Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
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User ID: 551
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
4d ago
I continue to believe that very close to zero people coming to the Southern border are even close to meeting any ordinary standard of asylum. The entire crisis isn't just self-inflicted, it was created deliberately by people that just don't want there to be any immigration standards at all and found a stupid loophole where they could just encourage migrants to concoct ridiculous stories that meet an arbitrarily low standard of "asylum". Now that this is locked in as the formal policy, migrant-friendly courts will treat these "asylum seekers" as having rights to asylum per international treaties and changing that course is quite difficult.
So, yeah, I am not inclined to think that the people that cooked up this whole ridiculous scheme that has added an enormous number of people to the United States have suddenly had an epiphany any more than I'm inclined to believe that the Senate bill was a good-faith effort to control immigration. The Republicans in the House passed H.R. 2 in 2023, it's a good and reasonable bill that actually controls the border, and it was rejected by Democrats because they're opposed to controlling the border. It's pretty hard to treat the executive branch as differing from that when they literally went to the Supreme Court because they were so mad at Texas for trying to control the border.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
Yes, those are both white culture. Neither is "more white" anymore than different Asian subcultures are "more Asian". I can find both endearing and dislikeable things about aspects of both of their subcultures, but they do share the relevant traits called out by the Smithsonian poster on the matter. In their own ways, they find success in white cultures and I say good for them.
I can think of few people I'm less interested in impressing than the matriarch of a jungle tribe whose culture is obliterated the moment it comes into contact with the civilized world.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
The Smithsonian's African-American Museum created the brochure. I don't think any of those traits are individually specific to white people, but collectively I think they're a good way of describing the culture of Amerikaners in contrast to other groups that have inhabited the continent.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
I started riding a bike because I was getting a little soft looking and wanted to move around more and explore. I got talked into entering a duathlon. I enjoyed the duathlon, but also found out that I liked running more than biking. I picked up running, got talked into a half marathon, did really poorly in my first one and was annoyed because I knew I could do better. After that, being naturally competitive, decent enough at the sport, and really enjoying it have been more than enough. Having been fully immersed in it for a long time now, there isn't any motivation necessary - I like running, I run almost every day, I run with a club and other friends, and the benefits are very easy to see. I have more trouble making the smart decision to rest than I do with just lacing up every day.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
Nice, nice, nice. More time in the water and less hanging out with us dorks on the internet is good for the body and soul. Happy summer!
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
Cynically, I expect that the young people in the tribe are learning about TikTok trends and performative nonsense from Western culture, but getting absolutely none of the cultural and personal habits that are the "ways of the white people" that have generated the wealth and success of the Western world. That she believes that learning the ways of the white people leads to laziness suggests that she also doesn't actually know anything about those white cultural habits and is going entirely off of what she sees on the internet and sees the kids developing. In reality, white culture looks a lot like that Smithsonian poster (that was apparently intended to be a critique) - rugged individualism, family structure, future orientation, rigid time schedules with time viewed as a commodity, and hard work as the key to success. I doubt the tribe is learning those values, which is perhaps an indictment of internet culture, but has nothing to do with the ways of the white people.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
"Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet," she said. "They're learning the ways of the white people."
Genuinely hilarious commentary, although I would personally bet quite a bit that they are not, in fact, learning the ways of the white people.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
5d ago
-- Why was Nixon doing shit like this when he was almost guaranteed to win? This ties into conspiracy theories that the whole of Watergate was a set-up to get rid of Nixon, that the CIA and Deep State wanted Nixon out and set up the whole burglary plan to trap him. This is somewhat belied by Nixon's own decision making, he probably could have survived the break-in had he come clean about it early, it was only the long cover up that sank him.
From what I know of Nixon (which is admittedly not enough to have a firmly held position), this all seems entirely consistent with the core of his personality as a deeply insecure man that was sure everyone was out to get him. As others have noted, the reality is that a lot of people were out to get him! Nonetheless, his insecurity is something that his enemies could consciously use against him, and it doesn't seem out of character for him to have been willing to go along with some extremely sketchy characters and then justify a coverup. While adding in some anti-Nixon conspiracy doesn't simplify the story, it does tie it together more coherently without adding any elements that seem implausible for the people involved.
