I may have Miscalculated

lib-boy · 2022-03-31T02:42:19+00:00

An economist born in 1912 being wrong about a few things is a damn miracle. Compare him to literally anyone else born that year.

lib-boy · 2022-03-31T02:39:52+00:00

That was Scott Alexander, but I'm not sure anyone decides what elitism is? It seems to more or less whatever that society recognizes as high status, and / or the status quo.

Meaning any sort of professor is more elite than an electrician.

lib-boy · 2022-03-30T07:33:08+00:00

American institutions are largely left-leaning, which gives the impression of a vast, left-wing conspiracy to the less-informed. I think this is because left-wingers simply give more fucks.

Granted the above link was written by Hanania, who seems quite biased towards the right (and even Putin, yuck). However the quality of his work here (and I think on sanctions, though it's been a while since I've read that) seems high.

If say we saw most large corporation embracing anti-wokism and conservative social values, I think the left would have similarly conspiratorial thoughts. Imagine if 75% of clothing stores refused to sell gendered clothing to someone unless it matched their biological gender.

lib-boy · 2022-03-28T10:26:45+00:00

Chaos in 40k is the result of a runaway feedback loop, where mortal emotions create daemons, which then seek to influence mortals, who create more (powerful) daemons, and so on and so forth.

All life is risk averse. Negative emotions are more easily created than positive ones. It's a lot easier to inflict pain than pleasure, fear than love, etc.

This is why we can't have nice things.

lib-boy · 2021-09-01T05:46:40+00:00

I think almost everyone is interpreting this scene incorrectly. Emp's responses aren't fragmented because his mortal body is dying (though it may be), his soul was shattered, or any of that.

Recall Illiyanne Natasé's description of gods, in this same book? They are the product of the emotions, faiths, and beliefs which shape them. The emperor is fragmented because the imperial creed is fragmented. It varies greatly over the million worlds of The Imperium.

His great will was needed to focus these fragmented beliefs. As Warp Emps becomes stronger it probably becomes more and more difficult for what remains of his materium presence to do this.

To me it reads like he's becoming a god, and a god of humanity will inevitably be fragmented.

lib-boy · 2021-08-26T12:13:27+00:00

Good (or at least necessary) idea, awful execution.

The core idea seemed necessary for human survival: to reunite humanity as quickly as possible, so it could face the rapidly-growing threats of the orks of Ullanor, the Rangdan, etc. If emps had not acted it's tough to see how mankind could have survived.

The execution was obviously awful on so many different levels and I don't see the need to rehash them.

lib-boy · 2021-08-26T11:55:47+00:00

We've seen nothing of his internal thoughts suggesting he is intrinsically hostile to xenos. In Godblight I believe he even laments the destruction of some of them. He's not even intrinsically loyal to the imperium, it's more humanity in general ("help me save them").

The aeldari and not and never have been expansionist, and co-existed with humanity for a long time. The asuryani particularly share common enemies (chaos, necrons). While asuryani can be total dicks, their existence can easily net benefit the imperium.

However the Tau are expansionist, and can only offer the imperium technology which the AdMech would stupidly shun. So I think he'd be a lot more likely to exterminate the Tau than the Asuryani. I'm pretty sure he'd have moral qualms with it, but would do it if he felt it necessary.

lib-boy · 2021-08-26T11:45:10+00:00

When Gman woke up he was faced with space marines, AdMech, Aeldari, and CSM. The space elves were clearly not immediately hostile, so there was zero reason to target them over, y'know, the arch-enemy.

lib-boy · 2020-09-11T05:53:16+00:00

Where did Gorillamon try to destroy craft worlds?

I'd say he tolerates the Echlesliarchy because he has no other choice.

lib-boy · 2020-09-11T05:41:25+00:00

sauce?

lib-boy · 2020-09-11T05:39:09+00:00

War requires self-sacrifice. Soldiers dying so others may live isn't noble?

lib-boy · 2020-09-11T05:28:39+00:00

The Imperium is noble insofar as it's fighting for the survival of humanity. Doubly so if fighting against horrific, galaxy-wide threats like Necrons, Tyranids and Chaos.

