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DuplexFields

Ask me how the FairTax proposal works. All four Political Compass quadrants should love it.

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joined 2022 September 05 05:51:34 UTC
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DuplexFields


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Ask me how the FairTax proposal works. All four Political Compass quadrants should love it.

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 05 05:51:34 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Friday Fun Thread for December 22, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If it were up me to update the calendar for the next century, I would put us on 13 months of 28 days each, and make the Saturdays of every month line up with the moon phases; full, half, and new moons would all be on Saturdays.


There would be only one leftover day in three out of four years, and two leftover days in the leap years. I would put the annual leftover day on the winter solstice, and call it New Year’s Day, the day without a month, and I would put the leap day between October and November, and call it Election Day.


The 13th month would be between May and June and it would be called “Leftober”.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ve seen it. The first half felt, I kid you not, just like watching the local college women’s basketball team.


My family loves the Lobos of the University of New Mexico. I’ve gone to many games at The Pit, our basketball arena, and watched both men and women play. With the men, it’s about the almost martial precision as they dribble, shoot, pass, and execute plays. With the women, it’s about watching them put in the effort and the emotion, feeling their drama as they play.


The Marvels is a superheroine movie, a different beast than its spear counterparts. The emotions are more important than the scenarios; issues of identity, status, duty, wants and fears are what matter. Kamala is a teenager worried about her family, Carol is an unaging guilt-ridden mess, and Monica is an orphaned grownup working through her grief. Their punches and zaps don’t hit as hard, though that may be the directors’ fault. They want to convince, not to fight, but their appeals aren’t to logic, they’re pleas of emotion.


They’re, quite simply, beta Avengers in a made-for-TV movie trying to be postmodern and flailing back into modernity for money shots.


It’s worth sitting through the first half to get to the second half. Ironically, it’s when they get to the Bollywood planet that things come together. Once that fight finishes, however, the movie seems to delight in swapping them into other scenarios where their swift action is necessary, making the point that women’s lives are all about multitasking. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury stuck in Earth orbit but available by ear comms makes the whole thing Charlie’s Avengers.


(Culture war angle: the villain looks uncannily like VP Kamala Harris.)


All in all, I watched it for the Marvel continuity, and enjoyed it, but I was moved more by the movie I watched directly afterward: Five Nights At Freddy’s.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sterilize any other group to prevent them having children, it’s genocide. Refuse to sterilize trans people, and they call it genocide.  …Not because genes won’t be passed on, but because presumably they’ll commit suicide. but the pithy observation stands for a different reason.


Today I learned two new words:


    

  • 

    memocide: the deliberate and/or systematic elimination of an idea (a memetic unit).
    

    • 

  • 

    memorcide: the elimination of a people’s history or the memory of a people, often a part of ethnic cleansing.
    

    • 



The culture war is a memocidal total war between modernism (the gaining and use of objective knowledge, the rights of individuals, the identification and shunning of bias, and the creation of a unified narrative) and postmodernism (the rejection of objectivity, universalism, and individualism).


The culture war has seen the weaponization of narratives, knowledge, pseudo-knowledge, anti-knowledge, bias, anti-bias, and pseudo-bias. (The latter includes objective observations about statistics which resemble bias.) This is one of the reasons Alex Jones called his show InfoWars.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Notes from Trump-land: the cognitive dissonance of the Trump fandom being against the Trump vaccines is resolved in pre-pandemic reports that Trump is a germophobe, that he’s a man who trusts the American medical establishment including big pharma. It’s only natural that one man (no matter how smart and big-league clever) couldn’t be absolutely right on everything.


Also, he had Mike Pence (out of the fandom’s good graces since saying he wouldn’t halt or delay the tally on 1/6) run the Federal task force on the coronavirus. So, if fans can’t swallow the idea that Trump was fooled by Big Pharma, at least they can find solace in swamp Pence being in with the conspiracy. (“We should have trusted the fly all along.”)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 7, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I just got a real keyboard for my iPhone, and boy is it weird. I have yet to see all of its fun features, but for now, I’ll just enjoy using it to Mottepost.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ve just noticed that when the red tribe wants to rename something, it’s treated as pointless signaling or laughably poor gamesmanship, but when the blue tribe wants to rename something, all of the institutions of American public life get behind them. This asymmetry is one more reason Chthulu swims leftward.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Let's suppose I provided counseling services for unhappy people. And I define an "unhappy person" as anyone who feels he is unhappy.




