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MaiqTheTrue

Renrijra Krin

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MaiqTheTrue


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Renrijra Krin

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 November 02 23:32:06 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In order to blame someone they’d have to have the power to do it.  White Americans did, for example, push Native American tribes onto reservations.  White Southern Americans passed Jim Crow laws.  If you want to blame Jews for the fall of Weimar, they not only have to be there when the gun goes off, but have to be holding the gun.  But, quite often it was other people.  Hyperinflation was caused by the Allies demanding draconian reparations.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think they’ll ultimately win.  It’s just that really they’re still in the foundation stage of the movement.  Almost any real political upheaval is a generations-long process of first creating a philosophy and ethos and then unify around that philosophy and work to implement it.  But if you’d have judged the communist movement by what it was in 1870 when it was first taking shape, you wouldn’t have predicted the Russian revolution.  The tumultuous nature of the current generation of reactionaries doesn’t mean much because I believe it will eventually settle on an ethos that will be United enough to win real power.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 17, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Honestly, it would be good for everyone if nobody voted.  The reason that neo-liberalism must be so careful to purge society of crimethink is because we vote.  I don’t think that all efforts for propaganda would stop, but the volume and ubiquity of culture war propaganda would vastly decrease if it didn’t matter so much that I personally sign off on various issues.  Ukraine could fade into the background and I could call their capitol whatever I wanted.  I could believe whatever I wanted to about transgender issues without worry about the elites or their lackeys trying to thought-police me to death.  There might well be limits to this, but at least the volume, the fear, would be turned down.


Why would anyone normal care about other people’s genitalia or a war in a country they can’t find on a map and only became independent in 1992?  Why am I, a relative nobody, worried about policing?  And my suspicion is that the average person, because of the vote, is often forced to pretend to care, is policed for the ways they pretend to care, when they’d much rather spend time on kids’ education and sports, their jobs, their family, and whatever hobbies they choose to enjoy.  I think almost everyone would actually be happier to never worry about cultural affairs ever again.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for May 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
France hasn’t been a superpower since Napoleon.  I mean im pretty sure 1900s France was doing the “stop or I’ll send a letter to the League of Nations” up until they got invaded in WW1.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The last republican president assassinated was Lincoln in 1865.  The last successful assassination period was JFK.  The last attempt was Reagan in 1980.  In general, times of massive popular unrest, highly polarized politics.  Not really something that I’d worry about.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 28, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean weapons do not fire themselves.  You can arm Ukraine all you want — they are still toast more or less.  And Ukraine is rapidly running out of people.  If you’re resorting to abducting senior citizens off the street to fuel your army, you are in no position to defend much.  And this is the calculation that NATO missed — Ukraine didn’t have the population to sustain this effort, and so any weapons given were useless because eventually you’d have no one left capable of firing them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Getting fired has nothing to do with free speech.  The principle of free speech is that the government cannot prevent you from speaking.  It does not mean the government is obligated to protect your job in the event your boss doesn’t like what you’re saying or to keep you on staff in a university.


It also doesn’t mean that you can protest in any way you like.  You are free to March around with signs.  You are not free to block access to buildings, harass people, deface property, or block traffic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ve never understood how the Turing test measured anything useful.  The test doesn’t even require that the AI agent understand anything about its world or even the questions being asked of it.  It just has to do well enough to convince a human that it can do so.  That’s the entire point of the Chinese room rejoinder— an agent might well be clever enough to fool a person into thinking it understands just by giving reasonable no answers to questions posed.


The real test, to me, is more of a practical thing — can I drop the AI in a novel situation and expect it to figure out how to solve the problems.  Can I take a bot trained entirely on being an English chatbot and expect it to learn Japanese just by interacting with Japanese users?  Can I take a chatbot like that and expect it to learn to solve physics equations?  That seems a much better test because intelligent agents are capable of learning new things.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m not uncritical of the Russian version of the story.  Both versions are likely at least somewhat true in the sense that while the Revolution seems to have been organic, it was helped along by the West.  But to my mind, you really can’t engage with the war and the causes or likely outcomes unless you can explain what all sides actually believe is going on and why they’re making the decisions they’re making.  The most important part of the Russian version of the color revolution story is that this is what Russia believes about the color revolution.


