ResoluteRaven
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User ID: 867
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Answering the question as stated, though perhaps not as intended, the vast majority of the people in the world have seen substantial improvements in their material standard of living over the past two decades. In some places that might just mean going from being desperately poor, sick, and starving, to being desperately poor, malnourished, and overworked, but China went from being a source of cheap plastic knockoffs to a maker of electric cars and smartphones on par with anything Western companies can produce, there's now high-speed rail in Indonesia, Morocco, and Uzbekistan, and countries like Malaysia and Poland have more or less converged with the developed economies.
Limiting ourselves to the US, Gwern has a good writeup on the subject, though it's pre-pandemic and so misses things like anti-obesity drugs. Obviously nothing on the scale of first getting access to cars or the internet, but that's a pretty high bar to expect to clear every generation, and even then there's a decent chance AI has you covered in that department. In the end though, whether we're born into a time of progress or decline (or material progress coupled with moral decline, or any combination thereof) is never under our control to begin with, so it's just something we have to learn how to accept and live with, whichever way the dice roll.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I mean, to use an analogy, just because most people these days would rather eat fast food instead of nutritious meals cooked with fresh ingredients, that doesn't mean that food is bad for us in and of itself or that we could do without it.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Harvard at least seems to think that the Supreme Court decision changed things. Looking at the admissions data for some other schools, it seems that the results are all over the place, most likely because each tried to achieve their desired racial mix via novel methods and haven't worked out all the kinks yet.
In any case, I thought the whole point of getting rid of affirmative action was so that we would stop caring about things like "[race] makes up [percentage] of the population and so deserves [percentage] of the seats." If you just wanted the racial spoils system inverted in favor of white people, then a lawsuit on behalf of Asians whose goal was admissions purely by test score was probably never going to achieve your goals.
Really we'd all be better off if there were a clearer distinction between admissions at technical schools like MIT and Caltech, which would do fine on a purely meritocratic exam system, and places like Harvard and Yale, which if they had any balls would say "We are private institutions and will admit whomever we damn well please, because our job is to groom the future rulers of this country, not churn out a bunch of programmers and engineers who will never hold the reigns of power." I thought perhaps the disruption of the pandemic would allow for reforms of that magnitude, but sadly the higher education system seems content to stumble along with kludges and half-measures until its bubble inevitably bursts.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Some states are three families in a trenchcoat. What's up with that? Particularly in the case of Pakistan: it's a nuclear state, but it also just has a lot of difficulty projecting power into rural areas...
South Asia just has a level of inequality unimaginable to the rest of the world, with a small elite (in relative terms, they still consist of tens of millions of people) capable of developing nuclear weapons, running a space program, standing toe-to-toe with the West and East Asia in every field of intellectual achievement, and doing everything else you would expect of a developed nation (other than keeping the streets clear of filth) living alongside a much larger population still mired in conditions that range from "bad by Latin American standards" to "bad by Sub-Saharan African standards."
Pakistan has the additional challenge of many rural areas being inhabited by clannish groups that will violently resist any perceived imposition by outside forces on their tribal way of life, and as the ruling class is just barely holding together some semblance of a state with guns, duct tape, and prayers, it has more important things to worry about then e.g. getting polio vaccines to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Everyone is vaccinated against smallpox in the west and it provides at least some protection.
Didn't routine vaccination stop in the late 70's/early 80's after smallpox was eradicated, leaving younger generations unprotected?
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
South Africa seems to fit the bill, with Pretoria as the administrative capital, Johannesburg as the financial center, and Cape Town as the cultural center.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
While as others have pointed out, China still punches well below its weight as far as modern cultural exports go due to government restrictions, I don't think it should be surprising that a region containing 20% of the world's population (and a much higher percentage of its industrialized population) would become a major player in the media and entertainment spheres. It's also not as though a Western obsession with East Asian culture is anything new.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
They may have been upper-class, but the Tidewater gentry still subscribed to a violent honor culture and disdained manual labor, so I don't think it should be surprising that some of their descendants would display these negative qualities, particularly absent the kind of social hierarchy that maintained their whole neo-feudal enterprise.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
In the sense of "we had some old leaders and now we might have a younger one" sure, but that seems like a fairly shallow comparison and I don't see the case for Kamala proposing or being capable of implementing any great reforms of our political or economic systems. If anything, policy-wise they are diametrically opposed, with Kamala's campaign basically arguing that things are good now under Biden and if we just keep doing what we're doing they can be even better.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
If there is a wave of refugees from Bangladesh, the only place they can go is India, their other neighbor being in the midst of its own civil war. The wealthy and powerful will make their way to the West if they can, but that has always been the case and the numbers are small by comparison. So I'd say that Indian leaders ought to watch events in Dhaka closely, but that the rest of us shouldn't expect our streets to be overrun with fuchka stands and clothing wholesalers anytime soon.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
This video goes through some of the available Three Kingdoms TV and film adaptations, which are probably the best entry point. As far as Koei goes, I've tried some of the Hyrule Warriors spin-off games, and there's a certain kind of mindless fun to be had there in limited doses. I'd probably stick to adaptations and not the novel itself if you want to get a sense for the cultural role of the Three Kingdoms setting in modern China and Japan, and then read an actual history book if you feel like you need more details about army composition or whatever.