Pedantic reply:


Since you have no first-hand knowledge of their unhappiness, you are smuggling into your definition “anyone who communicates he feels he is unhappy”.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
And there it is. The deaths of people who have been injected with the vaccine, but who are not yet immunized to Covid, have a huge death rate.


Calling people within that fourteen day window “unvaccinated” is blatantly disingenuous. Playing with words for political reasons is dangerous. Sticking with the moneyed narrative in a time of total narrative collapse can be deadly.


Those of us who were paying attention to the biology of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 were screaming to high heaven that vaccinating humans to replicate the spike protein was a Bad Fucking Idea. But since we were red-tribe coded, our words fell on stone-deaf ears.


How can we do better as a civilization next time (assuming for the sake of discussion Global Pandemic II won’t be deliberate)?


EDIT: Spike protein mechanism for causing myocarditis detailed in my reply here, for those who think I’m just being a reactionary.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am sufficiently fixed in my views that engagement with you would likely only produce heat. Nonetheless, I dislike you calling me sad for sticking with my man.


He was the only President in my working life whose administration produced an economy sufficient for me to earn money for a retirement account, which is now down to 60% of what it was when he left office. Tangible personal results like that are memorable and anecdotal by their very nature, and thus unfalsifiable, so no data-based argument would sway me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don’t see why a verbal referral, possibly made sarcastically to a “squeaky wheel”, would have been recorded.


This is one of the reasons American conservatives don’t trust a large, central, bureaucratic government: “The part of the government which oversees the government states they couldn’t find anything in the files of the part of the government which works with citizens who served the government in fighting another government to indicate there was a referral to the part of the government which kills its own citizens to prevent them using excess government resources which could be used for more productive citizens.”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Russians might or might not manage to keep Donbas and/or the Crimea but the rest of Ukraine has remained an independent country and that is not going to change.




When Putin said all he wanted was Crimea and the Donbas, people called him a liar, an imperialist, and a murdering conqueror. If the bear stands down and leaves Ukraine alone once it’s finished biting off those two chunks, as he stated, I won’t be surprised.


If Belarus is next for a weird contested election, I expect to see a repeat of wars and rumors of wars.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 7, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I was thinking about AIs as a specific category of maximization agent, a purposeful being or entity which has a primary purpose of maximizing a thing, or a category of things, or a diverse group of things, with the existential risk of minimizing (not seeking, actively denying, killing those who seek) any purpose which might reduce its maximization efforts.


Other examples include corporations as profit/product movement/market share maximization agents, and authors as entertainment/drama/comedy maximization agents. From inside the fictional DC universe, for example, the editors and authors are the cause of all of Batman’s suffering. The Deadpools of the Marvel multiverses are occasionally fourth wall aware (though canonically they’re usually just insane/deluded in-universe), and “know” his authors want him to suffer, to sell drama. Some of Heinlein’s creations know they’re in stories because every ficton (fictional universe) is reachable via multiversal travel. Rick Sanchez of Rick and Morty is quite aware he’s a fictional character, but doesn’t bother with metafiction (unless forced to) because it’s the least escapable or controllable (and most boring) aspect of his existence.


In my philosophy, Triessentialism, I posit that all purposes an agent can seek must aim toward at least one of three goals: experiences, utility, and/or esteem. The fourth primary goal, phrased variously as “freedom”, “more choice”, “control”, “decision-making”, “spontaneity”, etc., is a construction of the other three, but is so central to the human experience that I afford it a place alongside the others.


In this context, would it be rational and/or useful to treat each political party / egregore as a maximization entity? Arnold Kling states in The Three Languages of Politics that he believes the three main political philosophies seek to reduce class oppression (left), barbarism (right), and coercive tyranny (libertarian). The alignment problem of AI also exists, in my opinion, for any maximization agent, and we should constantly be aware of what each party (including our own) is willing to break to achieve its maximum expression.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
So, why does the Western multi-national coalition want al-Assad dead or dethroned? Since the WMD narrative fell apart for Iraq and I believe the chemical attack narrative was a false flag by rebels, there has to be something more. But I never see these rationalist or rat-adjacent spaces talking about it.


