cjet79
Anarcho Capitalist on moral grounds
Libertarian Minarchist on economic grounds
User ID: 124
cjet79
1yr ago
archive links have been broken for me lately. I get stuck in "i am not a robot" tests indefinitely. Firefox, adblocker, and password manager. No idea which of those is screwing things up.
cjet79
1yr ago
[info about the ruling]
You have context.
Mother Jones, NPR, CBS, and Foreign Policy (of all the friggin' places) are running articles breathlessly proclaiming DOOM! for the US tax code, or at least the ability of Democrats to pass wealth tax laws.
You have analysis.
This Forbes article seems to be a pretty good explanation of what's at issue but I'll admit that I'm not well-versed enough in tax law to understand the full ramifications of what a Moore victory would mean for the ability of the federal government to raise revenue. On the other hand, I can't say I'm sad about the idea of a wealth taxes getting a bullet to the head. What am I missing or not considering as I read about this from the various outlets?
You have an opinion and a jumping off point for the discussion.
(Mods, let me know if I need to delete this and repost in Small Questions Sunday.)
Not necessary. From my perspective you have all the important parts required for a top level post. I'm mod tagging my comment just so people have some insight into how I judge top level posts. Having Context, Analysis, and a Jumping off point / Opinion is enough for a top level post. CAJO.
cjet79
1yr ago
Anyone else care to personally prognosticate?
Not me, but I appreciate the analysis. Aside from the most obvious party line predictions, I don't have any special insight into the supreme court. They seem mostly like a black box to me.
Any thoughts on the recently adopted code of conduct for the supreme court?
And did they ever find that leaker?
cjet79
1yr ago
My initial reaction was the same as just about everyone here: "horrible idea, don't ever do this"
I went and read the post, and it mostly changed my mind. Its still not something I would do, I am way to financially risk averse. But its not the worst idea ever.
The important thing to note about the advice is that there is an easy financial path in life where you don't really have to think too hard about financial things, you get a salary, your employer deducts the right amount for income taxes, and you get to use bank accounts and standard investment vehicles for growing what money you can manage to save. If you choose to do tax avoidance, that easy financial path will be gone. It is a large potentially permanent lifestyle decision that you'll have to make. And if you have a spouse they probably need to be willing to make the same lifestyle decision. And if you ever plan on having kids, it will impact those kids. Certain parts of the easy financial path in life are designed to benefit people with children, and those will be closed off to you. Inheritance will also likely be a mess. And your children might have to make the same financial lifestyle decision in order to receive financial help from you.
cjet79
1yr ago
It seems like marriage solves the cost to acquire factor though…
Ha! You must not be married.
For real though, dating is for having an easily accessible sexual partner. Marriage is for having a partner in life in general. And unless sex is the most important thing for one of the partners, that means it is going to take a lower priority than other things.
cjet79
1yr ago
Farming seems like a pretty raw deal though, I agree.
Most farmers today have a ton of assets. Even if liquid cash isn't always easily available. Simply owning enough land to make the irrigation, crop storage, and harvesters worth it is a multi million dollar endeavor. In bad years they have to leverage those assets with the bank for loans. In good years they pay back those loans, or expand the land/equipment they own.
If we are talking about "farmers" as in farmhands, the people that just work at a farm. Then yeah they have a raw deal. Its difficult physical labor for minimal wages.
cjet79
1yr ago
I use to be in favor of the bare link repository, I was heavily against removing it.
I have since changed my mind because of the culturewarroundup subreddit. They died. We lived.
The reason I think this has happened is that we require people to have discussion worthy things to bring to the table. How do we determine if something is discussion worthy? We ask our posters to start the discussion. If they can't it tells us one of a few things:
- They can't start the discussion on a given topic, because the topic sucks for the discussion purposes. This was one of the original reasons for creating the bare link repository and then removing it altogether. What tended to happen is people just dropped controversial thing #937 into the mix, and it wasn't very interesting to anyone. The topic is a dead horse, heavily beaten. Or the topic is just boring and not actually very culture war ladden.
- They can't start the discussion on a given topic, because they aren't a great writer and they don't know how to start the discussion. Many of these turned into flame threads.
- They won't start the discussion on a given topic, because they are lazy. As grognard said "I know man, how frustrating it can be when these goddamn wordcels won’t give me my insight porn fix. Daddy needs his medicine." There seems to be this type of person that comes here looking for insight porn, but yet providing nothing. They want to dictate the direction of insight porn without providing any. Fuck them. They are leeches and parasites. Contribute first, and then you can dictate the direction of insight porn.
There will always be one place that caters to the leeches and parasites. It will be the best place for reaching the most number of people. We aren't that place. We can't compete on that dimension. If you want to contribute we do our best to help. If you want to constantly bitch and complain about your inability to dictate the direction of discussion, we aren't a great place to be. You are in the latter category. Your only quality contribution is a long winded complaint about the BLR. Your numerous warnings are all a result of you complaing about someone posting top level comment about a topic you don't want to discuss. You are a leech and a parasite on the good discussions of others.
cjet79
1yr ago
This topic has literally come up anytime anyone has even been lightly reminded to not post low effort top level posts. And just about every time, some user like grognard says something like "that is what the mods incentivize" and then some idiot goes and makes a new account and starts posting LLM crap. You all don't see it because we don't let it through the spam filter. Occasionally some long time user jokingly posts it in response to a grognard type post, and we ban them.
