netstack
Texas is freedom land
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User ID: 647
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Touch grass.
No, seriously. Unsubscribe from this guy. Take a step back from Eliezer-style doomscrolling and the Internet in general. You don’t have to literally go outside, but it helps.
If you have a hobby, delve into it. If not, get one. I have personally quite enjoyed learning the banjo. My girlfriend is allegedly writing the great American novel; I couldn’t say for sure, since she won’t let me read it.
Contrary to dril there is a difference between good things and bad things. Experiences matter. When yours come to an end, by Singularity or by the quiet repose that awaits us all, make sure yours have been good.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
I’m taking a diversity training today which opened with the following:
It’s diversity and inclusion, not diversity and isolation, yet the sad fact is that despite our best intentions, many of us feel excluded and alone at work.
A study conducted by behavioral scientists Carr and Reece found that a whopping 40% of us feel that sense of isolation on the job.
That means that despite the nearly $8B businesses typically spend each year on D&I training, nearly half of the employees still don’t feel like they belong.
Obviously, the architects of this particular training didn’t decide to “spend less on candles.” Nor did they pivot into a deep discussion of training efficacy and reform, which I would have found fascinating, but isn’t remotely relevant to my job. The rest of the training segment, instead, fumbles towards the idea that cultivating Belonging is the real goal.
A focus on diversity can only go so far if the next step is assimilation or exclusion.
Out of curiosity, I tried to track down the initial study. Carr and Reece wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review which included the 40% claim, citing a separate HBR article written by an Ernst & Young executive. In turn, that one pointed to an E&Y press release. Supposedly, there was a “Belonging Barometer” survey of 1,000 adults. The trail ends with a link-rotted press release and no sign of any peer review or data.
This doesn’t stop stop the training from embedding an E&Y video and otherwise parroting points from the articles. It concludes with a quiz and a cutesy certificate. If I go make fun of it with my coworkers over drinks, we can bond. Perhaps the company would consider its slice of that $8 billion to be well spent.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1yr ago
Does this remind you of anyone?
I am glad to hear the Governor call it desert -- it is desert -- it is pretty good desert.
It is good to be back again in Nevada and get a chance to see things again. It seems to me they look a lot better than they did a few years ago and as you know, your Government in Washington knows that this State is on the map which is something. Some administrations didn't know it was on the map. And, I have been very glad that your State administration, from your Governor down, work so well with all of us on the other side of the continent. We have had real cooperation from the State Government. We have not had any dissention or cross words, and when all of us decided things had to be done, they have been done.
You people know I am water conscious -- although not a strict prohibitionist --
When I was down on the Ohio River the other day I told them I would catch bigger fish than grew in Ohio, though I don't think I will get anything that tastes better to eat than Nevada trout -- the Senator gave me some Nevada trout for lunch -- it was delicious.
It is good to see you all and I hope to get back here again some day. I hope some day to come in an automobile and stay longer and get to know you better.
It is good to see you.
I elided the header, which specified that these were
People like to feel listened to. They like to feel part of a conversation, and be reminded that the person is a real human rather than an unfeeling automaton. The kind of performance which successfully conveys that humanity doesn't always translate so well to a recording or especially a transcript. In the 30s, FDR was winning over the populace with informal remarks and fireside chats. Today, a politician can still cultivate that relationship with his base. But every casual remark is a risk. It will be carefully catalogued, preserved in cheap and ubiquitous recordings, and mined for any advantage. When a detractor watches a 15-second clip on evening TV, there is no suspension of disbelief. None of the casualness with which we'd listen in person. It's not just "two screens." It's one team watching a screen, and one holding a conversation.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Jones spent years scapegoating these families. Claiming they lied, that their children were fine. He combed over footage of grieving parents pointing out “acting.” This was broadcast to an enormous and enthusiastic audience, some of whom proceeded to threaten these Deep State shills.
It was a clear case of “communicating to a third party false statements about a person that result in damage to that person's reputation,” or defamation. Whether or not you think the corresponding legal penalties are appropriate, he has no defense.
