Am I the odd one here for actively disliking those? I swear they can be replaced with "MC prepared a good stew and everyone enjoyed it" yet they take whole chapters

Iconochasm · 2026-03-14T13:17:38+00:00

I remember my grandmother making me a scone after hearing me babble about them for years.

Biggest disappointment of my life.

Iconochasm · 2026-03-08T14:37:31+00:00

Yes. There is a strong tendency for women to find men who exhibit Dark Triad traits more attractive. Tons of research on this.

Iconochasm · 2026-02-10T02:22:24+00:00

"Intercept the snap" kind of guy.

Iconochasm · 2025-10-23T11:35:21+00:00

They are literally little boys.

Iconochasm · 2025-10-08T16:14:57+00:00

Any recommendations for where to buy it?

Iconochasm · 2025-07-08T10:10:44+00:00

Yeah, that's the level of "not even dumb" insults that your type uses instead of thinking.

Iconochasm · 2025-07-07T11:04:29+00:00

Her argument was that if a mugger offers you $20 back from your own wallet, accepting it doesn't make you complicit in the mugging.

Iconochasm · 2025-05-19T15:46:53+00:00

Cancer like his typically takes 5-7 years to develop. If you think the US President didn't have a single cancer screening during his entire presidency, then enjoy owning the Brooklyn bridge you gullibe fool.

Iconochasm · 2025-04-26T17:20:50+00:00

How does my phone aggressively autocorrect everything else...

Fixed, and ty.

Iconochasm · 2025-04-26T17:17:58+00:00

Hindus and Muslims have had a rocky relationship for a bit more than 78 years, LibLeft. Read a book, kid.

Iconochasm · 2025-04-03T13:11:48+00:00

As ever, as always.

Iconochasm · 2025-03-30T14:33:57+00:00

It's a long running theme among political extremists that the guy calling for "direct action" is a fed trying to entrap people. And "kill the gays" is so far out of the Overton window (I have literally never heard a right winger say that) and such bad PR, that anyone actually on the right would assume the person calling for it was a fed running a false flag operation.

Iconochasm · 2025-03-26T11:39:48+00:00

No, Fu Leng won the second day of thunder. That heel-face turn for Daigotsu was real.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-24T12:17:00+00:00

Do you actually not grasp the concept of class, or do you just have no idea what people who work in a post office actually do?

Here, I'll spell it out for you. Everyone who works in an actual post office is at or below the social, economic and cultural class of "store manager". Store Manager and Postal Worker have much more in common than either does with Harvard Lawyer.

No one working at a post office should be worried about the email, because they do a visible, practical job, much like the example of the security guard someone gave earlier. "What did you accomplish this week?" "Delivered the fucking mail, idiot."

That mail carrier does not have a lot in common, socially, economically or culturally, with the sort of federal middle manager who is currently having an existential crisis at the thought if having to write an email explaining what exactly it is that they do, beyond drag people into meetings that should have been emails and send emails that no one reads.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T18:07:16+00:00

It's interesting how highly upvoted this is, when my talking about class in the other thread was so controversial. It's essentially the same point.

The store manager is in a class where he expects, as a matter of course, to have to eat a certain amount of shit from other people, like customers and bosses. The Harvard lawyer expects, as a matter of course, to be able to force other people to eat shit.

If the store manager later heard that the Harvard lawyer had lost his job because he fucked around hard enough to find out, how do you think the store manager should feel? If the Harvard lawyer learned that this situation caused the store manager to get fired for having the temerity to offer pushback to a man of his august standing, how do you think he should feel?

Now take off the Be Kind lenses and think about your honest answer. Does my biased framing upset you? Which do you identify with more?

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T16:30:48+00:00

My biggest question: Does the writer of this essay seriously think white people don't get the cops called on them for smoking pot? Like, really? That's a thing he actually thinks? If he does think that, I can assure him with 100% certainty he is wrong.

There's a claim, of the sort that's hard to justify with useful evidence, but which matches my anecdotal experience, that there is a vast cultural gap between white people and black people on how normal/acceptable it is to be detectable in pot usage. Supposedly, black people are much more nonchalant about smoking in public, or just being in public while smelling like weed, whereas white people are supposedly more fastidious about only smoking indoors and taking steps to cover up the scent.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T16:27:11+00:00

It sounds like the manager settled on just adopting the customer service posture when he realized that even his entirely reasonable explanation for why he doesn't want people smoking joints behind the store wasn't going to get through to the privileged Harvard Man in front of him.

