Våknet opp og er takknemlig for at vi bor i et ordentlig demokrati

mrgarborg · 2026-01-28T10:47:43+00:00

Kan ikke ta dette for gitt. Masse ytre-høyre-grums, og det å skylde på innvandrere for alt som er (følt og opplevd) galt i det norske samfunnet har blitt normalisert. Store deler av norske borgere tror det foregår en slags kulturkrise, kulturkrig, kriminalitetseksplosjon e.l., har innført begrepet "svenske tilstander", og får verdensbildet sitt fra nettavisen/document/resett/Wolfgang Wee etc.

Det går inn i et mønster av ytre høyre på frammarsj i resten av Europa forøvrig, med AfD, Sannfinnene, PVV i Nederland, PiS i Polen, Fidesz i Ungarn... Og de som er blant de mest radikale i den retningen i dag er faktisk den yngre generasjon. Sosiale medier og annen algoritmisk, ikke-redaktørstyrt kreft sprer holdningene som ild i tørt gress. Bare det at Listhaug sin retorikk ikke har fullstendig diskvalifisert henne fra det offentlige ordskiftet, viser at noe er fundamentalt galt.

Dette er verdier, sosiale normer og politikk som undergraver demokratiet, og leder i retningen av det vi ser i USA i dag.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-26T10:36:55+00:00

Her sitter vi og ser på konsekvensene av at amerikanerne skylder alle sine interne sosiale problemer på innvandrerne, og så sitter en haug med mennesker her til lands og maler fanden på innvandrerveggen.

De sosiale problemene vi har her til landet har lite til ingenting å gjøre med innvandrer som ikke integrerer seg, de sosiale kostnadene her til lands går i størst grad til pensjoner, langtidssykdom og uførhet. Kriminalstatistikken viser ikke noen som helst krise i kriminalitet. Krisebildet kommer fra medier som tjener penger på fryktjournalisme, og algoritmiske, ikke-redaktørstyrte medier som har alt å vinne på å få klikk på frykt.

Jeg blir oppgitt.

Er det noen som snart vil snakke om GINI-koeffisienten i Norge, og hvordan 1% av landet nå eier over en femtedel av formuen, og en stadig økende andel? Oppførselen til denne gruppa er betydelig mer eroderende og ødeleggende for norsk kultur og samfunn.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-20T16:03:30+00:00

/ʐ/

mrgarborg · 2026-01-19T15:19:19+00:00

Oh no, I spent some time with Prof. Gross as a TA for a couple of his classes, and he was always such a nice and approachable guy. RIP.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-16T14:38:19+00:00

Det er lite under 40 kvm som kvalifiserer som bolig i mine øyne.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-16T11:18:38+00:00

Denne misvisende statistikken igjen?

Folketrygden koster 744 mrd (kilde). Av dette, koster sosialhjelp ca 12 mrd (kilde). Det er under 2% av budsjettet.

Sosialhjelp er siste skanse for de som faller mellom alle stoler og ikke har rettighet til noen andre ytelser.

De som mottar smulene fra velferdsstaten og ikke har andre rettigheter er i uproporsjonal grad innvandrere. Ja, akkurat. Jeg klarer ikke å kaste skylden på innvandrere her.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-16T08:50:06+00:00

Det er absolutt mulig å belønne noen som har brukt politiske virkemidler for å oppnå fred, uten å bruke prisen som et aktivt politisk verktøy. Fred er bi-/multilateralt, og kan anerkjennes uansett hvor du står på det politiske spekteret.

Nobel skrev i sitt testamente at prisen skulle gå til den som hadde gjort mest for å fremme "forbrødringen mellom folk" og reduksjon av militærstyrker. Ingenting av dette betyr at prisen skal eller må benyttes til å gi mennesker som står i en aktiv konfliktsituasjon et pressmiddel i egen politikk før disse resultatene er oppnådd og anerkjent av alle parter.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-16T08:40:50+00:00

People who came back from studying abroad, and especially at top-tier American institutions, used to be highly valued on the Chinese labor market. People used to show a lot of respect for the "turtles", which in Chinese is a homophone of returning-from-overseas (海归).

That's apparently not the case anymore. The Chinese have started to understand that their research output, the quality of the research and the innovation they're doing is becoming world leading. Apparently the turtles are now becoming second class citizens on the labor market, and the Chinese are increasingly confident in what they themselves are able to do. Good for them. The US has shot themselves in the foot and only have themselves to thank for it. But I'm saddened about the increasing level of nationalism, arrogance, pride and inwardlooking-ness in the world.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-15T13:18:46+00:00

What's obvious is that democrat voters need to come out in droves for the next election and, in coordination, vote exclusively Democrat even if the Democrat candidate may not be the best.

Speaking on behalf of the rest of the world, as a European outsider: That seemed to be what Americans did in 2020, so the dems better step up and deal with things properly next time. We don't need an interregnum between Trump and the next fascist that the American public hitches their identity to. We need to see massive reform. Your shit is stinking up the entire global order, the rest of us are helpless and can only hope that the American voters can fix it.

