domain:kvetch.substack.com
TIRM
11mo ago
Reading a bit on it, around half of households don't pay federal income tax. So we're not unfairly including babies who don't file taxes.
Gdanning
11mo ago
Does he name any of these studies? Wheat outcompeting corn is unintuitive right off the bat
I don't see the study; as is unfortunately common in popular works, the book does not have standard endnotes or footnotes. But, the comparison is not between wheat and corn, but between teosinte and wild wheat, and teosinte ears were apparently very small, as he discusses. Note also that even today, wheat has much more protein, and more of most other nutrients, than does corn.
but I disagree with your definition of "taken seriously". Like I said Channers schizzoing out about COVID weren't taken seriously, even though they were right, and were making arguments that should have been addressed.
Well, it sounds to me that we are agreeing about the dangers of dismissing arguments out of hand.
HaroldWilson
11mo ago
Yeah I suppose there was the possibility of extension of presence/disregarding of the agreement but seems unlikely. As to the stars needing to align for the 'common people' to get their way; I'm not sure this is a useful statement generally because very rarely are the 'common' people so united as to say reasonably that they speak with one voice. On Afghanistan, I suspect your average American did not see it as a particularly important issue either way by the Trump era.
JTarrou
11mo ago
On what time scale?
Long term. Took the Roman republic a thousand years to bring about its own destruction, but I don't think we'll have to wait that long. But quite possibly beyond our lifetimes, for sure. You are correct that we have great material wealth at the moment, and that this defrays the impulse of the populace to demand greater power. Great wealth, like great power, tends to congregate in one place. Over time, peace and prosperity bring about inequality and disenfranchisement. Which brings about the great leveller of societies, war. The Romans fought several civil wars before becoming an empire, it is at least possible we will do the same.
Where was Britain's emperor?
Uh, on the throne? Unlike Rome, which kept the Senate as a vestigial cover for the power of the Princeps, Britain kept the monarch as a vestigial cover for their oligarchy.
JTarrou
11mo ago
Yeah, China has elections too. So does North Korea. Any more specific consultation than that is hardly necessary!
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
11mo ago
But, the comparison is not between wheat and corn, but between teosinte and wild wheat, and teosinte ears were apparently very small, as he discusses. Note also that even today, wheat has much more protein, and more of most other nutrients, than does corn.
roystgnr points out that's not really an apropriate comparison either.
I remember there was some autistic alt-righter that took the whole thing apart, I think I can find the link if you want. Trying to criticize a book of this size going purely off years-old memories probably isn't going to work out.
Well, it sounds to me that we are agreeing about the dangers of dismissing arguments out of hand.
Let's put it this way: I'm in favor of putting beloved-by-the-establishment pop-sci authors of Theories Of Everything on the same level as 4channers, and pub philosophers, whichever way you want to equalize them. If you're game for that, than we're in agreement.
token_progressive
maybe not the only progressive here
11mo ago
I don't follow sci-fi cons all that closely but I do follow some authors on Twitter Mastodon that care, and I recall them being pretty upset at the idea of Worldcon in China with Cixin Liu as a guest of honor (given his public positions on the Uyghurs). And I didn't remember the details mentioned below of accusations that an organization within China rigged the vote (by purchasing lots of voting memberships), suggesting the general Worldcon community wasn't a fan of holding Worldcon in China.
I was pretty surprised by your comments in this thread about the left giving China a pass... but I think there's a difference between business/media and individuals here. Left-leaning business and media rely on China's business enough that they don't they want to say much. But left-leaning individuals on social media have plenty negative to say about China's government in my experience. Some of it complaining about Disney appeasing China.
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
11mo ago
Unrest can be imagined as a product of two factors: intertribal hate, and intertribal proximity. The more unrest there is, the more people sort themselves, reducing proximity. But the more proximity is reduced, the more interpersonal connections are severed, the larger our capacity for hate grows. Expressing hate requires methods for doing so, which work on specific configurations of proximity and hatred; new methods of expressing hatred must be constantly developed and disseminated, which takes time. All of this means that there will be peaks and troughs, but there will also be baseline fundamentals, and a trend.
We are, right now, as far from a federal election as it's possible to get, and Blue Tribe currently holds the reins of power. For these basic structural reasons, we have most favorable conditions possible for a lull, and they will not last. We are going to have another election, and no matter the result the basic tribal split will get worse. Reds are not going away. Blues are not going away. No progress has been made on their axiomatic disagreements. Grudges continue to accumulate. Conflict-resolution mechanisms continue to erode. Both tribes continue, daily, to search for ways to express and instantiate their hatred for each other. Such methods will be found and implemented, and the process of division will continue, in fits and starts, until its logical conclusion.
Or maybe I'm wrong. The elections next year seem like a reasonable milestone. What are you expecting?
HaroldWilson
11mo ago
Oh come on that's hardly analogous. Those elections, as you well know, only allow government-approved candidates; there is no choice or consultation. It's ironic you should say that given that, as Skibboleth notes, it is often nominally Marxist regimes and their defenders that deploy the argument that liberal democracy is a farce that thwarts the real Will of the People, which can only truly be fulfilled by an authoritarian leadership.
