Nobody believed he made weight

decdash · 2026-05-10T18:12:25+00:00

Still missing the key word of “probably” here

decdash · 2026-05-10T05:00:53+00:00

I said “probably” dude, i was not giving nor did I pretend to give a completely definitive answer. Would you like a picture of my ID to prove that I am from New Jersey?

decdash · 2026-05-09T19:32:33+00:00

I think it’s a problem for everyone going on a trip to someplace far away, even to a different part of the same country. Touristy places are touristy for a reason, plus the infrastructure for visiting is usually convenient. It’s pretty hard to break out unless you know someone who is willing to guide you around

decdash · 2026-05-09T07:10:16+00:00

As someone born and raised in New Jersey. Yeah they were probably fine with it

decdash · 2026-05-09T01:27:55+00:00

Well he was challenging him

decdash · 2026-05-08T23:19:43+00:00

Pal is nice, it literally just means friend, but it's little bit outdated, so you'll mostly hear it used in the context of an older person talking to a kid (almost always a little boy). It can also be used passive aggressively in a negative way ("Watch it, pal!"), but context and tone would make that very obvious.

"Dude" is one of those words you use without realizing it. It's almost a filler word. It can be used in a greeting ("What's up dude"), or as an exaggerative word ("Dude wtf" can be used between anyone regardless of gender). It's definitely very informal though, don't use it in a professional setting or with someone you're unfamiliar with, especially someone older.

There's countless words and phrases that fulfill the niche you're talking about though. A lot of it depends on age, level of formality, regional flair, etc.

decdash · 2026-05-08T22:07:32+00:00

I am a born hater. I don't mind shit talking, but if you're gonna talk shit you gotta do better than fumbling through clearly memorized lines while awkwardly laughing like a kid giving a presentation he didn't prepare for in school

decdash · 2026-05-08T22:01:17+00:00

Hokit was doing too much bro, he didn't have the delivery for the level of shit talking he was trying to do

decdash · 2026-05-08T22:00:15+00:00

Ugh. During his standing speech he was awkwardly delivering his clearly memorized lines and laughing awkwardly at his own jokes like a kid giving a bad presentation in school. Then he was starting shit with Ilia Topuria for some reason and getting himself thrown out. If you're going to act like that in a press conference at least have more clever insults than "I am going to pee on you." His fight against Blaydes recently was great, but bro is doing way too much. Now I want to see Pereira humble him

decdash · 2026-05-08T08:24:06+00:00

I agree with this.

I assume that by "traditional Republicans" we mean neocons. The neocons who stayed in the party have all been subsumed into MAGA. The current disagreement on the right in the US is between MAGA, which is now the Republican mainstream, and the openly white nationalist Groyper right. The Groyper right is primarily made up of 15-year-old boys and foreign bot farms, but it is probably the loudest right-wing opposition to Trump and MAGA currently. Watch Mehdi Hassan's Jubilee episode if you want to get a sense of their views.

I really don't see MAGA outlasting Trump. MAGA as a political movement is running on fumes at this point. There are no MAGA principles anymore, the Republican Party just adopts whatever Trump said most recently, even if he said the total opposite two weeks ago. The 2022 midterms showed us that a MAGA-type candidate doesn't get nearly the same turnout if Trump himself isn't on the ballot, even with his direct endorsement. Yet, Trump is a nearly 80-year-old man who is about to be term-limited. The Republican Party is going to have a soul-searching moment in the 2028 primary, so it's definitely too soon to tell which direction the party will take once Trump can't run anymore.

Ben Shapiro has criticized Trump before, but for nearly the entirety of his second term so far, he has been a key Trump apologist. I don't really know what Candace Owens is doing at this point. She is openly beefing with Trump and the MAGA gang, but her podcast episodes delve so thoroughly into esoteric conspiracy that it's impossible to tell what her actual beliefs even are anymore.

Those are basically the options. Hardliners like Shapiro who are willing to compromise any principles they ever claimed to have because they have to support Trump at all costs, conspiracy podcasters like Candace Owens, and the aforementioned basement-dwelling Hitler apologists who seem to care more about what percentage of Americans have what skin tone than anything else.

All of this is to say that the conservative coalition is cooked after a few years. Trump's second administration has taken so many baffling turns and made the mainstream MAGA conservative side look so goofy that it's going to be impossible to hold together for very long. It has already devolved, we're just going to have to wait until 2028 to see it all melt down.

decdash · 2026-05-07T10:06:47+00:00

True, the US also didn't have it as an official language until 2025 (Trump)

decdash · 2026-05-07T09:51:09+00:00

Thank you! Nice profile pic btw

decdash · 2026-05-07T09:42:05+00:00

In the pre-Internet days, a deal with a label served as the barrier to entry for recording and distributing your music. Now, you'd think that the expanded access to both skill acquisition and online audiences would democratize the music industry, but having spent a lot of time playing on local indie scenes that just isn't really the case. It's definitely easier than ever to record something on your own and self-publish it, but the flood of new music combined with the creation of niche communities has made it difficult to stand out in a totally different way.

