domain:astralcodexten.substack.com
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
8m ago
Do you have a major problem with your weight or is it a minor one?
My BMI is 40. When I was first put on antipsychotics, I went from 150 pounds to 300 in less than a year.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
14m ago
Or so he claimed when there was no chance of it happening.
SteveKirkland
24m ago
That econ history minor paying off just as well as my advisor said it would lol
Morgenland
30m ago
Do you have a major problem with your weight or is it a minor one? If your BMI is in a range 25-28 then I think that's fine, maybe even healthier in the long run than aggressive diet.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
30m ago
They actually don't like white people. If you listen to their podcasts or read their writing, they actually have nothing for disdain from them.
So very much this. IMO, it's one of their worst traits.
Sure, I might complain from time to time about the views of older "normie conservatives" — like my parents — but only in much the same way that I complain about my dad's tendency to reckless driving, or my mom's need to call me at random times to double-check her (basic) math. They're still my people, flaws and all. And yes, I'll take a Clarence Thomas, a Larry Elder, or a Ben Carson over a Richard Spencer any day.
curious_straight_ca
31m ago
Obviously something else happened! Industry, newspaper, modernity, computer. And yet. Is it so implausible that the prophet that spoke to the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden with love has something to do with progressivism? And is a break with "savagery"?
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
36m ago
The main problem is that these guys think that under the perfect 'no Christian egalitarian shit' system, they would be LORDS AND MASTERS.
They wouldn't.
Absolutely agreed when it comes to the Spencer set.
Meanwhile, there are those of us who want the "lords and masters" that we already have to stop with the lies and pretense, and just admit that they're in charge, and that they don't actually care what us "ignorant, servile, and downtrodden" peasants think. That, and preferably to have "lords and masters" who aren't Blue Tribers unremittingly hostile by nature to the continued existence of the Red Tribe as a culture.
(This piece in Tablet from B. Duncan Moench is somewhat relevant, though — as always — his solutions are a bit lacking.)
Like I keep telling people, I don't want us to replace meaningful elections where the people select representatives who wield power on their behalf with a semi-hereditary elite who believe themselves entitled to rule as they see fit without care what the peasants think, I want us to admit that this already happened generations ago.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
47m ago
I think some of these DR types are too racist for actual Christian reactionaries in real life
I'm not so sure, given that the Christian reactionaries I know IRL can get pretty racist, despite (or maybe even because of) being mixed-race in some cases (Elwood "Chief Red Cloud" Towner was not unique).
2rafa
53m ago
Respect for the wisdom and status of the elderly is a feature of many societies including those that Nietzscheans would not consider to practice slave morality.
roystgnr
56m ago
If the rough estimates Wikipedia collected are reasonable then you're a surprisingly good guesser.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1hr ago
You aren’t the typical user and A/B testing probably shows the typical user totally does order takeout food when the takeout app sends a push notification
FarNearEverywhere
undereducated and overopinionated
1hr ago
Julian wanted to bring back the gracious days of yore before the Christians turned it all to shit, and was frustrated that those shitty Christians managed to appeal to the people who should be following the lead of their betters:
- To Arsacius, High-priest of Galatia [362, on his way to Antioch in June?]
The Hellenic religion does not yet prosper as I desire, and it is the fault of those who profess it; for the worship of the gods is on a splendid and magnificent scale, surpassing every prayer and every hope. May Adrasteia pardon my words, for indeed no one, a little while ago, would have ventured even to pray for a change of such a sort or so complete within so short a time. Why, then, do we think that this is enough, why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism? I believe that we ought really and truly to practise every one of these virtues. And it is not enough for you alone to practise them, but so must all the priests in Galatia, without exception. Either shame or persuade them into righteousness or else remove them from their priestly office, if they do not, together with their wives, children and servants, attend the worship of the gods but allow their servants or sons or wives to show impiety towards the gods and honour atheism more than piety. In the second place, admonish them that no priest may enter a theatre or drink in a tavern or control any craft or trade that is base and not respectable. Honour those who obey you, but those who disobey, expel from office. In every city establish frequent hostels in order that strangers may profit by our benevolence; I do not mean for our own people only, but for others also who are in need of money. I have but now made a plan by which you may be well provided for this; for I have given directions that 30,000 modii of corn shall be assigned every year for the whole of Galatia, and 60,000 pints of wine. I order that one-fifth of this be used for the poor who serve the priests, and the remainder be distributed by us to strangers and beggars. For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. Teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to public service of this sort, and the Hellenic villages to offer their first fruits to the gods; and accustom those who love the Hellenic religion to these good works by teaching them that this was our practice of old. At any rate Homer makes Eumaeus say: "Stranger, it is not lawful for me, not even though a baser man than you should come, to dishonour a stranger. For from Zeus come all strangers and beggars. And a gift, though small, is precious." Then let us not, by allowing others to outdo us in good works, disgrace by such remissness, or rather, utterly abandon, the reverence due to the gods. If I hear that you are carrying out these orders I shall be filled with joy.
