Eetan
1mo ago
I'm generally a fan of "blurry" definitions where something can qualify as X if it fulfills a few of many criteria.
I am generally a fan of strict and exact legal definitions of identity X, if X is supposed to give you considerable legal privileges and perks.
Without these priviliges, the story would be just tale of personal misfortune. Imagine you are emo (imagine there are still such things as emos) , you dress like emo, you listen to emo music, you go to emo concerts.. but you are one day expelled by your emo friends for not being a real emo.
Tragedy for you, if you based your whole personal self worth of being emo and being seen as one, but no one outside emo community would care.
Now, imagine that emos are seen as oppressed minority and there are designated hiring quotas, tax breaks for emo owned businessed and other benefits, while it is unclear what exactly "emo" means.
See this for introduction into the unholy mess what current American racial law classification is.
Eetan
1mo ago
If you want to change things, if you want your cause win, yes, complaining online (or offline) solves nothing. You should become part (or full) time activist and dedicate your life to educating, agitating and organizing. Of course, there will be very substantial costs to be paid for very unclear benefits (most causes in history failed badly, most idealists wasted their lives for nothing).
You do not have to start from point zero - all causes you listed aready have many people fighting for them.
But what's the point?
This place is not activist space, this place is debate space for curious people who want to understand how the world where they live works.
Eetan
1mo ago
I can scarcely put into words my profound disappointment and heartbreak learning that the CHIPs act was killed by DEI bullshit.
@DaseindustriesLtd disproven again, there are no traces of any secret cabal keeping things under control. "Von Neumanns" are not in politics (and if they are, they are busy maneuvering to climb as high as possible and divert as much money and resources for themselves as possible).
As said Dominic Mckenzie Cummings, someone with extensive experience in government:
You might think somewhere there must be a quiet calm centre like in a James Bond movie where you open the door and that is where the ninjas are who actually know what they are doing.
There are no ninjas. There is no door.
No God, no Caesar, no hero is going to save us, we are on our own.
Eetan
1mo ago
We may be seeing the GOP becoming pro-China in real time.
We may be seeing the US becoming Brezhnev time Soviet Union in real time.
Remember when American culture ruled supreme, when other countries banned American movies, music and other cultural artefacts, including blue jeans? Remember when other countries tried at enormous expense stop American cultural influence?
And remember when the bans were not respected by anyone and widely disobeyed?
Now the shoe is on the other foot.
DO YOU WANT OUR YOUNG PEOPLE LISTEN TO FILTHY CAPITALIST RADIO? ARE YOU A TRAITOR TO OUR GLORIOUS WORKER COUNTRY?
What you want is immaterial. Young people want their TikTok and will do what it takes to get it, including installing and configuring VPN. Yes, only minority is going to do it, but active minority is what always mattered.
Eetan
1mo ago
"Comrades! It must be a mistake! I am lifelong revolutionary, old party member, decorated war veteran and distinguished worker, no way I can be a fascist spy!"
What could and should be outsider reaction to such situation, except good and hearty laughter?
Eetan
1mo ago
Understanding what is going on, understanding that the experts are not to be trusted, understanding that the elites are not the best and brightest, understanding that the authorities are not there to serve and protect you, can make very real difference in your personal life, even if you are alone or one among very few with such understanding.
Eetan
1mo ago
Look, I love Baldur's Gate as much as the next DnD geek, but its writing on its own was not very good. I love Ed Greenwood and Forgotten Realms as a setting (I am currently running a DnD game set near Neverwinter right now) but his writing is, well saying derivative is putting it very kindly.
Yea, worldbuilding and attention to detail are Ed's strenghts, if you like fantasy kitchen sink world of pseudohistorical cultures where everyone has lots of fun.
Ed answering his fans questions on Realms discussion forum, Twitter or Discord is example of this creativity.
"Dear Ed, in 1992 supplement "The Shithole Lands" in chapter five "The Plague Swamp" on page 142 there is map of town of Rotting Hollow. On the map key number 116 marks house of Grug the Grumpy. Who is Grug and what happened to him he is so crotchety?"
