the guy hated America" is immediately followed by an image you left out, text saying "meet Green Beret who advised Colin Kapernick to take a knee." It seems pretty clear to me the intent of the juxtaposition is "Colin Kapernick does not actually hate America, a veteran told him this was an appropriate way to protest." Thus "make Kapernick's protest sympathetic and palatable" is an accurate description.
BadCivilization
11mo ago
You should prepare answers to common interview questions.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Most BBQ joints offer collared greens as a side, which fits your criteria.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
Investments involve risk, and the point of derivatives is to allocate that risk to the investors most willing and able to accept that risk. They exist for the same reason insurance exists.
BadCivilization
1yr ago
I do wonder how the U.S. would have fared in its last few invasions if Russia was providing targeting intelligence and advanced weaponry to our enemies the way we are in Ukraine. Maybe better than the Russians, but I expect much higher casualties than we actually experienced.
BadCivilization
8mo ago
I don't think this is a desirable standard.
Imagine if a psychologist in the 1960s was disciplined for describing another psychologist who performed lobotomies as a "criminal."
While watching the Bears-Packers game last night, I saw an an ad defending Colin Kaepernick and how he protested against supposed police brutality and racism by kneeling during the national anthem during games. I was surprised to see at the end the commercial was sponsored by FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, formerly know as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
It seems like a very weird choice of issue to not just weigh in on but spend a huge amount of money advertising. My concerns break down to three issues:
The commercial felt more like an attempt to make Kapernick's protest sympathetic and palatable than just a defense of his right to protest regardless. It focused on conveying that Kapernick didn't intend the protest to disrespect the military or the country. But if this is really a freedom of expression issue, it shouldn't matter!
I am skeptical the core issue here is freedom of expression, not due to the content of Kapernick's expression, but due to the time and place. It was done as part of a televised entertainment project. I can't imagine anyone who thinks that an actor has a general right to choose their own lines rather than reading a script. The NFL exercises extremely strict control over on-the-field communications across the board. Athletes get fined for wearing different colored socks to promote uncontroversial social causes if they don't have official league approval. In addition, while it's definitely plausible the protests are why no one gave Kaep another chance, it's not cut and dry either. He was not immediately fired for them and he seemed washed up on the field before he even started protesting.
I can think of other cases even just related to BLM within professional sports that are much less marginal. Cases where an athlete was explicitly fired for opinions expressed off the field. For example, Seattle Mariners catcher Steve Clevenger was suspended without pay and had his career ended explicitly for insulting BLM protesters on a private locked twitter account. Professional soccer player Aleksandr Katai was cut from the LA Galaxy because his wife insulted BLM protesters on social mediea despite the fact that he disagreed with and apologized for her comments. As far as I can tell, FIRE has never even commented on either case.
I would like there to be a non-partisan group devoted to defending freedom of expression. However, I worry there is some truth to Conquest's second law. My best guess is that FIRE chose this cause because they want to appeal to a wider audience including more left-leaning people. Will FIRE will eventually follow the ACLU in drifting so far left it can no longer serve it's mission? I'm a fan of a lot of work they did in the past and even contributed a small amount monetarily, so the possibility is troubling to me.
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