InfrequentPoster
Formerly Lurker
No bio...
User ID: 1019
InfrequentPoster
Formerly Lurker
7mo ago
When you say
You know, maybe that would be good advice if the circumstances were different, but you have to remind yourself that picking up 30 year old women who have had multiple partners is signing up for a high divorce rate and possibly raising the children of others.
I think you are misreading what OP said:
find a man who sticks with you for several years (while you are on the pill, and proving he is not a cad), and finally, around 30, get married to a man you TRUST to support you and your children.
The "ideal" state described is not waiting till 30 and then figuring out who to pick. It is to pick around University and stick with your choice. The children (and marriage) wait until the woman feels safe both by herself (that is she has education and a job to support herself and potential children, if something were to happen to her bf/husband) and with her bf/husband. That is he proves that he is reliable etc.
This is certainly not ideal when it comes to having (especially many) kids. The biological window is limited (not only for women). But it is a perfectly rational choice of action fo women if you want to mitigate the risk of having a terrible husband who will not treat you well.
InfrequentPoster
Formerly Lurker
7mo ago
Thank you very much, exactly what I was looking for! I was looking through internet archive version of /r/themotte but did not consider /r/slatestarcodex Obvious in retrospect as I suspected that the term originated with Scott.
InfrequentPoster
Formerly Lurker
7mo ago
I feel like I am misremembering some old version of the rules of this place. The term is "enlightened Buddha principle". It meant something along the lines of: each post has to meet at least 2 out of 3. And I think one was kind, another was necessary, third I am unsure. The sentiment is still present in the rules.
I tried searching but Buddha and enlightenment are such a strong keywords that it overrides most results. LLMs proved useful. And I found Socrates triple filter test:
- Is it true?
- Is it necessary (or useful)?
- Is it kind (spoken with goodwill)?
If a statement can't pass all three it shall not be spoken (posted). So that seems to be close. But it lacks the 2 out of 3 part.
So my question is whether there was such rule? If it was called that? Or am I only misremembering while keeping with the general sentiment?
InfrequentPoster
Formerly Lurker
11mo ago
I had similar thoughts as you a while back. And I have decided against it. Although I do not lack community as much as you seem to. Personally, if you do not think you are capable of belief I think you shouldn't go there. Or at least not with the idea of it being permanent.
You may ask you friend to show it to you. But make it clear you are probably not gonna be religious. And may be you may find some folks who you befriend and then you do stuff with them outside of church?
I have attended a theological seminar instead of church. By the way it was majority atheist I think. It was very interesting. As a life long atheist I learned a lot about Church, faith, bible etc. But it had no affect on my faith. And in some cases the beliefs of religious people felt so alien to me. I learned that even though I usually agreed with them broadly, the reasoning or something felt a little off.
Czech Parliamentary Elections of 2025
On 3rd and 4th of October there were Parliamentary Elections in the Czech Republic. As I was too busy IRL to even place bets, I have decided to do a results review. It has gotten a little late for that also. But today is our Independence Day so I decided to celebrate by writing about our elections.
First and foremost Czech Republic is a parliamentary democracy - think Germany, not US or France. The president is not as important as the Prime minister. So of all the elections these ones probably matter the most as the 200 elected individuals will vote on who will be the members of the next cabinet.
Second, a caveat: I voted for ODS, always had and likely will in the foreseeable future. I will not try to claim that I am impartial. But I will also add that a lot of their voters vote out of civic duty to vote for “lesser evil”. Even though they are angry at many things they did.
Third, some interesting features that may or may not become important later. In order to get into the Parliament your party has to get at least 5% of the vote. Any less and you don't get any seats. Third b) while the word coalition is typically used when forming a cabinet to describe the several parties working together (achieving 50% for one party is mostly unexpected), it is also used as a synonym for electoral alliance. This is interesting because it used to be that a two party coalition had to have 10%, three party 15% etc. But the limits were lowered a bit. And this year the Constitutional Court (basically Supreme Court) said it is OK to cheat it by having candidates from both (or more parties) in one party’s list of candidates. And these are especially interesting as each voter can give 3 preferential votes for individual people. This means that inside these electoral coalitions there is fierce competition.
Now I will try to break down the relevant parties. As you will see, they do not easily break down into traditional left-right divides and I hope some of these combinations will confuse you.
