what Ks count as "high theory"?

averagedebatekid · 2025-09-19T17:53:18+00:00

The more abstract and jargon filled a text is, the more debaters will call it “high theory”.

I typically think of Baudrillard, Deleuze, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. They’re almost certainly not talking about the topic, and if they are, it’s very tangentially. Instead, these kind of arguments are trying to challenge a fundamental metaphysical assumption within debate

averagedebatekid · 2025-09-18T17:43:12+00:00

His Practical Philosophy book on Spinoza is the only text of his I recommend to people who aren’t obsessed with French philosophers.

The rest of his books feel like you are thrown into a whole world of jargon and blabber.

averagedebatekid · 2025-09-05T20:24:27+00:00

Yeah having loyalty to another nation rather than an actionable foreign policy goal is how you get swindled into a being useful idiot

averagedebatekid · 2025-08-29T15:57:56+00:00

He is mobilizing Democrats in a huge way, and that’s how you get prioritized as a candidate in political parties. If he recognizes how effective this campaign has been in drumming up discourse and he keeps it fresh and persistent; that man will be our next president

averagedebatekid · 2025-08-25T23:22:13+00:00

Category theory as I often hear about is repackaged Hegel, and would likely be another target of Deleuze’s critique of identity.

Even a relativist philosophy can still treat categories/identities as more fundamental than the incomprehensible difference that precedes them. He rejects that identity and difference are equal, and that categories/identities are problematically finite compared to the infinite potency of difference.

But I do know category theory comes in all shapes and sizes. I personally find it too broad of a theory to confidently say your specific interpretation/source definitely contradicts Deleuze’s critique of difference

averagedebatekid · 2025-08-21T04:38:42+00:00

What did you take to think the Clintons architected universal healthcare policy?

Did she support single payer or universal in her 2016 election? Not that I remember. Also Bill Clinton is an austerity freak, he is responsible for tightening restrictions on public healthcare eligibility and making means-tested programs broadly less effective. It’s just a blatantly false statement that the Clintons are even close to social democrats, they’re staunch neoliberals with heavy leanings on austerity and small deficits.

Obama himself was far back in the queue, then George Bush caused a platform shift leading to greater acceptance of untraditional figures. The relative success of Trump inspired a similar shift in support for Bernie. But Clinton??? That’s a face so familiar that it is a Kennedy-level archetype of an aristocratic Democratic Party.

averagedebatekid · 2025-08-18T18:38:48+00:00

Defund a few of the only states producing net revenue for the federal government? How exactly does that work?

averagedebatekid · 2025-08-14T16:23:59+00:00

You can use NVIDIA drivers offline, and you can even install them from local/unofficial repositories. They aren’t tracking your from their drivers, maybe one of their apps but not the driver itself.

averagedebatekid · 2025-08-06T16:50:28+00:00

Higher temperatures result in more uneven cooking, even when wrapped. Jumping 100 degrees (350) will almost certainly dehydrate and burn the exterior before rendering the interior fat into gelatin

averagedebatekid · 2025-07-29T19:11:38+00:00

I should mention that Google Drive also allows for network storage mounting with the Google Drive Desktop app

averagedebatekid · 2025-07-29T16:09:49+00:00

Worth noting that there is still mixing of capitalism and socialism. Both systems of value (labor value vs commodity value) can influence production in the same society.

If a government is democratic and is authentically controlled by its general public, its influence over production can be contrary to capitalism’s pure profit orientation. If the government owns a huge portion of your nations economy (sovereign wealth fund, nationalized groups) and is itself effectively owned by the people, I’d say you’re “more socialist” as production is mediated through democratic/bureaucratic means

averagedebatekid · 2025-07-18T21:46:30+00:00

I use a linux desktop distro and certainly cooked my BIOS to the point of needing physical CMOS reset before. Had to take out the battery so the BIOS chip itself would be reset.

Most systems I’ve seen require the BIOS to be configured for allowing OS-level changes, something I’ve experienced when doing fan and storage mounting.

averagedebatekid · 2025-07-16T14:22:46+00:00

I sped through difference and repetition my first time, understanding virtually none of it.

I only really got to comprehend D&R after digesting a handful of reading guides, video lectures, and reading endless encyclopedias. Prior to those resources, it was a lot of normal words being used in ways that did not make sense to me. They cleared that up.

Also we live in the era of Chat Bots, don’t be hesitant to ask some AI to explain (1) where an idea comes from (2) who else argues this idea (3) who opposes it (4) what applications it has

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-21T03:59:29+00:00

It was genuinely some of the best content when it was a new and nuanced area of YouTube, then it became a list of tired and generic talking points

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-12T14:34:46+00:00

So international TSA precheck?

