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QuinoaHawkDude


				

				

				

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joined 2022 November 03 17:24:28 UTC
				

				

				

				

				

				

					
				

				

				
				
				

				
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QuinoaHawkDude


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 November 03 17:24:28 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1789


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Cochrane review is out and masks have weak evidence that they are not effective
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Consider this analogy: laws mandating wearing of seatbelts in cars don't prevent 100% of automotive fatalities.  Sometimes this is because people aren't wearing their seatbelts properly.  Sometimes this is because people just ignore the law and don't wear them.  Sometimes this is because the specific type of accident caused trauma that seatbelts can't mitigate.


Would you therefore conclude "seatbelt mandates don't work"?  Would you think it reasonable for the highway department (or whomever) to stop encouraging the wearing of seatbelts because they're not 100% effective?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


From the stolen-election perspective, the end goal (thus the bailey) is "the election results do not represent a fair vote or a small-d democratic mandate."




If that's the bailey for "stolen elections" then every US presidental election ever has been stolen due to the electoral college.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I doubt any of those things were built to benefit the native populations of colonies.  They were built to make it easier for the colonists to do whatever business they were there to do.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There has been quite a bit of development of reactor technology, even just within what are now seen as the boring, old and busted design of Pressurized Light Water Reactors.  So-called Gen III+ Reactors have substantial improvements in safety and operational efficiency (how much time they spend generating electricity (and thus $$$) vs. time spent shut down for maintenance).


The main way to subsidize costs would be guaranteed zero- or low-interest loans, combined with some reduction in red tape; the main thing that makes nuclear cost-prohibitive right now is the ridiculous amount of time it takes to go from "we're thinking about building a nuke plant here" to "actually generating electricity".  The NRC safety certification process is important and shouldn't be circumvented, but what needs to be stopped is every single anti-nuclear organization being able to file NIMBY-lawsuit after NIMBY-lawsuit that keeps the project tied up, with loan interest accumulating the whole time.


Other more advanced reactor design concepts are interesting but PLWRs have 70 years of design and operational experience behind them now, which makes them quite hard to dislodge from their dominant market position.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Re: iconic buildings in India built built by the British: the fact that all the buildings you provided as examples were built in a British/Western architectural style, and the Cathedral being specifically a house of worship for the West's dominant religion rather than that of the natives, kind of diminishes the claim that these are investments in "India".


Let's say that the United States becomes a Chinese colony, and the Chinese build several large buildings in America that look like this.  Would you consider that an investment in America, its people and its culture?  Or would you consider it a massive "fuck you, we own this place now"?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think it's possible that this post is the answer, or at least part of the answer, to a question that's been kicking around in my brain for a while, which can be poorly summarized as "if Christians are opposed to abortion because they believe it is a sin, and therefore are motivated to exercise their voting rights to vote for politicians who promise to make it illegal (or appoint SC judges who would overturn Roe, clearing the way for making it illegal), surely they should also be voting for politicians who promise to make other things that they believe are sins illegal, including not being Christian."


I kind of assume that the reason (American) Christians aren't lobbying to make not being a Christian illegal is because it's just so completely outside of the (American) Overton window.  But maybe there's another reason.


I might, perhaps, be incorrect in the assumption that the primary reason many/most Christians are anti-abortion is "because it makes God mad".  After all, I've read plenty of well-written posts on this site and its predecessors putting forth philosophical arguments for why abortion is wrong that don't have any reference to theology or the supernatural.  I've spent the past approximately five years arguing fairly passionately with anybody I think will listen that pro-lifers don't hate women, or want to make America a theocracy, they just believe a fetus is a living human with the same right to state protection from murder as any other living human, etc., on the basis of these posts.


