TIRM
2mo ago
The idea that the government should step into that
Public universities are, well, public. Once my tax dollars get roped into this I would like the government to be a wise steward of our finances. So I would like the government to police its own institutions.
TIRM
11mo ago
I had the misfortune of going to grad school. I can hardly exaggerate the sneering contempt for Chinese research papers among American researchers. I've evaluated quite a few Chinese papers since graduating and confirm their general lack of quality and rigor.
I'm pretty blackpilled on Chinese research output. They can't be all wrong, but if you were evaluating research papers a great rule of thumb would be to blindly assume that Chinese papers were all wrong.
TIRM
5mo ago
Yeah. It is a matter of routine for politicians or rich people who are strong advocates for gun control to have private armed security and even concealed carry licenses. Famously Dianne Feinstein had a CCW issued in San Francisco, which is about as common as unicorns when it comes to exclusive gun rights.
They don't want to disarm all of society. They want unimportant people like you and me to be disarmed. Important people such as them and their important possessions will still be defended with privately owned guns.
TIRM
4mo ago
Agreed. Why is an American teacher flying a foreign flag?
I could understand a Japanese flag in Japanese language class or something. But just flying a foreign flag in some unrelated class is jivey at best.
TIRM
22d ago
"Let's shut down some nuclear power plants and replace the energy with imported Russian fuel."
-Actual for-real recent German policy.
It's like they read Frank Herbert's bit about hydraulic despotism and decided to become the dependant helpless party in that exchange.
TIRM
1mo ago
the make up of colleges since the 2000s
Women outnumbered men in college since the early 80s. I bet most people posting here never lived in an era in which men outnumbered women in college.
TIRM
11mo ago
When my wife was pregnant she was pretty weepy. She'd cry over sad news stories, etc. She'd never do that normally.
Maybe this woman is a "Karen" performatively crying as a means of social control. Or maybe in that forceful confrontation after a work shift and far into pregnancy, she honestly cried.
TIRM
1mo ago
The heroes in ‘Starship Troopers’ are two White men leading the multicultural coalition of Earth against the brutalistic ‘bugs’
I read Starship Troopers. It is 100% from the point of view of the protagonist Juan Rico who is from the Philippines. He mumbles something in tagalog at one point and a non-Filipino character asks him what language that is.
TIRM
11mo ago
pay their fair share
Such a poisoned statement. So often used as an excuse to weaponize taxation. At this point I interpret it as the opposite of its literal meaning.
TIRM
1mo ago
The statistics are stunning. But education experts and historians aren’t remotely surprised. Women in the United States have earned more bachelor’s degrees than men every year since the mid-1980s
Women outnumbered men in degrees awarded per year since the 80s and as older people die off women had most degrees for all adults including elderly retirees in 2010 or so.
So regarding the "makeup of colleges": that's mostly women since the 80s.
TIRM
4mo ago
Every now and then it leaks that some German military group has a private chat where they post nationalist memes and comments. The sorts of people proactively seeking to join German defense forces are commonly German nationalists. Not really a profound point.
But, this is always characterized as far right, Nazi adjacent groups have infiltrated German police and military. I suspect a more level-headed reframing would be "nationalists who generally lean right of course compose a disproportionate amount of the door-kickers and spec ops". They're not a bunch of tender progressive PMC types and that's not a coincidence. Their manners and interests are largely opposed to the PMC, and that doesn't mean the PMC is better or somehow in the right here.
So it seems denigrating the attitudes and norms of the warrior class is popular in America and other Western countries.
TIRM
2mo ago
But don't delete posts just because they're downvoted. That's a one way trip to a boring echo chamber.
Post locally unpopular views that you sincerely hold and then don't be too bothered by the negative points. Reddit has trained people to be bad posters. Let's resist importing their diseased posting culture.
TIRM
2mo ago
But they'll impose ruinous confiscatory taxes on people like me before the welfare state collapses.
This is my problem with accelerationism. I suppose it could "work" for some understanding of "working". But it has a decent chance of also breaking the mechanisms that allow me to easily obtain food, live in a society that doesn't routinely engage in horrific mass slaughters, etc.
TIRM
8mo ago
Prior to the last two concluding statements, this seems like a take that DEI people would largely nod along with
The Smithsonian museum's poster about "white culture" was exactly this.
