firmamenti
2yr ago
I’m saying that constantly referring to them as “the invaders” instead of The Russians is performative.
Ukraine is prey now and their “resistance” to Russia’s invasion is going to lose them their nation, not keep it.
As soon as Americans have had enough of Zelensky’s adventure, it’s going to be over and he’s going to be left with a generation of lost men, every western investment bank salivating at helping The Ukrainians rebuild, and a bunch of destroyed cities.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Actually Zelensky does need the support of the people funding his stupid war. It’s becoming a major issue in American politics, to the point where people are getting pretty annoyed with him.
Poland recently told him to pound sand, and compared him to a drowning person who is going to take anybody who tries to save him down with him.
Instead of playing war hero, complete with his idiotic green costume her wears all the time, and constantly referring to Russians as “invaders” like some sort of marvel movie speech, Zelensky should be negotiating a truce, or laying out reasonable pathways to ending the war, not making absurd claims like that he, who has been losing his war, is going to push Russia completely out of the LPR and DPR (areas occupied by Russians since long before Putin invaded), and somehow retake Crimea.
The whole thing is absurd. It’s a ridiculous, nationally suicidal vanity project by a former television actor, and an American president who seems to be looking for a surrogate to fulfill the fantasy version of his dead son.
firmamenti
2yr ago
My wife and I recently binged this show and absolutely loved it. Hugh Laurie is a treasure.
We had similar feelings to what you have articulated here. Also: this show is where I learned that “gypped” was a derogatory reference to Gypsies. The later plots where the cop is trying to get house in trouble is very reminiscing of The Shield in that it portrays a Good Man who is willing to do Bad Things in service of Good and is surrounded by dumb fake good people trying to stop him.
Here’s some fun trivia: house’s motorcycle when first introduced is an Aprilia RSV Mille, but is later is Honda CBR 1000RR with a “repsol” graphics package. Both absolutely bad ass bikes.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I don’t know where you guys all live, but there is a near constant stream of modded cars, side by sides, and crotch rockets going by my house all the time.
It’s actually very annoying.
(I live near a university)
In summary:
The American Hot Rod Association gives an overly strict definition of hot rods which has been unwelcome to the newer generation of tuners. Due to factory cars being fast now, tuner culture has changed. The people still doing hot rods are getting old and dying off, and aren't interested in the types of things that have happened in response to this. They have chosen death over diversity.
My take:
Old hot rods are expensive AF, and like most cool things (hot rods and muscle cars are cool), the cost of them has gone to the moon. It's not that tuners are disinterested in...tuning, it's just that getting to the really high end is extremely expensive now. Still, having a car that will do 10 second quarter miles is seen as an extreme point of pride.
On top of this, most homes now either have a restrictive HOA, or an even more restrictive and powerful set of city "ordinances" which prohibit things like a teenager and his friends swapping an engine in their driveway. It's become de facto illegal in most places[1] to tune cars unless you can afford an enclosed workshop to do it in.
[1]: Obviously California is an exception to this rule where they have all but made it literally illegal to modify any aspect of you car and may or may not just impound it if you do: https://old.reddit.com/r/ElantraN/comments/11iks8c/final_most_likely_update_4_loud_exhaust_and_smog/
firmamenti
2yr ago
I am commenting on the Vice article, as well as the more general culture war climate where failed attempts at courting women are treated as some form of sexual impropriety.
Also you and the other person that commented something similar: you are both apparently falling into "wait, which side of the culture ware is firmamenti on here? Who is he accusing of being a wokie?" - this is bad form. I would highly encourage you to try to get yourself out of that framing.
So the charge is that he, an adult man, tried to convince adult women to engage in consensual sex with him?
I’m getting sick of this thing where every shot a guy takes which doesn’t land is somehow seen as a sexual assault. Do people realize that women have agency as well, and also engage in these sorts of fantasy? “Oh no I guess I have to sleep in this bed with this big strong man who is out here saving the children for the sake of the mission” is the plot of like 90% of female targeted erotica. “We had to shower together to convince the cartel that we were married” sounds like it was literally written by a female erotica writer.
Human adults have sex with each other. Sometimes there is a period of courtship. Sometimes, and in fact just due to pure statistical reality, most times that courtship fails.
That is not a scandal.
The scandal is that these people just cannot understand that the scandal is the fact that adults want to engage in sexual activity with CHILDREN.
Go to a drag show? No problem. You do you.
Go to a drag show, with children? Problem.
Engage in a gender fetish? No problem. You do you.
Engage in a gender fetish with children? Problem.
Make erotic literature? No problem. You do you.
Make erotic literature for children? Problem.
