fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
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User ID: 3415
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
How do you rate scenario 2 as more likely than scenario 1???
The IDF is one of the most formidable militaries on planet earth, who's primary opponents (Arabs) have one of the worst track records of modern warfighting and who's societies/institutions make them absolutely AWFUL at it.
How on earth do you imagine Israel (who also has nukes) losing?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
wokeism is not identical with Marxism
I find these arguments nonsensical.
The Jordan Peterson-esqe "cultural Marxism" shibboleth is genuinely gibberish.
What on earth does grievance politics have to do with redistributing the means of production so that the workers capture more of the surplus value of the product of their labour? How do you do that with "culture" at all?
It's literally just "I 'ate communism, I 'ate wokism, refer to 'em interchangeably, simple as"
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
"have you asked AI" is the 2025 equivalent of "let me Google that for you"
Yes, but also if you're asking questions the computer can easily answer, maybe you should be doing this first?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Because the thing it's replacing, Google search, also doesn't have this feature and has been SEO-sloppified since like ~2020?
How many of your searches do you basically have to include "Reddit" on in order to get a half decent response? Basically any search involving recipes or product recommendations is pure SEO-slop article garbage at this point.
The amount of times I opened a website just to realize it was literally a copy/paste of the previous search result I had just been reading is obscene
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Patiently waiting for Scott's next prediction project, "teleportation with complimentary blowjobs 2027"
Pretty excited, should we start a Metaculus prediction market?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
I never ask AI anything factual at this point without enabling "search" and checking the source for whatever load-bearing point of evidence I'm looking for
It's not as fast as "type question, read answer" but it's still faster than the best alternative, Google and read 2-4 sources of potentially slop / not your exact question
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
my options are to live with it or get a new job
Unless the two of you have an excellent relationship built on truth telling and open feedback, yes
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Why do you assume I'm advocating for more homes for poor people when I'm advocating for more market rate housing for everyone else besides them
You'll notice I didn't mention "affordable housing" or "community housing" or anything of the sort, and I am in fact against mandating that certain % of developments are "affordable housing" as it's a really stupid policy
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Yes they can
Source: I live in downtown Toronto very close to three grocery stores only marginally smaller than the suburban ones
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Where on earth do you live that's somehow walkable but also has literally exactly one grocery store?
Walkability is enabled by density and density by definition means there's lots of stuff around, I am within 4 city blocks of 3 (soon 4) big box grocery stores, at least 3 fruit markets, and if you expand that radius to a ~15 minute walk you can add at least 2 more big box stores and 2 entire neighborhoods of places defined by their vibrant collection of grocers and other food stores.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
I literally live across the street from a large grocery store in the densest part of one of North America's biggest cities and the only time I go more than once a week is when I forget something, in which case, it's really nice it's right there...
I genuinely don't know what windmill you're tilting at right now
"You'll live in the pod, eat the bug, and only shop at cornerstores that don't have all the groceries you'd like to buy in one trip" isn't a WEF conspiracy lol
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
I mean, what country can you point to where lots of citizens choose public transportation over automobiles for non-economic reasons?
NYC, Toronto, Japan, Germany, London, presumably some tier-1 Chinese cities like Shenzhen or Shanghai, Hong Kong/Singapore(maybe?)
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Tokyo is crowded and living there seems pretty cool
NYC is extremely crowded and I am strongly considering moving there
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
the shopping centers nearby are so crowded
Just build more shopping centers??? Seems like an easy solution
What bothers me about angry "I hate that things changed" posts like this is that it's based on a belief/argument that the status quo was fine, which it was not.
The status quo in this case is 1) ever worsening traffic as population scales via horizontal expansion, but road network capacity does not 2) a perpetual increase in housing prices causing the following (but not limited to): lower birth rates, higher homelessness + higher crime as a result, a general erosion of the Western social contract, lower economic growth from the friction of moving, higher property taxes due to less economies of scale, and more!
If you're going to oppose building, you need to propose a different solution to the status quo, which again, ISN'T WORKING
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
Sounds like they should build higher capacity transit like LRTs to places people would like to travel, and also further encourage mixed use and commerical construction around the new housing so people can easily access their needs in a way that doesn't generate significant additional traffic?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
What possible horrible side effects do you anticipate from building more places to live so they're cheaper and people have more choice and can move around more easily to places that suit their specific needs?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
one in seven or so Americans would entertain the possibility that a human being living today could be the antichrist
This is so insane
Explains so much about contemporary western society though
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
I own a goddamn OLED 4k HDR high refresh rate TV
Wait but why don't you use this
I also watch movies/TV on my phone when I'm anywhere that isn't my home (bus, airbnb without smart TV, driving to grocery store, whatever) but when I'm home the TV blows the phone out of the water. My girlfriend watches stuff on the iPad beside the TV and it makes me slightly crazy.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
He means six figures, because once you make 100+ it's "triple digit" because the trailing 000 is assumed
Making 75,000 would be "double digit" I guess because it's "75"
I've never seen that before, but if a friend asked my salary I would respond with "I make 95" not "I make 95,000" so it makes sense
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
I think it's all of the above, but is largely operationalized as a gut reaction/feeling versus a conscious choice. Person doesn't like thing, person chooses the "negative" option, whether that's a downvote, 1 star, or whatever. I think it's almost entirely a system 1 decision though.
It's also really funny because that behavior in endemic here as well. It's a very human reaction.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
I really enjoy getting downvoted on Reddit for doing the "CEO pay"/"# workers" = "incredibly small number"
It's always a good laugh
Another fun one is when people get shitty about airplane ticket prices, insist on how airlines are ripping them off and how "back in the day" flying was luxurious and nice.
Shockingly, pointing out 1) airlines are a cutthroat awful industry to be in with 3% net income margins (5% operating) which can be seen by them constantly getting bailed out, 2) "back in the day" airplane tickets were something like $10,000 in today dollars, and 3) if you want the "back in the day" experience, you can actually have a better version of it right now by flying first/business class results in screeching and downvotes.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
LOL
I actually didn't realize it was a different word. How fun(ny).
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1yr ago
The nominal tariff rate and the actual effective tariff rates are quite different though. It's an amazing slight of hand from Trump.
For example, the USA and Canada tariffs are nominally high (I think, I've stopped paying attention) but given the vast vast majority of goods traded between the USA and Canada fall under the USMCA trade agreement, there are actually very tariffs being applied to trade between the two countries.
Genuinely asking, who is the "they" in "they need to seize the means of cultural production"
Who are the cultural Marxists? Because the people Lobster Daddy hates have been in control of art, universities, etc for the back half of the 20th century and all of the 21st
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