@Pasha's banner p

Pasha

Defend Kebab

1 follower   follows 2 users  
joined 2022 September 05 06:58:22 UTC 

				
User ID: 481


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
Pasha


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Defend Kebab

				
				
				

				

					1 follower  

					follows 2 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 06:58:22 UTC
				


				
					

					
No bio...

				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 481


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					Month
					Year
					
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Bottom New Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 8, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I believe this sentiment is actually very common with online Hindu nationalist types. My best guess is that they see Israel as a country of hyper-competent Brahmins (without the 1.5 billion riffraff bringing them down) and associate its enemies of "Muslim hordes" with Pakistan.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan don’t come to your mind when thinking about rapid capitalist technological development? Even when they chose the civilisational path of building extreme commie hermit kingdom, East Asian North Koreans probably did better than any other nation in the history probably.


Also the claimed IQ diff between Europeans and East Asians is about 5 points. Pretty minuscule with limited consequences if true.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am mildly interested in how the quest for Ukrainian nation building will develop my lifetime. Right now they manage to co-opt two very opposing sets of political and philosophical schools, largely due to wartime mobilisation censorship and patriotism. On the one hand the Ukrainian identity is being based on 19th/early 20th century style blood and soil rhetoric. The defenders of white Christian (even pagan) Europe against eastern orc hordes. Unspoiled real Slavs against the crypto-Tatar Muscovites. Real European Christians unlike those Eastern Orthodox peasants. On the other hand their only hope for national survival in this day and age is to tightly integrate with the “GAE”. So the Ukrainian army puts up EU flags in newly reconquered territories. Their parliament is busy rushing through gay agenda bills. Their politicians are making deals with Blackrock and learning the ropes of the WEF circuit.


But when the war ends these two stories cannot coexist for long. You cannot arm neo-nazi battalions while going through the EU integration process. You cannot outright ban one of the largest churches as well as the linguistic communities in your country and try to enter the Schengen area. It’s not for nothing that half the EU funded ads targeted to my demographic on social media has some visible minorities (ie blacks) posing as proud Europeans. The nationalist Ukrainian state, if it ever stops being such a poor corrupt shithole and enters the EU, will have to cope with millions of African/South Asian/Middle Eastern immigrants as well as the European Court of Human Rights rulings which will not tolerate the blood and soil rhetoric in practice. It’s ridiculous contradictions all over and makes me profoundly sad that so many young brave people are dying for a political project doomed to fail if it ever succeeds.


Something has to give in at some point. I don’t know what but I am not very hopeful about the results.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think most EU officials (the ones smarter than Von der Leyen) have been silent so far in order to not increase Meloni’s support even more. Random Eurocrats warning you against voting a certain way is usually a strong reason for voting that way.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
As in every society everywhere, the fact that they are "establishment" counts much more than the ideology they coalesce around. Humans are very open to changing their minds about philosophical trivia or their lifestyle when maintaining or gaining power and wealth is the expected outcome.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 29, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I hear Africa is still pretty wild




Yeah a friend lived in Madagaskar for a couple months and the stories were wild. Perhaps I should give it a try. I am personally not a big fan of places where there is a real threat to your personal safety or health. Forces you to be a lot more cautious and timid, and stick to the well beaten path. Definitely learned my lesson in this regard after some nights out in Brazilian cities that I tried to act as if I am still in Istanbul.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for April 26, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It’s very very difficult to assimilate into a tight knit society as an adult without marrying a local and putting in a tremendous effort with language and local culture. The novelty of immersing into a new language and culture wears off very fast and after a while it turns into a slump. Even if you succeed somewhat, you need to live with the fact that 1) some things will never feel quite right 2) your children will be very different people than you.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 31, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
First of all, I don't have any advise other than the very obvious: don't be an idiot, marry this girl, if you break up with her you will immensely regret it and any casual sex you can have will probably not be better than with her.


But a question: Were you experienced with hook-ups when you started dating this girl? When you have these longings are they associated with images of what you had done in the past or just internet porn?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Uighurs simply don't have a large group of people in other countries who see them as genuine kin the way Palestinians do. Their radicalization was a brief episode that had to do with limited monetary/weapon/ideological support by US/UK/Turkish intelligence services. In contrast there are about 500 million Arabs (situated in a way that absolutely surrounds Israel, and in command of armies and money and influence). Vast majority see Palestine as the pinnacle of their people's humiliation. The darkest spot on their battered honor which they highly value.