And Ed immediately answers with long detailed treatise about Grug, his origins, his family, his friends, his exploits, his business deals, his hobbies and his sex life.
Eetan
6mo ago
No good news are coming from anywhere, whether from culture wars or the real ones. As fitting for Friday the 13th.
Except one thing that is large, and good.
First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll by 21yo computer science student
For ancient history nerds, this is big, really big. Imagine how will space nerds feel if/when Elon delivers what he promised and gets his Starship to the orbit. This big.
So what is the hype about?
Ancient books were in form of scrolls made of papyrus that had to be constantly rolled and unrolled in order to be read. This was hard on the material, and ancient books had limited shelf time(pun intended).
Ancient libraries needed constant recopying of books to stay functional, and this was laborious and expensive (no need to blame Christians or Muslims for destruction of ancient literature, ordinary daily wear and tear would be sufficient). No surprise that new revolutionary technology of bound book took the world by storm.
All ancient libraries are long gone - except one, found in Herculaneum under 100 feet of volcanic ash. And not ordinary library, but library of wealthy Roman, owner of one of most luxurious villas known from the Roman Empire.
You can visit modern replica in California.
Nearly two thousands of ancient scrolls, unfortunately they now looked like this.
For 250 years, ancient history nerds didn't gave up and tried to find ways to read the scrolls. Mostly destructive ways
Since their discovery, previous attempts used rose water, liquid mercury, vegetable gas, sulfuric compounds, papyrus juice, or a mixture of ethanol, glycerin, and warm water, in hopes to make scrolls readable.
but they sometimes worked.
By the middle of the 20th century, only 585 rolls or fragments had been completely unrolled, and 209 unrolled in part. Of the unrolled papyri, about 200 had been deciphered and published, and about 150 only deciphered.
Now we can finally do better. So what can we hope for?
Do not expect lost masterpieces of classical literature.
Owner of the library was single mindedly dedicated to philosophy, particularly Epicurean philosophy. Expect more writings by Philodemus of Gadara, Zeno of Sidon and Epicurus himself.
Epicureans, these pig ignorant fedora atheists whose teachings can appeal only to the worst degenerates, as Stoics, Jews and Christians said (and as their major competitors, they had to know best)?
(after 2000 years, "epicurean" is still insult used for secular Jews by their observant brothers)
Or Epicureans, founders of science and inventors of modern enlightened values?
The revival of Epicureanism in the 17th century coincided with the growth of scientific rationalism and classical liberalism. There can be no doubt these facts are connected. It may, indeed, be argued that the first was a leading cause of the second two, and that we are now living in a world shaped, in every worthwhile sense, by the ideas of Epicurus.
We could finally find out, we could read Epicurus' and Epicureans own words instead of fragments and more or less hostile refutations. For true ancient history nerd, this would be as exciting as finding new poem by Sappho or new play by Euripides.
Eetan
3mo ago
What this really just reminds me of is that we really are, de facto, still living in the greatest time of free speech and free exchange of ideas ever.
Greatest time of free speech in history? In US, it was the sixties/seventies. Anything went at the time.
Porn of any kind? Go ahead.
Racism, fascism, antisemitism and bigotry in general? All fine.
Anti government and anti military propaganda, up to open incitement to desertion and mutiny in wartime? No problem.
Stolen top secret documents? No internet yet, you have to print them in newspaper to get them to the public. Nothing will happen to you.
Eetan
3mo ago
And now some news from Ukraine: Gonzalo Lira is dead.
More details about his demise in Ukrainian prison.
You probably heard about him. Former pickup artist guru who turned into journalist/propagandist lambasting Ukraine and Zelensky - from Ukraine in war time. Whatever you think about him and his opinions, this tooks serious guts (and GL was well aware of the risks).
English Wikipedia finds him not enough notable and deleted him at 4th attempt, but, strangely enough, simple English Wikipedia keeps his article.
