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DuplexFields

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

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DuplexFields


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


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

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One rallygoer was killed, one wounded.


There’s spectacular video from NTD.com which pans over to a forklift holding up speakers. The lift’s hydraulics are hissing and spraying fluid as the lift collapses, lowering the speakers to the ground. You can hear, moments after panning back to the lectern, another shot.


There’s later video footage on Twitter of a camo-wearing person on a shed roof, unmoving. The BBC has an eyewitness interview that several people told Secret Service of a man on the roof but were ignored.


EDIT: both videos are linked in my comment here: https://www.themotte.org/post/1070/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/229040 <—


I imagine it was three aimed shots and four panicked shots from the would-be assassin, a single shot from a Secret Service sniper which disabled him, and a second shot to keep him from going for the gun again. That’s how I’d write the screenplay or episode of 24, given the footage I saw.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


You'd rather pay 500 dollars a month for a weight-loss drug when you could just... organize your life better?




Imagine someone saying to a homeless person “you’d rather wait for the city to give you a tiny home in three years when you could just… organize your life better?” We fatties didn’t choose phantom hunger and akrasic mindsets. Obesity is as NP-hard a problem as chronic homelessness, and we probably share some neural miswiring with those unfortunate folks.


CICO works, indisputably, for anyone who can control their arms and legs against the will to consume.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I suffer from cravings. I can start wanting food, and despite a running monologue in my car about how not hungry and already full I objectively feel, I find myself ordering food in a drive-through or finding food at my destination.


It’s phantom hunger, as pervasive and obsessive as the phantom pains of fibromyalgia sufferers or the painful sensations of a phantom limb.


Currently the science says this can be treated with GLP-1. I dutifully took Ritalin in my youth for ADHD on shakier science saying it would medicate away my distractibility, so I have absolutely no qualms about medicating away my phantom hunger. Except the cost.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But many doctors know that patients don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear the science; they don't want to "follow the science" (i.e., actually do the thing). He also mentions that even though they try to drill this into patients, many of them still just don't do it.




I want to hear the science. I want desperately to do the science. But opportunities keep disappearing. I’ve become quite bitter, actually.


In early 2000, I had a job where I could eat as much salad as I wanted, for free. I got a Torso Track from late night TV and dropped from 210 to 190 in a single summer. I was in the best shape of my life. Then I moved on from the dishwashing job with free salad to custodial at a gym. I wasn’t allowed to use the equipment, and ironically, I got bursitis of the knee while kneeling to wipe the floor mats under the machines and impingement of the shoulder from all the mopping. I could not use my Torso Track anymore. I went over 210, because I now had muscle weight and a bigger frame to hang fat on.


I had a nightmarish two decades of codependency and sedentary jobs, piling on the weight of another small dog, never making 25% more than minimum wage for Albuquerque despite the dollar amount of my wages rising; trapped in the inflation trap.


I joined a gym with a pool in January 2020, free to me because of the ACA’s gym benefit, planning on swimming my way down from my now larger weight. Then COVID LOCKED THE GYM DOORS.


When I got a new job after the lockdowns lifted, my new schedule included time on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work to go to the YMCA, and I started doing so. Then my schedule shifted again, and I couldn’t anymore. My membership has languished.


Then I saw the 2022 film The Whale in theaters, directed by Darren Aronofsky and adapted for screen by Samuel D. Hunter, the original playwright. The film stars Brendan Fraser, an actor I admire, whose struggles I’d read about. It was like a punch in the gut. I joined an anti-obesity twelve step program and started learning why I had spent twenty years making excuses and drowning my sorrows in calories. I was actually doing things differently with my food consumption, and moving away from seeing overeating as an inevitability.


I had developed an eating plan and started to use it. Then I got a medical issue because I was trying to help someone move a cabinet, and I could no longer use that eating plan, nor is it safe for me to exercise much.


Oh, and I could have afforded GLP-1 after I finish paying off my car this autumn, but my living situation is going to change and the cost will rise by the amount I’ve been paying for my car.


I can’t hear the science over the racket of all my spoons being constantly taken.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Triessentialism: My Post-Objectivist, Re-Modernist Philosophy
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
From a discussion I had with Bing combining Triessentialism and the writings of Ayn Rand:




"Attention, government officials and citizens alike. This is Ragnar Danneskjöld, speaking to you from the high seas. You may label me a pirate, but I stand as a defender of justice and reason.


