Blueberry
6mo ago
So the Cybertruck explosion before the Trump hotel was done by an active duty green beret and big Trump supporter:
The man suspected of being behind Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas was a “big” supporter of Donald Trump and voted for him in November, a senior law enforcement official tells the Daily Beast. The revelation tracks with old Facebook comments and what Livelsberger’s uncle, Dean, told The Independent about his nephew’s politics on Thursday. “He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American,” Dean said. “It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years.”
I guess he killed himself, and willingly tried to harm others, to show his disapproval of Elon Musk? [In the surveillance video the car before opens the car door moments before the explosion and on the right side you see a man fleeing. They were really lucky the CT with its steel frame is the worst car for a car bomb.]
I wouldn't have expected active duty special forces soldiers being mentally unstable enough to do suicide bombings. I guess it is futile to search for a rational explanation and meaning here, a rational soldier would simply plan to assassinate Elon Musk, but then a rational person wouldn't to something that violent and drastic in the first place.
Blueberry
7mo ago
Interesting that strong AI is now taken as consensus? I believe superintelligence is not possible. LLMs hitting a ceiling recently is one sign for that, but I don’t believe LLM can be intelligent anyway.
countries unknown from countries that nobody ever heard of.
I recently was surprised to learn that South America is not all Spanish/Portuguese. There is a Dutch speaking country, Republiek Suriname, which is almost as large as Uruguay, and which largest ethnicity are Hindu Asian Indians.
It is less populated than Uruguay and mostly jungle though.
Blueberry
1yr ago
80% of the members of the cult were women
Why this skewed representation? Thinking about it: Most cult leaders I can think of are male, are conversely most followers women? Why is that? But how skews that the leader structure? I looked up Jonestown and two third who drank the cool-aid were female. Leader Jim Jones was of course male, but there is a documentary about his helping „all-female inner circle“.
Downvoted Reddit comment about the twin flames documentary:
I hate to be mean but a lot (but not all) of the followers are conventionally unattractive women. They probably had a lot of trouble dating, not many relationships and are desperate for love. They are willing to do or say anything to someone who can promise them this love they are looking for. So, Ofcourse they don’t question it when they see “twin flames couple coaches” thinking it worked! So they double down.
Blueberry
2yr ago
I feel like the Internet is losing its collective mind about that. It is not even a scissor statement, but everyone is aghast: The Buddhism subreddit has threads about people having a religious crisis. The Twitter hashtag is atheists being giddy taking a religious icon down, wokes grandstanding about abusive childhood trauma, evangelicals gladly attacking a trendy competing religion, rightwingers posting old memes of Biden and trying to smear any Democrat as a pedo if they had a photo together with the Dalai Llama…
I am not saying it is ok or appropriate or that his goofing around wasn’t icky. But sexual predator? A pedophile? I am baffled. My model of the Llama is that of a jester and he is someone who doesn’t have much experience with children. Also he is superold, and old people can be sometimes strange and weird. Doesn’t that suffice in explanation?
Blueberry
2yr ago
Though Scott stresses repeatedly, that anorexia or anything else is not "less real" even if the underlying cause is 100% social and 0% biological. Do you think mass shootings don't exist? Of course not. An anorexic girl will still be anorexic and is in danger to hunger herself to death.
This is a bit weird to truly wrap ones head around. Lets take demonic possession. Deciding that there are no demons (or maybe very few) is a valid position. But there is a difference between A) this isn't real, possessed people are faking it, and B) the brains predictive engine is very good in simulating, and the individual experience/qualia is suffering under demonic influence.
Blueberry
2mo ago
“This Post from @kanyewest has been withheld in Germany, France, Poland based on local law(s). Learn more”
Blueberry
5mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_15_incident
Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was shot by eleven young naval officers (most were just turning twenty years of age) in the prime minister's residence. Inukai's last words were roughly "If I could speak, you would understand" (話せば分かる, hanaseba wakaru) to which his killers replied "Dialogue is useless" (問答無用, mondō muyō).[1][better source needed] The original assassination plan had included killing the English film star Charlie Chaplin who had arrived in Japan on May 14, 1932 […] Chaplin's murder would facilitate war with the U.S., and anxiety in Japan, and lead to "restoration" in the name of the emperor.[3] When the prime minister was killed, his son Inukai Takeru was watching a sumo wrestling match with Charlie Chaplin, which probably saved both their lives.
Crazy.
