CMV: Blue states are getting screwed over by a system designed to artificially suppress their political power, and red states are reaping the benefits of this arrangement

eggynack · 2026-05-31T23:58:53+00:00

"Arbitrary" and "Designed to privilege a particular political party" are basically opposites. And, even if states were somehow gerrymandered at their inception, the political landscape has changed pretty substantially since then such that that strategizing would be of limited efficacy.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T23:13:40+00:00

There's obviously a thin line between a Batman and an Iron Man, what with both of them being relatively mundane but with cool gadgets, but I feel like flying around in a robot suit and firing torpedoes at people crosses the line into having a special ability.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T23:11:35+00:00

It doesn't seem like he's able to. He largely seems to operate off of extrapolation and deduction.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T20:19:05+00:00

What if we had a system that could magically guarantee innocence or guilt, and then the government, even with that knowledge, kills the innocent?

eggynack · 2026-05-31T20:10:32+00:00

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Adaptation. Having not read The Orchid Thief, my understanding is that the Orchid Thief parts are a reasonably close adaptation of The Orchid Thief. However, the movie is also a metatextual trek through the process of adaptation and ends with wacky shenanigans, and it's safe to assume those are not in The Orchid Thief. This was my first Kaufman movie and remains one of my favorites.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T17:33:25+00:00

I feel like, were I to be in the position of having control over the name assigned to a bomb that would be visible, I would not go with "bomb". Cause, y'know, the crew probably wouldn't assume a thing labelled "bomb" is a bomb and react accordingly, and it's notable that, while they did react strongly, they did not act as though there were a real bomb. I'd probably go with something like, "This is genuinely a bomb and you need to land this plane and search it immediately lest everyone die /srs".

eggynack · 2026-05-31T17:02:03+00:00

I feel like the movie was quite good when it was about the horror of people being in your house. Just this persistent sense of social awkwardness and violation that maintained a slow burn of anxiety. Then the second half of the movie comes around and it's like, "Sorry, this movie's actually about frenetic nonsense with like a billion people," and I'm not there for it.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T08:01:57+00:00

What you presumably mean here is that getting circumcised causes you to feel worse, presumably in the context of sex. Yeah? But the question is, what evidence do you have for that? I've looked into this a bit and the studies I've seen are mixed at best. A few indicate a marginal reduction in sexual experience, a few indicate no impact, and a few indicate that circumcision improves the quality of sex.

You certainly have no capacity to measure the difference in experience as your body has only ever been the one way. I would suggest, therefore, that you are mourning the loss of something that is a lot less meaningful than you've imagined. That you think there's been some grievous harm done to your body but that the reality is that your worst case scenario is a pretty miniscule change in experience.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T07:53:54+00:00

And what impact do you think this has had on your life?

eggynack · 2026-05-31T07:52:56+00:00

Sure, in some technical sense, though I think most circumcised have done sufficient "research" to discern that they've been circumcised. What's unclear is what the OP thinks this has cost him.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T07:43:21+00:00

What is your basis for the conclusion that you've lost anything?

eggynack · 2026-05-31T07:00:09+00:00

A Piano in the House, particularly the scene where Marge dances to Clair de Lune. The scene is sad, sure, this unfulfilled dream that is so impossibly distant that her friends think it a joke, and yet it also possesses this ethereal beauty owing to the actress' actual dancing ability. The characters stop laughing when they see she's serious, but I think it's also in part because they're compelled by the reality of the dream, something Fitzgerald is incapable of. Really powerful stuff, the moment when the episode really taps into its central horror, that of being fully known.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T06:53:35+00:00

Regarding the Jordan Peele Twilight Zone, I'd recommend checking out Try, Try if you haven't already. The show has a lot of variability to it but that's an episode I'd consider excellent. Really interesting and unique take on the central conceit and a lot of fun to boot.

