SomethingMusic
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User ID: 181
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I was looking more at how the Mao ended the Opium crisis than I was looking at USSR's drug issues and responses. Russia's bureaucrats have always been notoriously corrupt which might have prevented them from effectively fighting drug addiction, but China's ability to turn around drug crime through reeducation and violently eliminating any drug dealer regardless of status were incredibly effective of ending the opium crisis.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I'm fine with no longer importing Avocados, but I'll be completely honest I haven't looked too heavily into how drugs are smuggled into the country and assumed they were frequently imported with illegal immigrants or through holes in the border that illegals frequently use to migrate to the US.
Maybe with the rise in AI the AI can predict which shipments will most frequently contain drugs and we can more effectively screen legal shipments into the US.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
This isn't about reducing migration; this is about reducing the amount of illicit addictive drugs being imported into the country and what hard line/totalitarian methods that could be used to stop it. Do you think that women and children aren't used as drug mules by cartels?
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I'm glad someone else has looked into the Maoist answer to the drug problem. The problem in America at this point is not only do we believe in Democracy, but the Democratic voters paralyze and any decision-making process allowing us to actually begin to answer the problem. Only the wokest policies are able to pass as we blindly virtue-signal the country to oblivion.
The drug problem will not be delt with until we close our southern border -Trump was right, deploy the army, shoot at any illegal trying to enter the country. This won't work as I'm sure firing into Mexico would cause some international treaties to be broken, but the paralysis at every level in US Cities is becoming untenable.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
This is purely hypothetical; the research done in this mind experiment was 0 so I assumed increasing familial and financial stability of the most poverty-stricken (also the largest population pool) individuals would be the best method of increasing population growth.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Drugs cause developmental defects in children and prevents stable families and jobs that allows children to flourish. Drug addicted adults may have more children from sheer negligence, but those children will have significantly worse lives for a myriad of reasons. I assume the question isn't to have increased population growth but have all children be crack babies (if in fact there's any evidence to imply drug addicts have more children in the first place).
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
This is a fun thought experiment! I believe that the largest issue plaguing birthrate is the segregation of the sexes - males and females are increasingly segregated based off of everything ranging from political opinion to success in schools and jobs. Likewise, the social incentive structures prioritize selfish consumption over building a family unit. The most important group is the poorest class as they're the largest population pool.
- Prison reform: Prison reform would involve several things: Firstly, legalization and pardon of all criminals with possession charges and other misdemeanors (such as an overcharged bar fight, some thefts, etc.) This means decriminalizing Marijuana as well. I generally dislike recreational drug use, but I have to admit that minimizing felony charges for certain drugs will prevent physical separation from fathers from their children.
But it's not enough to simply release the previously incarcerated - there would be mandatory work-release programs. Released prisoners would have subsidized pay from the federal government (i.e. farm pay + government subsidy pay to be paid a living-enough wage). These will be basic skill jobs ranging from farm labor to basic construction to cooking to more advanced jobs (military) based off of intelligence and affinity. Missing work will result in reincarceration.
Prison sentence limit - prison sentences would be limited to 10 years. However, this will not be just wasting away in a jail cell - low and medium level prisoners will required to complete a GED if possible to be rereleased into work study programs for the remainder of the sentence. The goal of prison is not incarceration but reeducation on a general level. The overall goal will be avoiding institutionalization by any means necessary.
Bringing back corporal punishment and the death penalty - However the above will not prevent truly psychopathic or antisocial individuals - Those deemed irredeemable or incapable of reentering civil society will be removed from society not through permanent incarceration but execution. At the end of 10 years if they are still in the system, they are eliminated to prevent clogging the system and allowing dangerous individuals from reentering society and to prevent prison from being a place for institutionalization again.
- I touched on drug use earlier, and while I'm lenient on legalizing marijuana, all other addictive recreational substances, especially intent to distribute, will be dealt much more harshly. The borders in the country will be heavily controlled and regulated to prevent drug trafficking. The DEA would be approved to use unusual and deadly force to eliminate drug pushers and gangs from society. Countries that do not actively fight against drug use in their country or cannot fight the drug kingpins in their country will have all aid cutoff unless they can open their border and allow my country to forcibly eliminate and act with impunity to eliminate illicit addictive substances. The Opium Wars will look tiny compared to the lengths I would go to eliminate addictive drugs.
Since that is drug and prison reform, I would also look at social security reform. Right now, single parenthood gives greater social benefit than married couples - we need to reverse the incentive system at the lowest levels to mid levels to increase the incentive for couple to stick together. Probably a ranging social security credit depending on number of children, maxing out payment per child 3 children per married couple up to 5 children per married couple for incomes less than ~70k combined income from both parents.
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For couples with incomes greater than 70k - a substantial child tax credit, subsidized (to free) hospitalization bills for the first 3 children, perhaps housing bonus incentives as well for married couples only to reduce the general cost of childcare. I also like hydrastinine's student loan forgiveness idea - though I would conditional all this incentive with married living together families.
