campfireSmoresEaten
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User ID: 2560
campfireSmoresEaten
4d ago
Are you sure Kulak is a man? I've listened to the Kulak podcast and it's a woman's voice. Voice changer? Just a very convincing fake voice?
I was very surprised, but I guess some of the essays are about subjects which a woman might theoretically be more likely to write about than a man.
campfireSmoresEaten
6d ago
Yeah. In addition to that, I regret using the word "gross" in an internet vernacular sense
campfireSmoresEaten
7d ago
But since then, there have been few obviously pro-social successes of his.
Starlink is cool. I have higher willingness to support Ukraine than Musk, but Musk has done a lot more to support Ukraine than I have.
The continued achievements of SpaceX.
The continued rollout of electric cars.
His record on AI is mixed, but he has spoken out about the dangers. Including directly to some very high ranking politicians. I think it's weird he's not doing more. But if humanity is going to die, I would rather we die with someone having brought this to the attention of various powerful people directly. It's "dignity points", I guess.
He has acted as a sort of grey-tribe wing of the republican party with respect to things like the deficit, which is probably a good thing. And arguably he's sort of a moderate on immigration? I haven't really followed that.
campfireSmoresEaten
7d ago
Maybe without leaded gasoline the average IQ (or brain health, if IQ is too gross) of the United States would have been raised just enough to prevent this.
campfireSmoresEaten
7d ago
There is a common human thing where someone gets into a hole and takes a huge risk in hopes of getting out of that hole, which makes the problem much much worse.
If politicians embrace AI for this reason and then superintelligence kills everyone, I would describe this as that
campfireSmoresEaten
7d ago
I am fine with returning art, but I would object to returning Gibraltar or the Falklands. They seem very different to me.
campfireSmoresEaten
7d ago
There was that guy who bought a bunch of boxes of magic cards using bitcoin gained from some sort of criminal activity. The guy selling the magic cards was not a crypto-savvy guy. (And then the criminal sold the magic cards.)
campfireSmoresEaten
12d ago
Well what did you have on your to-do list?
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/03/03/how-things-even-out
This comedy piece sort of encapsulates how I feel about karma. In the long run, things even out. Maybe a bunch of bad stuff is happening, but good things will happen eventually. Maybe innocent people are being punished now, but in the long run guilty people will get away with stuff, and innocent people will get away with stuff too, and the guilty people will be punished for other stuff, and every permutation thereof.
Except if the human race goes instinct, ofc. Then all bets about future karma are off, so to speak.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
I don't think it is/was an inevitable historical process. If the Democratic Party had made fewer mistakes in this election, Trump would have lost. What if Biden had stepped down and the DNC had run a primary for the Democratic presidential candidate? We understand why those things didn't happen, but there's no compelling reason why they couldn't have happened. It was just chance.
I mean, I realize that even if Trump died in his sleep in 2022, some of his outlook would still be present in DeSantis or whoever the Republican candidate would have been, but still.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
https://www.ssbwiki.com/SSBMRank_2024
Ten characters in the top 12 this year.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
https://liquipedia.net/smash/Major_Tournaments/Ultimate
If you look at who is coming 1st and 2nd in Ultimate "majors", there are still a lot of non-Steve and non-Sonic finalists. But I have heard they are boring to watch. (I don't follow Ultimate)
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
A cautious monster is not necessarily preferable to a reckless one.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
What is your argument in plain English?
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
The Soviet Union was a fare more compelling adversary to both parties than its descendant, Russia, or the new upstart, China. It was a nuclear superpower with large land borders and a hostile ideology. Russia might retain the nukes, and is a great power if you squint, but it no longer has any meaningful ideological drive or desire to spread it beyond "if you trade with us and speak favorably of us, we'll back you". Even China has strong trade relations with Europe, and also is not culturally hegemonising to the same degree.
Maybe in some respects, but in other respects China seems more dangerous than the USSR.
- More of a manufacturing giant.
- Not committed to the dubious economic theories of Karl Marx, only uses Socialism as a convenient branding tool.
- Probably others I can't think of right now.
campfireSmoresEaten
3mo ago
The benefit is fewer wars and more stability, which helps everybody.
Plus more military bases I guess. Better to have one somewhere than to need one somewhere and not have one.
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
I think it's fine to focus on bureaucratic efficiency. He could never have done everything, and that seems like as reasonable a thing to focus on as any.
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
I've heard that fentanyl is strong enough that there if even a single truckload gets through the border, that's already enough doses to saturate the market. This was from a podcast, probably Freakonomics, but I'd have to double-check.
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
Well I certainly don't want it to seem like no level of agreement will ever be enough for me.
PEPFAR is among the organizations with paused funding, and when I've seen the executive orders discussed in other places it has been the focus of the discussion.
The claims made in these specific articles are supported by the evidence, which you will see if you read them.
In this case I felt justified in bringing up the subject, because it is the primary organization which is being discussed with respect to foreign aid being paused.
If massive numbers of botched circumcisions isn't a reason to get worked up about the topic, what would be?
Here are two articles about PEPFAR (EDIT: one of the organizations for which funding has been paused) that I think are worth reading.
https://brendonmarotta.com/4454/pepfar-plans-to-end-infant-circumcision-in-africa/
tl;dr: PEPFAR is responsible for an unknown but very large number of botched circumcisions in Africa, perhaps hundreds of thousands.
https://brendonmarotta.com/4475/pepfar-to-experiment-on-african-children-with-the-shangring/
tl;dr: An article about them moving from a circumcision device with an unacceptable rate of botched circumcisions to a new device with an unknown rate of botched circumcisions.
Any circumcision on someone who cannot consent is a human rights violation. I realize some of PEPFARs other tasks are praise-worthy, but I cannot possibly support an organization that engages in this sort of unnecessary cruelty.
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
If people have become disaffected from dignity and decorum, there's probably a reason why. It might not be a great reason, but it's worth pondering.
campfireSmoresEaten
4mo ago
"Me
Not a war, just a special military operation ;) "
I disapprove of mixing a serious discussion with low-grade snarkiness.
Well, shows what I know. Must be a voice changer or something. (That is not the kulak voice I was familiar with)
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