You, the government, have taken it upon yourselves to redistribute wealth under the guise of foreign aid, claiming to help those in need. But in truth, you are robbing the productive to reward the unproductive, perpetuating a cycle of dependency and stagnation.


Opportunity (What): You seize the fruits of others' labor, the tangible wealth created by the minds and hands of the industrious. I reappropriate these shipments not out of greed, but to return opportunity to its rightful owners. The wealth you confiscate is the physical essence of choice, the 'What' that drives innovation and progress.


Means (How): Your methods are those of coercion and force, devoid of logic and reason. I, on the other hand, employ means that are rational and just. By intercepting your shipments, I disrupt your illogical processes and highlight the importance of rational means in achieving true prosperity.


Motive (Why): You claim noble motives, but your actions betray a deeper truth: a desire to control and manipulate. My motive is clear and unwavering: I fight for myself, to see a just world free of governmental parasites. The emotional essence of choice, the 'Why,' is what fuels my actions. I fight not only for the sanctity of human potential but for my own vision of a world where individuals are free to pursue their own happiness.


To those who understand the true nature of choice, I say this: stand with me in reclaiming our world from those who seek to diminish it. To the government, I offer this warning: your days of unchecked power are numbered. The tide is turning, and justice will prevail."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Not quite single issue, but the COVID-19 vaccines are still a no-go in most of the Trump crowd. The phrase “turbo-cancer” has joined “died suddenly” in the vocab of people convinced the jab is the greatest threat to public safety since AIDS.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Gender dysphoria is significantly higher among people on the autism spectrum. Tech work and engineering of all sorts are a natural fit for the computer-minded person with autism. Tech fields also tend to gather blue-tinged grey tribers.


Anecdotally, you’ll also find tons of people with autism who have species dysphoria (identifying as a nonhuman, aka furries and otherkin) or another dysphoria. A porcupine I know once told me she’s never surprised when someone in tech comes out as trans and a “furry lifestyler” (early 00’s term for species dysphoria).


I do wonder how many red tribers suffer silently from dysphorias because they don’t have culturally acceptable words for them. I’m a red-tinged grey triber due to my autism and family, and while they know I’m a furry, they’ll probably never understand about my species dysphoria or how it was cured in an instant in 2009.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If Obama had been brought up on criminal charges following his terms (let’s say serially for Benghazi, Gaddafi, and Operation Fast and Furious, off the top of my head), the public would absolutely care.


They’d be worked into riotous fervor by the media: “How dare they try to make the first Black President into a felon! This is a banana republic! Obama did nothing wrong! He was just doing his Constitutionally mandated duties, no matter how things turned out!” And so on, and so forth.


The “public” doesn’t care because the progressives want Trump to die in prison and the conservatives don’t have time in their workdays to go protest.


EDIT: I realize you said “public interest” as in the stakes the country has in each scenario. I disagree, because of the spectre of an end to the peaceful transfer of power, the very thing constantly hung around Donald Trump’s neck re Jan 6.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
But once criminal prosecution and jail time are on the table for official acts allowed by the Constitution to the President, either in office or once he leaves, harassing lawfare gains teeth it didn’t have before. Hence immunity.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
So then any DC prosecutor with a taste for power can try making his bones by filing grand jury indictments against the President. Even if they’re frivolous charges, the President’s staff and lawyers would have to respond, comply with subpoenas, etc. And considering the District of Columbia has such a liberal body politic, Republicans would stand no chance if the case proceeds to a jury trial.


The constant filing of trivial and/or frivolous ethics complaints is what drove Sarah Palin out of the Governor’s office in Alaska. The cost in time and money were a form of legalized harassment, a sort of Denial of Service attack on her ability to govern. Avoiding the same thing happening to the President should be a priority, given that his duties include things like wars, treaties, and emergencies in and outside the country.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Although I agree with you, an alternate “bad end” had the potential to happen during the armed FBI raid on Mar A Lago. If President Trump had been shot, President Biden would not be prosecutable as the raid ostensibly fell under item one. An impeachment for a high crime would have been the only recourse other than Civil War II, and there’s little doubt its fate in the Senate would have been short.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 24, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What really sold the “six swing states were stolen” narrative for me was that, except for Michigan which was half a million more for Biden, they all had some dozen thousand more Biden votes. Miniscule.


