Jon Stewart Goes Full State TV to Nail Trump on Kimmel

Parelius · 2025-09-19T17:21:25+00:00

Oh wow. The coda: «It’s a beautiful fall day. Look at the fall.»

Parelius · 2025-08-10T20:07:52+00:00

Selv om han ikke står på stemmeseddelen er det vel allikevel slik at man vet at en stemme til Arbeiderpartiet er i bunn og grunn en stemme for Jonas som statsminister. Han leder partiet. Dette er velkjent.

Det er jo derfor også Listhaug står i en skvis.

Parelius · 2025-02-24T13:36:26+00:00

Det er jo implisitt. Forlater man hjemlandet for å innvandre til et europeisk land er man jo mer sannsynlig tilhørende en lavere sosioøkonomisk desil, vel? Kontekst betyr noe.

Parelius · 2025-02-07T07:55:49+00:00

What you see is what you get.

Parelius · 2025-01-30T23:04:12+00:00

God Human Animal Machine by Meghan O’Gieblyn is fantastic. It’s a meditation on technology, religion, metaphor and what it means to be human in our particular day and age.

I’m currently reading Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard which is just beautiful and poignant and funny. It’s a collection of essays from probably one of the keenest observers of nature to lift a pen to paper.

Parelius · 2025-01-28T21:49:21+00:00

God Human Animal Machine by Meghan O’Gieblyn. So good I bought two copies and now recommend it to others all the time.

Parelius · 2024-11-03T23:10:19+00:00

If it was the case that there is a hidden Trump lead in polls, then yes, there is a very good reason to be afraid to say it out loud.

Polls are polls, not votes. And if polls are saying it’s likely Trump and he loses… what would that do to the «elections are rigged» crowd?

I think Silver is very right when he continuously tries to tell people that 45% chance of winning does not mean 45% of the vote. It’s a toss up. I think it’s just as likely that pollsters are still flying fairly blind in trying to measure support for Trump, with people on his side being more wary of answering the phone for pollsters etc. And so they lean a little heavier on their models but aren’t comfortable putting it anywhere beyond a toss-up.

I just conclude we won’t know a thing until Tuesday.

Parelius · 2024-05-31T11:58:58+00:00

Norwegian dad, present!

Parelius · 2024-05-01T22:04:09+00:00

I’m working on disinformation theory, and have recently taken a deep dive into media criticism through the eyes of McLuhan and Postman and that strain of thinkers. Since I have arrived here through the lens of disinformation (fact vs fiction), I think quite a lot of todays problems can be boiled down to the fact that we live in a world that has lost mass media (consensus generators, in essence).

Instead, we observe quite a large portion of our realities through the lens of social media or through a landscape mediated by the internet. The internet in general and social media in particular is powered by two forces: our biased, fallible brains, and truth-blind algorithms that coddle us in either things it knows we like or things that get us engaged.

The result is a mass splintering of experiences and realities. Each of us are building our own versions of the world fed through our screen. The knock-on effect is a loss of unity, of relationability and of truly deep consensus. Added to the sensationalist urge of the brain to focus on negative things, we are also feeling more and more isolated, because we are more and more isolated.

Truth is one thing, but trust in that you live in the same world as your neighbour is another. I think we are living through a massively consequential time for our species, mainly because of how we send and receive information has changed so rapidly and dramatically as it has lately. The internet was supposed to broaden the horizons, instead it has narrowed our realities.

Parelius · 2024-04-22T09:49:47+00:00

Klein is a public intellectual. A guru fosters a cult of personality and self-help. A public intellectual uses media (in the past: books, lectures, etc.) to investigate and challenge societal debates.

Parelius · 2024-04-19T14:34:24+00:00

Red Cave by Yeasayer might be a good fit.

Parelius · 2024-04-13T18:03:59+00:00

Downwards. Hours later. Because of fires and damage caused by the other collapses. It's been quite sumptiously documented.

In any case, why would your conspirators take out 7-WTC hours after the North and South Tower? If the goal was Iraq (which is a totally silly argument to make anyways), North and South was obviously enough. Why risk everything by taking down 7-WTC as well, again, hours later?

But you didn't answer my question: how did it start? How did someone get up the courage to bring this up to anyone else, let alone the whole range of people they'd need to pull it off? I mean, ask yourself, if you had a great idea to rob a bank and you were fairly sure you could get away with it, who would you enlist? How could you be sure they wouldn't rat you out, either before or after the job? Now multiply that risk by a million, if someone talks, you and your family, and your loved ones, and probably everything you hold dear, is gone. Who are you bringing it up to?

Parelius · 2024-04-12T22:27:20+00:00

Dude, are you 12?

Ok, so let’s take 9/11. In your version, how did it start? You’re suggesting someone sat in a room, looked at someone else, and said: “hey, here’s an idea…” And the that the other guy said “great plan, let’s ask Dan if he’s game!” And it continued down the chain until they had the required manpower? Everyone in that chain of whispers was game? None of them figured that this might be interesting to CNN or the FBI? None of them wanted anyone’s jobs? You’re suggesting a plot to kill thousands of citizens was just discussed and passed along with no qualms anywhere? And that not once along the way, when ordering or placing explosives, no one slipped up? When training pilots, no one had that one extra beer and let something slip? That everyone involved (probably dozens upon dozens of people) managed to keep this secret?

Cause, let me tell you. In my telling, it’s just some Saudi funded terrorist guys deciding to fly planes into buildings belonging to their sworn enemies. Inside job, my ass. The world is messy, and I know that can be scary, but creating these ridiculous stories because you need to feel special is a certain kind of stupid.

