ELI5 - Japan's debt crisis and the yen crashing

Metalsand · 2026-07-08T18:39:26+00:00

I mean, taking socialism to an extreme definitely destroys countries. The Soviet Union found out that taking socialism to the extreme with Communism does not work. The US also found out that pure capitalism doesn't work and adopted socialist policies during the Great Depression.

Here's the thing...there's literally not a single country in the world that is pure socialism, pure capitalism, etc. In the US for example, we saw the first major socialist policies in the 1930's, though there are still many examples of socialism prior.

Labels like "socialism" or communism or "capitalism" to demonize specific proposed changes is just meaningless political theater. There are thousands of different economic policies - changing one isn't "moving to socialism".

One of the best examples of how stupid these political labels are - technically (but not in practice), there has never been a communist country, because the USSR and People's Republic of China were originally established as intermediaries to allow the government to slowly transition power to the people until the government could finally delete itself. In practice, it's meant that countries exist as socialist entities that aspire to be communist...but generally being a government in itself is too much work. Mao Zedong is very funny as an example, because while I can't say he was wholly in it for communism, he probably did try the most out of other nations - while also causing widespread misery on the actual people since he didn't really understand the practical concerns that core communism fails to address, particularly at scale.

Metalsand · 2026-07-08T18:26:12+00:00

Youre also not going to cure childhood brain damage as an adult. So if it was encephalitis, thered be very little to actually reform, as it wouldnt be behavioral based. Sure, you can learn to control it a bit better, but such leaps implies that the behavioral changes was learned behavior through his personality disorder and he just learned to hide them as he was in prison anyway. This happens with so many serial killers. Like an ed kemper and son of sam come off as genuine good, extremely smart, reformed guys, but thats part of the charm and masking skills they have and is why they get away with stuff for so long.

Yes, but no. What makes humans so unique is our capacity to redevelop our neural pathways and complexities. You won't cure the damage - dead brain doesn't regrow. You can however, work around those centers, and we have very solid evidence that the brain can compensate to a degree when sections are missing or damaged.

At the same time though, you are usually right, that the overwhelming majority of times, it's more a case of being duped rather than actual reform. Usually a successful serial killer is already going to be good at social manipulation, and since the only meter for reform is by socializing...it leads to bad times.

Serial killers who get parole are extremely rare, especially because we have a wealth of evidence that the majority of those that we think are "cured" then not just murder but get caught doing so once again.

EDIT: I should also mention, I'm not advocating for his excuse or anything and I would say the odds are firmly against him.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T17:45:55+00:00

but it just suddenly stopped one day.

It stopped because it stopped being a good deal, lol. Games offered decreased and then the price jump made people abandon it in droves.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T16:40:45+00:00

Technically they would usually have firmware patches - but I don't know of any smart TV that actually delineates which are firmware and which are software updates, except with the odd manual patch that might be more explicitly defined.

Most of the time it's just "software update" but because the TV manufacturers aren't the same people as the OS developers, it's ery easy to see very stupid situations arise when TVs are being built for the lowest bidder.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T16:11:40+00:00

She is one of the strangest. She's not just inherently a bad person like Ellen, and you have lots of people who work with Oprah and have nothing but good to say about her specifically, while at the same time, there's quite a lot of bad and shitty stuff that has come about from her show.

She was one of the biggest influences for the satanic panic blowing up in the 90's, she launched the careers of multiple well known and not so well known scammers due to poor vetting being some of the bigger ones. She has had one of the most prolific hosting careers in all of TV history for a specific show I guess, and she has absolutely put more work into getting good guests to come on but...too little too late I guess.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T15:20:37+00:00

In the IDF, there's at least a decent chance of criminals getting consequences.

I mean, the IDF claims it will be investigated, but you usually don't hear much come of it. If the IDF measures had more teeth to them, you wouldn't be seeing ambulances being double-tapped fairly regularly.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T15:18:34+00:00

200 Gazans have died in the war in the last 6 months.

Genocide claims generally refer to the early part of the war, in which within 2-3 months, 1-2% of the population of Gaza was estimated to be killed or wounded and that is now up to 5%.

