JarJarJedi
Streamlined derailments and counteridea reeducation
User ID: 1118
JarJarJedi
18hr ago
the Israeli Arabs aren't enthusiastic participants in the Zionist project.
Depending on what you mean by "Zionist project". Majority of Israeli Arabs are very happy to live in a relatively well-off Westernized country, with working courts, police, social lifts, opportunities and, not to forget, welfare. Now, they may claim they don't get a fair share of the pie (whatever that may be) and in some cases, they'd be correct (and in some other cases, it'd be their own fault). But they still are getting much better deal than many of their peers in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan or PA, to say nothing of Gaza - and they know it. Now, do they identify with the dream of Hertzl and Ben Gurion? Nah, not so much. But they are willing to work with what they've got. Of course, there are others that want Israel destroyed - but even of those most, if examined, would in fact wish something like "we'd like things to stay mostly the same, but with us in change instead of the Jews". Not many want to become Gaza or Lebanon.
I don't think many leftists actually want it. Not least because the Palestinians would lose.
That's the point. They want the war which Palestinians would not lose. And this war can only look one way. We saw that way on October 7, 2023. And the left massively confirmed, by their own volition, that this is exactly what they wanted.
JarJarJedi
18hr ago
I wish... I am much-more-that-sixteen-years old, in perpetual self-doubt and have very limited free time. Sigh.
JarJarJedi
18hr ago
I'm not sure how that works. If somebody drove by my house and called me anything, I'd never know - it's impossible to hear such a sound from inside the house, especially from the driving vehicle. And my house is pretty modest with a small front yard. If the Governor's house has a front yard even a little bigger, and Waltz is not spending his days standing at the edge of his property attentively listening to whatever people in cars passing by might say, this is physically impossible.
This is Governor's residence: https://mn.gov/admin/governors-residence/ - I don't think it's even possible to "drive by" it it a way that somebody inside would even notice you. I assume he also might have a personal house, as he must have lived somewhere before he became the governor? I am not sure how to find how it looks like, but he should not be there now anyway I assume?
Of course, the simplest version remains that he is lying, and not even bothering to make it sound plausible? Why bother? His tribe will believe anything he says, and the other tribe will believe nothing. No reason to spend extra effort polishing a lie.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
derives solely from their overall anti-colonialist tendency
Not solely. "Anti-colonialism" is part of it, even though the idea that Jews, who lived in that land literally before recorded history became a thing, are somehow "colonizers", and Muslims, who arrived much recently, many - more recently than Europeans arrived to Americas and Africa - are "indigenous", is supremely idiotic and counter-factual. But that has never been an obstacle for the Left. However, Israel and Jews are subject to a special type of vitriol which is not seen towards, say, Belgians or English or French or Dutch. Who actually colonized and subjugated massive amount of people and countries, and some of them continue to keep colonies (same can be said about the US, tbh, I mean Puerto Rico? Hawaii? Samoa?) - and yet you don't see Belgians demonized around the planet because of that they did to Congo. You don't see Japanese vilified because of what happened in China and Korea. I'm not calling for all that to happen - I am just observing, that Israel is definitely being singled out, and any Jew who is not actively working for the Party - and some that do - is subject to attack for it. And the conclusion is unescapable - the "anti-colonialism" is at best a convenient excuse. The reason must be deeper.
JarJarJedi
3d ago
another way I would formulate their point is "the 'trans cult' is not relevant to the average trans person
Trans cult is relevant to the society and thus to the trans person as part of that society. Yes, "internet crazies, goofy academics" etc. are not the only part of the debate - but also the "trans cult" is way bigger than a couple of crazies and some goofy professor in some obscure classroom. It's something that dictates day to day policy on the ground - and very successfully at that, I am not seeking that stuff out specifically and yet I read about various scandals related to trans issues pretty much every week. If I were a female, the question of "if I go to a locker room, will I encounter there a bearded man with his penis out looking at me undress" would be a very practical question for me now, and a question of "if I am a female athlete, is the second place the best I can hope for now, and how soon before it becomes fifth place or I get seriously hurt" is a practical one too. And none of these questions are really answered by "yes, there's such a condition as gender dysphoria".
JarJarJedi
3d ago
A lot of the debate around being trans - e.g. are trans women truly women? Do people have an “inner gender identity”?
I'm sure some of the debate concerns these points. But the trans debate includes much more than that, and the "trans cult" demands much more than agreeing about "inner identity".