It’s accepted truthiness among the alt-right and conspiracy spaces that Gaddafi was killed for trying to make a pan-African state backed by a gold Dinar. Is it something like that?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
After Tucker Carlson’s exit from Rupert Murdoch and Paul Ryan’s Fox News, the “persuasively” part is rapidly diminishing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
And this kind of comment is why Trump solidifies the underdog vote.


Life is complex in the postwar era, and there are all sorts of hazards for American people who yearn to live by instinct. The voters you describe were educated in public schools, trade schools, and on scholarship at public universities, the very education infrastructure the elites put into place and then eschew.


The men and women you spit on barely have enough time in their day to make a living in a small business in a strip mall and spend an hour or two in the gym every day working off the calories from hyper-stimulus food. Then on top of that, they have to face their children being taught that their parents are carriers of the whiteness virus, the privilege virus, the capitalism virus, and the straight-and-cis virus.


And to blame people from broken families for buying into the fantasy of the billionaire’s supermodel wife is the topping on the scoffing cake.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It is not Hitler who benefits; he earned his own death ten million times over, and delivered it with his own hand.


The benefit of forgiveness is to the person who still hates, and thus is ever watchful for a similar fight. Living hatred of the dead makes “conflict theory” inevitable, and peace impossible.


Think of Magneto in X-Men: First Class. He hunts Nazis as a righteous path of vengeance, but once the actual Nazis are gone, he looks for those with a Nazi spirit of ethnic hatred, and he ethnic-hates them right back. Meanwhile Professor X seeks to make peace with all who are still willing to talk, while fighting only those who refuse to.


Or think of the Jedi. The way of the Jedi is misunderstood by a lot of fans, because they don’t know the deeper Buddhist philosophy it is based on. It is not the things which come into our life which bind us, but our attachments, those things we refuse to let go of.




A man asked the market’s monkey-seller how he caught all those monkeys. The monkey-seller said the monkeys catch themselves. All he had to do was put a monkey snack in a jar tightly tied to a tree. The monkey smells the snack and reaches into the jar, grasps the snack, and tries to pull it out. But the neck of the jar, while big enough for a monkey’s hand, is smaller than its fist. He can walk up and collar the monkey without chasing it.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 24, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What have you heard about codependency in popular culture or your circles, what have you heard about Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, and do you know why I’m asking about both together?


I’ll post more on this after church this morning, whether this gets any replies or not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 22, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Trump aide Peter Navarro has been sentenced to jail for contempt of Congress; Navarro has cited executive privilege as a Presidential advisor, on separation of powers grounds, in his refusal of the subpoena. Per NBC News:




Navarro helped spread misinformation about the 2020 election after Trump's loss and issued a report that Trump falsely said proved that it was statistically “impossible” for him to have lost the election. Trump referred to the report in his infamous "will be wild" tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, encouraging supporters to travel to Washington for a "Big protest" on Jan. 6. That tweet, many Jan. 6 defendants have said, is what drew them to Washington.






Navarro's lawyer asked that any sentence imposed Thursday be immediately stayed due to "novel issues" presented in the case, including Navarro's purported belief that Trump had invoked executive privilege.




NBC has gone all in on bad journalistic practices. The highlights in the quotes are mine, and are my focus.


    

  • misinformation - a Newspeak word meaning “inaccurate information that people write and spread inadvertently” but implying deliberate disinformation (lies or misframed/“spun”/“technically true” information). Note no “alleged” before this; they’re claiming this as a fact, but without specifics or scope. If Navarro ever mistakenly spoke a single piece of untrue information between 11/2020 and today, this sentence is defensible were Navarro to sue for defamation.
    • 

  • and - the placement implies that the report mentioned in the next clause is the misinformation mentioned in the previous clause. My journalism professor would have marked my grade down for that on any assignment.
    • 

  • Trump falsely said proved - They don't say the report has been debunked or disproven. They imply that by flatly stating Trump was incorrect (implying but not alleging he was lying) in saying that a proving of the report had occurred. What standard are they using to define “proof”? No idea; no statistician was cited herein, nor court documents, nor any other attempts to prove.
    • 

  • “Big protest” - quotation marks which indicate Trump’s actual words, doing double duty as skepticism quotes, heavily hinting that Trump intended insurrection, not first Amendment petition for redress of wrongs.
    • 

