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domain:pedestrianobservations.com

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 6, 2025

But you can use it to hire some Koreans that can check code into a global repository instead of Americans.

The value of the code written by that subsidiary goes into the conglomerate at large.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

And Israeli leadership does not coordinate direct attacks on civilians.

For a given value of leadership, sure. But Israeli leadership is such a vague term I don't think this is really worth litigating. SOMEONE gave the order to deploy those bombs shaped like toys in Lebanon, but whether they qualified as "Israeli Leadership" is a mystery to me.

There was enough direct evidence to tie this particular fellow to 5 deaths directly.

In a courtcase that outside observers said was clearly biased. I don't think Trump is guilty of raping Jean Carrol even though a heavily politicised courtroom implied the opposite, and I apply a similar level of scrutiny here.

If you are me, you think he is a terrorist because he and his minions are consistently too cowardly to wear uniforms.

I'm sure the people who shot up Hind Rajab's car were wearing a uniform, but that doesn't really make my sympathise with them at all.

If you think international law is a fiction, then he's just a loser who lost.

Are you aware of the context that this discussion is taking place in? Do you think that calling Marwhan a loser who lost is in any way a convincing refutation of the point being made? Yes, the person that wants peaceful co-existence rather than armed struggle is rotting in an Israeli prison in order to make sure there's no peaceful resolution. How is that in any way worth mocking? Was Gandhi a loser who lost when he was arrested for advocating peaceful resistance to the British?

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 12, 2025

Bitcoin went up 500x in the last ten years. Are you worried about getting taxed on 100% of its value instead of the (right and proper) 99.8%, or am I missing something about how it works?

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

In fact I’m having trouble imagining someone that would agree with his first premise, that most Americans are fascists, without believing political violence was acceptable.

Political violence against the majority would be novel.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

He really didn't want to put out any concrete examples of what he considered 'fascist'

He linked to his review of Mussolini's book, though the review, itself, is paywalled.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Cult of action.

I thought action was an example of white supremacy?

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

The only explanations I can come to are that it was the Russians

I can think of another explanation: Explosives factories sometimes blow up and Fox News doesn't cover everything. Industrial accidents aren't exactly sensational reporting, and they probably take a lot more legwork than reporting on Trump's tweets or whatever. I'm not surprised that not every media outlet is covering it.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

I don't see the conspiracy angle here and I can see from the other posts that I'm not the only nooticer who feels that way. But you clearly aren't alone in your assumption either! Is this a case of different cultures inculcating different pattern matching behaviours? It does make me think - the closest this came to triggering my 'that's retarded' impulse is it made me think 'reeeeaaally?' Meanwhile I feel like I spend most of my time on X thinking 'well that's retarded'. And part of that is of course that I trust you and your judgement more than some X rando and thus extend you more charity, and similarly I don't want this to be false for political reasons (although I try not to let that influence me anyway), but there is more to it than that. I guess the 'that's retarded' impulse gets triggered when someone's pattern matching behaviour doesn't just not align with my own but aligns against the patterns I have internalised. This is probably obvious to most people but it just clicked for me.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Where has it been done successfully and without significant atrocities performed?

The partition of Czechoslovakia?

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Just as a sanity check let’s run the same test cases against wokeness. By my count these apply.

  1. Rejection of modernism. Obviously wokeness favors alternative “ways of knowing” and rejects objectivity, rationality and the scientific method as white supremacy.

  2. Cult of action. The motto “Punch a nazi” is certainly proudly anti-intellectual, elevating the propaganda of the deed/direct action above any intellectual debate.

  3. Disagreement is treason. This is too easy, wokeness considers silence as violence and obviously disagreement is violence.

  4. Obsession with a plot. White supremacy is behind everything. Bad test scores? White supremacy. Crime statistics? White supremacy. Every institution is full to the brim with hidden, covert racists.

  5. Enemies simultaneously too strong and too weak. Trump is simultaneously a fascist dictator but also a bumbling, senile buffoon.

  6. Newspeak. Control and redefinition of language is one of wokeness’ defining traits.

The selective populism and appeal to the middle class are basically free squares that can be applied to any ideology

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Nothing special indeed; FDR's New Deal checks about half the boxes too:

  • The cult of action for action's sake
  • Disagreement is treason
  • Appeal to a frustrated middle class
  • Obsession with a plot
  • Enemies (the rich) are at once too strong and too weak
  • Pacifism (after WWII started brewing) is trafficking with the enemy
  • Selective populism
  • Newspeak (in tons of agency and program names)
Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Frankly, MAGA has a lot more in common with fascism than being right-wing nationalist.

