Eetan
4mo ago
Excellent list.
Some genres of banned books you missed:
Criminal literature/art - writings/memoirs by unreformed, unrepentant, non-ideological criminals extolling and celebrating life of crime.
Pro final exit writings - not philosophical defenses of the act, but how-to manuals for effective final exit. This content is also strongly censored, because TPTB deeply care about every human life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctioned_Suicide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peaceful_Pill_Handbook
In 2008, the Society for Promotion of Community Standards objected to the book's publication. This led to its banning in New Zealand on the grounds that it was an objectionable publication.[5] A short time later, the book was republished in redacted form and is available only if sealed, and an indication of the censorship classification is displayed.[6][7]
This is nothing compared to other Ukrainian public relation efforts.
First there was picking American transgender woman as official spokesperson for Ukrainian army, who then went on unhinged rant threatening to kill "Russian propagandists" all over the world.
(speaking in English, not Russian, so it is clear that it were not Russians in Russia who were target of this threat)
This speech is there, it is something you will hear from mouth of cartoon Evil Mastermind(TM) in corny B movie, just before Action Hero(TM) storms in and drops the villain into his/her/their/zir/xir own shark tank.
Someone in charge then noticed this does not make Ukraine look exactly like Avengers team and decided to suspend Cirillo.
So sanity prevailed and all will be good (optics) from now?
Well, Zelensky just decided to make honorary "ambassador of Ukraine", of all people, Marina Abramovic, world famous performance artist.
It sounds like 4chan fake news prank, but it is real, reported by mainstream media(and then vanishing from their pages).
Ukraine knows well what it is doing, Ukraine tries hard to signal it is on the right side and win hearts and minds.
Hearts and minds of people who matter, not yours.
edit: links
Eetan
6mo ago
Utilitarianism in war : what are some under-explored tools of war that are effective but dismissed out of hand due to bad optics ?
Monetary incentives, as proposed both by rootless cosmopolitan Bryan Caplan and Tatar patriot Kamil Galeev.
Bribery as weapon of war - not secret offers to enemy generals as in Iraq but public offer of cash for enemy soldiers en masse is super weapon exactly tailored to strength of Western US+NATO bloc. US dollar is still the king, despite printing press going into overdrive, everyone knows what dollars are and everyone wants them. The printing press is American true superpower, why not use it?
Of course, paying enemies to surrender would be extremely unpopular among your own troops - this plan must be compounded with even more generous reward for bringing live POW's. The dirty secret of war is that most killing of POW's happens not because of sadism, hatred and revenge, but just because soldiers cannot/do not want to guard and care for the prisoners and have no incentive to keep them alive.
Had something like it been ever tried? Check Operation Moolah.
On March 20, 1953, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the plan. The approved operation was forwarded on April 1, 1953, to the Joint Psychological Committee at FEAF in Tokyo, Japan, where it was staffed, approved, and advanced to Clark. He dubbed the plan Operation Moolah. The plan offered $50,000 to any pilot who flew a fully mission capable MiG-15 to South Korea. The first pilot to defect would be awarded an additional $50,000. The plan also included complete political asylum, resettlement in a non-Communist country, and anonymity if desired.
What was the impact on enemy activity?
According to General Clark, immediately after the drop of the leaflets on April 26, UN aircraft did not make visual contact with any MiG aircraft for the following eight days. Though weather may have been a factor, he opines that the leaflets had a direct effect and believes that senior Communist military leaders began to screen for politically unreliable pilots.
But not everyone was happy.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower did not support Operation Moolah. He thought it unethical to offer money to a defector and was concerned about the North Korean reaction to the defection due to the uneasy armistice agreement.
As all professional ethicists will tell you, it is much more ethical to kill people than pay them.
This plan would never come to fruition, because it is as extremely dishonorable as it is extremely rational, utilitarian and effectively altruistic. No surprise - we do not live on dath-ilan, we live on planet of the apes. Conduct yourself accordingly.
