Quantumfreakonomics
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User ID: 324
Quantumfreakonomics
2mo ago
How are things in South Africa since they ended segregation?
Better than the counterfactual scenerio for the black residents, worse than the counterfactual scenerio for the white residents?
Quantumfreakonomics
8mo ago
The media reports on events that happen in New York City differently than they report on events that happen elsewhere. A Trump rally in Michigan or Western Pennsylvania might as well be in American Samoa or Guam. It’s different when Trump brings his ilk to defile Madison Square Garden. There are more Jews than Trump voters in Manhattan. The people who live there don’t even have cars. It probably does feel like Nuremberg to them.
Quantumfreakonomics
11mo ago
I don't think I've ever actually mailed a physical letter in my entire life. I'm sure it's not too hard, but one can imagine 80IQ or low-motivation people screwing it up.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
It's really tiring seeing people ask AI questions that are worded in a tricky way that most humans would screw up, then using this as proof that AI is way dumber than humans. I'll be honest, I had to read that question four times to understand it. It's the logic puzzle version of the Stroop Effect.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
Does this model explain why his rube-whispering was ineffective prior to 2016, leaving him a joke candidate in the two previous elections where he tried to run?
My pet theory is that Jon Stewart retiring from the Daily Show in 2015 opened the door for Trump to ascend. Without effective, hard-hitting, thoughtful ridicule, Trump was able to surf the wave of sneering contempt all the way to the White House
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
I don't see where the offramps are other than Abbot backing down.
At some point federal agents could arrest state national guardsmen. If they're afraid of forceful resistance, just send the arrest warrants to the guardsmen's home addresses. They can be physically handcuffed after the "crisis" is over. I doubt many people are willing to risk their freedom to defend Abbot's showmanship.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
The difference now is that Musk owns a piece of the media. (((New York and California executives))) can't implement a complete blackout on negative stories anymore. News will leak out through Twitter. People on Twitter will keep pointing out that all the hitpieces are written by people with names like Steve Israel or Yonat Shimron. Americans can simply look around and see that Jews are rich and well-connected. The median American probably doesn't know a single Jew personally. If they do, that Jew is probably richer and higher-status than they are. The disproportionate representation of Jews in positions of power is so stark that denying it without full media/information control will nuke the ADL's credibility.
I think a lot of the latent antisemitism on the right was being masked for most of the last century by the popularity of dispensational theology. Now that dispensationalism is going out of style, and secularization has progressed to the point where even the right is being affected, you are seeing a lot of the antisemitism pop back up.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
It seems pretty clear to me what happened. The Florida Department of Education of thinks it’s perfectly fine to teach AP Psychology without the gender identity and sexual orientation stuff, and the college board thinks those topics are integral to the course and cannot be omitted.
Of course, a media worth a shit would actually get into the weeds of the curriculum to find out what the gender and sexuality topics really are and how inseparable they are from the rest of the course. Unfortunately you’re going to have to do your own research.
To be fair to the College Board here, I have no clue what counts as “age appropriate” content for 11th and 12th graders either.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
For $30,000-$50,000, your friend can probably become attractive. (Examples 1, 2, 3).
Wow, they have surgery that can fix bad lighting now.
Look, I get it. The prosecution seems unfair and you want to struggle against it and fight back. Here’s the problem:
It’s a trap
They want you to vote for him in the primary. You really think the best case they can come up with is misreported hush money payments to his mistress? No. They’re hoping the Republican base bets all their political capital on Trump, secures him the nomination, and then they’re going to drop the hammer and make Republicans look like treasonous buffoons for supporting the guy again instead of adopting any meaningful policy platform.
You don’t have to throw Trump under the proverbial bus (like he did to his supporters on January 6), you just have to not nominate him to be the Republican candidate for President of the United States.
EDIT: Well well how the turntables. I suspect that these charges are at least legally sound, if not "fair". The argument that, "Everyone does it. These felony charges are bullshit." would be a lot stronger if we didn't all see over the last 8 years how differently Trump acts from normal politicians. You don't have to nominate this guy. DeSantis can run on an, "I'll pardon Trump, but he shouldn't be president," platform.
Quantumfreakonomics
2yr ago
Don’t do anything. It’s not your country. I’m sure tourists in America think they’re getting scammed when they see an 18% gratuity on their check (and in some sense, they are getting scammed). Who are you to show up and demand the locals behave according to your sense of morality? If you don’t like it, leave. You have no idea what the laws governing street transactions are in Turkey. You have no idea what the laws governing anything in Turkey are.
Quantumfreakonomics
4mo ago
Eric Adams is the big one in the news lately. He instructed fire marshals to look the other way on Turkey's NYC skyscraper in exchange for free first-class Turkish Airlines flights. Trump told the Justice Department to drop the case.
There was also the first impeachment of Trump himself. If wikipedia is to be believed, Trump tried to exchange military aid for political favors from Ukraine.
Quantumfreakonomics
5mo ago
The discussion was had and was highly relevent to subsequent developments. There was more than zero conflict, particularly around the aquisition of X/Twitter, but discussion ultimately won.
Quantumfreakonomics
7mo ago
What was the "dem scheme to cheat"? Some clueless immigrant checking the wrong box?
Quantumfreakonomics
7mo ago
Consider the possibility that a squirrel living indoors in close proximity to a raccoon would be more likely than wild squirrels to be infected.
Quantumfreakonomics
8mo ago
Suppose Alice is having a picnic at the pond with her parents. Her parents are clumsy eaters, and their plates and utensils get blown into the pond. A local cop sees the trash floating in the pond and asks Alice, “why did you dump your garbage in the pond?” Alice replies, “The only garbage I see floating out there is my parents’.” This is a completely normal way to use possessives in colloquial American English. It’s not the most likely interpretation of what Biden said, but it is a reasonable interpretation.
Quantumfreakonomics
9mo ago
Why don't we just give parents a direct financial claim on a portion of their children's income? Obviously there will be some details that need to be ironed out (maybe this portion goes to the state when one's parents die, to prevent perverse dynamics), but this seems straightforwardly incentive-aligned.
It seems almost too obvious. Do any countries anywhere do anything like this, surely this is a cultural custom somewhere?
Quantumfreakonomics
10mo ago
Unofficial Motte Strawpoll: Tattoos on women yes/no
Quantumfreakonomics
10mo ago
I think “DEI candidate” could have been an effective attack. Unfortunately Trump decided to go with “she’s not really black,” which sort of accepts the premise that being black is a notably positive attribute.
Quantumfreakonomics
11mo ago
What do you think is the base rate of dudes in Vance's demographic having ever fucked a couch? I suspect it is a lot higher than you would expect.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
EA had 46 billion dollars in committed funding in 2021, and was growing at 37% per year, according to 80000hrs.
Look at the date. How much of this "commitment" was from SBF?
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
The embassy to the Vatican is in Rome, Italy. They didn't fly the trans flag inside Vatican City.
Quantumfreakonomics
1yr ago
Limit dispensing of oral contraceptives to married couples with verified children. Ban abortion.
Yes, it will be tough. Lots of terrible situations will pop up. The question to be asked is, “is this worse than literally running out of people?”
The rant from "A Few Good Men", presented without comment.
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