The scandal is that these maybe actual pedophiles don’t understand the demarcation between “sexual activity among consenting adults” and “sexual activity with children.”
firmamenti
2yr ago
The fact that Gavin Newsome is even considering a presidential run and that there are people who think this is a good idea is a massive black pill for me.
California has got a practically divine set of advantages:
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Some of the best geography in the world. Temperate climate, massive mountains which create plenty of fresh water for both the coastal cities as well as the extremely fertile central valley.
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A massive coastline
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The 20th century saw Entertainment and tech, some of the most lucrative industries in our country, base themselves in California.
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Not much in the way of natural disasters. Some earthquakes and wildfires, but the wildfires are arguably California's fault, and the earthquakes dont' seem to be much of a problem for a 21st century city.
Despite having the money for it, the desire for it, and near total control of the government meaning free rein with the funding to pursue basically any policy they want, California feels like a failing civilization. Californians and the politicians they elect have squandered the biggest head start of anybody ever, and still instead of reflecting on their obvious failures of their ridiculous policies, they just keep doubling down.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Grey_(film)?useskin=vector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Grey?useskin=vector#Background_and_publication
50 Shades of gray was twilight fanfiction that become a very popular bookseries, followed by several financially successful movies.
While these things are in a different category than Succession or other prestige TV shows, I don't think the writers are striking to make the scripts better.
firmamenti
2yr ago
It is not possible to both hoard money and also give it to somebody else in exchange for goods and services.
I'm sorry for picking on this, but this particular thing is a pet peeve of mine. The idea that it is even possible to "hoard" money in any meaningful way is a fundamental misunderstanding of money. The only way I could think of accomplishing this would be to literally hold us paper currency in a vault. Nobody does that.
firmamenti
2yr ago
How does one hoard property?
By not letting others use it. Do you imagine the investors in GM are somehow both investing in GM but also not allowing other people to use their wealth?
firmamenti
2yr ago
A union is a way to force the C-Suite and investors to share some of the massive amounts of wealth
Isn't that supposed to work by developing a skill that the "C-Suite" wants? (The people making the most money on these companies, btw, are not the "c-suite", its' the investors who own the company)
that they hoard (and ultimately waste on trifles).
How does one "hoard" money?
firmamenti
2yr ago
it’s illegal
To an outside this seems absolutely insane.
I remember a job I did in NYC once building a stage for a music festival. It was something custom we had built at home in Texas at our shop, then shipped to NYC to assemble. When we got on site, it was explained that the venue had a contract with a union and we were required to use their workers. This means every cable that was plugged in had to be plugged in by a union electrician, every piece of stage had to be assembled by a union carpenter, etc. It was madness. I cannot overstate the uselessness of these people. Absolutely the laziest, stupidest people I have ever met, and who seemed to be constantly on break.
If these are the same types of people working in auto factories, then it doesn’t seem like any of the automakers would be at any loss to simply fire them all.
How long can the strike go on before the company is allowed to just fire everybody?
firmamenti
2yr ago
The United Auto Workers have gone on strike: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-auto-union-strike-three-detroit-three-factories-2023-09-15/
What happens if Ford and GM simply say: "okay, you're fired"? This seems to have quite a few benefits, mostly that they can get rid of union workers and remove the threat of another strike.
I'll admit that unions sortof confuse me. I didn't grow up around them and have always wondered the mechanism by which everybody gets to quit their job but then demand extra money to come back. Are the people running factory machines inside of Ford and GM (or starbucks, or a hollywood writers room) really that highly skilled?
It should be noted that Tesla is not unionized, and will not be a part of this strike. Do you guys think there is a chance that the government tries to force Tesla to stop making cars during the strike to make things more fair?
I'll be honest about my feelings towards unions: I don't get it at all, and I think I'm missing something. I do think that workers should have an adversarial relationship with their employer, but it seems to me like unions have all but destroyed the american auto industry. I think you'd be insane to not just fire anybody who joins a union on the spot. I don't get how places can "vote to unionize". Why does the employer not simply fire the people doing the organizing? Sure you can all vote to make a starbucks union, but...I just won't hire anybody in your union.
firmamenti
2yr ago
If God were the programmer of a simulation that you live in, how would it look different that the God we know?
firmamenti
2yr ago
I think “environmentalists” being anti nuclear is a perfect example of what OP is talking about.
They’re anti nuclear because that would actually fix the problem, and remove their source of meaning.
firmamenti
2yr ago
What is the culture war angle to this?
firmamenti
2yr ago
Regulatory creep. At some point we decided that if people were going to be driving these insane vehicles around mixed in with the public, then they should have some schooling and licensing.
The schooling degraded to the point of not accomplishing anything productive (like coding boot camps), but nobody is ever going to say we should give it up due to safetyism.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Indeed! At least thats what the Irish did.