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End 'no child left behind' education, change education to be more equitable for all sexes. One of the main reasons is that men have the deck stacked against them so much that it's becoming impossible for men to be providers and caretakers. Serious education reform is necessary to prevent men from dropping out of society
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Start social mixers and reduce work hours - we work longer and longer hours which prevent bonding. There needs to be more non-online opportunities to let men and women intermingle in a non-work environment where unwanted advances result in firing or repercussions.
There are so many different needs to be addressed in society it's difficult to write something comprehensive, but these would be a number of my first steps.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
A better albeit more cynical model is... Everyone engages in motivated reasoning.
I think 'holistic' is a better term than cynical. People tend to pick arguments that support their public beliefs but also tend to extrapolate their current perspective to all scenarios. A cynical claim would be hypocrisy between public beliefs and personal habits.
The main problem is that people exist in a superstate in which we are both members of a community and individuals. Sometimes we think as individuals and sometimes we think as members of a community depending on the scenario.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Maybe constructive policy isn't correct - I just meant policy in general simply because there is a lack of uniformity of opinion
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
The problem isn't that conservatives don't want to actually achieve anything, it's that they are much less ideologically consistent than liberals. Just from seeing people post 'what conservatives value' in this thread indicates the wide spread of ideological differences that conservatives align themselves left, from libertarian types who believe in individual liberties to evangelicals who desire a God-centric government to business owners looking for less regulations to lower middle class complaining about taxes. The modern conservative group is more against anti-woke ideology than they are a cohesive voting block; this makes actually constructive policy much harder to pass (see the recent McCarthy voting fiasco because conservatives congresspeople could not agree on a vote).
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
My main motivations for working out are to improve my mood, and vanity. I'm not interested in getting "huge" or "shredded", but I would really like to get rid of my beer belly and look generally leaner and more toned. I'm also planning on running a marathon at the end of this year, so any exercises which would assist with that are also welcome.
If that's your goal, getting to the gym will increase your cardiovascular health but won't do much for that beer belly. To tackle excess fat and weight it's all about calorie intake. I find these steps are great for starting weight loss:
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don't eat out
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don't drink alcohol
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all food is made from scratch - minimize prepared frozen meals/pizzas, etc.
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when you make food, portion it out into meals
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switch grains for veggies
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Trump's decline from the public eye proves how effective the medias, government, and ancillary business can coordinate to effectively silence someone, even a former United States president. His biggest problem was not that he was popular but rather he was unable to convince the congressional R elite that he was someone worth listening to. His manner and persona which made him popular with the plebians made him incredibly unpopular with the congressional elite. The way they straddled pro and anti-Trump positions shows how they're willing to quietly maneuver political positions as necessary to get what they want and how simply ignoring a president is as effective as lashing out against one.
Trump is a populist, and his support came from the ground up rather than from the top down as is conventional from the Republican nominees. The sad part is the established R's were incapable of harnessing Trumps power to amplify their message - either he was too stubborn or the R's were unable to coordinate enough to use him as a mouthpiece - something R's desperately need.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
The prime reason why I'm avoiding the steam deck is battery life and the fact I really don't have a reason to buy one. From what I've read, the battery life can be from 2.5 hrs to 6 hours depending on what it's being used for. As for power - it pulls 38W at 15V. If a plane can charge/hold power for a laptop, it'll be fine for a steam deck (which is basically a very tiny laptop.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
You're not wrong about the woke diaspora, but I enjoyed the first movie simply due to the opening string quartet. I wish it was expanded into a full work, but it pretty much meant I was going to enjoy the movie even with the heavy-handed anti-white overtones.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Instead of going down the path of tablets I have switched to two in one laptops. I like the horsepower and relative flexibility of a full-fledged laptop but also enjoy the touch input and mobility of a tablet. The only downsides I've experienced so far is worse battery life than a dedicated tablet, the general jank of Windows 11, and the increased weight of having a full computer instead of just the tablet.
For my use case as musician, I've found it very effective with a pen for notating and using it for rehearsals without having to lug heavier and bulkier folders around and to keep music organized.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I think he's fast failing monetization methods beyond pure advertising. The $8 for a blue checkmark represents the money twitter makes per customer from advertisers a month, he's outsourcing and replacing advertisers with paying customers. The walled garden might be a way to create an ecosystem which doesn't send users to competitors media systems. Because of the sample size and data analytics just a few days of implementing policy can easily analyze changes traffic patterns. Maybe hold twitter hostage to other corps. They want twitter traffic? Those corps need to pay Twitter. Not a bad idea.
The question is if 1) I'm right, and he believes in his methodology enough to hold see it through even while all the whiners on twitter complain at him and hurts his popularity and 2) If he can find a successful model quickly enough to recoup his investment costs successfully.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I only drink socially. This weekend I (middle age past 30) did a bar crawl with coworkers and I certainly got to the point where I shouldn't drive, but I ended up not having any significant hangover as 1) I ended early and b) I started adding water between drinks to prevent cell dehydration.
