domain:youtu.be
WandererintheWilderness
1d ago
The real mistake was the left wing's decision to alienate Musk.
It's all a bit chicken and egg, but I rather think he alienated the left, not vice versa.
This is perhaps the most charitable possible reading.
I don't see what it has over the theory that two narcissistic Machiavellians who both believe they run shit clashed and the one with the guns won.
I don't believe that Musk is 100% truthful and transparent, he's uninhibited (but not so much that he doesn't know what he's doing. As someone said below, he manages to ride the line in terms of how he signals dissident right stuff which implies he knows how controversial it could be).
Even if we write off his optimistic estimates about his various products, there's still things like him calling the cave diver a pedo without much the evidence. That fits more with him just being an asshole. Assholes are always telling it like it is, in my experience.
Shrike
1d ago
You can see how running for office as "that insurer who denied you the care that you wanted" might not be popular even if it is fiscally smart.
Things he could not possibly believe
I'm not sure about this. Sam Harris' account of his bet with Elon indicated that he's way higher on his own supply than I thought.
He included a link to a page on the CDC website, indicating that Covid was not even among the top 100 causes of death in the United States. This was a patently silly point to make in the first days of a pandemic. ...Elon and I didn’t converge on a common view of epidemiology over the course of those two hours, but we hit upon a fun compromise: A wager. Elon bet me $1 million dollars (to be given to charity) against a bottle of fancy tequila ($1000) that we wouldn’t see as many as 35,000 cases of Covid in the United States (cases, not deaths).
And it also showed how that happens:
5.A few weeks later, when the CDC website finally reported 35,000 deaths from Covid in the U.S. and 600,000 cases, I sent Elon the following text:
Is (35,000 deaths + 600,000 cases) > 35,000 cases?
6.This text appears to have ended our friendship. Elon never responded, and it was not long before he began maligning me on Twitter for a variety of imaginary offenses. For my part, I eventually started complaining about the startling erosion of his integrity on my podcast, without providing any detail about what had transpired between us.
Thing is, this seems to have happened in private (at first). So it wasn't purely a matter of grandstanding for his proles.
Whatever his problems, Harris will at least tell you what he thinks. You start behaving like this with Twitter "friends" and you end up surrounded by Ian Miles Cheong types sucking your nuts and then all of the epistemic brakes are gone.
WhiningCoil
1d ago
Only thing that would have made it better is if the execution came at the end of several intractable arguments where the victim was repeatedly accused of being too hard headed.
Also I kind of want to see the whopper of a cromag skull this guy was sporting.
NewCharlesInCharge
1d ago
He gets a lot of credit for having been a political prisoner.
They will have the choice of how much to care for them. Also, cuts doesn't mean abolishment. Balancing the budget for SS and Medicare means less care, not no care, especially if combined with a mild tax increase, which seems it could be sold through everyone having to do "their part".
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
1d ago
So who is really the odd one out here? The people who have managed to propagandize nigh every western institutional and intellectual space to deliver their message, or the people who periodically pop their heads out of the ocean of left wing propaganda to pissedly proclaim that you can't propagandize everything... Before diving back in.
I'm partial to "propaganda works", but clearly it has it's limits. Why else are they freaking out over Joe Rogan? If they conquered all spaces so thoroughly, shouldn't he be no threat to them?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱέ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν
1d ago
Ok can you recommend some good anime for me? With a good dub ideally.
WhiningCoil
1d ago
I'm still slowly making my way through The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective. I know there was an update 50 year version, but I'm not sure I care.
It's a lot. I've read my share of Harlan before. But getting through 200 pages of Harlan is significantly different from 1000 pages. Harlan is such a committed misanthrope, it really starts to wear on you after enough of it back to back. And of course, in this collection especially, there is an emphasis on how much these stories relate to Harlan the author. Little tidbits about Harlan are included by the editor in short prefaces to each section that lay bare how autobiographical many of the stories are. Many of his characters have had 4 divorces just like Harlan. Many of them are short, or did a brief stint in the army, or ran away from home, or had their father die young, or have spent time in jail, or are also authors.
Funnily enough, few of his self inserts copy his famously cantankerous nature. They are just obviously correct about most situations. I guess every author has his blind spot.
He really doesn't disguise his self inserts that much, but they also never meet good ends. They serve more for self flagellation than wish fulfillment.
All in all, past the first 300 pages I find it to be a challenging read, an exercise in spiritual endurance. But I'm past the 600 page mark and the end is in sight so I'm trying to commit to reading it more. I have other books I'd like to get through that I anticipate being brisker reads.
hanikrummihundursvin
1d ago
That's the fault line in all of this. The outgroup is stupid cattle that needs to be herded.
I see a lot of the more liberal centrist aligned people huffing and scolding the 'left' over their inability to understand why Joe Rogan exists in the first place. How dumb the 'left' is for not recognizing that it's their own suffocating need to propagandize everything for the correct cause that creates the space Joe Rogan can occupy. But there's a small blind spot there as well.
