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SkoomaDentist

The Greater Finnish Empire

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joined 2022 September 04 19:08:00 UTC 

				
User ID: 84


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
SkoomaDentist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
The Greater Finnish Empire

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 19:08:00 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 84


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
17th to 19th century American West was very much an outlier. I won't say similar things never happened elsewhere but they were a rarity. Even in the rest of America that was an exception as there wasn't a sizable body of people who expanded the frontier by conquest for an expanded length of time and then replaced the original people more than culturally. Ultimately the amount of wealth that can be gathered by that route for ordinary men is limited (almost as a tautology - where would masses of men they get such wealth from?)


It was fairly often the norm for the man to gather enough wealth to support himself and his family before getting married (although even that depended very much on the time and place) but that involved traditional boring stuff like working as a farm hand etc.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I am not sure this is a good top level CW post. In large parts it is basically the format of Scott's link posts, each line with a link and a sentence or three of hot takes.




I for one vastly prefer it over posts that spend half a dozen pages to say what could be said in two paragraphs or, even worse, AI augmented slop employed as a sort of one man gish gallop meant to drown everyone who disagrees in pages and pages and fucking endless pages of text, as favored by one prominent poster here.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The idea presumably would be that if you can degrade the IRGC's capabilities, since they act as kind of the internal suppression force (being a sizeable army/navy in their own right), the regime won't be able to maintain control over a populace in revolt. At least, that's my take on it.




How would this work when IRGC (presumably) consists largely of true believers and their suppression capabilities are of the "we'll shoot you on the street", and not the "we'll use a highly centralized apparatus to eliminate key dissidents"? That is, when killing a bunch of leaders doesn't actually degrade on the street capabilities of the organization (unlike with the nuclear program or traditional state leadership).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Men would often get married later [...],  having returned to their poor home towns as impressive figures with money in their pockets to whisk away




No, they really wouldn't. The vast majority of men in history were subsistence farmers who never traveled particularly far from their home and certainly didn't "work on the frontier" (except sometimes when that meant starting a farm on the "frontier" and staying there).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


My God, that double-necked guitar/bass must weigh a fucking ton though.




Now imagine if it was based on a Les Paul instead of a Strat.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This is an excellent analysis video that answers that question.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They play a simultaneously incoherent and very danceable style of microtonal music.




At first I was "Wait, you can't really play microtonal music on a guitar". Then I saw the frets of said guitar...


This is also the first time I've ever seen someone use those weirdo pedals that /r/guitarpedals loves such that they sound actually musical.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


super expensive radio-quality mic




Ah, the cliche Shure SM7B, used mostly by people who have no idea why you'd choose it and who don't even know how to use it. Aka the less colored more upscale version of the uniquituous SM57 / SM58. Although at 400e it's hardly "super expensive" considering there are plenty of fairly run of the mill microphones that cost 1000e or more. Still, you can easily get that same "sound" from any number of cheap 100-200e cardioid electret mics (or even the cheap SM57 and a bit of EQ). All without looking like a goddamn idiot.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Isn't that how English has behaved for the last N hundred years?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That’s a bit like a frog accusing a toad of being a dirty amphibian.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
French is pretty much an extreme example in the language purity debate. In Finnish there is little to no controversy in using such loanwords but they are inevitably changed into a finnish style pronunciation, usually without changing the spelling. So c becomes k or s, q becomes k, w becomes v and z becomes ts. It goes even further than that in some common names so that the name is pronounced as a best effort pronunciation without the spelling being changed. Thus curry sauce gets written "curry-kastike" and pronounced as "karri-kastike" (but if you were to actually write it like that, it would sound like sauce made from a person named Karri).


Which is all to say that cultures take up loanwords all the time without necessarily caring one bit about the root or changing the spelling. Doubly so for anything related to internet or recent trends.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
TIL I'm not Finnish because I regularly use words that have the letter c, q, w or z (none of which exist in native words).


Frankly, your so-called argument is just complete bullshit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'm not an expert, but I think the key aspect of intelligence here is the ability to model the world. I am a little hung over and off my game this morning and I did not immediately recognize this as a trick question.




I don't think that's a trick question at all. It's simply a question where the trivial autopilot "answer" is not the correct one and you need to actually model the system on a very basic level


I'm reminded of when a certain friend of mine asks me questions related to programming or electronics. While he has a pretty good understanding of tech in general, he lacks an internal model of how electronic circuits or C++ work. He makes guesses but more often than not they are wrong because he's simply making assumptions from what he's read and what I've explained to him before without understanding how those were influenced by other things and how the specifics of his current project affect things. IOW he lacks a model of the system that he could use to make predictions of its behavior when changing some thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"Ma'am, this is Wendy's."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've always felt that the entire term "latchkey kid" was super weird. In the 80s in Finland that was simply considered the norm. Some families were well off enough that only one parent worked (or the other only worked part time) but those were exceptions. Our immediate neighborhood had a bunch of kids of similar ages and one mother worked only part time so we knew where to go if we needed help.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Don't try to spread your applestasy! It was agreed at the Council of Citrus that the taste of oranges is superior apples.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for February 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ah, but you’re not using FancyModel 4.97-q35-r2 so it’s No True AI.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for February 11, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Or because they don’t work on the kinds of apps and problems you do and detest people who insist on trying to gaslight and force them into using something you happen to like.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


IMO, apples taste slightly better




This is heresy! You should burn at stake, you filthy witch!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We already have the Eurovision song contest. We don’t need another one.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Gen X is old enough (just about) to be grannies




I know (personally) at least one Millennial granny and she isn’t even white trash or anything.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There's West Coast Swing. Very PMC / "white". It's mostly danced to contemporary pop music and the form has changed enough that grumpy old timers at least used to complain that it barely resembles what was called WCS in the 70s / 80s (ie. it's definitely not retro).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What is this "Britain" country that you speak of?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Clinton's Oral Office sounded straightforward respectable




I maintain that the only people who cared about Clinton's shenanigans in his office were conservative Americans and even for them much of it was just a performative way to express their existing dislike of Clinton.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I have always assumed the reason for that not to be trans-curiosity, but the well-known fact that men like visual stimulation. "If I'm going to spend hours staring at a wizard's backside, she might as well be leggy and plump. And if I'm going to have to worry about which amour to play dress-up with, there better be cleavage."




Likewise if you had to actually play female avatars as having typically female behaviors, I'd wager few men would persist at that for very long.