Truck driving is not a skilled job. There’s this fantasy that it is, but it isn’t. 70 year olds routinely buy gigantic class A RVs and drive them all over the country pulling ridiculously sized trailers all the time.
People buy absolutely massive 5th wheel RVs all the time etc.
To give a charitable interpretation to what Pope Francis is doing at that "pagan ritual" (better Catholics here please correct me).
The Catholics basically believe that other religions of the world might be somewhat directionally correct, but imperfect. This is what allowed The Church to integrate so many "pagan" practices (like traditions around Christmas) into the religion, and was a major contributor to its spread. So a Catholic encountering some pagans in the 5th century or whatever might say "well, yes, I can see that you are trying to approach and understand God, but you haven't gotten in quite right. God revealed something to you here, maybe, but we've discovered or had revealed to us a lot more; you are in fact worshipping the same God, and there might be something useful here, but we're a lot further along in our understanding. You should convert to Catholicism and we'll share what we've learned with you."
Basically Pope Francis is watching this ceremony the way I might watch my child explain an idea about how to make a racecar. I'm happy that he's trying to think through the problem, and I don't want to discourage him, so I'll entertain it; but my actual hope is that someday he grows up.
I don't know I have my gripes with Pope Francis (leave the latin mass alone); him watching some native american dance thing is pretty low on the list.
As rhetorical practice: can you steelman the case people keep making to you? What are people asking for? What are their motivations?
I’m talking specifically about you getting all ass blasted and white knightey when I called a literal actual in real life whore who actually takes real money from real humans in exchange for her business of whoring a whore.
I’m not going to go dig up a link since it seems like you already do know what I’m talking about, and it seems there are other people who are critical of you for the same thing. Hey maybe we’re all experiencing some mass psychosis where we all hallucinate the exact same thing about the exact same person.
/r/cwr has been dying for like 3 years. You’re right links about the same people being not very cool is boring. Is that what you think people keep asking for over and over and over and over when they ask for a return of the BLR every couple of weeks for the last several years?
Here’s the thing: maybe YOU are so immersed in the culture war that this is all boring to you, but my suspicion is that for a large contingent of people, talking about this stuff is still interesting. Our society is at war with itself and yea the battles do keep happening. Sure you’re bored of it, but plenty of people aren’t and want to talk about it and are annoyed that you enforce poor writing skills in order to do so.
Sorry if this post is blunt, but it’s getting annoying having to retread these exaxt same things over and over where the community complains about poor modding and then you pretend you just have No IdEa what they could be talking about.
It’s the bizarre (tacitly, selectively enforced) rule the mods have about post length. Effort posts are great, but a lot what is happening here is becoming the sort of illusion of effort by making things 10x longer than they need to be.
Certain mods don’t even make an effort to hide their desire to enforce ideological or social adherence and use the implied thread of banning as a way of quenching discussion about things then don’t like.
It’s very sad to me. SSC CW roundup threads were good, and I understood why they were eventually moved to TheMotte. I also understand why themotte moved offsite. At this point it seems like the experiment has failed, though. There just doesn’t seem to be the sort of rich discussions here that used to happen, and I really do think it’s the mods putting out the sparks of those conversations because they either disagree with them, or because the poster hasn’t written some pointless chatGPT style fluffed up 8th grade level essay on the topic.
My suggestions
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Stop metaphorically resting your hand on your ban hammer because a post is “low effort”, when it is in fact just short.
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Mods looking out for their pet topics of internet friends should be a bannable offense.
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Bring back the BLR, or do a second weekly CWR thread that is for people who like more discussion; allow bare links there.
I get it. Putin is the bad guy. Russia is the bad guy.
But in the real world: Zelensky has no path to realistically expelling Russia from the land they want, short of dragging the rest of the world into WW3.
If you really want to game it out: Zelensky has every reason to try and escalate this conflict. His best option is to drag my children into a war so that he can take some land back from Russia. The problem is: I’m not willing to send my children to their death so that Zelensky can have a little bit more land in the northeast of Ukraine. I’m also not willing to risk an all out nuclear conflict so that Zelensky can have more land in northeastern Ukraine.
Lock Zelensky and Putin (the bad guy Russia is bad Russia invaded Ukraine Russia bad) in a room together and demand that they hammer out a peace deal. That IS going to result in Russia keeping some of the land they’ve taken. In exchange Ukraine gets to keep a couple of hundred thousand young men alive.
As far as what is a nation: The United States is a nation too. It is not in our vital national security interests to escalate a regional conflict to the point where we are sending our children to their death. If Zelensky wants to continue his national suicide then go for it, but I’m not funding it anymore, and if he succeeds in escalating it to WW3, no promises he doesn’t end up on the other side when the US has gamed out her interests.
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