Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
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User ID: 2188
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
On the other hand, actual discrimination has taken a steep nosedive even if most people still harbor some racial prejudices and attitudes, so clearly something changed.
I take issue with the notion that actual discrimination has taken a steep nosedive.
I've lost contracts, both public and private, due to my race and my sex ("sorry, you've been fantastic, but we have a big push to switch to all woman-owned vendors"). And while I didn't choose to go to university, my children may as well not even apply to many elite institutions for the penalties held against them due to their skin color, their academic merit notwithstanding.
My town was hit hard by its own self-imposed lockdown, so they decided to subsidize new businesses in the downtown area by paying for much of the first year's rent, renovation costs, etc. Except, whoops, only for women and 'minorities' (which incidentally whites are in my state of California, but I guess that doesn't count). I've seen scarce medical care withheld from whites in favor of prioritizing members of 'marginalized communities'.
I've seen white men lie about being Chinese women to get their writing published. I've seen others agree that persons of their race should stop making creative content because "we've had our time and it's their turn now." I've seen major media producers explicitly announce that it is now against policy to make shows and movies about white families and communities for not being 'representative' enough.
I've seen white women express that it would be wrong for them to reproduce, and instead wax lyrical about adopting 'brown babies'. I've seen judges decide that Christians shouldn't be allowed to adopt children for their failure to conform to modern gender ideology.
I've seen schoolchildren emotionally destroyed over the guilt and hatred heaped upon them due to what 'their' ancestors purportedly did. I've seen gifted kids lose access to advanced education because the demographics of those who qualified weren't equitable enough and this might disadvantage the children who really matter. I've seen teachers penalized or forced into resignation for disciplining too many of the wrong type of children. I've seen whole fields of study at every level of education, some quite venerable and august; some, I would say, absolutely vital to our society; neutered or destroyed because they are too thoroughly associated with the wrong kind of ethnicity.
I've seen the media lynch white (and, actually, Asian) people for self-defense because the presumption of guilt can only run one way. I've seen police officers crucified for defending themselves and others against armed, dangerous, and aggressive blacks who sometimes were in the literal act of attempting to murder others. I've seen whites refuse to report crimes, even those which did them great damage, because they've been so brainwashed into thinking that it is somehow morally correct for them to do so by the education system, the media, and the state. I've seen communities burned, laid to waste, and seen this called justice because it was done in the name of the 'oppressed'.
I've seen governments refuse to hamper heinous criminal activity, from property crime to mass organized rape of children, because the perpetrators have what our old friend Autistic Thinker might have called 'Tropical privilege'.
I could keep going on, for quite some time, and we all know it.
Discrimination is pervasive, overt, systemic, and often explicitly codified.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
You don't seem to be taking nutrition into account. Meat is very good for you. Pea protein blended into a seed oil slurry isn't.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
If I had to choose one group to occupy the streets I’d certainly prefer the migrants than the aggressive “native” homeless in progressing states of mental decay. The migrants are clean, accompanied by well behaved children, and don’t bother you when walking down the street (in this way I also prefer them also to the third inhabitant of Chicago streets, lanyarded young workers of some nonprofit that will accost you with any question they judge will trick you into attention). The regular homeless population of Chicago smells terrible, yells, and makes the city feel dangerous enough that no women I know will take the train at night. In contrast, a relatively dignified family looking for work at least has motives that are comprehensible to me, even if I think they’ve made the wrong choice.
It's funny how much this feels like an argument that "the migrants aren't so bad really if you think about whether you'd choose them over what we already have," as though that were a plausible scenario and we won't just have both now. This is interesting rhetoric.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
My goodness but that article is incredibly nakedly biased. Little context, multiple scare quotes from the Left, basically zero indication as to why the majority might think what it does. Is this the news Americans are getting?
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
I'm honestly a little conflicted about who I should support.
This might sound a little glib but it's an honest question: Why do you feel compelled to support either side, here, or even to have an opinion on the matter at all? Seems to me that something's been snuck into the process such that the question is being begged. But should this be the case?
