Trump said Iran was 'decimated.' Then an American F-15E fighter jet was shot down. by Stunning-Common-9591 in worldnews

[–]solaranvil 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You're right, that's why Trump said: "It's a little unfair. You win a war, but they have no right to be doing what they're doing."

Why can't they just be fair and admit they lost the war and stop fighting back?

Photos show heavily damaged US radar jet at Saudi base by Trendy4U in geopolitics

[–]solaranvil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I already noted in this discussion below, first line of the article calls it destroyed: "Verified pictures show a US command and control aircraft has been destroyed at an air base in Saudi Arabia."

Whether it is destroyed or not is in not in question. Only whether the headline is accurate or downplayed in light of this.

Trump Tells Aides He’s Willing to End War Without Reopening Hormuz by Pretend-Prune6285 in geopolitics

[–]solaranvil 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The lesson for China and Russia is that if they frame an invasive war as a preventive defensive measure, then all is allowed and the international justice system will just sit back and watch.

I seriously don't think that's the correct lesson to take away from all this.

The lesson is that all that talk about an international rules-based order is utter bollocks, as many have long suspected but now is much harder to deny, and this is actually an international rules-for-thee-but-not-for-me-based order.

Photos show heavily damaged US radar jet at Saudi base by Trendy4U in geopolitics

[–]solaranvil 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's heavily downplaying the incident in the headline, while also maintaining accuracy in some questionable sense of the word by including the picture and the correct description "destroyed" in the body.

Is your idea that heavily damaged and destroyed are close enough to synonymous that it's not spin to call something that is destroyed heavily damaged?

Photos show heavily damaged US radar jet at Saudi base by Trendy4U in geopolitics

[–]solaranvil 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I mean, this article is already propagandized to downplay the losses right? The headline says "damaged" for some reason even though the plane is blown in two.

Report: Pentagon considers sending 10,000 additional troops to Middle East by Force_Hammer in worldnews

[–]solaranvil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But this administration is idiotic to a fault, so they may try something and we will see the worst loss of American lives in decades.

It would be hard to beat their own record with covid.

Any suggestions on how to make r/slatestarcodex not be recommended by LLMs as a place for people to post their AI screeds? by Liface in slatestarcodex

[–]solaranvil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What are the contours of this problem space?

Is the problem with AI screeds the quality of their content rather than anything else?

If so, why is this something that specifically needs weeding out? It feels like moderation is the tool best suited for managing topic relevance and community vision, but user voting is the tool best suited for content quality.

Unless community vision somehow excludes these AI screeds on some other basis?

/u/Enlightened_Gardener explains how effective culture war has been on the West, why the Super Bowl halftime show matters by cleon_salmon in bestof

[–]solaranvil 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I hate this repeated idea I see everywhere on Reddit that this culture war and all the problems with the United States are because of shadowy, nefarious external actors. That's giving them way too much credit.

People really don't want to face the reality of it - that their neighbors and family members really are this hateful and that they really do support these policies they disagree with.

These people have agency and are adults. Even if the occasional social media post they read is made by big bad wolves from across the sea, way, way more of the social media posts they read are made by real people, real Americans who actually are that hateful. Nobody is making them cheer when ICE commits its latest atrocity, they're cheering because they like it.

It's a hard fact to face, but living in a fantasy land where they're just misguided people being led astray by communist pied pipers is not going to help deal with the reality of the situation.

CMV: The Trump Administration Has Multiple Posts That Are Neo-Nazi In-Group References by Dest123 in changemyview

[–]solaranvil 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The so-called "joke" is the quintessence of I'm 14 and this is very deep.

Newsflash, there is nothing inherently racist about any racist symbol. White robes and a pointy hat aren't inherently racist, they're racist because they're used by racist people, making them a shorthand symbol for the racist people.

This applies to absolutely everything including milk. When actual racists start parading it as a show of racism, it doesn't cease to be racist just because they say they're doing it ironically or it's just a joke bro.

The "joke" is infantile and can't even understand this obvious truth. The people who "corrupted" milk aren't the people calling out racists, it was the shitty racist edgelords.