If I want to understand Vietnam and the American war in Vietnam, im going to have to know what Americans thought they were fighting for and what they believed was going on.  Does that make Domino Theory true?  No.  But refusing to engage with that theory just means I don’t understand it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How many other countries has he invaded since the Ukraine war began?  If he had any interest in other territories, why hasn’t he tried to take them?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It only a rock and a hard place because they lack the will to do anything about it.  If they wanted Biden out, they’d have pushed him out.  If these were republicans, he would be out by now simply because republicans are much more focused on winning the election.  Instead, they’re publicly hand wringing while the clock ticks down and they lose support from average people who don’t want to be ruled by a guy who can’t string a paragraph together.  It’s really hard to sympathize with an entire party too worried about being mean to a guy with obvious dementia to kick him out and take control before their chances tank completely.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 4, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don’t think you need anything that dramatic.  You just need to coordinate society such that people who are rude and do disrespectful things are shunned.  If he’d lost friends for doing that he wouldn’t be doing it.  And as long as it’s tolerated it continues to get worse.  My guess is, based on observation, that this isn’t the first time he’s done that.  More than likely he’s been pushing on social norms for a long time and not getting any negative results.  And if we stop tolerating it, it stops.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 20, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m not convinced.  The behavior of Muslims doesn’t indicate they’re 1990s style Americans who are okay with other religions as equals.  They’re absolutely not okay with gays, they don’t want women working, and so on.  There are numerous videos of Muslims preaching that America or Europe will become Muslim.  A Baptist preacher saying even 10% of that is a far right radical.  A Baptist preacher saying that and blocking major roads for prayer services would be probably thrown out of the SBC.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 16, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
True, but allowing the pot to be stirred to the point of death threats and violence is probably going to make things worse.  If the gag order means that Trump cannot angry tweet his internet mafia into going after the judges, court officials, lawyers and witnesses, then there’s a good chance that the trial can proceed in an orderly manner and Justice will be done.


And if he’s tweeting about this without his attorney telling him not to, he has a terrible lawyer as this can only dig his hole deeper.  It’s not hard to see how him stirring up his base and tweeting the home addresses of those who will testify against him can be brought up in the trial and bias the jury against him.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree, for the most part, though I quibble a bit with your choice of virtues simply because you ignored what I think are most important— valuing knowledge and hard work as virtues alongside high time preference, honesty and loyalty.


HBD fails in my opinion because on whole most cultures are fairly young.  Modern Western European culture as we know it today only really came to prominence with the enlightenment, which putting it roughly back in time to 1700, would give it slightly better than 300 years of assertive mating (as we never really purposely bred humans as we do dogs).  Modern Japan as we know it started with Meiji.  Had you gone to Japan during Sengoku or Europe during the medieval period, you’d find a much different culture with much difference in values.  There are outliers.  Jews and the Chinese are both continuous cultures from ancient times.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m one who at this point doesn’t care much.  Unless you’re really going to perp-walk whatever celebrities are on the list as well as anyone who provided the girls or the money — which isn’t going to happen— the list is academic.  It’s pointless to waste mental bandwidth on guessing who is on the list, what they did, who paid for it, and what they’re getting out of it when none of it will change anything.  Game of Thrones happens all through the political systems of every country that has ever existed or ever will exist.  Stuff like this is what elites do.


