cjet79
Anarcho Capitalist on moral grounds
Libertarian Minarchist on economic grounds
User ID: 124
cjet79
21hr ago
Yes great show! I recommended it. They got renewed for a second season before the series was even released.
My only complaint was the short length of the series. I wish there was more already.
cjet79
1d ago
So you just recently learned that you share a country with people who hate you and everything you stand for? Really?
What part of my post implies I didn't know these people existed?
Elsewhere in the thread I discuss it, but having direct evidence of a thing can change your estimate of how likely a viewpoint is. But my belief was never that 0 of these people existed.
cjet79
1d ago
Has anyone ever tried heavy amount of programming with ChatGPT (or any other AI)? I keep thinking I want to program a game. But I know from prior programming experience that there is lots of bullshit programming that I don't want to have to do. I'm wondering how far along I might get with AI assistance.
cjet79
1d ago
I jive with the people that don't have a model of spending money. I certainly don't. If my wife and I earned significantly less we'd be screwed. Luckily our money out is far less than our money in. We have a financial advisor that nags us when our savings account starts getting to ridiculous levels. I have an economics degree. I intellectually know that we shouldn't have boatloads of money in the savings account. I just hate figuring out what to do with it.
We take two or three vacations a year. Sometimes pay for home renovations. Eat out once or twice a week. Own a modest sized home. Most of my entertainment is dirt cheap though. I like reading, I like video games, I like discussions on TheMotte. I'd find it hard to legitimately spend more than $300 a month on these activities. Something like $30 a month is more common (I even sorta pay for TheMotte through a patreon donation).
I do sometimes wonder how much more money we'd have if we were actually careful and diligent about it. But then I think of the effort involved and sort of shudder.
I remember a few years back having friends that make similar amounts of money to me and my wife and they were complaining about money issues. I was mostly left scratching my head. How did you spend that much money? I knew their rent, I knew they didn't own a car, I knew we ate out a similar amount, I knew they also took two to three vacations a year, sometimes less. I thought they might have well hidden gambling addictions. Or were sending a bunch of money to their families.
cjet79
1d ago
The obsession with turning the lights off to save on electricity bills has always infuriated me ever since I looked up the cost of it. LED light bulbs use about $2 of electricity per year, and they are supposed to last over ten years. You can get them as cheap as $1 per bulb if you buy in bulk.
Forget millionaires, someone living on minimum wage can afford to ignore optimizing electricity for light bulbs. Easy rule of thumb: if you can afford the space you can afford to light it.
Another easy rule of thumb: most actual electricity usage is related to temperature. Heating / AC / Fridges / Freezers / Stoves / Ovens / Dryers.
cjet79
1d ago
It's a social dynamic that doesn't exist today, and paternalism was a big part of that dynamic. The paternalistic aspect was very real but isn't to be recognized in this day in age. It certainly isn't an oxymoron.
The longer fleshed out statement I had originally was something like "it would be kind to not punish them for anything that isn't an actual crime, and pay them wages for the work they do, not forcibly separate their families, and allow them some avenue of exit from the situation if they think its not working out for them." But that was basically the equivalent of freeing them, so I shortened it. But quite a few of those things have no place for someone being "paternalistic". When paternalistic and economic concerns were at odds the economic concerns won out. I say that not as judgement, but as a simple statement of facts. Just like today a company that is unconcerned with economic realities will eventually go broke.
I also believe paternalism does exist today. It is the government as parent to everyone. The government is not as limited by economic concerns, which honestly makes it more frightening. In both cases of paternalism I don't think of them as "kind". The proponents of paternalism probably wouldn't describe it as "kind" either. At best they might say it is a "kindness". Paternalism is a belief that a strong hand is needed for guiding the less able-d and less intelligent to the right paths in life. That the strong hand will dish out measured punishments that are less harsh than what the world itself might dish out (thus the sort of "kindness").
cjet79
1d ago
I had generally similar experiences in college. Could talk with far extremes on either side but you can still come out thinking some version of mistake theory where everyone is just trying to do their best, and we just disagree on how to get there.
Outside of college was always the real kicker. People in college always seemed at times a bit fluid with their values, or that their values were at least subject to some social desirability bias. Well once you can start picking your social circles and you've done it for over a decade, those values seem to calcify.
cjet79
1d ago
I feel nothing either way. No shame, no pride. It is semi-interesting to me that my ancestors happened to be in America so early, and that they have been intimately involved with some major events. But its not much more to me.