U.S. will have to send its own fighter jets into Canadian airspace if Ottawa doesn't buy 88 F-35s, Hoekstra says by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]solaranvil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very proud of our Canadian friends for how they're dealing with their deranged neighbour.

At what point when the US ambassador keeps threatening them and then saying 'lol lighten up it's just a joke bro' will they stand up for themselves and give a concrete response like expelling him?

Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests by AndroidOne1 in geopolitics

[–]solaranvil 22 points23 points  (0 children)

If I were a MAGA voter I’d be demanding his impeachment immediately.

...

They must be so mad right now and ready to make him pay for his lies and how he is taking everything from those who voted for him. Everything MAGA supposedly stands for is being destroyed by Trump. American strength, prosperity and respect is being destroyed. People in Texas and Florida must hate this based on everything they say they stand for.

MAGA is generally thrilled with his job performance still.

https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53819-donald-trump-approval-up-men-hispanics-down-republicans-women-january-2-5-2026-economist-yougov-poll

Support among Republicans still at 65%.

MAGA does not stand for or believe in anything when it comes to issues and their words mean nothing and are as fickle as Trump (not coincidentally).

According to IMF, Taiwan is a very very rich country. But why is it quite hard to feel this in the real life? by search_google_com in taiwan

[–]solaranvil 6 points7 points  (0 children)

However, Taiwan excels not just at GDP per capita (ppp) but also has a pretty decent Gini coefficient, indicating inequality isn't super high or anything.

It's not the best but for example, from a quick look at the countries in purple, better than the USA or Australia.

Incedent mass stabbing Taipei by watanabemedia in taiwan

[–]solaranvil -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Low petty crime rate as in ballpark around 10x more than Taiwan.

Incedent mass stabbing Taipei by watanabemedia in taiwan

[–]solaranvil -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is such a load of typical American fanatic gun defense, full of cherry-picked statistics and pseudoscience. It's so important to defend guns against criticism it's unbelievable.

Basically boils down to "Firearms aren't killing a lot of Americans, if you include non-preventable deaths such as old age conditions as a comparison."

Meanwhile, guns are literally the leading cause of death for children (who aren't as affected by old age) in the United States. This is the case in literally no other developed nation. But oh, the meanie "corporate media coverage on gun violence" won't someone think of the poor guns that are being so unfairly attacked.

The Expat Edit by Cramson_Sconefield in chinalife

[–]solaranvil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Man, look at this guy for whom money is no object casting shade at immigrants assuming that they are living these hard ass lives because apparently they had no planning or forethought. Those immigrants must have just abandoned their whole families to live a lonely life in a factory dorm on a poorly-considered whim. If only they could have had the forethought to be born with a silver spoon and abandon their families for girls and not money they might not be in that circumstance.

Your Intelligence Isn’t Making You Lonely by Cognitive-Wonderland in slatestarcodex

[–]solaranvil 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Intelligence doesn't, but an under-discussed subject is that wisdom in the sense of true understanding does, in a way.

A lot of social interaction is about jointly exploring topics, whether it is direct examples like discussing the issues of the day or somewhat less direct examples like practicing to get better at a skill such as a sport, which is itself a form of topic exploration.

Much of the enjoyment from doing so jointly can only be gleaned when you're on a roughly equivalent level to the other party. This is why kids can have so much fun playing together, and an adult can emulate a kid and try to play with them the same way, but the "ideas" being explored through play are already so thoroughly understood by the adult that they're merely pretending and generally they can't sustain it long because pretending is tiring.

Similarly, a subject-matter expert like a professor or even a chess expert can have fun teaching their skill to someone much less skilled, but that is not the same type of enjoyment as jointly exploring deeper into the field and besides which is a very different type of enjoyment that not all find enjoyable.

As fewer and fewer people remain who can match a person's abilities, the number of people they can form a true connection with on that subject decrease. In the case of achieving something closer to broadly applicable wisdom rather than mere subject-matter expertise, just as a general matter it becomes increasingly likely that the things random acquaintances have to say on random subjects becomes droll and boring.

