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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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				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
He's not a true believer, just a theologian / philosopher, which is very blue-coded.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What does Peterson represent in the culture war that's distinct from Rogan?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				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 July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


after Mexico demanded the federal government make Texas remove them




What, exactly, is the argument for removing border barriers?  Can we analyze the tradeoffs and incentives?  Why are Mexico and USA seemingly interested in more illegal border crossings while Texas is not?  What are the costs and benefits?  What are the tradeoffs?  It seems to me that if foreigners are penetrating a border, the recipient country is justified to install disincentives and defenses.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Courtesy Taibbi and Orfalea:


https://youtube.com/watch?v=PhAGPQE0H-U


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Great post!  Forgive a slight nitpick:




These documents demonstrate each and every single author of the paper, directly, to the exact same concerns about the proposed wet market origin as piles of shitposters and too-online dogs, often pointing to the exact same evidence... privately.




The structure of this sentence boggles my brain.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Surprising, no.  Scandalous, yes.  The foundation of justice in this country is based on rule of law, as opposed to rule of man.  Obviously, that's an ideal that we do not always meet.  But the cavalier attitude towards abandoning this principle is very, very concerning.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Eli Lake at Bari Weiss' The Free Press


He lays out in simple, clear language how the FBI has held double and triple standards when it comes to investigating or protecting powerful political figures.  I believe this piece is downstream of more original reporting from the likes of Taibbi, Shellenberger, etc, ultimately stemming from Elon Musk's release of The Twitter Files.




You’ll recall that those scoops weren’t as big a news story as was the fact that Facebook and Twitter banned users from sharing the story on the theory that it was the fruit of Kremlin fakery intended to sway the presidential election. It turns out that the FBI officials who warned social media companies that the laptop story might be part of a Russian scheme to mislead voters themselves knew that the laptop was real. And they knew so as early as December of 2019.






But instead of clarifying that the FBI had verified its contents, the bureau instead allowed a falsehood about its provenance to linger. Savor the irony. In an effort to counter Russian disinformation, the FBI actively allowed American disinformation to spread.








It’s also Russiagate—Trump’s alleged (and never proven) collusion with Russia—which was fueled by a Democrat-funded opposition research sheet known as the Steele Dossier. The FBI knew by early 2017 (at the latest) that the whole thing was junk. But like the Russian disinformation lie about the laptop, the bureau let the dossier falsehood linger while the Steele Dossier was hyped like Watergate by the legacy press and Democratic Party in 2017 and 2018.






Then there is the double standard the bureau applied to pursuing foreign influence investigations into Trump’s campaign and the campaign of Hillary Clinton. That was one of the primary conclusions of a report released in May from U.S. Special Counsel John Durham. For Trump, the FBI opened a full investigation on the thinnest of pretexts. For Clinton, the bureau delayed investigations into potential foreign influence and offered defensive briefings to her lawyers.








Here it is useful to examine the other major event of last week: the serious allegations raised by two career IRS investigators who led the team probing Hunter’s tax violations.
On Wednesday the two agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, testified in open session before the House Oversight Committee.






Ziegler and Shapley painted a picture of a long-standing probe that began in 2018 into Hunter Biden’s income that was stymied and delayed at nearly every turn. The delays were significant—so significant that eventually the statute of limitations ran out.
Ziegler said that the probe did not follow normal procedures. Prosecutors, he said, “slow-walked the investigation, and put in place unnecessary approvals and road blocks from effectively and efficiently addressing the case. A lot of times, we were not able to follow the facts.” Ziegler and Shapley also said there were times when prosecutors informed Hunter’s lawyers about investigative steps, such as a search warrant.






All of that would be bad enough. But the event that led Ziegler and Shapley to eventually blow the whistle was when, in October of last year, the U.S. attorney in charge of the case, David Weiss, privately told them that it was not his decision to charge Hunter in districts outside of Delaware. That directly contradicted the pledge that Attorney General Merrick Garland made to Congress that there would be no restrictions placed on Weiss in his investigation of Hunter.




These feel like bombshell revelations to me, but there is also a sickening feeling of two movies on one screen.  This stuff is worthy of coverage in global mainstream media, right?  Not just "bloggers on substack"?


I don't have a NYT or WaPo subscription.  In the last five years, I have completely lost faith in mainstream media.  Is this FBI stuff getting the coverage it deserves?  Shouldn't something like this make a career for a scrappy Berenson type at the NYT?  Are they salivating or putting their (and our) heads in the sand?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 17, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Maybe Jennifer Lawrence is actually worth $25 million dollars, but I don't think so. A more sustainable model for Hollywood would be to pay more actors a more moderate sum, creating more things on a smaller budget to appeal to more groups and sub-genres.




A movie without a big star is risky, making it very difficult to get the right mix of stakeholders on board (director, financing, producers, executive producers, studio execs).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 26, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the almost certainly true idea that it requires far less innate talent to be a straight-A/high SAT asian student from Palo Alto than it does to be a straight-A/high SAT black student from Detroit,




This doesn't seem obvious, unless you are having innate talent do the heavy lifting.  What do you mean by innate talent, and is there any evidence for your claim?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 26, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I suspect Vladimir Putin is dead.  I think the man in charge of the country is a double.  World leaders are known to have body doubles, often multiples.  For clarity, I'm going to introduce "Vlad", a person who resembles Putin and was recruited into performing as a double, likely after some cosmetic surgeries to tighten up the image.  Putin has reportedly had some nasty health problems over the last 3 years or so, and I have seen multiple articles suspecting a double acting in certain capacities, with side by sides of Putin and "Vlad".  I found this reporting credibly speculative, and I felt that I could reliably and consistently distinguish "Vlad" from Putin, particularly over time.