If people were pissing on the grave of my murdered son, threatening to dig up an “empty” coffin, I think I’d have objections to the guy selling that narrative.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
From @DuplexFields, in a thread about erasure of right-coded identities:
At my workplace two days ago, I walked in on a conversation about fast food, and one of my co-workers actually said this: “I won’t eat at Chick-fil-A because they sponsor charities that commit genocide against LGBT people in third world countries.” I looked around incredulously, but the other two people in the room just nodded sagely.
Huh. I remember hearing that conversation years ago. It probably just said "gay" instead of LGBT, but other than that it was basically identical.
At the time, Chick-fil-A's charitable arm had been in the news for anti-gay activism. The specific complaints I recall were funding conversion therapy and supporting Uganda's rising restriction of gay rights. Some quick Googling suggests these would have been Exodus International and the Family Research Council. There's a pretty unambiguous motte in which
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Chick-fil-A donates money to WinShape Foundation
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Winshape donates lots of that money to Exodus/FRC
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Exodus endorses conversion therapy, including prominent support for Uganda
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FRC lobbies (for weaker language, not against?) the US resolution condemning Uganda's bill
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Uganda continues to debate assigning the death penalty to homosexuality
Naturally, by the time any of this was hitting the broader news, it was a messy conflation. The bailey, intentional or otherwise, was more akin to
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Chick-fil-A donates money to evangelists and conversion therapists
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Evangelists run missions in Uganda
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Therefore Chick-fil-A evangelists must be running conversion therapy in Uganda
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Uganda considered the death penalty for homosexuality
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Therefore Chick-fil-A endorses literal genocide
And that was the state of Chick-fil-A criticism in Texas circa 2012.
By 2014, the bill had been amended to life-in-prison, passed, and overturned on procedural grounds. Exodus International had walked back their stance on conversion therapy and then also imploded. The FRC had been targeted by an incompetent gunman who intended to "to kill as many people as I could ... then smear a Chicken-fil-A [sic] sandwich on their face" in protest of Chick-fil-A's donations. This didn't seem to affect their continued domestic lobbying, including hiring rising star Josh Duggar.
It's hard to imagine this drama as anything other than dead and buried. Chick-fil-A hasn't funded these groups for a decade now, sticking to safer investments in summer camps and youth leadership. Unless I've missed some fresh drama, that conversation is a prime example of tribal signaling rather than an object-level stance, a good reason to be frustrated with the state of identity politics.
It's the end result of a cultural game of telephone, fossilized by sheer memetic fitness and alignment with the Current Thing.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
You were going somewhere good, or at least interesting, until you had to make a hard turn. Caricaturing your enemies as moral mutants has never been appropriate. Neither from a Christian perspective nor from the standpoint of this community.
Also, I guess I disagree with you about Hitler.
Why does he capture the imagination? Why is brushing against the imagery of his movement instant social suicide? Why is he the mark against which every tinpot dictator and overbearing personality must be measured?
“There but for the grace of God go I.”
Not “I,” personally, but our society. He took those appealing, admirable aesthetics of loyalty and duty and he took them further than they ever should have gone. Ideals and people alike were tools, applied in service to the state and then discarded. By welding everything to the apparatus of his government, he created a very, very specialized machine.
Hitler represents the closest we ever came to a boot, stamping on the human face, forever. And we know how he did it. We’ve all felt it. That righteous anger, that burning indignity. Christianity tells us to stay our wrath, for ours is the kingdom of heaven. Liberalism, following in its wake, reminds us that by lashing out, we risk others doing the same unto us. The Golden Rule was the greatest invention of its age.
Nazi Germany taught us exactly how far we could get by shunting all that petty liberalism aside. It was an object lesson in the rhetorical value of an Other. Me and my tribe against the Polish, the French, the Jews, the World.
Isn’t that seductive? Don’t you think the Nazis, for a brief, beautiful moment, felt like rightful kings?