However, more recently I've noticed that everybody making these well-written philosophical arguments also just so happens to be either a Christian, or somebody super concerned about falling Western birth rates, or somebody who just thinks that kids are the best and everybody should have more than they currently do...or some combination of all three.  (If I'm wrong, please correct me, any anti-Western child-hating atheist pro-lifers out there.)  So I'm no longer trying to convince anybody in my circle that they should listen more to what pro-life people are saying, any more than I would try to convince hardcore 2nd-amendment believers to listen to what the people lobbying for universal background checks and high-capacity magazine bans are saying, because I know that they (gun enthusiasts) know that they (anti-gun activists) ultimately want private firearms ownership either completely banned or made incredibly rare and highly socially stigmatized.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You're going to be shocked when you learn that Black people who use the n-word regularly in their own discourse get mad when people who aren't Black use it.


Less sarcastically: it's a well-known, timeless and universal fact about humanity that cultures get upset when outsiders make fun of their culture, or attempt to adopt aspects of their culture in an insincere or imperfect way, even if they themselves do the exact same thing all the time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
While the orgasm gap definitely goes a long way to explaining why women are less radically DTF than men, I think that male sexual desire is also more complicated than "I am having sex and sex is awesome."  Yassine put it well in the latest Bailey podcast when he said that the straight male desire for sex is mostly about status.  Men want to have sex with the most physically attractive woman they can find willing to have sex with them, because of the status/ego boost.  "She's so hot, she could bang literally any guy she wants, and she chose to bang ME!"  This explains the disconnect in some of the other discussions in this thread around "incels should stop complaining about how hard it is to get laid, it's really not that hard, all you have to do is X" where X is a list of things like going to bars all the time, learning how to chat up women, learn how to dress better, etc.  And at that point it starts to sound like a lot of work.  And if you have to put a lot of work into getting laid, suddenly it's not such a status boost, is it?  Now she's not banging me because she chose me out of all these other guys, she's banging me because I was the only guy who was willing to flatter her for long enough.


There's certainly an equivalent for straight women but it's the commitment after the sex that is important, not the sex itself.  "He's so smart and successful, he could choose to commit to any chick he wants, and he's committing to me!"  And I think "can't afford to be that profligate with their scarce reproductive resources" translates to "can't afford to hoe around too much or it will be impossible to get any high-status male to commit to me" in modern times.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Fast forward through satanism, open findom relationships, antifa friends, trans rights and racist jokes, if you care about 'ethical consumerism' like is clearly done by Karl and friends, why should any right of center person support or tolerate someone like Karl?




Do you ever get upset when progressives refuse to tolerate somebody because they expressed right-of-center views that aren't central to what that person is primarily known for?  Do you ever feel like, you know, it's kind of unfair for somebody who's really good at something like acting or writing or programming or making cool YouTube videos to suddenly have no platform to do those things because they said something completely unrelated to any of those things that progressives happened to disagree with?  If so, then why would you think it's okay to do that when the shoe is on the other foot?


FWIW, I have enjoyed owning, shooting and maintaining guns for years, but I find it increasingly hard to enjoy the hobby as somebody who's culturally blue tribe because of exactly the attitude you just expressed, and the fear that in order to be a "gun guy" you also have to hate non-whites and LGBTQ people or you won't fit in.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Attempting to point out the hypocrisy of a social justice movement that simultaneously argues that a) it's horribly racist for white people to be frightened by black people on account of the actions of a very small subset of black people and b) it makes perfect sense for people to be frightened by guns on account of the actions of a very small subset of gun owners.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How do you square this theory with the fact that many European countries have gone further with their progressive reforms along all of these dimensions (at least, that is my general impression - I'm not willing to claim expertise in every single EU member state's social policies and what it's like to live there, but I am willing to claim that most Americans perceive that European countries are both more progressive and less disordered than the US).


So, do European countries not have no-fault divorce?  Do they not have lax drug policies or housing projects?  Are the cops in London going around cracking rough sleepers over the head with their billy clubs and shipping them off to institutions?  (I mention London specifically because the UK is the only European (kind of?) country I have any experience traveling in, and it's generally amazing to me how few "street people" you see in the cities.  Most people I've talked to about this cite the stronger social safety net as being the reason.


