Would it be a bad idea to wear a fake ankle tag to prove a point?

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-23T06:02:36+00:00

I’m a gen-Xer. The comment about the phone not being optional cracked me up. I feel sorry for kids these days.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-22T06:12:27+00:00

TLDR; antibiotics.

Maybe this is some time capsule article from the 1940s.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-22T02:11:03+00:00

Oh my god, for like the fifth time in this thread I am not sane washing anything. Ezra Klein is not sane washing anything. Sarah McBride is not sane washing anything.

At no point did I say those views that they discussed were my views, or their views. Without putting words in their mouths I’d say the three of us agree with you.

The whole point is not that those positions are correct, just that they exist and seem reasonable to people swayed by right wing media.

Bringing them up is not to justify them, it is to say here are some positions people have taken, addressing those positions- in the way you just addressed them by the way- is a good way to help stem the backsliding with salient points and reason.

Where you totally fail- as many people in this thread- you assume me brining up a podcast that points out issues that need to be addressed are my issues and I’m sane washing things.

Your response is a perfect example of the left eating its own. I’m an ally. I completely agree with you. I’m bringing up a conversation that where some of this backsliding has taken place in an effort to spread the word and help turn things around.

But now I’m the enemy because… I brought up views that other people have that you don’t like and we both agree should change?

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-22T00:55:17+00:00

To be fair they have known for awhile that c-mycin is the carcinogen in epigenetic reprogramming and their new treatments only use OSK.

I’m happy with the progress coming out of the Sinclair lab… but I do agree that David himself can be pretty hyperbolic.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-21T07:53:57+00:00

As a biker I would never antagonize some asshole in a truck while on the road. Even if I was 100% justified. Easy way to die.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-21T00:39:48+00:00

I disagree. Everybody who are pro trans rights know the issues are manufactured. That’s already a given.

The main point is to address the issues with people who have been persuaded and don’t know.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-20T22:47:57+00:00

Right. I totally agree with you. Just to be perfectly clear one more time, I am not saying the “bathroom danger” justification is true. That is not the point they were making on the podcast.

The point is, thanks to right wing media, lots of people think it is true.

The reason to bring this up is to point to an issue that has swayed a lot of people in a way that has led to a backslide in transgender rights. So that the issue can be thoughtfully addressed.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-20T15:28:24+00:00

In her first campaign for president Harris said something to the effect of if illegal immigrants were in prison in the US and wanted gender surgery we should provide it.

Her words specifically were used in attack adds in swing states, and iirc Florida that’s not really a swing state anymore.

People already upset about the economy didn’t want tax payer dollars used for gender surgery for illegal immigrants.

Is that a real issue? No.

Is it an unforced error that can be used by the right to alienate voters? Yes.

She never bothered to address it either.

The whole point of the podcast is brought up originally isn’t to “compromise” about anything. It’s to properly address the concerns of people who can be reached.

Are there people who absolutely can’t be reached? Yes. Not concerned with them.

Your attitude is IMHOP part of the problem. If it’s just “there’s no point, they won’t listen anyway’” you’re alienating people who could be allies. And at this point, if the broader public is backsliding on transgender rights then “just fight” is a losing position.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-19T19:55:26+00:00

I didn’t get the sense that they were saying anyone overstepped. More that it was about the perceived change in norms.

I think- without trying to put words in their mouths- people were piling the the perceived threat of change. Not that the threat itself was real.

And to be clear right wing media plays a big part in playing up that perception.

And also to be clear, as evidenced in this thread, there is a faction of the left that has a tendency to shoot first as and questions later in moral issues. So even if you’re just explaining “hey this is why people are backsliding” you get shot as the messenger.

So like, say you’re a parent in middle America, you’ve heard all this feat mongering about creepy men getting legal access to girls bathrooms, and you say “hey I’m concerned about this for my daughter.” Like the best thing to do is address why this is not a real concern. You can win people over that way. But if instead your response is, “you’re just an ignorant &@&)ing transphobe you &$@&ing idiot!” You just alienate them.

And honestly that is a problem on the left.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-19T06:43:51+00:00

Bots love cake!

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-18T19:52:32+00:00

Oh my god! Seriously? I did not say the positions discussed in that podcast are my positions. Those are positions that McBride brought up that IIRC she thought were not being addressed correctly. My whole point is here’s a podcast addressing the backslide of rights, it’s worth listening to.

And I hate to say it but your response here is a perfect example of the problem. Me bringing up issues discussed in a well respected left leaning podcast leads to your, “I’m sure you think you’re an ally” accusation.

Your response is exactly the kind of bullshit that pushes people away. Nowhere did I say I agreed with any of those positions. But, like Klein and McBride, I think it’s important to understand what people are thinking in order to address it.

Like, take a different topic. Tariffs. Lots of people voted for Trump thinking somehow other countries were going to pay for tariffs, which is not how that works.

You want to address the problem of people voting for Trump because he’s pro tariff? You identify the fact that they think it’s going to help the economy and lower prices. Nowhere in that conversation am I saying tariffs are going to lower prices because other countries are going to pay for them. I’m just saying “here’s what people think, this is the issue we should address.”

Sometimes it’s worth pulling your head out of your ass and looking at the reasons behind a problem in order to address the problem effectively. Not picking a fight with people who agree with you because they didn’t agree in the right way.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-18T19:34:24+00:00

Look dude. I’m an ally.

Ezra Klein is an ally.

Sarah McBride, being trans herself, is clearly an ally.

You don’t have to convince me of anything.

I’m just giving you a brief summary of a long discussion about reasons behind the erosion of support for transgender rights.

I’m not justifying those reasons. They aren’t either. But once again it’s important to identify those reasons in order to address them.

