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desolation

You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart

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joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC 

				
User ID: 1157


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
desolation


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
You shall love your crooked neighbor, with your crooked heart

				
				
				

				

					2 followers  

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					joined 2022 September 12 12:41:49 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1157


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 21, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


he writes another essay saying pretty clearly that, okay, nothing has changed, lots of young men are still unhappy, but ultimately he likes the system the way it is and thinks it would be inhuman to change it.




Which essay is that?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 21, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the pigheaded blinders he puts on when defending his actual ingroup and beliefs. (EA




There was a little glimmer of something interesting in the WWOTF review where he allowed himself to be an outsider for a little while, and then the blinders clamped back into place. Sad!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 21, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


establishing a career




Ehh... he shut down the old blog because of his old career, and then his main income became writing, he got an undisclosed (?) but presumably cushy windfall from Substack on the reputation of writing the occasional banger.


Totally agreed with you otherwise, none of this is surprising and I'm glad he hasn't gone an even more obnoxious failure mode (of which there are many; boring is a mild sin), but I would've expected the career change to incentivize recapturing the old spark, not give up on it completely.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In my experience, there's an overlap in the Venn diagram of both indicates a certain kind of contrarian anti-woke type. The non-overlapping section for al-Awlaki would be anti-war leftists, and for Timpa more Online Right.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
From the right, I find reveling in violence, particularly for Outgroup reasons, off-putting. Bodycams are a useful tool, but treating the footage as entertainment isn't healthy.


From the left, I find such clear rejection of reality disturbing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Was there a pivot after BLM?




Yeah, bodycams got a boost as one of the top 10 recommendations of Campaign Zero. On their archived website you can find that they've changed their mind because it doesn't reduce use of force (indeed, it tends to justify it) and mention that they previously tracked it as a positive move, but it's not mentioned at all on the new website.


The popularity of bodycam footage on the right is directly correlated to the turn against it on the left. Both are, frankly, gross.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Anwar al-Awlaki is sort of a foreign affairs Tony Timpa; it's a bit of a tribal indicator to bring him up or even be aware of the case.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


bodycams




The about-face on that one has been darkly humorous.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


liberals included, wants illegal criminal gang members deported.




They coerced the sitting president to apologize for referring to a murderer as "illegal." It's not at all clear they want anyone, no matter how violent, deported, and they certainly don't want them called illegal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There are extremely few of them.




~700, which is roughly the same number as US district judges.


Taking the number of illegal immigrants as 8 million (no clue if this is accurate, but I've seen it tossed around a lot recently so just using it for ballpark math), assuming a one-hour hearing for each (longer than I think they usually get but let's be generous with "due process"), standard 8 hour work days, to process them in a single year would take 3000-3500 additional immigration judges, making them the largest group of federal judges by a huge margin if I'm reading the other numbers right.


Annual salary averages somewhere north of 150K, but using that for this lazy math would put this Immigration Judge Year at $450M in salaries. Not a crazy amount looking at DOJ's budget and other program expenses.


Obviously lots of other expenses, hiring them for a single year is a bit absurd, etc etc. Just thought it would be interesting to put some numbers to what a useful increase would look like.




You can deport people without paying to have them imprisoned.




If some country will take them for free. We don't have extra Australias laying around anymore.


Paying other countries to take them without strict imprisonment is also an option that seems to work somewhat for, ha, Australia.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Didn't Trump 2024 get more of the minority vote, particularly the Hispanic vote, than any Republican candidate in 20+ years?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


make a valid an asylum claim in the US: Legitimate fear of persecution in your home country and the US being the first safe country you enter, following that threat.




He has legitimate fear of persecution in the US. Canada, or any country that wants to mock the US, could be rolling out the red carpet for him and his family and paying for Buekele to put him on a plane.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Perhaps the people you know are entirely sincere! Does that mean everyone is? On the other hand, "most people are ideologically-possessed hypocrites" isn't a particularly novel, charitable, or enlightening take.




I also don't know anyone who was laughing at people being locked up over Covid




HermanCainAward has almost 500K subscribers. You might not know people that laughed over that kind of thing, but it wasn't some vanishingly rare attitude, and that's a particularly ghoulish example. Surely less disgusting examples would have proportionally more adherents.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Scott: Come On, Obviously The Purpose Of A System Is Not What It Does
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That links are visible through the spoiler tags makes posts like this particularly fun, a little thrill of anticipation before seeing the context for the unredacted phrases.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Scott: Come On, Obviously The Purpose Of A System Is Not What It Does
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Doesn't everyone around here have commemorative Scott Alexander effigy necklaces that spout catchphrases at pseudorandom intervals?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's not exactly the rewriting that generates the resentment, it's the constant failure. And the goal-post shifting, accusations of nutpicking when you're referring to godforsaken New York Times bestsellers and columnists... It's the exhaustion that generates resentment, not the trying. It's




wouldn't do the same in reverse.




that, giving what you will never get back, over and over and over. I don't know how you do it, but I'm glad you keep on trying.


Anyways. Thank you for the food for thought.




I've been here and back when we were on Reddit for years, and I don't think I have ever even picked up a mod warning let alone a ban.




