VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
No bio...
User ID: 64
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15hr ago
This reads a lot like the "50 Stalins" dialog, and I at least see a plausible reading where "That would be Hitler" is rhetorically "No, 50 Stalins!" in a way that is pointing out the extremism of one's own side.
I guess it depends on how earnestly "Hitler" is supposed to be taken here, or if it's a clearly-over-the-top suggestion. Still relatively unprofessional for such an organizational forum, though.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
18hr ago
I think this is a different argument from the typical "words are violence". This seems to come from the libertarian view that "government is [a monopoly on] violence", and ultimately that all laws the legislators craft are enforced at the threat of violence. You do something that sounds banal like banning the sale of "loosie" individual cigarettes to enforce tax laws and maybe wave hands about "public health", and ultimately if some of the populace resists this seemingly-nonviolent policy, your enforcers will end up killing them. I doubt there's a single law of the state for which sufficiently determined noncompliance won't end with physical violence.
That said, while I think the libertarians have a mostly-self-coherent ethical view (which is more than many can say), I think some level of civilization is worth the trade off in terms of absolute freedoms.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1d ago
I don't think you're being crazy here: there have been a number of announced foiled plots to attack EU arms manufacturers.
But it's not inconceivable that it was a garden-variety industrial accident, which do happen from time to time. PEPCON in 1988 in Nevada has some loose ends, but I haven't seen foreign sabotage seriously suggested even though the company was supplying solid rocket fuel for both the Space Shuttle and ICBMs. The USCSB series of videos on chemical plant accidents is sobering, if nothing else.
On the gripping hand, telling the public even if there were evidence of malfeasance inherently would raise the stakes towards calls for open warfare, and I can see an argument for responding in a subtle, yet clear-to-the-counterparty way under the table.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1d ago
Seems like one of those pervasive labeling problems: the Mormons in question label themselves as "Christian", which I think makes the use of it in this context within the realm of reasonable takes, even if the Pope, or maybe even the majority of self-identified Christendom don't accept that label.
Analogously, I don't think "Islamic fundamentalism" as defined from the outside in the West needs to take into detailed account which groups think of each other as infidels. "Actually Hamas aren't Islamic Fundamentalists because Ali was the rightful heir to the throne" is, uh, a take.
I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but I believe this (maybe less on the specifics of "heresy") is part of Tom Holland's thesis in Dominion. And I think it is true that Social Justice does hew closely to some teachings ("blessed are the poor", "and the last shall be first") which were first popularized by Christianity in a world where vae victus was much closer to the norm.
dunce tutoring
I assume this is a typo for "dance", but I find it rather amusing.
ETA: This dumb brought to you by not being fully awake.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
2d ago
Thanks for looking at the numbers. I guess I was extrapolating from Zimbabwe, which actually did see like 90% of the white population emigrate. Although the most recent stats I've seen actually show growth within the last couple years.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
2d ago
In the long term, is that distinct from (2)? IIRC South Africa has had long-term white emigration that at some point starts to look like the "suitcase" option there, or sometimes worse. There was even that drama earlier this year when the current US administration looked to consider it as ethnic-cleansing-adjacent.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
2d ago
How do those countries handle cases of "odd jobs" and stuff like that? If you're a farmer that makes money by, I dunno, selling grain, how does the government know how much was sold? Or if you sell goods/services direct to consumers? I suppose the tip income is somewhat US-specific and doesn't matter quite as much any more, but there are a bunch of less-easily-trackable income sources that would seem to make this a bit hard in the general case.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
3d ago
I've heard some anecdotes at times describing Manhattan positively this way. Sometimes Boston or SF, too. If you can afford rent downtown, some blue places can be like this. But for some reason in the nicer places the rent is really high...
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
3d ago
You can reduce the number/duration of total car trips if you manage to densify the other infrastructure too: if your towering apartments are walking distance (within a block or two?) of the grocery store, bar, gym, or employer. Probably not to zero, but it'd help.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
3d ago
While Houston's lax (lacks?) zoning laws have arguably been successful at keeping the rent reasonable, it does get lots of criticism for its urban design and walkability. Amusingly, people do cite its (non-housing price) approach to homelessness as working better than most.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
3d ago
After the LeMond-Fignon battle there hasn't been a French winner of the TDF.