They were wrong. Hitler’s machine was no generalist. It was unfit to make peace, and it was even unfit to handle war. No good father leads his children to their deaths. He does not lie to tell them they are invincible. The full arc of fascism ends in collapse as it spirals out to new and unconquered horizons.
That’s why, whenever a demagogue starts to gesture at the Other, we think of Hitler. He demonstrated that full arc, from growth to apex to disaster. What can fascism do? How does it fail? And knowing both, why would anyone choose it? Hitler’s story provides succinct answers to all three. It speaks to the revanchist in all of us, and it reminds us just what there is to lose.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
In August, Dr. Jones received a short note from Gregory Gabadadze, dean for science, terminating his contract. Dr. Jones’s performance, he wrote, “did not rise to the standards we require from our teaching faculty.”
Dr. Gabadadze declined to be interviewed.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Jesus Christ.
I wish Twitter wasn’t taken seriously as The Public Square. This is depressingly stupid. Why would someone make easily falsifiable claims about an organization’s stance and about his role in it?
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because he expects no one with standing to call him out
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because he expects anyone who does to be absolutely dogpiled by this cesspool of a website
Wrong on 1), right on 2), I guess.
I despise that this objective question—“does the WPATH say such-and-such?” Or perhaps “is the WPATH guideline reasonable?”—is getting settled by shitslinging and victory laps. Perhaps I was foolish to think it could be anything else.
I look forward to seeing what our resident BAR contributor has to say on the issue.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
My cousin is definitely deathly allergic to peanuts. Has been since birth, as far as I’m aware. I watched her arms swell up from the residue of boiled peanut juice on a table. You’d better believe she is careful, even neurotic, about food prep. Plenty red tribe, though, as if that matters.
I’ve got a friend whose sister is moderately-functioning autistic. As part of her genetic challenge run she developed some sort of gluten intolerance. While I can’t prove that the specialists weren’t overdiagnosing, I’m not going to be the one to try and convince this girl that the vomiting and hives are all in her head.
We found out that my brother was allergic to cashews when he was about 6. Full on anaphylaxis. He turned out to have a whole spread of tree-nut allergies, most of which he’s since outgrown. But almost watching your son choke to death changes a person, and Mom was quite careful with checking ingredients for the next ten years.
I’d be willing to believe that the marginal food intolerance is psychological or perhaps, in harder times, would have been kept quiet. Extending that claim to say it’s “religion” is...ridiculous.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
From /u/gwern (@gwern ?): analysis on China’s semiconductor industry.
Recent export controls are directly targeting the Chinese ability to fabricate cutting-edge chips. The subsequent effect on electronics prices and the much-maligned supply chain won’t be pleasant—especially for China, and especially if their industry is already slumping. Consequences for the rest of the world are left as an exercise to the reader.
Given the forum, it’s not surprising that the focus is on AI. I’m more interested in the geopolitical outlook. This is an incentive to retaliate, perhaps even against the other regional semiconductor fabricator. And it is suggested that the timing is a calculated insult to Chinese leadership, as they are apparently going through a periodic dog-and-pony show of elections. Gwern suggests that China would otherwise be raising hell.
The counterpart in US domestic politics: crunching semiconductor supply will not mix well with inflation. I don’t think adding $50 to the next iPhone will make or break Democrats, but it seems unlikely to help.
I want to place predictions, but I don’t have a good grasp of the metrics involved. Place your bets, I guess, for:
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China taking economic action
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China taking military action
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Consequences on Chinese industry
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Tech policy towards China becoming a wedge issue in American politics
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
obviously
we all know
no one believes
…that something you don’t like could be good?
Look, I understand why you think the mRNA therapies are Problematic. And why you want to talk about them. But I happen to completely disagree with you on the “why” and “how” they were adopted, so I have to object when you bulldoze in and assert that right-thinking people are all on board with your worldview.
If you don’t understand why people might want, or have wanted, the vaccine, especially when they weren’t hooked directly into the same vitriolic channels as you, then you are missing an important piece of the puzzle. And if you won’t understand, as your continued consensus-building suggests…then I think you’re just here to evangelize.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
3mo ago
Confirmed. It doesn’t surprise me. A honeypot this elaborate, and with no obvious enforcement mechanism, would have made even less sense.
