domain:philippelemoine.com
voters-eliot-azure
patently unbiased
23hr ago
Even so, my assessment is that above a certain threshold of "freeness", really existing free markets tend to do better than centralized or relatively unfree markets.
Agreed. Something something Boris Yeltsin visits an American grocery store.
Ideally, I think we should have the minimum number of regulations and laws necessary to prop up a functioning and trustworthy market, along with things like pigouvian taxes and legal nudges to help the market avoid market failures.
Agreed.
But I'll grant that some forms of these are not directly or indirectly propped up by government, and I'm not against light touch, effective regulation that minimizes the damage to society without radically limiting the speed of growth and innovation.
Agreed.
I guess the nuance is what requires the most attention right now. On the regulatory capture side, probably healthcare. On the market capture side, to be "on-topic", maybe Visa / MasterCard - although regulation certainly plays a role there, their competitive moat is network effects. It'd be a bummer to see my "credit card rewards" kickbacks disappear, but I also know that all of my purchases are 1-2% more expensive (at least) because Visa and MasterCard have to have their cut.
MadMonzer
Temporarily embarrassed liberal elite
23hr ago
there are no Etruscans
That the Etruscans were assimilated into the Roman Republic is a matter of historical record.
Gauls
The French consider themselves to be Gauls.
Picts
Controversial in Scotland, to say the least
Carthaginians
I'll give you that one.
Trojans
If we go with schoolboy history, the Romans disagreed. If we go with modern archaeology, Troy was continuously inhabited from the Neolithic through to Roman times, and the Bronze Age Collapse hit Troy after Mycenae, meaning that the Iliad story of "Troy was destroyed by a Mycenae-led Greek army in the late Bronze Age" is proven false.
Deliberate genocide happens, but it is the exception and not the rule.
Damn, I'm sad to hear this. This is one of those times when I had really hoped that I was wrong about what was going on.
The problem, at least as I see it, is that even with this realization it's been hard for her to break her habits. We go out to brunch and she still eats her little vegan salads. I tell her she should add some chicken or other protein to the salads and she declines. She still consults the app on her phone that counts all her calories for the day. It's hard for me to figure out what the line is between pushing her to be healthier for her own sake, and being outright controlling over her lifestyle. Do I just put my foot down and confront her, pushing her to be serious about her health?
Here's the thing about all of this. You can't really control her behavior, and trying to do so is just going to be crazymaking for the both of you. It's her problem to deal with, and hardcore eating disorders are things that have to be managed, not problems that can be solved. It seems like you're really worried about her (and rightly so!) but the last thing you want to do in this situation is to behave in a pushy, controlling, or confrontational way. The most likely result of that kind of behavior is further withdrawal and further entrenchment of the eating disordered thinking--it just feeds the disease. Instead, I'd encourage you to see yourself as her ally, her first line of love and support, and think about your relationship with her on those same terms, which is to say that the more you can love, accept, and support her as she is, the more she'll be able to positively use her own strength constructively in her own life. You can still express your concerns or worry when she asks for feedback (which I'd recommend that you do as gently as you possibly can!) but otherwise those feelings are yours to deal with as well as you possibly can. You can check out The Secret Language of Eating Disorders by Peggy Claude-Pierre, it offers great insight into the minds of the eating disordered.
I said in my earlier reply that it's a long road, she needs a lot of people in her corner, and she needs to choose to work on this herself, yadda yadda yadda, and I'm afraid all of that is still true. Is that something you can live with? Think about what's best for you in this situation without any regard for whether or not she's going to be able to change her eating habits. Can you still love this girl and be happy even if she's always going to be controlling about her eating and even if she stays underweight? If the answer to those questions is a yes, then I'd encourage you to start with accepting that this is likely to be a chronic issue for the duration of your relationship with her, and I'd also encourage you to seek out and find support for those of us that love our eating disordered partners and spouses. There's bound to be lots of heartache and many bumps in the road, and the better you can do with keeping your own metaphorical oxygen mask secure, the better your relationship with her will fare.
Regardless, I still wish you well!
voters-eliot-azure
patently unbiased
23hr ago
Woke people have their own ontology of what is man and a woman, what is justice, with their own prescriptions of how society should work with their own sins such as racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia or homophobia.
To be fair, people who are violently anti-woke also have their own ontology of all of those things. Man is John Wayne, woman is kitchen appliance / baby incubator (/s).