But debates like “a woman is an adult who produces large gametes, so trans women aren’t women” versus “no, a woman is anybody who identifies as one”, would have no bearing on the above
On the above no, because people are free to have "inner identity" completely untethered to any real events or facts. I could think I am actually a teapot, and nothing in medical science would convince me otherwise. There's no argument that may prevent me from feeling this way, and there's no argument that can prove I am not, in my deep inner thoughts, consider myself a teapot. There's nothing to debate here - either I think this way, or I don't, and if I do, then I do, there's nothing to debate. The debate is about what does this mean and what consequences and actions are appropriate for the society to take in this situation. And to that debate, of course, a lot more things than "could some people in their inner thoughts think they are other things than they are" have bearing. We know for a fact that yes, people can have "inner thoughts" that disagree with objective reality. The question is what to do about it. And to that question, saying "yes, could be are such thoughts" advances us very little towards the answer.
it wouldn’t matter to the practical reality of treating gender dysphoria
Of course it would matter, since there are multiple ways to treat a medical condition. But also you just said that "average trans person" and "person having gender dysphoria" is not the same thing, so if we talk about the whole debate, it would of course also matter whether or not we are dealing with actual medical condition in a particular case - even while we recognize the actual medical condition is real.
JarJarJedi
3d ago
I doesn't disprove 1, it does disprove the claim that GD being a medical condition has relevance on the discussion of "trans cult" and "average trans person".
JarJarJedi
3d ago
The claim I am addressing is:
Gender dysphoria is a genuine medical condition and even you write a the perfect rationalist takedown of the “trans cult”, it wouldn’t change anything for the average trans person
If you are only arguing point 1, then gender dysphoria being a genuine medical condition does not support the "trans cult" and has little bearing to the discussion about the cult and the "average trans person", because as you yourself said, the cult's claims go way beyond medical conditions, and they also do not identify "average trans person" with one having the condition. So it's like saying "vitiligo is a real medical condition" and arguing that is a very important insight into racial relationships in the US. Yes, it also about skin color, but it's completely different issue.
JarJarJedi
3d ago
Gender dysphoria is a genuine medical condition and even you write a the perfect rationalist takedown of the “trans cult”, it wouldn’t change anything for the average trans person.
You put several claims into one sentence:
- There is a genuine medical condition called "gender dysphoria"
- It's the same condition "trans cult" is concerned with
- The concerns of "trans cult" are purely medical and only go as far as medical necessities for the above-mentioned condition go.
- "Average trans person" is the person who has the genuine medical condition above, and in fact, every person that declares oneself "trans person" is automatically suffers from that condition by virtue of that declaration
- There is no other way to treat this condition except by accepting the demands of "trans cult"
- The treatment above is a necessity for an "average trans person" and without it they would suffer objective grave harm
Obviously, some of these claims could be true without others being true at the same time. I could probably grant you 1 and maybe a part of 2, but others are in no way a given.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
Which "combat"? There's no "combat" between a narco-boat in the middle of the sea and a drone flying a mile overhead. If anything, the "combat" began is when the drone operator identified the target, and it ends when the target is destroyed. Saying it in a fancy way doesn't change anything.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
I note you aren't claiming that they use the word Jews when hating them
That's good, because I said it at least twice :)
It's easy to believe that Muslims do, but then I also don't really count them as leftists.
Why not? They certainly vote for the same candidates and policies other Leftists do, and participate in the same party, so who are they if not?
In an event that wasn't targeted against specifically Israel, right? Right?
Exactly. They couldn't care less if a particular Jew ever been to Israel, what opinion they'd have on Israel and what influence on Israel beating up and throwing out of campus of this particular Jew would have (none). They just hated the Jew.
Again, I define antisemitism as the phenomenon of hatred against Jews as the whole group.
That's a bad definition. If you hate all the Jews but the one, then you aren't antisemite? If you have all the Jews but Naturei Karta, then you aren't antisemite? Nah, you still are. People are always inconsistent, even Nazis allowed some select Jews to serve in the army and governmental functions, at least for a while. If you're looking for a cop out where you can rule-lawyer some definition of "antisemitism" that excludes people that don't hate every single Jew, then you'd need another word to that describes the same phenomenon, because the word "antisemitism" will cease to be useful. This btw is a common leftist failure mode - they imagine if they all agree certain word means something, then it becomes reality - like, they call themselves "liberals" and "progressives" and automatically all the nice things that used to be associated with these words attach to them. Of course, in reality exactly the opposite happens. If you call antisemites by any other name, that name will start to mean "antisemite".
