fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
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User ID: 3415
I always find it mildly disconcerting when Americans (especially right wing Americans like the ones here), a people who's whole national mythos was "fuck the British, and fuck anyone else who tells us what to do" , who's contemporary culture is deeply shaped by concepts like "get the fuck off my lawn before I shoot you" and "fuck the government they shouldn't tell me what to do" go from that to:
"Erm, well actually it's fine when the immigration enforcement people break the ribs of a middle aged white man when he gets annoyed they're depriving him of access to his private property. If you didn't want the feds to hurt you, you should just let them do whatever they want to you and your things without question. Don't forget to tip!"
Like seriously one of the reasons the Dems are so lame is because they're pussies, the right is cool because they're not. But the second it's your team doing stupid shit you don't stand up, you hop in the cuck chair with a big smile on your face
Oh look this keeps happening:
https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
5mo ago
how is Afghanistan doing these days under the Taliban?
Tangentially related, and very funny, but the lads over there are discovering that it was way more fun to live life with an AK47 and a holy purpose than it is with a laptop and a rush hour commute.
https://time.com/6263906/taliban-afghanistan-office-work-quiet-quit/
“In the time of jihad, life was very simple. All we had to deal with was making plans for ta’aruz [attacks] against the enemy and for retreating,” said Huzaifa. “People didn’t expect much from us, and we had little responsibility towards them, whereas now if someone is hungry, he deems us directly responsible for that.”
“I sometimes miss the jihad life for all the good things it had,” said Nafi. “During jihad, you couldn’t have known the difference between a commander and a foot soldier like me.”
“What I don’t like about Kabul is its ever-increasing traffic holdups.” Omar Mansur, 32, said. ”These days, you have to go to the office before 8 AM and stay there till 4 PM. If you don’t go, you’re considered absent, and [the wage for] that day is cut from your salary.
Genuinely hilarious
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
5mo ago
I think your analysis is spot on
As someone who isn't a fan of Republicans, you love to see it!
fmac
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5mo ago
Thank you so much for the write up. Very interesting read.
Unfortunately for you, now I want more! I'm going to look into Xunzi. But I'd love to hear more about what your proposed model is.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
5mo ago
but I wouldn't rule out a midterm wipeout
Agreed with your post up until this point. They're apparently polling with worse margins than they were in 2018, and I'm pretty sure that "blue wave" ended up somewhat anemic versus expectations?
Americans are cranky at Trump, but the Dems are so ineffectual and weak-coded right now I'm not sure if they'll inspire much voting motivation in the median American. I see them doing better than 2024, but no way they accomplish a "wipeout".
One of my favorite internet comments I've ever read was something to the effect of
"The Republicans are the only party stupid/crazy enough for the Democrats to have a chance to beat, which makes it even funnier that the Democrats lose so much"
It's pretty evergreen, as I read it probably a decade ago, I think it'll hold true next year
fmac
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5mo ago
This was my immediate thought.
Are more diverse areas innovating more due to their diversity?
Or do innovative areas rock in general (hard to be innovative if you're malnourished, etc) and that attracts immigrants and innovation simultaneously?
fmac
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5mo ago
There's a huge sleight of hand in the US Christian culture, at least, where everyone's pretending they're not having sex when they actually are, and realizing that really pissed my wife off for years.
Why did that piss her off?
fmac
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5mo ago
I get the impression that our (romantic) lifestyle is likely pretty unpopular on this board, so the only additional detail I'll add is that we've both slept with way more people after getting married than before, usually the same people, always together.
While not for me, as I'm far too jealous and insecure for this lifestyle, I am always somewhat in awe of this.
Partially as I deeply respect your strong sense of self and self confidence to be fine with this, and partially because it is kind of a power move.
Props to you and your wife.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
5mo ago
Does COVID still happen in 2020?
Yes
Does Russia still invade Ukraine?
Very likely, maybe even sooner as Hilary feels pretty hawkish but I don't know enough White House-ology to know if that is true or if she'd accelerate Maidan type shit or make the CIA go even harder
What happens in Israel, we don't get the Abraham accords because we don't get Trump so we don't get desperate Hamas launching 10/7; but it's not like everyone would have just sat still in the meantime?