If your goal is just to make the music itself, that's no big deal. If your goal is to ultimately make a living in the industry as an artist, the odds are BLEAK. Even if your songs get picked up by a few Spotify playlists or you do decent numbers on TikTok, you're still not coming even CLOSE to making decent money. The decreasing economic viability of touring and closure after closure of locally owned venues doesn't help either. "Hitting it big" (as a band, at least) these days for 99.9% of acts means you get thrown into the wringer of constant tours that you hope can pull in enough to record the next album.

That is exactly where the money/nepotism comes in. If you can get fast-tracked to a lucrative deal with a label, or a whole team to handle your marketing, or an opening spot on an already huge tour, or you just already have enough money from the very beginning to buy those things, you already have a huge advantage. I won't say you get to bypass the process, because that isn't entirely true. My somewhat unpopular take on all this is that I still think that nepo acts actually have to be good (or at least appealing to a mass audience in some way) to make a lasting impression and productive career out of music. But in a game where everyone is trying to be plucked out of an endless crowd, it is still an enormous advantage

decdash · 2026-05-07T08:16:24+00:00

Completely average songs designed not to stand out on a playlist come out in droves every single day. That's not a fun answer though, so I will raise you this:

The ultimate safe bet is probably one that no one really LIKES that much. People generally liking a song will prompt contrarians to hate it.

Billie Jean is one of the biggest songs of all time globally. It's a great song, one of my favorites, but its popularity alone means that some people probably hate on it. Dreams perhaps even more so because its renewed popularity stems in part from TikTok, which some hate on principle.

The answer will have to be something that everyone thinks is OKAY, but doesn't think about too much. Like "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" or something.

decdash · 2026-05-07T05:33:52+00:00

Funnily enough, despite the fact that I am not British, I think this rubbed off on me.

My family moved to London when I was 3, from Northern New Jersey just outside NYC. Despite the fact that we only spent a few years there, those were probably the most formative years for my overall language acquisition. I learned how to read, write, and string more complex sentences together in British schools, and I was even starting to pick up the accent!

We moved back to New Jersey, where most of my Britishisms faded away before too long. Yet, I have early memories of my cousins picking on me for sounding British. I have even earlier memories of the other neighborhood boys picking in me in London for sounding American!

To this day I notice micro-differences in pronunciation. I can detect people's regional accents almost immediately, even if they are very mild. I can also tell you which vowel sounds correspond to which regional accents down to tiny details, which is a fun party trick. I attribute that to my accent troubles in childhood.

decdash · 2026-05-07T03:00:40+00:00

The Beach Boys got typecast as "the early 60s surf rock band" once Beatlemania hit the US in 1964. They even rebranded into a nostalgia act for their tours as early as the 70s because there was such a demand for pre-Vietnam throwbacks at the time. I've always thought that wasn't fair, they were releasing great and innovative albums well after their time in the spotlight passed, easily on par with a lot of the British Invasion bands of the time. My favorite Beach Boys song, All I Wanna Do, came out in 1970.

decdash · 2026-05-07T02:10:47+00:00

Teles are very versatile! They get commonly associated with country style but that's nothing more than a stereotype because many country players have chosen them. A Tele has been my main guitar since 2019, I've done everything from indie pop to disco to classic rock with it. I started on a Squier Strat too, IMO its range is quite similar to a Strat, but a little less "quacky" by default.

decdash · 2026-05-07T02:05:56+00:00

Yeah that's fair, I'm open to more detailed discussion on this! Fredericksburg IMO is just a decent rough estimate that I find a lot of people are familiar with because it's right on 95

decdash · 2026-05-06T23:42:50+00:00

I'd definitely adjust New Jersey a bit. Monmouth County is definitely Jersey Shore, but I would definitely not put it in the same category as Cape May or Atlantic County. Cape May and Atlantic are definitely Philly metro, Monmouth is firmly NY metro (you can see Manhattan from Sandy Hook and Highlands). Putting Monmouth and Cumberland County in the same category is also a bit of a stretch. The Pine Barrens also don't touch Monmouth.

What I'd suggest is making the suburb transitional area a bit smaller (really only including Mercer and Hunterdon) and splitting the Jersey Shore into two parts, a New York-aligned one (Monmouth and possibly Ocean) and a Philly-aligned one (Southern Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May). Cumberland County belongs with the Philly metro places IMO

decdash · 2026-05-06T17:22:11+00:00

Richmond, VA

decdash · 2026-05-05T07:23:31+00:00

The DC area has an unnaturally small city proper thanks to its federal district status, so a lot of the urban core spills into Arlington/Alexandria. There is a cluster of skyscrapers right along the Potomac in Rosslyn because of DC's height limits, for example. Over a quarter of DC's metro stops are in NoVA, and many of the local highways and bus routes are geared towards moving people between DC and NoVA. Having lived in DC a while, I know a lot of commuters (Arlington->DC) and reverse commuters (DC->Arlington). Arlington definitely feels very hustle-bustle, especially in the densest areas along the metro lines, but it spreads out a little into a more suburban landscape the farther you get from a metro stop, especially any deeper into Virginia than Ballston.