Please ignore the context of this tweet (Elon reXt it, so it is CW fire): https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1879273049075458217
What I instead found curious was the usage of "GM (Global Majority) formerly known as BAME (Black, Asian, Middle East)" which I had never read before. But I am not British. Wiki has a short article about the term, maybe it will be longer in future:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Global_majority&oldid=1257733067
The term was used as early as 2003 as a way to challenge the normativity of a white majority or Eurocentric perspective […]
In 2020, the Church of England created an Archbishops' Anti-Racism Taskforce … "United Kingdom Minority Ethnic/Global Majority Heritage" (UKME/GMH) as more appropriate than BAME.[16] The language of "Global Majority Heritage" is seen as a reminder that minorities often come from a majority culture before migrating to the UK.
In November 2022, the Labour-run Westminster City Council committed to replace BAME with "global majority."
It seems to still be fringe/local use, but I wonder if it will be the new preferred term. Being part of a minority sounds small/miserable, you are an outsider. But being part of the global majority, now that sounds grand and legitimate, you are the demos.
Blueberry
7mo ago
Vance argues that there is no solution to hillbilly culture. The best we can do is try to tip the scales to push a few marginal cases in the right direction. … Mentorship is one option. Vance attributes much of his success to the positive influence of a handful of family members, and now he tries to do the same for a few teenagers in similar environments. It’s especially useful to give these kids a jump start on the civilizing process, with simple tips like “wear a suit to a job interview” or “don’t curse in front of your boss.”
You should also embed your gf in your family to unlearn toxic behavior, eg visit with her for Christmas your parents instead of the chaos of her family.
Blueberry
7mo ago
Explain like I am a 55 year old non-American non-4Chan non-always-online person?
I think I know who Southern Lauren is back from Gamergate (but searching her I find a video that she fled a tradwife life because of her horrible husband?), and I sometimes hear about this Destiny guy (why is it noteworthy that he is gay?), but I have no idea what he is or for what politics he has (was he some StarCraft streamer?) and Nick Fuentes seems to be some rightwingnut troll? What does it mean “to be a fed”? Is this just a diss or a really serious allegation?
I think there should be a more extensive KnowYourMeme or outOfTheLoop explanation?
Yes, if there is no challenge one can master it often is just a hedonistic treadmill.
There were a few posts last month on Reddit about American Beauty, the 25 year old Oscar movie with Kevin Spacey, and how weird not only the movie but the past time now feels. Together with Office Space and Fight Club artists struggled to find something to rebel against. Cold War was won, war against terror didn’t start yet, economy was great, racism solved, the environment ostensibly protected, peak oil unknown, feminism a joke, and gayness widely accepted by enlightened centrism. So the only way was to attack the mundane boringness of a secure middle class existence.
This is Lester Burnham‘s House in which he lived in 1999 with a wife and daughter and got deeply unhappy:
https://filmoblivion.com/2019/01/15/american-beauty-1999/
Sept 2024 the U.S. housing deficit has increased according to Zillow to 4.5 million.
Blueberry
10mo ago
Septemberprogramm
Wiki:
Germany would create a Mitteleuropa economic association, ostensibly egalitarian but actually dominated by Germany. Members would be France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and possibly Italy, Sweden, and Norway.[3]
So ... like the European Union today post Brexit?
The motive may have been sinister, building a counter block to the British Empire, and fueled by Prussian nationalism (because annexations would have weakened German unity and Prussian dominance in the Reich), but I believe such an Mitteleuropa-Association of ostensibly independent states would have developed into the enlightened and neoliberal European Union states we have today.
A quick victory of Germany would have also prevented the overthrow of the Russian Monarchy and German helping Lenin return from exile in 1917. Maybe alls this communism-revolution-thingy could have been avoided?
"The Democrats' new sunny vibes"
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-democrats-new-sunny-vibes
Noah Smith argues that with Kamala Harris and her surge in the polls gave the Democrats more chill and optimistic vibes. Going back to normalcy. The only thing missing is a "It's morning again in America" ad.
along with the shift from Biden to Harris has come an abrupt and distinct shift in the Democrats’ tone. Whereas Biden’s messaging was often dark and dire, focusing on the MAGA movement’s threat to democracy, Harris’ has been lighter and more reminiscent of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. Instead of calling Trump a would-be dictator, she has labeled him “weird”. Her campaign is overtly patriotic, draped in American flags. Crowds at her speeches chant “U-S-A! U-S-A!”.
Case in point: I read right now the headline that Joe Biden warns about the "bloodbath" Trump allegedly promised if he loses the election. It is like soothing cool aid for /r/politics, but it does sound a bit hollow from a cranky old Biden, doesn't it? I don't think Harris will make the same doom & gloom attack. Maybe there is a bit good cop / bad cop dynamic here.
