JarJarJedi
Streamlined derailments and counteridea reeducation
User ID: 1118
JarJarJedi
17hr ago
It's just "the current thing" manifesting. People scream what they see on TV. US TV is bigger than European TV.
Woke came from America.
Only in some narrow sense. US academia created the framework of wokeness. But European post-Marxist left created the US academia. Older US wokes still look at Europe with adoration, because that's where their ideological roots lie (even though I suspect diversity push would erase and replace those people quite soon, maybe even already happened, but the history remains). For the younger US wokes of course Europe is just a point on the map which has already been conquered and thus needs less attention than the current battles. For them, it's finally the time to get rid of the Western culture, and thus Europe is only a geographical location.
JarJarJedi
17hr ago
Or, conversely, US left is the Europe-influenced one. The switch from Marxist "workers of the world unite" framework to "long march through the institutions" started with Gramsci, why attribute it to the US? European Left enacted the shift no less than the US Left - while nominally preserving the "workers" rhetoric on the background, the actual focus went elsewhere - and has been much more successful at it. So I am not sure it is proper to call them "US influenced". The US Left may be getting more headlines - because the fight in the US is still on, while in Europe it has largely been concluded, with the remains of the Right waging guerilla campaigns on the margins of power - but that does not establish influence.
JarJarJedi
17hr ago
Every time I see them, I think it's just a casino. Am I right, or is there some intrinsic value I'm missing?
It's not a casino. Casinos are heavily regulated industry where most games are truly games of chance, which are skewed toward the house profits, but only to a specific (regulated, and not excessive) extent. If you go into a casino and play the roulette, you know you have the expected value of -0.053 and that's what you'd always get.
Memecoins work differently. They are a game of musical chairs, where everybody wants to sell it to the next bigger fool. Everybody knows it's going to zero eventually, and everybody hopes they could sell it at the profit before it happens. There is no intrinsic value at all, only fools fooling bigger fools. It's also not random with some well-known rules - it's just when the scammer decides to pull the rug. Everything between the ICO and that moment is just everybody trying to cheat everybody else, and that's the only thing that is happening.
JarJarJedi
18hr ago
Oh come on. Did America also create Britain? France? Denmark? Austria? The pattern is the same all over Europe, everywhere the speech is controlled and restricted, especially the speech that is considered "offensive" or is threatening the narrative preferred by the government. The EU as a whole has a censorship law - DSA - that is actively used to suppress speech all over the EU. The Congress released a report a year ago detailing various aspects of this: https://judiciary.house.gov/media/press-releases/foreign-censorship-threat-how-european-unions-digital-services-act-compels
I mean, sure, the deep state reptilians and all the orgs they run or used to run (no real reason to single out CIA, they are at practically every three-letter agency that exists) have no problem with the censorship and state control over speech. They would support any effort to increase the control, be it in the US or anywhere. We had it with "disinformation boards" (which was successfully repelled, fortunately), we had it with control over social media (which kinda died with Covid and Musk buying Twitter), we have the next fight now with the same people trying to seize control over AI tech, and we will see it many times more in the future. But to claim they caused the censorship push in Europe and Europeans are blameless agency-free puppets is complete BS. Europeans are doing it for the same reason bureaucrats everywhere are doing it - they want power. Not for CIA or somebody else, but for themselves. Control over speech means more power, and more secure power. That's it, no need to involve CIA.
This nonsense about "all the shit that is happening on the planet, CIA caused it" got to stop. Other people are people too, they can do stupid shit without the CIA.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
Being opposed to libertarianism doesn't make the CDU left-wing.
That is true, but it certainly makes it mis-aligned with American values. In the US, at least, freedom of expression, freedom of political participation and robust societal discussion of current political issues has been a nationwide shared value. It is not the value of the Left anymore - which is why one is tempted to associate the similar positions of CDU with the left wing - but going back to the original topic, if even the supposed "right" in Germany is hostile to the values that many in the US hold sacred - one is tempted to ask, what kind of alliance do we have? What do we have in common? Of course, US history knows many cases where we temporarily allied with countries much worse than todays Germany - such as Stalin's USSR, for example - but that was the alliance of necessity, and it was dissolved once the need passed. Is this the kind of alliance we have between US and Europe, which was necessary when USSR was alive? Is it still necessary today? In which form? To what purpose? I think these are the questions that need to be asked.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
The electoral picture is pretty much the opposite.
If you are talking about recent electoral pushback like AfD getting almost-majority in one state, then it's a reaction exactly on the consequences of the said takeover. And even this reaction is largely ineffectual - AfD does not have a majority and will encounter uniform rejection from pretty much every other party. All the problems that the emergence of the alliance caused - mass migration, crime, cultural destruction, welfare abuse, economic stagnation, military impotence, suppression of civil liberties, etc. - remain and I don't see any signs of anything improving there, however AfD or Le Pen are polling.
