Eetan
11mo ago
Not connected to any current culture war, but this dead bird thread is nevertheless interesting.
What is missing from nearly all HBDIQ discourse is how modern society is one big incomprehensible Kafkaesque prison for the left part of bell curve. Dealing with omnipresent bureaucracy and jumping through constantly changing hoops is hard for any of us here, who mostly can claim the title of elite human capital.
Now try to put yourself in the shoes of high school dropout, and imagine to deal with car or health insurance (or health care in general) or other things you need to live. And it is getting worse and worse, with no end in sight.
Eetan
3mo ago
Trump is fickle, so if enough people yell at him from his in-group, he might pivot in a week.
This makes it even worse. Running world super power on feels, making the fate of the world depend on how well the Imperator slept today, is unsatisfactory.
This shows once again that populism, meant as politics without theory is not a solution.
Answer to bad map is good map, not throwing away all maps and just running around in circles.
Eetan
10mo ago
Well, the religious would argue that war, law enforcement and capital punishment are endorsed by the Bible, but euthanasia had no scriptural precedent, except perhaps case of Abimelech.
Eetan
3mo ago
No one even slightly mainstream questions that America in WW2 was good guy.
If "WW2 revisionism" means the idea that the major combatants, Nazis and Soviet, were just about equally bad (Nazis 100% and Soviets 99,9% evil), it is not universal point of view, but, by now, common one that can be published in mainstream academic press.
The implications are now just starting to percolate into mainstream debate, and the question "Was it right choice for High Elves to join fight between Orcs and Ogres, and if so, on whose side? is now open.
Eetan
3mo ago
Putin has zero incentive to agree to any kind of real ceasefire, because he’s about to win the war.
Let's assume that your rosy picture of Russian armed forces is accurate.
Just stay the course, few more months of grind to flatten the Ukraine and it is done. Ukraine army is broken, Zelensky dead or in Florida, Russian flags fly over Kiev and Odessa. It is over.
Now what? The sactions last, new Russian territory is not recognized by the "international community", frontier states are frantically rearming, including nuclear weapons. Hundreds of billions of Russian funds are never going back. Russia won ... patch of devastated land where anyone who could fled and only the elderly pensioners are left.
Putin can present it in TV to Z audience as glorious victory, but that's all.
Eetan
11mo ago
I disagree. Wanting Trump dead is political. But a line has to be drawn somewhere, and you draw it here. I feel it's arbitrary.
Line where free speech ends and crime begins had been drawn, in US, as "incitement to imminent lawless action".
"Billy Bob deserves to be hanged" - free speech.
"Here lives Billy Bob, go and hang him!" - incitement.
Eetan
3mo ago
In this thought experiment, how do you square 'unprecedented GDP growth' with 'ten bucks per hour'?
In this thought experiment, the growth is unprecedented compared to other white countries. Compared to rich blacks who live in big houses, drive big cars and sit in comfy offices doing nothing, your life of menial labor is rather miserable, always had been and always will be.
Eetan
3mo ago
In practice, nuclear weapons have some tactical uses,
In practice, no one knows.
On both sides of iron curtain, thousands of books were written about tactics and strategy of nuclear warfare, but it is all, so far, only theory. It would not be surprising if real WWIII proves all of it as useful as was pre-1914 military science shown useful in WWI.
Eetan
3mo ago
If you want better (but even more provocative and inflammatory) analogy, here is it.
Imagine the world looks as it is, except there is one large country looking like something from far future (Star Trek future, not Mad Max future).
In this land, ordinary menial laborer has big house affordable elsewhere only to millionaires, flying car and personal holodeck entertainment. Even basic health care can treat nearly all illnesses and diseases, including old age. The land is orderly, crime and violence is something unheard of.
What country is it?
It is Israel. Great Messianic Kingdom of Israel from Nile to Euphrates. It is Jewish land, but Gentiles can live there if they know their place.
As Gentile laborer, you live in Gentile community, travel to work and back in your flying car on specially designated Gentile flight tracks, and have to obey and defer to your Jewish bosses. While you have mansion and flying car, every Jew has Versailles sized estate and personal starship. And this is how it always will be. You and your children will be always laborers, will never rise up above their station. This is how G-d wills it.
Will you sign up for this deal?
Alternatively, if the Messiah decides to add country where you live to the Kingdom and bring the Messianic Order there too, will you fight, protest or welcome your G-d ordained overlords?
Eetan
3mo ago
Who cares what Hanania thinks about human excellence? He has (generously) 1/1000th of Elon's following, maybe 1/100,000 of his wealth. Is Hanania running a viable AGI program? Is Hanania building huge rockets? Are Hanania's opinions relevant in world affairs, does he control key communications infrastructure used by armies? Is he doing anything of importance whatsoever?