  • Navarro's purported belief - here they’re weaseling their words as a good journalist does with any statement which is unprovable, but on something they know Navarro would never sue over for defamation, giving the impression that Navarro may be lying when he purports that belief.
    • 



This piece is propagandistic in these sentences at the end of the article, which are designed to give the reader background info about the case.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Problem of The Problem Of Susan
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You can if, like in dream experiences, the magic in play means you can lead an entirely different life and yet return in an instant to the body and brain you left. Her middle-schooler’s brain was literally not developed enough to retain all that it had absorbed and adapted to in the other realm. The forgetting would have started nearly immediately as the nerves unbranched.


In addition, they’d lived decades there and practically forgotten the England they’d come from! They were fully assimilated into Narnian life. But in the text, they dropped it all in an instant, remembering about the houseguests touring the Professor’s estate. From the final two pages of LWW:




Then said King Edmund,


“I know not how it is, but this lamp on the post worketh upon me strangely. It runs in my mind that I have seen the like before; as it were in a dream, or in the dream of a dream.”


“Sir,” answered they all, “it is even so with us also.”


“And more,” said Queen Lucy, “for it will not go out of my mind that if we pass this post and lantern either we shall find strange adventures or else some great change of our fortunes.”


“Madam,” said King Edmund, “the like foreboding stirreth in my heart also.”


“And in mine, fair brother,” said King Peter.


“And in mine too,” said Queen Susan. “Wherefore by my counsel we shall lightly return to our horses and follow this White Stag no further.” “Madam,” said King Peter, “therein I pray thee to have me excused. For never since we four were Kings and Queens in Narnia have we set our hands to any high matter, as battles, quests, feats of arms, acts of justice, and the like, and then given over; but always what we have


taken in hand, the same we have achieved.”


“Sister,” said Queen Lucy, “my royal brother speaks rightly. And it


seems to me we should be shamed if for any fearing or foreboding we turned back from following so noble a beast as now we have in chase.”


“And so say I,” said King Edmund. “And I have such desire to find the signification of this thing that I would not by my good will turn back for the richest jewel in all Narnia and all the islands.”


“Then in the name of Aslan,” said Queen Susan, “if ye will all have it so, let us go on and take the adventure that shall fall to us.”


So these Kings and Queens entered the thicket, and before they had gone a score of paces they all remembered that the thing they had seen was called a lamppost, and before they had gone twenty more they noticed that they were. making their way not through branches but through coats. And next moment they all came tumbling out of a wardrobe door into the empty room, and They were no longer Kings and Queens in their hunting array but just Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy in their old clothes. It was the same day and the same hour of the day on which they had all gone into the wardrobe to hide. Mrs Macready and the visitors were still talking in the passage; but luckily they never came into the empty room and so the children weren’t caught.


And that would have been the very end of the story if it hadn’t been that they felt they really must explain to the Professor why four of the coats out of his wardrobe were missing. And the Professor, who was a very remarkable man, didn’t tell them not to be silly or not to tell lies, but believed the whole story.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Tithe, noticing, and superstitions


My church hangs no specific official detail of membership on tithing, giving 1/10 of my income, my “firstfruits,” to the church. I, however, submit my tithe online as soon as I remember it is deposited, so that nobody will quit my workplace.


Let me explain.


All my working life, I have tithed on the gross, not the net, so I wouldn’t have to tithe my tax refund. Around 2014, I had gotten into tax trouble because of inadequate withholdings. I went into IRS debt and had scheduled contributions which were so large I couldn’t afford to tithe.


I paid off the debt slowly but surely, and breathed a sigh of relief when it was paid off. A few months later I noticed the place I was working was hemorrhaging admins and producers with much experience and institutional knowledge. It was about that point I realized in horror I’d forgotten to resume paying my tithe.


I compiled a spreadsheet to learn what I owed God, and the sum was vast. I studied the Scriptures on tithing and discovered that if a Hebrew man could not afford to give up his firstfruits of harvest, he could buy them back from the Tabernacle at one-fifth of their value. I calculated 1/5 of my 10%, 2%, and started paying my back-tithe to the church on top of my tithe.


From the first time I did so, the quitting stopped, like a faucet being shut off.