Making a boring post is its own form of punishment. No one reads it and no one responds, or if they do respond they just accuse you of writing an LLM post. I'm almost certain that the accusations of LLM posts are more common than actual LLM posts, especially for stuff that gets through the spam filter.
Also people absolutely do get banned for long posts all the time. Jewdefender was recently perma-banned, and it was not for low effort posting. The last person I temp-banned for a low effort post did a low effort drunk post on thanksgiving. I gave them the ban mostly because I knew I'd be the only mod to look at it for possibly a few days, and I was annoyed at them giving me work to do on thanksgiving. It didn't help that it was a user with a bunch of past warnings and bans.
cjet79
1yr ago
The latter is definitely banned. Anytime we catch someone doing it they get banned. If we think they are doing it but we don't have proof they are on our shitlist for a while.
cjet79
1yr ago
We've banned more people for using LLMs then we have for low effort posts.
cjet79
1yr ago
I forgot I played Deus Ex, but I remember often being frustrated with stealth gameplay in Deus ex, because it often had choke points that forced you to either have a super stealth build or enter combat. So I guess I like the level and map design in cyberpunk 2077 better
cjet79
1yr ago
There are also two off ramps for conservative activism:
- For the economic conservative there is Libertarianism. And its not a lucrative career option, but its also not something where you have to go live on peanuts to pursue. Any slightly competent libertarian could probably get a job somewhere within the Koch network.
- For the regligous conservative there is ... religion. Religion needs preists, and missionaries, and people to run the soup kitchens and shelters.
The progressive cause has done well at funneling all outpourings of charity towards politics. Care about the homeless? Well that means you need to campaign for a progressive mayor! Care about education and the kids? Campaign for a progressive school board. Care about the environment? Lets get the federal government to protect it, and we need the right politicians in office for that!
In general I think you nailed it. Any conservative that doesn't have a mentallity of "burn down all the governing institutions" is deluding themselves about their level of power and influence. There was a thing one youtube anarcho-capitalist use to say: "Trying to shrink government from the inside is like joining the KKK to make them less racist".
cjet79
1yr ago
You also got unlucky with the timing there. Another poster posted above you not even five minutes later about wikipedia. And that thread in general was full of good top level posts.
cjet79
1yr ago
Stealth feels like a major part of the game. Some main story line missions require stealth. Many side missions have rewards for stealthy completions. And nearly every side mission can be completed in a stealthy way, if you have the right build.
The stealth system of the game goes deep. Pretty much every character build type gets some stealth bonus options. Even unintuitive ones like "body" (strength) have stealth benefits, a high body stat gives you more entry options into a building, so you could take slightly easier routes.
There is also a whole hacking system in the game that has covert options. Its necessary to use it to take out cameras, but it can also be used to create distractions, or blow up environmental hazards. Certain hacking things are "traceable", but the tracing takes some time, you'll just be on a time limit until you can finish off the enemies. There are also a variety of hacks against people, you can erase their memory to make a quick move behind them and take them out. You can disable their optics to make a dash to a new set of cover. You can disable their hearing and audio to make a takedown of the guy next to them unheard. Or you can just ping an electronic item or person to get a whole layout of the all the people, cameras, and gadgets in the vicinity.
Takedowns can be lethal or non-lethal.
Bodies need to be hidden, if another enemy finds a body they'll alert the whole place.
I usually don't go out of my way to play stealth games, but I often enjoy the mechanics. I'd say cyberpunk is comparable to dishonored in terms of fun stealth mechanics, and certainly better than the assassin creed games.
An example stealth run:
I'm given a mission to plant a virus on a club owner's computer.
I can walk into the main area of the club without getting in trouble as long as my guns aren't drawn. I do this and tag as many cameras and goons as I can. Each time I find a camera I shut it down. I leave the club and circle around the outside for easier entrances. I'm blocked out of one door because it requires body to enter. Another door requires technical ability. I open it up and peak in to see a camera in the room. I quickly disable it.
Then I jump into the camera system through that camera. I cycle through all the cameras, making sure I've tagged every goon I can find. If any cameras are within sight of each other I turn them off.
A security room is on the first floor near the entrance I found. My objective is on the second floor. I make my way to the security room, there is a goon inside, but his back is to the door. I sneak and do a stealth takedown of the goon. I have access to the computer terminal with all the security cameras. I make sure all the security cameras are shut down.
If there is a loose goon walking around that isn't covered by other goon's field of vision I'll try and do a stealth take down and stash the body either in the security room or outside the club.
I'll make my way upstairs. Sometimes there is a separate security system for the second floor, so I need to be checking the walls for additional security cameras.