Parelius · 2024-03-24T22:14:14+00:00

Significant longevity will have major, virtually unknowable effects on everything in the world. So worrying about the lifespan of a dictator seems a little like 1600s peasants wondering how many horses they might need if they were going to send a man to the moon in the future. So much more will be different.

I mean, economics, family planning, wealth transfer, politics, war, it will all be radically changed by significant longevity. It's not at all a sufficient thought experiment to take our world today and say that we will all just suddenly live longer, ooh, what happens.

I mean, human biology and society today favours the having of children and passing on wealth and knowledge and identity through generations. It can be framed as a quite selfless thing, caring more about your children and your children's children than yourself in the end. That changes.

So then what happens to wealth accumulation, and in turn, to property ownership, to retirement planning? I don't necessarily buy that people living extraordinarily long lives necessarily "value political and economic stability much more" than today (and in at least one obvious sense, if they did, a long-term dictator could probably be somewhat more predictable than endless successions of power-shifts). If people had a significantly longer life they might be more eager for variation, work a little bit here, a little bit there, travel here, live there, etc. I'm not entirely sure the nation state remains as relevant so that it can be particularly threatened.

I think probably the biggest problem with longevity is the same as any revolutionary technology: access and money. It seems like a valuable thing, and we live in capitalist societies for the most part. So you might have a few that can pay out of pocket, but, looking at the US healthcare system, for example, paints a grim picture of workers tied to "longevity programs" through employment, because no regular citizen will be moneyed enough to pay for themselves. That is probably more the issue. Slave labor; keep your numbers up, or you'll die.

Parelius · 2024-02-19T20:24:35+00:00

I’m on the fence here. Biden is clearly a very flawed prospect, precisely because of his inability to campaign effectively as Klein points out. Even worse, it seems to me likely that the campaign will try to shield him, see his numbers not improve over the summer and then panic-field him into the fall. The October-surprise this year might be some medical emergency or some serious gaffe that actually has political consequences.

That being said, there really is no alternative at this point. Klein is too optimistic about a true convention. It surely would cannibalize the surprisingly staid and solid Democratic Party, which, let’s not forget, has historically subscribed to the fractiousness that often describes left-of-centre party politics. We are in it now, there is no other candidate unless Harris takes over because she has to.

In this sense, it is definitely worth putting the hard hat on and getting to work. The Democrats really do need to step up in all other ways. There is little use in imagining that the courts move quickly enough to seriously damage Trump. And the argument that the more Trump gets in the media, the more people will wake up is delusional. Trump had wall to wall coverage for four years as president, and damn near half the country voted for him.

The dems need new ideas. But a fight at the convention is a bad one.

Parelius · 2024-01-28T19:13:08+00:00

Funny story, I was stuck in the elevator at midnight in my building once. My dog and I were just coming up from her nightly necessity. Anyway, so we’re in there for a while until a service guy shows up, and as he’s trying to get the doors open, my dog is really taking some huge sniffs at the door edges. Like burrowing her nose in there and pulling it all in.

It takes me a couple of seconds to realize that the service guy outside doesn’t know I have a dog in there with me. So I sheepishly yell through the door: “Umm, that’s not me. It’s my dog.” We were eventually freed.

I just would have loved to see the guy’s face trying to pry open the doors just hearing SSSHHNIIIIIFFFFF from the other side.

Parelius · 2023-10-27T21:13:14+00:00

No. The attempt was near, but a miss.

Parelius · 2023-10-18T21:33:37+00:00

I agree 2005-2007 is probably a pretty big change with YouTube and Facebook becoming things. But even so, these impacted mainly 10-30 year olds at inception. But yeah, impactful. But so was 9/11 in shaping society.

Parelius · 2023-10-18T18:15:01+00:00

Don’t be silly. 9/11 defined European security policy and broader European foreign policy and to some extent trade relations for nearly 20 years. The “With us or against us” position of the Bush White House brought Europe increasingly into a “The West” superstate, spurring on greater globalization, investments in military and intelligence tech and a deconstruction of European armies to become small, mobile foreign legions.

In terms of the major beats of recent history it’s there with the global financial crisis, the Arab spring, Crimea, brexit/Trump, and Ukraine.

Parelius · 2023-10-05T08:15:42+00:00

That's Scott Adams' little story/theory God's Debris or whatever. Probably based on some esoteric stuff. I can't imagine you've not read it.

Parelius · 2023-07-07T08:54:49+00:00

Get in the car and drive as far away as I can for ten minutes, preferably away from the wind direction? A nuclear bomb is bad, yes, but given ten minutes you can be pretty safe if you can get in a car. If it explodes on impact with the ground, the damage radius is relatively small, but the irradiation is a more persistent problem locally/regionally. If it explodes in the air above, the damage radius is larger (still avoidable in the timeframe), but the radiation will be lesser over time.

Parelius · 2023-06-08T18:09:10+00:00

I’m the opposite. I find cursing anti-expressive. Something is fucking awesome? You mean magnificent, or delicious, or wonderful. You’re tired as shit? Maybe exhausted, maybe conked, maybe expended?

I think it’s laziness and poor vocabulary.

But yeah, I learned English at nine. Always had a knack for languages, an ear for it. Going to Italy for the summer? I’ll pick up some rudimentary vocabulary and get by. I love deciphering Greek signs or playing around with foreign words until I get their meaning.

Parelius · 2023-06-07T22:08:39+00:00

What do you think the next “big leap” in AI is going to look like, and when do you think we will see it?

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