Regarding her VP pick Tim Walz I read the worst about him here, but looking at pictures of that guy I just don't feel it. He looks harmless and nice. Noah says the record shows that Walz is a pro market Yimby guy who is pro-nuclear. When the biggest problem of America is that it can't build anymore than you want a guy like him at the top. And mirroring the tone change of the Democrats Walz message is not an angry "kill the rich!" like from blue-haired-Antifa-communists, but a pragmatic "help the poor".
Culturally, everything about Walz is Middle American and middle-class. He spent 24 years in the Army National Guard, and in fact is the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to ever serve in Congress. He was a successful high school football coach — in fact, Kamala Harris refers to him as “Coach Walz”. He’s a hunting enthusiast who poses with guns.
Walz may not appeal to social conservatives, but the aim is to appeal to independents/undecided anyway. And he is the sort of guy who both signals that woke is over, because woke won:
He’s emblematic of the way that wokeness has become a sort of post-Protestant middle-American orthodoxy
"Post-protestant middle-American orthodoxy" is quite mouthful. But it is not quite the professional–managerial class, instead a bit more folksy.
Regarding the lefty fringes, neoliberalism is back on the menu:
I realize there are progressives out there shouting apocalyptic warnings about Project 2025, Trump as a fascist dictator, and so on. I realize there is a leftist fringe who is still ready to burn down America over Gaza. But crucially, none of those people is in charge of the Democratic Party right now.
Blueberry
11mo ago
When we talk about "abortion rights", we are talking about the right to an abortion.
This is not the term used on left-leaning Reddit though. It is increasingly framed as “(women’s) reproductive rights”.
Zoophilia and meat eating are made comparable by Singer because he frames it as such. He illustrates that himself as "Imagine that you are an animal etc". But if one rejects this framework, if I imagine myself as a human, than it is effective to cut short engagement by having a simplified emotional response, eg by being shocked or mocking the idea. Taboos (an old fashioned word, you can also describe this category as "infohazard" or maladaptive training data which derails your brain software) are best preserved not by studying them in ever increasing detail, but by making them unthinkable.
For example a different framework could be: "Moral is that which makes my village survive the winter and makes my tribe/family/progenity thrive". A diverse diet does that. Romantic/Erotic attachment to animals does not and triggers disgust (maybe even genetically encoded?). It is noteworthy that the recent rise in veganism was not caused by the old arguments against animal harm like "imagine being an animal", but by new egoistic pro-human arguments like "veganism is more healthy" or "red meat causes more colon cancer" or "vegan calories can feed the world cheaper" or "western diet produces too much CO2, destroys the rainforest for cattles and we should switch to something more sustainable".
Blueberry
1yr ago
And not just this, but what man can overlook his personal harem of over 500 women, through which he sired over 800 confirmed children
By the way, the question if that is true won the Ig Nobel prize:
https://www.thelocal.at/20150918/austrian-wins-ig-nobel-for-sexual-prowess-study
They worked out that it was theoretically possible, if the leader had sex once a day for 32 years without a break. “It’s a lot of work it turns out,” Oberzaucher said. “Moulay had to have had sex once or twice a day, which you might actually regard as a low number, but if you think this is every single day for an entire life, this is quite a lot.” She added that it would have been especially hard work for Ismail as he was often off fighting wars.
The paper:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0085292
The algorithm is based on three different models of conception and different social and biological constraints. In the first model we used a random mating pool with unrestricted access to females. In the second model we used a restricted harem pool. The results indicate that Moulay Ismael could have achieved this high reproductive success.
Blueberry
20d ago
Nearly 3,000 soldiers were killed between 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. – all because the Allied commanders refused to end the fighting immediately. Instead of letting the war end as soon as the papers were signed, they decided that the war had to officially end at 11:00 a.m., supposedly to give the news time to spread. In reality, it was a decision based on pride – a final show of force against a beaten enemy.
Blueberry
3mo ago
Kurzgesagt had last week a video about population collapse because of low fertility rate:
It has the charming title: "SOUTH KOREA IS OVER". All caps, which is not normal for kurzgesagt titles, so you know DOOM is coming.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ufmu1WD2TSk
It is a short video with 14 minutes but it explains at breakneck speed the topic succinctly and in depth. The depressing conclusion is that South Korea can't really do anything, the low fertility is an unstoppable freight train and it will hit (end) the country. Even if a wonder happens and the fertility will rise to replacement level next week, the country would still have massive problems in 30 years. And because this wonder is not happening … the country is over
I’m Korean, born and raised in this country, and after watching this video, I just sat in silence for a while. Not because it shocked me, but because it said out loud what so many of us already feel deep inside: that it’s too late. There’s no fixing this anymore.
