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netstack

The horse embodies the wings a person feels inside.

10 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.

				
				
				

				

					10 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
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Now I want to see Aging Wheels evaluate some of these prototypes.


The flying car is held back by trying to be a car, which is the part people actually want. A flying equivalent to the station wagon is several steps less attainable than the ForTwo.


Abandon the “car” features, though? I could imagine a cyberpunk future where ultralights are the main form of solo transportation. It’d be incredibly goofy, but it might pass muster.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
And here I was expecting Escape from New York.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The exclusionary rule is good because it is better to prevent abuse than to punish it. More so the more power we give to potential abusers. Cops are given a lot of power, so they should have to make extra sure that they use it correctly.




… to protect the people from unreasonable searches and seizures, such as were permitted under the general warrants issued under authority of the government, by which there had been invasions of the home and privacy of the citizens, and the seizure of their private papers in support of charges, real or imaginary, make against them.




In other words, we really mean it! Don’t take our stuff without asking!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I understand why, say, reactionaries would endorse that. But in America, complaints about the rule of law are strongly correlated with “silent majority” populism. Lawlessness is allegedly fueled by elites, even if it’s perpetrated by an underclass.


That has something to do with the outpouring of Mamdani hate. He’s a singular figure, which makes him one of the enablers of lawlessness.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
But Oedipus’ only conflict with his father was completely unintentional! There’s no incompatibility of ideals, no revenge, nothing to make Oedipus choose to surpass/replace him. I’m not sure what drives the characters in The Hawk but presumably they actually know each other is present.


Though I can’t imagine they’re supposed to work together like Maverick or, uh, Crystal Skull. That has to change the calculus.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Wait, what’s the male/positive fantasy? Cause I think Eva is completely distinct from Twilight in ways which don’t fit on either of those axes.


Someone has definitely written grim, psychosexual coming-of-age stories for teen girls, but I’m not really sure what. Gone Girl and Lovely Bones are pretty different. Carrie? Any one of the interchangeable angsty pregnancy dramas? There’s got to be some shoujo out there which fits the bill.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone make that particular objection to slavery. Is it, like, a neoreactionary talking point? A non-Western one?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nah, he’s right about this specific example. The “groping” is part of a claustrophobic, unsettling segment where the protagonist finds his crush/teammate/mother figure living in a genuinely disgusting apartment. You’re supposed to ask what kind of human would live like this.


There’s plenty of shameless fanservice in the show, but this ain’t it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m…fairly sure that’s neither oedipal nor reverse-oedipal.


Anyway, it’s common enough in crime stories. “You shot John Wick’s dog?”


History is littered with famous aristocrats whose 10 offspring never amount to anything. As such, there’s no shortage of succession subplots in historical drama (The Tudors, Braveheart) or fantasy (Game of Thrones).


For a more mild version, try Awkward Father Son bonding.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How large of a geographic region do these meetings cover?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sidecar.


Okay, that's not true. I'm way more likely to make an old fashioned or something with gin (negroni, corpse reviver). But a good sidecar is a nice step between liquor-forward and citrus-forward.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If the more exotic experience involves vastly outperforming slugthrowers, they can still displace ‘em.


    

  • no drop/windage
    • 

  • adjustable destructiveness
    • 

  • simplified logistics
    • 

  • lighter combat loadouts
    • 

  • answers some development in personal defenses
    • 



Pick one or more and roll with it.


I think you could make a good setup by expanding on the classic “kinetic barriers.” Have your psychics passively repel bullets and shrapnel but not lasers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kid with some combination of personal and domestic issues.


Inadequate food or shelter, abusive or absent parents, fetal alcohol syndrome, that kind of thing. Includes a bunch of stuff which really can’t be the kid’s fault but will probably turn into a bunch of bad choices by age 18.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


first paragraph




He’s done it! He’s found a new hobby!




second




No way this is real…




third




Oh, there it is.


What’s your creative process for a post like this? Do you start by following Jews on Twitter, then looking for sequelae? Or do you see a modern habbening and start tearing up the floorboards?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It was incredible watching the background FIFA hate melt away during the World Cup. Now that we’re back to forgetting soccer exists, Americans will presumably go back to hating FIFA for Qatar or whatever.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Are you being sarcastic or serious? How about the original xitter? Speak plainly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Not sure I understand what you’re envisioning. A few million tea partiers? A few thousand TPs hiding in a few million Americans?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I know! The latter are a big chunk of what I had in mind. Bolt-actions with integrated or at least very limited magazines, which are probably the most likely gun to get a carve out from wider bans.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
See, this is what I’m talking about.


When someone gives you a measured, qualified answer, you accuse them of cognitive dissonance and motivated reasoning. That looks—looks!—like bad faith. Why is it so surprising that people might not want to engage with such a gotcha?


