domain:acoup.blog
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
23hr ago
It would seem like the "millionaire next door" approach would work plausibly for rich guys not quite rich enough to be public figures. Maybe that happens often enough (has golden handcuffs from startup acquisition, still drives a Prius), but I've never seen it explicitly called out as a strategy. If you're rich enough and a public figure such that Google knows who you are (doctors, lawyers), that seems harder.
Magusoflight
23hr ago
That’s fine, bring back the lash then. Have judges order public lashings. The effect will be similar, so long as delays in arrest - punishment aren’t too long
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
23hr ago
The soldier in the linked video (super interesting channel) mentions that the feeling of nearly dying is addicting and lead to beneficial life changes. Naturally, you have to ask “how can this be optimized”, and I concluded that the bunker experience is effectively already optimized.
Yeah, that's the bet all western jews are making. They think Israel is going to fall someday, and their political opinions are often a sublimation of that basic choice. Some take it one way, some take it the other, but it's just pre-survivor's guilt.
This is how the jewish people have survived thousands of years without a country.
self_made_human
Grippy socks, grippy box
23hr ago
I suppose one can definitely cut down on costs by avoiding eateries, pubs and clubs. As far as I can tell, that also removes the onus that draws most people to the city!
It's not just the restaurants and pubs, but the rent, desirable amenities like car ownership, and so on.
I'll keep an eye open for a Waitrose, I suspect there's one nearby, and if not, there must be a couple lurking even in my end of Scotland.
FlailingAce
23hr ago
Can I ask, what do you think is so bad about prison? If you're a homeless guy who goes to prison, you get a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in, three meals a day, and a certain amount of access to a gym, a library, and healthcare. If you're thinking 'freedom', well, there's negative and positive freedom, and a homeless, mentally ill person isn't positively free because they lack the resources and probably the wherewithall to actually do almost all activities, and are forced to spend much of their time scrounging for the basic necessities of life - in my opinion they may be more free in prison because their basic needs are met.
Can I also ask, on a totally different tack, in what sense is it unjust to send a law-breaker to prison? Why would you be morally 'bad' to do so?
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
23hr ago
The rules for what's allowed in the CW thread have always been extremely loose.
It would probably be good to encourage people to create more threads outside of the CW though, because then people might actually start looking at the non-CW threads more often!
TheDemonRazgriz
23hr ago
I would give a slightly unusual but wholehearted recommendation to start with Gundam 00 (my personal favorite of the franchise, and probably one of my favorite anime series in general).
It is fully standalone, so you don’t need to worry about Gundam continuity— while you’ll inevitably miss some of the thematic callbacks to the overarching franchise, the only one that really matters for understanding 00 is that the timeline is pointedly set in terms of “A.D.” time (where other continuities are given alternative labels like being set in “the year 0079 U.C.”), meaning it is supposed to be set in the future of the real world as opposed to a more vague sci-fi future; this is thematically relevant in that the show is really trying to say something about the structure of the world and about the trajectory and nature of humanity. Having been made in the mid-00s a lot of the themes and morals are, in my opinion, notably prescient and are still relevant today.
Without spoiling anything, I think the reason I like the show so much is that it’s one of fairly few anime (or any pop-cultural media really) that you can watch with your “literary analysis brain” engaged and actually get a payoff for it. Damn near every creative decision, plot development, and character arc is meaningful and analyze-able in a way that connects to the central themes and plot. For example this is the reason why my fiancee, who very rarely likes mecha anime, thoroughly loved it— there was always something to talk about after every episode, often something meaty too. I’d caution that it is a bit of a slow burn, but this is deliberate and the pace does pick up as it goes on. It’s definitely not a perfect show, there is filler (although less than in a lot of similar shows, and there’s never an outright wasted episode) and there were some production issues that do show at times, but never anything bad enough to really drag the show down.
Very strong recommendation as an anime in and of itself, regardless of being a Gundam series really.
Stellula
1d ago
I do not understand the point of this post in the “culture war roundup” thread.
This just reads like a travel blog. What are you getting at here? This seems like a lot of words to say: “I am Indian. I went to London and it was more expensive than last time. There are fewer English people here than last time I was here.”
What would your ideal follow up comment to this look like?
self_made_human
Grippy socks, grippy box
1d ago
I'm in the UK because I can't go to the US, at least as a doctor. If you want to know the underlying cause, it's to do with an issue with my med school. It needs a very specific form of certification, and both the Indian government and the NGO that provides it (American) have been of minimal help. I wasn't able to get the ball rolling while I was in India, and eventually decided that instead of wasting time, I might as well apply to the UK. If that hurdle is solved by the time I'm done with my current program, you bet I'm trying to leave.
Until then, I've mostly made my peace with the UK. It's far from the worst place to live!
netstack
Texas is freedom land
1d ago
Oh, most certainly.
It’s my pseudo-suburban wasteland that ought to ward them off. We get yotes and bobcats.
JarJarJedi
1d ago
- about 15 mins, 10 miles
- about 20 mins (it's really close to #1 actually but somehow google maps says it'll take 5 mins more to get there. Probably due to a bunch of 1-way streets aligned the wrong way).
