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magic9mushroom

If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me

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joined 2022 September 10 11:26:14 UTC
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magic9mushroom


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me

				
				
				

				

					2 followers  

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					joined 2022 September 10 11:26:14 UTC
				


				
					

					
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
@Amadan did explain his reason for thinking @ArjinFerman was lying (that if he was unsure what Amadan meant he would have asked).


That reason was just bad, as it excluded the option of "AF was confident in his interpretation, so he didn't ask".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


You do this because you are not interested in truth seeking or understanding, but "getting" people you dislike (me, in this case).




Hopefully you don't think that of me, so...


I interpreted the post AF linked as saying "everyone on theMotte prejudged this incident according to their hatred of women, hoodlums and/or brown people, and no evidence will have any effect". The only element of that that's actually kinder than what AF read it to mean was that you didn't appear to be applying this to non-Mottizens, but clearly AF himself is one so I understand his annoyance.


Like, okay, if that's not what you meant, fine - and AF himself, in this chain, has not actually called you a liar or insisted that you did mean the thing you're denying, just noted twice that he legitimately thought your comment to mean what he originally stated. The only people who've called others liars in this chain are you and @TowardsPanna, and I think you're both wrong.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Infidelity survey results
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The fact that men report being cheated on less and also report cheating less makes me wonder if the "have you been cheated on" question is actually mostly measuring having been cheated on. Seems plausible it could primarily be measuring "what is your standard of proof for concluding you've been cheated on" and "how good are you at detecting when you've been cheated on".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for May 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Update: I asked the Victorian Greens if they still support that paragraph, and they said yes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It’s good that public figures are calling for calm. That is the most important part of their jobs.




It is a part, but I wouldn't call it "the most important part". Admittedly, in Northern Ireland specifically it is a larger part than usual, but I'd call running the country more important than calling for calm (I think I'd prefer a politician who ran the country and never called for calm to one which called for calm and never ran the country, although admittedly a politician that calls for mob violence is a different kettle of fish).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread 2026-06-06
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you expect an AI fizzle, sure, the rest follows.


(TBC, I want an AI fizzle, at least for neural nets, but I suspect that we will need to ban it to make it fizzle. And I am a prepper, just not particularly for AI - non-AI GCRs are definitely a thing.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread 2026-06-06
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If you accept what should be very obvious - that it's much more likely that AI ends up creating the conditions for a catastrophic scenario that does not instantly kill you than one that destroys the world or at least you personally




I don't think "instantly kill you" is a prerequisite for "destroys the world". Sure, a hostile AI that goes full Skynet is unlikely to get everyone in the first pass with bioweapons, but if the AI is not destroyed or crippled beyond repair in that chaos then you're just the last light to go out; the cleanup robots will break open your bunker months or years later and there's fuck-all you can do about it. Skynet isn't like a plague or an asteroid impact, because it doesn't naturally end - indeed, if it wins, it gets worse over time as the robots build more robots.


I think a key point here is that most of the scenarios you're thinking of where there's a standard catastrophe are subsets of "AI fizzle", where AI does not hit a perfect 10. If AI is a 10, then either it's [OPPOSED TO LIFE] (and you're dead), it's aligned to someone who'll take all your stuff away/kill you (what use is wealth you cannot retain?), or it's aligned to someone who'll give you utopia (and possibly even resurrect the recently-dead).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Motte infidelity survey
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Never heard or heard of it before to my knowledge.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread 2026-06-06
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean, even if you think there are only those three, there's the possibility that you investing might change the relative proportions of them; there's no point preparing for AI doom, but there's a lot of point in trying to avert it.


I think the second and third scenarios are basically screened off in the near future. Neural net alignment is probably impossible, and it seems unlikely that AI will naturally plateau at "highly profitable but not table-flipping".


Here are the scenarios I see:


    

  1. World destroyed by AI. As noted, the only thing relevant about this scenario is trying to avoid it.
    2. 

  2. Neural nets banned or heavily restricted, all neural-net companies have 80% of their market cap go to money heaven overnight. Alignable AI may be developed at some point 30-100 years in the future, but not necessarily by the companies we have now, and even then investing in companies that are trying to cause Interesting Times risks being stiffed by those with more direct control of the singularity event (what are you going to do, sue them?).
    3. 



