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sarker

hantavirus landfill tour guide

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joined 2022 September 05 16:50:08 UTC

Suddenly I cannot remember the color of your eyes

Or the things we said as we stood together for the last time


				
User ID: 636


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
sarker


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
hantavirus landfill tour guide

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 05 16:50:08 UTC
				


				
					

					
Suddenly I cannot remember the color of your eyes


Or the things we said as we stood together for the last time



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 636


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Friday Fun Thread for June 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Purdie - soul drums


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Why would humans frequently engaging in heinous evil reduce your confidence that Evil exists as a useful concept and is recognizable by humans?




People doing heinous stuff and considering it morally acceptable pretty directly implies that people have difficulty recognizing good and evil. Either that, or they are right and I'm having difficulty. Not looking good either way for this argument.




Can we confidently say that evil leads to misery, and good leads to happiness, even if this is not the case in every microscopic section of the causal chain that we can directly observe, yes?




I think doing evil to those who can retaliate or doing evil that others recognize as evil (thus leading to some kind of retaliation) can result in misery. You can do all the evil you want to everyone else with no obvious result in misery as far as I can tell, at least as long as you don't see what you do as evil yourself.




For the things you recognize as evil, what makes them evil? What does it mean for a thing to be evil?




I don't have a totally complete moral framework, but I sort of operate off a mishmash of utilitarianism and virtue ethics. So an evil act is one that is not virtuous or leads to an overall decrease in welfare.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't see how we've addressed this. The number of children you can have is finite. In most cases, aborting a down syndrome pregnancy means you can use that time to have a neurotypical child while not changing the total number of kids you have. It's a direct tradeoff and I'm confused why you are arguing with what's basically a mathematical fact in my view.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There's nothing stopping parents from just having another child




Nothing outside of the finite human fertility window, of course.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Okay. So you do concede that in most cases we're talking about trading off down syndrome children for neurotypical children. Let's return to my original question to you.




Does a Down syndrome child entail a richer tapestry of experiences for the parent than a neurotypical child?




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Not only have we shifted the goal posts to what I agree is a highly non-central situation at best, but even people who happen to be in that situation can't, in practice, know whether they are.




Indeed. So let's focus on the modal case where people are overwhelmingly likely to conceive again after aborting a down syndrome baby.




Seems just as plausible to me that if they're at the end of their child-bearing years they might abort what would have been their last (and in some cases only) child and not be able to conceive again.




This is my point, that outside the cases of highly geriatric pregnancies we're talking about trading off a down syndrome child for a neurotypical child.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I have no strong opinions on any particular policy, but I can tell you right now that no builder outside of a dense urban area is going to build an apartment complex without adequate parking, regardless of what the law says, and even in urban areas there's little demand for car-free living. While it may be true that eliminating parking would reduce the per-unit cost of an apartment, it would most likely just shift that cost from the developer/occupant onto the public at large, as the residents would park on the street.




Aren't you contradicting yourself in the space of two sentences? Developers would never build without adequate parking (then we can get rid of the minimum, right?) and also getting rid of the minimum would cause people to park on the street. Pick one?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you want to argue that's it's immoral to abort a down syndrome baby, go ahead - but what you're doing is arguing that the parents are missing out, in fact impoverishing themselves, by not having a disabled child.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It obviously does, on the margin, since the options are:


    

  • First trimester abortion, try again after
    • 

  • Carry the baby to term, then recover from pregnancy and birth (and dealing with a young child with disabilities), then try again
    • 



Humans have a limited fertility window and most people are trying to hit some target number of kids. However, even if you are just trying to maximize the number of kids you have until you hit menopause, you're trading off a neurotypical kid for a down syndrome kid. Exception would be situations like "you're over 40 and you probably can't get pregnant again".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Does a Down syndrome child entail a richer tapestry of experiences for the parent than a neurotypical child? That's the tradeoff being made here.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Sure. But you don't know you in particular are going to get cancer, or that by abstaining from smoking you won't get cancer anyway. You don't know how having cancer will feel in a subjective sense. You don't know what else might happen that might obviate all downsides of cancer; maybe you're destined to die before any negative health effects would arrive and smoking would be a pure net-positive for you. All of these can "support" the absurd claim that one's decision to smoke three packs a day was not sufficiently "informed", if one's reasoning is motivated. And as I've argued a number of times before, all reason is motivated.




Sure. But we can pretty confidently say that smoking increases your chances of getting cancer versus the counterfactual. Putting your life savings on black doesn't guarantee that you'll lose them, but I'm pretty comfortable saying that you're informed that it's a possibility. Arguing against this feels like sophistry.




Do you recognize that Good and Evil exist,




Probably.




the difference between them is comprehendible by humans




Based on the number of societies in human history doing absolutely heinous shit and considering it to be normal or even moral, I'm not sure about this. In fact I suspect there's very few societies that don't involve something I consider horrifically evil until fairly recently. And even then I'm not sure.




they have important consequences for humans engaging in them?