Eetan
4mo ago
“When I look at the donation list from my daughters’ schools, I see fewer Chinese names than some other ethnic groups…Some Chinese parents ask, ‘We are already paying so much tuition, why do we need to give more?’” The culture of alumni giving is still relatively new in China and Hong Kong.
Exactly. Are the universities capitalist firms selling a product, or charitable organizations living off begging?
Pick one. If the thing they are sellling is valuable, they should openly name a price. When you buy burger, you pay and it is finished, McDonalds will not pester you for rest of your life into "donating".
Eetan
3mo ago
90 billion Biden and Obama sent to Iran
Biden’s $90 Billion Bailout to Tehran
The JCPOA infused Iran with cash. Right before the United States reimposed sanctions in 2018, Iran’s central bank controlled more than $120 billion in foreign exchange reserves. U.S. sanctions locked tens of those billions away in escrow accounts, and financial pressure forced Iran to draw down the accounts that remained open. U.S. sanctions locked tens of those billions away in escrow accounts, and financial pressure forced Iran to draw down the accounts that remained open. After only two years of the maximum pressure campaign, Iran was down to a meager $4 billion in reserves. Meanwhile, U.S. energy sanctions cut Iran’s oil exports by more than 2 million barrels per day, depriving the regime of $70 billion that typically funds its budget.
If I steal your money and then give you some back, I am sure you will be thankful for such generous handout.
Eetan
4mo ago
What if we also merge with Mexico?
Only over John C. Calhoun's dead body first.
John C. Calhoun, speech on Mexico (January 4, 1848).
The next reason assigned is, that either holding Mexico as a province, or incorporating her into the Union, would be unprecedented by any example in our history. We have conquered many of the neighboring tribes of Indians, but we have never thought of holding them in subjection, or of incorporating them into our Union. They have been left as an independent people in the midst of us, or have been driven back into the forests. Nor have we ever incorporated into the Union any but the Caucasian race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the first departure of the kind; for more than half of its population are pure Indians, and by far the larger portion of the residue mixed blood.
I protest against the incorporation of such a people. Ours is the Government of the white man.
Eetan
3mo ago
In The Philippines, highly devout Roman Catholics will literally nail themselves to crosses during Good Friday to absolve themselves of sin and demonstrate their true devotion to the faith.
Does there exist a secular analogue to this tradition? Where can I be publicly crucified to profess my undying love for the prevailing secular orthodoxy?
Numerous atheist/secular/nonreligious people sacrificed their lives for causes they believed in.
For some current non-lethal example of extreme dedication, see, for example, various performative environmentalist actions.
Eetan
4mo ago
Weirdly enough some of the critiquing of the translation by the book was done by one of the New Atheist minor figures, Richard Carrier. Once you get into the weeds these things really do become a small world.
Critiquing not only the translation, but the whole thing as completely fradulent.
Hitler’s Table Talk: The Definitive Account
By the conclusion, you start to get the clear picture, as did Nilsson, that a lot of what went wrong had to do with what one single con artist—the unrepentant Swiss Nazi banker François Genoud—did to manipulate decades of historians into doing his bidding by replicating and validating his own myths and fabrications. A single man behind it all; mostly invisible to the public, as his involvement was barely if ever even mentioned in historical treatments and third-party publications of the Table Talk, and thus all his devices and manipulations went unnoticed until Nilsson uncovered them all. I was among the first to signal this might be the case, as it was my article in GSR that exposed the first evidence of Genoud being the actual fraud behind it, when I uncovered how he doctored his own French translation, and that the English translation was based on that—for reasons I then did not know and could not explain; Nilsson uncovers the hidden truth: Genoud had forced by secret contract everyone involved in producing the English edition—publishers, translators, and its editor and endorser, the renowned Hitler historian Hugh Trevor-Roper—to only use his French as their base text. Nilsson explores various reasons why Genoud did that, though certainty may never be ours, as his motives Genoud took with him to the grave…along with the original manuscript, apparently—no version of which survives (apart from a few pages recovered by the U.S. Army after the war, which I was also for some reason the first to publicly reference beyond merely mentioning they exist; it appears Nilsson may have also located three other notes from it copied from Genoud’s archive that have still never been published, p. 241). In fact, apart from those few sheets (and a mere handful of some photocopied pages reproduced in various places), no person still living has even seen the original notes forming the Table Talk. So really getting to the bottom of things here may be forever impossible now.
