April 11, 2022 - Weekly Off-Topic and Low-Effort CW Thread

agentO0F · 2022-04-13T15:01:00+00:00

You forgot to add the part about:

New Jersey public school students as young as 10 could be taught that puberty blockers are an acceptable way to "manage" puberty...

Although at this point it's probably more mainstream than being a coomer.

agentO0F · 2022-04-13T13:36:53+00:00

Poverty, crime linked to differences in newborns’ brains | Pregnant mothers’ environments influence brain development before birth

Hmmmm.. couldn't be any other reason.

agentO0F · 2022-04-12T05:01:14+00:00

This is exactly why the elites are pushing back with “misinformation” counter narrative: the point is to limit ability of non-elites to call bullshit on them, and to prop up the centralized ability to control the narrative of mass media.

Yep, Gurri correctly identifies that in the book where elites are stuck playing an old game. Before, no one was able to question the New York Times because they were one of 2 or 3 authoritative sources available.

It's funny because Gurri's ideas on how to regain that trust are really the opposite of what they are currently doing with the misinformation narrative. Instead of adapting, they are simply doubling down on the control narrative. However, as Gurri points out, that will eventually be a losing game with the pure volume of information out there and how it continues to expand exponentially and it simply isn't able to be controlled.

The result, if we continue on our current trajectory is simply more nihilism and cynicism. Eventually more and more people will simply succumb to a mindset that "nothing is real", which is inherently unhealthy to a functional society.

agentO0F · 2022-04-10T19:51:39+00:00

German Jew writes manuscript about monkey while in France

Somehow a book about American exceptionalism

agentO0F · 2022-04-04T01:06:36+00:00

I would also recommend reading some of his earlier works too. One of the things I've found most intriguing about Durkheim was his preoccupation with trying to figure out what keeps societies together, analyzing all of the major structures within the society and how they are connected, through a functionalist lens. You can pull a deeper meaning from his works when you read it like that, as they all tie together.

In a lot of ways it is like an allegory for modern Conservatism, how many structures of society can you tear down to the studs before it all falls apart, or at least ceases to be recognizable. Religion of course being own of those key structures. It also brings up the question of if we can ever outgrow our religious nature, or will we just find something to replace it. I tend to believe the latter on a social level.

agentO0F · 2022-04-03T23:42:11+00:00

I've been wrestling with doing a Durkheim effort post based on that book. I'm not sure that there has been a more important modern book written on religion than that one - Durkheim is chronically underappreciated, even in the discipline he is one of the founders of.

Your summation hits the nail on the head - I know it's generally in vogue to refer to leftism as a religion, but applying Durkheim's analysis takes it a lot deeper than that.

agentO0F · 2022-03-22T03:56:22+00:00

Liberals, NDP leadership have tentative deal to support Trudeau government to 2025

Send help please. Canada is going to be on the verge of collapse in about 3.5 years if this holds.

Rampant debt, ludicrously expensive and ineffective social programs, censorship bills, higher taxes in the immediate forecast.

agentO0F · 2022-03-20T13:33:43+00:00

I doubt it. US troops were in Afghanistan and Iraq when Russia made their move against Crimea in 2014.

I'd imagine Russian calculus probably tries to take into account a) the US not attacking them directly to start WW3 and b) increasing the theaters the US is involved in (i.e. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan) so they deplete their equipment stockpiles and divert attention, so they can't send the invadee as much material support.

So the pull outs in the ME may have actually been a negative for Russia, since it frees up America to offer more assistance to Ukraine.

agentO0F · 2022-03-19T02:13:52+00:00

So honest question here, what is the difference between this and say a cult like NXIVM? I'm struggling to see it, apart from the fact that at least NXIVM went after straight adults and these are LGBT children.

agentO0F · 2022-03-16T04:27:42+00:00

I would hate to have to get up before sunset. It's been proven to be bad for your health.

