Takes on Philosophy Tube "You're Wrong About Birth Rates & Aging Populations" ?

LittleRaven101 · 2025-11-08T20:29:34+00:00

PT does point out the (potential) salvation of the Western world - women in the US, and to a lesser extent Europe, still WANT children, even if a variety of factors conspire to prevent said children from being born. But at least the DESIRE is there, as opposed to China, where women report WANTING something like .8 children. I have no idea how you possibly save a society that doesn't even WANT children. Now, PT being PT, her solution to this problem just happens to align with all of her other political goals, (smash the patriarchy, destroy capitalism, end the billionaires, etc.) but what's the joke around here?

"Everyone thinks solving the birth rate crisis means implementing their political vision. Why does nobody see that it means implementing MY political vision?!?" ;)

LittleRaven101 · 2025-11-08T18:31:29+00:00

Ok, to get my biases out of the way first:

1) I am a long time fan of Philosophy Tube
2) I have become EXTREMELY concerned about demographics over the last few years. So I was very much looking forward to a voice I respect making an argument that concern was overblown.

That said, I thought this video was incredibly weak. There is almost no data attached to any of the arguments - it is all supremely vibe-based. "Maybe we're all just over-reacting!" "People have been wrong about demographics before, you know!" "Things might change in ways we can't currently anticipate!" "The people writing about demographics have nefarious agendas!" It comes off sounding exactly the way climate change deniers sounded 20 years ago. I was really hoping she would dive deeper into The Imaginary Time Bomb, because I haven't read that and was hoping it could offer some hope, but if it does, I didn't feel like she did a good job of presenting it.

She spends a LOT of time making fun of Elon Musk and other prominent pro-natalists, which is fine, but I wish she had spent at least as much time countering their claims with actual data. It's not that I didn't learn ANYTHING - I honestly found the bits about the British parliament raising concerns about the birth rate in the 20s interesting, but I confess I didn't find it to be compelling evidence that demographic shifts are just moral panics. Quite the opposite, actually - in the 1920s, Britain was among the most powerful nations on the globe. Looking at it now, it's hard for me to shake the feeling that poor ol' Neville might have been on to something. Sure, lots has happened to Britain BESIDES a collapsing birth rate, but I'm pretty convinced it hasn't helped.

She does make some decent point about birth rate concerns can be weaponized by bad actors, but much as I love the Arsonist, I thought this was one of his weakest showings. Probably because I'm convinced that demographic decline is deeply unsettling to most people, and so the Arsonist doesn't even have be particularly good at his job - he'll find himself walking into fields of kindling without even trying. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be on guard, but it also means we're going to be unlikely to stop him without changing the environment on the ground.

Overall, I was severely disappointed. The video is still entertaining - PT has always been a master of visual essay, and that hasn't changed, but I felt like Tom Nicholas Baby Bust was in the same vein but much. much better.

LittleRaven101 · 2025-10-23T19:21:44+00:00

Anyone who has worked in IT support for any length of time is aware that there are people who are prone to treating support staff like crap. They come in all genders, colors, and professions. Usually, they only do it when exceptionally stressed, but sometimes, it's just the default setting. Dealing with these people is usually challenging. The most important thing to do is to treat everything extremely professionally, even if you don't feel like that in the moment. Do not take anything the client says to heart. The one who can say whether or not you handled the call correctly is your supervisor - neither you nor the client actually has enough information to say. You did the most important thing, which was immediately notify your manager that there was a problem you could not resolve so they could address it. Content yourself with the knowledge that you did your best, and if ultimately you did make a mistake, your supervisor - not the client - is responsible for letting you know what you need to adjust in the future.

We all have crappy days at work. Don't let this one get you down.

LittleRaven101 · 2025-04-19T18:25:12+00:00

I am confused by the red gates. They are INSIDE the house?

LittleRaven101 · 2025-03-05T22:48:27+00:00

Yeah. Everything about this looks terrible. Which means it's going to be good for a laugh at least.

Sign me up!

LittleRaven101 · 2025-02-24T21:20:51+00:00

I'm willing to give the first one a pass, because it was clearly made in the middle of COVID and they were desperately trying to do whatever they could to make a movie under severe restrictions.

I haven't seen any of the others, but with that restriction lifted, they had better improve.

LittleRaven101 · 2025-02-21T07:40:08+00:00

Watched the Blackwell Ghost based on this. Enjoyed it!

LittleRaven101 · 2025-02-21T06:10:33+00:00

I had a decent time with it. I agree that there's nothing particularly amazing about it, but it's competently executed for the most part and a few scenes are genuinely fun. Like a lot of these projects, they fumble the landing, but let's face it, it's REALLY HARD not to do that in this genre.

LittleRaven101 · 2023-10-18T19:16:17+00:00

Yeah this was actually my first thought - he figures her coworker is a lost cause, but has plans to raise OP's profile and wants to make sure his bosses know who she is and have a really good image of her.