Why get worked up over people's beliefs when there's no substance behind them? To borrow a quote from The Expanse: "He doesn't care about treason. That's just him parroting you because you talked to him last. If he spoke to a janitor he'd be passionately declaiming about a fucking mop!" Trying to edify most people is about as silly as turning a weathervane because you don't like which way it's pointing.
Now, you can react to this with existential horror at the thought that you're surrounded by mindless NPCs/p-zombies/what-have-you, or you can accept that the world is the way it is, enjoy the time that you spend arguing with us autists about ideas and politics as though they mean something, and then put down the phone and spend the rest of your time grilling with the normies. Having these ideas be so central to your identity that you walk around constantly stressed about hiding your power level and trying to slip red pills to everyone you meet is making the same mistake as woke or trans activists who've taken their ideological or sexual fetishes out of the online caves where they belong and into the light of day for passers-by to gawk at, and made an embarrassment out of themselves in the process.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I can confidently say that if outsiders moved in and learned and spoke Chinese and did so for a thousand years, they would still be foreigners.
I'm pretty sure nobody can tell Manchus apart from Han anymore without looking at the ethnicity listed on their ID, and they were assimilated less than 300 years ago.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I think entering parenthood with the mindset that your children (or worse, a single child) must be equal to or superior to you by every possible metric is setting yourself up for disappointment, similar to the modern idea that your spouse must also be your best friend and that if they don't share all your niche interests then you aren't really soulmates and should find someone else. Your best bet is to have multiple children and hope that collectively they embody all the characteristics you value in yourself and your partner, or if it matters enough to you wait a few years for genomic prediction technology for embryos to improve (even if they only screen for health, that is still correlated with IQ and also makes it an easier conversation to have).
I come from a family of fairly accomplished people. Upper middle class academics and some geniuses. Her family generationally is lower/middle middle class.
My children would inherit this.
Perhaps I have a different perspective on the heritability of social class, seeing as my grandparents were illiterate peasants, but I think it at least needs to be normalized to opportunity i.e. if they, and more importantly your partner, are conscientious and working to improve their station in life, wherever they may have started, then that is a sufficient demonstration of value.
archetypical shape rotators.
They do have their own opinions and are independent thinkers but they are deeply "practical people"
I think if there's anything potential descendants of us motteposters could use a dose of to become well-adjusted members of society, it's this.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I decided to try a big bowl of raw fish at my local sushi bar
I'm not sure if this is an exaggeration, but if you did just eat a bowl of fish with no dipping sauce or other accompaniments then that's the equivalent of eating an unseasoned boiled potato and wondering what the big deal is with said tuber. While, as others have pointed out, the main attraction of raw fish is the texture, there are some that taste a lot better to me than others e.g. I would choose raw over cooked salmon any day, but raw tuna can have an off-putting metallic flavor unless it's of the highest quality. Also, if sushi just isn't your thing, I would suggest giving ceviche a try instead, if you can find it (especially if you ever happen to find yourself in Peru).
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I agree with others downthread that linguistics per se is and ought to be descriptive, but that there's nothing wrong with having and enforcing prescriptive rules based on some standard form of a language. This argument, when it isn't a vehicle for fighting over the relative social status of different class/ethnic groups, mostly boils down to some people choosing to emphasize the fact that such standards are arbitrary, as opposed to the fact that we need them in place to communicate.
As for myself, while I have my own idiosyncratic pet peeves (proper use of the subjunctive is one I picked up after learning a few Romance languages), I've mostly gone from being a pedant to finding great amusement in deliberately provoking pedants and watching their heads literally explode.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Some combination of people acknowledging "well that almost happened..." in hushed tones while a few disappointed leftists go "how fucking lucky is this guy?!" and wish the shooter had succeeded or cope by claiming it was staged.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I noticed oddly in Bangkok that the street food stalls smelled really strongly (of spice, etc.) but had no flies anywhere, even in the 80F weather in February. I thought that was weird and I still don't know why there weren't more flies.
Many herbs and spices such as lemongrass, cloves, and chili peppers have natural insect repellent and antimicrobial properties, which helps explain their prevalence in tropical cuisines and perhaps the lack of flies.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Are there any theories why, among Asians, Indians in the West so often end up in leadership positions (especially in the corporate world), and East Asians don't?