The simpler explanation is that most leftists today hate Israel
They do, of course. Because there are a lot of very uppity Jews in there, who arrogantly refuse to behave like the leftists would like them to. But now, as you correctly point out, this also aligns with the Left's embrace of Islamic radicalism, which also conveniently hates the Jews. The match made in hell.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
I was assuming by now everybody knows what it's about because of how much hype was surrounding it and the accompanying NDA battles. Maybe I was wrong. Also, Wikipedia article gives a pretty good description of the factual side, so I decided to concentrate on my own take, rather than duplicate it. I understand it may make this review less useful for people that are interested in the factual side and couldn't care less for my personal impressions, that's ok too.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
Egoism? If I'll be dead, I am not very concerned what the policies would be then.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
In no leftist circle I'm present in are Jews every mentioned negatively qua Jews.
In some circles they use the z-word. In some, they don't bother anymore. Both sides though know it means "the Jews", and both sides are ok with it. Now defining precisely may be a bit complicated, but I'd say AWFUL crowd would mostly be like "oh of course I don't have Jews, it's just about Israel policies!" while the Muslim and other "historically oppressed" parts would be much more open about what it is about.
Should a leftist go "Jews amirite" there, I have no doubt that they would be promptly expelled
Just as university students who literally denied Jews from entering the campus and physically attacked them were expelled, and so did the organizations supporting them?
of their disproportionate presence among Israeli
lolwut? "Disproportionate" to what? Did you expect Israelis to be Chinese instead?
JarJarJedi
4d ago
She maintains that instead of doing bad things, companies should just say they are going to do good things, and then actually do them! And does not comprehend that she is part of the problem.
And she never does the work to explain what "good things" actually are. Either she assumes it's obvious to everybody, or she doesn't bother to explain it. For a person in charge of doing the very same good things, essentially hiring herself for the position, it's quite disappointing.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
When Israel lies about civilian casualties in Gaza, and antisemites tell the truth
But that's not what is happening. Nobody has a reliable count of civilian casualties, and Hamas - which is the only people who have anybody on the ground - are notorious grotesque liars. It could be Israel's figures aren't accurate either, but that doesn't mean Hamas' Arabian Nights type tales are true. As for the rest of antisemites, they don't have any other independent sources, so they either use Hamas numbers or pull them right out of their asses.
That's, like, really bad and stuff, for Israel.
If by "that's" you mean antisemites lying about Israel (and as we already established, they can not but lie) then it may be bad, but it's inevitable - they will always lie about Israel, that's their nature as antisemites. It's just a fact of life, you can't avoid it.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
When Israel makes the antisemites correct about one thing, they risk making people look at the rest of their thoughts. It's a very bad dynamic for the Jewish People.
I am not sure what "one thing" do you mean, but it does not matter - I am rather set back by the argument itself. Are you saying if the State of Israel, over all its, admittedly short, but still multi-decade history, commits a mistake, that validates the views of antisemites that all the Jews are evil, secretly want to (or already do) rule the world and it would be better for everyone if they were exterminated? Because that's what the "rest of their thoughts" are. I mean, yes, that's horrible for the Jewish people, but this does not look good for any other people either. And, may I ask, is this the criteria that applies to everyone, or specifically for Israel alone - that if they ever wrong then everything their enemies ever said about them is true?
JarJarJedi
5d ago
If the Democrats go too far with supporting rioting/insurrection/terrorism, they might get rolled up in a big way by the FBI.
Might they though? So far I am not seeing much evidence of that. Antifa had been destroying Portland for several years now, and periodically flaring up in Seattle, LA and other places. No noticeable FBI action. Sure, they grab a couple of worst offenders here and there but no systemic effort of "rounding up" anybody, and of course not even talk of going higher and investigating the vast feeding NGO network that enabled them. Of course, I don't have any visibility into the FBI internals, but past experience does not give much reason to suspect anything is happening. Especially as FBI rank and file know that if they slow-walk it, Republicans would do nothing to them - worst thing, they may force them to early retirement, with full benefits - but if they cross the Democrats, the next time the Dems come to power the retribution would be ruinous. Unless one is a determined ideologue with nothing to lose, it's clear which strategy is the smarter one.