Genuinely no idea what her Israel policy stance is but I bet a 10/7 still happens as the underlying trends still hold. The USA'S foreign interests are somewhat party agnostic and also driven a lot by the "deep state"
I think a super interesting question is what happens with China. I know Obama (?) actually started the "pivot east" but one of Trump's greatest accomplishments is single handedly shifting the Overton window of the west to make "Holy fuck China is getting swole and this is not good" acceptable and not "muh racism"
I think by now it's probably all the same, but China gets a few more years of runway
fmac
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5mo ago
Oh man I've been wanting this to exist for so long
Funnily enough, now that I'm a ~decade or so older than when I first started daydreaming about "how fun would no rules roid-maxxing sports + cybernetic enhancements be", I now actually find the idea horrific.
I know the athletes would consent, and be paid quite well, etc. But the idea of twisting your body into some insane sports golem just feels wrong.
Getting older is lame, no fun allowed!
fmac
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5mo ago
I meant for the moment leading to nausea, lots of running and jumping
fmac
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5mo ago
I've been ripping battlefield 6. It's awesome
By far the best FPS engine I've ever played
Some really really bad balance and game design issues, but I'm confident they'll iron most of them out
I strongly recommend using the RPG to shoot down helis before they nerf it, it's ridiculously fun. I get one or two per game and it's addictive, it's more fun than shooting the people.
fmac
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5mo ago
Valheim? Might be too fast
The newer Diablo's have couch coop which suprised me. Even more surprising, it's implemented pretty well
fmac
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5mo ago
I'm a monarchist who thinks the "Founding Fathers" were vile traitors.
Alaskan monarchist? Yeah, I'm thinking based
So are you an Anglophile? How did you come about to becoming a monarchist?
fmac
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5mo ago
Thank you for putting my feelings into words better than I would have
fmac
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5mo ago
I mean you can measure productivity as "$ value produced/hour" which will tell you the productivity a chef. A more productive chef is either one who's skill allows them to charge obscene amounts for high quality food, or one who's ability to produce food is enhanced with machinery/capital goods. It's one of the reasons why restaurants keep getting more expensive, Baulmol's cost disease + not a lot of labour saving machines in the last 50 years.
Weirdly this implies a sous chef at fancy restaurant is way more productive than a McDonald's worker at a busy location, who probably processes an order of magnitude more calories than they do. But that's just what happens when a society is this efficient at producing carrots, shoes, etc.
I think your job is the same. It's productive because it's valuable enough to pay for. People take money they could have spent on carrots or shoes and instead give it to your company. Clearly it's valuable to them.
Western economies are built on services now, they're definitely productive.
fmac
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5mo ago
We're this wealthy because we keep choosing to "work the same amount and increase quality of life" instead of "maintain quality of life and work less" every time there is a productivity increase due to technology/capital goods
fmac
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5mo ago
That's fair
It was a legitimate attempt, just a horribly executed one.
It definitely makes it funnier to play it down to contrast the CIA coups vs "Gen X morons walking around and dying of heart attacks". But that was biased.
The meltdowns still hilarious though.
fmac
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5mo ago
lol I guess I should have qualified.
I assume teams yellow status is just the default. I'm so desensitized to its existence.
I had in mind call center tier metrics and associated oversight and punishment for not hitting metrics or having too much idle time, etc
fmac
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5mo ago
feels terrible to actually live/think that way
Yeah this is true. It's not spiritually pure, that's for sure. Although it is also somewhat emotionally satisfying, humans love a tit for tat.
fmac
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5mo ago
We need to get a "fmab" account going and then we can be the three fmaX musketeers
fmac
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5mo ago
This might not work in larger company's that actually monitor mouse movements/keystrokes per hour or something.
If you have literally any prospects in your respective labour market you should immediately leave any jobs that do this. What a fucking nightmare.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
5mo ago
Back in the day, I had a very lax job. I would click on my desktop, so no icons were selected, and put something heavy on my spacebar. This has worked on 3/3 of corporate laptops I've used.
You can also open a word/TXT file and do this, if for some reason the desktop doesn't work. But after a few hours it'll get really laggy.
These days, I work at a busier job with co-workers who don't seem to give a shit if I'm online or not, as long as things get done on time and I'm responsive to messages. This is infinitely better than the job where I worked 2 hours a day, but couldn't leave my apartment in case someone messaged me so I just played civilization for the other 6 hours but without being able to properly relax.
I thought that would be the life but it was awful, although I'm a neurotic striver so in retrospect, no shit.
https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will
170 citizens detained and counting
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