The typical answer given is that "the leadership attainment gap between East Asians and South Asians [is] consistently explained by cultural differences in assertiveness, but not by prejudice or motivation". We see this reflected in the types of stories told in each culture about how an individual may rise to prominence and leadership: Chinese examples tend to be something like "kid studies hard for the imperial exams and passes at age 17, lifting his family out of poverty" or "brilliant strategist lives a quiet life in the countryside until a worthy leader seeks him out and asks for his help reunifying the empire", neither of which lend themselves to the type of assertive self-promotion needed to succeed in American business or politics. This may be less of an issue for 3rd generation immigrants and beyond who are fully assimilated, but they are relatively small in number at the moment.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
I am not one of those advocating for executing homeless people, but I think there's an important point to be made here: if no solution is implemented, then this is what people will resort to. You cannot expect them to sit around for years waiting for enlightened technocrats to come up with the most humane remedies for societies' ills while they are harassed and threatened on a daily basis on the subway, going to a grocery store, or walking home. Any solution that goes into effect today is worth more to the folks on the ground than the perfect plan at some unspecified time in the future.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Discussions about homelessness always remind me of this Onion headline. If almost every country in the world, including your own several decades ago, doesn't have the problem you have, then maybe you should stop doing whatever it is you're doing.
Scott clearly gets it:
And yet ordinary people should be able to say “I want to stop choking on yellow smoke every time I go outside” without having to learn the difference between hexamethyldecawhatever and tetraethylpentawhatever.
despite then insisting that all his readers learn the difference. And he even knows what solutions will work:
If your plan is “be cruel and draconian”, then that will work. It might even be justifiable, if it helps protect other vulnerable people - I talk more about this here. But please admit it. Don’t mumble something about “I just want these poor people to be able to get the treatment they deserve yet don’t know how to ask for” before going back to railing against the damn liberals.
The issue here isn't that people are being hypocritical by mumbling platitudes about treating homeless people better, it's that liberals will smear any plan that doesn't center the welfare of "unhoused individuals" as cruel and draconian and thereby force others to use their framework as a prerequisite for engagement rather than telling the truth, namely "we don't give a damn what happens to those people; just get them off our streets." I don't even see how restoring the old system of mental institutions would be any less cruel than letting these people kill themselves slowly and publicly, though I suppose people might oppose it on libertarian grounds.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
Russia
Several dozen people were shot in terrorist attacks in Dagestan this week. It's currently unclear whether this attack is related to the earlier concert hall shooting by ISIS-K, but given the region's history there's no shortage of potential suspects.
Cambodia
This article brought to my attention the ongoing series of joint military exercises between China and Cambodia and the construction of a Chinese naval base on the Gulf of Thailand. It's perhaps not surprising that Cambodia would fall into the Chinese camp given their shared tensions with Vietnam, but it does leave Indonesia as the only Southeast Asian nation that's still up for grabs in this new cold war (and even that chance is slipping given recent Chinese infrastructure investments).
Israel
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the Orthodox communities cannot be exempted from the draft, in what was probably an inevitability given their growing percentage of the population.
Bolivia
A coup attempt in Bolivia earlier today failed miserably after the general responsible was arrested on live television. Just another day in Latin America.
Portugal
Apparently tourism in southern Europe has grown so spectacularly since the pandemic that the PIGS economies are now growing faster than Germany. Anecdotally, I hear that Lisbon and Porto are now standing-room only, akin to Kyoto or Venice, which means those looking for a quiet and peaceful European beach vacation should look elsewhere (I'm pretty sure Albania hasn't been "discovered" yet and the locals still love Americans).
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
A set of naval bases from which to wage war against Communism in Southeast Asia and a guarantee that the Philippines would not fall into the enemy camp. It's just a shame they never developed like South Korea or Japan, or else they'd be a much more valuable trade partner and might be able to actually put up a fight against China in the event of a war instead of being a glorified aircraft carrier.
ResoluteRaven
1yr ago
From what I've seen, Never Trump is mostly an elite phenomenon and does not really reflect typical Republican voters. See for instance what happened to the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. The Democratic coalition, by virtue of being more diverse, contains many interest groups who can threaten to abstain if they don't get what they want, as in the case of Muslims angry over Biden's position on the war in Gaza. That's not to say there isn't a core of stalwart Dem voters (mostly older and/or Black), but the fickle progressives and minorities are at least perceived by the party leadership as being important to get on side to run up the numbers (even though they may not flip many states).
If you buy loose-leaf tea I would suggest you store it in a vacuum-sealed container like this one. Oolong tea is my favorite, particularly the stuff grown at higher elevations (usually called something like "high mountain tea"), but I get it when I travel to Asia or from friends and family, so I don't know what it costs to order online or where else they sell it. If you want something a bit different you can get some Kirkland brand green tea and cold-steep it in the fridge overnight for a refreshing drink the next day, and if you ever want something caffeine-free you can try barley tea (although if I remember right this was an acquired taste for me).
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