I understand that you think this is only possible because your opinion is simple, pure, and obviously correct. I promise you do not have a monopoly on that feeling.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nah.


Small arms haven’t been the deciding factor in state warfare since the proliferation of high explosives. The 2A remained relevant because you still have to interact with the population. Boots on the ground, as it were. That part hasn’t changed.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Eh, you can’t really compare rights indirectly. You’ve got to look for places they come into direct conflict: my rights to fist-swinging vs. your right to facial integrity, your life vs. my self-defense, and so on.


Cars are very heavily regulated when it comes to other people. But they have a lot more uses which don’t involve others.


The closest gun comparison is hunting rifles, which not coincidentally tend to get the most slack from regulators.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Upheld.


You have been previously warned about substituting LLMs for effort. This instance is not any better.


@Shirayuki2 @roystgnr


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Right.




There is an obvious third reason: you aren’t an abuser, but it takes more verbiage to explain so, because the question is stacked against you. Both of the one-word answers are inadequate by design. You are forced to spend more time structuring your defense than the opponent had to spend making the attack.




Adding qualifiers makes your answer weaker. Doubly so if your every word is being mined for sound bites. The most charismatic and agile speakers can still manage it, making a “gotcha” look like a normal question. (I was reading some of the Lincoln-Douglas highlights, and they’re chock full of qualifiers and hypotheticals. It was a different time.) These clips are not particularly charismatic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Asking gotcha questions is not bulverizing. Watching someone answer such a question, then theorizing on how they must be a turncoat, lunatic, or dishonest coward, though?


There is an excluded option, what I thought was the obvious one: they don’t want to play a rigged game. They recognize a loaded question, or outrage bait, and try not to walk into the minefield. Sometimes this works out. Sometimes it looks cringey and gives the baiters what they wanted. Regardless, it doesn’t require lunacy or cowardice or even cognitive dissonance.


Trying to rehabilitate “gotchas” as a totally legitimate strategy, one that only works on the deluded, is wishful thinking at best. One can score rhetorical points playing for any team.




Whose team do you think I’m on, exactly?




As the prophet once said:




How virtuous, how noble I must be! Never stooping to engage in petty tribal conflict like that silly Red Tribe, but always nobly criticizing my own tribe and striving to make it better.

Yeah. Once I’ve written a ten thousand word essay savagely attacking the Blue Tribe, either I’m a very special person or they’re my outgroup. And I’m not that special.




I’m not trying to accuse you of bad faith. I think you have a standard human blind spot for tribal affiliation, and right now, it’s telling you that this weapon only works on the outgroup. That’s wrong. It works on whomever you can put on the spot.




I imagine might I feel like some liberal US Muslim leader, when he goes on the O’Reilly Show, and O’Reilly ambushes him and demands to know why he and other American Muslims haven’t condemned beheadings by ISIS more, demands that he criticize them right there on live TV. And you can see the wheels in the Muslim leader’s head turning, thinking something like “Okay, obviously beheadings are terrible and I hate them as much as anyone. But you don’t care even the slightest bit about the victims of beheadings. You’re just looking for a way to score points against me so you can embarass all Muslims. And I would rather personally behead every single person in the world than give a smug bigot like you a single microgram more stupid self-satisfaction than you’ve already got.”




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What? No, this is base Bulverism. You are ruling out the only answer which matters.


Have you stopped beating your wife?


    

  • If you answer “yes,” you’re either a liar or an (reformed?) abuser.
    • 

  • If you answer “no”, you’re either an abuser or a pedant.
    • 

  • If you refuse to answer, or give a waffly non answer, what does it mean?
    • 



As you’ve framed it, the only reasons to take the third option are if you aren’t an abuser, but feel the need to pretend you are, or if you are an abuser, but realize you can’t say it out loud. Hence “dishonest coward.”


This is stupid. There is an obvious third reason: you aren’t an abuser, but it takes more verbiage to explain so, because the question is stacked against you. Both of the one-word answers are inadequate by design. You are forced to spend more time structuring your defense than the opponent had to spend making the attack.


Yes, this is a bad thing.


In the simple case, the accuser only gets a little mileage from an asymmetric question. Extending “no” to “no, because I never beat her at all” is relatively cheap. Anyone who cares can see the full version.


But we don’t live in the simple case. Setting aside intentional misrepresentation, a bad actor can get more advantage by extending the question. “Have you stopped beating your wife?” has an obvious gotcha. “Where were you on the night of September 13th, 1987?” is not immediately obvious, even if it eventually unfurls into the same accusation. Asymmetrical questions are the simplest building block of narrative control. Narrative control does not converge on the truth.


Okay, but I like it when my team controls the narrative!


Great. Unfortunately, so does everyone else. I think you should uphold norms which favor the truth rather than ones which flatter whomever has the initiative. Right now that involves some gender-critical congressmen. In two to four years, who can say?


For a different perspective, consider this.