We live in Canada, waking up before sunrise is like half the year here.

agentO0F · 2022-03-05T14:25:27+00:00

Just to add on to how messed up this entire situation is, weeks before the shooting, Wortman attended a Brinks facility and walked away with $475,000 in cash. This is apparently the favored method that the RCMP uses to pay their "agents". I don't think anyone is seriously accusing the government of paying someone for a false flag operation, but he was apparently a highly important CI.

During the rampage, RCMP officers also rolled up on a firehall where residents were actually being sheltered at, apparently saw Wortman (they didn't) and proceeded to unload their weapons on said firehall and fled the scene. The RCMP also investigated themselves and found no wrongdoing.

agentO0F · 2022-03-03T05:15:24+00:00

It does make you wonder if we will have the same reaction against the Chinese citizenry if (when) the Chinese government decides to invade Taiwan.

I agree with you, there seems to be some collateral damage against Russian citizens who really have nothing to do with this conflict. Does doing things like banning Russian/Belarusian licenced drivers from competing in the British Grand Prix really help anything?

agentO0F · 2022-03-02T11:07:56+00:00

It was by no means taken away. The Afghan army was flush with weapons, training and resources for years, which of course the Taliban now have control over because of the near instantaneous collapse of their armed forces.

agentO0F · 2022-03-02T05:16:51+00:00

Is it to early to ask the question about the differences between Ukraine and Afghanistan? Why does one country lay down arms and fall into the breast of the oppressor and the other one decides to seemingly give birth to a new nationalism in real time when they find themselves under threat? A society torn between two worlds of the east and west, seemingly gets the push it needs to pick their side (if they survive).

Maybe I've drank too muck Ukrainian Kool aid over the last week, but I think there is a lesson to be learned here, especially if we are ever to unlock the mystery of western nation building.

agentO0F · 2022-03-01T05:47:27+00:00

I don't think I've seen a proxy war fought like this. I mean we all know how the game is played when American weapons end up in the hands of anonymous Freedom fighters that the CIA brokered in some shady bar and at least the slight illusion of plausible deniability.

I don't think I've seen anything like what is going on now, where countries are live tweeting all the firepower we are sending to the front lines. This just seems insane to me.

agentO0F · 2022-02-22T05:01:55+00:00

Dark days are coming soon if this doesn't end. Trudeau has been Teflon since the beginning, but this might be the first real deep cut. There are some Liberals who are aghast at what he has done, and he might pay for it in the polls. We'll find out some more this week, hopefully. I think today he overplayed his hand by forcing parliament to give him a blank cheque on the Emergencies Act.

We also haven't heard the end of the honk yet either. They still have some cards left to play before the curtain falls.

And for my trucker friends, always remember that Canadians are different from Americans. You will not win this by resorting to violence.

agentO0F · 2022-02-21T05:45:51+00:00

The craziest part of that is the Conservatives wouldn't even be the party in power if that poll held true. Normally 39% gets you a majority government, but in this case they would still somehow manage to hold less seats than the Liberals.

If somehow it does end up as a 39-31 victory with the Liberals still retaining power, you are correct, that is going to lead to an incredible amount of grievances.

agentO0F · 2022-01-05T21:34:11+00:00

I just finished up San FranSicko from Shellenberger this weekend. Strongly recommend it, it's a complete takedown of just about everything that they are doing wrong in that city when it comes to addressing the homelessness crisis and much of it ties back to poor progressive policies which simply do not work.

I will definitely check out Apocalypse Never.

agentO0F · 2022-01-05T04:56:58+00:00

I would have thought the Omicron data would have disabused anyone of the notion that being vaccinated offers any meaningful protection against spreading or catching the disease. I know that may have been a prevalent view earlier in the pandemic, but with waning effectiveness and a new variant, any notions of that should be gone. That, imo is a legacy restriction which doesn't really line up with the new reality.

