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ThomasdelVasto

Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου

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joined 2025 May 20 19:37:18 UTC

Blogger, Christian convert, general strange one. https://shapesinthefog.substack.com/


				
User ID: 3709


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
ThomasdelVasto


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου

				
				
				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2025 May 20 19:37:18 UTC
				


				
					

					
Blogger, Christian convert, general strange one. https://shapesinthefog.substack.com/



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 3709


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Wellness Wednesday for February 4, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
People around here are obsessed with kettle bells. Dumbbell stuff can be fun, or various like kick boxing dance exercises styles.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I want to talk about space travel, once again. NASA's mission back to the moon, Artemis, is slated to launch in less than a week!


Luckily from my perspective, it seems that space travel hasn't been THAT politicized by the culture war, yet. Yes the left and environmentalists hate it, but it hasn't become a hot button, tribal trigger in the way gun control, or abortion, or other major culture war issues are.


Ideally I think space travel will continue to fly under the radar, and slowly get better and better. I know there are some fascinating scientific projects unfolding around space like algae to produce plastic in space, plans for asteroid mining, various organic compounds that can only be created in zero gee, etc. Also of course we now have Space Force, and a renewed space race with China seems to be heating up, potentially.


I'm curious what folks here think about space - are we optimistic that space travel and research will become a genuine market in the next few decades? What are the political fault lines people seeing potentially being an issue here?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Data Secrets Lox is a rationalist style old school forum. In terms of places to discuss politics though, the perennial problem is coordinating intelligent people in the same place. The rationalist forums are the best I've found.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A long and wild list. You've read a lot, apparently.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
AIs aren't and won't be conscious. Sorry technophiles. https://aneilbaboo.substack.com/p/the-case-against-conscious-ai


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe you and @FtttG should play together. Would be fun to have a motte gaming group again.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Video Game thread! What are you playing?


I've been replaying Terraria, this time with a bunch of friends and some light mods. It's a blast. We got five people on at once one time, and we may be able to do six this weekend. A great game for curling up by the fire while it's snowing and just gaming all day with friends on.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think the actual distinction between Pretti and the miniskirt hypothetical is that ICE fulfills a necessary role in society, so there is a tradeoff to be made in letting them do their jobs vs preventing overreach. There is no such trade-off for a criminal.




Fair, yeah I agree that rapists don't add anything to society. I still think that your 'should' is doing a lot of work here.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Following that definition, would it be fair to say that you think a woman whose lifestyle involves walking around in the bad part of town at night in a miniskirt without male company deserves to be raped? Or that smokers deserve lung cancer, even?




Frankly, I'd say a (qualified) yes. I think many more conservative posters here would be willing to bite that bullet. Basically you're just saying that your actions have consequences, and it's important to be aware of those consequences. I'm not saying it's 'right' or that they 'deserve it' necessarily, but human nature being what it is, women who walk around in skimpy clothing in bad areas alone are dramatically increasing their likelihood of being raped. It's fine to tell them that they are increasing their risk, and also fine for them to take that risk.


Should we try to lower the risk as a society? Absolutely. Does that mean that the hurt person is totally blameless in the situation? No.




Was his behavior risky? Sure. But that is the miniskirt argument again. This case is not like a smoker getting lung cancer. We have a perpetrator who had signed up for a job which entailed scuffles with demonstrators, some of whom were armed, in a very stressful environment. If