Now, he is notable enough to be noticed by Tucker Carlson and notable enough make it to Twitter worldwide trends (as for now), notable enough to be added as another reason for Red tribe to oppose supporting Ukraine.
Not smart move from Ukrainian government. You gained a little bit of sadistic revenge and even smaller bit of intimidation of people inside Ukraine (who already know well what will happen to them if they open their mouth too much). You lost rather bigger piece of credibility with people whose support you desperately need.
RIP Coach Red Pill. Whatever you were in your life, now you are symbol and martyr.
Eetan
3mo ago
Yes, list of banned books should contain books that are actually banned now and here, not in 18th century.
Maybe the books should be sorted by tiers.
Brass: Not found on Amazon
Bronze: Not found in large university library
Silver: Not found in Library of Congress
Gold: Not found on libgen and similar pirate sites
Diamond: Possession will send you to prison in Western country
Eetan
1mo ago
Well. the usual suspects are worried about them.
The truth is that there are few tools for removing Confederate monuments on private land. And frankly, even if constitutionally permissible, it may be unwise to try to limit landowners having the freedom to build monuments (regardless of the subject matter) on their land. However, this Article urges local governments to consider ways to minimize the impacts of such monuments.
Eetan
1mo ago
Rent a warehouse. Make a museum.
There are more (privately owned) Confederate museums and monuments than ever before.
Shame that Christianity that sees Jews as "Christkillers" is dead and Christianity that sees Jews as "beloved elder brothers" and "forever Chosen people" is growing by leaps and bounds world wide.
Eetan
1mo ago
The mainstream debate and the structures attempting to enforce the issues are so far out of touch with the realities of the situation that their ignorance is probably actively dangerous to our society's continued function.
And it is not about gun issue alone. The best and brightest's understanding of crucial science, technology, energy, military, health, environment etc. issues is on the same level. Evil masterminds exist only in movies and comic books.
His memoirs
"anarchist" who sees long dead penny ante dictator as divine being? Why not, point of real free speech is the opportunity to hear all voices!
Or any of the dozens of works he published.
If it proves anything, it proves that Pinochet memes are just garbage memes and no one really gives a fuck about El Presidente.
Any shit tier Japanese hentai manga is pirated and put online with fan made English (and Russian and Chinese and Korean) translation in few days after publication, for free, only from pure fannish devotion.
The Marxists had extensive online library of their classics as long as Internet was a thing.
The archive was created in 1990 by a person — known only by their Internet tag, Zodiac — who started archiving Marxist texts by transcribing the works of Marx and Engels into E-text, starting with the Communist Manifesto. In 1993 the accumulated text was posted on a gopher site at csf.colorado.edu. Volunteers joined and helped spread and mirror the main archive.
Where are Pinochet's fans? Why aren't they preserving and spreading gospel of their guru? Either they do not exist, or they are completely useless.
Even Pinochet himself didn't GAF. He could order his collected works to be translated to major world languages and distributed world wide to enlighten all mankind.
ALBANIA did it. No excuse for Chile.
Anyway, in age of internet, all this complaining that "banned books" are not printed by anyone is as obsolete as steam locomotive.
Do you think there is some obscure but important book that should be available to the world?
Put it on libgen.
You personally.
In the worst case, potato phone copy made in library.
Yes, many libraries today do allow photography. And even if they do not, perk of being anarchist is that you do not have to ask for permission.
It is not hard, there are people with nothing than little money and university library card who are doing it in their free time, these people made libgen into what it is.
Information does not want to be free.
Autistic obssessives want information to be free.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
edit: links, links, links linked up properly
Eetan
3mo ago
Big Bang
Theory of expansion of universe was formulated by Catholic priest and met, at first, with very strong opposition from "rational materialists" who saw it being too similar to biblical story of creation.
"Big Bang" name itself was coined as derogatory nickname.
Nevertheless, rational people, whether materialists or idealists, accepted it because the evidence is overwhelming.