TIRM
3mo ago
"For legal purposes these are not slaves. They and their descendants are tied to whoever owns this plot of land. They are also not allowed to leave or owed any pay for their obligated labor. Those who shirk their duties will be punished accordingly. But at least we aren't like barbarous colonials forcing slaves to work under the lash."
I levee corvée. He has indentured servants. You are a slavemaster.
TIRM
4mo ago
intelligence tests
Completely poisoned in the educated upstanding progressive brain. Back in college we were thoroughly taught how bullshit intelligence tests are. I believed it for a bit before I understood college misled me.
Posters on reddit commonly recite the thought-defeating sneers against intelligence tests that I learned in school. This has really sunk its claws into the broader progressive consciousness.
There but for the grace of God go I. Good thing I was born a contrarian.
TIRM
8mo ago
I'm going to with this:
"Why become a monk?"
"Because your oldest brother inherits your dad's estate, your 2nd oldest brother got some sort of paid commission or lump sum early inheritance and now has a career worthy of his status, etc, etc until it comes down to you. Your parents are out of land and money to give to kids. You instead get put into the respectable home for high class lads with no inheritance. People make polite noises about how noble your devotion to God is."
TIRM
11mo ago
cognitive research has shown that many farm animals (cows, sheep, chickens come to mind) show many signs of intelligence similar to young children and pet animals
If you said pigs I would agree. But those examples are of very dumb animals. Chickens are dumb and extremely mean.
But sure, some food animals are of comparable intelligence to some pet animals. That's why I'm okay with Koreans eating dogs and Europeans eating horses. I find our meat taboos in America to be ridiculous. Legalize horse meat and the hunting of feral horses. Animals have virtually no moral worth so let's get them on the dinner table.
TIRM
3mo ago
For years I've read about the many abuses of "navigable waterways". Clearly meant to protect actual rivers or bodies of water so large that boats could cross them. But commonly applied to any dry ditch that sometimes becomes a little stream in heavy rain. This and other examples of bureaucracies stretching limited narrow text into extremely broad powers is why I don't like the Chevron deference.
I listen to news commentary talk radio every day. This story has dominated coverage. Also front page articles in American newspapers. It's the big deal this week.
After the American Civil War they passed a Constitutional ammendment banning former-Confederates who also were former civil officers or military officers. These people swore oaths to defend the Constitution and the Republic and then betrayed those oaths.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Colorado state court says Trump is ineligible based on this. He's an insurrectionist. And that ammendment mentions nothing about needing a conviction. So they've ordered him removed from the state primary ballots, which will be printed in a few days. The Supreme Court needs to rush to block this or Trump's won't be on the primary ballot. And given this logic to keep him off the primary, surely they'd have to keep him off of the general election ballot. Which is actually a callback to states pre-Civil War not putting Lincoln on the ballot. Just don't even pretend anyone is allowed to vote for your opponents.
Plaintiffs in at least seven states have tried to get state courts to remove Trump from the ballot using this reasoning. They finally found a venue willing to do it. Just barely, the judges that ruled on this are all Democratic appointees and even they only barely majority support this. So it is not that popular yet, unless the people pushing for it can convice more states.
I would say removing a candidate from the ballot like this is not inside baseball and is actually a rather big deal. We already have Republicans threatening to remove Biden from ballots in retaliation. Could be idle threats. Could be a bad path for our nation to go down. Also going to wound the Supreme Court's credibility among half the nation when they rule on this. This is corrosive.
TIRM
4mo ago
But we actually had Romney as a candidate and he was smeared as a misogynistic devil, "vulture capitalist", etc. The mildest possible Republican was the presidential candidate and it didn't matter. They'll be just as hysterical in their smears. Then, years later, they'll reminisce about how Republicans used to not be so bad, like Romney.
TIRM
5mo ago
as is their right to do
But it certainly isn't their right to use Starbucks branding in their controversial political statement. They aren't Starbucks and can't use Starbucks IP without permission. Which is what the lawsuit is about.
Confirmed 98-0 by the senate. This guilt by association for judges is ridiculous. Yes, Republicans also appoint judges when in office. No, those judges are not uniquely compromised.
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