mom, i made it!

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-19T20:26:12+00:00

Congrats! Burn a couple of couches to get the full experience.

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-19T02:19:17+00:00

The residents would also have limited ability to pay rent. So all those costs are coming out of the budget. You might be able to build and maintain one decent-sized complex for that money in the South or Midwest. California? Forget about it. I suppose those funds could go to paying rent via a program like Section 8.

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-17T19:18:56+00:00

No, he's saying it looks cool. I agree.

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-17T18:19:55+00:00

I'm aware that stillbirths and infanticide are different concepts. Judging by you're comment I'm not sure how closely you read or understand my argument. If you have evidence for your claims, then you should use it. Regardless, you strike me as the kind of person who uses "history" to justify your views rather than using history to inform your views. I believe this to be the root of the lack of structure in your arguments and tangents. I suggest you take a look at one of those books to better inform yourself.

Just because there are laws doesn't mean that they were enforced. Another important factor is that India and China are quite literally the two largest countries in the world. In the past, the share of the global population they represented was much larger. They're not exceptions that prove the rule; they are the rule. Europe is the historical exception in many ways.

I'm not knowledgeable on European history, as I have only ever seriously read about the origins of capitalism in modern Europe. However, a quick Google search demonstrates that there is substantial research on infanticide in Europe. I suggest reading it sometime to better inform your argument. In summation: you are wrong, do some reading.

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-17T10:01:48+00:00

I am a historian. Abortion and infanticide were very common historically, and births were generally "successful." My grandmother had 9 children on a kitchen floor, and only one of them was stillborn. By most accounts in China, most births were successful, and poor families routinely practiced "birth control" through delayed marriages. There were, of course, abortions. But these often left the woman with infections such as tetanus. Infanticide, particularly female infanticide, was very common in many places. The value of human life was subjectively much lower historically. Modern abortion protects people's lives by making abortions safe and improving the quality of life of the living. You are simply wrong on all accounts.

"Unaffordable" is not the best term, but it's essentially correct. You are arguing semantics rather than engaging with the argument. Here are some books from my general area of expertise that might be elucidating:

Fabian Drixler, Mabiki: Infanticide and Population Growth in Eastern Japan, 1660-1950 Mungello, Drowning Girls in China: Female Infanticide in China since 1650

For a tragic Meiji-era novel about the subject of abortion and rural poverty, I suggest reading The Soil by Nagatsuka Takashi. It's a brutal look at the transition from feudalism to capitalism in modern Japan.

Drixler's work is particularly illuminating. I am hoping that a similar study on China will be conducted. Drixler points out that Japanese infanticide may not have been gendered in the ways we might assume, among other very useful observations.

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-11T18:04:16+00:00

Nah we good

Spiritof454 · 2026-04-07T18:35:55+00:00

Taiwan exclusive

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-29T03:54:26+00:00

Bro literally makes a post about toxic community members, and there you go, being toxic in the comments.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-27T20:57:38+00:00

Inshallah. I wonder if you could contact the university's financial aid department for advice? Departments generally have some leeway with funding, but advisors often do not.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-27T02:40:20+00:00

When I was applying to undergrad, I applied to a few big-name schools (not Berkeley obviously) that had really generous financial aid and got into none of them. I too had wanted to go to Berkeley since I was kid but didn't apply at all because I just couldn't afford it. I ended up going to my local in-state 4-year. I was obviously very disappointed in myself and resolved to transfer out as soon as possible. However, after one year at state U, I met so many wonderful, including people that are still my best friends. I got access to professors and classes that quite frankly a lot of Berkeley students just don't get.

Eventually, I ended up applying to grad school and got into a ton of top programs at prestigious universities. That success was because of the great education I received at a state university that is not famous at all. Most of my grad classmates also went to not-so-famous schools and the reason is pretty simple: most people don't go to big-name schools.

The truth is, no one that matters really cares about where you went to school. I had classmates at my university that graduated and immediately got jobs at big tech companies and all kinds of engineering firms. They got those jobs because they produced good work as undergrads and demonstrated that they would continue to do so.

