Pongalh
1mo ago
The idea that your views on this stem from whether you've got kids or not is dubious. My father had a bunch of kids, who've now got kids who have their own kids, and his opinion is still the boomer holdover of there being too many people on earth. Like that 80s song by Genesis, "...too many people making too many problems."
Pongalh
1mo ago
I am come from an upper-class family, I went to the appropriate schools in the UK, I read the Soectator, etc. You could pretty easily predict my views on the merits of taxation and on the usefulness of the Laffer curve, my voting affiliation, my views on fox-hunting, on globalisation, all from those pieces of information.
Sure, you could, but it's not causal. But do you believe the veracity of what you think about the effects of taxation is really no more accurate than what a poor person thinks? It's all just situated selves determining so-called truth? Or are the effects real independent of you coming from an upper-class background?
Pongalh
1mo ago
People significantly choose what side they're on by considering the effects of what they believe to be facts beyond subjective self-interest or family ties. They demonstrably spend time researching "the facts" and the "science."
Even this notion of tribal loyalties determining political outcomes is supposedly a disinterested value-free view from above, about human behavior.
Pongalh
1mo ago
Good deep dive! But the point is that the effect of price controls - do they deliver the goods by keeping things affordable and available or not? - isn't determined by ethnicity or tribe.
"Is strongly suspect that Tutsis would be hit badly by..." is implicitly based on an understanding of the above, in fact.
Pongalh
1mo ago
"What will the effect be of this 50% tariff?"
"I don't know. Are we talking about Hutus or Tutsis here?"
You can see how un-illuminating this is pretty quickly.
Pongalh
1mo ago
I'm curious what family, tribe or ethnicity have to contribute to considering the effects of certain economic policies like price controls, or law regarding the environment, or political and institutional design.
Would you say your family, tribe or ethnicity has helped you determine the answers to the above?
Pongalh
1mo ago
"Suit and tie conservatives lost the culture war."
Though they still tend to win the economic war, in their own lives most certainly.
Pongalh
1mo ago
It's a curiosity because without principles, what makes someone choose any particular side to begin with?
Pongalh
1mo ago
What is the relationship between attacking enthusiastic nerds specifically and trying to shed a reputation for mental illness?
Pongalh
1mo ago
"15-17 year olds back when I was in that age bracket..."
When you're also young, they don't seem particularly nubile or special.
Pongalh
1mo ago
Apparently "woke is more correct" means that they see terrible social consequences from very mundane things, unlike liberals who think a cigar is just a cigar.
Pongalh
1mo ago
I think it started with her wholesome(-seeming, I didn't see it) "Anyone But You" movie from yea, a couple years ago. Like an Abercrombie & Fitch couple starring.
Pongalh
2mo ago
It’s defensive.
Yea they're really giving the impression of being on the defensive. This is preventative, and coupled with a highly ideological notion of getting that land back and removing these people once and for all.
Pongalh
2mo ago
Incels? That's one I haven't heard. Thought that was orthogonal to perceptions of Jewish people. Being driven to dislike everyone except Jewish and Asian men and in the entertainment industry seems more fitting. Jewish guys have a nebbish reputation after all. It's the Booty Sweat celebs you'd think most piss them off.
I suppose to the degree incels are nerdy and into Asian women (I'm very much not, and frankly don't get it) then the likes of Zuckerberg and wife and the salience of rich Jewish nerds may weigh heavily on them.
Pongalh
2mo ago
on top of that system. Also, you can "tame the beast" a little bit if you have enough smart rules in place for how capitalism works. And you know? I feel like that's a valid and defensible worldview/proposal, even if you disagree.
A defense of the PMC is essentially a defense of this added layer. You really do become more capitalist in the minds of progs by gutting layers of management and HR that work to offset pure macho entrepreneurialism. Or by undermining NGOs and non-profits, which they'll happily concede are private sector manifestations. Size of the state or public vs. private are not really where the action is anymore. Left vs. right all takes place within a permanent indispensable and inescapable capitalism.
The right that wants to woo the left by going after a portion of the private sector, i.e. engaging political economy on the left's classic terms, can't get any traction, because the left has moved on.
Pongalh
2mo ago
France truly is the 4chan of philosophy. Everybody likes its memes, but few can stomach the environment which was necessary to produce them.
This is a notable quotable. Nicely done.
Pongalh
2mo ago
So very sorry to veer off topic but I didn't want to make a top post with this mere inquiry:
So I'm writing a piece on the right and AI art. The Trump administration really seems to love it. (See the Alligator Alcatraz tweets etc.) Does anyone have any information on partisanship, ideology and AI art adoption? Much appreciated!
Pongalh
2mo ago
But complaining that black RAF pilots are "historically inaccurate" makes about as much sense as complaining that if Kermit is supposed to be a frog, he shouldn't look like he's made out of felt.
So there is no distinction between fantasy and a straightforward historical drama for which factual depictions are expected? You don't think an East Asian Cleopatra would be massively distracting and rightly so? Or that a morbidly obese Marilyn Monroe would be a non-starter?
James Bond and LOTR. Both are fantasy.
Pongalh
2mo ago
even the racists don't complain about them.
Hm, dunno about that. Not if they're spotted in some street snapshot of an English town posted on X and accompanied by the complaint, "this is not the country I grew up in"
Pongalh
2mo ago
Those who have been left behind by the media are not going to be easy to convince that modern TV shows are now worth watching.
The problem is that if you care about production chops and are not content to rewatch stuff you ALREADY like over and over again, what's the alternative? (Apart from the taking high road and just reading and doing carpentry or something instead)
It's religious conservatives who believe every life has intrinsic value, though
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