domain:forecasting.substack.com
Bartender_Venator
14m ago
Yeah, true that a lot of people with polisci degrees don't end up in politics, just in generic white-collar world. You do actually have to be able to climb those status hierarchies to make it worthwhile entering them. But my experience of DC libs is that they're big on "successful liberals live like conservatives". The end goal is absolutely 2.3 kids on a leafy street in NoVA/Maryland (paid for by Joe Taxpayer, you're welcome).
I guess if I had to pick a particularly marriage-minded demographic it'd be non-engineers in tech. Normie values and ability to get a partner young, tech-adjacent salaries. Lawyers, too, the ones who don't give up their 20s to the biglaw grind. Stability, I think, is very important, and the modern economy doesn't provide it in that many places.
AvocadoPanic
23m ago
Alas, importing Japanese style intensive fat-shaming is unlikely.
Could we import active, fit, elderly Japanese men to make us feel like lazy fatties?
AvocadoPanic
33m ago
Diet Dr Pepper tastes more like Regular Dr Pepper
SteveKirkland
33m ago
Not terrible?! Those are entry level wages at Costco for guys who didn't finish high school! And customers there won't stab you as often as public school students!
Tenaz
37m ago
That's fair. Everyone I knew wanted to be a government official though and ended up elsewhere.
I haven't thought about the major much in a while but it's still a bit embarrassing to have forgotten that path.
Tenaz
40m ago
EA--educational assistant?
I just asked; learned I was wrong and her assistants are "technicians" and make $20-25 an hour. Pretty much what you're describing with the alternate licensure program. Not great for a male college grad, but not terrible.
SteveKirkland
40m ago
Cows don't "produce" CO2, they're part of the biological carbon cycle, like rotting leaves and compost piles.
Intentionally conflating the release of geologically sequestered carbon through fossil fuels with the natural carbon cycle is unforgivably dishonest vegan propaganda that needs to be stomped out thoroughly.
Whoever told it to you is a malicious liar you should hunt down and punish for trying to fuck with your understanding of the world.
AvocadoPanic
44m ago
Much of the land used for grazing would be unsuitable for other agricultural purposes. Without the ranching the land would be unproductive. How do cows produce carbon monoxide?
zeke5123a
55m ago
But isn’t this the whole discussion about illness v disease. There are a lot of things we call “diseases” that are diagnosed via the DSM. But is there a blood test for say anxiety? Is there a scan for depression? What about being gay (which prior DSM’s treated as a mental illness).
I know this is veering into Szasz (and Caplan’s points).
zeke5123a
59m ago
Psychiatrists do dole out meds. But the efficacy (and why) is questionable. I read that exercise seems like it results in a better outcome.
Are you a psychiatrist? If so, that obviously gives you special insight but also clearly a bias.
zeke5123a
1hr ago
What do you do with a political science degree? Go to law school of course…
zeke5123a
1hr ago
Go and say ten Hail Marys for this post….
Said of course in jest but Mary was clearly important.
SteveKirkland
1hr ago
Starting to realize why the school board rejected your generous offer to personally give every student aides.
Gaashk
1hr ago
I'm also working at a school with a lot of EAs, and have not encountered this even once. Aid positions are for those without degrees. Aimless men are substitutes, or go into alternate licensure programs. Perhaps this is a regional difference?
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
1hr ago
No, the Palestinians would not only continue to fight among themselves but also fight with their neighbors.
Tenaz
1hr ago
Political science is a field I was very interested in before I looked into the career prospects. It sounded super fun so I guess I associate it with other "fun" majors like creative writing. I'm willing to believe there are some good prospects in the field, but everyone I know who went into it graduated with a Bachelor's and then got an unrelated office job if they were lucky. One of my wife's aides is a political science major. I think it's a field where if you're 2-3 SD's above average, which should be typical for people on this site, you'll do fine, but the average guy won't find much success there.
I definitely don't think DC is the place to look for a wife and children, though. A girlfriend maybe, but the DC public policy crowd has got to be super progressive, and the women consequently not in any rush to have kids, right?
I don't know any non-STEM graduates who are anywhere near marriage, while literally every STEM graduate I know is already married and starting to have kids.
Tenaz
1hr ago
Modern society values femininity more and motherhood less than it used to, leaving the total prestige of motherhood more or less unchanged, but the relative prestige greatly diminished. Women seeking status have better alternatives now than motherhood.
I believe fatherhood and motherhood to be people's highest and most noble roles. There's a reason God generally has us call him Father rather than Friend, Boss, or King. It's good that we value women more now than we used to (if we actually do anyways--I didn't live back then), but if this change had happened without motherhood being correspondingly diminished, the family would have grown more important, not less.
MaiqTheTrue
Zensunni Wanderer
2hr ago
I don’t see resigning as a good answer here. If you resign you are personally absolved from having to make the decisions that will come up, and also unable to guide the response. It’s a cowardly way out. You know what will happen, you know what it likely means for history on both sides. You just don’t want your personal name on it.
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
2hr ago
I don't deny the existence of mass psychogenic illness. I agree with Scott that it's the most reasonable explanation for things like bulemia, or even gender dysphoria.
I entirely reject that it covers the majority of psychiatric conditions, especially the ones I mentioned, which also happen to be amenable to therapy.
You'll find that the "incidence" of most diseases sky rocketed in short order over the past century. Mainly because if we don't know a disease like that exists, due to a lack of diagnostic tests or plain awareness, there won't be a diagnosis.
AvocadoPanic
2hr ago
Wouldn't there still be peace?
self_made_human
Kai su, teknon?
2hr ago
Better? As far as I can tell, yes.
Unless there's some identifiable treatable organic cause for the anxiety, mood or personality disorder might the patient improve just as well be guarding against and rebuking the demons of pride, envy, sloth, lust, etc? Especially if most of the available therapy interventions perform as well as each other.
We do have identifiable organic causes for many psychiatric illnesses we did not, within living memory, once have. Subtle and variable ones, but what can other answer can you expect when asking a question that involves most psychiatric diseases under the sun?
I fail to see how the latter follows at all. It's not like therapy is the only tool in the arsenal, psychiatrists are not psychologists, we dole out meds too and once again, they work, even if some of them aren't as effective as could be desired.
Tollund_Man4
2hr ago
This is just a pathological level of oversocialization, to have even had these thoughts occur in your mind
I phrased it in the abstract but this was a real situation which led to an argument with an angry old woman!
The whole point of a queue is to serve in order of arrival, and you arrived first. . . You WANT the system to reward good judgement and punish bad judgement!!!
I agree my judgment was better and put me in the right. though technically I arrived at the correct stop first whereas everyone else was waiting in the rain before I showed up.
Jesus Christ. I wish I knew you, so I could take advantage of you.
What do you want me to say to this, what's your deadlift 1rm?
Would the US still arm a party to the conflict?
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