To an extent the viewpoint that everything needs to be propaganda for the cause, and that everyone who isn't a true believe is just stupid cattle that needs to be herded and 'educated', has proven more correct than not. It's hard to find an intellectual hobby that has not been colonized or is in the process of being colonized by 'left' influence. Books, movies, TV, video and board games. For the past two decades practically every major hub and media outlet for these things has been taken over. And the stupid cattle still earnestly engage with it.
So who is really the odd one out here? The people who have managed to propagandize nigh every western institutional and intellectual space to deliver their message, or the people who periodically pop their heads out of the ocean of left wing propaganda to pissedly proclaim that you can't propagandize everything... Before diving back in.
Rov_Scam
1d ago
I think the problem is less centering one's life around politics as it is centering one's life around politics but not going beyond vague, slacktivist methods like calling people out on social media or even attending protests. Actual politicians and people who work for political or community organizations for a living don't seem to have this problem. If she were concerned about the "little people" who Trump was supposedly leaving behind, it might have done her better to do legal work for people who couldn't afford her services, or get involved with a charitable organization, or even picked up litter along the side of the road. It's not like there aren't a lot of people out there looking for volunteers. But I don't think that was ever on the table because I think her political centerdness was downstream of mental health problems, not the other way around.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱέ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν
1d ago
Hah that's fair. It is intense for sure.
Shrike
1d ago
A lot of Americans who aren't part of those groups will be taking care of those groups if Social Security and Medicare are cut.
Tanista
1d ago
Elon isn't an idiot.
He does however have a history of aiming high and then working it out if he doesn't meet his deadlines.
He gets somewhat of a pass from people (going by Tesla's share price) because it's assumed he'll eventually get to whatever he shot for but this obviously doesn't work in a time-limited, government position like DOGE.
Who are they even pillaging it for? Dems are more PMC now so they are hardly all low income
Which explains Biden's abortive attempt at college debt forgiveness.
thejdizzler
1d ago
I just finished my 102nd book in Spanish yesterday! I've been learning spanish for about 5 years now, and reading has been a great way to improve in the language (the other things I do these days are watch Netflix/YouTube and take lessons once a week with a tutor on iTalki). Full list of books here, but some favorites below:
Olvidado Rey Gudú by Ana Maria Matute. Mix of Game of Thrones and a fairytale, nothing like it in English. The central premise is that the main character has been cursed (or blessed) with being unable to love. There also is no English translation, so you have to be able to read Spanish/Italian/German to be able to enjoy it. Longer review here
Crónica de una muerte anunciada by GGM. This is a who-dunnit but rather than a search for the murderer it's a search for the reason that the whole town allowed the murder to happen. This one has a pretty unreliable narrator, and has been increasingly fun on re-reads as I try and piece together the real motivations of the various characters.
Los cuerpos del Verano by Martin Felipe Castagnet. This is a short science fiction novella about a world without death where bodies are recycled. Probably one of the more depressing (but realistic) takes on trans-humanism I've seen in science fiction. My longer review here.
Castilla en llamas by Calvo Rúa Alberto. Non-fiction about the rise of the house of Trastamara (whose most famous monarchs are Isabella and Ferdinand). Probably one of the best arguments against monarchy ever: every time the King of Castille dies there's a civil war for succession in this period. The book did a good job of storytelling rather than just name dropping facts and people.
Translations of Joe Abercrombie: I love the first law trilogy, and these are some of the best fantasy translations I've come across.
And herein lies the big reason as to why the pro-choice side has to fight using misleading arguments; they have actually very good, defensible arguments, but they're technical, philosophical and feel bad to say. Like pointing out there's no easy answer as to when consciousness or life begins. It feels like you're telling pregnant women their fetus isn't a real human. At that point you might as well tell pet owners their pets don't love them, they just want food.
It feels much better when you frame it as defending some highly sympathetic but non-central cases like rape victims than as denying a maybe-baby's humanity.
Same with the "it's my body", " I can chose whether to have a medical operation"/arguments, technically correct and mix it with the previous argument and it's convincing to people with ethics brain. Doesn't code as nice and empathic.
Not my opponents actually, I'm not on any side in this. But pro-choice is pretty much tautologically against the compromise I gave, because the "choice" in the name of their movement is the mother's, not a police officer's, a doctor's or an ethics panel's choice.
They might take a compromise on timing, but not on reasons, because those are no one's business than the mother's.
pigeonburger
1d ago
Oh, okay, I musunderstood you
WhateverHappenedToNorman
1d ago
Half a decade, tops.
The time to become fiscally responsible by just cutting expenses was 30 years ago. Today we'd need to become fiscally responsible by cutting expenses and raising taxes. We won't voluntarily do that now either, so barring a miracle we'll eventually be forced to do it later (when lenders no longer imagine getting paid back for US treasuries and stop covering our deficits), and we'll grossly inflate away the US dollar too.
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