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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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	 Hot Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
They tried to have cases heard in 2020, but judges kept throwing them out for procedural reasons before evidence could even be presented.


The national GOP is, honestly, trash for being embarrassed of its voters.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Disregarding all the non-arbitrary justifications and then pointing out the remaining ones are arbitrary is not the win it seems to be.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The Gateway Pundit is reporting that there is a legibly fraudulent pattern of statistical anomalies in this election’s results. They posted the math for anyone to see. The original reporting comes from TruthIsFreedom on X.


Like any good epistemologist, they basically call it predictive: pick a county, apply their formula, and see that the result matches.


Although I’m a minarchist libertarian Republican, I’m probably one of the few remaining advocates for Trump on The Motte, from what I see in these threads. I’m not here to argue that point, FYI. I’m here to ask people not to simply disregard it out of hand because Trump reposted it or because it has LLM speech hallmarks. The allegation is so monstrous that, for the sake of the perceived legitimacy of our democratic republic, the mechanism needs to be explained by literally anything besides malfeasance.


Excerpts posted here from GWP so you don’t have to give them ad revenue if you don’t want:




One formula fits all of it:
Republican 2026 = 0.85 × Trump 2024
Democrat 2026 = Harris 2024 + 0.15 × Trump 2024


For every 1,000 Trump points, 850 stayed Republican. 150 landed on the Democratic side.
The numbers:
Senate: Republicans kept 85% of Trump’s share
Governor: 86%
Variation explained: 88%


What makes it strange: It didn’t matter how red the state was. Wyoming, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts: same 15% (p = 0.69). The Democratic gain was sized by Trump’s vote, not Harris’s. The Harris part is zero.


The 0.85 beat both standard election-swing models in every set of races.
Drop any single state and the multiplier stays between 0.846 and 0.853.


Why seats flipped: At 0.85, any state where Trump got under about 58.5% falls below 50%. Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina: all under that line. All flipped.


What this means: Midterms are messy. This one isn’t. Two sets of races, different candidates, different campaigns, and the same 15% decrease almost everywhere.


A pattern this even demands answers at the ballot level: paper ballot hand counts, poll-book check-ins against votes counted, and voter files showing who actually turned out.




So, what’s the benign mechanism that explains this?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Woodrow Wilson was the one who called them daggers, but Teddy spoke about hyphenated Americans as traitors four years earlier.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ah, the old perspective meme: I’m prosecuting criminals on the other side. You’re persecuting your political opponents. He’s jailing innocent political prisoners.


The media is hopelessly broken and captured, and everything is propaganda, so nothing that “everyone knows” is fully true.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
“I’m not voting for the lesser of two evils. I’m voting for the more functional of two evils.”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
C.S. Lewis, former atheist, explored that in The Last Battle. It wasn’t the creatures and talking beasts who had sinned greatly who went to the left, into Aslan’s shadow.


Each man, dwarf, centaur, talking dog, and other diverse being met Aslan at the door of the afterlife. Those who felt joy on seeing Him in His full glory walked inside gladly. Those who saw the loving God of their universe and rejected Him with disgust walked away from Him into the darkness.


Even the dwarves ended up in Heaven who’d shot the Narnian cavalry and sneered at the idea of Him due to propoganda. Aslan was invisible to their self-delusion.


It’s a fantastic exploration of the idea of eternal damnation, and worth bringing into the conversation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Per my LLM of choice, the Cost Per American (Full Footprint) of the Israel war is about $90 to $96 per person to empty Arab territories in the Levant of weapons of medium destruction, logistics chains, and terror cells, while having a surprisingly low death rate of civilians and Israeli soldiers.


Meanwhile the Ukraine war is costing $560.64 per American to empty Ukraine of non-disabled men, freeze the lines of battle as long as the money lasts, and bring the world closer to nuclear exchange. And that’s before counting the higher price of diesel fuel since the refinery bombings.


