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Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 13, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Sunday Fun Thread

Walter Isaacson: I got this text message from Elon Musk at 4:44am CT showing a screenshot of some text messages in which he tells Mark Zuckerberg they should fight this Monday at Zuckerberg’s home in Palo Alto.. The message to zuck appears to be sent at 1 AM.

Is this all just an elaborate joke? If not, it's hilarious that Elon's unparalleled skill at running companies coexists with this.

I just wonder why are all these men on the fringe of politics so obsessed with MMA? Zuck, Elon, Joe Rogan, Sam Harris, Lex Friedman, Mark Andreeson. Maybe it’s just my complete lack of interest in fighting or learning to fight, but I find it a bit annoying. Whatever happened to playing golf and tennis?

Rogan is an ex-fighter himself, isn't he? As for the rest, nerds LARPing masculinity isn't really a new thing.

I think being a nerd or a jock or something is decided early on in life. Certainly by high school this kind of status is solidified. It's like beauty, which is discovered rather than wholly created. Say you take a plain or ugly overweight 30 year old woman, and you subject her to a stringent fitness regime and several hundred thousand dollars of cosmetic surgery. She might be hot as a result, might have pretty privilege, might bag a 'high value' husband or whatever, but it's never the same as the girl who realized she was beautiful at 12. It just isn't.

Goggins is probably the single best human exemplar of human malleability. He's like a fascinating edge case of what happens when somebody just ... has infinite willpower.