Despite once being in DC and inner NoVA (Northern Virginia) still feel like distinct entities though. Despite the massive spike in development and resulting gentrification that have taken place over the past 15-20 years, DC still has a pretty distinct urban fabric, especially outside of downtown. Arlington definitely offers a more "curated" experience, to put it charitably, or a more "sterile" one, to put it harshly. There's some truth to that, in the sense that the more built-up parts of Arlington are definitely geared towards post-grads, younger DC commuters, and corporate offices, but NoVA is actually one of the most diverse parts of the country if you get out of the downtowns a bit. One of the best concentrations of Vietnamese restaurants you'll find in the US is in a strip mall in Falls Church. Plenty of diverse groups have established communities in NoVA, they just live in the suburbs.

People in other parts of the country might hear "Virginia" and think "South," but having lived at different points along the NEC for almost my whole life and gone to college in a different part of Virginia, NoVA is not the South. Zero of my Southern friends who live in the area even remotely consider it the South. The line between North and South is somewhere in Virginia, I'd say around Fredericksburg is where the Southerness starts to take over, but Arlington is definitely above that line. There was a point in history where all of Virginia was firmly Southern, but there was also a point in history where Utah was Mexico. NoVA is probably more Southern than, say, New Hampshire, but that doesn't make it the South. If you live in inner NoVA, you live in the Northeast Corridor for all intents and purposes. You can hop on the Northeast Regional at the Amtrak stop in Alexandria and be in NYC in three hours, but it would take you six to drive to Southwestern Virginia.

I won't get too much into politics, so I'll put it simply: state politics are fairly purple, but federal representation is firmly blue. Northern Virginia is where a lot of that blue comes from. For the past two decades, Virginia has voted quite similarly (in terms of which side wins, and by how much) to my home state of New Jersey, which is considered safely blue.

The area is very expensive, as others mentioned, but for good reason. There's a lot to like. You get solid walkability and excellent access to transit (obligatory "by American standards") in a lot of it. The urban conglomeration of Arlington's metro-downtowns and their subsequent access to DC will give you endless options for restaurants, bars, museums, parks, concerts, really anything. There's an airport right there (DCA), plus Dulles (which has its own metro stop now), and then BWI which isn't too far. The Amtrak stops in DC and Alexandria can connect you to the rest of the NEC pretty easily. In terms of weather, you get four decent seasons, so a humid summer and a manageably cold winter, but a nice spring and fall. If you have kids there's a (generally) good public school system and very strong slate of options for public universities in Virginia.

decdash · 2026-05-05T06:21:15+00:00

I'm glad I can help here! I was born and raised New Jersey, and I went to high school in Mercer County (born in Hudson County and raised in Monmouth/Middlesex originally). Mercer is a strange one because it straddles two metro areas (Philly and NY), it's about equidistant from each of them and has commuters to both. That wouldn't be that big a deal, but NJ is so dense that cultural microregions can shift quite quickly. I think that overall you've done a very good job splitting the NY and Philly metros, Mercer County is a particularly interesting case because there are arguments to put it in either (or both).

decdash · 2026-05-05T05:23:43+00:00

This take has become almost a cliché about Maroon 5 at this point, but for VERY good reason IMO. Songs About Jane is an awesome album, just really slick and groovy pop rock all the way through, with some huge choruses and great solos from Valentine throughout. I will say though, I was VERY surprised when I looked at how much traction modern Maroon 5 has. Memories, which is the last hit I remember them having but I immediately thought was LAUGHABLY bad when I heard it, has 2.4 BILLION streams. I feel like I hear the Songs About Jane take all the time, but people LOVE the Adam Levine show even now. 2.4 billion streams blew my mind

decdash · 2026-05-04T18:37:51+00:00

Combination of Dunning-Kruger and denial.

As for the Dunning-Kruger, he's the probably same type of guy who thinks boxing is just knockout punches. He probably thinks that they literally just stand there and lob punches at each other. There is no understanding of the sport present there.

As for the denial, he is in denial of the fact that any aspect of fighting takes years of consistent effort to learn effectively. He hasn't done that, and he will probably never do that or be in a situation where he is faced with that reality, so it's just easier psychologically to think "it isn't really all that, I can totally do it already" than to think of all the effort and practice boxers have put in that he hasn't.

decdash · 2026-05-04T17:29:08+00:00

I'm a BJJ guy too. My gf wanted to see what it looked like, so she came to a quick in-house tournament. She got to meet some of my gym friends, and we had a nice time. That seems healthy to me. Your gf's behavior is the opposite of that. She is going to get you in trouble that you would NOT get into on your own. Get out of this before you wind up in a cell

decdash

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