It is barely comforting that the West (and other countries too) are heading in a similar direction. Maybe accelerationism is the solution here: The faster South Korea is imploding the sooner other countries will wake up and do something.
Blueberry
3mo ago
In Astralcodexten book review contests there was missing a good savage panning of a book.
And he does the classic leftist tactic of insisting upon "democratizing" progresses by increasing public involvement and decentralizing decision-making
What is his argument that this will help rail? I have the stereotype of projects being derailed (ha!) by decentralized and increased public involvement.
Barack Obama and Donald Trump chatting away before Jimmy Carter's funeral is quite something to see:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5cnfNgvKsoo
Does Barack humor him diplomatically like a crazy MAGA uncle at the Thanksgiving table? Maybe, but Obama coolness breaking into a chuckle is genuine, Donalds joke must have hit. At the same time Obama has literally the ear of the next President, Trump is listening intensely what he has to say. You know deep down Trump thinks Obama is cool.
Blueberry
7mo ago
This seems the real manifesto (Klippenstein is a former Intercept reporter, so not confirmed by a second source yet, but he is decently trustworthy). It is super short:
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto
“To the Feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
Blueberry
7mo ago
Silvers main point is if voters punish “their” party (by not voting, or voting third party), even if it means the enemy gets into power. He thinks yes, because that is how he felt:
Turning back to national politics, there are two times when I’ve felt betrayed by the Indigo Blob, my term for the unofficial alliance between the Democratic Party and the progressive expert class. If you’ve been reading me for a while, you can probably identify them because they’re the two huge fights I’ve had with the left in the past several years. One was with COVID stuff. When the pandemic began, I was one of those people who was like “Welp, we ought to just trust the experts here!”. Many of those experts did a great job under impossible circumstances. But I felt betrayed by a minority who were clearly using the pandemic to advance their political agendas: their utter hypocrisy in endorsing the George Floyd protests after having spent weeks telling everyone to stay home, for instance.4 And then they did profound harm with prolonged school closures.
Then there was Biden’s decision to run again. I thought this actually did present an existential risk because of an 86-year-old president’s questionable decision-making abilities in a crisis. At some point, it even became farcical, with Biden referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” in a press conference meant to reassure the nation about his cognitive fitness. You’d get yelled at by a certain type of Democrat if you didn’t play along and pretend that this was normal.
After the June debate, I was willing to put my foot down; I would have voted third-party5 if Biden had remained on the ballot. Maybe this was intended to “teach the Democratic Party a lesson.” Or maybe it was an emotional reaction more analogous to revenge. But either way, being coerced into voting for a man who clearly wasn’t fit for another four years: sorry, that’s where I was going to tap out.
Other voters may feel betrayed by the Democratic Party for other reasons, particularly too much wokeness, too much immigration, and too much spending. In 2019, Harris ran far to her left. Although many pundits claim that Harris pivoted to the center this year, she was making mostly empty gestures. She backed down from many of her 2019 positions without providing any rationale or proposing much in the way of substantive policies to replace them, or doing anything to offend the various “groups” and nonprofits that dominate the Democratic Party’s policy-making infrastructure. And faced with a decision that did have real consequences — her choice of a running mate — Harris went with what the progressive wing wanted instead of the moderates.
Isn’t Trump also hypocritical and prone toward promising lots of things he can’t deliver? Sure, but his promises are also more tangible: less immigration, less crime, less inflation and most importantly, owning the libs and thumbing his finger in the nose of the establishment through the mere fact of his election.
Blueberry
8mo ago
I have never seen an efficiency or anti-bureaucracy agency having much influence. They are politically sidelined and no one cares too much about waste of a few millions here and there, when the government budget is trillions.
Firing hundred thousands of government workers are also a no go, because of its effect on the economy and midterms and the media reporting extra hard on any adverse effects it will cause.
My bet is DOGE won’t closing the budget deficit and after a few month Elon Musk will get bored/frustrated and leave.
There are so many headscratchers. The conclusion after the bath tub experience was that she … didn’t phone his wife? Made a police report? Fled to her home screaming? But instead googled him (to check his “me too” creds, yeah right…) and stayed the full weekend. And during the bath tub she tries to deflect him by saying that she is gay and never had sex, but after Gaiman’s horrible egotistic male powertrip abuse she forgot she was a lesbian? After the weekend she texted him:
Conversion therapy works, it just needs more Dark Triad Stockholm Syndrome.
https://tiktok.com/@momo_obrien/video/7302155354077433094
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