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Nwallins

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Nwallins


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Finally updated my bookmark

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 23:17:52 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 265


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Bottom New Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
From an American point of view, while I'm totally sucked into supporting Ukraine and hating Russia's invasion, it's pretty nice that Russia is bleeding itself on the other side of the world with all kinds of internal tension and dissent.  I have Ukrainian friends, and while I'd love to see Russia expelled immediately and peace restored, that is only a temporary reprieve from Russia's imperial ambitions.  So while a grinding stalemate is terrible for Ukraine, I don't mind seeing the greatest geopolitical blunder in my lifetime be extended indefinitely to Russia's detriment.


I had honestly hoped for greater ties and reconciliation with Russia in 2005ish era.  I wonder if that was truly a possibility or just foolish.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Let me attempt some kind of steelman here.  First, like you, I am extremely skeptical of grievance study courses, and particularly CRT.  Second, while I think it’s fine to study these phenomena at arm’s length, often high school students assume they are being taught the truth, not merely one perverse angle on it.  In 99% of my high school classes, it was obvious I was meant to internalize and adopt the teachings presented.  Only the most careful of teachers could approach truly controversial topics.  I have little confidence this can be maintained across our public high school education system.


Nonetheless.  The course description describes what to expect at college.  This is an AP class after all.  I can’t argue with the course description, which certainly covers a great deal of CRT, even if seemingly out of proportion with its influence and impact on ordinary African Americans.


Now, Florida DOE is faced with a course description that it has significant disagreement with.  They could design a curriculum that sideskirts all the CRT stuff, but then its students will fare poorly on the AP test.  Which failure is a greater disservice to its students?  Failing to prepare them for a very important test, or breaking the ban on CRT?


It would be nice if the College Board could separate the most controversial, politically charged aspects of their African American History into a seperate module, perhaps Advanced African American History.  It seems we are forced to throw the baby out for the bathwater.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Israel-Gaza Megathread #2
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
B I N L A D E N


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 25, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is an undying faction of TMA (traditional martial arts) which refers to BJJ as blowjob jujitsu or similar, as though some rhetorical win can possibly reverse the steamroller that modern MMA represents.  Reassuringly, this faction gets smaller every year as the evidence rolls in.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sure, but it takes the sting out of




this community in particular had egregious problems with this




When in fact it's a general problem and not particular to this community.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Small breweries in the US need to sell out as their exit strategy if they want growth, due to post-prohibition regulations that severely limit interstate distribution.  They go from tiny to massive in a single step, and the scaling of their recipes, methods, and processes nearly always results in a decline of quality but with a presumable increase in consistency and quality control.  They’re not “bad” for being sellouts; they’re typically worse for the drinker in small but noticeable ways.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Arnold Kling on SVB points out mark to market vs held to maturity.




When interest rates go up, the value of a portfolio of fixed-rate bonds or mortgages goes down. Roughly speaking, if the bank paid $100 to buy a long-term bond with an interest rate of 2-1/2%, and now the interest rate on a comparable bond is 5%, the bank’s bond is worth about $50.






The regulators should make you mark down the value of your assets to their current market value and force you to shore up your capital. They should make you stop paying dividends and executive bonuses, for one thing. You should not be allowed to make any more risky loans, because of the moral hazard: if the risk pays off, you return to profitability; if it goes badly, then the taxpayers take a bigger hit via the deposit insurance fund. You have an incentive to take desperate gambles.






If the bank is genuinely solvent on a mark-to-market basis, then any gambles it takes are with the shareholders’ money. Once it is insolvent on a mark-to-market basis (or “semi-insolvent” as Tyler put it), it is taking gambles with the deposit insurance fund’s money.






But instead of requiring banks to mark long-term bonds to market value, the regulators give banks a loophole. They say that if you have your bond in a “held to maturity” account, which means you do not intend to sell it, you can pretend that it is still worth $100.






Indeed, it is true that when the bond matures, say, in twenty years, you will get your $100 in principal. But in the meantime, the interest rate that you pay to depositors will have gone up. If you have to pay 4-1/2 percent interest and you get 2-1/2 percent interest on your bond , then you lose $2 per year. For twenty years. You will run out of capital and be busted before the bond matures. When people can see that coming, there will be a run on your bank, and you will be busted right away.