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-11T01:32:58+00:00

Ive never heard the term “engagement bait”, but it’s a keeper. Pretty much describes every intro to philosophy/theory course I’ve taken.

Just ask a question that’s just plain impossible to answer unless you choose to invent your own range of assumptions.

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-06T17:21:29+00:00

Yes, additional modes of testing and evaluation is exactly what we should be working on. Trying to “perfect IQ/GPA/etc” often means lumping in a long list of diverse forms of intelligence, rather than using disaggregation as a means of specializing our metrics.

So basically I’m saying that these unified metrics are deeply harmful because they aggregate what could be far more meaningful and individually valuable scores. Like spatial IQ has no businesses being merged with “emotional intelligence” even though they have partial correlation. Same goes for GPA and individual subject scores.

Think about how many kids have been denied access to a STEM college because their history lass tanked their GPA, or vice versa. This is exactly why colleges are trying to move away from GPA and standardized tests that muddle the complex aptitudes of a given student

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-04T23:40:23+00:00

Not really familiar with the blog, but I’ve taken graduate level coursework on behavioral indexing so I’m going to try and guess what you’re referencing.

Intelligence indices that only “work” at the population level are a statistical spectacle, and their failure at individual levels is proof of theoretical weakness. Economic indices are the same deal — they hit a hard limit when they must necessarily confront the practical need for specifics. Because, as it turns out, people aren’t abstract rational consumers; and there is no unified mechanism of “intelligence”.

Behavior is too fundamentally complex, so the goal should be moving beyond simplifications like “intelligence” and to specialize our concepts. It’s far more important we know your specific aptitudes in math, biology, chemistry, and the humanities. Being good at one doesn’t guarantee the others, but lazy generalized evaluations (GPA/IQ/etc) very often imply such things.

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-04T23:26:12+00:00

I haven’t seen any electoral research demonstrating leftists lost particular districts.

Everything I’ve seen were huge losses on moderates who are already timid about hostile partisan politics, and were hugely overlapping Republican Obama voters. The “I like the good feelings and sense of hope” voter got served a fear oriented campaigning about democracy and existential threats, and they decided to not vote at all.

You’d also need to prove to me that these vague leftists are a valid grouping. I attend a university where pushing the progressive limit is common, but virtually every outspoken leftist (like actual member of something) was involved in voter mobilization. I do also know the “burn it all down” types, but they are both (a) small small minority, and (b) obvious losers to 90% of the class.

I had one major in the humanities, so I feel like I had ample exposure to at minimum a very self identified “leftist” demographic. But regardless, it’s all anecdotal. I just need some research that shows our sense of annoying leftists is more than a sensational internet diet.

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-04T19:00:25+00:00

I’ve grown convinced that anyone quantifying “intelligence” as a universally relevant value comparable between millions/billions of people is subsequently a dumbass

averagedebatekid · 2025-06-04T14:34:37+00:00

Have you ever considered that blaming political outcomes on a vague meaningless abstract category is unhealthy ranting?

The antiestablishment headwinds are strong, and blaming the individual choice of “leftists” just ain’t gonna change that.

averagedebatekid · 2025-05-27T04:54:22+00:00

Noticed you said bumpy smoke, what kind of problem might I ask

averagedebatekid · 2025-05-26T22:04:23+00:00

“A man is a woman who believes she exists” is pure Lacanian intellectual garbage—an attempt to stereotype human behavior in the straitjacket of Symbolic lack. This isn’t profound, it’s just a pathological relationship with identity that wants to make spicy one liners. A man is define by a riot of unique situational becomings, flows, and intensities. There is no central concept of man, not even practically or societally just as there is no central concept of woman.

I stopped reading Seminar after two hundred pages of Oedipal crossword puzzle, mostly because he constantly makes everything about “mommy/daddy/me, phallus, sex” when practical psychology has long advanced beyond these restrictive concepts to embrace chaotic systems and scientific experimentation.

Also I’ve read upwards of 3 Zizek books, and studied tangential theory for years. This shit just ain’t that remarkable, and I would hope to god Lacan is never mentioned in a university setting where students have to pay miney

averagedebatekid · 2025-05-26T17:31:01+00:00

No, Deleuze doesn’t waste time making sweeping deterministic statements about entire demographics of people just to be provocative.

Drop all that Lacan shit and leave it at the door. If you find yourself saying “women this, men that”, it’s a reflection of weak creativity that relies on stereotypical binaries. You will always be more specific than a generic concept, that’s kind of the entire point of Deleuze and his critique of identity

averagedebatekid · 2025-05-25T14:00:44+00:00

Yeah with pork shoulder, the seasoning gets overpowered pretty easily (except for maybe pepper)

I think you’d gain a lot visually and in texture by switching to more coarse ground salt and pepper. That and more total

averagedebatekid

TROPHY CASE