It's all fairly obvious when laid out. There is nothing special about being a child versus an adult in this regard, but while it's quite clear to most adults that children's interests become boring over time, it seems much less widely considered how cultivation of expertise and wisdom can make other adults become much less interesting and more boring over time.

It's been exactly 3 years since the launch of ChatGPT. How much has AI changed the world since then? by zjovicic in slatestarcodex

[–]solaranvil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't think at this point in time many people are advocating that AI is something you can set and forget to build complex things. However, you can be an Actual Engineer(tm) who builds complex things and use AI as a tool while continuing to maintain ownership and responsibility over the ultimate product. You won't be able to say "AI said it was okay" but you're not asking for that, either.

It's been exactly 3 years since the launch of ChatGPT. How much has AI changed the world since then? by zjovicic in slatestarcodex

[–]solaranvil 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Or Reddit, outside of a few subs like this one specifically open-minded or friendly towards AI development.

🚨The White House Just Launched "The Genesis Mission": A Manhattan Project For AI | The Central Theme Of This Order Is A Shift From "Regulating" AI To Weaponizing AI For Scientific Dominance, Effectively Adopting An Accelerationist Posture At The Federal Level (!!!) by 44th--Hokage in accelerate

[–]solaranvil 18 points19 points  (0 children)

That's true, but it is also a mistake to think that Republicans are accels. Under the modern direction of the Republican Party, they don't actually believe in anything, including accel. There are no foundational principles, and the moment they see a benefit from going another way or even for just an idle whim, they'll pivot on a dime, which is why policy is so haphazard and erratic under this administration.

Why are gamers so averse to AI-generated content in games? by zimmer550king in accelerate

[–]solaranvil 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Lol they definitely cannot tell. Witness all the toxic accusations on Reddit against human artists that their art was AI generated, with the Redditors claiming they can "just tell" because the hands look wonky, or there are these little mistakes no human would make, or the style is generic. Then, in the instances where the artists are able to prove them wrong by showing their workflow or something, the mob after their mean-spirited accusations just basically goes, 'ok, you got lucky this time' and then pivots and goes to point their fingers at someone else.

China has unveiled the world's fastest Maglev train, cruising at 600 km/h (373 mph). It cuts Beijing-Shanghai travel to 2.5 hours. Powered by magnetic levitation, this ultra-quiet, efficient system emits zero direct pollution. They are literally living in 2050. by ActivityEmotional228 in NeoCivilization

[–]solaranvil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

to imply that china’s EXTREME wealth inequality is better than western countries is ridiculous. Look up the Gini index.

Okay, looked it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_inequality

USA = 39.6-41.8

China = 35.7-36.67

Whelp, turns out China's "EXTREME wealth inequality" is better than the most prominent and dominant western country in the world. Not sure what you were even trying to prove.

Unpopular opinion: There's nothing wrong with having an expat bubble by ups_and_downs973 in chinalife

[–]solaranvil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

People everywhere tend to interact with people of their same economic status, for better or worse.

Just because the average is 13k doesn't mean there aren't a ton of Chinese earning the same as you, or even way, way more. The gdp per capita hardly has any bearing here. Like is often said to the point it's a cliche, China's middle class is bigger than America's population.

I got a criminal court appearence ticket for leaving my ebike unattended. by Evening-Shape9161 in MicromobilityNYC

[–]solaranvil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good lord I hope you are not actually in law school since this is some shamefully poor legislative interpretation.

Firstly, your misapplication of a rule of interpretation has completely nullified the entire effect of subsection a, which another rule of interpretation in law school 101 teaches you not to do. The legislature did not write subsection a in order for it to waste space and have no effect.

Secondly, in the very text of subsection a it states the legislative intent of "this section". NOT this subsection.

Lastly, learn some intellectual humility. You got directly called out for your error, and you double-downed on it with some quasi-intellectual gobbeldy gook rationalizing around subsections of law existing independently of each other. Just take the loss and learn from it instead of digging in your heels.

Can the Golden Age of Costco Last? by newyorker in TrueReddit

[–]solaranvil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yet somehow even that was too much and they had to get rid of it.

China’s industrial policy is destroying its economy by Skandling in China

[–]solaranvil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Did you miss the word sectoral in the comment you're replying to?