As far a China — I’ve no doubt that most elites or potential elites are on very similar lists.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think you’re right about Pax Americana having ended.  For most people it ended decades ago.  It’s just now reaching the professional classes.  But if you drive through the rural parts of the South, it’s already happened, probably 2 generations ago, and these places look like the ruins of a civilization rather than a thriving one.  Rusty, dirty, shabby, abandoned buildings everywhere.  The people themselves live in poverty for the most part.  Urban cores have been war zones for decades and everybody knows it.


I see Trump as a manifestation of the problems of American Empire, rather than the cause.  We are not the same steady, stalwart and practical people who built Pax Americana, we don’t have the ability or the willpower to keep it.  All that’s left is to tear it up and hopefully squeeze out the few good years we have left.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 13, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think it’s a shot in the dark.  I don’t see Bibi deciding to go with the deal because he already rejected it, and frankly doesn’t trust tge Palestinian side to really keep the deal.  Given 75 years of “Israel signs peace deal, leaves area” and “to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Palestinians have rearmed and are trying to destroy Israel — again” he really can’t make a deal.  It’s either an unconditional capitulation followed by military occupation to prevent rearming, or the situation as it existed on 10/6.  He knows it, everybody who’s looked at the history knows it.  And so I think Trump is offering the deal because he wants to say he tried.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The attitude that his war has anything to do with us.  I don’t think it does, and in fact it’s hurting our other interests as we bleed our coffers to support a country too up its own arse to actually negotiate a ceasefire with Russia.  He’s bleeding his country of men for pride, and insists that he needs our money to do it with.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean things like that only work until they don’t.  The sheer incompetence of the western elites is on display.  The entire plan, as far as I can tell is “Ukraine is the good guy here.  We arm them to the teeth, let them do whatever they want, and hope they win before something bad happens.”  It’s not working, and worse, we’re putting ourselves in an extremely weak position by doing so, and for little strategic gain.  Ukraine doesn’t have much beyond farmland.  It’s not Taiwan with a big chip manufacturer base.  And we’re depleting weapons and risking nuclear exchange to save Kansas.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m not at certain what her price controls are.  I know the food production end of things (not the stores) is highly consolidated into a couple of big companies that therefore own most of the food market.  Breaking up those monopolies seems like a good way to get grocery priced down a bit.  If that’s what she’s actually proposing, I would support it.  But she hasn’t been very clear on what her plan actually is.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 26, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I kind of agree here.  I’m very firmly in favor of weak affirmative action, which is more of a tie-goes-to-the runner version of AA.  What that means is that if I have two candidates equally good for the role I’m hiring for, I should choose the minority.  The issue most people seem to have with AA is not “they’re hiring black people, women, gays, etc.” but the fact that minority status is trumping other qualifications for the position.  In short, the position that you don’t have to be nearly as good at the position, or as qualified for school is what people seem most upset about.


Weak AA doesn’t actually do that.  It might require looking for more minorities to apply for the job, which isn’t that hard.  It doesn’t forgo requiring relevant qualifications and skills and even testing for them.  It simply means that once you have that pool, you should hire the most qualified and if two are equal, then give the nod to the minority.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the fact that 4 years later he’s still talking about the stolen election probably hurts him in the polls among mainstream voters who don’t think the election was stolen.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe I’m not understanding you but I’m not sure how not having meat as the main dish of your meal is that much of a diminished enjoyment.  Most of the time, for me, I don’t miss it.  I don’t say no entirely to meat, I’m just not making it the star of the meal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree with you even though I don’t agree with racism.  Politics is simply social power.  And the vast majority of people really don’t have thought out positions on issues, they follow whatever the powerful people around them (elders, bosses, authority figures, teachers and professors) tell them that good, honest, hardworking people believe.  This is why issues like minimum wage get terrible traction— the only people who care are people who get paid hourly.  Trade unions are a non-starter because wanting one is coded working class, uneducated, poor, and hated by the political elite and businesses.  Hence people won’t allow themselves to favor them, and would be offended if someone suggested they need one for their office.  Go down the list of any issue, and the difference between things that are popular and unpopular is the power of people holding that position.