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PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

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pusher_robot


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree AI/SI as an industry will chug along fine after greasing the right palms, but this make me more worried about Musk's prospects specifically.  If the populace won't get its datacenter halts and anti-AI regulation, a scapegoat will be needed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't agree at all.  Obama was still very popular in 2015 (for a lame duck President) and Clinton was the designated successor for his political juggernaut of a coalition.  She had experience in the outgoing admin, national politics, and Presidential administration, and had a huge base of institutional DNC support.  Bill was still widely liked.  She was at least as well positioned as HW Bush was after Reagan.




He also repels a lot of traditionally centrist demographics like suburban professionals and has likely calcified a massive amount of winnable votes as near-permanent Democrats. And the suburban professionals vote every year.




They had already been lost to the Obama coalition and weren't coming back. Certainly not for Cruz or Rubio.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
He called Musk "a traitor to the West" and suggested he should be dealt with the same the Rosenbergs were.


https://www.tmz.com/2026/11/04/scott-galloway-calls-elon-musk-traitor/


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes and no.  Yes, you need an element of coercion.  The difference now is that this can probably be achieved completely outside any use of government coercion, just through the cooperation of the organizations and institutions that control media.  The appetite for censorship never really went away, and if a relatively small number of organizations agree to coordinate to do it voluntarily, that's all it would take.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Biggest loser in the midterms might be Elon Musk.  Not only did his personal expenditures fail to achieve any meaningful result, but his outspoken support of the outparty and high profile makes him an extremely high-value target.  His companies are now based mainly in two states controlled by Democrats, who will certainly be under pressure to Do Something, and SpaceX is heavily into SI and datacenters, which lost catastrophically in every ballot measure and is about as popular as AIDS.


In his favor, SpaceX is still indispensible and the other companies provide a lot of jobs and tax revenue that it would be foolish to spurn.  But the flipside is that hatred of the man as an avatar of CEO's, SI, datacenters, and conservatives, has taken on a life of its own and you have lots of people like Scott Galloway calling, literally, for blood.  I think if Musk is not personally ruined the more radical elements are going to be extremely disappointed to the point of Kirking him.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That doesn't happen if the supermajority party is able to make counterparty operations difficult enough, e.g. by exposing their members to prosecution and targeted political violence.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No, I think any other Republican candidate gets beat in both those elections, though narrowly.  Trump boosted Republican voting by low-propensity voters far beyond what it had previously and had major downballot coattails.  Given demographic trends, I think it's unlikely any non-populist Republicans can win national elections.  ETA: Obviously, if Hillary won the first time, Biden and probably Harris never happens anyways, it would be 8 years of Clinton


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Good post. Trump II has been a colossal, pathetic waste of what was really a historic opportunity for the American righ




Unfortunately, that opportunity only existed because of him in the first place, so you can't have one without the other.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
??? Vance wasn't VP in 2018...


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sadly, grifting is largely not illegal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Strategy would probably be to abandon the cities and decamp to the small towns.  Work in trades or work remotely.  Prioritize effort on local elections over state and national ones.  Start grilling.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Midterms Megathread
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'd say Rubio. Lots of experience with national politics even now and has seemed competent.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think most innovators will stay in the US even if there is more wealth redistribution, as long as there is not so much wealth redistribution that being based in the US becomes less attractive than being based in some place like Dubai or Singapore.




Or China.  The U.S. currently has an edge due to the unparallelled easy access to capital financing.  Degrade that by attacking capital and redistributing it to consumption, and what exactly does the U.S. have to offer?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, but the question is whether it's also better to be part of an 80% winning coalition than, say, a 40% losing one.  That's why there's a threshold effect - if a party becomes minority enough that its chances of ever winning decrease below a threshold, then every rational voter will abandon it and try to effect political change through the dominant party, which further decreases the minority party's chances of ever winning, creating a vicious circle.




I think this applies generally to coalition-building -- if you plan a bank heist, you do not want to bring along extra accomplices who do not increase the probability of success.




The bank is going to be robbed no matter what.  The only question is whether you will be part of the crew that gets paid for the job.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, but this claim needs more than just gesturing at the marginal voter theorem. Porkpiehat is right - this can be a completely stable system.  You only need to reach the tipping point that people feel they have more influence by voting in the primary than in the general for it to come to pass.  The numerous municipal governments with single-party rule show exactly why this works: the real election is the primary.  For the general, the winners all go vote for their person and the losers mostly stay home.  Importantly, almost nobody votes for the other party in the general, because everyone has already invested all their networking, patronage, and coalition-building efforts in The Party.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There have been, and still are, plenty of nominally democratic states with effectively single-party rule.  While I don't think it's probable this happens in an electorate so evenly divided that it swings back and forth every few years, simply stating "no it will not" seems like rank it-can't-happen-here-ism.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've been using a trackball as my daily driver at work for years.  For a long time I used a thumb-operated track ball but eventually I came to prefer the two-finger style track ball and landed on the Elecom Huge from Japan.  Amazon says I bought it in 2018 and it's been working reliably since then.  If you're going the large-size two-finger ball, I'd suggest you want left-click on your thumb and right-click on your ring finger.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This passage stuck with me since I read the novelization of The Return of the Jedi as a young boy:




Jerjerrod—tall, thin, arrogant—was the Death Star commander. He walked without hurry up the ranks of soldiers, to the ramp of the shuttle. Hurry was not in Jerjerrod, for hurry implied a wanting to be elsewhere, and he was a man who distinctively was exactly where he wanted to be. Great men never hurried (he was fond of saying); great men caused others to hurry.






Yet Jerjerrod was not blind to ambition; and a visit by such a one as this great Dark Lord could not be taken too lightly. He stood at the shuttle mouth, therefore, waiting —with respect, but not hurry.




I don't know why that passage was so memorable - maybe it was my first real exposure to the concept of social signaling - but it came back to me frequently as I hurried - or saw others hurry - hither and thither.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Second - Asimov generally is very friendly to the reader and has a large catalog of short stories, which I think are much less intimidating to an inexperienced reader.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for October 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Get a meat injector (giant syringe) and fill it with liquid soap and a green glow stick. Put on a bloody lab coat and now you're The Reanimator


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 26, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've spitballed a modest proposal around national mandatory summer camp from about age 12 to 16 (with exemptions for the employed).  Being someplace away from home and family even for a couple of weeks builds a huge amount of independence, IMO.  Even more so if some basic life skills (cleaning, scheduling, meal prep) are imparted.  Punishment details, administered far away from where mommy and daddy can bully staff on your behalf, can teach lessons about actions and consequences, and counselors can be real about a lot of facts of life that family and schools won't, and have enough age proximity to have credibility.