The final room with my objective has two goons in it. They are talking with each other. One camera in the room that I already shutdown from the lower floor security room. I hack the camera to distract the two goons. They turn towards the camera, one is in front of the other one. The one in front I audio hack while I shoot the one in the back in the head. Then I move in and do a stealth takedown.
At this point if I have an objective for a stealth exit I'll run outside the club to get the stealth award. And then I'll turn back around, go back into the club and start a gun fight with the goons. Gunning them all down and stealing their valuable gear. I'll try to start the gunning down stealthily with a silenced pistol, but I rarely kill more than a few goons before they all hear me and it turns into a real gun fight.
cjet79
1yr ago
Videos where people make things. There is a fun channel where a guy makes really sharp knives out of random materials. There are lots of wood spinning channels. They put a big lump of wood on a spinner and just carve away. Sometimes they'll add resin or other stuff to fill in gaps. Mark Rober makes interesting and silly gadgets.
Videos where people shoot or blow up thing, usually in slow motion. Explosions are cool yo. Kentucky ballistics.
cjet79
1yr ago
Yeah the implied time pressure annoyed me, once I realized it was only implied I completely dropped the main story campaign and have been having fun doing side missions.
It is a weird thing in open world games. There has to be a main quest line. But it is so common for me to enjoy side storylines way more. I've played many open world games where I basically treat the main storyline as one of the last interesting side quests I can find. I was playing hogwarts legacy a few weeks ago, and it was the same. The main storyline was good, but I still had more fun just putzing around and exploring stuff. The Bethesda games are notorious for boring main storylines.
cjet79
1yr ago
I've been playing cyberpunk 2077. Fun game, has been sucking up my time. Only downside is that I went in with a particular playstyle that I enjoy from shooters, and its sometimes been hard to get the cyberpunk leveling to play well with my preferred playstyle. I ended up having a "cool" based character that absolutely murders with a silenced pistol. Cyberneticed like crazy, and hacks my way through things.
I'm also going to go see Bert Kreischer's standup tour soon. Very excited for that.
cjet79
1yr ago
his role in normalizing relations with China
I'm sort of confused about exactly what this means. I'll admit my knowledge of history for this era is very weak, but I'm still genuinely confused about this sort of statement.
Some assumptions I have:
- China had nukes
- "normalize" means to not be on a war footing against them, or maybe even be trading with them.
- China was poor
- China's military was unimpressive for offensive purposes, but defensively could bury an attacker in bodies
- China was mostly internationally isolated. They were just coming out of their shell. Russia was the main Empire force in Asia.
This leads me to believe that:
- No possible war between the US and China could ever be beneficial for either country. They'd nuke each other. If they didn't use nukes, either side would lose an offensive war and win a defensive war against the other one.
- China had lots to gain from trade with the US, because more wealth.
- The US had lots to gain from china, because raw resources and more consumers.
- China couldn't afford an empire back then.
Therefore it was in both countries best interest to have a "normalized" relationship. The fact that they didn't have a normalized relationship was probably a result of internal politics on the part of one or both countries. If it was internal politics, do you get to call yourself an impressive diplomat for getting two countries to not be dumb about their foreign policy towards each other? Maybe I am insufficiently cynical about the capabilities of state departments, but that seems like they were due for normalized relationships just due to changing circumstances.
cjet79
1yr ago
I had a good language teacher in highschool. She taught German with full immersion. People would come from all over the state to observe this amazing teaching method. I'm terrible at learning languages, but after 4 years I can kind of have basic conversations in German. My thinking at the time was "yeah of course this is the only way to actually learn the language".
What I hadn't spent those four years of German class doing was learning how to pass a test that verified my German speaking skills. So when I got to college and tried to test into a higher level German, I couldn't get past the entry level requirements. I would have had to entirely start over. My frustration at that led me to never take a language class in college.
cjet79
1yr ago
My guess is that person will remain unchanged by an epistemics class.
And the people that might benefit from an epistemics class will hate the subject and think it is dumb, because the way it will end up being taught will be dumb. They won't be learning how to think. They'll learn the major philosophers in epistemics, they'll memorize some vocab words, and they'll do a few story puzzles.
cjet79
1yr ago
Bryan Caplan has a book on education, one of the things he found going through the research is that "transfer of learning" is very low. Like learning Latin does not help most students learn a Latin derived language.
Students tend to learn the thing for the test then quickly forget it.
The idea of teaching epistemics sounds nice, but I don't think it would have much practical effect.
cjet79
1yr ago
Normally that is something that I would include. I'm away from my computer, right now because it's Thanksgiving, and busy hanging out with family. It is more time intensive to construct those lists on mobile.
cjet79
1yr ago
They are not a great contributor. They have a history of low effort posting.
cjet79
1yr ago
The user had twelve warnings and temp bans in their mod history. I didn't even add my most recent one.
This is not a stellar user that drunk posted once on holidays. It's a crap user that also posted drunk on holidays.
My willingness to compile a list of bad posts during a holiday is low.
Does anyone perform cultural and free speech benchmarks on AIs? That is all I'm really interested in.
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