CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
No bio...
User ID: 333
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
26d ago
If it happens all the time (not just on hinge), then you need to change something.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
I don't think it's unfair to want your wife to stay reasonably slim if you are also making effort to stay reasonably slim. If there is some genuine medical reason for her being unable to maintain her weight (eg hormonal/depression) then that should be addressed first.
The mechanism? I think I need to get ripped.
Not a bad plan, but consider getting into proper weightlifting. 3 x 30-45 minute sessions per week can do wonders without needing to radically change your diet.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
There is interesting coverage by Asmongold (A major gamer influencer) where he drew the direct link between game studios hiring these DEI consultants > Good ESG rating > More funding from Blackrock/Vanguard subsidiaries.
Also some major anti-woke movie critics like Critical Drinker have also picked up on Sweet Baby even though its out of their wheelhouse. The interest there was the direct evidence of creators hiring DEI consultancies to improve ESG.
Basically there is evidence now of the chain of causality of injecting DEI into content to attract investment, while before there was only suspicions.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
I note that he studiously avoids describing the losers in his equity based system. Or what happens when ALL tribes start collectively 'bargaining' for better outcomes?
Just terrible incentives all around.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
What your narrative doesn't explain is why the US is considering dropping charges now
There are several potentially unrelated items:
-
Britain is close to making a decision on extradition of Assange to the US
-
Australia Parliament in February this year decided to formally request the US to drop the charges against Assange
-
Biden made the stray comment after being asked by a US reporter during a visit by the Japanese Prime Minister
-
The AUKUS alliance is currently looking at expanding to include Japan
-
The Australian PM said something today about the release of Assange as being in Australia's National Interest
My guess is that its just a slow response from the US government in considering Australia's request from February because of the multiple levels/departments of the US government that have an interest in this. Also there is a very low chance (~10% chance) that some of this is about keeping Australia happy by throwing them a bone at the same time they're looking at upgrading a regional alliance.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
I often come across events in a shallow way (like Musk's Grok AI) that I don't have the time/knowledge to write up, but I'm kind of hoping someone else will comment on.
What do people think about a 'Culture War Request Thread' where people without the time (or wordsmithing skills) can suggest current hot topics that others may be interested in investigating/developing?
Has this been considered or tried before? Would it drain energy from the main thread? Is the main thread fine in the sense of 'if no one has made a top level post, its probably not that interesting' sense?
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
I will approach this in a utilitarian way for you.
By trying to intervene there is a good chance that Bob will cut you off as a friend and marry them anyway. I've experienced this with close friends trying to talk other close friends out of serious relationships/marriage before using 'they aren't right/good/healthy for you' as a justification. In one case they became friends again years later after the inevitable breakup. But they weren't ever as close.
This might be worth it to you, it might not. But interventions on this scale (eg interfering and trying to stop someone from marrying their partner when love/limerance is at it's highest) is a recipe for disaster dangerous game.
You have been warned.
Edit: some strikethrough and extra words.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
You will figure out your value fairly quickly if you make an effort to be objective. You will be able to judge by the quality of partners that you can attract for a second date (if using apps) or first date (if you met at an event). Set your expectations to that and you should be ok. Also stay away from Tinder. I've heard Hinge and Bumble are the apps to use in the West.
You can maximise your potential by working out, buying some well fitted (and not overtight) fashionable clothes (check out some fashion subreddits if necessary), and regularly socialising at mixed gender irl events. This single sentence covers about 80-90% of seduction theory on increasing your attractiveness.
A final word regarding apps. They can be soul crushing if you haven't had experience app dating. Matches will disappear for no apparent reason, or otherwise flake before dates. Try not to take this personally, and take breaks from app dating if you need to.
I find that meeting partners at irl singles or social events is much more productive. You get to show all facets of yourself and both of you can be more sure of what you are getting before you go on a first date. Your irl 'matches' are probably the best thing to calibrate your dating value expectations to.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
17d ago
No, I think if someone was acting according to your intent it would be more akin to beating a kid to the point of hospitalisation to 'toughen him up'. American cultural resilience is not anti-fragile.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
The Labor and Green Parties seem to have have been lobbied for the last few years to make freedom for Assange actual policy of the Australian Govt. There has been crossbench support from the far left (Greens), centre left (Labor) and even some from the centre right (Liberal party) and independents, with the majority of support on the left side of the aisle.
Assange's father met with the then leader of the opposition (now PM) Albanese back in 2022 and even earlier to discuss the possibility of Assange's release. At the time there wasn't enough political support to push for his release, but Albanese seemed supportive.
When the Labor party came into power, Albanese became PM and Labor supported policies started making their way through parliament. This article says that a February 2024 UK High Court hearing gave impetus to putting a motion before the Australian Parliament.