Sharing classified information is not generally a crime. Not unless you’ve signed the corresponding SF-312 and accepted the obligation to protect it. What are the odds that anyone in this chat had done so?
In any other administration, this would be a perfectly respectable scandal. Perhaps a little higher up than usual. It’s normally staffers who mishandle communications. Today, though, I don’t expect anything to come of it. Let me make a quick check of which step we’re on in the narcissist’s prayer. Yup, we’re still on “…and if I did, it wasn’t that bad.”
20% that anyone from the group chat faces a criminal charge.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1yr ago
Sigh. You won’t see this on account of the block, but I think you’d find this interesting. Or perhaps it’s what inspired you.
The Original D&D setting is weirder than one might expect. Dinosaurs and cavemen, Martians, random encounters with 40d10 goblins. Characters who reached the lofty heights of 7th or 8th level were expected to draw an income from their peasants as they founded settlements in the wilderness. They could encounter non-player settlements following similar rules, down to the expected number of gryphon-riding aerial knights looking for a joust.
There’s an old stereotype of “linear fighters and quadratic wizards.” In 3.5, becoming a high-level fighter gave you more health and better attacks. Meanwhile, wizards grew to break the rules over their scrawny knees. To compensate, the early game was much more forgiving for a fighter. This does stem from old D&D, where a 1st-level wizard would spend most of his time shanking sleeping goblins, if he was lucky. What’s less often mentioned is that old-school fighters enjoyed better magic items, strongholds, and acquisition of followers. Yes, that wizard could do a pretty good impression of a siege engine. But you could bring a regiment of spearmen from your personal castle.
Besides, not every character was suited for wizardry. In modern D&D, it’s common to choose the spread of your attributes. But in the older rules, you were probably rolling 3d6 in order. Little Timmy’s frail constitution meant he probably shouldn’t become a fighter, and didn’t have a chance of representing the Church as a paladin. Class selection was (in theory) not about maximizing your combat, but about modeling how different people would fare at different jobs. It’s a simulationist approach which is largely absent from the modern game.
I would love to play a hexcrawl in this weird, foreboding world.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Consider this a response to @naraburns' AAQC on classified documents.
U.S. classified materials are handled, for the most part, procedurally. There's a process to open the SCIF and one to close it. A separate, but similar, process for the safe. Creating a document means portion marking and filing, and if you ever want to generate something that leaves the room, by God, there's a process for that too. Even if it's a deliverable going to another room with the same level. Don't get me started on the security overhead to set up a facility, an information system, or an individual badge access point.
At a personal level, compliance is very easy. Do your work in the SCIF. Do not take anything with memory in or out. If you aren't sure, ask a specialist, because your employer quite is quite certainly paying one to handle that, specifically. Fill out all the paperwork. When you run into a roadblock, err on the side of doing nothing until the appropriate authorities cover your ass provide explicit instructions. If this causes challenges or delays in your project, welcome to government contracting.
This does not appear to be how Congress or the White House operate. How could it be? The President doesn't turn in deliverables, he receives them. Everyone involved has staffers; this includes said staffers. Running into uncharted waters with security can't mean a stop-work order, not when the "customer" is the President. As one moves up the hierarchy one runs out of authorities to cite. This moves from the realm of legible rules--and legible consequences--to a more nebulous situation. Responsibility is diluted, and it gets harder to point to any one scapegoat.
Clinton was always going to get away with it. She most likely never crossed whatever bright-line rules were created for the rest of us. She had people for that. At some point they looked for permission to set up such-and-such IT and found there was no obvious point of contact. And as is the standard human response, they shrugged and went forward with whatever they wanted anyway.