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
1hr ago
Old soc.history.what-if newsgroup had a rather notorious poster who believed that we should reinstate feudalism and was also perfectly OK with the idea that under feudalism he'd be an equivalent of a peasant.
FarNearEverywhere
undereducated and overopinionated
1hr ago
No one thinks we should beat old men because they can't cross the street fast enough. That's just silly.
That's slave morality right there, friend. The old and weak should know when to yield to the young and strong; if they're social inferiors, they should always be aware that they must defer to the squire and get out of his way, or better yet not get in the way in the first place. If they're equals or superiors, they should graciously yield (or, depending how far back we want to get, be slain in combat by the new, virile, younger challenger who ascends to the top of the dungheap over the corpse of the previous alpha).
Stefferi
Chief Suomiposter
1hr ago
Also the problem is that almost all modern paganism is a LARP. Since there are no unbroken continuities of pagan faith in Europe (apart from the Mari native religion within the Mari Republic in Russia - though Mari pagan organizations have cooperated with the Muslims in Tatarstan), any "revivalist" efforts are basically based on imagining what such a group surviving to modern age might look like.
Of course if you have a racist Asatru group or whatever, formed by people who have explicitly left the Christian tradition because they think Christianity is Semitic and cucked, you're going to have a group that's more racist than Christians on average, but that's also obviously pretty circular. Other pagan groups think otherwise - most pagans that I've met tend to be far left. It doesn't really explain in any way whether a hypothetical pagan Europe without Christianity would be more "based", or whether a hypothetical future one where Christianity has gone away would be.
SteveKirkland
1hr ago
I think you'd have to go back to the 1300s at least for British peasants to be as bad off as Indian ones.
2rafa
1hr ago
I think views on conversion in Hinduism vary widely by religious flavor since there are so many different kinds of Hindu belief. For example the Hare Krishnas, despite their new-age-cult reputation, are situated within Hinduism proper and obviously accept, embrace and proselytize to converts. Historically caste was based on profession and there were limited ways in which people could change caste (for example some Brahmins historically changed to the warrior/leader caste iirc). Today the system is more ossified. Converts to Hinduism who have no Hindu background almost always do so for marriage and so would become part of the caste they are marrying into; I know of some cross-caste marriages in India, I'm not sure which caste the children become. Hypothetically if some larger group converted to Hinduism they could be assigned a caste, although there has been a debate about whether the government might issue a "no caste" certificate.
Most Hindus have no problem with foreign converts to Hinduism and the Hare Krishna founder who brought it to the West is often quite respected by at least some religious Hindus, but perhaps it would be best to ask one of our Indian regulars like @self_made_human.
marinuso
1hr ago
A big reason for mass immigration is ease of travel and mass media.
And industrialisation.
Whether you were a peasant in India in 1750 or a peasant in Britain in 1750 didn't matter all that much as far as living standards go. Whether you're a peasant in India in 1980 or even have a minimum wage job in Britain in 1980 however, matters a great deal.
marinuso
1hr ago
Historically, Christianity presided over the most unequal period in European history.
Is that so? Medieval Europe at least did not have slavery in any great amount. That is actually fairly unique for the time period and for the kind of societies they had. The Roman Empire had chattel slavery of pretty much the same kind that would later be re-introduced to the European colonies in the Americas. It seems to have been an old pan-Mediterranean institution, that died out in Christian Europe and was reintroduced basically by cribbing from the Arabs, who had kept it.
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
1hr ago
I do not think that there is much emphasis on a process to adopt heathens into one of the castes.
I recall once reading online one Hindu arguing that there is no such process — that it is impossible for mleccha non-Indians to become Hindu — the best they can hope for is to be born Hindu in their next life.
