VinoVeritas
10mo ago
Gonna gingerly put my hand up and say I think many (most?) people who still choose to contribute to the 'national conversation' these days are in a cargo cult, pretending that because we're still going through the motions it's all business as usual. My explanation for this is because for many (most?) it would be psychologically devastating to acknowledge we might be headed toward a thousand or so years of unthinkable-yet-predictable decline like the Mediterranean civilization of the 3rd century AD.
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Can't decide between these two jokes:
That's the reason they call it long covid
Or
I was taught to round up if it's more than 50
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Sardonically, I think the Israeli government is answering that question for us right now
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
You just explained it to yourself my dude, a baseless assertion deserves a baseless response. Mockery is a powerful tool, and sometimes (as in this case) more appropriate than intervention from authority
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
This is an absurd assertion. There's a notice you're blocking me so I wont go on ad nauseum as you won't see it anyway but for my own sanity I'll say my piece that it's farcical to pretend to forget that the Palestinians living there TODAY are the descendants of people who were living there during the TIME OF CHRIST and that hundreds of thousands of Jews invaded their country AT GUNPOINT in the 1930's and 40's
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
As someone who plays paradox games the map gore of the modern eastern Mediterranean has always bothered me - thanks I guess, monkey's paw
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
But what about ‘white dudes for trump’
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Leaps and bounds my man
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Ah yeah - glad I asked since that's what I thought you meant (the awkward kiss on the cheek)
In my experience when a woman gives you that particular juke it's because she doesn't want you to mess up her make up. I'd imagine that applies 100x if you're a literal super model and 1000x if you're in front of the entire country
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Thanks man, appreciate it
( @NewCharlesInCharge I shared some dem fundraising messages and attempted to tag you in the post to which @ToaKraka is replying)
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
I haven't been a democrat for a decade but was in deep enough in back in the day I cannot 'unsubscribe' from everything, ever. Here are a few of the ones from the last few days:
Kamala Harris just SOUNDED THE ALARM: "We need to fight." 700% MATCH your Dem donation to flip the House:
PLEASE! Kamala Harris CAN defeat Trump. Top Dems are so confident they've unlocked a 700% MATCH!
URGENT: Will you sign our card THANKING President Biden for his incredible career of public service?
I have never signed up for GOP stuff (because I don't want the same thing happening lol) but first thought is that this seems much better? More for 'normal people,' at the very least
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Those are for our older relatives who love getting emails because they're retired and might say 'well shit, I guess I can send another 20 bucks"
Most of the time you hear politicians touting how their average contribution is 20 bucks, that's from the same handful of people donating over and over again. There's something quite tragic about it all
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
What was it about their body language that gave you that impression
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
The more outrageous a lie you can get your followers to believe, the deeper you buy them into your team
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
France could have been the masters of the universe if they hadn't gone into a frenzy and changed the week to 10 days, etc and killed the king. Don't kill the king - bad move - you have no authority with which to replace him.
Leading to people begging Napoleon toward the authority to restore order who then inadvertently established modern Germany by destroying the HRE. Leading to a century long conflict for continental dominance that Germany certainly lost (twice), but France certainly didn't win.
They were the Lingua Franca masters of the earth right up until they weren't. Jesus Himself must've wept
(All just my opinion - blowing smoke)
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Someone smarter than me pointed out on twitter that it's heads they win, tails we lose
If we tune in to satanic mass, we're participating in and tacitly accepting their blasphemy (or just incredibly bad coverage, if you prefer)
If we tune out, we're taking the wind out of the sails of an ancient western tradition celebrating achievements of excellence. Which is about the most 'trad' or 'based' or whatever the kids are saying these days thing you can do
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Did anyone make much of it when 'white girls for Kamala' showed up on the scene a few days ago? I certainly didn't.
And I certainly didn't see the logical next step: 'white dudes for Kamala'
This is the first time in my lifetime (not that old, but...) that any group of white guys publicly organized themselves politically around their shared identity.
Could be nothing - could be a watershed moment. I have been wrong about many things but was at least right about the bud light thing.
Anyway, more interested in hearing your thoughts
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
boring, incompetent, commodified art.
To me these three things signal something like 'a water color landscape on a European streetcorner'
Not men with beards in sequin dresses dancing provocatively or the-inversion-of the last supper
We are basically different species at this point.
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
If you're already familiar with this quote and find it overused - please try not to hold it against me for sharing -
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
-Teddy Roosevelt-
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
No thanks, the cure for assertions without evidence is to point out they're baseless, not for teacher to scold.
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Kind of, yes? Unlike in Europe, UK, or ANZAC nothing in America is stopping any of us from incorporating "Party with Exactly my Views" except for the fact we're 99.9% sure it'd go exactly nowhere against the brick wall of Duverger's Law
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
Sorry about the delayed response! Real life stuff
I mean, to some extent. There are of course local maxima, and they may be maximizing over the next week. But what about beyond that? The head of that board that releases that statement looks unaccountable and stupid, which should, in theory, reduce others' ability to trust him in future years. Whereas by staying silent, he gets no such potential reputational damage.
But our hypothetical member of the board gains reputational benefit from showing they are a team player who are willing to say the emperor has a great new outfit up until the very moment they say he doesn't.
If you told me that all boards don't really look beyond 1 week in the future, well, I don't have evidence to contradict you, because in my personal experience, the ones I've worked with have been very short-sighted. However, I would have hoped that there are at least some (hopefully more than just some) organizations that actually think about things on a longer-term scale.
The Catholic Church has existed for 2,000 years - I'd imagine they've been doing something right just based on that
Meanwhile, looking at it the other way, what would happen if a board made no such statement when there's a dead man walking? Does their statement do anything to actually help the situation? By keeping their mouths shut, would they get the best of both worlds, assuming the stock doesn't immediately tank just because they failed to make a statement that they don't actually believe anyway.
It's a move that accrues the benefit of showing the next emperor they'll have 'full support' up until the moment they don't and a soft landing on the way out. Nobody wants to replace the guy who was just openly couped by the mayor of the palace
Also, talking about Cheatle, I don't think there's any stock involved, so what's at stake for the Secretary of Homeland Security to keep his mouth shut instead of endorsing her?
See above, the next head of the Secret Service is assured that they'll have everyone's 'full support' right up to and after the moment they're shown the door
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
One of the 'guilty' got 25 to life for filming the ordeal. Perhaps we're just dealing with irreconcilable values differences
VinoVeritas
1yr ago
"Tank the stock now or (possibly) a week from now" is not a hard question for a board member
Everything exists to perpetuate itself. By definition. The first cell that became multiple set us on a course of forever wanting to do more, bigger, better. This is a measurable phenomenon. The people on the board might be 'unaccountable and stupid' but they're still acting on that maximization principle.
I'd apologize for promising 3 paragraphs but kinda proud of that summary, if you have more questions this is quite a fun exchange
Just my unsolicited advice, but 'if it were real I would have heard of it' doesn't seem to me like a sensible way to approach a world where the number of things that might be 'real' are limitless and the number of things you 'have heard' isn't
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