These are the actions of a weak dictator terrified that his enemies sense his weakness. Works on the same principal as lifted trucks.

I still haven’t played Wasteland 3 or Divinity Original sin 2 even though I own both. And Balder’s Gate 3 is due to get discounted at Christmas. At some point, you have to measure RPG purchases against your life expectancy.

Nobody wants to covalent anymore.

AI is like the office worker who’s the nephew of the CEO. They’re never going to go away, but can be useful for tedious work, so long as someone checks behind them.

When the federal government shows up to help… for free, suspicion is a valid response. Not to mention that the South has experience being occupied (not for long enough).

But the government putting people in camps for bullshit security reasons? Madness.

I had to look this up, In case anyone else didn’t know. DW.com is like NPR, but for Germany.

There was relevant scandal in 2020 where the Guardian reported on racism, misogyny, toxic work conditions, and antisemitism at DW. DW responded to these accusations by cutting ties with a partner news outlet from the Middle East, and firing a handful of employees after their socials were trawled for"antisemitism". (two of whom sued successfully for wrongful termination) DW also updated their code of conduct to read:

Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust is also a reason for which we support the right of Israel to exist

Which could be read as benign if we didn’t already know that Israel’s “right to exist” is a cudgel to label any anti-Zionist sentiment as antisemitic.

Go on Amazon, buy a skillet, don’t spend more than $25. Use this skillet to learn how to use and care for cast iron. Maybe it’s not for you, or maybe you’ll love it. Either way, you’ll know what to look for in cast iron.

What about the math where Elmo spends this money on ad-buys for X?

Billionaires never simply spend money.

There is a whole industry to transport Silent Gen and Boomer treasures to the landfill. Most commonly, a waste management company is going to park a construction dumpster in your driveway the same week you die. And there are hands for hire if your children can’t be bothered to go through your crap themselves.

There are also auction and estate companies that will try to get value out of furniture. That’s dying out though because IKEA doesn’t make furniture suitable for inheritance.

This is a Neoliberal anthem: rights are for citizens; employees need to sit down and STFU.

Why do we reject tyranny.gov, but embrace tyranny.com?

Idiocracy is a funny movie that I enjoy. However I’m disturbed by the number of people who say it’s a documentary, or a warning. That’s because the central premise of the movie (that humans breed wrong and if nothing is done, we’ll devolve and society will collapse) also happens to be the central premise of Eugenics.

IQ does show differences between the races. However, this isn’t evidence that white supremacy is correct. It’s evidence that IQ testing measures culture when it’s supposed to be measuring biology.

Race is constructed. Genetic, evolutionary, anthropological, and archeological evidence all point to shared ancestry and kinship. All the people’s of the world aren’t separated by near enough distance or time to explain a significant biological difference. And that’s ignoring the wide interbreeding that was always a thing. Remember Rome was cosmopolitan empire. Many of those Roman soldiers who marched down the first paved roads of London were swinging black cocks.

So what can we make of a so called “objective” measure of a “biologically determined” trait that hews to culture above biology? This isn’t just a bias that needs to be tweaked, the whole concept of biologically determined intelligence is a reification fallacy and IQ as an instrument is hopelessly broken and should be abandoned.

Embarrassing the Russians at sea, without a Navy of your own, is so hot right now.

IDK about projection, but if you convince people that a system is corrupt, they’re much more likely to cheat.

Considering that the Houthis have achieved so much more in the Red Sea than the Russians could manage in the Black, maybe the exchange of technical knowledge should be going the other way.

Nihilism (the philosophy) needs a new label. Like “retarded” or “manic depressive”, the common usage has overtaken the academic meaning. I’m not complaining, this is a natural and good process of language. Just saying we need a new term.

In the US, everyone has the right to a trial, in theory. However, if every defendant, or even a significant minority of them demanded their trial, the system would collapse.

To solve this problem. Prosecutors (lawyers working for the government) are given extraordinary power. They use their ability to charge any defendant with inflated charges that carry long jail sentences, then offer to reduce the charges if the defendant gives up their right to fight. Despite being obviously coercive and prone to force innocent people to confess, it’s perfectly normal, legal, and necessary to the US criminal system.

The idea of “political neutrality” is naive or bad faith.

What you want is a right-wing sub. They pride themselves on being centrist, reasonable, and uncontroversial. You’re going to get lots of radical ideology, but don’t take it seriously bro, it’s just a joke.

Left subs may seem obnoxious with their politics, but that’s just because we’re trying to persuade you with argument instead of tricking you with flattery.

For years I’ve argued that the gun lobby is for manufacturers, not owners. This is a concrete example of them prioritizing the former over the latter.

Do you hate Foucault because your a Marxist or a Petersonian?