They didn't schedule the final stage as a time trial again until 2024, which I was honestly a bit surprised at.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
4d ago
Downtown courthouses often don't have good parking options, especially short-term. If you live (and maybe even work) in the 'burbs, when you have to show up downtown for one day, or maybe a week, the bus or train isn't a terrible option. For me, the most convenient option is to park at the office and take the bus directly downtown from there.
I could take the bus (directly!) to work, but it's 3x the time commitment as driving, and there isn't any shelter from sun/rain at the stops at either end. So I drive. On nice days I'll bike.
I haven't taken the bus literally anywhere else in the city I live in.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
4d ago
This might work, but I doubt stores that close together can match the selection of the one I have to drive five minutes to. It probably takes a minute or more just to walk across the store. Some of it is duplicative (multiple brands of milk), but you'd still lose selection pretty fast.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
4d ago
Great question!
This is a tic that makes me think LLM these days. Not necessarily accusing you of using one here, more commenting on the sad closing of the linguistic frontier as various phrasings become associated with "artificial" text.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
4d ago
barriers to entry which effectively exclude the lowest-quality providers(and lots of others, it needs to be acknowledged
The extent to which 20th century unions were also racial/ethnic spoils systems is, IMO, underappreciated for political reasons. Not saying it always worked that way, but there isn't a shortage of "and then they hired/imported (across state or sometimes country borders) minority scabs workers to break the strike" tales. But it's inconvenient to observe this because "union labor" and minority workers are supposed to be part of the same big tent.
Maybe people will start noticing more if union labor keeps swinging right.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
5d ago
I hear this a lot, and I can appreciate that it's probably true to an extent, but "milspec electronics" and "next gen process nodes" don't really overlap as much as you'd expect, as best as I can tell. I can imagine some things it matters for (radars and such), but I don't think process node differences within the last decade are really driving, say, artillery battles or even drones in Ukraine. Maybe in a few years we'll be talking about mostly-autonomous targeting systems with ML, but half of the impact of drones seems to have come from how they became commercially ubiquitous in ways that drove the price down into the "expendable" regime.
Generally I don't see this claim with listed categories of weapons systems, but maybe there is something I haven't thought of. What can you do at 3nm that you can't at, say, 65nm?
If unclear, my suggestion is that putting Jackson on the most popular bill issued by a bank of the United States is pretty close to pissing on his grave rhetorically. His vociferous opposition to the (second) Bank of the United States is well-documented. A choice quote of his (although the provenance is questionable, it's at least aligned in sentiment with official speeches):
Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
6d ago
Andrew Jackson belongs on US currency for irony's sake because he'd be dead set against the existence of the institution that prints it.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
6d ago
I'm pretty sure it is in reference to that meme.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
6d ago
It also highlights why some of Scott Alexander's takedowns of people are so damn effective and brutal. He will spend a lot of writing space saying many nice things about people that seem objectively bad. And then he will end by saying something slightly not nice about one person, and you come away thinking "damn that person must be the worst piece of shit ever".
Honestly, this also describes most of Singal's work, which is I suspect part of why he's so hated for, as far as I can tell, things like questioning small-n studies that have been embraced broadly with shockingly few published followups now that drastically more data should be available.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
6d ago
I wish we put this much effort into teaching everyone other equally important lessons.
Just curious, do you have any specific lessons in mind here? The idea is at least intriguing.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
7d ago
Somebody has to pick the crops and slaughter the chickens and thats a very reasonable principled exception.
Without really wanting to weigh in on whether this statement is true or not, it's at least possible to note that Congress in its wisdom created visa categories (H-2A, H-2B) for these sorts of jobs. Is it completely crazy to think "maybe we should actually use (or expand/modify as necessary) the existing visa program, rather than allow 'anything goes' under the table"?
Although there's probably an interesting tangent on using AI and robotics in slaughterhouses.
Maybe we could start a left-wing group chat called "The Young Turks", named in honor of the group behind the Armenian genocide. Nah, that'd be too obviously bait.
/s
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