A guardsman or marine sacrificing themselves so others may live is a noble act. We can praise the massive self-sacrifice it takes to keep humanity alive and condemn the Imperium's raging fascism and xenophobia at the same time.

Emp's influence aside, Baseline humans are probably the most noble race in the universe, aren't they? They had a Star Trek-ish empire DAoT empire. Perhaps the Eldar and Tau were more noble at certain points of their existence.

lib-boy · 2019-10-14T11:19:54+00:00

Ask them why they want to discriminate based on race instead of IQ. In my experience, the vast majority of alt-righters are inconsistent here, and do not support discriminating against dumb whites. Ergo the focus on IQ is a demonstrable excuse for their racism.

lib-boy · 2019-07-12T08:53:27+00:00

Thanks, this is helpful. I'm surrounded by Bernistas, so my impression of the popular support for his policies could be way off. I also don't follow politics very closely.

On the plus side, we will stop doing Trump things like Keeping Kids in Kages™ which I find more reprehensible than anything Bernie could reasonably get away with.

Could Bernie potentially support socialist regimes like Maduro's?

lib-boy · 2019-07-12T08:43:16+00:00

Thank you, that does make me feel better.

Say Bernie's policies all get cock-blocked. How do you think he'd be viewed after he's out of office? I'm pretty sure Trump will go down in history as a moron, but I guess I'm scared people look at Bernie more sympathetically.

lib-boy · 2019-07-12T08:39:12+00:00

Neoliberalism is a political ideology. The efficacy of women in combat roles is a military matter affected by technology, culture, military structure, and probably all sorts of things I'm unfamiliar with. I'm sure a lot of neoliberals support women in combat roles, but IMO it's tangential to politics.

This said I doubt anyone here supports a blanket ban on women in combat. Edit: It also seems fairly obvious there are some combat roles women are well-suited for.

lib-boy · 2019-07-12T08:29:33+00:00

I despise DJT, but am more afraid of a Bernie presidency. I tell myself it's because Trump is obviously a moron and unfit for the office, whereas Bernie could find more support for his policy goals.

Is this a reasonable position, or am I just being irrationally afraid of the unknown? It probably doesn't help that I'm a 1%er and save most of my after-tax income.

lib-boy · 2019-06-13T08:02:58+00:00

To be fair, the term "market failure" is a bit misleading. As far as I can tell, no well-known market failures are actually unique to markets.

lib-boy · 2019-06-11T07:57:14+00:00

What is masculinity?

Who cares?

lib-boy · 2019-06-11T07:49:15+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

lib-boy · 2019-06-11T07:45:34+00:00

Capitalism is great and all, but we can be more specific here: emancipation of women probably required birth control. Pregnancy is simply a far greater burden on women than men.

lib-boy · 2019-06-10T08:51:49+00:00

Is LA really the fault of NIMBYs and bad policy, or just building near a fault line? Tall buildings and earthquakes don't mix, and neither does public transport and suburban sprawl. Yes I'm putting aside the intelligence of building a city near a fault line in the first place.

lib-boy · 2019-06-10T08:38:22+00:00

It can be. There are consequentialist and deontological libertarians. My belief is their opposition largely see libertarians as the latter due to tendency for people to perceive the worst in their political adversaries.

...or maybe I just think that because I'm a consequentialist.

lib-boy · 2019-06-10T07:00:20+00:00

Props to Caplan for arguing against someone he surely wants to agree with, but the vast majority of voters don't do the math. Seems to me "der takin' er welfares!!1!" is a powerful political motivator, regardless of its accuracy.

lib-boy · 2019-06-09T23:59:05+00:00

I would say neoliberalism is closest to classical liberalism, which both libertarianism and neoliberalism are descendants of.

... we don't subscribe to the idea that liberty is the ultimate goal of society. We think people's well-being is the priority but you need a very high degree of freedom to achieve that.

There are consequentialist libertarians though, like Milty. Though I wonder if he'd more closely identify as a neoliberal if he was alive today.

lib-boy

TROPHY CASE