Gdanning
11mo ago
I'm in favor of putting beloved-by-the-establishment pop-sci authors of Theories Of Everything on the same level as 4channers, and pub philosophers,
Well, if the 4channer and pub philosopher assembles as much evidence as Diamond did, sure. But I don’t see the point in summarily dismissing an argument simply because it is a theory of everything, nor because it is beloved by the establishment. Not to mention that that leaves no bottom rung for theories of everything written by journalists.
token_progressive
maybe not the only progressive here
11mo ago
I'm not familiar with local politics in Jacksonville past hearing from multiple people that the Florida State Democratic Party is incompetent, if not actively working against their stated ideals, including actively pushing away people wanting to help. Maybe the local party in Jacksonville is better or you can find some local politician you can connect with, but the other approach might be looking into local citizen lobbying groups that care about the issues you care about like a local branch of Strong Towns, a local transit organization, or something else. One way to find such organizations is looking for lists of endorsements of candidates with views you agree with, but other than that I don't have any ideas.
I don't think "blue politics" is a meaningful term if you're talking about policy on housing and public transportation. Most large cities in the US are dominated by the Democratic Party and there are major intra-party arguments over the appropriate policies, and to some extent they are issues that cross party lines (e.g. YIMBY free market arguments may appeal to some Republicans). Looking at Donna Deagan's campaign website, "zoning" is mentioned quietly in one section and transit isn't mentioned at all. My interpretation is that she's unlikely to make big changes on either, but maybe I'm missing some local details.
A few states have been making zoning law changes at the state level recently because the local levels haven't been willing to do anything. But some of that is that no one municipality wants to make a change while their neighbors don't, so zoning at the state level fixes some coordination problems. Jacksonville's weirdly large size (compared to other urban areas where the metro area is legally organized into many more municipalities) might make it easier for zoning changes to happen at the municipality level.
bolido_sentimental
11mo ago
Has anybody here ever tried tai chi?
I can't quite get a handle on if it's a practice which could provide real benefits in terms of flexibility, coordination, etc., or if it's just a meme activity.
I find myself thinking about it mainly because I keep driving past a tai chi studio and I wonder what they get up to in there. I imagine it's not the optimized/minmaxed exercise mode for strength, cardio health, or anything else, but I'm tempted to go take a class or two anyway just to say I did, and to meet the kinds of people that do it. Curious to hear your experiences.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
11mo ago
Different election results do yield different policies. The structure of the US government, however, means that there is heavy status quo bias - 50% + 1 is not adequate to radically alter policy.
Weird... the word on the street in Europe is that the Anglo "first past the post" system makes things a lot more amenable to change, in contrast to coalition in-fighting of continental parliaments.
I'm going to need you to elaborate, because this looks like a complaint about being unpopular and a wheeled goalpost.
The "demonization" complaint might look that way, but censorship? If something was unpopular you wouldn't need to shadowban it, or ban it outright.
orthoxerox
I realized I can change my flair color to Barbie pink
11mo ago
No, it lowers property values.
Well, if the 4channer and pub philosopher assembles as much evidence as Diamond did, sure.
Yeah, but that's not how it works. Look, I found the video taking Diamond apart. Full of evidence, and it's better presented than Diamond's, but no one is going to put them on equal footing. This is a systemic failure in our society, we constantly promote half-baked nonsense, and bury it's criticism.
But I don’t see the point in summarily dismissing an argument simply because it is a theory of everything, nor because it is beloved by the establishment.
I do. What are the chances of someone discovering a proper Theory of Everything? In history / social sciences they inevitably turn out to be self-congratulatory stories we tell ourselves, the evidence turns out to be misrepresented in various ways, and counter-evidence turns out to be left out (deliberately or otherwise). These sorts of huge theories require huge amounts of effort to refute them (the video I linked is a mere 2 hours and 46 minutes for example), so at the end of the day it seems the appropriate reaction is "cool story, bro" not putting the person on an interview circuit.
Not to mention that that leaves no bottom rung for theories of everything written by journalists.
I don't see why we have to pull up journalists from their rung.
orca-covenant
11mo ago
There's an interesting hypothesis (postdating Diamond? I think I loaned out my GGS copy a decade ago and never ended up getting it back...) that potatoes (even better nutritionally than corn) might not have been an advantage for civilization in particular because "leave it in the ground until you need it" doesn't reward the sorts of planning and storage and trading and so forth that lead to large scale social organization ... but maize is the same sort of "harvest it in season and dry it and store it" crop as the Old World grains.
Sounds like a hypothesis mentioned in James Scott's Against the Grain. (Although, weren't potatoes a staple on the famously centralized Inca empire? I might be wrong)
TheDag
Per Aspera ad Astra
11mo ago
what_a_maroon
11mo ago
No. It was generally due to these cities being settled before cars were in widespread use.
I don't think this is a good explanation. This is Jacksonville in 1914. This is the same location today. It had transit and density, and like most US cities, probably removed it after cars started becoming common.
deleted
janeerie
11mo ago
Yes, I would be extremely put off by either of these suggestions. God, I am so glad I don't have to date anymore.
roystgnr
11mo ago
They were. (though apparently they could be preserved by poor-man's freeze-drying in the cold mountains, via an Incan staple food "chuño"?) I don't recall any other ancient place potatoes were a staple, either. They didn't make it to North America from South America directly, they made it via Europe.
I don't understand the Inca Empire at all. If I were to name obstacles to their growth, "their food plants were too awesome" would be low on the list, way behind "their territory was a thousand mile strip of poorly navigable mountains and their best boats were rafts".
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
11mo ago
As silly as it may sound, this is one of the things that made me go full-tinfoil. Is there anyone happy with the current dating scene? Well, JhanicManifold is, I suppose, but how did we let it come to this?
I mean, it says something about their commitment that their models come much closer to explaining modern geology through a global flood than they do to explaining modern biology through a literal garden of Eden, which is the opposite of what you would expect from grifters.
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