The comparison to Uighurs is quite useless because of this. China was subjugating a people who were barely militant, had little real friends, with zero real threats against its own national security as a consequence of these actions.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


What is Hamas plan here? They had to know they can’t militarily match Israel and Israel is going to hit very hard back




So what? Israel is already hitting hard constantly. What is the average life expectancy of Hamas militants or even anyone high up in the hierarchy? These people very much already know that they and their whole family will be obliterated with a precision guided bomb at some point with a very high probability. They do what they do because they believe the moral dignity and the eventual triumph of their people are more important than their personal well-being. How many of the gunmen who participated in the raid yesterday really expected to survive the day?


Palestinians have good reason to believe they will be destroyed as a people if they give up but there is also no immediate action that can bring them victory in the foreseeable future. They have developed institutions and traditions to deal with this grim reality. It is more akin to a death cult than a normal society as we would understand it, but it is what it is.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 26, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am a software developer (I know, so unique around here!) at the beginning of my career. I expect to get an offer from a trading company next week which will easily double my salary, possibly more depending on the market. The tech stack is amazing and exactly what I wanted to work with. The office and benefits look great. People seemed fun when I met the team and I was even assured that overtime is rare. I will get training in finance subjects so this is a perfect gateway into the industry. All in all, if one is to treat a job as simply a source of income, I cannot do much better than this. Especially with the current crappy labour market.


But I can't shake away the feeling that something is wrong here. The company is a market-maker in one of those areas of finance almost entirely uncoupled from the real economy and became pure speculation, so it makes all this money via basically imposing a tax on gullible layman day traders. There is absolutely nothing of value being produced. I am worried that when I get a bit older, I will regret that I wasted my potential on something so useless and zero-sum. Especially since until this point I have always worked on projects with a real "product". Often code that goes into things you could hold in your hand etc. It gives me enormous satisfaction, but pay is meh and life just seems to be getting more expensive. I know there is some value in providing liquidity to the markets, but I cannot fool myself enough to ignore that this whole operation is just a bunch of very smart people using their learning and wits to leech off the broader society. I had an informal lunch interview round and it felt a tiny bit embarrassing to be served lunch by someone who is at least doing something useful and in turn has to serve these people who aren't.


I know some people here work in finance. Would appreciate your perspective or anyone else with an opinion


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My expectation is that if there will be protests, they won't be about "gas is expensive" but about "we are now unemployed because our industries relied on cheap consistent natural gas input". This is already coming pretty clearly: https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/german-producer-prices-post-record-jump-august-2022-09-20/


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 15, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For Ukraine, while air defence against drones and cruise misiles is important, keeping Russian bombers away from the frontlines is absolutely crucial. It’s quite clear that Russia can’t mass produce the first in numbers big enough to really win the war. But they have a world class air force and basically infinite supply of bombs to be retrofitted as glide bombs if there is no concern for planes getting shut down.


If the Russian air force gets free rein over the frontline then the war is over. Due to a mix of inherited Soviet air defense (which was quite substantial as Soviet western armies had enormous stockpiles from what I understand), gifts systems from the west and manpads the Russian planes were essentially missing.


This is changing rapidly right now and there is big panic on the Ukrainian side. It should be visible to the leadership that the loss ratios are becoming untenable and the fortifications just can’t stand.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 8, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What if those contracts are not worthless by expiration? Indeed what if they are worth more than what you sold them for? Do you think this possibility is not taken into account while pricing them?


I work at a small options trading firm at a non trading role. I interact with the guys working on modelling and pricing options every day. One thing I know is that these guys are really fucking smart and spend most of their day and night hours thinking about how to very efficiently take your money and getting very well compensated for this. I would advise anyone away from competing with these guys unless you really know what you are doing. Derivative trading is meant for institutional investors to hedge certain risks. Options are to be bought as well calculated insurance policies and not as a way to gamble with leverage. It’s a pity that they became a very efficient tool in the crypto world to part fools with their money.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 28, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is very common in Turkish. Language substrate of old Turkic, blended with a lot of Persian (anything literary), Arabic (anything religious), French (anything modern pre-1960s), English (anything modern post-1960s). There are usually multiple ways to say the same thing from each language and it gives the sentence a different vibe.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The price of your house going down is a really big problem if you:


    

  1. still owe a large part of the mortgage and suddenly you are financially in negative. Especially if this happens around a time you need some financial breathing room (like switching to a bigger house to grow your family)
    2. 

