domain:natesilver.net
Throwaway05
2d ago
All of this below is somewhat moot in the sense that I'm not convinced that Ellison had Bipolar.
Disturbances in cognition exist on a spectrum from "this is not recognized pathology and is just my personality structure" (like a preference for scrambled eggs, a love of baseball, or being an asshole to your girlfriend because you are insecure about your small dick) to "this is purely something with an organic cause and blaming the person for their behavior is asinine" (a classic example benign example is a granny who is violent in the hospital because she's delirious and thinks she's is in a Nazi camp because of a UTI, a classic scarier example is someone who engages in a mass shooting because they have a golf ball sized tumor pressing on a few key structures in their brain).
Cases of the former are much more legitimate to blame (whatever that means) if love of eggs cause problems. Realistically insecurity about the small dick requires some sort of sex therapy or something if the person wants to stop hurting others and have a bit better of an experience of life.
Murder granny gets put in restraints and we treat her UTI and then everyone goes about their business and forgives her afterwards.
When it comes to things in the middle of those two extremes (that is, classic mental illness) we have a similar range. On one end you have personality disorders, like borderline personality disorder. These are in truth diseases of personality construction and really tease at what a "disease" is. It's easy to not feel bad for them (although I encourage you to) and this is true to the point where people don't want to give the diagnosis because of stigma (they give bipolar instead, relevance to Ellison?).
At the other end is one of: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder. You could debate which one and they are certainly interesting and have interesting impacts on how much sympathy and guilt we should feel (what do you mean a symptom of the disease is that he doesn't think he has a disease and that's why he doesn't take medication and then ends up hurting people?),
True Bipolar 1 with psychotic features is the most stark here. Again I doubt Ellison had this but this the most sympathy you can have. This is a person with a monster inside them that comes up abruptly and severely because they run a 5k and their metabolism of their lithium changes.
They go from total normal nice person to a violent felon who doesn't sleep, spends their entire family's money and does X,Y, and Z ends up in jail with HIV and then gets started on medication and then goes completely back to normal.
Some people do things that put them at higher rate of an episode, but many people commit no mistakes and still lose.
Living with that should increase sympathy, no?
Most people aren't as stark as the straw patient above, but that is what it can be like.
Tree
2d ago
Neither side is willing to let it “just be a fight.”
I don’t understand this perspective. Obviously the fair fight is Hamas/palestinian army versus IDF, and Hamas are the ones who refuse to fight it. Therefore, the blood of civilians is entirely on Hamas’ hands.
If throughout history's wars the defeated party's army said ‘we’re not surrendering, we’re just going to do terrorism in civilian clothes now’, genocide would be the routine consequence.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
If weed was confined to frat parties and the bar district, and hippie retreats that normal people avoided for fear of public nudity drills…
But see, as a society, we have this arrangement set up for alcohol. We have it set up for sexually oriented businesses and casino gambling. But we don’t have it for porn, or weed, or junk food, or sports betting or any other of these modern vices. And there’s incredible resistance to it for these things- where alcohol and strip club laws are mostly uncontroversial.
The_Nybbler
In the game of roller derby, women aren't just the opposing team; they're the ball.
2d ago
But even reduced, uneven acces to credit is a form of oppression.
Motte-and-bailey. Motte: Women weren't guaranteed equal access to credit, and sometimes didn't get it, prior to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Bailey: Women couldn't get credit at all without the signature of a male relative (Often coverture is mentioned, though that was largely eliminated by state legislation in the mid-to-late 19th century). The bailey makes a MUCH stronger case for "oppression", but it just ain't so.
Iconochasm
2. Bootstrap the rest of the fucking omnipotence.
2d ago
I think part of the reason the sight was so viscerally upsetting to me is that I think early childhood is a critical time to develop core physicality. Beyond the forced feminization, the forced passivity feels more akin to foot-binding or raising a vegan cat than religious beliefs.
But I don't think the comparison is entirely invalid.
Lizzardspawn
2d ago
It would be much harder to accuse Israel of genocide if they studiously avoided anything that hit the general populace. Water, power, etc.
I would say that Israel is not treated quite fairly here. Russia is way more indifferent to civilian casualties, they hammer the energy infrastructure of ukraine more, blew up a fucking dam and so on. And yet no one is seriously accusing them of being genocidal.
Israel decided instead of doing the fast, cheap and easy way - cover from end to end with napalm and throw a match, to actually put their men in street and urban fights. And also why no is accusing Egypt of starving Gaza when there is another border there. And in theory this is Egypt territory. And they didn't just throw some dry ice or lpg in the tunnels. Now probably not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they care of PR and anyway they are paying the price of a genocide anyway.