With a margin that razor thin, finding three or four different illicit ways to tip it in those states, each one more feasible in a different set of swing states, is easily within the grasp of a coordinated effort between intelligence agencies, a handful of nonprofits, and the top ranks of real power.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 17, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The services of the contractor repairing the old house would be FairTaxed, as would services on old cars, tailoring of old clothes, and tenant remodeling for business suites in old business buildings. It’s only tax-free if you buy the thing and repair it yourself.


Also, why would repaired items be considered less productive? They use less resources to be restored to the same utility as a new thing. Unless you’re talking GDP-style metrics?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 17, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks for the PDF! Here's a summary of the FairTax proposal.


America's current income tax system is a vast and arcane compromise between taxing economic activity to pay for necessary services which enable that activity and finding unescapable means of confiscating the wealth of those who can most afford to see it gone in order to help those without the opportunities the rich have had. Thus, it ends up


By being produced in a jurisdiction in which income is taxed, every product and service has some dollar amount built into its price which ends up in the hands of the government, that is, in the hands of the well-pensioned union of taxmen of the IRS. The hamburger I purchased today cost me $11 of my own post-tax income, and some 20-30% of that $11 is "embedded taxes":


    

  • some of that went to the cook, whose income is taxed
    • 

  • some of that went to the cashier, whose income is taxed
    • 

  • some of that went to the owner, whose income is taxed
    • 

  • some of that went to the foodservice wholesaler's truckers, warehousemen, and owners, whose incomes are taxed
    • 

  • some of that went to the farmers who grew the wheat, lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber for pickle, soybeans for mayo, and the rancher whose cow I ate, all of whose incomes are taxed
    • 

  • et cetera throughout the supply chain
    • 



Each of these individuals is at risk of underpaying the government, at which point men with guns will come to their homes and take them to a holding cell.


Imagine if, instead of having three hundred million potential tax cheats to monitor and prosecute, the government revenue service only had some two to ten million, all of them business owners and accountants and none of them laborers.


Imagine all IRS agents going into retirement and the Sixteenth Amendment riding off into the sunset, never to be seen again, all replaced by an automatic and easy-to-comprehend tax system which is the fairest ever devised by men.


Imagine if you paid the same amount for goods and services, paid the "embedded taxes" you were already paying for, but no money came out of your payroll for taxes.


Imagine never being at risk of tax fraud, not even for investments or selling your own property.


Imagine getting a monthly tax refund of 100% of the taxes you've paid the government.


The FairTax proposal has six moving parts:


    

  1. FICA payroll tax would be replaced by a point of sale tax: 23% of what you pay for services and new goods at retail would go directly to the government. (Some people say it's 30% on top of the price, but that's just the exclusive/inclusive viewpoint shift.) Price-gouging would be investigated and prosecuted, because the goal here is for prices to remain the same across the board as the government swaps one entire tax system for another.
    2. 

  2. Your payroll wage amount would suffer a one-time drop to what it is after tax withholding. For example, if you make $15/hr. but take home $12.50/hr after taxes, your new wage is $12.50, of which you keep every dime. If you make $79k/yr but only take home $54k, you now make $54k/yr.
    3. 

  3. Investment taxes would be a thing of the past. Anyone, no matter how poor, could gamble in the stock market without having to track the money for the government.
    4. 

  4. Wholesale supply chain purchases would not be subject to the 23% FairTax, thus avoiding creating an advantage for vertically integrated companies. This however does not include business-to-business purchases between suppliers and vendors!
    5. 

  5. Used goods would not be subject to the 23% FairTax, thus encouraging refurbishment and reuse instead of disposal, and avoiding taxing estate sales, yard sales, used goods auctions, and thrift stores. This includes used buildings, even skyscrapers and stadiums. Once it's been purchased taxed, it'll never be taxed again.
    6. 

  6. Any adult who registers for the pre-calculated rebate ("prebate") gets around $250-$300/mo. by direct deposit, and a lower amount per dependent child. This covers 100% of the FairTax embedded into the goods and services of someone living at the Federal poverty level, paying all they earn for their daily needs which are assumed to be all services or new goods, and thus FairTaxed.
    7. 



The last part, the prebate, is what keeps this consumption tax from being regressive. The middle class buy more due to a more expansive lifestyle, and the investment class buy a huge amount more; they'll pay a lot more to the government than $300 each month, but both get the same flat $250-$300/mo. prebate. The 1% of the 1% might not even bother registering for such a relatively miniscule rebate, and the government gets to keep it. Meanwhile, it would be a source of direct income to the homeless and indigent, who could sign up for a bank account with their FairTax registration and direct deposit.