I'm going to bet that most Congressmen and Cabinet members run such risks. Biden and Pence and Trump seem to have done so with their filing cabinets and moving boxes. Who was going to sign their AFT form? Who was going to demand to see paperwork before packing up an office for the President or VP? The whole apparatus built around normal security operations sort of....grows sparse as the participants start to overlap with the authorities. Trump has pushed up against these category boundaries with remarkable consistency.
What we're seeing with NARA is not the deep state continuing its politics by other means. It's the visceral panic of a bureaucracy realizing it has a blind spot. My God, it thinks, we just trusted people? Relied on their buy-in, rather than something we can measure and legislate? Their natural reflex is to patch this immediately, preferably with a new regulatory body or two.
The instinct of the media, on the other hand, is that a blind spot is boring. But a Bad Actor exploiting a blind spot--now that's newsworthy. It follows that most news coverage starts from the assumption that Biden, Pence, or especially Trump is a villain trying to abuse the system for personal gain. This is why the different response from Trump is important. It is ammunition for anti-Trump narratives, which are in no short supply. Playing along is boring. It's also anathema to Trump's campaign and to his personal brand.
I still don't think Trump will see meaningful consequences for his 45 Office. The difference in perception is happening almost entirely at the media level, not within NARA or the DoJ. They don't need a scapegoat to revise their policies, and they'll have a hard time finding one due to the spreading of responsibility. I am much more sure that Pence and Biden, as boring cooperators, see no consequences whatsoever.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
10mo ago
This weekend, I witnessed the Vibe Shift firsthand.
When we met for lunch, my mother’s first topic was the DNC. Who spoke and how great they sounded. How excited she was about the whole thing. She corrected me on “Comma-lah’s” name, which I’d apparently been mispronouncing, and used that as a springboard to discuss Kamala t-shirts. She didn’t mention that watching the DNC had been inspiring enough to get her volunteering to write postcards and stuff mailers. It was clear that she was all-in on the program without ever discussing policy—or even Donald Trump.
Dad chimed in a couple times to note that the overall messaging was much more positive, except for Bernie Sanders, who sounded unchanged from the last ten years. He appreciated this. I’d say he represents a section of the populace with immense distaste for Trump, but a comparable disdain for politicians who spend too much time talking about the man.
I had been under no illusions that Mom would vote anything but Democrat. Dad, not so sure; I’d have given good odds of a protest vote if the Libertarian candidate wasn’t such a non-entity. More likely that he abstained. But the last couple weeks appear to have left him much more comfortable voting D. The same has to be true for Mom, too, as I never saw this level of enthusiasm for anything Biden did or said.
That’s the Vibe Shift: apathy to enthusiasm.
It doesn’t take a coordinated blitz of friendly op-eds, since my parents were getting this straight from the TV. It doesn’t take an iron grip on that TV presentation; the DNC herds their cats, but they can’t convince Bill Clinton to get off stage. And it doesn’t even take a winning policy slate. The Democrat base, the casual never-Trumpers, maybe even the grillpillers? They’re just glad to have a candidate under the retirement age.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Honestly, I think this is an adequate level of effort.
It's not dropping a bare link, and it's not falling afoul of other rules by booing or inflaming. Any crowding effect is much less important. Unless, I suppose, one of these invites a flood of low effort responses...
The biggest risk is if one-trick culture warriors abuse short top-levels to push their preferred topic. Not sure if that's adequately covered by the other rules.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
What do you do when caught with top secret documents? Deflect:
[He] didn’t know the documents were there, and didn’t become aware they were there, until his personal lawyers informed the White House counsel’s office, one source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Of course, this time it’s Joe Biden, not Donald Trump. The President’s staff has handed over several documents, including TS//SCI, leftover from his time as VP. His personal attorneys found the documents on November 2nd while clearing out a closet in his former Penn Biden center office, immediately notified NARA, and handed off the hot potato the next day. Since then the DoJ has appointed an attorney to figure out who’s responsible for the illegally handled files. Other than that, most everyone involved has refused to comment unless they represent one of the parties in court.