Its kind of like this: I was born in a place, and when I was 3 my family moved out of that place and never returned. I have zero memories of living there. The fact that I was born there is just kind of a fun and not-so-interesting fact about me. I feel similar about the ancestors, its just more interesting to most people.
cjet79
1d ago
Everyone likes to believe they were kind to their slaves, but no one actually knows, and the best evidence that can be obtained is a few scattered mentions that Cajuns were known for treating their slaves somewhat better than average.
This has been part of my Mom's research actually. One of the things that made it easy to track the slaves that my ancestors owned is that one of the guys would write a paragraph or so about each slave when they passed away. Some aspects of their personality, some positive traits, some things they liked, etc.
I think the whole concept of being "kind" to a slave is a bit oxymoronic. The kindest thing to do is to free them immediately. Most slave owners fail by that standard. There are of course different levels of how terrible you can be to a slave. There isn't evidence that my ancestors were fucking their slaves (and yes, it is definitely possible to know that sort of thing. They knew it about some of their neighbors and gossiped about it in letters.) There are two ways to motivate slaves, the carrot and the stick. We do know they used the carrot, some of the slaves were paid wages. We don't know how heavily they used the stick. Quite a few of the freed slaves took on the family name of my ancestors after they were freed during the Civil war. The men that were older when the civil war broke out thought it was a horrible idea. The younger men were excited by it ... and most of them fought in it and died.
I don't feel like I'm forced into disassociation about it. I feel mostly the same way about my parents. They have done things in their past that I don't condone. Even though I know them and I share half my genes with each of them I feel zero responsibility for their actions. But I know I am probably a bit weird in some areas. I often think the "tribal loyalty" part of my brain is broken and doesn't work. I care about and feel loyalty towards specific individuals, but for anyone I don't know .. there is zero chance I care about them.
cjet79
1d ago
I ran it through ChatGPT to anonymize it. After I was done with that I also asked ChatGPT how it would rewrite the email if the original sender had asked. That email actually didn't seem unfriendly. So yeah maybe they weren't actually that hostile, their signoff doesn't imply hostility. Just the whole pondering how the country might have been better without my ancestors existing. I originally interpreted it as "english as a second language" but I looked up the lady who sent it (she gladly attached her name to the email), and she did seem to be born in the US. But yeah, hate mail written in a polite tone is strange.
cjet79
1d ago
But if they vote and too many people that share their opinion vote
Why do you think that there is any chance that there are lot of people who share this opinion?
I maybe should have included two "ifs" there to be more clear.
But if they vote and if too many people that share their opinion vote
Basically, I'm not certain how many people share their opinion. Receiving the email is some level of evidence that more people with that opinion exist. I also tried to add in the second to last paragraph to make it clear that this is not the only kind of interaction.
really makes it sound like a fringe crazy---the left variant of the people screaming about adenochrome. As pointed out below, people who care about racial equality suddenly saying that judging others for their ancestry is ok are preemptively giving up their entire argument.
Agreed that it doesn't make much sense. But I also think its silly to believe in ghosts. I have strong doubts that this is anywhere near the most brilliant holder of these beliefs.
It's definitely not like a very active forum where merely supporting race blindness makes a comment one of the most controversial in your posting history. I would be much more worried that there are lot of people voting with this opinion.
I don't really like either extreme. I have lots of evidence already of one side existing, its depressing to get evidence of the other extreme existing as well.
cjet79
1d ago
Hated Ancestors
I am part of a family heritage organization. This particular family has been in the US for a little over 400 years. The organization's main responsibilities are maintaining a few old grave sites, and serving as a bit of a repository of information for people going on genealogical hunts. I am possibly going to be joining the board of this organization in the future.
Anyways, these ancestors of mine owned slaves, and quite a few of them fought and died on the losing side of the American Civil War. I feel mostly apathy about this. I did not know these people, I didn't even know anyone who knew them. Any "wealth" they had from slavery was never passed down, they all went heavily bankrupt in the 1870s (they were all lending each other money, and someone made a poor investment so they all went down together when debt collectors came in). I don't feel any need to defend their actions, or to attack them to prove to myself I would not have acted similarly in their circumstances. Its just a fact that sits out there and is kind of interesting, but has no bearing on me personally.