ANO
ANO (literally YES, from the original slogan ‘Yes, it will get better!’). This is a party of Andrej Babiš. He is described as a businessman. While technically true he got rich during Privatization (after the fall of communism the government owned businesses were sold, given to people etc.) likely due to some insider info from his work during communist regime. And his main business is in agriculture (Agrofert) - that is he is heavily reliant on subsidies. Fun fact: his net worth was estimated higher than Trump’s when he was in office and Trump was out. This has likely reversed, totally coincidentally, during the years when he was out of office…
Why am I talking about him and not the political party? Well it is his party, sometimes jokingly described as the political division of Agrofert. And it is also important to understand this party's politics. On wikipedia it is described as right wing or right wing populist. And populist it for sure is. Most easily characterized by his hard critical stance on the EU at home on television while being part of the most basic EU group (ALDE) in EU parliament. This makes sense as he needs to cause no problems lest the EU may stop its funds into the Czech Republic. But he also needs to pander to his euroskeptic voters to have power locally.
But I would describe it as left-wing because he is for more government involvement. E.g. his party is very strong among old people collecting pensions. And pensions are paid (semi-)directly by the government (a relic of communism as no one had the balls to reform it in the last 30 years). He is for increasing pensions, increasing bunch of other spending while magically not needing to make taxes higher. This magic is called government debt… Strongly for Andrej Babiš, and for EU and NATO at least in actions.
SPOLU
SPOLU (literally TOGETHER) is a coalition of 3 parties.
ODS
ODS (Občanská Demokratická Strana, in english: Civic Democratic Party) is a liberal-conservative party (wikipedia lists only conservatism). I would have described them as a mix between GOP and Democrats. This party alone probably has members that have positions of mainstream politicians in the US from both parties. It is probably the only party that at least pays lip service to the economic right wing. But it sometimes feels a little toothless - especially in the now ending cabinet. Strongly for NATO, for Ukraine and for (but critical of) the EU.
KDU-ČSL
KDU-ČSL (Křesťanská a demokratická unie – Československá strana lidová, in english Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party) is THE Christian party for czech voters. I would have described them as Christian Center (maybe even Left, wikipedia says centre to centre-right…). They hover around the 5% necessary for electibility but manage to get excellent results thanks to very loyal voters and large party membership. For the EU (part of the European People’s Party), for NATO and for Ukraine.
TOP 09
TOP 09 (Tradice Odpovědnost Prosperita, lit. 'Tradition Responsibility Prosperity; honestly I doubt most people know this) emerged as an offshoot of KDU-ČSL in 2009. Personally it feels like ODS but significantly more pro EU. And paying even less if any lip service to economic right. It is sometimes described as a party for “city liberals” (or in Czech: “Prague Cafe”). It is also hovering around 5%.
STAN
STAN (Starostové a nezávislí, in english: Mayors and Independents; also coincidentally meaning TENT) is a party that originated from local politics. On wikipedia it is described as center to center-right. Very for the EU, for NATO, for Ukraine. But they feel more center-left. Mainly because their leader takes the issue with muslim immigrant criminality in neighboring countries lightly. I honestly believe that a lot of their voters think about them as much more right than they truly are in practice.
Pirates
Piráti (Czech Pirates Party) is described as center to center-left on wikipedia. And they are basically progressives and liberals. Very for the EU, less enthusiastically for NATO and for Ukraine. They were trying hard to make themselves seem normal and not too progressive. But they put some Greens in their List of candidates. (See the Constitutional Court approved hack). And Greens are a party absolutely no one cares about - except maybe journalists.
Motoristé
Motoristé sobě (Motorists for Themselves, abbr. AUTO, yes literally meaning CAR) is a new party. As the name suggests they are basically anti Green Deal. Especially against ban on motor vehicles with combustion engines, against ETS2 and a lot of other weird EU shenanigans. They are, as the name suggests, a half-meme party. Their Leader (Filip Turek) is a redpill/alpha male podcaster type. He did a Nazi Salute from a car, collects SS knives and has terrible humor on social media. Other significant members tried to pivot (successfully I think) to be perceived as economic right-wing, made sure that criticism of the EU is not perceived as a way of trying to sway to Russia but rather trying to be more like the USA. And trying to brand themselves as harder (more old-school?) ODS - conservative, euroskeptic, economically liberal but also firmly placed in western institutions like NATO and EU. Instead of being perceived as SPD 2
SPD
SPD (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, Freedom and Direct Democracy; not to be confused with German SPD) is described as far-right by Wikipedia and it is led by half-Korean from Japan… Tomio Okamura. I am ok with it being described as far right. You obviously can't expect any form of economic right. Their position is in the opposition where they complain that the government is not doing enough for its people… So they are definitely for bigger government. But otherwise they are anti-immigration, eurosceptic, etc… Their issue is - lack of quality people. Cynically I would say that Tomio Okamura is in it for the money. And similarly to ANO, there is no opposition inside the party to him. I personally doubt that he even wants to be part of the cabinet. He just wants to be in the opposition, complain a lot about the issues and collect a paycheck. I think he must know that while he can complain about the issues he might not have any good solutions. For a referendum about EU membership (that's where the direct democracy comes from) maybe even NATO. But as there is no demand for the referendum elsewhere even if they would be held I do not think it would endanger our membership. Not anti-Ukraine per se but “for Czechs” that likely means cutting support for Ukraine as it is deemed unnecessary. And some of its voters may be explicitly for Russia but their members exclaim at most, some kind of ambivalent position… BTW in fear of losing relevance they put some other small national parties (with no chance of getting 5%) on their list of candidates.