Now for the obvious comparisons:
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The type of documents seem similar to those kept in Mar-A-Lago, and were haphazardly filed in a similar manner
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NARA didn’t know about (or request) the missing files
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If Biden’s team is concealing more documents, they’re doing a much better job
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The FBI is watching but not serving any warrants
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Perhaps most importantly, the President is deflecting and denying rather than crying “witch hunt”
This leads, naturally, to two movies on one screen. Either the President is taking all the right actions after some staffer’s fuckup, or the security state is shamelessly giving him a slap on the wrist. What few outlets are writing on the subject fall into these two narratives. Democrats can’t help but compare the “scope and scale” of the violations, while Republicans emphasize the lack of door-kicking.
Neither stance addresses the real deciding factor of a smoking gun. This is going to be a Hillary situation. Like her infamous server, responsibility is diluted enough that no charges will be brought. (Note that I’ve made the same prediction about Mar-A-Lago.) Both narratives will try to spin epistemic uncertainty into iron-clad assurance, thus adding no value.
The only real conclusion is that you or I wouldn’t get off nearly so easily. If you’re going to store classified documents for your job, you’d better talk softly and hire a big staff.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
An Attempt at Following Up on the User Viewpoint Focus Series
Thanks to @hydroacetylene for 1) the nomination and 2) reminding me to get on it. I followed his excellent template here.
Self-description in Motte Terms
I'm a classical liberal with a keen awareness that the American dream was made for me. In my personal life, I'm a well-paid Texan engineer with an appreciation for firearms. I love America and the American ideal even though I feel it's currently struggling with (what I see as) a particular failure mode of populism.
We enjoy unparalleled material prosperity thanks to strong societal values combined with good initial conditions. That carried us through two centuries of struggle to the top of the world, and now it gives us opportunities to shape the future of mankind. It also reminds us of an obligation not merely to perpetuate the system which got us here, but to spread the benefits to others who are less fortunate.
Yes, this almost certainly makes me one of the most progressive posters still on the site.
I absolutely despise the fascism of pure aesthetics which is so adaptive on social media. Contrarian countersignaling that you'll make the world a worse place because bad things are good, actually. "Tear it all down," "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out"... That's the lowest form of demagoguery.
My girlfriend, whom I love and trust more than anyone, once asked "why do you hang out with these people?" Why am I spending my time on this Earth arguing with people who hate my guts and sneer at the things I value? It's because I believe in the project. I believe that when classical liberalism gets to compete with the fascists and the communards, it comes out looking great. I believe that our model of debate club is a valiant attempt at implementing the liberal ethos of free exchange of ideas. I believe I can win friends and influence people via the political equivalent of betting them that nothing ever happens.
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
Recommended Reading
I'm not going to give a list of published books. Y'all probably know what goes in the classic Western philosophical canon. Plus, and I might not be supposed to mention this, but the vast majority of my model overlaps with what they teach to reasonably smart high schoolers. Perks of subscribing to what's basically our civic religion.
Allow me instead to share a few standout motte posts.
I still think about this post by, I believe, @AshLael. The idea that certain flavors of argument are advantaged against others helps to explain large swathes of the political landscape. It's also part of the reason I'm so invested in maintaining a Debate-heavy space like this one.
Here's a classic bit of Hlynka for those who missed it. While I deeply, deeply disagree with him on lots of things, he was grasping at something that most other users don't quite get.
But I've always had a special place for the strange and wonderful digressions of the Motte. /u/mcjunker's stories, @Dean's policy analysis, all sorts of stuff. One of the best examples has to be this monstrous essay on the aesthetics of jazz. Amazing stuff.
If you have any affinity whatsoever for text-heavy, mechanics-light video games, you should play Disco Elysium. Its Moralintern is a bizarre but excellent commentary on our rules-based international order. Also, it's generally hilarious and poignant.
While I am tempted to namedrop countless other works of fiction, it'd probably be more of a distraction. Ask me on a Friday thread.
Brief Manifesto
Assume your model is not going to work.