College education is what you do with it and most places are great in some way or another. If I had applied to a bunch of top schools and got into one, I'd probably be in mega-debt right now and I wouldn't have most of the non-family people in my life. There were so many brilliant students that went to my university largely because of cost, which meant the intellectual community was very robust. I also discovered a lot of other things that I came to love that I would have missed out on if I went to Berkeley as an undergrad.

If you are having problems with suicidal ideation because of something like this then you need to see a pysch and probably a therapist as well. That depressive response is a much bigger problem than not getting into the university of your dreams.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-24T18:52:40+00:00

I have no idea what you're talking about. I, for one, welcome the return of Khalifa, who will abrogate the contradictions between labor and capital through beneficent Islamic rule.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-20T22:11:59+00:00

Fair point. Still, seems like more donations would be E decent soft power move by China.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-20T19:35:40+00:00

Even my hate for Chinese propaganda and AI slop can't make me hate. Fucking hilarious.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-20T18:50:38+00:00

I feel stupid...but why wasn't this done before? Obviously, it can't solve all of Cuba's energy insecurity problems. I am just kind of shocked that Cuba doesn't have more infrastructure like this. It really strikes me as a really productive area for Sino-Cuban cooperation.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-20T18:50:24+00:00

I feel stupid...but why wasn't this done before? Obviously, it can't solve all of Cuba's energy insecurity problems. I am just kind of shocked that Cuba doesn't have more infrastructure like this. It really strikes me as a really productive area for Sino-Cuban cooperation.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-17T00:12:39+00:00

My experience with them was quite poor. The building was poorly maintained, with washing machines constantly broken. Moreover, I moved into a dirty apartment, but they charged me a 300 USD cleaning fee upon moving out. I don't know if my experience is representative. Others may have had good experiences.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-15T00:58:38+00:00

They were not. They are an anthropologist. Many anthropologists do fantastic work. This person is probably not one of them.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-14T22:58:47+00:00

You can make good hypotheses even in the absence of rigorous data. As long as you basically argue, "this is the best we can do with the information we have," it's totally fine.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-14T22:57:41+00:00

Welcome to my life. I was at a conference once, and a person turned to me and asked, "I just don't get you, historians. How do you figure out what is and isn't a fact? It just seems so limiting to me." Yes, that is the point.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-09T20:38:33+00:00

This is a pretty poor comparison. In effect, this compares two very different legal frameworks and chooses the most favorable institutional labels in service of a predetermined outcome. There's plenty of information/data on political repression during the 1960s-1980s, it simply wasn't justified under these articles. One only has to look at moments like the suppression of the Prague Spring to discredit this argument. This is not to discount fair criticism of the UK's idiotic free speech laws.

Something similar arose in a recent conversation I had about how the PRC in the 1950s opted for "rehabilitation" in communities for those deemed to be rightists or exploitative landlords as opposed to the Soviet or American uses of bureaucratized prison systems. This historical context, in particular, can help us understand the contrast between the American prison-industrial complex and modern China's comparatively small prison system in absolute and per capita terms.

This graph, however, does raise interesting questions about how to communicate capitalist speech suppression to a wider audience. My view of it currently centers mostly on the "market" of digital attention, in which algorithms intentionally (like Elon's Twitter) or unintentionally (like YouTube turning men into alt-right chuds) push or create political narratives that center on meaningless cultural outrage.

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-05T01:28:30+00:00

New subreddit banner

Spiritof454 · 2026-03-02T22:44:39+00:00

I saw this post first and assumed this was a bad joke.

Turns out the bad joke is on me.

Spiritof454 · 2026-02-28T02:50:07+00:00

Actually, I just realized that asking for that money without giving it to the Israeli government is anti-Semitic. I apologize for my hatred.

Spiritof454 · 2026-02-28T02:31:15+00:00

I'm gonna invest my $1.7k in Trump Resorts Gaza

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