As much as I instinctively would like more aggressive policing of vagrancy, vandalism, and property crime in American cities, I'm not sure it will solve the fundamental problem of too many people without jobs or other economic support.  Given what it costs to actually arrest, jail, bring to trial, convict, and imprison somebody, it's simply not worth prosecuting most low-level property crime, even if it makes living in cities hell.  Low-crime times and places seem more correlated with "enough jobs and housing to go around" than with "enough cops, courts and jails".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				FTX is Rationalism's Chernobyl
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Not all (American) Christians are pro-life, but nearly all (American) pro-lifers are Christian.  And if you're pro-choice, this gives you a reason to dislike Christianity.  So while we can agree that Rationalism != EA, if EA starts getting bad press because of the FTX implosion, it will start giving non-Rationalists a reason to distrust Rationalism.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I do find it quite fascinating how the class-status-marker associations of outdoor sports like fishing and hunting, and rural living in general, are completely reversed in the UK compared to the USA.


I mean, just look at how different these two very similarly-named magazines are:


Country Life - UK-based lifestyle magazine for people who can afford two million pounds for a manor house, and vacation in the Maldives and Seychelles.


Country Living - USA-based lifestyle magazine for fans of Kelly Clarkson and decorating one's porch with gourds in the fall.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This isn't a response to urquan, but to the commenter they were replying to.  I took particular issue with this line:




God has a plan for you, and you don't get to duck out of that plan just because you're feeling wretched.




If that's the answer a Christian would give in your friend's case, my response would be "then your God is an asshole, since his plan is apparently to cause a human being, and everybody who knows and loves them and has to watch, immense suffering as they waste away, for no good reason whatsoever."


I live with somebody who is slowly dying from a degenerative neurological condition.  It is heartbreaking to see their life gradually, painfully and inevitably reduced to nothing.  What's God's purpose in doing this?  To teach me patience and compassion?  Surely an omnipotent God could do that without destroying another human being in the process.


I know none of this is any new insight to the faithful, they've had to deal with arguments from unbelievers about why a just God would allow suffering to exists for as long as religion has existed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They need to withdraw active support and solidarity from the portions of their community that have adopted an unrepentant criminal lifestyle, the same way whites have done.




This is the key.  I believe America will only be "post-racial" when we get to the point where, when a chronically disordered individual who happens to be black "fucks about and finds out" with the cops, the majority of black Americans who have jobs and no criminal record shrug and say "play stupid games, win stupid prizes", like I do when the same thing happens to some toothless, tatted up white meth addict.  The fact that so many intelligent and educated black Americans continue to feel identification and kinship with thugs and knuckleheads simply because they share a skin color is baffling to me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Michael Malice's assertion seems to be true, that answering "are some people better than others" is the most precise way to distinguish right-wing from left-wing.




This is ironic given that it is mostly progressives that I see unironically declaring that so-and-so is a "terrible person" for having right-wing opinions, or is a "certified Good Person" (no shit, I saw somebody use that exact phrase and capitalization on social media recently) because they support LGBTQ folks.


What's probably more at the heart of right-wing vs. left-wing is the extent to which you think somebody's status as a better or worse person can be changed with the right (re)education.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Why Are Women Hot? – Put A Number On It!
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For what it's worth, I'm in my 40s and I'm just now becoming aware, sometimes, that the reason I think a woman is really pretty is because she's done a really good job with her makeup.  Lot of obvious makeup is unattractive to me, but probably because I associate it with lower-class women.  But no makeup is definitely less attractive than well-done subtle makeup.  I think the same thing happens in reverse with more educated, higher-class women finding jacked guys in muscle shirts less attractive than a man who manages to signal strength/fitness and masculinity more subtly, but also don't find completely unfit, weak men attractive at all.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sorry to bump an old thread; got here from the Quality Contributions roundup.


There was a discussion in the comments on this ACX post a few months back: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/why-is-the-central-valley-so-bad, or rather in the comments on the "Highlights from the comments on" followup post: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-the-3b1


The gist of the comment was that whenever you hear somebody talking about how they want to live in a city because of museums, or a symphony orchestra, or lots of rock concerts, etc., what they're really saying is "I want to live next to other smart, cultured, cool people like me".  And what they hate about the suburbs isn't so much the lack of those cultural touchstones, as much as it is having to live next to people who are perfectly happy with just a house that has a yard and a garage and a grocery store and a few chain restaurants within an easy drive.