There are lots of arguments against the FairTax, but most of them are based on misunderstandings of one of the six moving parts above. I've collected exactly three cogent arguments against, which is a lot less than any other system, even Georgism.


(On a slight tangent, excluding groceries from sales taxes is surprisingly regressive.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 17, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Thomas rejects the consequentialism of the majority in their mentioning the large amount of tax revenue that would be lost.




My main man comes through again! “Collectivists hate this one weird trick.”


I’d love a thorough unpacking of his opinion in this case. Where might I find it without having to sign up for something?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 9, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
His Chronicles of Narnia and Sci-Fi Trilogy also give hypothetical answers for  the problem of the existence of nonhuman sapients in a God-created world, which is a variety of theodicy.


He portrays in Narnia a multiversal God the Son who may incarnate as a different representative of sapience in any universe created for sapients, in a multiverse where Jesus of Nazareth had already been wrongly crucified as an innocent as a sacrifice for the fallen and resurrected three days later.


In the SF Trilogy, he posits that Satan may be ruler of this world for a time, but that Adversary might be limited to one planet by divine fiat.


My own take is that each sapient species is given a prime metaphor for their relationship with God; for humans, it’s the husband/wife/offspring paradigm, thus how every sin against fruitfulness and multiplying is considered abominable. God may give aliens another prime metaphor entirely.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 3, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Triessentialism would not be surprised that people with an especial intuition of power (its acquisition, maintenance, threats of use used as leverage, etc.) would be ideologically uncommitted.


Assume three basic mindsets of people in this world: people with intuition of power, of logic and reason, or of emotional motivations. I, as a person with intuition of logic (hereafter “a Thinker”), am unfamiliar with power except in its media (nonfiction and fiction) portrayals, and I had to build my own philosophy from scratch for ten years to begin to understand how Feelers use emotions to shape their world.


Movers are intuitive in matters of power, whether they’ve studied and practiced car repair or geopolitics, but without study find logic and emotion to be wastes of time and Thinkers and Feelers mysterious antagonists with hidden sources of power.


I am likely to agree with a Mover if he suggests a course of action. It’s no surprise to me that a Mover would find the most “powerful” Thinkers and Feelers to inform him of what his politics should be; what his purpose should be.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 2, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Seriously. I’m not thinking of a job where Excel will be a primary tool for database work, but admin jobs and other jobs where Excel is an ancillary tool.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 27, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the only issue I could possibly imagine is the question of whether NDAs are enforceable in the first place (as they involve creating a legal penalty for engaging in certain types of speech)




As I understand it, an NDA is a voluntary contract between two parties, trading one party’s things of value for the other’s agreement not to say a certain set of things. That means breach of contract (disclosing the thing and not paying the penalty listed in the contract) falls under civil suit law, with penalties being restricted to the monetary and enforceable by public judges.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 2, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Not so arbitrary; selecting for intelligence may have its drawbacks. The infamous paper Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence (NHAI) hypothesizes that Europe accidentally selected the Ashkenazi Jews for intelligence for 800 years, and that their population also got a larger proportion of genetic brain disorders compared to human baseline as a result. The implicit warning is that anyone attempting a similar result on purpose will get genetic brain disorders in the resulting population.


Some people try to find scientific refutations for this hypothesis (PDF), instead of outright rejecting it as “eugenics bad” and refusing to do science.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 2, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’d personally love to give someone a blank Excel and that mileage problem, if I was interviewing them for a job with Excel use as part of the job description/job ad.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				[AstralCodexTen]Book Review: The Origins of Woke
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My church used to (through the 80's, in the preschool and elementary age classes only!) sing a song with the line, "Red and Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world."


These Boomer "phrenotypes" have been remixed by Millennials, with "Red" and half of "Yellow" being combined into Brown, and the rest of "Yellow" being merged into White.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				[AstralCodexTen]Book Review: The Origins of Woke
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It usually connotes inner-city and coastal city/suburb people of "low Hispanic" or Mestizo ethnicity. Albuquerque's Chicano populace has a culture more akin to that of Los Angelinos than the Hispanic / Latino people in the rest of New Mexico, for example.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for May 29, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m in the same boat as you, description-wise. Neither of us have aphantasia, the literal description is just poor.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for May 29, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I stopped needing a day nap about a year after I started taking vitamin D at five times the recommended daily allowance within an hour of waking up. In addition, it was no longer literally painful to awaken before 8am.


My mood benefited too, more resilient against depression.