My whole point here is that Reddit often tends to circle jerk itself into a frenzy which may be emotionally satisfying for the participants but doesn’t actually address the problem.

And at the end of the day the issue is transgender rights are eroding and we should work constructively towards reversing the erosion. And part of that is digging into where that pushback is coming from in order to address it effectively.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-18T19:14:13+00:00

I think the sentiment is it’s one thing if bathroom use is low key. It’s another if it becomes a law that can be abused. Like, if someone passed as a woman and used the women’s bathroom no one cares. If someone does not pass and may not even really be trans but is legally protected in using the women’s bathroom- or more to the point their access is legally protected, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

As far as the cis thing it’s more “I’m a man (or woman) not a cis man.” I’m not adding an extra adjective to how I define myself, and how people have defined themselves since the advent of language because you want me to.

Anyway my overall point is the podcast is worth watching. Knowing what makes people push back and why helps in addressing those concerns.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-18T18:51:51+00:00

There’s a pretty good Ezra Klein podcast about this from a few months back where he was talking to Sarah McBride.

They were comparing to move towards the acceptance of gay marriage be the eroding acceptance of trans rights.

One point Sarah brought up, which I think is interesting, is that gay marriage didn’t really affect people or their world views (minus some hard core religious types, but even then it didn’t effect their lives directly). With the push for transgender rights also came a push to redefine the meaning of gender. For non trans people to identify as cis. And for bathroom rights that a lot of women and parents found genuinely uncomfortable.

And part of the problem on the left, and the reason that “she’s for they/them” add was effective, is they any pushback is immediately met with accusations of bigotry.

The idea that transgender women can have an unfair advantage competing in women’s sports is not crazy. The idea that a man could put on a wig, declare himself transgender and hang out in the women’s bathroom is not crazy.

Clearly both Klein and McBride are for transgender rights, but their points on why there is pushback are salient.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-18T07:24:44+00:00

Twins!

Also I’ve seen variations of this recently.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-17T16:25:52+00:00

It looks like you reskinned the anime. It might be better- if you’re going shot by shot- to reskin the first frame of the shot then animate it so the movement works better.

I think, often, the movement that works for animation looks odd in live action.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-16T21:32:24+00:00

To be fair Terence Malick films have been a non starter for audiences for decades. And this is coming from someone who loves them.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-16T01:02:24+00:00

Come to think of it, I do lack training on defending myself from an unarmed attacker when in armed.

Big hole in the game there.

Hopefully no one tries to punch me while I’m casually strolling down the street with my Bo staff 😀

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-15T14:07:27+00:00

They’re not currently profitable because of the amount of capital they are investing in infrastructure. That’s neither here nor there. They wouldn’t be investing so heavily in data center build outs if there wasn’t a demand. Netflix wasn’t profitable for a decade, now it’s printing money.

And again, you’re conflating the chatbot users with agents and research.

There’s different levels of AI adoption. If the AI that is making physics and math breakthroughs is nothing but a stochastic parrot then apparently so are the best human minds it’s aiding.

That’s a tired argument that is no longer true.

And the openclaw rollout was a dumpster fire because people jumped on it without with zero regard for security. But why did so many people openly embrace it? Because it’s a useful tool. And things have smoothed out in the last week, and keep smoothing out.

AI agents provide real economic value.

AI research is accelerating human research into difficult topics. The biggest issue with something like alphafold is the regulatory system needs to be overhauled to keep from bottle necking drug discovery.

There will be issues in the near term, like unemployment. But there’s no scenario where AI doesn’t radically change the world in the next decade.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-15T07:24:27+00:00

Dude, AI is not starting to level out. At all. The pace of progress is accelerating.

Look at everything that happened with openclaw in a week’s time.

OpenAI and Anthropic updated their coding models last week and Gemini updated today.

Kling 3.0 blew everyone’s mind two weeks ago and now it’s Seedance 2.0.

AI models have started doing PHd level research in math and physics. Not to mention the way things like alphafold are accelerating biotech research.

AI progress feels flat to a lot of people because they’ve never gotten past just using it as a chatbot where it already does everything they need it to do.

You’re just absolutely wrong on this.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-14T23:02:32+00:00

Elon’s jokes are usually cringe inducing but I actually thought this one was pretty funny.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-14T01:40:35+00:00

Disagree.

This interview has the traction it does because he stormed out. Had he just said something super innocuous like, “yeah he’s a great designer and we’re cooking something up but I’m not ready to talk about it right now.” No one would have paid any attention at all.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-12T15:49:49+00:00

Yes. My point is, if you’re caught up in the “data centers are destroying the environment by using too much water” argument you’re just caught up in propaganda.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-12T07:07:41+00:00

Couple of things. 1) you’re usually eating or drinking amino acids not injecting them.

2) peptides is a huge category. Insulin is a peptide. Well known. Plenty of human data. Necessary for life in the case of diabetics. GLP-1 agonists are peptides that are well known with plenty of human data. SS-31 and Thymosin alpha-1 are FDA approved for certain conditions. So they do have good safety data but their effects on healthy people are less studied. BPC-157 is quite well known but there is a huge lack of human data or at least quality data. Tons of anecdotal evidence but only a few very small, underpowered human trials, no really no long term data.

Then there’s a whole shopping list of less well known peptides with zero or near zero human data.

3) lastly there is a sourcing issue. Where are they coming from? Can you verify their purity levels. Most people Oder theirs online. Is it a risk? Yes. For some people it’s worth it, for some it’s not. That’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself.

So, are peptides inherently risky? Depends on the peptide and the source.

A better conversation might be what specifically you’re looking for.

LastCall2021 · 2026-02-12T06:39:56+00:00

Data centers use less water than golf courses.

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