I was aware that my view on this might be different than others, but it was confirmed the other day. We received this email to our general inbox (information in brackets is anonymized from original email):
Began my morning looking to purchase land in [Southern US State] and I came across the [Surname] name while viewing a property in [Small Town, Southern US State].
As I further traveled down this rabbit hole, from the time, ‘A man from [European Country]’ entered America, natives chased away, privileged education, owning slaves, and building up the economic community to owning many properties across [Southern US State] and possibly the United States.
I read a section on your website, how to gather and reserve information about the enslaved in a PowerPoint. I opened a next page showing all of the different owned properties from A to Z, assuming to be left as a legacy to your descendants.
This research was very daunting to my spirit albeit it being a part of history, your history, which at the same level very interesting. This information also showed how ‘others’ had their history swayed and influenced by your family’s history.
If it were not for the slaves… If it were not for the Natives… If the [Surname] never entered America… This country, your family…what would have happened to its inhabitants?
Doubt if I’d buy that piece of land in [Small Town, Southern US State] for fear of the ancestor’s spirits, Native and African slaves wandering around looking for descendants in 2024 to be released from their bondage and inequities thrashed upon them for wealth by its oppressors.
Purpose of this email was to express my personal feelings towards the [Surname] descendants and how sad it is that when Americans say privilege, we only need to read history of those before us.
~Forgive my sentence structures. My [Community College] English instructor always reminded me to work better at my writing skills. Education.
Thank you for your time.
In most cases I'd be happy to toss this email in the trashbin of my mind. This lady disliking me because of my ancestors isn't really a big deal. Someone lost a property sale somewhere, also not me and also not a big deal. But I do share one thing with this lady that constantly frustrates and annoys me: A Government. It would be nice to be a in a world where I could fully dismiss this kind of thing from my life. But if they vote and too many people that share their opinion vote ... well I'm sure they will find inventive ways to make their feelings towards us a more solid thing. I don't know where this leaves us. I'm certainly not going to respond to this lady's email.
It would be wrong to leave you all with the impression that this is a normal interaction. My mother has been doing genealogical research lately, including some compiling of the slaves names. She has made friends with a man in the state who was trying to research his ancestors. The man had hit a wall and couldn't find out more until my mom published the slave research.
I'll answer questions about my ancestors, but I will generally try to avoid doxxing myself, even if I'm not highly concerned with that outcome.
cjet79
2d ago
I felt like it was a case of comparing extreme and unlikely scenarios. Complications of the vaccines vs chance of getting the thing if not vaccinated. For cases where there is some kind of herd immunity the individual calculus vs the government calculus are obviously going to be different.
Mostly I'd suggest worrying less until you actually encounter something. Its hard to tell a new parent that. Encourage them to have more kids after the first one. By the third one they should be less concerned.
cjet79
2d ago
My brother is half-owner of a small business. Most of his workers are temporary contracts rather than full time. But he regularly employees a few dozen of these contract workers at a time. So I guess I've seen it up close and its lost all the magic to me. My brother is good at details and finance, he isn't great at the "being a boss" thing so he sticks to contractors when he can.
Most industries like to think they work hard. I think some of them are objectively wrong when they think this. Media seems like one of the objectively wrong ones. You need certain knacks to succeed and get by in media, and that limits the playing field. Its a bit like basketball. Since extreme height is such a glaring requirement, there is more differentiation on other traits. Like if anyone could be made into a 7ft giant, would the current crop of NBA players remain? I doubt it. Almost all of them would be out-competed by harder working more conscientious guys. MJ is like a god to the NBA, but he wasn't anything impressive at baseball where height is not as strict of a requirement.
I listed a few reasons above why I think Alex Jones would be a good businessman for that size company. I fully believe you when he say he runs a tight ship and a successful business. I just also fully believe that such skills do not prevent you at all from making dumb legal mistakes, dumb mistakes about who to marry, or dumb lifestyle choice. Most of the guys I've seen that have tanked their businesses did so for one of those reasons, not because they messed up on the business side. My brother made a dumb mistake about who to marry, and when they get around to having a divorce she will destroy his business.
cjet79
2d ago
The person you responded to didn't say "dumb / incompetent" they said "dumb legal mistakes". Smart competent people can make dumb mistakes in areas where they are not competent.