No one shall care about Hanania, but you should care, if you care about world's affairs at all, if man who does all these things, destroys his brain with drugs and gets all his information from xitter and 4chan shitposters.
Eetan
3mo ago
In this clip, Sam basically fails to articulate a single moral principle beyond "Well, that's just what our society had decided is right and wrong" and when dude says society can change it's mind over time, Sam's only meek response is "Please don't".
Pitiable performance indeed, and the fact that we still have such debates is even more pitiable.
Morality based on divine command is, historically, extremely late development (and it is debatable how effective it was). 2000+ years ago, if someone asked: "Why shouldn't I rob, rape and kill my fellow citizens of my city?" the answer was not "Zeus forbids it" or "After you die, Zeus will torture you forever in Tartarus".
The answer was, TL;DR: "Because good person does not do such things, and you want to be heckin' good person" and "If you are caught, you will be crucified/impaled/skinned alive/fed to wild beasts".
Eetan
3mo ago
What does a durable peace treaty look like these days?
Nonexistant. In the Rules Based Order, wars never end, at best you get cease fire and permanent demilitarized zones.
Eetan
3mo ago
This is all kayfabe, and deal, big beautiful deal, had already been made - deal trading Ukraine for Syria and Iran. The surprising fall of Syrian regime had been only the beginning, and Iran is next on the chopping block.
Just one current puzzle piece supporting this take - not only US and Israel, but Azerbaijan too seems to be readying.
Yes, it is something from Tom Clancy novel - US air, naval and space forces engage in brilliant shock&awe campaign, while mighty Azeri Army rolls to Tabriz and Tehran and inside Iran several unexpected surprises in September 2024 style happen. Freedom wins, bald eagles rejoice, all who remember 1979 get their revenge.
But current world is place where things are against happening in true Hollywood kino way. The new screenwriters hired in 2020 are pros who know their job.
Eetan
3mo ago
If there was a large Jewish community being slaughtered in Syria, Israel would defend them militarily and they’d be right to do it. Christians get slaughtered anywhere in the world and Christian countries actively ignore it and really couldn’t care less. Why would people want to join a faith whose followers can’t be bothered to stand up for each other?
There was large Jewish community in Syria.
It left, mostly to Israel. Israel is defending persecuted Jews by giving them asylum.
By analogy, does Tucker Carlson supports open borders for Christians? Does he advocate that any Christian in the world should be let into United States?
Eetan
10mo ago
There is none.
In 1980's, Soviet system was completely discredited among all classes and strata of population, the more educated the more so. There were not "true believers" anymore, there was no equivalent of people voluntarily defending the Party line (and professional agitators were despised by everyone, including themselves), no equivalent of people sincerely putting "in this house, we believe in the Party" signs.
It was age of universal distrust in any authority (mixed with credulous trust in astrologers, shamans, self proclaimed prophets, faith healers, UFO contactees etc...)
Eetan
2mo ago
Czech Republic (one of the most atheistic countries on earth)
Here come bad news for both atheistic and religious talking points. Czechia (together with former East Germany) is indeed one of world's most atheistic countries.
Atheists would predict it would be earthly paradise of science, logic and reason, theists would predict it would be hell of earth, charnel house of ceaseless rape and murder.
In reality, it is ordinary small European country, not much different from neigboring heavily religious Poland. Maybe the real black pill is that religion (or lack of it) is really not much important.
Eetan
3mo ago
People willing to work for low wages just don’t exist in America.
Well, then capitalist solution is to raise the wages. There is no problem in finding oil workers, no matter how remote is North Dakota and how dirty and dangerous work it is.
Eetan
3mo ago
"Guess which people are more conformist and which are more bold and daring?"
Descendants of serfs who were subjugated to their lords for millenia with little protest, or descendants of peasants who were continuously revolting for all recorded history? Hard guess.
Eetan
3mo ago
Looked up the first person, Jeremy Kaufmann. More recent xeets:
Today I will be doing my duty to help save the word libertarian
Regardless what you think about Ukraine war, this perfect representation of Greedy American stereotype is not the best way to win hearts and minds for cause of libertarianism.
Most generous thing to say is that Mr. Kaufmann should concentrate on New Hampshire gasoline tax and leave world politics to others.
Eetan
2mo ago
Xi is taxing his subjects and giving that tax as a subsidy to his industries
And now China has this industry, that can be in case of need repurposed to, for example, drone industry.
National security was always, since the beginning , the actual reason for protectionism, not "our precious jerbs".