So, no, the "desirable amenities of cities" can't be had in small chunks, if the main desirable amenity you're looking for is to have neighbors you like, and if you're the kind of person who hates suburban normies.


By analogue: I (and my parents) overpaid for my college education, from a pure ROI perspective - I probably would be doing just as well in life if I went to a cheap state school instead of a fancy private college - but after the hell that was K-12 public education, I was desperate and determined to go to a college where I would be surrounded by other nerds, and willing to pay the freight.  It wouldn't have been the same if I'd gone to a public university in the same city and occasionally took a bus over to the campus of the fancy private college to attend some free lectures.


So, I can be sympathetic to people who love living in cities (even if I don't understand them at all) but can't afford to.  To a point.  Prices are still the most efficient way we have of distributing scarce goods, and there is more demand to live in cities right now that there is available housing in those cities.  If you can figure out a way to afford it, move to NYC or SFO and have fun.  If you can't...well, I really want a Porsche Taycan, but I can't afford one, so....


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If Twitter dies, it will simply leave a Twitter-shaped hole in the world, which will be quickly filled in by something else.


It's not like getting rid of Twitter will get rid of progressives that want to proselytize their values on the rest of the world, any more than getting rid of 4Chan or KiwiFarms magically causes edgy right-wingers to evaporate.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Companies, brands and individuals can face substantial PR backlash when they charge a true market price for something in exceptionally high demand.  For example, in your airline-and-hotel-prices-around-the-holidays example, it's possible that the airlines could charge even more of a premium for that Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving ticket than they do, but they figure the extra profit for one day isn't worth the negative publicity.


In Taylor Swift's case, I'm assuming that it's easier to let her fans be pissed off at scalpers than at her, if she was the one charging $20k or whatever for a ticket to one of her shows.  She's already rich as Croesus and will make plenty of bank of this tour as it is.  She probably craves public adoration more than money at this point.


As far as "why does much of the public feel strongly entitled to below-market pricing for certain luxury goods and services" goes, another commenter already pointed out that it's as simple as "I want this thing I can't afford so badly that I've convinced myself it's somehow an injustice that I'm not getting it".  It's the same vibe you get from certain self-described incels when they're in "bailey" mode ("oh, why won't that beautiful girl who works out every day and spends an hour a night on her skin care routine date me even though I don't put any effort into my own physical appearance because that's for losers").


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I know good, pro-social, well-regulated people.  I know crappy, anti-social, disordered people.  I know devout religious people (mainly Christian), and I know totally secular atheists.  I have yet to notice a strong correlation on the scatterplot of those two axes.


I would add that it's not like secular atheists don't have external regulatory systems, it's just more "I'm not going to do this thing that I might want to do otherwise because all of the people I know and like will think I'm a bad person for doing it" than "God will send me to hell if I do this thing".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If we're going to start counting "media conspires to suppress stories harmful to their favored candidates during an election cycle" as "stolen elections" then every major election since the invention of democracy has probably been stolen.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


48 hours to destroy your career.




Both West and Adams were already skating on thin ice with large targets painted on their backs, to mix metaphors, before the final incidents which completed their "cancellation".  I work in tech and it's been at least five years since anybody felt comfortable sharing a Dilbert cartoon due to his outspoken support for Trump.  Ye has been saying controversial shit for about as long.


I'm pretty sure every newspaper and publisher that was still carrying Dilbert or other Adams products were just waiting for him to say something bad enough to give them an ironclad excuse to drop him.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Yet our society does treat these behaviors as being "choices" and hold the people carrying these out as agents responsible for the consequences of these "choices."




Actually, I've recently noticed that whenever a mass shooting occurs, very little time is spent blaming the shooter, and much more ink and airtime is spent on blaming guns, gun stores, gun manufacturers, toxic masculinity, racism, sexism, inadequate mental health care, inadequate school security, cowardly cops that refuse to attempt to intervene, etc., etc., etc.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 5, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I took care of my parents' cat at my house once and he basically did the same thing for the first week.  He eventually came out of hiding.  I'd say give it time.