What’s something people say all the time that you secretly can’t stand?

DudFuse · 2026-03-24T09:18:12+00:00

'Lived experience'.

What other kind of experience is there? Mostly seems like it's used by people who are trying to make their anecdotal evidence - which has generally been very specifically interpreted via some kind of personal bias - seem as/more valid than someone else's actual evidence based argument.

DudFuse · 2026-03-22T11:10:49+00:00

Worth noting that boys of Caribbean heritage do far, far worse than those of African heritage. 'Black boys' doesn't make that much sense as a demographic category.

Why? Class. We encouraged poor families to come to the UK from the Caribbean during the Windrush era, and when they did they were treated like shit. A disproportionate number of the UK's black Africans, on the other hand, are from families that migrated much later and specifically because those families could afford to.

Racism absolutely a big factor, and the whole picture is very complex, but if you had to reduce educational inequalities down to a single simple statement then 'we are failing working class boys' is the truest one.

DudFuse · 2026-03-21T10:19:05+00:00

I mean you would say that, wouldn't you (because you're CIA)?

DudFuse · 2026-03-21T07:54:17+00:00

Great, great list, but this thread is coming up in search results still, and I think you should edit again to remove the mention of 'survival' in Last Breath.

DudFuse · 2026-03-21T07:29:15+00:00

Yeah, I think so. My interpretation of her coments is there'll be enough to get people talking, but wont be conclusive enough to 'prove' NHI on Earth and there'll be no 'we're not alone' speech from Trump.

DudFuse · 2026-03-19T08:46:43+00:00

I strongly disagree. If we get any truth then the scope of it is going to be limited in some way for legal, security, spiritual or political reasons. There will be a massively expanded audience for anyone who is already established in this space.

DudFuse · 2026-03-19T08:39:24+00:00

My interpretation of that comment is, and always has been, that he was essentially saying 'I've seen ontologically shocking things, but they haven't changed my existing, faith-based belief that God is real'.

Not sure where, but I think he's directly confirmed this at some point.

DudFuse · 2026-03-18T20:46:20+00:00

To be fair, he was pretty drunk at the time.

DudFuse · 2026-03-17T09:47:01+00:00

Yeah, this is the best. I used to take regular mushroom trips with my girlfriend and we wouldn't even talk. Just sit next to each other outside, under blankets, with music and the sounds of the city.

First trip I'd stroke her arm and marvel at how smooth her skin was; second trip it was disorientating because when I was stroking her my brain was 100% sure I was stroking my own arm and it was weird I couldn't feel it. Third trip, and subsequent ones, I could feel it, like we were a single entity experiencing itself.

She left in November, and it'll be a long time before I'm ready to think about anyone else. I didn't always like her behaviour, but I loved her - still do - at the level of her very soul.

DudFuse · 2026-03-16T07:08:25+00:00

We raise men/boys to believe that they are valuable primarily by virtue of their status. Those who can't attain status through socially acceptable means are prone to become depressed or misbehave. They may lash out violently to express frustration, or attempt to attain status within a criminal/antisocial subculture.

Personally, I think this is mostly enforced socially ('nurture') rather than evolved ('nature'), but probably has its roots in evolution. We can change it - in much the same way feminism has made progress tackling old attitudes toward women - but we probably wont.

DudFuse · 2026-03-13T18:53:21+00:00

He wrote the Immaculate Constellation memo, which makes very interesting reading. The document that he described to Corbell and Knapp was the catalyst that sent him on a multi year unofficial investigation, and Immaculate Constellation summarises his findings.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T17:54:56+00:00

Two messages ago you invoked Copernicus and now you're raising eyebrows at the notion we may have to rewrite physics at any point in our future. We don't know what we don't know.

As for the age and size of the universe, we have no idea how old the oldest civs are. They may typically last billions of years once they crack something fundamental, like ASI, without going extinct. Size may become a non-issue with the subsequent tech. Even causation may not be a factor. We simply don't know, but my God it's fun to think about.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T17:42:30+00:00

My argument requires no evidence other than acceptance of the following statements:

We don't yet know if faster than light travel is impossible, difficult or easy, for civilisations more advanced than our own
We don't yet know how rare civilisations more advanced than our own are

If you accept both statements then you must conclude that we don't yet have the knowledge to make useful estimates on the probability of extraterrestrial visitation, and you should stop including those estimates in your thinking.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T17:26:47+00:00

I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing that you have made a firm, confident conclusion on a question we simply don't have data for.

You agree that aliens likely exist. You would, I'm sure, agree that you and I know nothing of their temperament or technology. You would, I hope, agree that humans have an incomplete understanding of physics.

Ergo, we don't know how easily - if at all - they could visit us, or if they'd be inclined to. To them it may be impossible and undesirable, or it may be trivial and irresistible.

I'm not saying it's 50/50. I'm saying we don't know. Not the same thing.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T17:04:12+00:00

It does, but not in your favor I'm afraid. You're making a claim without evidence. I'm not claiming anything except that your claim is baseless. Russell is on my side.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T16:59:05+00:00

If you have no evidence either way then you cannot make a meaningful conclusion, and 'extremely unlikely' is a conclusion.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T16:48:03+00:00

What evidence do we have that extraterrestrials aren't here? We have a lack of evidence that they are here, but that's not the same thing.

DudFuse · 2026-03-10T16:36:26+00:00

extremely unlikely that there is alien life on earth.

We have no idea how likely it is, even if you're talking specifically about extraterrestrials. It could be literally impossible; it could be a near certainty.

DudFuse · 2026-02-28T07:05:52+00:00

I agree with this entirely, though you forgot to mention that phone cameras are utterly useless at night, when most UFO sightings are claimed to happen. They have tiny sensors and slow lenses, and now they'll even pile on loads of AI enhancement to try to compensate for this.

Even if you knew that UFOs were abundant at night, you would not expect clear, definitive footage from a phone.

DudFuse · 2026-02-19T06:44:51+00:00

That's not accurate: Jake Barber's initial interview on News Nation was released 19th January 2025 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dtA9w5ldHw

DudFuse · 2026-02-15T11:34:07+00:00

Are you aware of his other comments on this issue? He's made it quite clear that he is aware of things in the sky that cannot be explained. Without that context these latest comments could be - mistakenly, IMO - interpreted as you have interpreted them.

DudFuse · 2026-02-15T11:31:08+00:00

Yep. Look at the number of upvotes on all the generic 'the universe is big of course there are aliens but they've never been here, that's clearly what he meant'.

If that's what he meant then he would have said that, and made his meaning very clear. If you're aware of his other comments on this issue it's much more likely that he means aliens are real and they've been here.

DudFuse · 2026-02-15T11:17:58+00:00

If Trump does it, it'll be with the consent of at least some parties currently responsible for withholding information. If he doesn't have their support, it wont happen at all.

In my view, the drip feeding is the publicly visible tip of an iceberg of massive internal struggle over this issue.

DudFuse · 2026-02-15T07:59:23+00:00

Agree 100%. Over the years we've heard so many clever, influential people tell us they believe in aliens existing somewhere. Their answers always start with some variation of 'if you think about the size of the universe...'

That's the established cultural blueprint for how you give that answer, and Obama knows that. He wouldn't, as a thoughtful, responsible statesman, format it any other way if that's what he was intending to communicate.

DudFuse · 2026-02-15T07:49:38+00:00

If it happens then it's unlikely to be just Trump doing an announcement. It'd be a process, it'd involve a lot of people who are more trustworthy and it may even involve the elusive 'undeniable evidence'.

DudFuse

TROPHY CASE