There's so much about the whole thing that seems so very relevant to modern scandals, with the most striking part being that very few people seem to be able to articulate what exactly the events that occurred were with any degree of accuracy. This is true of both supporters and enemies of both Trump and Clinton. What exactly did Trump just get convicted of? What did Hillary Clinton do with an email server? What was Nixons' role in Watergate? I would bet quite a bit that fewer than 10% of people that have strong opinions on the matter could pass a pretty simple test about the facts.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
11d ago
Late 30s, very fit, I don't get exhausted without some truly difficult effort. If I work very hard at a difficult mental problem, I'll experience mental fatigue after a couple hours and need to go take a walk. If I go for a hard run, I'll grab a shower and a beer when I get in and flip on something easy to watch, but I wouldn't go so far as calling it exhaustion.
On the flip side, I do take quite a few mental breaks, walk around, take five minutes to go play a quick mini-game, and so on. This isn't really a conscious effort, just habit.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
12d ago
Start the day with three eggs and a cup of Greek yogurt will get you to 350 calories and 40 grams of protein.
A 12-ounce skirt steak cut has 750 calories and 88 grams of protein. That's a pretty good start for a TexMex meal. Roughly 250 calories worth of black beans is ~16 grams of protein. Fill in the remainder with rice and you're good to go. Avocado if desired.
Chicken breast is obviously a famous choice for protein enthusiast that are cutting. Personally, I like them pounded flat, marinated, and grilled pretty well. Make a sandwich with rolls and cheese to round up carbs and fat. Mixing up the marinades and going with rice and veggies can add some variety here.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
12d ago
Fearing judgment to some extent is good and healthy. If you behave poorly and show low character, people should judge you for it and you should change your ways. Any breakdown in that outcome is quite bad. On the flip side, you should reject incorrect judgments. The best way to do this it to build yourself into the kind of person that you want to be. Nonetheless, you should still be open to judgment and fear doing the things that would make people think worse of you. As with so many personality traits and emotions (anger, empathy, ambition) these drives must exist in tension and balance. People that either can't judge or fear no judgement usually suck.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
12d ago
If the government of Israel either were told, or said, there will be a state of Palestine, and we will live peacefully side by side, the fighting would stop today. These are basic facts, basic matters of truth that if we actually spoke them, if we actually treated each other like grown-ups we would resolve to seem to be these insurmountable crises. They're not at all insurmountable, they just require a measure of truth.
Yeah, the fighting would stop today, but then resume as soon as the newly empower Hamas government rebuilt its capacity to lob rockets into Israel. I enjoy listening to Sachs on podcasts, but the consistency with which he believes that shithole countries and murderous Islamists just need a nice little nudge in the right direction is absurd and fails to predict much of anything about the world. Yeah, fighting an endless holy war sucks for Israel and is a suboptimal outcome, but the alternative is not actually just recognizing a nice Palestinian neighbor.
Are there any major issues where Sachs basic position isn't the US sucks and should stop being such meanies? I did a cursory search and these are what I find:
- China should gain power and dismantle US hegemony. Also, everyone should stop being such jerks to them about the Uyghurs.
- The US shouldn't intervene in Syria.
- Venezuela sucks because of American sanctions.
- Covid was a US government conspiracy.
- The US is pretty much solely to blame for Ukraine.
I even partially agree with some of these, but when someone's solution to everything is anti-American, it might be best to just consider them anti-American and respond accordingly.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
12d ago
If you enjoy being pedantic, you can simply reply, "what's the exponent?".
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
14d ago
Canada! Rockies are the start of the true West, Canada is the start of the true North.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
14d ago
Just normal upper Midwest United States stuff! These are admittedly not the most common days, which is why I said my ideal days are hard to pick. When we do get these lows in the morning and highs in the afternoon, it's great. Here's May so far. On May 17, we had an overnight low of 49 and an afternoon high of 79. On May 12 it was 47 in the morning and 83 in the afternoon.
Despite the rough winters the late spring and early summer in the Midwest are super underrated for delightful weather.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
14d ago
I struggle to see what the point of Supersize Me was, other than being an anti-corporate applause light.