Taking Eco's definition

Most left wingers have a lot more in common with fascism, if you take Eco's definition.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Frankly, MAGA has a lot more in common with fascism than being right-wing nationalist.

Taking Eco's definition, I would argue that MAGA checks about half the boxes.

That's nothing special, so does Social Justice:

  • The rejection of modernism
  • The cult of action for action's sake
  • Disagreement is treason
  • Obsession with a plot
  • cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak."
  • Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy
  • Selective populism
  • Newspeak

Either those summaries are too broad to be useful, or some traits of Fascism have become broadly entrenched in our society, regardless of what we call the groups that embody them.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Trump is term-limited, there will be no vote on whether or not he leaves office absent a Constitutional amendment (which is extremely far-fetched).

US elections are also held at the state level, so there's no real way for him to rig the elections via the federal bureaucracy (unless he's using the CIA to hack the voting machines, or something). I suppose he could attempt to stage a coup of some variety, but I agree with you assessment of the federal bureaucracy there.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Eco was opposed to fascism, taking his definition of fascism as definitive is like taking an atheist's definition of Christianity (instead of Nicean creed), or Rand's definition of socialism. Luckily an endodefinition1 exists:

Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.

I suspect the reason that this defition is not used, is that describes better2 the relationship democrats have with the state, than republicans do. And also, the preference for anti-fascist sources, even if secondary.

1: That completely accurately, but if forced at gunpoint to chose, democrats are slightly closer: Operation Chokepoint, lockdowns, censorship during lockdowns.

2: It is queer that in the age of transsexualism, not only is self-identification not applied, a group is defined by outsiders. If one were to transpose discourse surrounding the definition of fascist, onto the debates surrounding gender, it would be like the canonical definition of a woman being something some misogynist thought up.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

I think blowing up Americans on US soil would be contrary to the interests of the Kremlin.

Trump has been solidly meh about Ukraine. Sometimes he chews out Zelenskyy for not dressing adequately, then he is angry at Putin for a bit for blowing up yet another hospital, or wanting them to agree to a peace so he finally gets his Nobel.

However, Trump does have a vindictive streak. Piss him off and he will still try to destroy you eight years later.

Putin blowing up Americans would piss off Trump badly because it would be interpreted as "he made me look bad". Him being on Trump's shitlist instead of having a relationship status of "it's complicated" would hurt his aims a lot more than the Tomahawk missiles.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Would you apply this argument to the jews of Nazi germany? Was it their fault for attacking the big meanie and then having a sook and cry about how badly it went for them? Why did they pick a fight they couldn't win?

The Jews of Nazi Germany didn't attack the Germans. That's literally an antisemetic conspiracy theory invented by the Nazis to demonize the Jews, and I wasn't aware that anyone believed it except a few diehard neo-Nazis. Conventional history tells us that it was actually the Nazis who attacked the Jews.

If the Palestinians stop fighting they believe they will be wiped out, which is supported by a vast number of statements from members of the Israeli government. What alternative are you leaving besides a final solution?

If they believe that then they're simply wrong. If the Israelis wanted to wipe out the Palestinians they could have done it at any time. Ergo, they don't want to. Given that recent history suggests that every Palestinian attack on Israel is followed by an immediate upswing in Palestinian deaths, it is not clear to me how this course of action prevents the Israelis from wiping them out.

If wiping out is on the table, it seems clear to me that starting pointless wars over and over again for decades can only increase its likelihood. If it isn't on the table then the pointless wars are just that - a meaningless outpouring of useless hatred that accomplishes nothing and causes only misery.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

I think everyone who is not a radical pacifist will endorse the deliberate killing of other persons in some circumstances. Once you have conceded that, you are merely haggling over the price.

Fortunately, this is very moot in the contemporary US, because Trump can be easily voted out of office in about three years, which is a far better outcome than any violence could hope to accomplish. I also do not see him defeating the federal bureaucracy to the point where he can rig or suspend the elections, so even that hypothetical is not very relevant.

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 12, 2025

I haven't run into an any Anki decks specifically designed for this till date. I've made a few of my own, and I intend to go through them eventually.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Frankly, MAGA has a lot more in common with fascism than being right-wing nationalist.

Taking Eco's definition, I would argue that MAGA checks about half the boxes.

The points which apply IMHO from WP:

  • "The cult of action for action's sake," which dictates that action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.
  • "Fear of difference," which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.
  • "Appeal to a frustrated middle class," fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.
  • "Selective populism" – the people, conceived monolithically, have a common will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he alone dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of "no longer represent[ing] the voice of the people".
  • "Contempt for the weak," which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate leader, who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.
  • Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak." On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.
  • "Disagreement is treason" – fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.
  • "Obsession with a plot" and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society. Eco also cites Pat Robertson's book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.