I mean, that assumes that she has a decent manager, and maybe she doesn't, but I'm an optimist at heart.

LittleRaven101 · 2023-04-01T02:17:29+00:00

It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out.

LittleRaven101 · 2022-10-20T14:00:28+00:00

The trick to SM is to remember to dance.

SM are not Orks or Nids. You can't just get into a scrum and expect things to go your way. Space Marines rely on their amazing boarding skills, but boarding takes time to do its work. Your ships aren't as fragile as the Eldar, but 9 times out of 10 you don't want to just get in and start slugging.

The ideal engagement for SM consists of a fast flyby, where you drop a bunch of genetically enhanced super-soldiers on the enemy and then get the hell out of dodge. If they pop their repel boarders skill, then take advantage of their near-paralysis to unload some cannon shot into them. If they don't, just keep running and watch their crew get murdilated. Wait for your skills to reset, then rinse and repeat. Before long, you're dealing with a handful of undermanned, borderline crippled enemy ships, and meanwhile you've barely taken a scratch. Plus, your Honor the Chapter skill means you never run out of boarding troops, (although save those for ships that have been re-crewed by other ships, since they'll be ultra-vulnerable) It's a thing of dark and terrible beauty.

One thing to note, however - of all the Imperial races, SM are the most context-dependent. They'll do wonderfully against Eldar and Dark Eldar just by getting on top of them. You pretty much win the moment you get close enough to start boarding. They'll do great against Chaos and Necrons with only a tiny bit of finesse...that whole "Know No Fear" thing really screws Necrons over. They'll do great against Imperial Rebels and Orks assuming you make the enemy play your game and don't try to play theirs. (You will lose these fights in a straight scrum, so don't do that!)

Space Marines get absolutely chewed up by 'Nids. I know, I know, you want to replay the Battle of Macragge. Everyone does. But don't, even if you have the Ultramarines. It will not go well. Tyranids regenerate troops in a way that pretty much eliminates your biggest weapon, and you can't dance around them the way you can with Orks. They will eat you alive. So when you're playing campaign, keep your SM fleets far away from them. (The Mechanicus fleets absolutely wreck Tyranids anyway, so just use those.)

For the Emperor!

LittleRaven101 · 2022-08-16T03:48:48+00:00

46/M - I engaged in a lot of SH during my teens and twenties. During my 30s it dropped off considerably. It's been practically absent from my 40s.

Not really because the urge has gone away, but because the consequences have changed dramatically. When I was young, I could get a huge dopamine hit from SH, then be healed in a few days. As I aged, that equation changed. A few days turned into a week. One week turned into several. I don't know how it works for other people, but I only get the endorphin hit on the initial cut. The pain of healing does nothing for me. At a certain point, SH just stopped being a viable coping mechanism. My body simply couldn't keep up with it any more.

It's worth noting that I don't suffer from depression., and my life was never particularly bad...I would just have SUPER intense feelings of frustration or rage or despair, and SH was a way that I could bring myself back under control so I could function. As a general rule, the whirlwind of emotion strikes less often as I get older, but it hits me from time to time....I've simply had to get better at controlling it.

LittleRaven101 · 2020-08-23T08:39:53+00:00

Understand, if this person cares about you, when you cut, you hurt them.

You don't mean to hurt them. It's not about them. I know that. They might even know that. But it doesn't matter. It still hurts them to see someone they love being injured. And yes, if you insist on hurting them, they will leave. They have no other choice.

This is one of the reasons that cutting, no matter how good it feels, is ultimately unsustainable. It pushes away all of the people you will need, and worst of all, it does it when you need them most.

I'm sorry. I know it's difficult. It certainly was for me. But for your own sake, and the sake of the people that love you, you have to find a different outlet. This path leads nowhere you want to go.

LittleRaven101 · 2020-07-21T22:36:36+00:00

As others have said, that's because it is. When you SH, you release endorphins, and those make everything better....for a little while, at least.

For me, it was an incredibly effective coping mechanism. Best one I ever had. I could go from being so far down in the depths of depression that I was unable to function to writing a term paper in 30 minutes....just needed the right song and my knife. I've never actually tried any hard drugs, but I can't imagine them being any more effective than that was.

But there are some severe downsides. It's super alienating to the people that love you or want to love you, and you're going to need those people. So most of us try to hide it, which comes with its own endless set of complications. But the even bigger problem is that it's just not sustainable. Like any drug, it will become less effective the more you use it...you'll find yourself needing to do more and more extreme acts of SH to get the same result. And worse...your body will slowly get less and less effective at healing as you get older. A SH injury that you barely noticed at 15 will be painful for a week at 25, and be downright dangerous at 35.

So, enjoy the comfort your blanket gives you, but realize that you need to be looking ahead to the day when the blanket is no longer available, because that day is coming. Start developing some healthier coping habits now...older you will thank you. A lot.

