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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 18, 2023

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Not that far from the Overton window. Maybe that’s a condemnation of the general state of Internet Discourse, but I’ve seen more unhinged prose from shock jocks like Yarvin. He’s also more measured than some of our local commenters, at least when it comes to “world without meaning.” I say this as someone who fervently disagrees with several of Freddie’s premises.

The worst part is posting that recipe. Suggesting possible organizational schemes or theorizing about infrastructure is…well, the devil is in the details. It’s only actionable in the sense that a journalist calling for inclusivity would be actionable. Implementation details are thankfully left to the imagination.

I hate to encourage the bystander effect, but I don’t think it’s your responsibility to reach out. Especially not when he has specifically objected to comments from strangers. If you’re right, then even if you frame a request very tactfully, is he going to be receptive?

Trust that he has a circle of IRL or at least closer friends who can take care of him.

As I noted above, the recipe is not complete enough to be especially useful. That nitric acid, sulphuric acid and glycerol make nitroglycerin is in a lot of first-year chemistry textbooks. What's not so well-known are the extraction step and how to work up RFNA from substances that you can actually buy without security checks; Freddie cut off that recipe before the former and it seems to have been too old to include the latter.

As long as sulfuric acid and nitrate salts are still available, the acid mix shouldn't be too hard. The biggest problem is temperature control. And what you do with the product, of course.

Not too hard, but your average script-kiddie without a feel for chemistry does actually need a cheat sheet for it, and such a cheat sheet isn't as well-known as the esterification step.

As long as sulfuric acid and nitrate salts are still available, the acid mix shouldn't be too hard

Words spoken by someone who is about to have fewer hands and/or eyes.