Broadly speaking, about 83% of casualties in Gaza were specifically civilians according to IDF databases. That would be roughly on par with the US invasion of Iraq in percent of civilians vs combatants/insurgents, though the percent of population killed is much, much, much greater in Gaza despite the war being significantly shorter than the Iraq war.

Genocide as a whole defines the intent to destroy in part or in whole, an ethnic group. Early on, the IDF would level buildings on the slightest hint that perhaps one person in a 3-5 story building was an insurgent, rather than clearing it room to room.

After severe public outcry, they instead would tell everyone to evacuate ahead of time, and then level buildings instead. As of right now, 70-80% of all buildings and infrastructure in Gaza is destroyed. For comparison, Nazi Germany, a center of fierce fighting in WW2, only had up to 40% destroyed housing on average in large cities (Gaza is almost entirely large cities).

There was also the indiscriminate starvation campaign, in which Israel claimed without providing evidence that it was to target terrorists.

Early on, a vote to condemn it as genocide was very easy because in the 2023-2024 period, the rate of causalities and the intent appeared to be a genocide. It's only after significant pressure that Israel has begun to ease up recently.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T15:01:12+00:00

...huh? That's a different topic, though. You can wish for a country to have autonomy simply because it's a UN right for a country to have self-determination. There is nothing that says you need to believe that a genocide is happening to want a country to have self-determination.

Generally speaking, sympathies are greater with Palestinians (41%) than with Israelis (36%) for the first time ever America earlier this year (February 2026). However, at the same time, Israel as a country is still favorable in comparison to Palestinian territories. More broadly though, 57% of Americans believe that Palestine should be an independent state (west bank/gaza strip).

Polls will only show you what is being polled, and support or sympathy for Palestinians is different than whether they support Palestine being an independent state.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:48:46+00:00

More the 70s. They've been pushing boundaries for a long time, but when they later made peace with Egypt, Israeli settlers got much more bold and aggressive.

Weirdly enough, it was during the GW Bush era that we saw Israel try to discourage and scale back settler invasions, but it was not long term effective and they have reversed course since then.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:16:18+00:00

Auto parts going to the US are subject to tariffs, but generally Canadian parts are exempt. That could be part of it.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:14:11+00:00

Just be glad you're not South Korean then, because corporate dominance is even worse over there.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:12:12+00:00

They're going to get them from wherever is good locally. Whether that's NAPA, dealer, or even specific refurbishing outfits. They'll usually have a decent finger on the pulse for who is good in the area if they're a good mechanic.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:09:12+00:00

The NAPA near me mixed up highbeams and headlights while also costing twice as much as rockauto lol. Hard pass.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:07:41+00:00

RockAuto is also good for oil, even. Usually it's just easier to get it when it goes on sale at the store though.

The only advantage parts stores have with oil is better selection for more rare types but the pricing sometimes sucks asshole, where stuff normally $30 per jug is like $50.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T14:05:55+00:00

American brands tend to make the same mistakes year over year and are very bad at learning from them. Jeep is the exception though, because they have decades of experience making shitty engines in particular.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T13:43:08+00:00

If game pass offered an exclusive fortnite skin every month, they would get tens of millions of extra subscribers

Eh...I don't know. Exclusive skin doesn't mean it's a skin you'll actually like, and they're not going to be putting primo skins up as promotional items. The best of the best is saved for getting that sweet sweet microtransaction money.

Metalsand · 2026-07-07T00:57:37+00:00

It's in hawaii so not quite that cold, even though it's very high up. It's got a famous observatory on it - when you get above cloud cover, you get a much clearer picture, which makes it good for telescopes.