My only ban in a Mottespace was a boo outgroup joke back when we were still SSC, which was understandable but irritating because much worse went unmoderated, but my last ban elsewhere was for calling someone a bigot for making grossly bigoted statements about Appalachia. I don't regret that, and it rather made me dislike the moderation of that space, who was supposedly inspired by The Motte's rules.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There is no Emperor Of Medicine that can credibly make that kind of commitment.




For a few years Fauci was as close as anyone has ever been to being such a singular figure of The Medical Establishment, but he clearly had no interest in acknowledging the failures and making any sort of credible apology.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Portugal had some promising early results and we saw signs of harm that the war on drugs was causing.




Singapore has excellent results on controlling drug usage by beating or executing people, but we didn't try that route.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


We are all unusual here in one way or another.




Well, yes, we're also more-or-less a closed ecosystem at this point.




"writing as if everyone else is reading and we want them to be included."




I think that mission statement is good, it's the reasoning that irked me in the moment.


99.9% of the time, they don't want to be included, and  writing in such a way to appeal to them is debasing yourself for nothing exhausting and thankless. No amount of hedging and rephrasing and begging can overcome those gulfs, and it serves as fuel for resentment. I'm not trying to deny that goal, just shift the angle on it slightly.


We should write in ways that do not feed the wolf of anger, as the old parable goes. We should write such that others are not explicitly excluded. But there's no way to avoid all the possible tripwires.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They aren't thinking first and foremost how do I write this in a way a progressive gay librarian (for example!) would want to engage with.




Several years experience and the fact we're on our... third? fourth? retreat location is indicative that there are, in fact, absolutely zero ways to write complaints in a way a progressive gay librarian would want to engage with. The door is shut, the conversation is closed, the person who objects to the librarian's choices has been locked in the cultural closet.


This is of course not to suggest that violent, vehement vichyssoise of verbiage is a valid or vigorous variant. Verily, we must vanquish such venal vexations, those vestiges of vanity!


And yet! You can't make them listen, and out here in this hive of scum and villainy there's so many invisible dog fences that they won't even enter the same state, much less zip code or conversation. There is no degree of openness or obsequiousness so extreme that would invite their consideration.


Avoiding expressions of hatred for the sake of some impossible imaginary reader is a fool's errand and a waste of energy. Most people trying that will burn out and find themselves worse off than before. Doing so for the sake of not corrupting your own heart, now there's an idea worth considering.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A comment that I haven't seen brought up much anywhere is that the Snow White remake is a musical. Most Disney movies have lots of songs, but I wouldn't call, say, Aladdin a musical in the way the new Snow White is. It feels like the screen version of decent, not great, stage adaptation of the story.


Also tonally inconsistent, the writers couldn't come to terms with what degree they were playing it straight, comedic, deconstructing, etc. "Princess Problems" reminded me of something like Galavant that was intended as both send-up of tropes and an appreciative homage to the genre, but that tone wasn't consistent. The closing clap and stomp felt out of date but maybe that's my own tiredness with Mumford being in the past.


The queen's death? They just did that in Wish! Enough with the people getting sucked into magic mirrors.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I assumed it was discussed here but maybe not! @Alabasata


Mungo Maniac on twitter has written a lot about it, and here's a brief Spectator article on the topic. His namesake, Mungo Man, seems to have been reburied back in 2022, but last week another 100+ fossils many of which were around 40K years old were reburied at an undisclosed location in the outback, in deference to Aboriginal control of the fossils and so that they couldn't be studied.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 28, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I don't actually know what you do




Neither do I, anymore. Well, I do know, it's just boring and I'm grouchy about it. My career isn't research involved these days, and given everything the stability of sticking around is preferable to the risk of finding something more satisfying. I do miss those days and Perplexity would've been a godsend back in the day, I'm sure. Might look into it just for fun and to scratch the old itch of wanting to learn more again. That skill has grown stagnant and contributed to other issues.




then I was blown away when it instructed me to go take a picture of both sides of my crank/cassette so it could be certain what we were ordering would fit.




Dang! The paid version, I assume? Starting to wonder if it'll be worth the cost just to help with some minor repairs around the house.




it just regurgitates reviews I could read myself or tells me every garbage idea I have is phenomenal.




Yeah, I've definitely picked up the chat function not being particularly creative and being obsequious unless you run into one of the walls. I've tried refining some creative writing ideas with it a couple months ago but wasn't impressed. As fast as things move it might be worth another shot.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Have you commented anywhere around here on the refugee and resistance goings-on in Ireland? Seeing ladies getting run roughshod by the police is a bit strange to this American.


Not meant to be a gotcha of any sort, just asking since your commentary on the UK tends to be thoughtful and much more charitable than I'll see anywhere else. Not around as much as I used to be and figured I'd missed it if it's come up.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Even if anthropology is 99% leftist, well, the institutions belong to those who show up, so right wingers just need to get in there and fix it themselves




A darkly amusing choice of subject considering the destruction of all (?) known ancient hominid fossils in Australia over the past couple weeks. His point isn't wrong, exactly, but I continue to think he underestimates the "long march" aspect and just how long showing up will take. Spending 30 years to get back into the institutions is not a plan for saving fossils that will be gone in a few months or a year at most.


As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second best is now. We should be planting trees now, but (to extend the metaphor) stopping people from salting the ground is also useful.