Eetan
3mo ago
What I mean by all this is that it’s entirely possible Europeans have higher prosocial genes due to 1400 years of evolutionary selection, that this is pro-civilizational, but that our current “widget meritocracy” is ultimately anti-civilizational because it rewards self gain through widget production which (because cognition is zero sum) necessarily punishes those with substantive moral feelings.
If Christianity helped to spread "prosocial genes" in population, we would observe that people who were Christian the longest - Greeks, Sicilians, Southern Italians, Spanish and other Mediterrannean peoples - would be the most "prosocial" and people who were Christian only for short time - Nordic and Baltic peoples - would be wild raging two legged beasts.
Do we observe it?
Eetan
5mo ago
Since special thread dedicated to current Middle Eastern issues fell into abeyance, I am posting latest war culture war report from the scorching sands of Middle East cold and brutal streets of Gotham City.
And the latest victim of the war is one Stuart Seldowitz, former humanitarian diplomacy consultant, National Security Council member and deputy director of the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs,who fell in glorious struggle against terrorism was arrested by NYPD for persistent harrassment of halal food street vendor.
In one widely shared video, Seldowitz is heard to ask the unidentified vendor: “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” In another, he states: “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough.”
When the vendor says he doesn’t speak English, Seldowitz laughs and says, “That’s why you’re selling food in a food cart, because you’re ignorant,” before suggesting that the vendor will be deported to Egypt and tortured by intelligence agents.
“The mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents,” Seldowitz said in the video. “Does your father like his fingernails? They will take them out one by one.” The vendor is heard asking Seldowitz to “please go” and saying that he would call the police.
An NYPD spokesperson told the outlet that they are aware of the videos and monitoring the situation but that no reports had been filed. The woman who posted the videos, who is believed to be a social activist and Columbia University graduate, said Seldowitz had been harassing the vendor for weeks.
According to some reports, the street vendor was allegedly previously tearing down posters with dead and kidnapped Israelis.
Whole incident was covered on dead bird site in every possible angle, if you are even only casual deadbirders, you already learned about it and made your own minds.
What is my take?
In the best possible world, no one would be tearing these posters, because there would be no such posters on the streets of Gotham City, because whole world, including Middle East, would live in peace and harmony, there would be no wars, no one would be killed, no one would be kidnapped, no house would be bombed or bulldozed.
In the second best possible world, no one would be tearing these posters, because there would be no such posters on the streets of Gotham City, because no one living in Gotham City would care enough about some war going on the other side of the world to deface their beloved city.
In the third best possible world, no one would be tearing these posters, because there would be no such posters on the streets of Gotham City, because laws of Gotham City against posting and graffiti would be strictly enforced and people splattering around unauthorized posters and leaflets would be fined (and, in case of repeated and persistent vandalism, deported from the city).
Well, we do not live in any of these worlds.
Eetan
5mo ago
It's insane that any GoF research is allowed in the first place. Those jokers aren't even doing it to create new vaccines?
This is the most blackpilling thing about the whole COVID incident.
Modern apocalyptic and post apocalyptic science fiction was wrong. Armageddon will not come because of power hunger of big governments or greed of mega corporations.
Old time pulp fiction was wrong too. Armageddon will not come becaue of brilliant and audacious plans of genius mad scientist, and definitely will not be averted at last minute by slack jawed Action Hero.
Apocalypse will come due to few hundred, thousand at most, rather mediocre people, people with names, faces and adresses out there who are not protected and hiding at all, playing russian roulette with all mankind, openly and brazenly.
For ultimate power? For unlimited wealth? To create paradise on earth? To have revenge on the whole world?
Nope. They do it to publish few articles no one will ever read in prestigious journals to burnish their citation metrics. Nothing personal, just scientific bureaucratic process working as intended.
And mankind as a whole is fine with it.
Everything keeps going, everyone is waiting for the next oops.
Only reaction, after three years so far, is ... one country's proposal to stop public funding of this pastime. Better than nothing, but not by very much.
Conclusion: Just stop worrying. Humanity is NGMI, and fully deservedly so.