From the article -
"The House of Representatives voted by 86 to 42 in favour of a motion that said, directly, that the United Kingdom and the United States should bring things to a close so Assange can return home to his family in Australia. Those in favour included Anthony Albanese and the prime minister’s Labor colleagues."
tldr - There has always been support and lobbying to free Assange in Australia (focused mainly within the left wing), but its only recently that enough political power was focused by the impetus of the UK actually looking like it was sending Assange to the US that things finally coalesced into official Australian Government policy.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
Very good question with ripples through the culture war.
What does it mean to fight a battle when the winners get to write history?
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
6mo ago
On the back of prior discussions about forced 'voluntary' reporting of sleep apnea diagnoses in the State of Maryland in order to qualify for a drivers license, I'd like to draw attention to something similar happening with autism diagnoses in Queensland, Australia. Last year there was an update to the Assessing Fitness to Drive standards to list autism as a medical condition deemed to have an impact on driving.
“As a result, psychologists say people are now cancelling their autism assessment appointments because they fear the legal and financial consequences of not disclosing their condition — while others argue the new standards are "discriminatory" and unfairly target people with autism on the basis of their diagnosis, not their driving ability. “
...
“While the 2022 Assessing Fitness to Drive (AFTD) standards apply across the country, a Queensland law called Jet's law, introduced in 2008, requires drivers to disclose any medical condition that is likely to affect their ability to drive safely — and in some cases obtain a medical certificate to prove they are fit to drive.”
...
“According to the state's Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), autism was added to the list of reportable health conditions in 2012. Drivers who fail to obtain the medical clearance face a maximum A$9,288 fine and possible loss of licence.”
There's a fair bit more in the article that goes on about a few individual cases, but the gist of it seems to be that in the state of Queensland you need to provide medical clearance to drive from your doctor to the TMR (DMV) if you wish to apply/maintain your license once you are dignosed with autism. Most other Australian states seem to have a more reasonable 'you are legally required to report any ongoing condition that effects your ability to drive' standard.
In Queensland it seems like the above stated “Jet's Law” came about when someone with epilepsy had a fit resulting in a car crash that killed a baby and left his brother in a wheelchair for life. So this law was created To Do Something that then through bureaucratic ignorance has expanded to include other conditions such as autism as the Assessing Fitness to Drive standards were used as a list to determine what these conditions were. And then people have possibly decided to stop being diagnosed rather than deal with the hassle/stigma of reporting.
This is just so banal and unjust that someone diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum would then have to report that straight to the government or risk being fined thousands of dollars and stripped of their ability to drive. Luckily there is some pushback with a guy in the above link apparently filing a case with Queensland's Human Rights Commission, but still, it shouldn't have gotten this far.
Edit: fixed formatting
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
Basically.
In Australia, you can spend 15 minutes unprotected in the sun over Summer as a white person and not get sunburned.
That said, SPF 15 sunscreen/moisturiser is great for general daily regular use. I use it in Winter too if I think I'll be spending more than 15 minutes at a time outside.
Australia is not the world though.
Yeah, my go to reaction is that this is just normal run of the mill entryism. The lecturer is likely to stand by while the purple haired brigade 'builds consensus' and the independent thinkers are silenced.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
You can have a case that just seems obviously, incontrovertibly correct, but if you've got a justice that already decided what they'd like to do, it's not very hard for them to use brilliant legal reasoning to do what they want to do.
I came to the same conclusion a long time ago. Think of cases where an employee for a company was doing something stupid in violation of all OHSA, safety protocols, policy and direct orders from their manager. The employee now has a disability/requires ongoing expensive medical care. A judge will often twist the law into a pretzel to justify giving the employee money because the employee needs money to live and the company is involved and has money. Simple as that. Legalese is just the obfuscating ink cloud to provide some plausible deniability for the erroneous judgment.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
If you go check out some heavily progressive spaces, some seem to be against Biden for not being progressive enough. This is probably an olive branch to them in the lead up to the elections. Devout Christians are largely voting republican and I think he's gambling he will gain more votes than he loses. I'm guessing this is a pure election play. There is no way Biden's team didn't know that this would be antagonistic.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
I remember getting banned from a forum when I was much younger. The policy there was 'after X amount of time you can write to the mods, admit you were wrong, and they will reinstate your account'. No way in hell I'd admit being wrong for what I considered an unjust banning.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
2mo ago
It’s a great way to deflect attention and criticism from your story or game because any time someone says they don’t like the product, you can always default back to “the fans are just mad about inclusion.”
Yes. This is very common now in all sorts of media.
