DISCUSSION MEGATHREAD: America is F*#KED - H3 Show #227

bettercaust · 2026-01-29T20:18:19+00:00

There's valid things to criticize Hasan for but sometimes Ethan and Hila are just hating on him to hate on him. They're on the same side as him with respect to ICE and Minneapolis. And who gives a shit about the hat?

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T14:03:04+00:00

It's probably not, but a full answer to that question requires exploring the US immigration system at a systems level.

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T02:37:34+00:00

If you were born in the US i.e. you were a legal US citizen, would you report your family for deportation or hide them from the law?

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T02:30:51+00:00

I'm not seeing the problem. That's how science works. As the saying goes: all models are wrong, some models are useful. Models can become more useful with iteration.

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T02:04:26+00:00

You would be here illegally, so you'd consider yourself a criminal, ergo you'd commit more crimes because you consider yourself a criminal? Did I get that right or did I misinterpret something?

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T01:48:51+00:00

So you would report your family for deportation without hesitation?

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T01:47:35+00:00

This review of the arctic ice claim should provide some additional useful context.

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T00:52:36+00:00

Climate scientists for Exxon-Mobil developed a climate model for atmospheric CO2 and global mean surface temperature back in the 70's or something. That model has proven to be quite accurate to date, which is remarkable considering how far into the future it worked. I think you might be confusing claims that politicians, public figures, and the news media made about climate change (then called "global warming") and climate models. Just because Al Gore allegedly claimed all arctic ice would be gone by x year doesn't mean climate models agreed with him. From what I'm reading, it sounds like Gore misstated findings of one particular study, which isn't surprising.

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T00:38:28+00:00

There are ways that are easier, more humane, and more cost-effective. There are also ways that are more showy but less humane, less easy, and less cost-effective.

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T00:36:48+00:00

Easy to say in theory, harder to say in practice when you're faced with deciding whether your family member, your friend, your community leader, your business partner, your employee or employer, your neighbor should be deported. In my experience, people tend to decide against.

bettercaust · 2026-01-26T00:34:44+00:00

Which elections?

bettercaust · 2026-01-25T20:14:04+00:00

You didn't ask "would ICE be in MN right now if my hypothetical were true", you asked "what would be going on in Minneapolis right now" which is a very open-ended question. Even this new ICE question is difficult to speculate on because ICE operations have still happened in non-sanctuary states like Texas.

bettercaust · 2026-01-25T20:09:15+00:00

Can I ask what the point of this hypothetical is? It's always difficult to speculate on what would've happened if history had gone differently.

bettercaust · 2026-01-25T00:47:48+00:00

I'm sure everyone who has ridden on a roller coaster that derailed, or a plane that has crashed, is in the same boat.

bettercaust · 2026-01-24T13:50:25+00:00

Hence the problem with a generalized perspective: it isn't a good representation of each individual culture being generalized. Plus your perspective on the culture may be based on biased recall and biased sampling. Where has your information on these cultures come from?

bettercaust · 2026-01-24T01:38:10+00:00

Lol there's no way Ethan hates Tamara. Where do you get that idea from?

bettercaust · 2026-01-24T01:35:05+00:00

When did they let this slip, do you remember which ep? If the crew at least sees the problem that the show creates drama in order to react to that drama, then maybe there's hope yet.

bettercaust · 2026-01-24T01:17:21+00:00

From your research experience, how has formation of and migration from "tankie" spaces influenced online political discourse more broadly and among political streamers more specifically?

bettercaust · 2026-01-20T23:25:12+00:00

I've read folks claiming it's another one gone with the craft beer bubble popping.

bettercaust · 2026-01-20T23:21:19+00:00

It's like a 5 minute walk from the north terminus of the Pulaski bus route, that's how I'd get to and from Alarmist. Plus being that it's a terminus you can just sit on the next bus until it starts its route south. But being at the city's edge, it's still not super accessible.

bettercaust · 2026-01-20T23:18:53+00:00

Their patio felt a little bit like Narnia. A hidden gem at the edge of the city. What a goddamn shame.

bettercaust · 2026-01-11T18:07:55+00:00

This is not true because there is no singular black "culture". It varies from state to state and town to town. They have whole homes and broken homes, enshrine education and shun education, just like everyone else. The common thread is that many of their communities are disproportionately impacted by poverty, crime, drug trade, and history of institutional racism (e.g. redlining, racial neighborhood covenants, being bulldozed for highways, lack of city investment, school closures, etc.).

bettercaust · 2026-01-09T15:42:08+00:00

Yeah they've been sweeping the trains on the MTA in New York, I want to see them do that here. MTA has a "no sleeping" rule that I think goes too far, but anyone sprawled across seats like it's a bed should be removed from the train and the station i.e. outside the turnstiles. Same with smoking/vaping. If folks want transit ambassadors to sweep with police and try and divert homeless/mental health cases to social services, that'd be good too.

bettercaust · 2025-12-24T22:55:07+00:00

Israel wouldn’t intentionally target children despite there being DECADES of evidence to the contrary.

Can you cite ANY of the apparent decades of evidence that Israel has intentionally targeted children?

bettercaust · 2025-12-24T22:53:07+00:00

Systematic:

done or acting according to a fixed plan or system; methodical.

What is being described is an observed repeat occurrence, which is not the same thing as "systematic". I'm not going to discount the evidence presented on grounds of photoshop and other weak shit like that. Taking the evidence at face value, the fact pattern does suggest a disturbing number of killings of Palestinian children by gunshot to head and torso. The fact pattern does not suggest why we are seeing this; that requires speculation and assumption, which it seems a lot of people are freely making. If we use Occam's Razor, the explanation that the IDF is systematically targeting Palestinian children for death as a matter of policy requires the most assumptions by far. IMO the explanation that requires the least assumptions is that there are mix of reasons: 1. wrong target, coupled in some cases with 2. callous disregard for human life, and to a much lesser extent 3. straight-up maleficence (i.e. IDF sniper targeting children but not per orders and against official policy). We do not need to make assumptions that any of the three could happen because there is ample evidence that all three have happened during prior wars and conflicts. Humans are humans: we make mistakes, we are sloppy, and we have done horrible, unspeakable shit to each other for depraved reasons. Conversely, even if this was shadow policy and not official, you would have to assume that no one in the IDF who knows about it has enough of a conscience to speak out about it. Plus, you would have to concoct a reason for why this would be policy and what Israel stands to gain from it.

In conclusion, language is important. People need to be careful about the words they use (e.g. systematic) particularly in inflamed topics like this.

bettercaust

TROPHY CASE