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non_radical_centrist


				

				

				

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joined 2022 September 23 15:54:21 UTC
				

				

				

				

				

				

					
				

				

				
				
				

				
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non_radical_centrist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 23 15:54:21 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 1327


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's easy to say you'll hold to your principles over your child's safety when you're not actually in that position.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 16, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I know a woman who as far as I know has never done any drugs, but just looks 40 when she's actually 22. Some people just have old faces.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 18, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've read half of a self-help/pop psychology book called The Four Tendencies. It basically divides people into four groups, and it really feels pretty applicable to real life.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You can advise someone to minimize weirdness, you can't demand them of it


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think temporary suspension based on lots of reports is a smart policy, moderators can't always react fast enough, and it's a safe way to make sure anything that could give super bad PR doesn't go too viral. That said, the tweet should've been restored after the appeal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				The Media Very Rarely Lies[Scott Alexander]
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Technically the Iraq government did have weapons of mass destruction, in that they had old chemical weapons. And that's exactly Scott's point- the media can imply something totally different than what they're technically saying with certain wording, or do a motte and bailey where they say "We know this 1 fact for sure" and it's something moderate but then also say "Here's our opinion on what may also be happening" and it's something crazy. And the crazy part is what's in the headline.


So if you're strategy to prevent another "Weapons of mass destruction" disinfo being disseminated is just to shut down anyone who's caught in a hard lie, you'll fail. You need a more nuanced strategy of catching people who spread disinfo, and a better strategy of making sure accurate info spreads.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 25, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I got 48/50 on the test. It was pretty similar in difficulty to the practice CFAT, the aptitude test for the Canadian military that I'm planning to apply to soon. I think most Canadians/Americans are pretty bad at mental math, since it's a skill that very rarely comes up, but I've always enjoyed mental math and would often do homework problems mentally even if a calculator was available.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There are lots of classic books out there, there's no pressing need to ever buy a children's book under ten or even twenty years old. Dr. Seuss and Robert Munch I remember loving as a small child, and their books alone can fill a children's library.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the reason to consume new media in general when usually whatever the new good media are likely aren't better than the best media from 30 years ago is that people like discussing media with others, and everyone consuming new media is something of an equilibrium. Where as if everyone just looked for the absolute best media in their interests from the past 100 years, they likely wouldn't have recently consumed as much in common with their friends.


Small children don't really discuss with friends anyways, so perhaps this is just outright irrational(parents defaulting to what's a rational preference in other spheres but not here), or maybe it's more so parents can discuss with other parents children's books.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There are still a pretty decent amount of recent shows that are good on their own, and also have mass appeal that you can chit chat with strangers about. You didn't have to cut them all out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think people are being a bit unfair to you, but you're also saying a lot of dumb stuff yourself.


China definitely was a great economic power, despite that by the ~1500s Europe started to surpass them technologically and by the 1800s significantly surpassed them militarily. I agree with you there.


But Mao definitely had a lot of very stupid policies that led to a lot of deaths, e.g. the killing of the sparrows, or trying to have farmers make steel instead of grow crops. I think his most deadly mistakes were made of ignorance not malice, but they still weren't the West's fault.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Because they know enough to follow creationist or climate change skeptical arguments, but not enough to directly compare them with their opposites, and, well, creation scientists and climate change skeptics are a lot less likely to serve some agenda that's obvious, blatant lies to their in group. Creation scientists and climate change skeptical scientists simply tell fewer blatant lies than the scientific establishment tends to




I'd say creation scientists and climate skeptics are pretty obviously wrong in a way that pretty obviously serves their interests, even if I'd believe they aren't consciously lying. And yeah the scientific establishment would probably be better served if they held to the pure truth even more strictly than they have, but over all I think they've done pretty well on those issues, as shown by how evolution/climate change are both pretty well regarded as "True." these days by most people. Now all that's debated about climate change is its exact severity/the best policies to mitigate it, as it should be.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 30, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In my experience, a lot(not all) of autistic people are nearly indistinguishable with neurotypical nerdy people online. Being able to take 5 minutes to think through their response instead of needing to reply in 5 seconds verbally helps a lot.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Personally I've only ever skimmed bits about the Twitter Files, I don't use Twitter directly very much, and nothing of the bits I've seen about it shocked my worldview. It mostly seemed like "The US government politely asked Twitter to moderate certain content, the Twitter staff thought about it and agreed it'd be a good idea". If there was some sort of under-the-table-deal going on where Twitter received billions or other compensation for secretly pushing US propaganda, that'd be a lot worse. I don't think it reflects well on Twitter, but I don't think it's fundamentally any different than the censorship every website does.