  2. took on debt that depend on your house price to finance your lifestyle. Shockingly common in many countries
    3. 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Israel-Gaza Megathread #2
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Can someone invent a Curtis Yarvin reading LLM so that I can finally make sense of this guy's massive wall of rambling texts full of unfinished sentences


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Israel-Gaza Megathread #1
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes exactly. I have asked a couple of Israeli friends their opinion about the upcoming military campaign and they all seemed stuck with this dilemma (that IDF has to level the place and otherwise might very well lose or at least "win" with incredible casualties). The emotions are running high with all of them (and Israelis are a very direct people) so the literal sentiment was "send the civs to Sina/EU and make a parking garage of the rest".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Drone production, heavily automated surveillance including via facial recognition, all these things can, as Dase said earlier, make effective repression easier. I think it possible.




Yes there is serious potential in this direction. It is not even unique to the Israel/Palestine conflict situation. This might become the testing grounds for a new type of government model for this century where AI developments drones and digitalization makes it viable to implement a degree of totalitarian control over human populations never seen before in human history.


I sense a hidden enthusiasm among some posters here for such a future for Palestinians. I hope they realize that their own governments won't shy away from imposing it on them in a couple decades either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is correct. The early history of Turks in Islam is basically a repeating pattern of imported hardened Turkic warriors realizing that they don't have to eat shit from their Arab/Persian/Even Turkish patrons since they have all the weapons.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 14, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I suppose a lot of mediocre people entered the software field with expectations of easy work cheap money and now they are pissed and have way too much free time.


Also it is terrifying for any FAANG employee to watch Elon take over Twitter, fire 90% of the work force and keep the site functioning just fine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				What caused the Nord Stream pipline explosions?
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You are massively underestimating the probability that the pipelines would have reopened sometime in the close to mid term future. These aren’t some expandable moral signalling devices for Europe. Our industry pretty much depends on cheap Russian fossil fuels and now those firms are simply going to go bankrupt or move abroad. Germany has spent the last 6 months trying to get Russia to resume the gas flows through Nord Stream 1. It also constructed Nord Stream 2 as a deliberate policy choice knowing how much it angered Poland, Baltics, Ukraine and ultimately the US. I don’t know why everyone is so hell bent on forgetting what Biden openly said about the pipeline not that long ago.


It’s also pretty weak how you dismiss Ukraine as a harmless incapable country which cannot anger Germany. Well why not? What’s Germany going to do? Stop supplying helmets? Ukraine is an American client state now and is fighting an existential war. The Ukrainian military aid from the US likely exceeds the whole yearly Russian military budget since the war started. German support is insignificant in comparison.


Besides Ukraine certainly doesn’t shy away from other risky spy action: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/us/politics/ukraine-russia-dugina-assassination.html. Even if Russia somehow “proves” this, so what? Russia is horribly bad at getting even the most basic talking points out to the western world and it will just get dismissed as Putin propaganda.


For me the biggest possibility by far is that Ukraine (or certain factions of Ukrainian military) has done it either with tacit approval of the US or relying on the American cover after the fact. Intelligence agencies are infamously factional and incoherent so it’s likely some parts of CIA knew about this and assisted in the operation.


The immediate affects are very clear and there is no need to play 4D chess about Putin palace politics. Europe (Germany) has no option of deescelation anymore no matter how tough things get economically. It’s entirely reliant on LNG supplied by countries broadly in the American camp in the coming decade to survive.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think <Foreign> <American thing> is a useful way to talk about basically anything.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 29, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I always feel that everytime I read about East Asian social problems, it’s extremely focused on highly educated upper middle class striving part of the population. But then what about the remaining 80%+ of the population? What do Koreans who don’t do well at school think? The ones whose parents just run a shop or works for the municipality or something? People who never thought about buying a flat in a good area anyway? Surely there is also a real massive drop in the fertility rates of such people as well and it’s not because they are off studying or working 80 hours a week?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 15, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The moment Israel got into any danger, Ukraine basically lost this war. Big bad brainwashed trump republicans holding off the aid is just a cope narrative to avoid discussing the real intended beneficiary of the air defense systems. Those systems will never go to Ukraine as they are needed to protect Israel.