I agree though, generally, that the parallels are there (re: the content of your 1st paragraph) - but they'll be there for literally any ideology that posits that classes in society are arbitrary and not meritocratic. What makes this distinct from Marxism, to me, is that none of these things are centrally defined. It's a consensus-driven ideology, not a top-down prescriptive ideology. And there's quite a bit of infighting as well, which elsewhere I point out, kind of prevents it from leaving the fringes of the leftwing. Does Nancy Pelosi give a shit about transgenderism beyond the token "statement from the office of"? She certainly doesn't fight against it, true, but I don't think she's ever been claimed as an "ally".
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
1d ago
Bebop and GitS are not good, they have immaculate vibes but that’s about it. I think they’re mostly carried by nostalgia.
The hell is this, the Terrible Take Tuesday thread? Cowboy Bebop and GitS are not just good, they are excellent. The plot in Cowboy Bebop isn't that special (though that isn't what it's about), but overall both are great series.
oats_son
1d ago
Looking into it again... maybe, yeah. The LibsOfTikTok thing was pretty relevant to bring up for that story in particular. Trace never disavowed the hoax, and then he wrote another thing that was sorta relevant to it. It is also noteworthy that Trace waged the culture war outside of this forum in a more real way than almost anyone who has ever commented here with the LibsOfTikTok thing.
Trace has a history of being, I dunno, mentally unstable in terms of his online persona, with TheSchism and then this swearing off of the site. Given those two actions, I think it's fair to say that he was never very in love with the principles of this site in the first place, a "fair weather friend". I'm not in disagreement that rules like the one we operate under can be a burden, and that sometimes, it's best to drop all pretenses of fairness and tell people to bugger off, but since this is a public forum and low effortposters and partisans naturally select themselves out and everyone else can only just... reply to your posts, it's not a huge problem. In contrast, Twitter sucks. I've tried it and I found a couple profiles I like other than Trace, but the format doesn't really lend itself to good conversation like a place like this does. Everything peters out, Trace is fickle at best at responding to his commenters, character limit, have to click many times to continue reading conversations, etc.
Oh well. If he wants to join the McDonald's of websites, the Universal Culture melting pot shitstorm and thinks it's better, what can I say? I guess it probably is better for him since he wants more exposure.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
1d ago
Sounds good to me. Like I said, get the medical test, open and shut case from there.
Stonewall about the medical test... well...
Primaprimaprima
...something all admit only "TRUMP", and the Trump Administration, can do.
1d ago
Bebop and GitS are not good, they have immaculate vibes but that’s about it. I think they’re mostly carried by nostalgia. If you thought that was the best anime had to offer then I wouldn’t blame you for writing it off.
Most of my absolute favorite Japanese stories come from VNs and JRPGs rather than anime/manga. Although I do think there are some great anime-original stories. But if you like Ghibli movies I may not be the best person to give you recommendations, based on the alignment of our tastes. The only Ghibli movie I think is really great is Mononoke.
western civilization despised these people
Not only western civilization, also ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, rooted in the Near East; The Assyrian and Babylonian empires, also Egypt.
RandomRanger
Just build nuclear plants!
1d ago
Elections being held or not held is neither here nor there, it's perfectly reasonable not to hold them during wartime. Running the country under a constant state of martial law is however somewhat concerning from a liberal-democratic point of view.
The US could've pressured Ukraine into holding elections with the immense amount of leverage America possesses. If they stopped funding Ukraine the bottom falls out from the Ukrainian war effort. It's well within America's power to replace Zelensky. That's what BigGuy is actually talking about. The US however doesn't want to particularly stir the boat after all the rhetorical and emotional investment in Zelensky, plus it's more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic than anything productive.
All Ukrainian decisions are taken in an atmosphere that American patronage enables. If it weren't for US economic and military support, the war would've ended by now with a clear Ukrainian defeat.
This line of argument you keep making 'oh these people think the US is this unrealistic, omnipresent, hyperagentic state and others are merely reactive' is particularly inappropriate for a country like Ukraine which is so heavily dependant on American aid. It's unhelpful in general but egregious here.
The US invented the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF, NATO, Bretton Woods... America is a very big and rich country, highly interventionist, with many fingers in many pies. Not everything comes out of America but the US is very important.
hydroacetylene
1d ago
No, it’s proof of fearmongering campaigns succeeding at generalizing thé behavior of the bottom 20% of men.
There are various non-invasive tests for karyotype. If Mme Macron is 46XX, no court is going to order a physical examination.
Owens' only defense here is going to be "I was joking and everyone knows it, so my claims don't count as statements of fact." The US courts are surprisingly willing to accept that defence (see "pedo guy") but Owens calling Mme Macron a man consistently over several years makes it harder.