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
Chinese people hang out with their hands behind their backs all the time. They walk that way too. It's just a thing.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
Not the person to whom you are responding, but, as a parent sympathetic to what he said, that's already priced in. The question is not if the fire is coming, but when and how. Better sooner, I'd say, for many reasons -- not least that right now I'm around to protect them, which will not be so true in a few decades. Cynically kicking the can down the road is not a loving action, as it only generates a future which is even harder to survive. Though I suppose it might be done out of a sense of (imo, misplaced) hope that things might get better on their own.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
(To viewer) "Do you buckle your child up when you put them in the car? Of course you do. You care about them, and car accidents are all too common. But did you know that your 6 - 17 year old is more likely to be 'diagnosed' trans than to die in a fatal car accident? Don't you think you might wanna do something about that, too?"
Not sure who would pay for this ad or even who the target audience would be but it was a funny thought.
Spent a minute trying to find a charitable basis on which to respond to this, but —
Can't remember the last time I saw someone so casually dismiss an entire concept while openly admitting that he doesn't even know what is being discussed and can't be bothered to spend five seconds at least googling the acronym.
It took you so much longer to write that! And you're so comfortable assuming that HBD-proponents only hold their views because of tawdry character flaws. When you do make it to google maybe look into "projection (psychology)" as well.
I'd thought you were a troll but it looks like you've been around a while?
One of life's mysteries, I guess. Like what 'HBD' means.
There have absolutely been times and places where unionization was necessary, unless one has basically zero consideration for human misery and abuse. Martyrmade has an excellent piece on the topic, "Whose America? (Part One)". But yes, like any other institution they can go rotten, and clearly have in many cases.
EDIT: Here's the link. https://martyrmade.com/22-whose-america-ep-1-rough-extraction/
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
If we want to understand the mechanism behind the massive decrease in discrimination against non-Whites, we would do well to notice that it has coincided with a massive increase in discrimination against Whites.
Seems to me that most of the people I hear pointing this out at all immediately blame 'the Jews'. But I think this is a poor proxy for whatever is actually going on. Just wish I knew what it was.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
"No, you see, every time you say 'monkey' I immediately think of black people, so you need to stop using such racist language."
"If you are a person with triggers it means other people can provoke a panic response in you against your will. The severity of the response is frankly immaterial. The point is, they have power over you. And if you're going to operate in this world as equals, you need their word that this power will not be invoked."
(Disclaimer that I know you're not making this argument.)
This seems to map 1:1 with mental illness. Through that lens, anyone could have a powerful and irrational response to anything and of course we all understand — I hope — that global civilization can't entirely rework itself to cater to every individual's specific needs. If the common-sense part of this argument isn't enough, it could be pointed out that those needs are contradictory. The reality is that people are different, and different is inherently unequal, and thus different people cannot operate in the world as equals. This is plain as day to anyone who isn't way up on some kind of blinding ideology.
He also summarized the viewpoint of the Didoer as follows: "Yes I do have power over you... and you should just let me have it."
This is interesting because it makes protecting the experience of the, uh, entriggered person the responsibility of anyone seeking to express themselves at all. A message of "It's your job to improve your life" makes a lot more sense than "It's everyone else's job to improve your life." People with these issues are free and, in my book, even encouraged to agitate for themselves. And the rest of us are free to do the same. The chips fall where they may.
If someone has actual power over you, and that power is intolerable to you, the solution is historically violence. As you suggested earlier, I think, my concern is that something like this ends up being enforced by violence via the state. And, as you say, some people aren't going to be happy with any kind of reasonable compromise.
As always I worry about the power of women's tears in politics.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
Can You Guess Why The Little Mermaid Is a Huge Hit But Not In China?
The backlash is due to Halle Bailey being chosen to portray main character Ariel.
...
According to Box Office Mojo, Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid has only grossed $3.6 million in mainland China since it opened there on May 26. The Chinese box office tracker Endata confirmed that the film made 19.5 million yuan ($2.7 million) in its first five days. In comparison, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse made 142 million yuan (nearly $20 million) in the first five days after its release.