2rafa
2hr ago
I would hope that my ideal regime would help to make me (and you) not a useless parasite. But perhaps that just means you have more self-awareness than me!
Capital_Room
rather dementor-like
2hr ago
I completely agree. All political radicals face this issue, no communist thinks they’d be a manual laborer on the collective farm, they think they’d be a playwright in good renown or an academic or on the politburo.
I keep telling people that my ideal regime — or any near it — would have me executed for being a useless parasite. And yet…
FCfromSSC
Nuclear levels of sour
2hr ago
You and Lewis are basically arguing against the weakest possible version of the anti-egalitarian position. No one thinks we should beat old men because they can't cross the street fast enough. That's just silly.
It's Chesterton, not Lewis, and the argument explicitly is not that people should beat old men because they don't cross the street fast enough. The argument addressed is:
Discipline for the whole society is surely more important than justice to an individual.
and
you must allow for a certain high spirit and haughtiness in the superior type.
and
Just as the sight of sin offends God, so does the sight of ugliness offend Apollo. The beautiful and princely must, of necessity, be impatient with the squalid and...
For this particular brand of argument, it doesn't get more sophisticated than that. There is no stronger version. That's the position, one can either accept it or reject it. @BurdensomeCount wrote quite a lengthy and well-argued post hammering on this exact thesis not too long ago. It's the point of view people argue from here when they cite Nietzche and start throughing around terms like "slave morality". It's the steeliest man of this particular viewpoint that there is.
2rafa
2hr ago
Again, I don't think I or @To_Mandalay are defending this viewpoint, but I've seen this perspective argued many times online. The argument is that for most of European modernity ancient philosophy, Greek and Roman texts, language, culture, architecture, aesthetics, poetry, theater and so on were core parts of the way young men of wealth and power were educated.
These texts obviously largely predated early modern Christian Europe, although the way they were interpreted did not. Even in the 19th century British imperial administrators learnt Latin and Greek (Classics), studied Classical Civilization, went on Grand Tours to see the remnants of Roman civilization and so on. They could quote Virgil and recite Greek aphorisms, and saw themselves in the tradition of their civilizations.
Therefore, as Mandalay says, the argument goes that even though they were (mostly) Christians, they retained some aspect of the pre-Christian or extra-Christian European identity, which held Christianity's egalitarian / slave morality aspects in check. As this faded by the mid 20th century, Christianity and its implications paradoxically or unexpectedly became more central to the way that elite culture imagined itself even though religious observance itself began to fade from the early 1960s.
As a former Hokkaido resident, I can at least advise you on some of the fun to be had there. As an aside, I personally don't enjoy Tokyo at all, but if it's your first time then it is fine. It certainly has the most stuff in general.
Cars are obviously the best way to get around Hokkaido, as trains are much more limited than in the south. I'm not sure how familiar you are with winter driving, but all cautions apply. The island gets extreme levels of snowfall at times.
For skiing, Niseko is the biggest one, very touristy but just as popular with the locals. There are a couple of ski resorts in the area, Grand Hirafu being the flagship. It's a fantastic mountain, good backcountry areas, spacious lifts, and mind blowing powder if you can catch it. Mt. Yotei is known as Hokkaido's Fuji and is available for backcountry tours, but it's a spectacular sight even if you dont ski it. Other favorites of mine (bearing in mind they are fairly out of the way) are Furano and Kamui ski links. Sapporo Teine and Sapporo Kokusai are good options right outside of the city.
Unfortunately hiking isn't an option in winter, but definitely look into snowshoeing if that's your thing.
For food, soup curry and jingisukan "Genghis Khan" are favorite Hokkaido specialties. Also, Hokkaido ramen is far superior to mainland stuff, especially if you like miso ramen. There is a "ramen alley" in Sapporo with a bunch of popular options. You can also get a great bowl at Chitose airport if you can't wait.
Susukino is the nightlife hub in Sapporo, but you might want to range a bit further out for a quieter izakaya experience.
Don't knock hitting the onsen after a long day of skiing, it's pretty unbeatable especially if you have access to outdoor baths which are wonderful in the winter.
Seicomart is the Hokkaido exclusive conbini so check that out for sure.
In general, Hokkaido is pretty spread out so be mindful of drive times compounded by winter conditions. If you have other specific areas in mind I can share what I know.
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