- Depending on what you mean by "farm". If you mean anybody who grows stuff that people eat for profit, then about 3 mins walk. Or 10 mins walk into practically any direction, they are everywhere around (though house prices are squeezing them out). If you mean a larger production with serious machinery and volumes, probably 1-2 miles. Two literally nearest ones grow cows and corn, as far as I can see, but there are all kinds around here. In fact my neighbors across the road have a large field but I am not sure if they grow stuff commercially (I can't see very well into that part of their property and I was never curious enough to find out, but wouldn't be surprised), but if they do then the answer would be "right next door".
- If you need specifically Amtrak, about 250 miles. Though there's talk about building a new line - not sure how real, but if it happens, it'd be about 10-15 miles likely. There used to be train service there, but closed in 1990s.
- 4 miles, 10 min drive. There are other large shops closer than that.
- Nearest major airport is in about 10 miles, which can take you to every major hub around the US and some other places, but it isn't "international" anymore as the company that was doing flights to Canada doesn't do it anymore. Which I guess is good as it eliminates the need to maintain the whole international security thing. So the nearest international one would be in about 350 miles, though the one you'd actually want to use if you flying to Europe or such is about 650 miles and about 1.5 hour flight.
rae
1d ago
Great writing as per usual, although I'm not too sure what's the culture war angle here.
Your tidbit about inflation has left me wondering. How exaggerated is the purported social and economic decay in the UK? The impression I'm getting from abroad is some of the lowest wages in Western Europe coupled with extremely high cost of living. The salaries for some professionals are comparable to Eastern Europe even before purchasing power parity. Underfunded everything from education to the NHS. Yet somehow the price of goods and rent keeps climbing, especially in London.
Bartender_Venator
1d ago
Ah, you did get to my old neck of the woods. I took my first steps as a baby in the Natural History Museum.
There's a big price differential between the markup on pints/meals and supermarket stuff in London, for obvious reasons - those pints and meals have to be served to you by people who live in London. Personally, I find that Waitrose is comparable in price to non-Aldi/Costco US grocery stores for much higher quality.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1d ago
There are fairly common news reports of them in several California and Colorado cities that I can recall offhand.
the_Culture_is_great
1d ago
But if my only 2 choices are "throw them in prison forever" or "build free mental health clinics and maybe they will choose to use them
I would argue that if you pick door 1 in this thought experiment, you are a bad person. Almost certainly from a utilitarian perspective (life in prison vs small annoyances * some number of people, unless the number of people is ludicrously high).
I also want to stress that I'm not really caring about root causes either. Another solution that solves the problem in 1-2 years, if there was political will, and is also not abhorrent is: Build cheap-ass housing, screw the NIMBYs (probably compensate them tho), force them off the street.
The primary purpose of the housing isn't to fix the root cause. It's to make the force them off the street part morally justifiable because you've given them another option. (Plus it is likely to help the root cause, but that's not a load-bearing part of the argument).
NYTReader
1d ago
If you can't stay in the UK, have you looked into whether you can immigrate to the US?
hydroacetylene
1d ago
I mean, the winner of GDP per bear is probably some euro country with very few bears.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
middle or elementary school) principal
Yes.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
I mean, this is true, but also the, say, Georgian, upper crust did not get to marry the most attractive woman catching their eye, either. Part of marrying an upper class man has always been being an upper class woman.
In our society upper class men are marked by high salaries and upper class women by extensive education. They marry each other because they’re expected to marry class peers, not because those things are overwhelmingly important in themselves.
sodiummuffin
1d ago
People fall for specific individual people more than they fall for hypothetical lists of attractive traits. So the women rich men are interested in are often just the ones they happen to have contact with. Statistical differences between groups can't be assumed to reflect the preferences of those groups, they can also reflect who they have contact with in the first place.
Notice how even when they aren't peers they're often stuff like Arnold Schwarzenegger cheating on his wife with his housekeeper, rather than with some beautiful model. That's not "rich celebrities prefer housekeepers", he didn't cheat with some random woman employed as a housekeeper to someone else, he cheated with a woman he was actually in contact with. It reminds me of when people were questioning Jeff Bezos's marriage recently - sure he could theoretically pick between a lot of women, but she was the one he actually met via work.
For all these problems, whether it is homelessness or criminality like assaults and whatnot, there are two types of solutions. One is an immediate solution that simply puts a stop to the undesirable behavior, potentially by throwing the perpetrator in prison. The second attempts to address root causes that lead people to engaging in these behaviors in the first place. In my ideal world we would pursue both, as one does not exclude the other. But if my only 2 choices are "throw them in prison forever" or "build free mental health clinics and maybe they will choose to use them, maybe this will fix them and maybe in 10-20 years the problem will go away" I'm going with prison forever every time. The "prison forever" solution is guaranteed to make the problem (such as it is from my perspective) go away forever. If there is a homeless guy in the park there is really no chance of prison failing, in the sense that it is guaranteed to solve the problem I care about, that being that there is a homeless guy in the park I want to use. The other solution might work at some indeterminate point in the future. If there is a homeless guy in a park that I want to use there is only way to fix my problem tomorrow
I suspect China's relationship dynamics are more related to gender asymmetry than divorce laws. Or at least it's a huge confounder that merits consideration.
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