Eetan
3mo ago
Does anyone have a link to a sincere presentation of the case for him being a federal agent? Googling it literally only shows references to a “debunked far-right conspiracy theory” but not one genuine presentation of it from a right-leaning source
Check https://revolver.news/
Eetan
6mo ago
I am surprised that no one yet opened the most inflammatory aspect of the latest events in Israel. So I am going to do it.
Who if not me, when if not now?
So why it happened? It happened as it happened because, in words of our friends in US Dept of Justice: Israel Has a Successful Gun Control Policy.
Yes, it is from 1992, but things changed little since then. Israel has strict gun laws and they work as intended. Israel has 6,7 guns per 100 inhabitants, very good 108th place in the world. Just 2.1 more than David Hogg heaven land England and Wales, considered to be gun control movement dream and aspiration.
It is easy to understand why we do not hear about Israeli gun laws.
People who do not like guns usually do not like Israel either and would loathe to praise anything coming from there. The same reason why we never heard about Israeli health care or Israeli abortion laws despite that they would make excellent talking point for Blues against Israel loving Reds.
And people who like guns usually like Israel too (while knowing about it only from dank memes that show it as tough nation armed to the teeth).
So, you want to ask, you are blaming the victims? How dare you?
The Israelis were told by their government: "Millions of people who want to kill you live near your homes separated by wire fence. Do not panic and do not prepare to defend yourselves. Your government and your army will protect you, nothing can happen. Fear that they will cross the fence and slaughter you in your own homes is absurd and delusional. Do not be conspiracy theorist, do not be extremist, trust the plan". And, being normal human beings, they trusted because the government was right so far, because nothing happened so far. This is normal human nature, no one to blame.
Now, when something happened, and if nothing changes and Israelis will continue trusting their government as previously, yes I will blame them, and you shall too.
Are there signs that something is changing?
Looks like it.
https://thereload.com/israeli-loosens-gun-carry-rules-after-unprecedented-terror-attack/
Any citizen who meets the detailed tests for carrying a private firearm due to self-defense and serving the security forces and is without a criminal or medical record will be required to undergo a telephone interview instead of a physical interview
What are the tests?
Residence in an eligible settlement, rifle veterans 07 and above, officers in the rank of lieutenant and above and combatants in the rank of major and above in the IDF and the security forces, service in special units, firefighters, policemen, and workers and volunteers in the rescue forces
So very generous. And, in addition, citizens will be able to purchase, instead of previous fifty, whole ONE HUNDRED rounds of ammo! Yay!
Eetan
1mo 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
1mo 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.
No idea if eternal spy and counterspy cat and mouse game counts as part of culture wars, but here are some recent news from this area.
1/Teixeira leaks were discussed here when they happened, here is the resolution of the case.
We would all agree that 16 years of maximum security prison is price worth paying to impress your gamer buddies in Thug Shaker Central Discord.
2/In related news, important US Foreign Service officer, former ambassador to Bolivia was uncovered to be lifelong spy for ... Cuba.
Another source.
Do not laugh, Cuban DI counts among the better ones in the spook world, infiltrating Washington DC previously while running circles aroud US agents in Cuba. US is rather lucky that Cuba is shithole in every other measure.
3/Another, more pedestrian case of desperate American greed and disgraceful Chicom penny pinching. Surely US top secrets are worth more that $42,000? What insult.
Conclusion: US security is as big shitshow as it had always been. No loyalty (if you keep back stabbing everyone who trusts you, what could you expect), no grand idea inspiring self sacrificing volunteers and no rewards for service either.
Good that any superpower or wannabe superpower competitors are even worse. Notoriously insular Chinese who understand nothing about outside world and have to rely on cash and Chinese ethnic ties, and the less said about Russian Petrov & Boshirov clown show, the better.
Unlike the great and tragic struggle of the First Cold War, the second one is going to be slapstick comedy. Freedom and Democracy (TM) vs. Bright Communist Future(TM) are over.
LGBTQ+BLM vs Xi Jinping Thought is the game now. Enjoy the show.
edit: links now work
More options
Context Copy link