You're making it sound like having a business like that is like losing weight (easy, but requires constant effort, which is why most people flake out), I'm saying it's the exact opposite. Most people won't pull it off regardless of the effort they put in.
I think losing weight is harder effort wise than running a business. Plenty of successful fat business owners.
There are about 400,000 small businesses in the US with 20-49 employees. https://www.naics.com/business-lists/counts-by-company-size/
That size of business sucks to run. Its large enough to fill 80-100 hours of time in your week to run. Usually too small to run on its own (a single key employee quitting might turn a self operating business back into a full time job for an owner). The salary / profit will probably make it well paying, but on an hourly basis your pay is still mediocre. It is very stressful.
I'd actually say running a business is one of the few ways that someone with an insane work ethic and not many highly paid skills can earn good take home pay. It really does not require advanced intellect. I'd guess that anyone capable of reading and passing highschool algebra has the mental capability to run a business of that size. Not everyone does that because again, it sucks, its a lot of work, and for the first few years it will suck even harder. Talk with some owners of lawn companies, construction companies, small shops, etc. Many of them will straight up tell you they are idiots, and even if some of that is modesty they have lots of anecdotal evidence to back it up. They will also tell you that it is a ton of work to start the business and keep it afloat.
cjet79
2d ago
It is good if young people figure out how to spot lies, especially spotting the cases where people are lying to themselves.
Older women in the dating game have a clear reason for being bitter. Nature really screws them over. Their physical looks / attractiveness to men peaks in their late teens or early 20's. They age out of safely having kids in their early 40's. There goes two of the main reasons for dating/marriage: (sexual) fun and raising kids. I feel bad for them.
The comments section reflects lots of copium being thrown out. I see sexual frustration (which to me seems like a problem with partner selection). I see abrasive personalities (men don't need to feel smarter, but talking down to them like a kid becomes tiring for them to listen to). I see people buried in the culture war losing grounding with reality (most violence is committed by young testosterone fueled men. It nearly ceases to be a real concern later in life.)
I don't think this will heavily impact younger generations. I doubt younger generations are even willing to listen to older generations. They'll figure out sex and love on their own. Or they won't figure it out because of other more important trends.
Sex and committed relationships are something that I think people realize has value because of peer effects. I remember highschool: some girl in the class was the first normalish girl to have sex in a relationship, and then many other girls in school took it as their cue that it was ok to start having sex, and many boys took it as their cue that it was ok to start asking for sex. There was also a wave of breakups because of college separation.
cjet79
2d ago
Running a business of that size is not difficult as an intellectual exercise, it is difficult effort wise. There are three difficult things to do:
- Be a boss to employees. You can't run the business hoping to make friends. Labor is always one of the largest expenses, you need to hire people, expect them to treat it like a job, and enforce that expectation. You'll have to fire people if they aren't providing value to the business. This can range from the fun yet lazy employees to sob stories where someone is down on their luck and producing inferior work for some time period. Jones is probably used to being hated so this might be easier for him.
- Be willing to dive into the details. Sometimes the difference between being profitable and not is just one area of the business being sloppy. Small business owners have to be willing to get involved in all of these little areas, and it will be frustrating. For media and merchandising that is going to involve a myriad of deals/contracts with online companies and shipping companies. Jones seems to be willing to dive in and read things deeply, and he is capable of making connections between disparate pieces of small details. He is probably great at this.
- Be willing to run the numbers. I separate this out from merely the "details" because it seems to be a different muscle and skillset. Making sure you get your money and your employees get paid is very important. The fact that Jones has not been taken down by the feds for some business related reason makes me think he is great at this. My brother makes a living helping small businesses in his area handle the money side of things.
I've known people who can do all these things, and they are still total cranks. One of them that springs to mind was probably a fan of Jones, there is video of him online being dragged out of a city council meeting screaming about his constitutional rights. (he was going on a rant about a culture war issue that the city had little control over and had run over his time limit). I'd estimate the construction business that guy ran was also in the millions, and possibly in the tens of millions. He was building a few dozen houses a year.
cjet79
5d ago
I find that quality is orthogonal to cuisine. I've had really good and really bad versions of different cuisines.