The faction of conservatives who want Ukraine to concede the lost provinces are counting utilons, and those who want Israel to stop fighting are counting hedons.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Writing prompt! Think of secret government agencies that take control of low-fantasy magic items, like Warehouse 13 or The Librarians or the warehouse in Indiana Jones.


Assume that on December 9, 1933, when King Kong died falling from the Empire State building, the Smithsonian took custody of the body and, on the orders of President Roosevelt, commissioned the creation of four enchanted monkeys paws. On December 22, Roosevelt wished on the first of 20 uncurled digits that America would be given an industrial rebirth to end the Great Depression. On the other side of the world, The Reichstag Fire Trial Verdict was acquittal of the Bulgarians, which came down against Hitler’s wishes. Furious, this ignited a fire in his heart that would soon consume all of Europe.


What other wishes have been made?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It got me thinking once again about how viscerally negative the reaction is that certain people have to the aesthetics of cleanliness, order, and sharp dressing.


I asked here once what people mean by “fascism,” and the primary meaning was bullies in power, but I’ve since come to a definition of fascist vibes: powerful people proud of their masculinity and strength. This extends to aesthetics.


The Communist rabble of Europe admired a stylish rumpled aesthetic of the working man’s clothes, signifying how a collective of the weak can be as strong as the powerful.


The Italian Fascists contrasted this with snappy uniforms and manicured grooming, a theatrical machismo signifying the strength and power of men working together. Like the uniform bricks of a tall and impressive wall.


And like a clean and functional wall, there are people who long to do nothing more than cover it with anti-wall art. Thus the memes about the Falcons.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks! Interesting review, I’ll put the book in my queue.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Did anyone else here watch Cloud Atlas and "get it"? For me, it helped me to comprehend systemic injustice the way social justice warriors see it. It's six interwoven stories about people locked out of freedom by systems and oppressive power.


(It didn't shift my political position; if anything, it made me more minarchist / libertarian / Objectivist-adjacent.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Your local nondenom Evangelical or Pentecostal Protestant doesn’t appreciate the sneer, CE. We just don’t call them exorcisms when we cast out demons and come strongly against darkness with the laying on of hands.


I’d love to see a film based on reports from the revivals at Angeles Temple when Aimee Semple McPhereson was doing the healings.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Actual Protestant/Evangelical/Pentecostal here. Missionaries to Africa (and many other spots) widely report lots of spiritual goings-on, with “witches” being people who seek in various ways for spirits to harm others. Witches don’t like when Christians show up, because the rituals stop working.


That said, as a descendant of the Mather family, and a cousin of Increase Mather and Cotton Mather, I believe the only devilry in Salem was in the hearts of the petty spiteful accusers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Indeed, however it feels immutable until the processing happens that commutes it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 19, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Or that it’s possible psychologically for some to work through and resolve gender dysphoria (and the less well-known dysphorias and dysmorphias such as Body Integrity Dysphoria, people who feel they should be amputees).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kazimierz Dąbrowski's book on the labor camps of Germany, as cited in the Christianity on the Spectrum podcast, emphasized the dichotomy of the ongoing war between slaves and free men, those who have choices they can effect upon others and those who have no power to leave off working; that the poets and academics stand upon the backs of slaves to have their platforms.


This leads me to the idea that the elite class, middle class, and labor class are three qualitatively different ways to live:


    

  • The elite are those who get the benefits of their choices, and don't have to live with their negative consequences.
    • 

  • The laborers are those who don't get the benefits of their own choices but have to live with the negative consequences of the elites' choices.
    • 

  • The middle class are those who get the positive benefits and negative consequences of their choices. They have to live with the negative consequences, so they make wiser choices.
    • 



The middle class must also live with the negative consequences of the choices of all others, and the laborers must live with the negative consequences of the middle class and other laborers. The elites have to deal with each others' decisions, but escape the negative consequences of the rest.