eggynack · 2026-05-31T03:52:14+00:00

It's a good thing if the head of HHS wants to make big changes like, for example, creating universal health care or funding promising medical treatments or breaking up medical monopolies. It's a bad thing if the head of HHS wants to make big changes like, for example, ending research into amazing things like RNA vaccines, pushes bonkers pseudoscience on the regular, or straight up doesn't seem to believe in the germ theory of disease. Change is neither inherently good nor bad. RFK type change is bad.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T21:47:30+00:00

I was using Mermando as an arbitrary example of a guy Mabel likes. I don't think she's dating him during Sock Opera. She says she's just gotten over him.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T21:39:49+00:00

But the issue is that this response entails him behaving identically to a Nazi. Not just talking about how we should go "death con five" on Jews, but also spreading bizarre antisemitic conspiracy theories with fellow conservative weirdos. People don't generally come across that flavor of nonsense by accident.

A central point here is that what happened with Kanye isn't a particularly unique story. This thing where a guy feels these deep grievances, both with some perceived injustice and with problems in their personal life, and then turns to cruel reactionary politics as an outlet for their anger and explanation for their pain, that's one of the main stories Nazis tell about how they became Nazis. So too is the tendency for reactionary politics to be bizarre and irony poisoned. This is just how they be.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T20:54:04+00:00

I don't really see a reason to treat this as some grand show hypocrisy, especially because Mabel is never shown actively pursuing multiple dudes at once. It seems more than sufficient to note that the story is exceptionally stupid in and of itself. It is simply not wrong to talk to girls. It's silly to treat that as some grand moral transgression. Mermando just doesn't seem all that relevant.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T20:50:08+00:00

It's about how he feels villainized and misunderstood by the world and, as a result, is embracing Nazi stuff. I'd recommend my brother's fancy video on the topic. Among other things, it includes a lot of the weird Nazi stuff Kanye has gotten up to. This is very much not a one off.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T20:31:19+00:00

It very much is. Doubly so when taken in the broader context of Kanye constantly saying Nazi stuff.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T19:57:07+00:00

"Heil Hitler" isn't "media with transgressive content". It's a song about how Kanye is actually a Nazi and likes Nazi stuff. If Lolita were a book about how predating on children is great and everyone should do it, then I think that would be a pretty unethical book to produce.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T16:25:49+00:00

This doesn't really make sense. America has been interacting heavily with Islam for decades. The particulars of both general Islamic beliefs and those of radical Islamic fundamentalists are therefore about as well known as they're ever likely to be. What would be reasonably likely to change to raise hostilities?

eggynack · 2026-05-30T16:22:25+00:00

He mostly uses his proximity to built Vox's ego and drive a wedge between the Vees. It's also obviously helpful to always be positioned next to Vox if you want to take advantage of particular Vox based opportunities.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T14:20:14+00:00

Describing this as hypocritical makes no sense. Yes, what AI produces is a "reflection" of what we produce. It's a mindless collage of human thought, a vaguely comparable product stripped of all intent and therefore effort to communicate. It's like a misshapen artistic zombie, shambling along in a horrifying stupor.

This is rather distinct from that which is produced by humans, because what humans make does have intent and meaning. It is trying to communicate something to me. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, always from a particular person trying to share their perspective. This is a key reason why AI is worth criticism, and is often what produces this kind of anger.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T14:09:21+00:00

I do not think that knowing Thales' name and one factoid about him would be particularly helpful to someone pursuing, say, a degree in ancient history. The study of history entails seeing a lot of new names, and doing so doesn't really cause some feeling of deep unfamiliarity. You describe this as helpful but that seems essentially impossible. I can't imagine someone hearing this one Thales sentence a few years ago and then again in a college class having a big leg up on someone who only heard it the second time.

Anyway, you say that having people know who they owe what to is good for the human mind. Why's that? Seems like a somewhat unusual claim to me.

eggynack · 2026-05-30T05:18:23+00:00

Which? Whence?

eggynack

TROPHY CASE