American cuisine excels at producing and finding uses for preservable sauces and seasonings (S&S). Ketchup, Mustard, BBQ, Mayonaise, Hot Sauces, Old Bay, etc. And it is best at adopting foreign S&S into the cuisine, like Sriracha, Chipotle, Soy, etc. Certain "Americanized" foods like Chinese takeout is basically just heavily sauced versions of easily found American food General Tso's / Orange Chicken / Sweet and Sour / etc. If you don't enjoy the major S&S you won't generally enjoy American cuisine. Just like its hard to enjoy Indian food if you don't like curry.
I think British cuisine is often maligned too for the wrong reasons (I see you @fartVader). Its meant to be had at a pub with beer on a rainy shitty day. Much of it is very dense and thus good at holding in heat as you slowly eat it to warm up while drinking your beer at the same time. The flavor should be coming from the beer, which is why everyone calls most British food flavorless. But its like taking the curry out of Indian food and deciding that its all bland as a result. The food is meant to be bland, because its a vehicle for flavor from another source!
Italian and Parisian food often get lauded as the best food, but I think that is because both of those food traditions are meant to be served in restaurants with fine wines. The word restaurant is French! (also I say Parisian food instead of French food quite intentionally. Paris is a mega city with its own culture and food, and mostly that is what has been exported around the world.)
Street food from various cuisines you should look for foodtrucks that serve them. I've mostly never enjoyed Kabob, but I do usually enjoy it from a food truck. Took me some time before I figured that one out, specifically going to the foodtruck and brick and mortar versions of the same local brand of kabob and realizing that only the food truck one was good.
Asian Hot Pot should be eaten out of a hot pot.
Low and slow smoke or pit BBQ needs to be overseen by a pit master. If they use automated technology it turns to crap for some reason.
Things like a philly cheesesteak should be had at a sports game or during a lunchbreak when you've been doing physical labor.
Sushi should be eaten freshly made.
Korean BBQ should be grilled in front of you and eaten with KPop blaring in the background.
TL;DR: Cuisine has cultural and situational context, and some cuisines really fall apart when you take them out of that context. I think if you don't enjoy "Western" food you possibly just don't like the cultural or situational context necessary to enjoy them.
cjet79
7d ago
her visits on the Stavy's World podcast have been hilarious, id suggest watching them if you haven't already.
cjet79
7d ago
Depends on the value systems we are talking about. Divergent political beliefs, we'd like to keep.
But divergent value systems related to discussion are not what we'd like to keep. For example, if you think its a good idea to insult everyone you speak with that disagrees with you then I don't want you here.
cjet79
8d ago
I think the dogpiles for valuable comments is good information to receive. The information in that case is that the value system of the subreddit has heavily diverged from your value system and you should leave. And you can feel free to trash talk them elsewhere where you know that people do share your value system.
I don't like capping. It loses information to spare feelings. But again the votes are generally representing a true underlying sentiment. In a place like TheMotte that sentiment will just come out via comments.
cjet79
8d ago
With a multi vote system I'd just worry that all votes would tend to heavily correlate. You could tell people to vote a certain way, but they don't listen when told "dont just vote based on agreement" so why would they listen to the rules for another system?
We also have a two vote system sort of. Reporting things is kind of a mega vote. With lots of ways things can be 'negative quality' and just one way that they can be positive quality: AAQCs. These two voting systems do tend to often correlate.
How much do votes matter to you when writing things on here? Introspectively I like knowing the vote numbers, but I care more about the feedback coming from people actually responding and commenting. It was the same on reddit. If I ever had comments that got negative amounts of karma, but then one person saying "not sure where all the downvotes are coming from, i totally agree with you". My overall feelings about that comment would be positive not negative.
I suppose I feel that the form of this website is truly text and discussion based. The votes are there as an extra thing. They are akin to facial expressions in a conversation. They can say things, sometimes quite a bit. But you also need to do the whole speaking thing for the facial expressions to even matter.
I don't like limiting vote numbers, I feel the numbers are already low enough. And I feel that the reporting system is a way of having "limited voting numbers" its not limited strictly, it just has a sort of soft limit where reporting things isn't as low effort as voting, so people tend to do it way less. I also feel that limiting voting systems creates a place where there are big winners/losers and then a huge section of middle ground where nothing gets voted on at all. So asking for it kind of feels like just asking for no voting at all, but still allowing a reporting system.
oddly-sexually-aggressive wildlife if it was Zeus
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