There is a problem of course: if "Vlad" exists, how can we be sure any particular Putin photo is actually of Putin?


Here is some evidence I've found, and I did not look very hard.  I was reading https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12231813/Prepare-deeply-dangerous-unpredictable-Russia-Putin-replaced-says-security-expert.html and happened to notice "Vlad", and scrolled down further to find what appeared to be an older photo of Putin.


"Vlad": https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/06/25/15/72511321-12231813-Russian_President_Vladimir_Putin_on_state_television_today_said_-a-9_1687704720258.jpg


Putin: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/06/25/15/72483879-12231813-Out_of_jail_and_free_to_run_his_large_mercenary_army_Prigozhin_l-a-16_1687704764143.jpg


Note, I am not saying that these are great examples.  If someone looked much harder, they could make a stronger case.  "Vlad" to me looks softer and smoother, without the hardness or sharpness that I've come to associate with Putin's gaze.


My best guess at a narrative, if Vladimir Putin is in fact dead at this moment:


Putin probably has a double even before he gets sick.  This may or may not be the current "Vlad".  I think Putin realizes he has a likely terminal disease before the Ukraine invasion.  As he gets sicker, the need for the double increases, both in terms of scheduling around illness and heightened scrutiny.  Perhaps there is additional recruitment or cosmetic procedures.  Putin invades Ukraine.  Perhaps within a year of the invasion, he becomes incapacitated, and the double takes over, likely with the assistance of high level FSB.


				

				

						

							

								
    
									
									
									
									
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 19, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I went to uni with a Biden, and she was a total party girl.  An absolute embarrassment, in relative hindsight, but I thought she was really cool at the time.  I have zero evidence or knowledge but zero doubt that she did several stints of rehab and an extensive "clean up your image" period.  I was sure it was going to blow up for Biden when Obama got elected, but nary a peep since.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm pretty sure that Ford and Le Boeuf were never filmed together, probably at Ford's insistence.  I haven't watched the whole thing, but every scene I watched had negative chemistry and gave of vibes of independent performances composited together.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				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 May 15, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Disclaimer: this is a serious test for shady thinking.  My apologies.  Consider this a strawman, and please try to confront a steelman.


Note: see disclaimer above.  This is shady thinking in note format.


EDIT: This is mostly in response to https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-is-the-academic-job-market-so particularly thinking about Scott analyzing how the academic job market actually works.  I bet Scott's analysis is super annoying to many of those in the market, and likewise super satisfying to others.  My thesis is that the others are rationalists and the many are not.


idea


    

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    rationalists explain foreign things from "first principles"
    

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    they liken themselves to newton and hooke, exploring new frontiers
    

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    for better or worse
    

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    to the experts in the field, they are cringe and dilettante, sneer worthy
    

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the problem


    

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    within every field, there are certain "touchy areas"
    

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    everyone understands the truth but pretends not to
    

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a bigger problem


    

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    rationalists home in on touchy areas
    

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    rationalists can't "understand the truth but pretend not to"
    

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    rationalists "say the quiet part out loud"
    

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the solution


    

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    demonize the rationalists
    

    • 

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    sneer at the rationalists
    

    • 

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    how cringe, what baby
    

    • 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is fantastic!  I lived in NOLA for  7 years (see my nick/handle), and most of this history is new to me.  The names some facts are familiar but not the conceptual fabric tying everything together.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				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 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 April 10, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Point taken, but I don't quite agree.  Establishment organs defend the establishment, which is large part defined by state apparatus.  Add funding to the mix, and the bias is obvious and inevitable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is the BBC state sponsored media?  N. S. Lyons says yes




And while the BBC claims it can operate with nearly three-quarters of its funding coming from the government (whoops, I mean "the public”) and still remain independent in its coverage, this is clearly nonsense. Any organization that relies overwhelming on a patron for its continued financial existence will do what that patron wants. Obviously. And thanks to leaked emails and WhatsApp messages we can peruse a real time record of how the government leveraged this deference during the pandemic, with, for example, an “IMPORTANT ADVISORY” email sent from senior BBC editors to reporters informing them that Downing Street was “asking” if they could please avoid using the word “lockdown” to describe shutting people in up in their homes – and thus only “curbs” and “restrictions” appeared in BBC headlines the next day. This has hardly been limited to pandemic exceptions. As one BBC inside source told The Guardian: “Particularly on the website, our headlines have been determined by calls from Downing Street on a very regular basis.”




Edit: Paging @SSCReader per this earlier discussion


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m pretty sure this is solved by 10 year old image classification tech, if you feed just the segmented object to it.  And I would certainly expect modern ML classifiers to crush the second stage.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


But within government there is no standard path to control the Beeb's output.




How certain are you that the status quo does not involve something analagous to The Twitter Files, with multiple govt agencies providing advisory concerns for subjects like pandemics, terrorism, mis/dis/malinformation, etc?


I think you have to agree these relationships must exist, indeed to control the Beeb’s output.  But this happens for private media, too!  I can’t prove, but strongly suspect, these relationships are stronger with the Beeb than Telegraph or Guardian.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 10, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


In the 60s, Marvin Minsky assigned a couple of undergrads to spend the summer programming a computer to use a camera to identify objects in a scene. He figured they'd have the problem solved by the end of the summer. Half a century later, we're still working on it.




Have you seen e.g. https://segment-anything.com/


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Boring!  There are so many awesome intermediate routes, with enough gas stations.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	







		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 31, 2023
			
		

	




	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Your score is 18.59!






Highrat: 95-99th percentile: A rare form of rat, you almost definitely are a programmer with lots of controversial views and a brain that's almost entirely boy. You know the AI alignment arguments both ways. You may not have been to a CFAR workshop due to it being too social.