Now I may be a simple country hyperchicken, but it seems to me that Spider-Verse also featured a black main character. Seems like an odd comparison to make, given their narrative.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
Come on. You really ought to at least say why you think so.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
I think mapping personality/behavior to race/ethnicity is iffy . This is entering into 'big 5' levels of vagueness here.
I don't. I think it's obvious on the face of it. Genes and culture co-evolve. The question isn't if there are differences, the question is how significant they are on average.
Traits like aggression, impulse control, parental investment, fidelity, industriousness, cleanliness, and aesthetic preferences are all present in animal species, vary among subspecies, and are clearly genetic in origin -- especially in species without culture to speak of. Can branches of humanity, having been split off for hundreds if not thousands of generations, which evolved in very different environments (and very different cultures), possibly not have some substantial drift here?
A common sentiment around here is how silly those are who imagine that evolution stopped at the neck. Sure, (specific subspecies of) black people can run faster or have more fast-twitch muscle fibers, and that's because of genetic divergence, but no way could they be less intelligent!
But one of the weirdest things to me about many of the people on this board is that they will then go on to do the exact same thing with neural architecture. Sure, different populations have vastly disparate levels of intelligence, but no way could the same factors which cause that have substantial differences upon personality!
Let a collie be raised by cats, and it will try to herd things.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
Speaking of trigger warnings, I can think of a few (admittedly not well thought out) reasons why I may not want trigger warnings that are different from the strawman he used at the start of his video.
Spitballing here (and also I don't care) but given that we're talking about digital content, maybe someone could write a bot that uses AI to review the item and add some reasonable (low-hundreds) list of triggers as metadata, and then the consumer can set their pertinent triggers and automatically receive a warning that they want, whereas everyone else is unaffected.
Again I don't have a horse in this race but this seems workable pretty soon.
In fact, though, I side with those who argue that it's on the consumer to decide what they wish to consume. If there's a market for trigger warnings, well, the market will provide solutions.
I also side with those who suggest that avoiding things which make one uncomfortable (or 'open up' 'past trauma') is a major impediment to the healing process. Trauma-as-identity is a failure mode for human existence and getting over it as quickly as is healthy is imperative. And yes, fwiw I say this as someone with some hard things in my past.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
What exactly do you mean by Tolkienesque?
I’m curious as to which systems you think get closest.
Well there are several overtly based in Middle-Earth. MERP is the OG here, with more modern versions such as The One Ring and even a series of supplements for playing in Middle Earth using the 5E rules. I want to run a One Ring game but haven't found the time or people for it. Hopefully in a decade I'll be able to do it with my kids.
Point is, neither of these groups seem like they’d end up at Tolkien, and I can’t think of any systems that really try to implement such a style. Maybe a low-magic variant of 2e?
Yeah, I really like 2E for this, with 1E attitudes toward magic, i.e. it's very rare. A +1 sword is a big deal for even mid-level characters, and giving a magic weapon of any kind to a minion is a huge deal.
There's a style of play called 'E6' (idk why) where the basic premise is that characters can ascend to level 6 as normal but advancement stops there. This keeps them feeling roughly mortal which I think counts for a lot. Beyond that point in normal campaigns it becomes more and more difficult to give them real challenges beyond simply enemies with comparably-scaling stats, which feels clicky to me. In E6, as the campaign goes on, they continue to accumulate wealth and prestige, which opens the door to interesting options. And of course magic items, while hard-won, gradually serve to give them a sense of legendary prowess. But at the end of the day, one bad encounter with a gang of low-level enemies can still wreck them entirely. And they never really get the sense of being able to walk into combat without concern.
In one game I tried something out where beyond level 6 they could only attain further advancement in levels by eating dragon hearts, and dragons were as difficult to find and kill as you'd expect. I liked this approach because it really slowed down advancement and provided some kind of justification for why normal people could get so superhumanly powerful. Also it ends up feeling a little bit like Birthright, which I've always loved.