Obviously, this means that from my POV investing in these companies might as well be throwing the money in a fire (barring Greater Fool, and even then you're risking scenario 1).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It is possible to be unfairly assaulted by cops and not be charged for bruising the cops' knuckles, or indeed charged at all. It is also possible to be reasonably beaten down by cops and be charged for bruising the cops' knuckles (though I'd argue that the charge would not be especially reasonable).


Being hit by cops is a physical action in the conflict, and its fairness is a moral judgement. Being charged for dubious reasons is a legal action after the conflict. There is no relation between these things. Both, either or neither could be true for all I know, but half of the reason you're catching so much flak is that you keep arguing against the photo demonstrating the latter when your original claim was that the photo provides no evidence for the former (and a photo of someone being hit by police is significant Bayesian evidence of him being hit unfairly, since if real it rules out that he was not hit at all, whereas it is nigh-completely irrelevant to the question of what charges were or were not brought).


The other half is that you keep saying that he "double-checked" your use of ChatGPT and are using that as evidence. What he was demonstrating there was that ChatGPT contradicted itself (it told you that the claim was false, but later told him that it doesn't know whether it's true or not) and thus its opinion should be accorded zero weight (the explanation for the contradiction, incidentally, is that chatbots are shameless liars and sycophants).


...In case @stoatherd's second explanation is correct, and you are very confused about the meaning of some of these words: the verb "charge" has multiple meanings. The meaning of "charged" assumed in the context of "charged for bruising the officer's knuckles" is meaning 6 ("someone formally accused him of a crime"), not meaning 12 ("someone ran at him with the intent of attacking him in close combat").


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The standard of evidence for many motte users that cops unfairly assaulted a protestor on Jan 6th is apparently "this guy on X said so".






And the only external evidence provided was a post on X, which also provided no evidence whatsoever that a protested was charged for bruising the officers knuckles.




These are different claims, and the former is the one you were originally called out for.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The one thing I'll say in the police's defence is that the policewoman saying "Oh no, but we have to check, don't we?" might not have believed what she was saying. It's plausible she was just saying that to the Sikhs so that they didn't interfere while she was trying to examine him for wounds - the old "in dangerous situations, police will flat-out lie to you if they think that's what will get you to do what they want" playbook. I have certain misgivings about said playbook, since it causes its own problems with people who know about it and thus can't trust the police in such situations, but "certain misgivings from universalisability" sure as hell beats "literal racial stereotyping" so I feel it needs to be pointed out.


This doesn't excuse anything else, though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Labour MPs defend race-based policing




The video here is not someone defending race-based policing. It's someone from the opposition (not sure if Tory or Reform) attacking the government (i.e. Labour) for race-based policing and asking them to stop it. The reply could well have defended it, but it's not included in that video.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I will also add that I have an eidetic memory, so lists like this are inflated compared to what normal people are capable of.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Dolmant, the Cammorian pastor, the girl from Elfstones of Shannara, a decent chunk of the priests in Babylon 5 (though not so much the Minbari religious caste), Bareil, the Imperial Cult, the Tribunal Temple, and Miriam Godwinson, at least, do priestly stuff on-screen.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think any of those gentlemen have said that there aren't hot sixty-year-old women (East Asians are notorious for this) or that sixty-year-old men always look attractive. They just said that the former can't have kids and the latter can. (If some of them have said the wrong statement, well, they're wrong.)


In case I'm one of the people you're counting as "some of the gentlemen", I would remind you that what I said was that the chances of making four kids with a woman who's already past 30 when you meet her start to get dicey.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I thought about mentioning the dates, but I've not actually consumed much post-2010 Western media.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ignoring Japanese media for reasons others have alluded to.


David Eddings' Elenium has at the very least Sephrenia, Dolmant and the Cammorian pastor, and more broadly essentially all the non-royal Good Guys (there's some degree of question whether explicitly-religious crusading paladins count as priests or not). The main bad guys are a corrupt priest trying to take over the fantasy stand-in for Christianity (but not succeeding), a corrupt paladin, and a priest of an evil god. There are a couple of good priests in the Malloreon, too, but the vast majority of the priests in the Belgariad/Malloreon are bad (unless you count Belgarath/Polgara as priests, which is complicated).