Stačilo!
Stačilo! (Enough!) are left to far left according to wikipedia… They are COMMUNISTS. Literally. Self-described. Not some “postmodern marxists” but the same party that ruled here during communism… Ok well technically it is a coalition (using the hack approved by court, so they only need 5%) of traditional (now irrelevant, because their voters were taken by ANO) left wing party ČSSD (and their of-shoot Social Democracy) and several other irrelevant left-wing parties. But it is lead by KSČM (Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy, Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia) that is also described by left-wing to far-left by wikipedia. Now come on! If there is some party that is unambiguously far left it may be the party that ruled here during communism. The leader of this “party” is Kateřina Konečná. She is quite capable of compromise both in EU parliament and in creating this unified left-wing block. Funnily enough it is said that if Czech businesses need something with EU parliament she is a go to person.
Probably the only party that seriously questions NATO membership. Not as seriously questioning EU membership. Ambivalent in the Ukraine - Russia conflict. Before the war they would present as more for Russian (likely due to nostalgia for Soviet times) but since then they have mellowed. Definitely far-left, definitely not progressive, some would even say conservative.
Results
Who would you choose in such a varied landscape? Well the Czechs chose as follows:
The big message of these results is that the Czech voter saw (rebranded) communists polling at 6-7% and said ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT and cast a vote for someone else. This is one thing that gives me optimism for the future. Now the votes cast may not have been the wisest but the results are OK. I will list who are the losers and winners of these elections, further trajectory and (most importantly) who will be making the next cabinet and what to expect from it.
Losers
Performed as expected
STAN, TOP09 and in some sense KDU-ČSL
Winners
Since ANO has only 80 seats it will need a partner to form a cabinet. Or at least someone who will vote for their minority cabinet. I am not sure what Andrej Babiš was hoping for but my biggest fear was ANO + SPD + stačilo!. It may seem unlikely because it is far-right + far-left but I definitely saw it as a possibility. Right now there is really only one possibility: ANO + SPD + AUTO. As the so called demo-block (“democratic parties”), ODS, KDU-ČSL, TOP09, STAN, and Pirates, are all opposed to working with ANO. And ANO is opposed to working with them. SPOLU’s entire brand is to be anti-Babiš. Worked great last time when he was prime minister. Not so much now.
The current prime minister Petr Fiala, leader of ODS and SPOLU, has already said he plans to give up his position as the leader and ODS will vote on new leaders early next year. We will see what wing of ODS will take power next. But I feel a lot of members feel like Motoristé should not exist - these should be voting for ODS. Personally I feel that the SPOLU brand is coming to an end. This just makes ODS more like TOP09 and that party is hovering under 5%. I expect a shift toward more conservatism and more economically right wing policies and especially more euroscepticism.
Did not hear similar sentiments from KDU-ČSL or TOP09, their voting on their leaders is early next year or late this year. But both were quite successful but there may be other wings in their parties who may think otherwise. STAN will likely stay on course. Similarly Pirates - their current and ex leader worked in unison these elections and the results are ok. So there is unlikely to be any dissenting view demanding the leaders give up their positions. But I wonder if the other men, the ones that got skipped by women, will not become bitter. Quietly withdraw, lower their effort or leave the Pirate party.
So far the negotiations seem like the SPD have folded easily. Getting President of the Chamber of Deputies for Tomio Okamura and some "independent experts” (that is ones approved by ANO but also SPD) for 3 ministries. Seemed liked ok as they do not feel very strong and may have internal issues on deciding who should be nominated. But the ministries are:
And Motoristé seem to be able to negotiate following ministries:
And ANO gets to keep:
I will conclude that I do not have high expectations of this newly forming cabinet. I will likely not be proven wrong. Membership in NATO and EU is not endangered. I welcome some amount of euroscepticism, though I doubt Babiš is strong enough to do more than to complain. We will likely get into more debt (we had even in this current cabinet). But Motorists are presenting themselves as winners and hopefully this will at least a little influence the cabinet to not be totally socialist. We will see how hard they can negotiate with ANO or how serious they are about what they say.
Apologies for such a long post, had I had more time I would have shortened it. Questions are welcome, and so is criticism of my characterization of people or parties, grammar, or formatting.
More options
Context Copy link