HughCaulk
4mo ago
I think Vance’s speech was more for Americans back home. As an “American back home” it was pretty epic and satisfying. Euros do need a wake up call. We are expected to contribute more than required to NATO, and the countries we are allied with don’t even support our most basic freedom of free speech? I’m not sure about that anymore…
HughCaulk
4mo ago
The UK seems to be in a really horrible and sad spot. Personally I would leave. From banning encryption, kitchen knives, to spending the money from an outrageous tax system on bringing in Muslims who don’t care a lick about western society. The weather isn’t even pleasant!
Is this was happens in Europe though? You go from turbo hivemind cucked socialism and then going to swing aggressively right into strong ethno-nationalism and provoke WWIII? History would make that seem so
HughCaulk
4mo ago
Good observation and a wild one. Humans clearly get a high from moralizing and climbing social hierarchies (ie: “own the libs”) versus actually achieving more material or physically grounded success.
His example of taxes is a good one. Especially on the west coast, most people think logically that taxes are too high, they make the cost of living extremely difficult in California, etc. But when it comes time to actually endorse or vote for a new tax hike, the moral framing is like catnip and people cannot resist. More money for schools! Homeless need housing! Screw the 1%!
From an evolutionary perspective, it must be such that “status in tribe” > “status of physical possessions”, since this trait seems engrained in nearly everyone, to varying degrees.
Climbing the social ladder is truly the most Lindy conflict game that exists
HughCaulk
4mo ago
I think the immense propaganda to get vaccinated and stfu should tell you something, and a curious rationalist should wonder why there is this pressure for vaccines and no other medical intervention or medicine?
If I say “I don’t believe in antibiotics, I won’t be giving my kids any” generally people are like “lol weird but ok”. “I don’t believe in braces, teeth with straighten themselves out over time” … “haha ok good luck”
Why is it totally different about vaccines? I believe it’s because there are way more side effects than stated, and pharmaceutical companies make more money than god by mandating they go into everyone’s arm starting from birth. Therefore requiring heavy propaganda and narrative control campaigns.
Last thing I’ll say: clearly you are the type of person who strongly enforces the “right” point of view and socially polices other people’s takes on vaccines. If I had a vaccine side effect and you were my friend, I’d probably be mum about it
HughCaulk
4mo ago
I think you can use this sort of pseudo-science to justify vaccines post hoc. You can also use the same pseudo-science to justify not taking them at all.
I know quite a few people who got lasting side effects from the Covid vax, and it’s nearly heretical to talk about it. (These are people I know IRL, not internet reports) That alone makes me extremely skeptical about anyone saying how there are ~zero risks from any and all vaccines. Why is there a giant propaganda campaign to cover up the risks? Am I just some crazy statistical outlier who knows 3+ people very closely who’ve been vaccine maimed, even though it “hardly ever occurs” in the general population? I wouldn’t bet on that
HughCaulk
4mo ago
Twitter turned into giga rage bait recently. Avoid! I say this as someone mildly sympathetic to many current day right wing causes too…
These social media apps need to have user-customizable algorithms. I want to see mostly non-political niche hobby content. Not mass engagement rage slop. I’m sure in the short term this maximizes user-seconds, but at some point people just quit. Does anyone really need to be on twitter?
HughCaulk
4mo ago
” the real community of rationalists has a high fraction of people who are not quite the independent thinkers resilient to social pressure they make themselves out to be“
… just figuring this out? I love the rationalist movement and read a lot of blogs/forums, but it totally falls apart once they start dealing with anything politically charged or that’s socially highly controversial.
A good example is Scott Alexander’s post after the election, where he basically said “I adamantly refuse to believe polymarket was correct by giving odds at 60-40 and the true odds were 50-50” really showed this to me. After the biggest right wing blow out election in recent history, you can’t accept one party had the odds going into it?
…anyways, many such examples, but it’s important to see this movement for what it is. Just so happened that the Rationalists, from Berkeley, rationally thought themselves into taking left wing stances on most all the controversial issues of ours time… right
No I truly believe euros think that “hate speech” doesn’t qualify for free speech protections and that insulting a politician is acceptably “hateful”.
I think it will keep getting worse and worse there until the euros completely freak out and swing towards ethno-nationalism, remilitarize and start WWIII. Doesn’t seem like they are good at moderating their political fads and always bring it too far in one direction
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