Haven't tried it, but I bet that Westeros campaign setting from... 20 or so years ago? probably would be a good fit as well. IIRC it was partly based on the idea that the players are, and only ever will be, eminently vulnerable. And it seems to be very low-magic, in keeping with the setting.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
Good luck with your white whale.
Nailed my own a few years ago. When I was 15 or so, I downloaded this demo of a game called "Atomic Superball (The Chicken Edition)" and played the heck out of that thing. No idea how many hours. And then when I was 20 or so, it occurred to me: I could buy the actual game now.
Of course almost all traces of it had vanished. The website was still up but payment/delivery was non-functional, and no one ever responded to the email address.
More than a decade passed.
Still I thought about that game from time to time, and occasionally went digging for it. At long last, I found a couple of videos on vimeo or something of a dude playing with it. Commented asking if there were any chance he might still have his copy. Shared the story of how much I loved it and so on.
Surprise surprise, the actual creator of the game saw this and reached out to me. We talked about it back and forth over email for a while, and he was gracious enough to send me a copy.
It was... okay. The parts I liked from the demo were still awesome, but the rest of it, the levels, the unlockables, all that stuff, was kind of meh. After some soul-searching I decided to be honest with the guy about how I felt.
"Yeah," he said. "That's why we put that stuff in the demo."
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
Scylla has scales. Giant six-headed hydra-like thing. Is gonna make a solid run at your crew but only has so many mouths.
Charybdis is one giant mouth that will swallow the entire ship.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
Can't find it but there was a SSC or LessWrong piece about how the optimal number of motoring deaths is not zero unless we decide it's worth banning motoring altogether.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
2yr ago
One departure from realism was that they removed the ability for guns to jam. Happened all the time at first (realistic amounts) but pretty quickly they decided that letting a prospective recruit simulate being in mortal peril when his weapon inexplicably stops working wasn't great for numbers.
Unsaying
Lord, have mercy.
1yr ago
There's a reason most parenting guides say "don't beat your kids". It really screws them up
Do you have any sources on this which attempt to control for the causation possibly running in the other direction? I.e. low-quality children simply more likely to be beaten.
Hopefully without doxxing myself, I work as a contractor for several of the top-5 tech companies (however that is construed it is true). So I'm privy to a lot of their internal communications, culture, etc. And I can tell you that these people are simply falling all over themselves to worship the dark and the lame. The gay, the fake, the trans. It's pathological and it's clearly a very high priority.
Yes, but this is doing a lot of work. A serious skilled employee (i.e. white or asian male) generates enough productivity to support maybe 10-20 others. But this is being utilized. I go to a lot of sales meetings, etc. with the 'big guys' and it turns out that almost everyone in a position to function in other-than-coding-or-facilities is a woman of color, and they (mostly) have no idea what's going on.
I like to ask people questions. E.g. I was once at the Udvar-Hazy museum, where resides the actual Enola Gay, and was fortunate enough to chance upon a veteran who had flown the same model of plane. I asked him one of my favorite questions, which is, "If you could change anything about it, what would you change?" This is, more broadly, a great question to ask of anyone about his industry. But the guy's response was, "The head." Apparently people at one end of the plane had to crawl through a long, cramped, dark, very cold tube to get to the bathroom. Fair enough and good answer; precisely the sort of insight for which I am fishing.
So anyway, given what I do, people very high-up on the corporate ladder like to meet me and have a conversation. Executives, etc. And I like to ask them, "How did you get into this?" Up until about 2017 it was mostly white men with blue eyes and they had interesting answers. Long life histories, fascinating twists and turns, happened to be in the right place at the right time so as to illustrate broader trends and forces. These guys were enthusiastic about describing their journeys and, frankly, grateful to tell someone who clearly wanted to glean what wisdom he could from their examples.
Now it's all girls with names like Roselia and they have no idea how they got where they are. Not only that, but they perceive that they don't belong, and suffer terribly from impostor syndrome, and hate me for asking. So, after a couple years of bad sales, I stopped asking, started emotionally supporting them, and am doing just fine. Except inside.
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