Thoroughlygruntled
2d ago
I've seen some countries have separate (generally shorter) lines for locals at major historical/cultural sites, which is something I can get behind. It only makes sense that people get first dibs on experiencing their own history. It's a little annoying as a tourist abroad, but I would be more than happy to trade longer lines at the Louvre if it means my kids won't have to get in line behind a bunch of foreigners to see Yosemite, the Declaration of Independence, etc.
functor
2d ago
The difference being Israels exceptional brutality, their politicians using references to biblical genocides and the high civilian death toll.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
2d ago
I don’t think I understand your cop-out unless you are saying “some women like bald men”
urquan
Every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
2d ago
· Edited 2d ago
If you know any lesbians and are under the age of 30, you're likely to run into at least a few lesbians who flirt with transitioning or transition. I had one friend from high school who had a bunch of dating struggles as a lesbian (I'm not sure dating women is easy for anyone), and then started flirting with pronoun changes. A not-entirely-small portition of these end up starting to date men after transitioning, too, becoming convinced that in doing so they would be engaging in the gayest, queerest, most countercultural form of sex. Of course, I'm talking about PIV intercourse.
(T is a hellava drug.)
I've also heard of, though never met, "FTM femboys," who as far as I can tell are women who transition to men who dress as women, which is again a bizarre way to arrive at basically heterosexuality. I realize that the femboy thing is distinct from femnininity proper -- try calling a trans woman a femboy and see how it goes -- but at some point the irony and the flip flopping just goes so far that I can't even entertain the logic.
FiveHourMarathon
Wawa Nationalist
2d ago
Anabaptists are the future.
quiet_NaN
2d ago
I am not watching the video, but I notice that the tweet said:
It will draw America into a war where they finally decapitate Iran and Syria.
The Assad regime did not end because Israel drew the US into a regional war. The US did fuck-all to bring about its end. In a nutshell, Israel took out Hezbollah, Turkey sponsored the Jihadists who defeated Assad and Russia did not offer less than usual military support to their ally because they were otherwise occupied.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
True, but they don’t help beat the allegations.
It would be much harder to accuse Israel of genocide if they studiously avoided anything that hit the general populace. Water, power, etc.
But of course that would come at some cost in Israeli lives. Understandably not popular in Israel.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
2d ago
Under a very loose definition of "ethnic cleansing", the IDF forcing Jews out of Gaza in the 2005 withdrawal (in some cases unwillingly) fits the definition, but is hardly the central example you're looking for.
DirtyWaterHotDog
2d ago
- Hoh Rain Forest and the short hall-of-mosses hike is unmissable. If you had to pick one. It has to be this. There is no place in the US like Hoh-rain-forest. Olympic national park is massive.
- My 2nd recommendation would be Hurricane Ridge and the Hurricane hill hike. Great drive, great views.
- Rialto Beach-> Hole in the wall is the perfect long stroll. The day I was there, the Pacific was roaring. Gives you newfound respect for this behemoth of an ocean. No other Ocean compares to the Pacific. The hike doesn't end at any point. You can keep going forward, but be wary of the tides.
- Cape Flattery is a nice short walk. The drive is amazing, if a bit out of the way. The views at Cape flattery are beautiful. And for cookie points, it's the lower-48's north western most point.
- Mt. Storm king is a short but demanding hike. The views are unbeatable. The last section has ropes and is a bit vertigo inducing. Still recommend it. I generally love this area. There is kayaking near lake crescent. And Granny's cafe has good food, as does the lake crescent lodge.
Some tips:
There are nice waterfalls in Olympic, but Oregon has the best waterfalls in the country. So nothing I can recommend would impress (Solduc, Marymere). Definitely spend one day up the Columbia river in Oregon.
On the way down from the Olympic, stop by the world's largest Sikta Spurce and the Tree of life. They should be 5 minute stops each.
Don't stop by Forks, Washington. It was popularized by Twilight. I passed through it, and the town made me feel uneasy. It's probably safe, but has the air of a sad place that's been left behind.
faceh
2d ago
Ding ding ding.
If gambling was a "once in a while, for fun" activity, or people smoked weed in their house and NOWHERE else, or people would only eat McDonalds once a week at most, then we absolutely wouldn't need any kind of laws in place, legalize it all.
But our brains didn't evolve that way, we want to gorge on certain things because in the ancestral environment times of true 'abundance' was rare.