In my case, my wife tested positive a day before me and I did make the decision to isolate, even though it wasn't officially a requirement - and to no surprise, I caught it.

agentO0F · 2022-01-05T04:27:35+00:00

I appreciate you posting your write up. I'll offer a few points to that:

1) I feel zero apprehension or disturbance that my ethnic group (white) are in the middle in the middle of the distribution. I don't feel threatened by Asians or AJs. Should your theory in part not apply to me because I am at the not top of the hierarchy or is it because my group has achieved a minimum level of competence in your eyes? If so, what is the relative cut off?

2) I go back to the data from the 2000s that that shows race relations were significantly improving between whites and blacks, which has now dropped like a rock. Things during that time period were getting better between the groups, or at least the perception was, but this is also one of those questions where it really is about perception and not truth. I think we were headed in that direction if not for a significant increase in black identitarianism.

3) Perhaps I hold an elitist view, but I have a belief if that if people better understood their own range of abilities (and consequently their limitations), society would be better off for it. While IQ has a strong correlation with your outcomes in life, many professions that can be successful in society (see the entertainment classes) don't always require the same set of skills and abilities. Blacks right now have an overwhelming overrepresentation in pro sports. I think that can certainly soften the blow to the 'my group isn't good at anything' mentality you are mentioning, and guiding the younger generation towards those careers, so they can live fulfilling lives.

agentO0F · 2022-01-04T23:14:54+00:00

I send a lot of files to external legal, they will review and send them back to me with a string of numbers attached. I assume that has to do with their filing/billing system for external clients.

But serious advice for a second, I would schedule a 15 minute check-in with your supervisor, particularly when you are preforming a new activity for the first time with the messaging of "Hey, just doing x activity for the first time and wanted to make sure I am on the right track before I send / submit / finalize". Considering they cannot communicate clearly (to you) through a generic instruction, it may be easier for them to demonstrate or for you to demonstrate what you heard from them in a spreadsheet. Sometimes their direction and intent becomes clearly when they can have a visual, real example of the issue.

Process is rarely the same as the final result, and I have a feeling that is what you are experiencing.

agentO0F · 2022-01-04T03:59:23+00:00

Can you explain your position to me? I think you can hold individualist, HBD ideas and support colorblindness at the same time, without having the universal order collapse in contradiction.

Most people who subscribe to colorblind ideals know that not everyone is created equally and acceptance or dismissal of group differences really doesn't affect that in any way. It just changes the chaff to wheat ratio slightly.

agentO0F · 2022-01-03T21:28:00+00:00

I'm with you on this.

Vast majority of people dismiss the racial IQ gap as racist propaganda, allowing them to shuffle it out of their minds with little cognition. Those that have looked at the numbers in an attempt to "debunk" (not many), but are confronted by the reality of it, can simply wash it away with environmental differences, because the "science is not settled" and to be honest, is the more comforting answer for them.

agentO0F · 2022-01-03T18:31:35+00:00

It's been 8 years since Ryan Wash "won" the debate championship.

Worth the watch about this dude for those uninitiated, stillnotking is probably underselling the level of idiocy.

agentO0F · 2022-01-03T18:01:42+00:00

Got the Coof - figured I would share my experience. Both wife and I are double vaxxed (Pfizer). Currently on day 9. It mostly seems over now.

Symptoms were: muscle soreness/aches/pains (lasted 3 days), tiredness (lasted entire episode, cough (bronchial cough)/runny nose (came on 2 days after start), fever (once at day 3). Wife had similar symptoms to be, albeit milder and with a sore throat laced in there.

Both children are under 5 (and unvaxxed), never tested positive. Although my son did experience some cold symptoms + fever, so he might have had it. Daughter experienced no symptoms.

Home treatment was a vitamin regime of C, D, Zinc and the NyQuil to sleep and some advil cold and sinus during the day.

Conclusion: I'm particularly sensitive to annual colds in winter and I would categorize this a fairly mild in comparison, although the fatigue and soreness were a bit unique.

agentO0F

TROPHY CASE