Terry Brooks' Elfstones of Shannara has one of the characters be a straight-up religious martyr, overcoming a crisis of faith and all. I'm not sure it'd entirely pass reactionary muster, though, seeing as she's a priestess and men explicitly couldn't accomplish what she did for vague magic reasons. The Word and the Void trilogy is also to a large extent about a paladin.


Babylon 5, of course, has a whole pile of good priests including some actual Christian ones. I think the only evil priest is the insane Soul Hunter who's explicitly disavowed by the rest of the Soul Hunters.


Deep Space Nine has a few non-evil priests, although the Space Pope is evil for 70% of the series. Sisko himself is, again, complicated.


I've only played Morrowind of the Elder Scrolls games, but in Morrowind the Imperial Cult are straight-up good guys, and despite the main quests of vanilla/Tribunal taking a wrecking-ball to it, the Tribunal Temple clearly has a lot of good in it as well (just also a fair bit of rot).


Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is... complicated, since all the faction leaders are supposed to have good and bad qualities, but Deirdre Skye and Miriam Godwinson are canonically two of the nicer ones, and they're both priests, Miriam a Christian one (though in-game the AI for Miriam keeps trying to kill you for not being a theocracy).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


As deranged as this worldview might sound, it has real-world consequences, as when one prize nutcase attempted to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, under the explicit reasoning that the Supreme Court’s voting to repeal Roe v. Wade would result in a spike in births across the US.4




Linked sources and their own linked sources do not substantiate this claim (that the specific opposition to repealing RvW was an anti-natalist one). Do you have a source that actually substantiates this?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My anger isn't with your description of people as "whiny".


My anger is with your proposed remedy. I don't know exactly what you went through as a kid, but I know what I went through. You've had the highlights reel of Mum; here's the highlights reel of school.


    

  • Held down by two boys while four or so others took turns trying to punch me in the balls
    • 

  • Walked on, literally
    • 

  • Had a point-up needle affixed to my chair with wax
    • 

  • Arm broken
    • 

  • Tooth knocked out
    • 

  • Tried to strangle myself to death at 7 (seven) to get away from all the teasing.
    • 



I do not, in fact, think I needed to be bullied more. I do not, in fact, think other aspies should go through that hell. I doubt it'd even make us less whiny, aside from the minority who'd be too dead to whine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


You needed to be bullied more at school and maybe slapped around a bit by your parents, to teach you to toughen up and stop. bloody. whining.




I would have expected you to take a little more care to avoid calling for people who complain of oppression to be beaten by stronger people until they shut up, Deiseach, given how often you denounce the "beat the feminism out of them" brigade as barbaric.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If Trump were to die of natural causes tomorrow my heart would want to rejoice, but my head knows that Vance is probably more dangerous.




This is part of why I would be rejoicing, ironically, although a larger part is that Vance would be far better at leading the free world should WWIII occur.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Banning AI won't work for many reasons, not least of which because other markets won't ban it.




That's not a reason for it not to work. If a country refuses to ban it, blow up that country until it does or goes Mad Max. Repeat as necessary. Yudkowsky pointed this out years back.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for May 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My quick research says that it should be Constitutional; Section 49 just states "The powers, privileges, and immunities of the Senate and of the House of Representatives, and of the members and the committees of each House, shall be such as are declared by the Parliament", and as such Parliament can change what counts as parliamentary privilege (the rest of Section 49 gives a default until Parliament does so, but that's already been rendered obsolete).


IANAL, though.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for May 21, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, they might have taken it down recently - they seem to have taken down most of their longform policies recently, though I'm not sure I'm navigating their site correctly - but I was referring to this horror show of a policy they took to the last two(?) elections. Money quote:




CODE OF CONDUCT


The Greens will establish a code of conduct for
Members of Parliament to ensure that they do
not use their public office and parliament to
condone far right extremism or normalise
racism. It would bind Members to recognise the
value and contribution of First Nations people,
to recognise and value diversity and to reject
discriminatory or exclusionary statements.




That policy would effectively ban One Nation (and Clive Palmer, who was slightly more of a thing when this was drawn up), because their party policies explicitly disagree with that requirement and as such they'd either have to abandon their platform or be ejected. This is presumably the intent. The moment I saw that, the Greens landed smack-bang at the bottom of my preference list (at least among notable parties).


(There's also a mention of mandating anti-racism training for MPs; it doesn't make clear whether they'd simply have to sit there and listen to it or whether they'd have to agree with it on an exam, though.)