I do not see the classic militarism (universal heroism, permanent warfare), Trump does not want his followers to die in Stalingrad for him, for the most part. The full rejection of the Enlightenment is probably limited to the retvrn crowd, and there is little embrace of (fake) tradition. Machismo is also rather absent, Trump has women in positions of power. Newspeak also does not seem a prominent feature, covfefe aside.

And of course, MAGA is also characterized by a denial of objective truth and widespread kleptocracy, and is ideologically too light-weight for classic fascism.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Exactly. Most of the peaceful era was with a relatively tiny population, the local arabs having fuck all control of their own composition due to the Ottoman empire (which was relatively peaceful so long as you paid the Dhimmi). The history of dominant muslim populations treatment of Religious minorities in the region trends a lot closer to an effective genocide than Israel somehow barely being able to make a dent in the Palestinian population over decades of supremacy.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

If you don't want your hospitals and civilian infrastructure blown up, don't use them as weapons caches in flagrant violation of the Geneva convention. I really don't see what's so complicated about this.

They didn't. Israel lied and just blew them all up anyway - I haven't seen any confirmation that these hospitals were actually terror bases. Rather, I've seen evidence that the fancy visuals they used to tell people those hospitals were terror bases were largely manufactured out of videogame assets https://www.972mag.com/israeli-army-3d-propaganda-animations/

When did I say that?

My apologies! My posts have been so popular and generated so many replies I didn't realise you weren't actually the person I was replying to.

How do you think Israel ought to have prosecuted a war against a combatant like Hamas? What would you have done differently?

Well, first of all, I simply wouldn't institute apartheid - I'd give the Palestinians equal rights and full franchise, giving them an actual path to peaceful and shared co-existence, giving them a stake in a shared society that could lead to mutual success. But assuming that's out of the question because my government coalition is full of bloodthirsty ethnonationalists and if I resign I'll just get killed... I'd either flee the country or kill myself rather than take part.

But if I had to prosecute it... I would implement incredibly rigorous conduct rules and make sure that the IDF became the most ethical and well-behaved army in the world. I'd make sure that there's zero opportunity for hostile propaganda, fill the waves with stories about our brave soldiers helping rescue people from dangerous conditions and improving their lives. Be as brutal as you want with the people actually taking up arms, deploy drones to the tunnels etc... but guerilla forces can only operate with the help and assistance of the people around them. Public perception and reputation is incredibly important to Israel and I don't think the country is sustainable without support from the west - so I'd make sure that whatever I did, there wouldn't be gigantic protest movements against my country all over the world.

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 12, 2025

Emily Dickinson

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 6, 2025

Ahh, so from this statement if I'm being honest, you come off as having these views and sort of faking incredulity when in reality you simply have disdain for Christianity and aren't really interesting in seriously understanding Thiel's points.

I agree that I was a bit uncharitable. That being said, I am unconvinced that I am entirely wrong. For example, calling Catholicism a doomsday cult would be silly. From my very laymen understanding, Early Christianity did have a bit of an apocalyptic streak (e.g. Book of Revelations, ca. 95 CE).

The general argument from stagnationists is something like, technological progress and increase in wealth keep the hoi polloi happy and sedate, if they stop getting their increase in goodies and wealth they will become angry, and eventually revolt. This revolt will effectively destroy technological society and take a while to build back up, if ever.

I guess his fears make more sense from the perspective of a billionaire. The current Gini index is only stable in periods of exponential growth. As long as every generation has a life substantially better than their parents, few care too much if the billionaires are owning more and more. One the cake stops growing, they will likely have strong opinions on its current distribution ratio, which might easily end the billionaire class and thus, civilization, from their point of view. ('Humans might survive, but without private helicopters and space tourism, as mere animals nesting in suburban homes' or something along the lines.)

I will grant you that the reading "perpetual technological growth is the only way to keep the present society stable, so anyone who threatens that (i.e. Greta, Eliezer) are agents of chaos, i.e. the antichrist." would be a self-consistent philosophical position.

Of course, the god of perpetual exponential growth is likely not Jesus Christ (who did not die on the cross to maximize shareholder value). For most of Christianity, technological progress was glacial slow. On the other hand, calling Greta the antimammon does not really have the same ring to it.

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

Not to be rude, but this feels like an unusually weak post for Scott. Those celebrating Kirk’s murder would obviously disagree with his third premise, “Political violence in America is morally unacceptable (at the current time).” In fact I’m having trouble imagining someone that would agree with his first premise, that most Americans are fascists, without believing political violence was acceptable. This post seems aimed at a constituency that I’m not sure exists, those that believe fascists are everywhere but are opposed to any political violence.