Doesn't matter if you're theorizing about politics or international relations or the state of the youth. The very fact that you've taken the time to present it in a forum post is a comorbidity for any number of critical flaws. Maybe it's wildly overcomplicated; maybe it overlooks some basic fact of human psychology. As soon as you introduce your theory, the fine commentariat of the Motte will show up and explain how it's actually stupid.
This is a good thing, because picking holes in ideas is how you get better ideas. (Okay, yes, it's also quality entertainment.) But it might not be fun, and there will be some psychological pressure to insist that nothing is wrong. No. The critics are right, and your grand psychoanalysis is probably bunk. So why not try to get ahead of the curve and figure out what went wrong? What's the first objection someone is going to make when you hit "post"?
This is the difference between arguing to understand vs. arguing to win.
If you want to have a constructive discussion, the single most useful thing you can do is to think about how you might be wrong. It's not easy, I sure don't live up to it as much as I ought to, but I promise. It's worth it.
Ping Me On...
Voting systems. Electoral reform along the lines of single transferable vote is literally my single issue, because I think it's actually a credible path to a more functional government. Seriously, if you know about a way I can act against FPTP, let me know.
Science fiction. Fantasy. Weird hybrids that defy or define genres. I'd like to say I'm pretty well-read in this sense. I certainly enjoy the subject.
Historical trivia of all sorts. Perhaps it's stereotypical for a board like this, but yes, that includes military history and hardware. And while my own collection is still amateurish, I'm always happy to talk about firearms as a hobby, too.
Posts I'm Proud Of
I don't generate a lot of AAQCs, and when I do, I tend to look back with a little embarassment. Something of a tendency towards melodrama. Still, I'm convinced that I was on to something here.
I also feel strongly about my comments on the state of fiction. Media is the first thing to get the 'ol "back in my day" treatment, and especially with modern storage methods, it's so easy to put on rose-tinted glasses. But all sorts of bizarre fiction is out there. Perks of a bigger, faster, more interconnected world. I encourage everyone who thinks modern media sucks and/or is captured by their ideological enemies to go out and find stuff that's just too weird to capture.
This was easier to write and harder to do than I expected.
I'll nominate @Rov_Scam for the next entry.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
4mo ago
This is a forum for discussing the Culture War. That’s a lot harder when you delete your contributions.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Doesn't have to involve pointing the gun. Just...having it behind the door.
You don't aim at someone if you aren't ready to kill them. You don't put your finger on the trigger if you aren't ready to punch a hole in something, even if it's the floorboard. Those two rules cover the vast majority of incidents which would otherwise occur from shaky hands or sweaty palms.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
I'm pretty sure I can answer all your half-assed leading questions with "no."
No, a Gish gallop of of historical anecdotes is not a convincing argument, nor a particularly impressive one.
You need to go practice your five virtues.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2yr ago
Mike Pence joins the File Why? Club
The former VP has turned in "a small number of documents bearing classified markings" after his lawyer found them in a sealed moving box. He's taking the Biden approach of denying all knowledge while cooperating with NARA, which I would describe as "begging forgiveness." The coverage looks relatively soft; CNN offers an innocuous explanation for how they'd have gotten from his former SCIF at the Naval Observatory. It is definitely being used for comparison with the similar Biden situation and contrast with Trump's approach of screaming bloody murder.
Points to anyone who claimed classified document messes were common among officials. I do wonder if this triggers a mass search among Congressmen's residences. Or if it already has. I don't think other findings would have been kept quiet, but I guess it could be possible.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
5mo ago
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1yr ago
Welcome to the motte!
Please use this one-day waiting period to read the rules in our sidebar. Especially those about the rest of the internet and, per your other comment, cheap shots.
This is one of the worst graphs I’ve ever seen.
Not only is it wildly misleading, it’s a perversion of the concept of a bar graph! The adjacent columns don’t compare data, they just break it out into components. I assume the creator chose this because he couldn’t make a pie chart that cheats so hard.
There are only five pieces of information on each chart. We’re approaching Pravda levels. Tufte must be spinning in his—wait, he’s still alive. He should be informed of this tragedy, but sending this graph might be considered harassment.
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