Unclear. I'm pretty confident that good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. Perhaps there is a settling of accounts in the hereafter, but that's the whole question, isn't it?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Or know anyone who works in a big company?




Of course I know him. He's me.




Huge amounts of layoffs have occured predicated on the expectation of efficiencies from AI.




It's a fig leaf to lay off the, frankly speaking, terrible workers who got over hired during covid exuberance in the early 2020s, or otherwise for floundering businesses to shed workers in a bid to become profitable.




Some such companies, once they discovered that AI did not improve efficiency, have been forced to rehire the people they fired,




I'm not aware of any companies begging fired employees to return a la DOGE. Examples?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Brazil! That will justly punish his wanton ways.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


They are depriving themselves and their child of a rich tapestry of experience; one that is perhaps more challenging and painful, but also one that can and should be fulfilling. A life of short cuts is a life cut short; not in time but in meaning.




The implication seems to be that you should have children with as many different neurological disorders as possible rather than boring neurotypicals. Is that really your position?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 12, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
TIL


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Note that you'd need to raise the retirement age to, like, 75 in order to avert insolvency if that's the only thing you're doing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We've got a variety of fairly reliable evidence that smoking causes cancer. The evidence that unrepentant sin sends you to hell is, let's say, more on the hearsay side of things. If the best evidence for smoking causing cancer is that somebody said it totally does, it would be a different story.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Perhaps this is a stupid question, but why couldn't your manager escalate to his boss until it gets to someone who can do something about it?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


to companies firing large parts of their workforce because of 'AI efficiencies' that don't actually exist,




If the efficiencies don't exist, it follows that the layoffs can't possibly be AI's fault.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


It feels like we go from one hype to the next without any response from the market when the hype doesn't pan out. Cryptocurrency was going to change everything. NFTs were going to change everything. The metaverse was going to change everything. 3d printing was going to change everything. Hyperloop was going to change everything. Full self driving was going to change everything by 2017!




Surely you can't really be surprised about any of this. What is the market supposed to do about NFTs not panning out? To what extent were public companies investing in monkey pngs with the hope of selling them to a greater fool? Why should the markets crash because some retards (technical term) were wrong about NFTs?


Except for the metaverse this goes for all of your examples. And Facebook stock took a 64% haircut in 2022 (the market overall fell only 33%) so it was hardly without consequences.


This sounds like:




It feels like we go from one hype to the next without any response from the market when the hype doesn't pan out. Flat billed caps were going to change everything. High rise ladies' pants were going to change everything.  Low rise ladies' pants were going to change everything. Streetwear was going to change everything.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Who was talking about time machines?




The whole discussion is why we are still working as much as in 1920.




You were saying ‘if you’d a low income and lots of free time to make art then go on the dole’ and I was saying that the system doesn’t work like that.




It does, though. You just can't do it with significant wealth. The point is what it takes to get a 1920s level of existence today. It doesn't take 40 hours of work a week.




FIRE, you life and mine are different. Even if I paid no tax and had no expenses, it would take considerably more than a decade to get that kind of money.




It's not about your life or mine. You are the one who brought up the upper class. My point is that people who can amass 1M in savings in a reasonable timeframe almost never quit the rat race and live on 40k a year in perpetuity. That tells you something about the demand for such a lifestyle.




But that’s not the problem. The problem is that it renders you completely vulnerable, especially now that you’ve also driven yourself to zero net worth to be eligible. Even the people who don’t like their jobs know that going on the dole or claiming disability benefits as a middle class professional will be a door you can never reopen and that obviously affects their decision making.




Vulnerable to what, exactly?




Again, you seem to be gesturing towards ‘people say they want A but when pressed they don’t take A (which is a really shit version of A) so they can’t really mean what they’re saying’.




Sure. The best version of A is I get paid $1M a year to make art at a leisurely pace. Everything else is a "shitty version" of that. if you want 2020s living standards, you gotta work like the average 2020s citizen. Can we not conclude anything from the fact that nobody takes the 1920s material conditions gambit in return for limitless free time? I think we can.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Indeed. The kinds of people complacent enough to be okay living a 1920s existence today are probably pretty contemptible.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think this is mostly slang among Brits of Caribbean extraction (see "London multicultural English").


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for June 10, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
full body condom


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, of course you don't get to take your 2020s level of wealth into the 1920s time machine. That was never part of the deal.




the lack of middle/upper class takers doesn't tell you much about its desirability.




IME a significant portion of the UMC/UC is comfortable with, shall we say, questionable tax practices (dubious business write-offs, under the table nannies, etc). I don't think it's their acute sense of honor that keeps them from doing this.


Since you mentioned the upper class, let's look at this the other way. You can withdraw 40k a year from a 1M principal indefinitely. Certainly you can live better on 40k a year than the median 1920s person, and it won't take decades to save up 1M on a high income especially if you are already practicing for your 1920s lifestyle. Yet basically no high earners do this outside of FIRE weirdos. There's just not that much demand to live like you're in the 1920s. People would rather live in the 2020s and work 40 hours a week.