Back in the old times of wooden ships and iron men, shipbuilding in England had no economic sense. Timber, hemp(for ropes), pitch, tar and other naval stores had to be imported from Baltic. It would be economically efficient to build the ships in Sweden and concentrate on wool and cloth production.
(then war would came, and England would have no ships, only sheep)
Eetan
3mo ago
That’s blatantly not true, though.
This is blatantly true, and getting even more true every day. Ruled based order is order of permanent gangrenous wounds that will never heal.
North vs South Korea. Armenia vs AZ. North vs South Cyprus. Israel vs Syria and Lebanon. India vs Pakistan. Etc, etc. There is no active shooting war for most of the time, but there is no peace either, and no hope there will ever be one.
For comparison, see, for example from 19th century, war of 1870. War ended with great victory for Germans, great humiliation for French. France lost two provinces, lots of cash and honor.
What happened afterwards? Peace. Bad feelings remained, but diplomatic relations were restored, French could travel to Germany and vice versa, no walls and barbed wire on the borders. Not thinkable today.
Not that I would expect Russia to pull out in shame.
Do you expect the relationships returning to normal, do you expect the "international community" recognizing that things are back as they were in 2014, only Russia got little bigger.
No. End of the war would mean permanent ceasefire and permanent DMZ, permanent walls and mine fields watched by killer robots. Good for nature and wildlife, not for anyone else.
Eetan
3mo ago
So only pure Anglo-Saxons could be Americans? I am afraid that this ship sailed long ago (it was 1850's sailing ship that brought Irish, Germans and other European riffraff).
Eetan
3mo ago
Continuing my alt hist scenario- epistemic status, considering moving over to an alternate history forum, open to recommendations.
Online oldest and biggest AH place is here but beware. It is extremely PC, woke long before wokeness was a thing, space. Expect to be banned for the slightest infraction (mere mention of HBDIQ concepts, taken for granted here or other rationalist and post rationalist spaces is sufficient). Enter at your risk.
Just one example: short althistorian career of famous Eric S. Raymond
Others- few old time forums and bulletin boards exist.
Only I can think about is Axis History Forum unsurprisingly dedicated to WWII history with lively alt-his subforum. It is nerd paradise, highly technical discussion backed by proper citations is expected (and it is normie place, nothing resembling Nazi apologia and Holocaust revisionism is tolerated).
Eetan
3mo ago
Why is LGBTQ so important for liberals in terms of foreign policy?
Good question.
To steelman it in proper hardcore IR realist style, it is about (Blue)American Empire acquiring permanent class of supporters, collaborators and fifth columnists world wide.
What were German minorities for Third Reich, what were Communist sympathizers for Soviet Union, LGBTQ+ are for Global Rule Based Order. And unlike these, they are permanent presence. You can get rid of ethnic minority, you can get rid even of ideological/religious minority if you are willing to get dirty, but LGBTQ+ are born every day. Even most hard core regimes would balk at gulaging/executing 5% of population in every generation, for forever.
Yes, this sucks if you are LGBTQ+ (or suspected to be one) in unfriendly territory, but it rocks if you are GAE.
Do you believe false things?
You, high IQ, well educated, traveled and read motte denizen, you personally?
Not ordinary mistaken trivia knowledge, for example when you are unsure whether US has 50 or 51 states, or on what continent is New Guinea, but when facts about the world that serve as bedrock of your beliefs that happen to be totally delusionary, at catastrophical odds to reality. Can it happen to you?
It happens frequently. See the famous poll where about one in 20 of "very liberal people" believe that tens of thousands of unarmed blacks are annually killed by police.
For non-US example, see this poll among Palestinians, where one third of population of Gaza believe that Israel has less than 500k inhabitants.
"No, it cannot happen to me! I was trained in martial arts of rationalism by ancient master Yud the Yumongous! I am unstoppable!"
Well, it can happen not only to "brainwashed libtards" or "dumb Ayrabs".
It happened to credentialed rationalist and one of Yud's disciples.
The short xeet that went viral:
Until I was 38 I thought Men's World Cup team vs Women's World Cup team would be a fair match and couldn't figure out why they didn't just play each other
And the long essay where Eneasz Brodski at request of his readers and haters explains how it happened:
How To Believe False Things - by request, this is an explanation of how I got 38 years old believing a match of World Cup men's team vs World Cup women's would be fair.
TL;DR: EB learned about relative strength of men and women as we all learn all things we know. From his own experience, from media, from experts. EB trusted them all, without considering that his experiences could be extremely unrepresentative, media could be completely fictional and experts could just plain lie to his face.
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