The fact that there is a lot of leftist screeching online
I don't know what the leftists are screeching about, and I don't care - they always screeching about something. That's not what I am talking about - I am talking about what's happening on the ground. I do not see Europe "moving right" in any substantial way, but I see all the problems I mentioned above, and really I don't see how they are solvable - you can not invite millions of migrants and not give them vote, if you're a democracy. You can not give them vote and not enact policies that they would like to have, if you're a democracy. And since nobody in Europe is ready to reject multiculturalism and declare assimilation to be the only way - they will have to change instead, to accommodate the people they have accepted.
Perhaps you'd want the reversal of these policies to go faster
"Faster" than "not at all"? Sure, I'd want that. But the question is not what I want, but what they do, and I don't see any reversal. Are we seeing mass deportations? Are we seeing welfare reform? Are we seeing Europe abandoning multiculturalism and adopting the policy of assimilation? Are we seeing deregulation, privatization and abandonment of speech controls? I don't see it.
JarJarJedi
3d ago
The US has historically led a coalition of developed nations that was fairly biased towards US interests
Historically, yes. But is it still the case? Europe is increasingly being taken over by the green-red alliance, and it's not entirely clear why the US should keep financing Europe's security while Europe is rebuilding itself as a woke socialist caliphate. It'd be nice to get the old, Western-civilization-aligned Europe back, but the US can not enact this change. Only Europeans can. And they do not seem to be able or willing to.
I am not a huge fan of Trump's "bull in a china shop" diplomatic style, and it does not seem to be practically effective that much - at least, I am not seeing a huge improvement in the terms of improving US standing and achieving US goals by diplomatic means. His only major success so far that I can identify is freeing the Israeli hostages from Hamas (which is extremely close to my heart personally but I suspect is not super high on the US priority scale) and some advancement on the Abraham accords (even though it is compensated for by increasing radicalization of Turkey). Beyond that, I can hardly name any diplomatic win attributable to him. Stuff like getting rid of Maduro sound a big win to me (at least so far) but there was not a lot of diplomacy involved there.
But while I am skeptical about his methods, I recognize that his approach of trying to get more favorable arrangements makes sense. If EU or Canada put tariffs on US goods, why the US should be fine with it? I think it makes sense to act towards achieving more friendly arrangements. The problem is it seems like Trump is very good in getting into the fight, but less good in figuring out how to end the fight in a way that achieves the goals that the entire fight was about.
undermining US hegemony in a bid for marginal revisions in an already highly favorable status quo is a questionable strategy
Unfortunately, the hegemony is coming into question whether we want it or not, for the reasons I named above. When the fundamental values of the countries are misaligned, the alliance can be maintained either by the US spending huge piles of money - pecunia non olet - or by US aligning more with the woke green-red alliance. The Left has no problem with either part of this, but the Right does. So the realignment is inevitable as long as the US does not succumb to the same alliance. The question is what form that realignment would take.
JarJarJedi
4d ago
यः धर्मम् परित्यज्य श्रिसुखम्हितेच्छय स दुःखं गच्छेत् न संशयः अष्तबहुभर्तामुढयथा
Google Translate produces:
He who abandons righteousness and desires the welfare of prosperity and happiness will undoubtedly go to suffering, as you have married eight many husbands
Which kinda sorta in the same direction, but hilariously inaccurate and converting Octopodes to "marrying eight husbands" takes it into yet another hilarious realm.
JarJarJedi
7d ago
I don't think it's accurate to say central bank policies have no effect. I've heard a lot of talk about zero-interest-rate phenomena and its influence on the tech market scene, for example, and I think that has a lot of basis under it. If you give people access to infinite money with the condition on "give it back some time later, maybe" it will have an influence on the economy, how could it not? I do not deny government spending and taxation has its effects too - I mean, we're talking trillions here, how could it not, and I think nobody would ever deny taxation directly influences economic behavior, and so does subsidizing.