Eetan
2mo ago
They wouldn't have suffered the cultural decay that comes with Stalinism
Cultural decay? Stalinism was well known for pushing classical art, music, literature, theatre and ballet to the masses, whether the masses appreciated it or not.
and bland American consumerism.
LOL. Whatever pure Aryan kulchur would victorious Reich produce, it would be as helpless in face of American art and music as Soviet culture was.
As long as you have the will to send to concentration camp anyone caught with unauthorized radio or bootleg negro music records, you can stop the tide with brute force. As long.
Eetan
2mo ago
Eh, I wouldn't blame all the Jews
Well, you might not, but Christians for 1900 years nearly unanimously interpreted this biblical passage that way.
Until Scofield Bible and Nostra Aetate, but this is another story.
Eetan
7mo ago
Eetan
4mo ago
After decades of ridiculous claims, I will believe that we have been visited by aliens the moment one of these whistleblowers tosses an extraterrestrial corpse onto a table in broad daylight and not a moment sooner.
... and then allows scientists from all over the world, including Russia and China, unrestricted access to alien remains, materials and technology.
Grainy pictures, splotchy videos and "I am US military/CIA/journalist of record, you can trust me, bro" are not persuading me, and should not persuade you either.
Eetan
6mo ago
What's going on in the West Bank right now? I haven't seen much coverage of it.
Settlers going on rampage - destroying crops, burning houses, evicting whole Palestinian villages at gunpoint (yes, unlike Israelis in Israel proper, these hilltop guys are heavily armed and unlike Gaza, Palestinians in West Bank are thoroughly disarmed).
Lots of coverage, but you have to dig up into Arabic sources to find it.
Eetan
6mo ago
The more interesting question is why isn’t there a conservative Wikipedia?
There is! More precisely, there are two.
Normie boomer conservative Conservapedia that began as creationist intelligent design project during the noughties and Infogalactic, alt right flagship project by Vox Day.
Why you never heard about them, you are asking? Because they are not Wikipedia. Everyone uses Wikipedia because everyone uses Wikipedia, because Wikipedia link comes first in every search. Even if Elon started heavily shilling one of these sites, I cannot see how he could singlehandedly change it.
Eetan
6mo ago
Suppose you have a 13 year old child dying of a terminal illness, and their final wish is to lose their virginity before they die. Is it ethical for the Make A Wish Foundation to hire them a prostitute?
This is not completely fantastical scenario.
Original source is long gone, but here is the second best, Free Republic mirror and lively discussion thread and other thread
Dying boy, 15, gets wish: losing virginity Chicago Sun Times ^ | 12/23/01 | BY BENJAMIN ERRETT
Posted on 12/23/2001, 3:26:24 PM by Mopp4
A terminally ill boy had his dying wish granted in Australia this month, but ethicists are still at odds over whether it was the right thing to do. The wish was not for a trip to Disneyland or to meet a famous sports star. Instead, the 15-year-old wanted to lose his virginity before he died of cancer. The boy, who remains anonymous but was called Jack by the Australian media, did not want his parents to know about his request. Because of his many years spent in the hospital, he had no girlfriend or female friends. Jack died last week, but not before having his last wish granted. Without the knowledge of his parents or hospital staff, friends arranged an encounter with a prostitute outside of hospital premises. All precautions were taken, and the organizers made sure the act was fully consensual. The issue has sparked fierce debate over the legal and ethical implications of granting the boy's request. By law, Jack was still a child, and the woman involved could in theory face charges for having sex with a minor. The debate was sparked by the hospital's child psychologist, who wrote a letter to "Life Matters," a radio show in which academics debate ethical and moral dilemmas. The scenario was presented in the abstract, with no details about the boy's identity.