He was also a vegetarian, so was an anti-meat applause light. But really, more important than either of those by a wide margin was pwning the chuds. Morgan Spurlock absolutely hated the chuds with a burning contempt, so showing how they're so stupid and destroying their bodies while he garnered applause and profit was just the perfect project for the early 2000s style of smug liberal.
Eating a tolerably decent diet that includes lunch at McDonald's isn't hard and doesn't require doing anything weird. A McDouble and a medium fry is about 700 calories. If you're a hungry boy and must have the Big Mac and large fry, you're looking at 1100 calories.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
14d ago
I would swear I saw that clip months ago. Am I misremembering or is this being misreported by 𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜 @ ℝ𝕖𝕡𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕔 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕕 | ʟᴇᴠᴇʟ-ʜᴇᴀᴅᴇᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄʀᴇᴅɪʙʟᴇ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ || འབྲུག་?
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
14d ago
I have trouble picking a single perfect weather because I enjoy outdoor activities that have a wide variance. I love sitting in the sun on a hot day doing nothing, but if I wake up to that kind of weather when I'm trying to run in a race, I'm not going to be very happy. For the modal day though, I like chilly morning (call it high 40s) and a sunny, moderate temperature afternoon (call it mid 70s).
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
14d ago
I'm fine with speaking ill of that guy. He absolutely typifies the peak of crass, smug leftist from his era. He knew pretty much nothing about the topics he was speaking on, hated corporations with a stupid and jealous passion, lied constantly, and was personally degenerate. It's not just Supersize Me, go look at the episode rundown for 30 Days and tell me this guy isn't just an asshole.
At least when Gladwell speaks to running, he's actually good at the sport and cares about it.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
15d ago
I saw Chris Murphy speaking on the matter yesterday and he seemed very comfortable framing the issue as needing solving, but from a different angle than where you're coming at - he's selling the idea that the real problem is that the system is so jammed up that these people can't even get a fair hearing on their asylum claims. Let's get something done, get some more judges and lawyers to make sure people get admitted legally, that kind of thing. Basically, illegal immigration is a problem and the solution is to make all of these people legal immigrants. This is easy enough to sell to his constituents, particularly when he can point to those dastardly Republicans that just want to keep these innocent asylum seekers illegal for purely political reasons.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
15d ago
This doesn't suffice to limit the liabilities of diversity. It's very hard to overstate how much self-inflicted damage the United States has accepted in the name of refusing to discriminate between migrant populations on the basis of their cultural backgrounds. People are obviously aware of major incidents like 9/11, but dealing with petty intrusions like not being able to check a backpack at a race because an Islamic extremist bombed the Boston Marathon are just everywhere. We also get the low-level annoyances of antisemitic losers on college campuses and women in beekeeper outfits. There is no plausible case that the benefits of Muslim immigration have outstripped the costs.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
15d ago
On the flip side, Titanic Belfast opened in 2012 and it's a really well done museum. Maybe it's not as broad of a cultural touchstone, but it's still fascinating history.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
17d ago
What are you withholding judgment on? He seems like a pretty garden variety hotep logician, the kind of guy that believes a lot of incredibly dumb shit and says it smugly because it makes him feel like he's actually very smart.
Walterodim
Only equals speak the truth, that’s my thought on’t
17d ago
More or less, yes. Despite my position above that I don't think of there being much of a crisis of competence in medicine, that's precisely because there are standards that everyone has to meet. Some professions are basically fake in terms of actual technical knowledge and people can get by with a combination of improvisation and charisma; my impression is that people in these jobs sometimes mistakenly believe that all jobs work that way, and it just ain't so. Things like medicine and engineering have irreducible complexity, where you actually have to know each part of it and be able to use that understanding in practice. Physicians require more actual knowledge than marketing executives.
FWIW, I learned to ride a bike in my mid-20s. It took about a half hour of messing around in a parking garage (riding uphill as a learner is much easier because you can pedal harder without going fast) to get the basics down and then maybe like five rides outside to be reasonably competent.
Swimming, on the other hand, I've basically written off and triathlons with it. I can doggy paddle around or do a really goofy semi-freestyle well enough to keep myself alive if I needed to, but actually putting my face in the water is deeply uncomfortable and I just don't care to learn at this point. So, yeah, pretty much what you said.
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