This is a very different situation. These people are explicitly trying to provoke violence. That would be like if a super hot woman walks around a crime riddled area in a bikini repeatedly telling all the men how horny she is and that she bets they'd like to get some of this.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for January 28, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Glad it went well. Yeah therapy can be quite useful for tricky interpersonal situations, especially if you aren't going to them as like a replacement religion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Even though it was $5k, I'm tempted to say my cooling tempurpedic mattress. That thing is amazing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah this is always my frustration. It’s so extremely fucking annoying that we got an anti immigration president in power twice, and both times he refuses to press the “easily fix illegal immigration” button.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Love Chalion, have not read Penric. I really enjoyed the Sharing Knife though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Therapy vs. Confession
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ahh yes excellent point. Dang I might have to do a 'highlights from the comments' on this one.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Indeed. It's the ugliest part of the modern conservative movement, in my personal opinion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We didn't start the fire...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lmao.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for January 23, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lightcone for rationalist stuff, the Alembic (i think?) for spiritual stuff.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The more extreme people on the political left, the kind currently protesting ICE in Minnesota, call people like me “nazis”. Well, if I am a nazi, I am one with a soft heart.




Hah, I love this. Very much agree. I'm a conservative and similar to you, but I am also a softie in many ways. I think that's the correct way to be.


Many conservatives seem extremely drawn to strict, overly rigid systems and get almost addicted to the authority derived therein. Personally I think the most virtuous way to be a conservative is to see the rules as sometimes harsh and cruel but necessary for greater flourishing down the road. Ideally we don't revel in causing others pain or hardship.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Therapy vs. Confession
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes it's extremely tragic that we no longer have close bonds, especially between men. Friends used to be some of the strongest social ties you had, and nowadays they are basically disposable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Therapy vs. Confession
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


This is pretty interesting, because while the commission of the action is punished, the awareness + expressing + forecasting + humbling of ourselves has reinforcement. The result of this is that a person is deterred from committing a fault, but not actually deterred from self-reflection and self-criticism, which will actually increase as it takes on positive valence.




Huh, this is a great point that I hadn't thought of before. The infinite forgiveness mixed with a threat of punishment really does work well as both carrot and stick without losing too much on either side. It's a tricky balance though - I know many Christians who are too lax about divine punishment, and on the other side many who are too terrified and rigid about divine punishment.


Yes another interesting angle is definitely the fact that Christian confession has a much more explicit moral than therapy, whereas as you say in the therapeutic setting the morality and judgments are extremely muddled. Much of it coming down to the individual therapist.




In Christendom, confession is one part of an expansive plan to modify you for the better. And one of the modifications is that you pay less attention to social grievances.




Very true. On a side note, one of my favorite things about confession with my priest is that whenever I start to wander into talking about other people's sins in relation to my own, he quite firmly says that confession is about my sins, not theirs. It's a great corrective and focus to corrosive social issues. Not only are you encouraged not to focus on that, but you can trust that the priest is not hearing gossip about you from the confession of others.




Maybe my understanding of therapy is woefully off, but like, we’re at 11% of population going to therapy and increasing, I imagine for young urban professional liberals it’s maybe 25% (?), and there are 200,000 therapists in America? Doesn’t seem sustainable whatsoever. Seems like we had to find a more expedient solution here.




Well, not just this but there is a huge and growing contingent of online 'coaches' and other unlicensed people who do something similar. I think there's room for it to grow. Sadly the quality of these coaches is about as good as the average therapist, if not worse. Then again they often have a spiritual component which I think helps. Either way, it's a fascinating social scene to be around. Lots of Buddhism and New Age mixed in the coaching as well. IME.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Therapy vs. Confession
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ahh man how did I miss this one?! Great points. Yeah a lot of folks are pointing out other areas of comparison which I like. The confidentiality is hugely important, making therapy useless for the forgiveness of really dark and serious crimes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Therapy vs. Confession
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah a sense of existential comfort, it's true. I'm wishing I had discussed the similarities more and done a bit more of a deep dive there. Oh well!


FWIW, I don't think therapy is that useful for people without serious emotional trauma/issues.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Therapy vs. Confession
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nah I would agree from my experience. Though you could also say with therapy you're attacking the problem directly in a masculine way, whereas confession you're surrendering to God in a feminine way.


I don't know, but for me confession certainly feels more masculine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Still on the Vorkosigan Saga. I'm now on Brothers in Arms, which is like book 9 or something. The series is definitely falling off, but I'm still having fun with it.