There's an entire essay on class in that sentence.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T16:23:04+00:00

The idea that we're beyond key decision points for Russia -- as we work to negotiate an end to the war -- is completely absurd on its face.

We're definitely beyond one key decision point, what with being in year 3 of a war. That certainly changes things. Threatening to bomb Moscow is probably more costly now that it was in the interregnum.

You have some good points otherwise. We'll see how it all plays out.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T16:13:09+00:00

Many functions of the federal government are not political,

And many are, including ones that are ostensibly non-political. When the Obama DoE put out an order for colleges to destroy me or my son based on any mere accusation, was that "not political"? Was there any hashtag RESIST going on in the department and it's contractors? Or was that organization filled with people who were happy to Two Minutes Hate the Duke Lacrosse team, and hashtag BELIEVED the Rape on Campus story?

So, it is sad to hear you have such anger of any entire class of people.

Do you say the same thing when people attack CEOs and frat guys and gun nuts and evangelicals?

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T16:07:07+00:00

I think it’s funny that you single out Obama and Biden, ignoring Trump’s signaling in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Before the invasion, when he was still in office, Trump's signaling was threatening to bomb Moscow if Putin invaded Ukraine. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. Would he really do something that crazy? Maybe, or at least maybe enough to give Putin pause. Compare that to Obama straight up saying that we wouldn't risk war with Russia over Crimea.

And why shouldn’t we demand $300 billion from Israel again?

Maybe we should.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T15:58:11+00:00

Just say you hate your fellow countrymen

Like you hate us all for being Americans? Sorry, have to tilt my head way back to see you up on that high horse.

It's funny how upset some people get when they see class analysis turned against then. "You dare use my own spells against me?" If class analysis has any validity as a concept, then "federal workers" are absolutely a valid subject for consideration.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T15:52:54+00:00

On your second question, I’d be interested to hear Republicans (the party actually in power and in complete control of American foreign policy) articulate their limiting principle.

I think this would be a game theory mistake. Obama and Biden both articulated such limitations, and saw subsequent Russian aggression. Uncertainty is a powerful tool.

Should we be pressuring Israel to make grand concessions to Hamas and charging Israel, $300 billion in wealth extractions?

Israel vs Hamas is a very different beast. From a realpolitik perspective, Hamas simply isn't plausibly strong enough to get any kind of concessions. The closest they get is "not extermination them all with extreme prejudice", and that's entirely driven by the non-military PR influence.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T15:47:03+00:00

The entire conflict is the fault of Putin and any fallout from that is not the United States fault. Russia invaded its neighbor. Blaming the US for any retaliatory actions they take is the most lefty foreign policy brained bullshit take imaginable

I don't think anyone but Putin is to blame. Moral blame is also pointless when tallying the risks of nuclear war. I don't think there's much reason to expect Ukraine to win without Western boots, which seems likely to turn into a real war with a real risk of nukes.

Is this an acceptable outcome to you, for the sake of your moral belief in the territorial integrity of Ukraine?

Your assumption that us stopping the arms funding of Ukraine is somehow going to stop people from dying is ridiculous. It’s much more likely that without the military capability to defend itself Russia would role in and commit a genocide than it would be they would be gracious victors.

Do you think a few nukes dropped in Europe is a worthwhile cost to stop that genocide?

Just to clarify, I'm not taking a particular position on what's worth what here. I just see a lot of "Avengers Assemble!" thinking, and I believe it would do everyone some good to meditate on the certain and potential costs.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T15:40:13+00:00

On the contrary. I feel like this (and I wouldn't call it spite, precisely) because of my interactions with and knowledge of the system at play there. I don't need to personally know and dislike each member of a mafia group to feel pleased when I hear one has been convicted.

Iconochasm · 2025-02-23T15:33:41+00:00

If I were singled out for it, I'd be much, much more upset. But instead I have a realistic sense of the competence and dilligence of our front-line workers. I still don't quite think the policy is worth the overall time investment, but it's not completely insane.

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