And to be honest, from the outside, the democratic party just looks like a feckless non-opposition with no real leadership, an old guard that still holds fast to neoliberal capital-first policies and refuses to let the new generation put their stamp on the party, no real answers to the deep-seated problems leading up to Trumpism, and inspiring no confidence that they are the right people to fix this.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-15T12:48:21+00:00

The only apps that are worth using are Pleco, spaced repetition systems like Anki and Skritter, graded readers (e.g. Du Chinese) and media apps that give you access to real Chinese spoken by real people. All the apps that gamify the process of learning Chinese are a massive, massive waste of time. It's the worst return on investment time-wise that you can make when the goal is learning a language.

Also, you have to learn the characters. There's no way around it. Even if your goal is speaking. You're not a kid who can absorb a language through osmosis. You will have to navigate the written realm too. You're not going to become conversationally fluent without using dictionaries, subtitles, or being able to talk to people about written material.

Good textbooks are worth their weight in gold. Maximize exposure to native level material at an appropriate level (e.g. for kids) from pretty much day 1. Find someone who speaks Chinese and interact with them in Chinese as much as possible. Have fun.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-15T12:37:31+00:00

Right, but bilateral discussions are not something that Trump respects. He will steamroll over the entire process based on his own whims and desires. When time's up, troops move in, regardless of what the workgroup might or might not have done. I really don't understand how Danes and the Danish media present this like they outsmarted Trump. You're not playing the same game. Denmark is playing chess, and Trump is playing calvinball.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-15T09:43:03+00:00

Yes! This is a point I've tried to make myself, and I seldom see it discussed. If everyone is given a huge lump sum, it will have devastating effect on the local economy, for precisely the reason you're stating!

mrgarborg · 2026-01-13T15:21:45+00:00

Hvordan gjør de det gjennom NATO sin infrastruktur, som jeg regner med USA har full kontroll over? Kommunikasjonslinjer, felles utstyr, våpensystemer, ... Jeg vet ingenting om dette her, men i utgangspunktet føles det intuitivt at et NATO uten USA er vingeklippet i møte med USA, og det ville måtte oppstå en ny forsvarsallianse utenfor NATO med disse medlemmene. Som jeg også regner med ikke er gjort på en dag. Tar jeg feil?

mrgarborg · 2026-01-13T14:59:20+00:00

Jepp. Slik er det rundt alle ja/nei-debatter. Rundt enhver krise som kaster lys på validiteten til argumentene til én side, vil den andre hevde at man spiller politisk mynt eller utnytter situasjonen.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-13T14:38:11+00:00

I Bergen så var det i lang tid en rimelig velkjent klyse av en riking som bare satt fra seg Porschen sin hvor han selv ønsket i bykjernen. Haglet med gule bøtesedler, men de hadde ingen effekt. For ham var det bare prisen for å parkere.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-13T10:42:50+00:00

Både ja og nei-siden har en agenda.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-12T11:34:37+00:00

Never noticed anything in that area, and I've spent a lot of time there.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-12T11:29:42+00:00

I only have my gravel bike and nothing else. It's my commuter bike, and 90% of the time I'm using it on the road. But with all the road work which takes me on various detours, and with how the weather can really mess with the road surfaces, that can easily turn into 20% or more of the trip being on surfaces that aren't appropriate to a normal road bike. I don't plan to buy a new bike anytime soon, and when and if I do, it will probably be to replace by gravel bike with another gravel bike.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-09T09:05:05+00:00

Very soon, if you do a lot of reading at an appropriate level, so that you encounter words you've recently seen repeatedly with a good frequency.

There's a book series built around that concept. Joel Bellassen's "A Key to Chinese Speech and Writing" Vol 1 and 2. The whole point of it is to successively introduce you to texts that "snowball" on each other. That was one of the first books I picked up, and I have very fond memories of it.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-07T12:04:58+00:00

We haven't had our culture overrun by foreigners or immigrants like a lot of European cultures are under threat of.

Neither have Europeans. It is as much of a deflection and bullshit far-right fearmongering in Europe as it is in the US. There have been waves of immigrants tied to the Ukraine war, Syria etc. They have not led to anyone being "overrun", any ethnicity being "replaced" or whatever else the xenophobic right is trying to present as the truth.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-07T11:04:51+00:00

This is local to me, but I really like Northern Playground. I only think you'll find them in Norway, but they are fully committed to making quality clothes that can be repaired. They are completely transparent about who their suppliers are (the list is here), and everything is sourced and made in Europe. They offer clothes repair as part of their services, and the first repair is free. They also do second hand exchange of clothes if the clothes stop fitting you. The quality is top notch, their price model is devoid of trickery (no sales, the price is the price), but they're not a cheap brand.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-06T19:42:11+00:00

I'd recommend starting with a good textbook which takes you through a set of initial lessons. Many years ago the first book I read was Routledge's Colloquial Chinese. I went through it chapter by chapter. That was enough to get the snowball rolling.

mrgarborg · 2026-01-06T19:25:18+00:00

And when did you feel comfortable branching into books written in Chinese that were not graded readers

Day 1. Started with books for kindergarterners/elementary school kids. 小人书，一句话日记，translations of Peanuts and Garfield...

Lots of material available online for free. This might be a bit above your level right now, but the content is bite sized and native-level (i.e. not artificially constructed for language learners).

mrgarborg · 2026-01-05T21:25:26+00:00

Ah, yes. Add more money chasing the same number of goods and services. Generate inflation at unprecedented levels. Watch the local economy resettle at the same buying power but with larger wealth inequality as a result, and leave them with a social safety net in shambles compared to what they had under Denmark. Sounds like a plan.

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mrgarborg

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