No surprise, boomer cons in 2001 reacted as expected.
My inital reaction to this article was shock. This boy is dying at age 15 and the most important thing in the world to him is to get laid before he passes on. He didn't even want his parents to know about it. Is this reflective of the way young people view life today? I don't care that I will be missing out on the chance to lead a full life, just let me have sex before I go?
This is the sort of soul-less, animalistic response to impending death that might be expected from a human child raised by beasts.
Interesting: His eternal life is immediately before him. And this "child of the media" wants 30 seconds of immediate sexual gratification rather than an eternity of life.
What can be seen as more surprising, this story was revived in 2014 by Eric Raymond on his blog and reaction of libertarian both left and right tended to be positive and affirming.
I’d go so far as to say that the most important experience this hooker gave the kid probably wasn’t the orgasm itself but her natural human compassion for a dying child, her willingness to touch him and comfort him and give him what he had wished for.
Something not thinkable today.
Eetan
2mo ago
Well, Hasbro hadn't thought so and burned it all down.
True fans do not forget and do not forgive. Grey Box forever.
Eetan
6mo ago
Moldgub:
You need to turn off your feelings because you are a mother bird feeding a cuckoo.
and then proceeds with the usual long and convoluted verbal diarrhea. As if Moldbug cared, as is Moldbug had some feelings about current happenings in the land of Canaan. I do not remember him commenting at length about recent events in, for example, Ethiopia, Sudan, Sahel or Myanmar, formerly Burma.
Why is Moldbug allowed to have feelings while we should stay completely calm and disinterested?
Is it because some of Moldbug's ancestors came from this place and some relatives of his do live there now? If this should be the standard, then only people with Eastern Slavic descent should be allowed to care about Ukraine. Somehow, Moldbug despite his lack of Slavic blood, is very interested in this place and writes about it at length.
Is is because Moldbug disregards his own law or is it because there is no law except "Moldbug does what Moldbug wants?"
Eetan
3mo ago
TLDR: modern Irish nationalism is for various reasons surprisingly anti-Irish. Make sure that you have genuine ground roots support before making language teaching compulsory. Otherwise, sponsor making cool stuff in that language.
On the other side, if you learn Irish Gaelic, you can be translator of official EU documents into this language.
And no one will ever check whether your translation is any good, no one will ever read EU regulations of banana size and curvature in Gaelic. Dream job for life.
Eetan
3mo ago
You forgot:
US holds proud 6th place in incarceration rate and most people here would say it is too low, would say that many more Americans belong in prison.
Nevertheless, keeping millions in prisons is expensive. Why not kill two birds with one stone, why not offer the prisoners option to expiate their guilt in service to the motherland somewhere far away, like Yemen or Iran?
Eetan
7mo ago
Damn. Possibly the least interesting thing that could've come out of there, as far as I'm concerned.
Well, there is hope (or wishful thinking) that the scrolls were only small part of villa library, that they were special Epicurean collection most valued by the owner (the scrolls were not on shelves, they were packed in chests, ready to be carted away).
Alternatively, they were possessions of previous owner inherited by new owner, who was not interested in Epicureanism, put them off shelves into storage space and forgot about them.
Well off and cultured Romans would own more books. Villa owner was one of 1% of 1% of Roman Empire and definitely was a man of culture.
Its luxury is shown by its exquisite architecture and by the large number of outstanding works of art discovered, including frescoes, bronzes and marble sculpture which constitute the largest collection of Greek and Roman sculptures ever discovered in a single context.
Such house would be expected to have two large symmetrical libraries, one Greek and one Latin containing classical works of the respective literature.