If nuclear war happens
I don't think it makes any sense to discuss that.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
I literally watched a clip of Fuentes yesterday explaining how The Order is everything, and if some stupid assholes worry about their rights and freedoms, its nothing, and The Authority of the Powerful State must reign supreme, maintained by the overwhelming power of violence, and if your little individual freedoms get trampled, screw you. I'm not sure what would be a disagreement between him and Joseph Stalin by now. The color of the flags?
JarJarJedi
5d ago
In fact the models do not seem to be capable of differentiating on their own between success and pretend-success.
Of course! If there were a way to evaluate the quality of the result, the hyper-smart people earning billions of dollars would think about a thing as trivial as inserting "if the result is of low quality, try doing better" at the end of the AI pipeline. If we, as the end users, see low quality results, it is a hard evidence that their best effort at evaluating the quality of the results are failing. Otherwise they'd build a perfect AI chat and move from billions to trillions.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
dabbled in some antisemitism in addition to trans-furry whatever leftism.
Antisemitism is now completely fine with the left, and has been for a while. If one is skittish about it, they may use the z-word, but many don't even bother anymore. Not that it ever had been entirely out - Marx had been a rabid antisemite, for example - but there were times when it wasn't much talked about. Those times are completely past us. Now any leftist can embrace hating the Joos, and the peers would only cheer.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
I doubt it. I think the main reason is "we need to find something that avoids the conclusion that the Left does political violence, because the Left are the good guys". And fortunately, the Message Machine produced exactly the message they needed - it was actually a right-wing extremist (who are all extremely violent and dangerous, as everybody knows) who done it. So they grab it and hold on it for their dear life, and everything is correct in the world again.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
Well, I didn't read the GR tops but I am pretty sure it's not porn - at least not the thing I'd call porn - at least in the SciFi and YA SciFi categories.
JarJarJedi
5d ago
Provides a fantasy wherein merely being actually intelligent (as opposed to being iron man or sherlock holmes intelligent) is enough to gain social status, wealth, and power.
Yes, but not exactly. HPMOR's premise is that being intelligent makes you super-powerful. And it's not like Tolkien characters are not intelligent (please, no "why didn't they just order Eagle Uber to Mordor", it had been done to death) - it's just, as in the real world, intelligence is not enough. Otherwise we'd all be ruled by God Emperor Yud The First, The Only And The Eternal by now. But in HPMOR, intelligence makes you a god among mortals, pretty much literally. Unfortunately, this means all other characters (except maybe one or two) must be dumbasses for that to work out. That's disappointing.
Actually manages to teach general principles by which its audience (high schoolers) can become more intelligent.
Might be, not being a high-schooler I can't make much use of that, so here might be a part of it that I am unable to appreciate.
Captures the essential fantasy of harry potter in general.
I must disagree here. The essence of how Potter wins has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with feelings, especially love. The whole premise of the original HP universe is that Voldie is smarter, more powerful, more capable, more ruthless, more everything, than any other character in the universe (including Dumbledore, which is close to his level but ultimately is also done in by him). And he still loses, because he doesn't know what it means to be human, and that's, evidently, how the magic works in that universe. HPMOR universe runs on pure intelligence, the concepts above aren't even featured there. Many people - especially rationalist, autist, introverted, hyper-intelligent geeks - may feel much more at home at the latter universe than at the former, but those are very, very different universes, and claiming HPMOR captures the "essence" of the original work is very far from the truth. If anything, it captures the external trappings while hollowing out the essence and substituting another - maybe more palatable to the geeks, but completely different.
Doesn't make any of the invisible-to-normies but backbreaking-to-autists mistakes found in most ordinary literature.
I've noticed a number of literary mistakes (like, dangling plots, unmotivated actions, etc.) when reading it but of course I already forgot the specifics. But I am willing to believe HPMOR does not have a kind of mistakes that trigger the autists so much, like claiming in one part that certain staircase in Hogwarts had 12 steps, and in another chapter saying it's 11 steps. Of course, no normie reader had ever cared or will ever care about this. Avoiding such mistakes indeed may make it an easier read to certain category of readers - but that doesn't make it a work of literary genius. At least my threshold for it is much higher - and in a different place too.
If there is any group of people that I want to trust with my money and that I would absolutely believe do not want to exploit my weaknesses for financial gain, it's a bunch of people from HFT, derivative trading and Google/Meta.
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