DEI injection > Bad content > Bad reviews > 'Bigots are review bombing our content because they are bigots!' > Roll hard left and die
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
8mo ago
The old Feminist trope of 'just teach men not to rape' has been around for years and is a clear non-starter. I used to get really wound up about this (along with lots of other feminist arguments), but now I see it as potentially anchoring a negotiation for additional resources to be spent on women's safety. Not that I find the argument fair or compelling in any way shape or form.
It's another example of feminism exploiting hyperagency/hypoagency when it suits their needs. In this case the argument is that women have no agency around whether they are victims of crime or not and men (as a group) are 100% responsible for the rapes that happen in the world. Men are presumed to have so much agency here that they are responsible for the crimes of other men. You can see this with statements like 'its up to men to stop rape' and dedicated organisations built around this concept.
I'm libertarian leaning and have a strong valuation of agency and an internal locus of control. I despise those that are emotionally manipulative and try to get others to shoulder their personal responsibilities (including the responsibility for personal security). It's probably a large part of why I despise Feminism as an ideology.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
8mo ago
But the things that seem obvious to us aren't always obvious to people until they've been taught, especially in a culture where we obsessively shield young people from all sexual topics so they have no idea what they're doing. There really is a role for education there, as one among many avenues.
Why don't we teach young women 'please never send mixed signals to men about your sexual interest as ambiguous coquettishness muddies the water around consent'? Why is it 'No means no and if you don't have a yes, it's a no' in the face of all observed human mating practices? All the responsibility for miscommunication around consent is placed onto the shoulders of men by the groups advocating 'education'.
To be fair, I do think there should be some education about consent in the basic Sex Ed taught in schools, but it shouldn't be the ideologically captured garbage that is pushed now (eg 'enthusiastic consent' or its rape). There are consequences to not having any nuance around this delicate subject. As it stands there are a certain amount of sensitive empathic young boys who will take the narrative at face value, twisting their sexuality into a pretzel in order to never violate a girls consent, or even make her uncomfortable by making a pass. This is a recipe for involuntary celibacy and dissatisfaction on both sides.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
3mo ago
Agreed. If you have identified the rigged game and made a conscious choice to not play, accepting the consequences of doing so.
The identifying the choice and making it is the important thing. Not allowing the choice to be made for you or deluding yourself that there is no choice to be made. The price may be high, but it is still a price that can be paid.
It reminds me of 'The Box Trap' in Harry Browne's How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (Pg 108. Warning libertarian text - Please don't call the Firemen on me).
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
8mo ago
Continuing on with The Motte's theme of the week, the Australian Federal Government has given the online dating industry a year to implement a 'voluntary' code of conduct in the face of 'online sexual violence' or presumably face regulation.
This ultimatum seems to be motivated by “An investigation by the Australian Institute of Criminology last year found three-quarters of online daters had been subject to some kind of online sexual violence in the past five years.”
Finding the referenced report 'Dating App Facilitated Sexual Violence' (their term, not mine) seems to include amongst other acts:
- Pressured the respondent to give them information about their location or their schedule
- Continued to contact the respondent even after they told them they were not interested in having a relationship with them
- Pressured the respondent verbally to perform unwanted sexual acts (eg making promises, lying, repeatedly asking or insisting etc)
- Sent the respondent an unwanted sexually explicit message
- Sent the respondent an unwanted sexually explicit photo or video of themselves
- Pressured the respondent to meet them in person when they did not want to
Australia, is usually a follower of countries like Canada and the UK when it comes to these sorts of policies, but it does occasionally become the first mover when there is the chance of getting a cheap political win (and to seem like it is doing something in the face of more serious issues such as the housing crisis).
The linked news article is kind of buried down the state news media's front page and references the federal government's karen social services minister who has previously worked on 'cyber safety' committees. There is a fair chance this is a complete nothing burger that will blow over and is just the govt making noises rather than actually intending to follow through, but time will tell.
CertainlyWorse
Dedicated Pessimist
1mo ago
I'm the same in living on the outskirts of a city. I'm just done with congested inner city living. I recently lived in a secure central city apartment (through COVID) and I will never go back. I was so sick of walking out my apartment door and having to talk to people while all I wanted to do was have a walk in solitude in a natural environment. I couldn't have it. Everything from the overly polite suit wear concierge to service people, or people from all over the world talking incessantly over the din of city vehicles. I just couldn't stand it any more and moved out and will not go back.
I think city outskirts (or an hour away from a city) is probably the best of both worlds. Enough access to peace and quiet, with proximity to all the amenities you could want (at least if you were willing to make the trip).
I wouldn't say 'any', but 'some' would be prudent.
Basically any of these alternate sexualities like 'sapiosexual' or whatever, deserves a raised eyebrow.
More options
Context Copy link