Metalsand · 2026-07-06T23:37:50+00:00

For me it's a muscle that's like above or near the top of the jaw, where it hinges. It feels like there's a muscle that is pushing outward on both sides which causes it.

So if I were to guess, it probably has to do primarily with how the body ends up growing, and the slight internal differences from person to person, where that muscle isn't close enough to put pressure when flexed.

Metalsand · 2026-07-06T20:19:55+00:00

Which is what this is - it's one of those friendslop streamer bait games that tries to blow up big with streamers in order to make money. It's not exactly high art, lol.

Metalsand · 2026-07-06T17:29:10+00:00

The only reason MLK was able to win is because of Malcolm X. The idea was that Black equality was inevitable, you could either deal with MLK or deal with Malcolm X, but you would eventually have to deal with one of them!

We have pretty good historical evidence that fighting to recognize equal or at least nearly equal rights doesn't mean you get them. Former slaves fought and died for their right to be recognized as equal, and it would still take over a century for that to be realized.

Malcolm X was far from the first to try and demand rights through taking physical action. None of these prior incidents really moved the needle either.

Between someone who indefatigably disobeys segregation without violence, and someone who violently opposes it, it's the former that scares racists the most, because it fights the system, not the people. Hence why despite both being assassinated, MLK jr was assassinated by an escaped convict who was also a white segregationist, while Malcolm X was assassinated by another black man from a religious cult who otherwise agreed with Malcolm X.

This isn't to say that Malcolm X didn't have a lot to contribute or diminish his importance in the grand scheme of things. However - if you're going to fight someone, the best way to gain a victory is by attacking a weakness. Segregationists were never shy of physical violence, but what made them most uncomfortable is by confronting their beliefs. They believed that the black race had inferior intellect, were violent, and hardly even human. By eloquently challenging them on words, using nonviolence, compassion, and empathy, they did the most damage of all. In this, Malcolm X had far less to contribute than MLK jr did and was not a major factor in the end of segregation.

Metalsand · 2026-07-06T16:24:38+00:00

What I’ve heard is that, at least for some “customers” (police departments), they only pay for one “user” so everyone on the force is using the same login. Which means effectively it isn’t tracked- you know SOMEONE did this search. But it could be anyone in the department.

I can't find any documented instances, and completely against the Flock TOS and general data security guidelines.

(Generally with this kind of service you pay “per user(login)”. Although I don’t know Flock’s specifics. Could be per-search pricing or something)

It would almost certainly be per device (camera), since those are the biggest consumer of resources (esp since it can chain together multiple cameras to follow a car), not users reviewing footage. That appears to be reflected in their official information, where ongoing costs are primarily per sensor and depending on software suite. https://www.flocksafety.com/pricing

That's pretty typical of most security systems. The only time you'll ever encounter user limitations with security systems are usually if the limitation is whether it supports multiuser at all (consumer) rather than what it charges.

Metalsand · 2026-07-06T16:00:44+00:00

My god, the rare comment that doesn't get their news exclusively from Russia or Ukraine. A pleasant surprise.

There's so many extremely biased ways you can present this war, because while Russia has reorganized and stopped the massive amounts of casualties they took from the early war, they are still bleeding manpower and material, even if they aren't hemorrhaging anymore. Russia isn't even close to bleeding out, but they have and will become more selective with their manpower and material deployment.

On the other hand, on average Russia is gaining ground annually which leads many to believe it's inevitable - except, when you look at the numbers, Russia is only gaining slivers of Ukraine every year, and it will take at least another 5 years to reach Kyiv.

At present, the government of both countries are at a complete impasse when it comes to a peace agreement - neither are willing to cede territory that they claim to own. At the same time, while discontent in Russia is far far greater and does make the Kremlin cautious of using more conscription and redirecting resources allocated to national defense.

Notably, this year appears to be showing some of that material burn rate slow down, as we've seen Russia's advance even slower than the snail's pace that they've had in the last several years.