From then on, if I spent money on lunch on payday before remembering to submit my tithe online, I could expect someone to quit without notice within the week. Occasionally people would quit on payday before I had remembered to pay my tithe, which reminded me to pay it.


I consider myself a rational Christian, and I don’t expect miracles or spooky happenings unless God has a purpose for them. Perhaps I was just seeing a pattern by coincidence. Or perhaps I was one of the few faithful paying tithe from that job, sanctifying the whole operation; since I was laid off after the merger, the place has gone downhill.


Whatever the pattern or not, I won’t be skipping tithe again.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You mention the ironic, edgy use of the name Moloch by mostly atheist rationalists to describe a mindless yet malevolent emergent societal process.


I don’t believe it to be good faith to deliberately conflate it with the ancient Canaanite deity which inspired the reference. Its worship involved the abandonment or sacrificial murder of children.


Given the nature of the art, which do you think is being referenced in that Tweet? Here’s a hint:




Here’s an old photo of Bohemian Grove where the worlds most elite men gather each year and worship an effigy of moloch




EDIT: Since I've gotten several replies on the same basic theme, I'll elevate one of my later comments to here: The point is they’re not physically gathering around a symbol of society losing all the mutually-observed bits of politeness and turn-taking which kept us from all-out culture war. The conflation I pointed out does nothing to serve the conversation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My own experiences with school bullying (taunting to the point of tears, flinch-teasing, verbal bullying), though never physical, were free of politics. However, though it was the Popular Kids and Sports Kids I expected to tease me (because American entertainment made me expect it), it was actually the everyday kids, and sometimes my fellow nerds. The Cool Gamer and his buddies stole my box of 1.44” floppies twice.


American entertainment also told me to look for outsiders as my natural friend group. What I got was a series of bad friends who were outsiders for a reason: they were toxic. The Island of Misfit Toys is as fictional as Rudolph the Inspiringly Disabled Reindeer.


Conformity to tribal norms is valued across all three tribes; it’s just that uniqueness is a norm of the Grey Tribe: liking geeky and nerdy things, dressing in reference-laden clothing, taking being kept outside the Red Tribe’s inner circle as a badge of honor. As a kid with autism, I also heavily enjoyed Robin Williams’ weirdness, and his death hit me so hard because he was the first person to tell me it was okay, and even good, to be weird. Having attended Weird Al’s Poodle Hat, Running With Scissors, and Straight Outta Lynwood tours in Albuquerque, I felt as accepted as I am at sci-fi conventions and game stores.


As a Grey Tribe Christian from a Red Tribe church, I never consciously sought to feel superior, and when I notice it’s a motive of mine, I deconstruct it to not feel it. What I crave is acceptance of my whole self: my truth-seeking, logic-loving, nerdy self. And I find it at Weird Al concerts. I don’t want to analyze it away.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 19, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My sleep hygiene has been decent ever since I started taking vitamin D in the mornings. I have also been a fan of Pokémon since the late 90s.


The Pokémon Company just released a new casual game in which you sleep near a Snorlax and other Pokémon also fall asleep near the Snorlax, and you can collect one new Pokémon every day. It's called “Pokémon Go To Sleep!”


…No, it’s just named “Pokémon Sleep”. However, that’s how I think of it. It’s Pokémon Go, but with sleep. Simply set your charging smartphone somewhere on your mattress, and it records your snores and reads your sleep movement. Sleep deeply, get better Pokémon.


There’s a friend code option to get more boosters and other gamified gacha prizes every day your friend plays. I’ll add anyone as a friend who DMs me their friend code. If you’re worried about opsec, it’s a secret between me, you, Zorba, and the developer who licensed their game with TPC and NoA.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Comedian and marriage guy Mark Gungor has a whole schtick on why men and women are fundamentally incomprehensible to each other, the model of boxes vs wires. I’ve linked to the start of the part most people go to the video for, 55 seconds in.


Other examinations I’ve leaned on for preparing for understanding women’s behavior and choices include the Dave Sim’s Cerebus comics and Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder comics, particularly her graphic novel “Five Crazy Women”. (If a woman warns you that all women are crazy, listen to her.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sex is physical, gender is emotional. Both are based in physiology, and both are accounted for in science.


Sex is hardware, gender is software. Software can be misconfigured, and it can be reconfigured.


Sex is a fact, gender is an experience. Experiences are reactions to apprehended facts.