The “held to maturity” loophole blinds regulators to the true condition of the bank. It allows the bank to keep taking in short-term funds, with which it can then try desperate gambles where the losses are borne by the deposit insurance fund. That is what the S&Ls did back in the 1980s. It did not end well.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm sure you've heard of "sideshows" or "slideshows" where groups of mostly Dodge Challengers and Chargers do donuts in the middle of an urban intersection or freeway or bridge, creating an informal yet spectacularly dangerous block party.  Also the roving gangs of plateless dirt bikes and quads, presumably mostly stolen anyway.  Oakland, Baltimore, Atlanta, etc


And the police are literally completely incapable of shutting these down.  We've heard the official explanations about manpower and escalation, but I would love to know how those internal deliberations really go.  You've gotta have some gung-ho sergeants putting together gameplans and orchestration, but the top brass shut it down?  For woke / squishy / PR reasons?  Anyone have real insight?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Joe: "Lord, why do you sound like Nancy Pelosi?"


Lord: "I move in mysterious ways.  Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way..."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Would somebody shooting paintballs at you actually motivate you to get a job?




The paintballs are motivation to be homeless somewhere else.  A local solution that is not masquerading as a global solution.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Only a decade ago the "multiple personality" thing was recognized as larping social contagion, and now it's back to being treated seriously?




Scott Alexander has written about this, I feel pretty certain.  Tulpas (intentional creation of additional personality) and victims (unintentional multiple personalities) seem to be real phenomena, if rarer than claimed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This jogged my memory of seeing roughly 20% of all solo drivers in cars masked up, throughout 2020 and into 2021.  I can’t even.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Based on what?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 31, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Blame TheMattell


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the Fed’s unprecedented rate hikes




Unprecedented, or unexpected?  Even the softer version seems tough to defend.  Were we going ZIRP forever?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
FdB weighs in




The argument is that, because someone has enjoyed personal or professional success after a public shaming, therefore “cancel culture” does not exist. This is all somewhat confused by the vague boundaries of cancel culture - boundaries that are vague, I think, for the benefit of both the cancelers and the anti-cancelers. I think “a culture where social norms are enforced with repeated and vociferous public shaming” is the most useful way to define the term. Regardless, there’s a couple different kinds of weirdness here.






The first is a point that many people have made: the fact that someone has endured or recovered from the repercussions of public shaming does not mean that there are no repercussions or that those repercussions are fair. Additionally, we could add that the survival of any particular public figure after a public shaming does not necessarily mean that there isn’t a prevalent culture of public shaming.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 15, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Anyway, looking him up, I found a recent article he wrote entitled It All Comes Down to Race. I read it carefully, twice, and I'd like to engage this community because I don't know any other place where this can be critically discussed.




You aren't aware of anywhere else on the internet that allows criticism of white nationalism?  Seems fishy...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Israel-Gaza Megathread #2
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Foreign policy is a thing, and Israel is one of the US' most steadfast allies outside of the Anglosphere and the #1 ally in the Middle East, modulo oil and weapons deals with the Saudis.


There is also the question of shared values.  Liberal democracies are natural allies, unlike the rest of the Middle East.


It has very little to do with religion or ethnicity, IMHO.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Just some feedback as there are no replies here.  There is a distinction between a wall of text and an effortpost, but it can be subtle.  OP reads more like the latter, to its credit.  But while I was nodding my head according to the first 5 paragraphs or so, I had an intense desire to "get to the point".  While I understand the value of dripping out information and keeping the reader hooked and engaged, I found myself skipping ahead to try to find the thesis, or novel point being made.


I have a concrete suggestion: if it takes more than 5 paragraphs to "get to the point", then you're better off summarizing and defending, rather than buttressing and presenting.


To be clear, I guess I am delineating two different rhetoric styles: buttress and present, where by the time the point is presented, it's basically a foregone conclusion; and summarize and defend, whereby the point is not hidden til the last minute but is instead presented early, allowing the reader to grapple with it, and then defended later by the author.


Both styles have their places.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 4, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'd strongly suspect there is a prison pipeline that feeds "Aryan Nation" type ideology, and these types do buy into it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Where are the creative songbirds of thought and word who would transcend this opposition and maybe get both sides to become aware that both are equally stuck in the human condition?




Joe Rogan, maybe?  Jordan Peterson, less so.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Maybe the programmers with anime profile pics are the inauthentic fakers?




Seriously.  My top 3-5 lady programmers were all AMAB.  Patriarchy?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Criticism accepted.  I completely revised the post.  Less than ideal, I agree.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Eh, I don’t think the homeless actually represent any sort of voting bloc.  And in representative democracy, wealthy landowners with local business ties and tons of skin in the game curry way more favor with politicians than those with nothing to lose.


If the politicians desire to turn a nice city into an indigent shithole, then I suppose that’s what they will have when people of means vote with their feet.  See also, Detroit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Isn't this just openAI's RLHF working as intended?




Perhaps, if you are cynical.  I think that, faced with Rozado's findings, they would try to correct the bias.  Open question: when judging an individual by its group characteristics or membership, assuming that unbiased is not an option, is it better to exhibit implicit bias or explicit bias?