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netstack

The horse embodies the wings a person feels inside.

9 followers   follows 3 users  
joined 2022 September 05 17:27:40 UTC 

				
User ID: 647


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
netstack


								

								

								
								
									
								
								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
The horse embodies the wings a person feels inside.

				
				
				

				

					9 followers  

					follows 3 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 17:27:40 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 647


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Alright. I’m interpreting your question as something like:


“If the West likes giving things to low-IQ populations, why is it so against giving things to Russia?


This, uh, may be beyond my powers; I’ll give it a try.


    

  1. Not all gifts are equivalent. Offering housing and social services is much easier than offering an entire country.
    2. 

  2. Not all recipients are equally deserving. Offering support to poor individuals is much much easier than offering it to an entire country.
    3. 

  3. Routines matter. There is an established procedure for refugees and such to enter Western countries. Following it led to the current situation. There are also established procedures for one country to get things from another. Russia not following such procedures led to the current situation.
    4. 



It makes sense to treat these two situations differently, because basically nothing about them is the same.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Motte infidelity survey
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
So there are a couple main groups of post.


    

  1. Regulars who want to do something different. This is welcome, even encouraged, subject to the “CW in the CW thread” rule.
    2. 

  2. Rat-adjacent posters who want to repost their own substack, or occasionally a related essay series. Less encouraged, since there’s a real risk of engagement bait and general unsavory tactics. It’s much harder to enforce the CW and politeness rules in a one-off interaction. Still, we approve a decent number of these, especially from users with any sort of presence in the SSC community. KulakRevolt or felipec would be examples.
    3. 

  3. Complete randos who want to post their (usually AI-heavy) manifesto. We have flirted with these before, since posters tend to appeal to the spirit of free debate. This has rarely panned out. The current policy is not to approve.
    4. 



The catch is that there are an order of magnitude more #3 posters. Excluding outright commercial spam, 90+% of what we get for top-levels are people asking to debate their earth-shattering new theory of everything. When we see someone known and respected like @FtttG in the queue, we’re a bit surprised. “Wait, people actually use this thing?” Then we check for CW, etc., and most likely approve.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How do you feel about professional wrestling?


I don’t have stats on the OF talent base, other than knowing it has pretty extreme earnings disparities. It is possible that the bulk of content is small-scale amateur film by couples even while the bulk of the cash goes to a smaller pool of celebrities. Can’t say I find it likely compared to the alternative where almost everyone is shooting solo videos.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I guess I’m not convinced of the throughline between all four options, there.


“Leeching off the government” is the only one which involves claiming benefits that were intended for someone else. Some NGOs fall in this category. Everything else sounds like a central example of a job: someone paying you for your labor. If you’re honest and they’re satisfied with your work, how are you defecting?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Worse…they’re weird escorts!


Such is the burden of tabloid news.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m pretty sure that covers “camp follower” too, mind you.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I suppose this cements “the grass is always greener…” as the world’s oldest fallacy.


Measuring one’s life against the most lurid possible comparison is a proud tradition. The difference between your reaction and a kid wanting to be a big rock star is that you don’t actually like the prospect of being in that position. Probably. I’m not gonna judge.




as opposed to just leeching off the government, doing some sort of NGO/media grift, or even just getting a random remote job and going to live cheap in Thailand




Note that these are VERY different options. Unlike prostitution, you could almost certainly work your way into any one of them depending on your risk tolerance. But, like, why should you? Is the expected value of any of those options actually higher? Does it outweigh the added risk?


Point is, that tweet is engagement bait. I can’t endorse forming economic opinions based on a platform that hates you rewards style over substance. Twitter delenda est.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Buddy, I can’t even tell what you’re asking, but I find it vaguely insulting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
C’mon.


This has none of the hallmarks of whitewashing a vigilante. The perpetrator didn’t make that argument. The state certainly didn’t.




A society doesn't normally prosecute soldiers for murder,




Yes, it does. Sometimes even when they have explicit orders and state support, which this guy emphatically did not. Contrary to popular belief, killing enemy combatants is surprisingly regulated.




Why else do you think only that group is de facto allowed to go around armed?




Western countries have a reasonably long history with something called “freedom of religion.” The British version was usually more concerned with Papists, but it has adopted the usual suite of protections for sincere religious beliefs.