Can you run two inconsistent defences in a civil trial in the US? You can in a criminal trial ("I didn't kill him, and if I did it was self defence.") But in England that isn't allowed in a civil case. Even if she can, I suspect Owens doesn't ask for medical tests because it makes it harder to make "I was joking" stick.
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
1d ago
If Israel starves all Gazans to death, there would probably be a severe international response. We are seeing consistent public opinion shifts against Israel already. Mike Huckabee’s recent shift is a telling example. There’s also been a general shift against Judaism among the public. The question is how much Israel can torture the civilians before there is sufficient moral pressure to make them stop.
thejdizzler
1d ago
What? The Arabs living in actual Israel have full citizenship and famously have representation in the Israel parliament. If you're going to be a jew-hater at least get the facts right.
coffee_enjoyer
☕️
1d ago
Fascism can be conceived as the marriage between biological instinct and the State, and for this reason any fascist should note: the #1 most important thing is for your spokespersons to be biologically compelling, ie beautiful and strong. There’s a reason why Hitler perfected his voice and gestures and costumes in private, only allowing himself to be seen in select moments indicating strength — even at select times of day and in select lighting! You don’t want a non-masculine mid to ever be professing “fascism” in public. This is the real issue with the Jubilee video. It’s all Chad meme (always has been .jpg).
FtttG
1d ago
and with a country that is attacking all its neighbours?
As I've already pointed out in this thread, such a description applies to a significant chunk of Middle Eastern nations, which hasn't stopped them from signing peace agreements with each other in the recent past.
FtttG
1d ago
go into Gaza with the goal of occupying it for a few decades (in the knowledge that they will get a lot of their soldiers killed in the process)
Isn't that pretty much what they're doing now?
5434a
1d ago
Look through the adult section of downmagaz.net. Assuming that only the most popular titles are uploaded there the big brands are still going and there seem to be plenty of niches being served too.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
1d ago
While it hurt me deep in my soul to praise MS, compared to most of the walled gardens which have popped up since 2000, the PC is a rather open platform. Anyone can develop and distribute any game, no matter how disturbing or distasteful."Windows Defender has prevented the execution of Holocaust Simulator 3000.exe because it violates the PC content policy" is not a thing that happens.
Yeah, it's actually worse than that. Go on a retro journey and you'll find so many files that Windows Defender tries to block. Old official game patches, mods, cd-cracks. Now I'm told the cd-cracks are false positives, but I judge the sketchiness of gamecopyworld's array of mirrors not worth the risk. Side note, I can't believe gamecopyworld still exist, virtually unchanged from the early 00's.
Sloot
1d ago
Other prominent women in politics, including Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris, have faced these kinds of “secretly transgender” social media campaigns, the Wilson Center noted in a 2021 report on the “deeply misogynistic” trend. “These narratives tap into the trope of the duplicitous woman, implying that not only are transgender individuals inherently deceptive, but that this deception is responsible for the power and influence that these women hold,” the report said.
Another instance of “heads I win, tails you lose” feminist victimology. Calling a woman manly is misogynistic. Calling a man womanly would also be misogynistic. I imagine there is some jiu-jistsu or just-so story one can deploy to creatively yes_chad.jpg it.
functor
1d ago
The lives of peaceful Israeli Arabs are on average some of the best in the region.
They have denied most people living their citizenship. People are banned from living on the land the family has lived on for generations.
Why should they sign a peace deal with a country that wants 70+ of the land and with a country that is attacking all its neighbours? It is a concession with nothing to gain.
functor
1d ago
Has it? Have the Palestinians acted in any way that is significantly different from any other group? They are not really doing anything to different from any other insurgency.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
1d ago
My first thought was that she's being sued in Delaware, and in the United States, unlike Europe, truth is an absolute defense against slander and defamation. So getting a medical exam on record is likely to be Candace Owen's first order of business, and then it's over one way or the other.
I'm yet another huge fan of Gurren Lagann, but I won't defend it. Given why you didn't like the 1st few episodes, I doubt that you'll enjoy the rest of it. The whole series is based almost purely around the power of hotbloodedness and sheer force of will allowing you to overcome anything, and that aspect of it only escalates as it goes on, until it spirals completely out of control by the end. The reason I'm a fan of the show (and the 2nd movie, which I consider the superior version of the climax and ending) is that the show leans into this theme so incredibly well that, through sheer force of will, it makes the absurdity and stupidity work.
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