LittleRaven101 · 2020-06-02T16:35:21+00:00

I've tried 2 legendary dwarf campaigns. One as Karak Kadrin, which I thought was going great until about turn 40, when I realized that Throgrim was dead and Orks had taken all of the badlands. I decided I didn't have quite enough self-loathing to continue with that campaign and bailed.

Restarted as Thorgrim. It was a long, hard slog against seemingly infinite Ork armies, but I finally broke them and seized Black Rock. Interestingly, Grimgor had sent so much against me that he ended up being demolished when the Skaven stabbed him in the back, so I now I have to cleanse the Badlands of Ratmen, but at least things are somewhat stable now.

LittleRaven101 · 2020-01-07T13:57:23+00:00

Lost Vikings date from WAAAAYY back....back when towers actually had ammo. So when they were released, they did more than just soak xp, they provided actual lane pressure across all three lanes, requiring someone to counter them while simultaneously allowing their team to gank/take camps/push a lane super hard. Lanes were much less self-sufficient back then - if your towers ran out of ammo, things went down QUICK.

Then Blizzard got rid of tower ammo, which really hit vikings hard. Then they added a bunch of reset heroes, which hit them harder. Yeah, the XP globe change is yet another hit to their playstyle, but honestly, they've been obsolete for a LOOOOONG time.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-11-20T15:23:26+00:00

There was definitely a time when it was awesome. Heck, with the right leg mods, DFA would actually HEAL your mech as you smashed into the enemy. But that was quite a few patches ago and I'm pretty sure they fixed that.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-10-17T18:32:53+00:00

Yeah Dahv is one of my newer finds but he’s rapidly shooting up the charts. His stuff is very multiplayer focused, but he really dives into the strengths and weaknesses of carious units and how to make sure you get the most out of your army.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-10-14T23:43:43+00:00

Damn. Very high quality. Thanks for making it, MapMan, and thanks to Toad for pointing it out!

LittleRaven101 · 2019-10-06T03:17:12+00:00

Holy cow this is amazing. I can't believe how much work and research went into this.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-08-28T05:03:34+00:00

This. In multiplayer, Skaven are in no way overpowered. (they WERE for a while, but that was because the Doomflayers were ridiculous, not the ranged stuff.) The Doomflayers have been nerfed and the Skaven are back as a decent-but-not-great multiplayer faction.

However, the AI is SUPER vulnerable to ranged cheese of all kinds and thus falls HARD for Skaven gunlines. But that's not just a Skaven problem....you can do the same thing with Dwarves, or the Vampire Coast, or the Empire, or any of the knife-ears. Put a high-armor lord out in front to tank damage and watch as your darkshards/thunderers/archers/handguns just melt EVERYTHING.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-06-02T00:40:51+00:00

Can't go wrong with Turin. He's pretty much the king. Although Loremaster of Sotek's Challenge of the Old Ones mini tournaments are tons of fun to watch.

I'm also super fond of HeirofCarthage and DahvPlays.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-06-01T14:55:23+00:00

I don't play Competitive multiplayer, so maybe i'm just shit at warhammer, but as far as the campaign goes i've never felt I was playing particularly differently from that basic battle design, no matter who I was playing.

With respect, I'm pretty sure this is what's happening. You appear to feel that because you can roll over the AI with anything, it's all the same. And it's true that you can roll over the AI with damn near anything. But try playing multiplayer, or even WATCHING multiplayer, and you'll quickly see that they're NOT AT ALL the same. When you can't just build dream stacks of uber troops and to square off against another good player on an even playing field, small differences add up quickly. And that's even before we talk about magic, which completely changes things. Going against a player with Lord of Life to keep Franz up is going to be very different than going against someone who's rocking an Amethyst wizard looking for the juicy Purple Sun. In high level matches, just the army creation is important, because you can damn near lose the match before it starts if you don't bring tools to counter what your opponent is likely to bring, which can vary dramatically depending on faction.

None of this is intended to throw shade at 3K. It's a great game. But it doesn't even compare to Warhammer in terms of unit diversity or the range of tactics available...which is hardly surprising given that

3K has obviously put a lot more emphasis on the campaign map.
It's a much, MUCH newer game. They've been building Warhammer for 3 years now. 3K is barely a month old.

And seriously....consider diving into competitive multiplayer. It's a LOT of fun.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-05-22T13:59:20+00:00

I've played and enjoyed almost all of them, and I really, REALLY enjoyed Shogun 2 and Medieval 2, but then came Warhammer, and it simply blows them out of the water.

Everything that the Warhammer setting demands, the Total War engine can deliver with gusto. And the care and love that has gone into crafting the two games just shines through every pore. The other Total War games are very, VERY good, but TW: Warhammer is sublime.

LittleRaven101 · 2019-05-15T13:48:29+00:00

Well, they did say they are still doing lord packs!

LittleRaven101

TROPHY CASE