English society




Who, exactly, do you think is calling the shots here? Have you actually seen people calling him a soldier, or are you overfitting your own model?




to kill its enemies for their crime of existing, or "racism" for short




An absurd sleight of hand. I think you’re assigning a whole package of beliefs to a nebulous group of your political enemies, none of which are particularly coherent. Would it be reasonable to call that “stupidity”?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Motte infidelity survey
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ll say I didn’t have any real reason for that; hence the approval. But we’ve always been vaguely bemused when people want to do top-level posts. Odds are you’ll get better visibility this way, at least?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Motte infidelity survey
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's not against the rules.


Though I suppose I would have preferred it go in the SSQ thread.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Motte infidelity survey
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You're the human control group. I feel like we're lucky to have you.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It hasn’t even been a month since we told you not to flip out in this exact situation.


Three days this time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Upsetting people doesn't make something unethical, though.


I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir, but the most ethical billionaires would have to be those who did the most good* without trampling any particular rights. Given how hard business can incentivize one or another form of such trampling, then, it would be really hard to find a billionaire with clean hands. At some point they'd have signed off on a sketchy deal, or exploited labor laws, or just hired people who did. How much of that responsibility should transfer?


You could probably get a pretty good proxy of political affiliation by asking a series of comparison questions. Ask whether a person is culpable for X, Y, Z, with decreasing levels of personal involvement. Someone who believes in holding a CEO responsible for his bottom-level managers' hiring decisions is much, much more likely to subscribe to various left-wing policy planks. Collectivism is not limited to redistribution.


Assuming OP and his buddy could agree on a standard, they could in theory go down the Forbes list and rule people out accordingly.


*Yes, yes, we also probably disagree on some key points of the "good". Not going there right now.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You’ve done a lot of venting in the past couple days. More in the past couple years. You keep showing up to bitch about the minority du jour and you demonstrate zero interest in the intended purpose of this community. We should have banned you the last few times.


Goodbye and good riddance.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sarcasm is unbecoming.


It’s possible to build a good post around a rhetorical turn, but when the rest of your comment consists of quotes, you need to speak plainly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


how rude is it to ask




I figured we were talking about the gap between curiosity and need-to-know. I’m not going to begrudge anyone the former.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Lots of things have followed us around for just as long. Doesn’t mean asking about them is reasonable.


“Hey, is your daughter a virgin?”


“How do you feel about your foreskin?”


“But can you prove you were born a free man?”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It does.


That said, you don’t have to take the bait.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Perhaps I wasn’t clear.


Do not respond to accusations with personal attacks. Block them, address the substance, I don’t care, but do not take the opportunity to speculate on your interlocutor’s life story. Especially do not respond to a warning about personal attacks by making more guesses about what’s going on in his head.


One day ban.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Single line breaks render as sentences.
Like this.
To get a proper paragraph, include two spaces after each line.

Like so.

For a little trailing space, it’s double line breaks.


There.




Anyway, I second the Grok critics. It’s kind of like going to the tabloids for primary sources. Even if they cite something, the chances of it panning out are inversely proportional to how exciting the headline was.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I swear to god.


Kindly stop with the melodramatic callouts. Perhaps you missed the last round. If you really think Arjin is missing key information, send him a DM.


And you, @magicalkittycat. I know you were paying attention. Falling back on personal attacks does no one any favors.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Less of this, please.


It’s not even particularly egregious, and might even pass as a joke, but you’ve got something like 8 mod warnings for content-free snark. Raise the filter just a little bit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You’re right, “know” is probably too strong.


I was reading about the growth of antebellum America and was struck by these self-reinforcing contributions. Industrialization drove women out of cottage industry and into education, which drove religious revivals, which drove temperance, which drove industry. But also they were spending more time and effort on each child, so fertility was tanking. Though actual family size fell more slowly, thanks to repeated revolutions in medicine. The boom in public education also skewed any results we might have collected from early intelligence testing.


So I don’t know that fertility was negatively correlated with IQ, just that it went down as education, investment per child, nutrition, etc. went up.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Why should the rate be .01 SD/generation? Why should it even be linear?


If the one sample set we’ve got today is a somewhat stronger negative correlation, I would expect that to extend backwards. I know that was the case in 1800s America.