That said, I think the idea that the Fed is only interested in pegging inflation to 2% and nothing else matters is naive at best. The Fed is seen as the steward of the economy as a whole, whatever is meant by that - I am sure they have enough charts for everybody - and the government would reach out to them (either quietly or flamboyantly, in Trump's case) if they want some economic policy to happen. I think that has been the case for a long time, one can call it by whatever term they want, but the government and the Fed have some ideas how the economy should look like, and they use all their tools to achieve it, and the inflation is only one measure among many.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
I feel Russia got a bit tamer since 1990s with Alan Chumak, Kashpirovsky, and so on. At least now it's more mainstream, cross-cultural superstitions, not something on the verge (and sometimes over it) of mass hysteria.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
Something needs to fill that God-shaped hole.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
Race is one of the most important aspects of one's character, according to the Left, and it is unchangeable, just ask Nkechi Amare Diallo. The logic is as much the subject to the ideology as anything else on the Left. That's how doublethink works.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
Believing and defending unpopular things
But not really unpopular things, just low-risk things. You don't get fired from your job for talking about capricorns - though you could be if you talk about mass immigration in a wrong way.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
I don't mind if the writer uses AI as much as they want in the research. But if they just work as a meat proxy between LLM and myself, then the added value is close to zero. I can talk to an LLM directly when I want to. If I pay for something - and increasingly, that includes paying attention - I want to have added value that is not available in LLM prompts. If somebody does not want or is not capable of providing it, surely I am not going to pay for it.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
I would probably buy (as in, subscribe to) a non-shitty magazine about any of my interest areas, given a reasonable cost. Having something to read on the can is great. I am only partly joking here - since I spend most of my waking working hours behind the screen, a change of scenery when I am resting really feels nice to me. It's not about efficiency now but about the feel. However, I would not pay for a crap magazine that has 60% ads, 30% AI slop and the rest maybe interesting to me once in a blue moon. It must be consistently good. I don't know whether there are enough people like me to sustain a publication - maybe not. But I personally would.
JarJarJedi
13d ago
Looks like you are right, while Dewey has been compared to Hitler all the time, with Eisenhower it was more like "he is a great man but since he's a Republican, he's still a captive of the right wing, who as we all know are literally you know who, so..." But yes, Eisenhower is an exception, but both before and after him everybody has been.
JarJarJedi
13d ago
I mean, if there's no party they could ally with that would allow them to do anything meaningful - which seems to be the case right now - then what's the point of forming a coalition which would continue more of the same and prove AfD is as incapable of delivering on their promises as everybody else? At least staying outside allows them not to accept responsibility for the shit that's happening, once they are nominally in power, the responsibility is theirs, and will be used against them next time when nothing changes.
JarJarJedi
13d ago
Spain may well have a right-populist government in the near future
We'll see. It doesn't yet. If that happens, I'll be happy, the current state of Spain is extremely sad.
JarJarJedi
13d ago
It is fascinating how various "skeptics" immediately lose all skepticism and start taking everything at face value when the source is IRGC, Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Putin, Xi or some other source with equally excellent record. Yes, US government lies, but other governments lie too, and usually at least as much. Any other source for severe damage to USS Lincoln besides IRGC evidence-free claims?
JarJarJedi
13d ago
As I understand, AfD is the only non-woke, non-pro-civilizational-destruction party in Germany, and the only one with chances of winning something in Western Europe in general. Which of course makes them literally Hitler, as anything that threatens woke powers is. Every single Republican candidate has been literally Hitler since literally Hitler, and every non-woke European party will get the same treatment. Especially one that has any chances of winning any votes. This is just how it works.
That said, it's only one state, and they didn't even get the majority - they are the largest party, but only 39 out of 83 seats. I am not sure what could they do with such setup - likely, a lot of heat but not sure anything could change. Most of Germany's problem will need federal policy change, as I understand, and a plurality in one state does nothing.
Oh, I know what Nvidia's moat is, that's not in question. HF though seems to not have much. I mean, I am sure Nvidia guys have good case for it, but I doubt it gives Nvidia a lot of control over AI ecosystem. Anytime any major player would feel restrained by whatever HF is doing, they can implement a clone very easily. And most software would trivially adapt (as easy as changing an URL prefix, likely).
JarJarJedi
14d ago
I did the numbers in CA a while ago, and with electricity there being very expensive and progressively more expensive as you consume more, with decent financing arrangement it made total sense. In other places where the electricity is significantly cheaper financially it probably makes much less sense, though there's the self-reliance aspect for some people too. It all hinges on electricity prices (especially pricing structure - does it get more expensive?) and what you can do with excess power - would the utility buy it? How much they'd pay for it? It all needs to be carefully calculated, solar is not at the place where it makes sense everywhere for everybody, but in some circumstances it does.
JarJarJedi
14d ago
That said, what's the moat for HF, at least in this usage? I mean, if Amazon or Google (or even any other second-tier provider) wanted to compete with them on model storage, what would be the obstacles they'd need to overcome? Storage and delivery of massive byte arrays - even at a very large scale - seems like a problem that a lot of companies can successfully solve. There's an incumbent advantage, but it can be overcome relatively quick.
JarJarJedi
16d ago
Of course, it's just 2021-2024, the real expansion is just starting.
Yes, but if you find the same pattern in a dozen places, and one of them has special history, but the pattern repeats unchanged in places that do not have the special history, then it's unlikely that the special history is causing the pattern.
In fact, I do not think any of the recent Europe's stupid decisions can be traced to American influence. Yes, the form of wokeness came from America, but the fertile grounds that demanded for something like wokeness to take form is local. If by some miracle wokeness in America didn't manifest, the Europe would do exactly the same stupid things, just in a different form.
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