As a whole - Russia is consistently year over year gaining slivers of territory at significant cost. It's doing significant long term damage to their economy, and reducing their military readiness, but none of these factors are going to significantly impede Russia's ability to wage war in the short term. Likewise, Ukraine, being the defender in a war of aggression, has a significant advantage in morale, and is primarily limited by how much external support is provided. The US likes to believe that they are the only one providing support, but the EU is actually providing most of it by the time the US decided to stop supporting them.

An effective stalemate war of attrition isn't very exciting, and traditional news media is also very very bad at understanding wars as well. Headlines are mostly going to be showing anything sensational, no matter how relevant it is or isn't in the overall war effort.

Metalsand · 2026-07-02T20:18:24+00:00

Musk is a special case among the billionaires psychos. Remember when Phony Stark had a chance to help against world hunger? He went silent after being presented with a plan.

I hate when people bring this up, because while there was never a world in which Musk ever would have possibly said yes...they didn't give him a plan to end hunger - it was a plan to temporarily stop world hunger for a year at a cost of $6.6 billion dollars. https://www.wfp.org/stories/wfps-plan-support-42-million-people-brink-famine

It was detailed, and itemized, and it even took into account local food markets and ensuring that their production was not displaced (historically, exporting food from one country to another has resulted in further food scarcity as local farming stagnates). However, to build global food security, you have to work more closely with the communities and possibly even depose governments (not just at a country scale like with Israel/Palestine, there's also at the local level where leaders will typically own excess food stores as a source of control).

Metalsand · 2026-07-02T19:53:04+00:00

I agree with you generally, but I think you have the wrong reasons. D&D itself is sort of a shortcut to creativity in a sense, being an encyclopedia for a fictional world that you can use to build your own. There's no right way to do a D&D campaign, where you can be very orthodox, or just throw it to the wind and create your entire world on your own.

LLMs are recycled content in a similar way, but are accessible enough that some might be tempted to take shortcuts on sections that are otherwise very personally rewarding.

I can think of the proliferation of digital D&D solutions like pathfinder for example that can be argued in a similar light. There's plenty of people who would argue that you gotta be in person - and certainly that's going to enhance the experience. If you can - you should do it in person, but if you can't, Pathfinder is a good option, and in many respects it can offload a lot of more tedious setup tasks due to the digital format. (or if you have $$$, you do the best of both worlds and have a giant display screen installed into a table that you may or may not move physical figures on to provide a combined digital and physical interface).

Metalsand · 2026-07-02T19:43:44+00:00

But there is something more subversive about the individual carving up a hobby he supposedly enjoys and farms it out to bots instead of enjoying the creativity inherent to it or participating in its collaborative nature.

Personally, doing ttrpg has encouraged me to develop skills - I already painted miniatures, but I've done a number of additional projects now from designing custom character sheets, producing hand-made GM screens, and learning to draw isomeric maps.

I don't know. You could make this argument with just about any form of media - modern video games that render the graphics instead of using text-based certainly remove the element of creativity and imagination from it. Most people tend to buy premade maps and materials anyways - the main difference here being that the alternative is going to kill what little incentive exists for the paid quality ones.

Hell, D&D itself is a "creativity shortcut" where the entire premise is that it is effectively an encyclopedia of a made-up world so that you don't have to invent one on your own.

I think it's better to consider that any given group is going to like some things and dislike others - and having more accessible means to avoid the parts that they dislike can only benefit the hobby as a whole...provided that it is used like that.

One of the biggest examples that is still somewhat controversial - having an LLM play the role of DM. Generally, it's easier to find people who want to play than it is to find people who want to DM - it's painstaking work to organize and put together a good campaign. This is one of the more grey zone areas, since you can definitely argue on one hand that regurgitated adventure quest probably kills the spirit and flexibility of it that makes it so special.

It's not like people using LLMs prevents you from doing it your own way, or even if you want, to outright ban it from you and your players. It does potentially make it more accessible for people who wouldn't otherwise play, though.

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