I find it important to note Dąbrowski's category of "free men" conflates the elite and the middle class. The middle class only exist in capitalism, in meritocracy. Meanwhile, socialism elevates some laborers to elites by making the middle class laborers through taxation, and Communism's pre-paradise stage elevates some laborers to elites by making all others laborers through confiscation and murder.


A functional society has more middle class, but if your society becomes so by turning another into laborers, you have become global elites. It's easy to mistake hard-working middle class for laborers, but to see the real difference, check my definitions. Note I'm not saying there's a hard-and-fast line; the middle class are those who get the bulk of positive benefits and negative consequences of their own choices.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Aha! The misuse of the play face might be why evil clowns are terrifying: a betraying and malicious violation of the group safety mechanism. (And that mechanism misfiring or being overly precise might be why even the most benign clowns are creepy to some people.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 2, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's a wild ride. Thanks for letting me know the idea's been done before; I'd never heard of that other IP before.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 2, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Idea for future Harry Potter ratfics: House Elf is not a lowered subspecies of human, but rather a magically uplifted captive tribe of naked mole rats.


    

  • Eusocial, going mad if they’re not allowed to serve a master.
    • 

  • NMRs are kept in line by their hive’s queen by physical abuse, and House Elf masters liberally smack them about.
    • 

  • Feel most at home when covered in the smells of their hive’s bodily wastes.
    • 

  • Naked, or mostly.
    • 

  • Dobby of the Malfoys might have been more independence-seeking as one of the few breeding studs of the House Elf Queen. Winky, however, was a typical worker and became quite distraught once she was no longer allowed to clean the Crouch family home.
    • 



This is pretty much the only way I could think of to make House Elves scientific, rather than just a metaphor for the British servant class/caste.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for October 1, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


but why Westerners care is the strange thing.




Because the news says it. Because that’s the oil region of the world. Because it’s The Holy Land. Because The Jews. Because we want sensemakers to explain how bad people aren’t bad, actually. Pick a reason, there are dozens more.


Here’s one I just thought of. A world full of govts has taken the place of God in our lives, and the Middle East is its theodicy: if Civilization is all-powerful, why does evil still exist in the Middle East?


Either Civilization is not all-powerful (which bodes poorly for socialists) or is not all-good (even more poorly), or Israel/Islam is the dualist enemy of Civilization, as powerful as all good governments put together, insidiously worming its way into each and corrupting it (which is too prevalent a conclusion).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 21, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If they’re really super-geniuses, they can learn socialization from a curriculum and limited practice. Two years of Toastmasters did more for me than twelve years of public school, though I’m autistic smart, not ground-breaking physics smart.


I recommend the club structure and original public speaking curriculum of Toastmasters founder Ralph Smedley, which is in the public domain.


There is a case for segregation by tested mind-type, but untested individuals segregated by stereotypes would be more societally harmful than the gain.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for September 17, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The main reason the “right wing” has so many diverse policy viewpoints is that the left has a rolling omnicause, and anyone kicked out of the left will thenceforth be described as right-wing.


Reddit is firmly convinced JK Rowling is a “right-wing nut job” because she disagrees with trans ideology, despite holding fast to every other piece of the left’s policy platform. They believe famous Monty Python comedian John Cleese is now a right-winger because he's outspoken against Muslim migration to Britain.


Really, there are three axes, and you can only be a left-winger if they say you’re on the left side of all three: anti-patriarchy, anti-colonialism, and socialism. The Kochs are for unbounded immigration, which is anti-colonial, but not socialism.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 13, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The American cults have historical attestation in a culture of free press and newspapers, in a country with continuity of government, which has never been invaded. That’s the low bar.


The skeptics were also immediate (within the lifetime of the “prophets”) and covered each sketchy detail of e.g. Joseph Smith’s story.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 14, 2026
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


No, we really do not believe fetuses are human.




I assume you here mean human-as-in-person as in Kirk’s eulogy of Spock, and not human-as-in-species.