More details and sources in Reddit thread
Eetan
8mo ago
Since religion is also part of culture wars, it is time for sharing some latest religious culture war battles, this time on Judeo-Christian front, originating from the crucified bird site.
1/ Case of Lizzie Marbach
Lizzie Marbach, Republican and anti abortion activist from Ohio, person with 7k followers and otherwise not notable, posted this.
There's no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.
This is Christianity 101, this is exactly what Christian is supposed to say and believe. There is no reason for anyone to be surprised.
Except Max Miller, Jewish Republican representative of Ohio with 52k followers who was not amused.
This is one of the most bigoted tweets I have ever seen
Mega dead bird storm ensued, and many people came to Lizzie's side to support her.
Including Ilhan Omar.
Things went so far that Max Miller was forced to apologize.
GOP lawmaker apologizes for ‘religious freedom’ tweet
But, nevertheless, Lizzie Marbach lost her job.
By sheer coincidence, Miller’s wife, Emily Moreno Miller, sits on the board of Ohio Right to Life.
This thing will continue, and it is not looking good for official GOP.
2/ Case of Darryl Cooper, rather lighter one.
Darryl Cooper, known as Martyr Made on the interwebs, substacker, podcaster on several sites and dead birder with 173k followers.
So this is rather important person, in internet terms, who suddenly decided that this is the time, of all things, to preach to Jewish people and convert them to Christianity.
It turned out that lot of his followers are Jews who do not appreciate being evangelized, especially by such D- apologetic piece. Massive dead bird storm ensued, and DC doubled, quartupled and octupled his efforts.
Darryl Cooper himself seems to be rather unorthodox Christian of somewhat Marcionite tinge. This makes the whole thing more confusing, what exactly are his Jewish followers supposed to convert to?
What have these cases in common? They illustrate the difficulty of actual interfaith cooperation between sincere believers in different faiths. If you really believe in truth of your religion, it is realy hard to desist from preaching and evangelizing, and even harder to do not take offence if you are (or perceive to be) preached at and evangelized by your fellows.
Eetan
4mo ago
There is overwhelming evidence that aliens are here observing Earth, and have been for some time.
Correction: there is overwhelming evidence that Pentagon/MSM/friendly three letter organizations (or some groups/factions inside them) want us to believe that aliens are out there, observing Earth.
It is serious, even Tucker Carlson jumped on the bandwagon and went full bore into UFO/UAP issue.
Should we believe? Who wouldn't want to believe, after all?
Eetan
5mo ago
In the Xth best world, the media would stop signal-boosting all the evil cardiologists. Assuming that this actually happened as described, there's a difference between a non-representative person and a representative one.
If this person was just old geezer of no importance, no one would care about dispute between Stuart the Pensioner and Mohammed the Halal Vendor.
But this person is someone of note, and it is worthy to ask whether he is representative of his class and milieu, and, if so, what it means for understanding of American diplomacy and foreign policy, what it means for trust in American-negotiated "Mideast peace process".
Eetan
6mo ago
If you hadn't noticed, Israel is the strong one there compared to the Palestinians, so that's not inconsistent in the slightest.
Compared to the Palestinians, yes. Compared to the whole Arab and Muslim world, this is not so clear.
Moldbug believes that Israelis are master race, that America is keeping Israel down and in absence of American influence, Israel would easily roll over all land between Nile and Euphrates.
This is debatable, but if things went the other way and Israelis were to be driven to the sea, would Moldbug say: "Vae victis, winners keepers, losers weepers"? I have my doubts.
For non-Western perspective, see Russian official list of "extremist material".
It is grab bag of various stuff, mostly videos, that were found by Russian courts to be "extreme". Unlike western democracies, Russia still does things in old formal state-bureaucratic ways (when these methods fails, other, less formal like exotic teas or unsafe windows are applied).
As of January 2024, list is 5408 entries long, growing every day and behind every entry is long prison term for "extremism" and "hate".
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