My vice is fuckin' sugar. Right now I'm stuffing my face with candy that has 19 grams of it per serving. I work out like crazy to keep it from making me fat, but I'm well aware its just my caveman brain telling me I need to store up fat for the winter or something.
If we could just accept the basic idea that "willpower isn't enough", then perhaps the next discussion is what the appropriate time and place for things are, and how we should intervene to help those who can't control themselves well enough.
daguerrean
2d ago
and how he (probably, likely, definitely) had undiagnosed/untreated mental illness for a long time
I don't understand how this makes him more likable or sympathetic. I find it odd that people treat mental illnesses as something separate from a person that isn't reflective of the "real" them. But this isn't like some parasite was controlling his brain, his mental illnesses, if they existed, were just as intrinsic to who he was as his good qualities. I don't see how this is different from me saying "I'm really a nice guy I'm just suffering from untreated assholeism"
magicalkittycat
2d ago
The strongest criticisms of Israel involve the parts of it which appear profoundly uninterested in doing so. There are more of these than I would like
That's basically the first example Bryan Caplan gives in missing moods about why he doesn't trust the war hawks defense of civilian death.
What he expects is more like "It's a sad but necessary drawback to the messy reality of war that sometimes peaceful civilians are swept up as collateral" and yet instead often sees stuff more like "Hell yeah let's wipe them out, the only good [nationality] is a dead one!"
SSCReader
2d ago
If we're going to allow people to teach their kids there is an invisible man in the sky who judges them, then you're going to have to allow this. You can brainwash your kid into almost any belief set.
Personally I'd take banning this in exchange for banning exposing kids to religion until they are 18, but I don't imagine that would be too popular.
netstack
Texas is freedom land
2d ago
Sorry, I meant that in the general case of media selection pressure, not for Ken in particular. It’s just another filter.
phailyoor
2d ago
Even though they're outlawed and abhorrent, reprisals are still a frequent though unfortunate part of war and occupation. They have happened in many cases without a significant genocidal or ethnic cleansing objective.
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
2d ago
If you're an (American - also applies to some degree to other Western countries) progressive Millennial, assuredly one of your chief political formational points was the Iraq War, where, in addition to various other forms of propaganda, you'd be suggested to a huge assay of talking heads, "warbloggers" and the like piously intoning that this is all a part of a battle against Radical Islamic Terrorist and unless you want to support exactly the wars the Bush admin wanted you to support or a course even more radical, it meant that you loved and cherished not only cruel dictators like Saddam but also Radical Islamic Terrorism (and even neglecting to use this specific phrase might mean you're symphatizing with Islamists!) and all of this proved that you were a part of an eternal alliance of Islamists and Leftists and also that you were naive and America-hating and what have you. I'm not talking about the official Bush admin point of view, which tried to avoid direct implication of this being a war against Islam after a few false starts, but the general connected propaganda machine around the WoT.
Then it all went belly-up and Middle East turned into a fire pit and the people who made it happen never admitted anything. I suspect that offered quite an inoculation against similar rhetoric for many Millennials, lasting until now and giving flashbacks right now of similar rhetoric being used by people who were supposed to be a reaction precisely to Bush-era warmongering.
The conflict between various Muslim states and Israel (which, really, is what we're talking about when talking about "Muslims and Jews" here, since there's only one Jewish state) is rather more complex and goes back way more than the 00s War on Terror, but one of the reasons why they get jumbled up is precisely because Israelis themselves worked to jumble them up in the public view when they considered it advantageous to do so.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
You have described my feelings about marijuana. As with obesity, the real enemy is our culture’s allergy to moderation.
Your understanding of the bill and mine are the same, though I certainly see that I didn't word it correctly in the post you responded to.
But even reduced, uneven access to credit is a form of oppression.
Like, are we going to pretend that the moment Esso started serving gas to black motorists nationwide in the 1930's, that suddenly black motorists were completely unoppressed as a group? Having to navigate an environment in which you can get an essential good from some firms, and can't get an essential good from others limits your options and often mean you're left with a worse set of choices.
Edit: Typo
With bi-polar though for example, being on medication can literally turn you into a different person. My exes mother had bipolar and on medication she was a sweet Christian lady who baked cakes and wouldn't hurt a fly. Off it she was a foul mouthed, paranoid who lacked impulse control and used to beat her kids with metal coat hangers.
Which was the "real" her? The difference between a mental illness and just being an asshole, is an asshole can choose to not be so. With a mental illness you can't.
More options
Context Copy link