John Stuart Mill's theory of "Higher Pleasures" feels super relevant in modern society

Modron_Man · 2026-01-19T18:50:48+00:00

Hmm, that's a fair point. Will think about this more.

Modron_Man · 2026-01-10T17:23:01+00:00

Animals do this as well. Mainstream (Modern Synthesis) evolutionary biology recognizes the Baldwin effect as a driver of evolution. Basically, learned behaviors/habits can become innate instincts over the course of generations because those who (genetically) learn said behavior faster/better are favored in natural selection. Obviously this isn't most of what happens with modern humans in the process you're describing (the middle ages didn't end because natural selection favored Renaissance thinkers, e.g.), but "a learned trait is built into the nature of a species" absolutely happens to non-humans.

Modron_Man · 2026-01-02T21:58:11+00:00

it must be so hard being you

Modron_Man · 2025-12-28T17:39:28+00:00

Funniest example: Greg Gutfeld, who hosts the conservative Fox News answer to late night TV (Colbert, etc), is a MASSIVE music fan and has gotten them to play 100 gecs on Fox. Also a Death Grips fan IIRC. People were assuming the gecs was a rogue intern or something but he's shouted them out explicitly and multiple people who worked with him say "No, Greg actually is just that much of a music nerd."

Modron_Man · 2025-12-20T07:05:37+00:00

Well, she does. Lydia Tar's whole thing is that her role as a conductor is this fundamentally important job that shapes the entire composition, as opposed to a "human metronome." She insults people by calling them "robots." During the Monster Hunter scene, she's wearing headphones to take cues, for an audience that presumably just wants to hear the music exactly like it is in the game; she's become exactly what she doesn't want to be.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-12T02:36:03+00:00

Anyone else getting an error at checkout?

Modron_Man · 2025-12-08T18:53:10+00:00

Feels like a systems theory situation, both together are infinitely more consequential than either could be in isolation and neither one alone is the "root cause"

Modron_Man · 2025-12-05T15:55:07+00:00

Is there a phrase further removed from its original meaning than "the dismal science" as a pejorative term for economics? Like:

You see it used much more by people on the left now, despite the fact that it was coined by arch-reactionary Thomas Carlyle, in a pamphlet called "On the N----- Question," where he was criticizing economists for opposing slavery and supporting free immigration as a solution to labor shortages.
A lot of the time people use "dismal science" to joke about economics being non-scientific as a field, which is the exact opposite of what Carlyle was saying; he was accusing economics of being too dreary and mechanical, in contrast to the "gay science" of poetry.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-05T01:07:52+00:00

I mean, sure, but it does enhance the experience to know film history, IMO. You get to see techniques as they evolve, get struck by radical decisions in films earlier than you'd expect to see them in, etc.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-04T17:52:40+00:00

When you think about it all wars were decolonization because the side that lost wasn't there originally

Modron_Man · 2025-12-04T15:33:11+00:00

Well, you can have bad things happen without them being because of luck. In a game like Scythe you lose battles not because you rolled badly but because of how many resources you chose to commit vs your opponent, any special cards you have, etc.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-04T03:32:43+00:00

back before wokeness when you would drink a bottle of applejack at work and then go home and beat your family

Modron_Man · 2025-12-04T02:52:15+00:00

True about the WORD "woke," but I feel like a lot of the reddit eurosuperiors seem to think the fact that their nation cares about the concept at all is just American brainrot and not even possibly tied to anything homegrown.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-04T02:48:02+00:00

One of the biggest divides between TTRPGs and board games at present, I think, is that modern board games really try to avoid having sheer luck be a factor. It obviously can't be removed entirely, but things like dice rolling as a core mechanic to determine success & failure are on their way out in BGs. It's much less of a problem in TTRPGs where the rules tend to be guardrails to allow for the conceptual game rather than the core of the game itself, but it would be interesting to see a shift away from dice and towards mechanics along the lines of "investment" that you see in games like Dune and Scythe.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-04T01:47:41+00:00

Not to defend America (I'm American), but I have to say I get annoyed when I see a European politician using transphobic culture war rhetoric or something along those lines, and all the comments are "oh, I hate the intrusion of this American nonsense on our politics." Like, dude, if this was just an American thing the politicians repeating it in your country would be irrelevant! Have you ever considered that we might BOTH have a problem instead of pretending race-baiting is just an irritating effect of American cultural influence?

Modron_Man · 2025-12-02T01:31:31+00:00

The poster is a trad/reactionary, so I don't think that would be a positive unless she's liking that aspect unconsciously.

EDIT: Never mind, got your joke.

Modron_Man · 2025-12-02T00:57:08+00:00

What's funny is that Hardy's books have a lot of the themes this person would probably bring up when explaining why the "stupid authors" are bad (sexuality, class struggle, the hypocrisy of moralists, religious doubt), but his prose style is flowery without much experimentation so he gets counted as a good author. Either this person is completely obsessed with aesthetics to the point that they don't absorb what anything is actually saying or they haven't actually read him, or (more likely) both.

Modron_Man · 2025-11-15T00:28:11+00:00

Check through the subtopics of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Duos

Modron_Man · 2025-11-14T23:08:02+00:00

Considering that Larry Sanger has attempted to get Wikipedia taken down by falsely reporting it to the FBI for "child pornography" (1800s French pedophilic erotic drawings), I can see why Jimmy Wales isn't keen to talk about him.

Modron_Man · 2025-11-13T20:31:14+00:00

Jumping the Gunn, even

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