ResoluteRaven
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User ID: 867
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
10mo 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
10mo 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
10mo 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
10mo 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
10mo 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
10mo 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
10mo 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
11mo 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
11mo 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
11mo 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
11mo 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
11mo 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).
ResoluteRaven
11mo ago
North Korea
Putin visited Pyongyang this week for a summit with Kim Jong-Un, signing a mutual aid pact and securing a vital supply of munitions for the war in Ukraine. South Korea is considering responding with their own arms deal, because apparently Koreans are some of the only people in the world who still know how to make artillery shells.
The Philippines
China and the Philippines continued their naval game of chicken around Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, in a dispute that the Filipino government could at any moment drag the US into by invoking its mutual defense treaty.
Lebanon
Israel seems ready to launch a military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which would likely lead to a dramatic escalation in violence throughout the region, with more missile and drone exchanges with Iran and even at first glance unrelated nations caught in the crossfire.
Saudi Arabia
Over a thousand pilgrims have died from extreme heat on the hajj. And here I was worrying about political violence this year instead.
Belgium
The EU plans to impose tariffs on the import of Chinese EV's, following America's lead. Time will tell whether this saves domestic manufacturing or if we in the west will end up like the Soviets with their Ladas looking enviously across the iron curtain at all the shiny new vehicles their government wouldn't let them have.
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.
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