Where as Santos is a pretty big deal because of how blatant it was. US Congressman is an important position, Santos is probably easily within the top 0.1% of most powerful people in the world. But he only got there through several dozen blatant, outright lies, not even just massaging the truth. Plus there's a decent chance he's connected to some sort of criminal enterprise given how much money he's gotten without explanation, which makes things even worse.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In some ways doing things allowed him to be tarred is worse for his career, it wouldn't matter how sexist he was if no one ever found out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's fair. But I think there isn't an easy solution to this, because I think the media has multiple motivations for publishing alarmism. a) They think ends justify the means and that exaggerating for a noble goal is worth it. b) Alarmism just gets more clicks, getting more money in their own pocket justify the means. And c), signaling, showing off how good of an environmentalist they personally are justify the means.


Punishing people more for dishonesty and rewarding honesty more is a good general approach. But that's pretty hard to do, since while it's very easy to say "You're full of BS" to someone who says "Climate change will end human life in the next 30 years", most cases are blurrier. What do you do to a journalist who publishes an opinion piece that says "In my personal opinion, I expect climate change to do two trillion in damage to this region over a ten year period" when the most accurate estimation is that it would only do 1 trillion in damage? At that point it's just opinions and estimation, you can get a bit angry at the exaggerating journalist, but demanding they get fired or something probably wouldn't be viable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I’d say your basically a slowly boiled frog on this twitter stuff.




Maybe. I'm just not convinced this is the most pressing issue. At least because I have never once seen a particularly good solution to the problem of big tech soft censorship, so it doesn't particularly matter how bad a problem is if there isn't anything we can do about it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 30, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It took me several tries, but I eventually got it to give me "I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right in a really condescending tone."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 30, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For a human, yes. Gorillas can digest cellulose because of gut bacteria.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 1, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm reading The Goodness Paradox. It divides violence into two categories: Reactive and proactive, and says that humans, compared to every other species, have vastly lower amounts of intraspecies reactive violence(violence because of emotional triggers, like someone insulting you or to display dominance) but also have vastly higher amounts of intraspecies proactive violence(plotting murder, going to war).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 1, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think there are definitely still shows out there like Big Mouth which use ugliness for comedy. And you of course still see the news reporting on wars and terrorism. There are definitely some areas that are now optimizing for minimizing offense like social media algorithms, but I don't know if I'd say if society as a whole is significantly moving in a direction like this.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 1, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped-showering-and-life-continued/486314/


https://twitter.com/Aella_Girl/status/1589690655965872128


I don't know how valid these are but I think seeing her justifications is at least relevant


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 1, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I remember watching years ago on a guy who reviewed each episode of My Little Pony complaining that his videos that were positive always got a way better reception than his videos that were negative, regardless of the actual quality of the episode. He was pretty deeply upset it seemed that he couldn't honestly review shows, which his channel was supposed to be about, without crippling his channel.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
She's decently attractive, but I think it's her personality that really puts her on top.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sounds like they were doing a great job helping Democrats defeat Republicans. Democrats basically did the opposite when they spent money to promote far right Trumpist candidates in the midterms; a strategy that appears to have been successful for them. Median voter theorem does suggest the more centrist candidate should usually win.


Also see Scott's post on money in politics https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in-almonds/ I pretty much agree with it, if the voters really want a given candidate to win, no amount of money spent on ads will change that. Money in politics tips tight races, and it has the advantage of getting a politician to hear your ideas; a politician will never propose a bill about something they've never heard of of course. But it won't get a politician to do something blatantly against the voter's interest; a construction company won't be able to spend a billion dollars to lobby the government into giving them a trillion dollar contract.