TIRM
4hr ago
I read an article describing aid recipients being asked where they think the aid comes from. They had no idea. I'm growing increasingly skeptical of of our precious soft power and the ruinous consequences for losing it.
TIRM
1d ago
Supposedly Nigerian email scams make sure to purposefully have terrible grammar and spelling and implausible claims. They don't want to waste their time on people with moderate or high amounts of skepticism. Someone so dumb and trusting that they'd reply to such an obvious scam is their target.
TIRM
1d ago
you cannot force me to affirm your pronouns
That's the worst part. He called them by their preferred pronouns. But that's not nearly enough when caught up on the leading edge of the culture war.
TIRM
1d ago
It is quite the situation that they, despite their enormous fiscal resources, won't or can't hire a normie spokesperson who both states their points and doesn't scare the other normies.
There are literal "knife missile" companies that lack this self-inflicted problem. We might be making better technologies, but a few unpleasant contrarians are both pushing it forward and simultaneously running anti-PR campaigns on their own companies.
the character and substance of socialists if I say they just want free stuff
I have suffered the tragic misfortune of in person honest discussions with such people. They just want free stuff.
"Yeah, but actually economic calculation problem and pricing signals and seizing the wealth of the rich would both hard crash the economy and not pay for that much social spending." They don't care and especially don't care to listen to economic arguments against their views.
I don't want to be this reductive and oversimplified. But they are, so, in what more sophisticated sense should I understand them.
TIRM
1d ago
I'd say just the opposite. A critique so shallow it makes you dismiss the entire argument.
Not to be too poisoned by reddit, but, I've seen this plenty and it is the anti-steelman. Perfectly dodging the actual beliefs of the opponent and instead trying to hold them to a silly simplified misunderstanding of their views.
Trying to assign views to unwilling opponents. That'll never work of course. But it lets some people pretend their opponent are hypocrites. Just ignore what they actually say and think despite their objections.
TIRM
1d ago
John 8:11. Technically an adultress rather than a prostitute. The point indeed being to go forth, and sin no more.
TIRM
2d ago
Also we are collectively overthinking a throwaway Twitter joke 1000 times more than Scott did when he wrote it.
TIRM
2d ago
see this chapter of Luke
What a coincidence. I just re-read that chapter this morning to refresh my memory so I could correctly comment here about Jesus's relation to prostitutes.
TIRM
2d ago
A controversial book delisted from Amazon until American politicians leaned on them to reverse their policy.
TIRM
2d ago
I accept these companies could have no path to profitability and could collapse in the manner of the dotcom bubble. But if or when that happens the AI will still be around.
TIRM
2d ago
I'm going to defend "tough pragmatic policies advocated by conservatives" as being orthogonal to Jesus's message. Jesus didn't say to have high federal taxes and he didn't advocate Democratic border policy or trans women in women's sports. Such things wouldn't be coherent issues 2000 years ago. The assertion I see on places like reddit that modern progressives represent Jesus's message is quite strange.
TIRM
2d ago
Straining to find a good reason for that: it works to filter out normies. If you balk at that, then that's your clue you are in the wrong place.
I largely agree. I quibble about "Scott and those agreeing with him are willing to say pretty much anything if they perceive tactical utility in doing so". I think he typed out what felt like a witty clap back. It is not as deep as willing to say anything if tactically helpful. He's not think that hard or scheming that cleverly.
On an unrelated note there's not a lot of mentions of Jesus with prostitutes in the Bible. Mary Magdalene is never described as a prostitute. There's a prostitute who anointed Jesus and he forgave her sins and to my knowledge that's it. I dispute that a plain reading of the Bible tells us Jesus 'consorted with prostitutes'. He also saved the adulteress from stoning, but his message to her was go forth and sin no more. He didn't "associate" or "consort" with that so much as say to stop it.
the Gulf Arabs with 1/300th the rape per capita as us
I have no faith in foreign crime stats. I have no reason to think they count almost all rape as rape. Islam in particular has norms of rejecting rape allegations. So those women know better than to complain when raped.
"10% for the big guy", Hunter calling his dad in front of Ukrainians as proof of their influence peddling operation, Biden's all inclusive pardon of Hunter exactly windowed to the month Hunter started his Ukrainian influence operation.
I'm not saying Biden is more corrupt than Trump. But he's damned corrupt to the point that he's a real contender.
Good standard, but even in this case not good enough. She wished she didn't do it weeks later after rumors circulated around campus and she was disinvited from the Halloween party.
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