Getting completely wasted was something I stopped doing in college because I hate having my weekends stolen from me as they're too useful to be squandered on alcohol recovery. Working a full workweek makes the weekends more precious since it's the most time you can dedicate to self health, hobbies, persona development, etc. Also, being able to remember the night with a group of friends is just so much better than getting plastered.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Yes the innate resolution was fine, im just putting on standard paper.
Thank you so much, some of those are exactly what I was looking for!
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I really appreciate it! I think a few of these will work well - This is a small enough concert with a short enough timeframe that I'm not too concerned about quality or artistic accuracy. I like the surrealist nature of a lot of the generations thought I can see your point that it seems a lot of images have the instruments interposed over the cubism instead of being integrated into the image. I'm not an art (or at least this type of art) aficionado myself so my understanding of cubism is probably as pedestrian as yours. I'll message you for higher res in a bit.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
I'm thinking of a cubist styled picture of a clarinet, oboe, and bassoon. If people are playing the instruments, they should be pretty undefined. It fits with the style of music we're playing along with the time period a lot of the pieces we're playing were composed.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Does anyone here fiddle with AI art in their spare time? I need to make some fliers in a concert I'm playing, and I want to generate some AI art for them. I'm very limited on time this next week and don't have time to learn and generate images for it so I'm looking to outsource some of the work.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
You're correct that this is conjecture, I am hypothesizing as to reasons why Republicans like DeSantis would be preferred by Latino voters over Democrats who would generally be considered the favorites of ethnic minorities. The podcast shared an interesting perspective of the functions of government, and I was extrapolating without evidence in a thought experiment.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
No I'm American, I just don't bother proofreading and prefer to get an idea written down overusing proper terminology. As long as my general idea is understood I don't worry too much about proper nouns.
SomethingMusic
2yr ago
Econtalk recently had an interesting discussion about the Argentinian government, its people, and how inflation affects them in their day to day lives. One of the biggest factors is how Argentinians essentially find ways around their failing currency to maintain wealth; any payment in pesos is immediately converted to other stores of value more readily capable of holding its value ranging from hard goods such as bricks, to US dollars, to Crypto. The day-to-day table talk is almost always about how to maintain what limited wealth they have. The average US citizen, for example, probably has no idea what the current exchange rates are of dollar to other currencies, be it CAD, Yuan, Pounds, Euros, etc. while every Argentinian knows a few different currency exchanges and their rates. The exchange of currencies to goods almost all run through black markets instead of through government approved exchanges to the point where 'breaking the law' isn't just about endangering others, but necessary to survive in the country. The government simply doesn't have enough power (as well as being too politically damaging) to create and enforce basic monetary tightening methods be it taxes or having a central bank so it simply keeps printing more and more money to pay for whatever spending the government needs as they do not receive enough capital through taxes to actually self-fund the government.
With the US midterms around the corner, it made me think about effective governance and what that actually looks like. A lot of the difference between Democrat and Conservative (and yes, I mean the political parties and not the Red/Blue common usage here) ideological divergence predicates on social dilemmas. Abortion, Trans rights, Race issues, etc. are all social issues that we can focus on because most people in the US simply because the general gears of governance in Western Civilization is, despite the 'gross incompetencies' and 'brainless politicians', stable. The taxes generally get collected, the Fed generally will adjust interest rates depending on economic forecasts, and people generally have a decent quality of life. These are things the average American don't think about because these aspects of government are done competently and effectively enough that the real implications of a government who cannot finance itself is not one of regular pressing concern for the average person.
One of the reasons why I want to point this is that it explains why many Latin American voters are seemingly leaning Republican. It is not social issues that change voting allegiances, it's protecting their investments, jobs, and assets. The paradigm and reason for party allegiances is not equality and certainly not about government handouts, considering how every citizen of their home country sidesteps the government to black markets where exchanges are made at better rates. The current Democrat party is actually damaging their bottom line through their fiscal policy.
https://www.econtalk.org/devon-zuegel-on-inflation-argentina-and-crypto/
The reason why Elon went with $8/mo is that is the amount twitter makes of a user in ads. By switching making revenue to the user instead of to advertisers, he's hoping Twitter will become less beholding to advertisers controlling what can and cannot be said on twitter and making it a more open platform.
Whether this will work is something to be seen as Elon went from Reddit's messianic hero good boy to super-evil megavillan in the blink of an eye, but I understand where he's going with this.
I remember someone writing a post/substack about how valuable the blue-checkmark is and that it should be 10k+ to maintain one for products, corporations, and/or power users. Maybe they'll create a higher tier for super users as well? Who knows.
I haven't used twitter in years so I'm just speculating. I just don't find that it's worth it to use.
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