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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
poipoipoi-2016
nocherrybombs

Why did the early 2000s neocons think we could export liberal democracy to the Middle East? We can’t even export liberal democracy to the United States.

mitigatedchaos

Once you drink too much of certain variants of Liberalism, you start assuming that Liberal Democracy is the natural condition of mankind and once the restraints are removed, it will naturally emerge and take root, along with economic development.

nuclearspaceheater

I mean, it‘s probably doable, but step 1 is to enforce a ban on cousin marriage for 1000 years.

mitigatedchaos

Ah, but you see, Neocons are ideologically prohibited from acknowledging this, because hey, what is a foreign culture but food and clothing waiting to be sold in the United States?

mitigatedchaos

You could do it in far fewer generations, but you’d have to install a 20-year military governorship, still ban cousin marriages out to the third degree, enforce village exogamy, and seize total control of the educational system to wipe out non-trivial parts of the culture and replace them with ideology necessary to support Liberal Democracy.

That’s a pretty big ideological price, and it would require a long troop presence to enforce.

It’s hardly impossible.  Afghanistan was liberalizing at one point.  But if you’re too hooked on the ideology that democracy flowers in all soils, it isn’t possible for you to carry it out.

isaacsapphire

That actually kinda sounds like “the last few hundred years of Japanese history, but faster”.

poipoipoi-2016

I mean, if you believe Clark, it sounds like the last thousand years of Western European history, only faster.

mitigatedchaos

“The Development of Advanced Industrial Civilization, But Faster” 

A plan for the Middle East from Award-Winning1, Internationally-Published2 Politics Blogger Mitigated Chaos

1 Winner of first annual Rationalist Adjacent Award for Blog Most Resembling Mitigated Chaos
2 Blog available in all jurisdictions where Tumblr is accessible

Source: nocherrybombs politics my politics shtpost
athrelon
athrelon

I’ve vaguely heard murmurings about a secular decline in testosterone levels, but imagined it was overhyped or at worst just a result of the obesity epidemic.  @lambdaphagy​ and I had a chance to just scratch the surface of the literature, though, and it’s frankly alarming.

Total T dropped about 20%, bioavailable T dropped 50%, over 20 years from 1987-2004. The Finns aren’t exempt either.   Cohorts were matched for BMI, and even if they weren’t, the effect size of obesity is off by almost an order of magnitude.  Doubling BMI causes T to fall by less than half, and, mirabile dictu, American BMI has not doubled (yet, give it time.) Average BMI went from 25 in 1960 to 28 in 2000.

The speed of that T drop is just jaw-dropping. Obesity doesn’t help, but doesn’t explain this level of cratering.  So: phytoestrogens, xenoestrogens, micropharmaceuticals in the water, behavioral effects?  More work is required, but hit me up if you have any good intel.

mitigatedchaos

Cold Take: Crime declined because we removed lead from the gasoline, lowering the amount of lead-induced brain damage.

Lukewarm Take: Crime declined because we allowed abortion, removing some of the worst-off potential people from being born and raised in substandard conditions.

Hot Take: Crime declined because we put drugs in the water supply and we’re all transgender autistics/neurodivergents now, even the women.  (Especially the women.)

gendpol shtpost not serious
flakmaniak
argumate

hmm arguing with a straight face that racism against white people is bad because it’s a slippery slope that can lead to racism against non-white people

shieldfoss

…I

OK separately I think racism against white people is bad because it is racism.

But also I actually think that yes, unironically this? If you officially start designating races and you treat them differently (e.g.: Affirmative action), people will follow suit by thinking of them differently. 

flakmaniak

Isn’t this just what @mitigatedchaos argues all the time, that all racism is empowered and normalized by all other racism? (And the generalized version of this for the left’s hypocrisies.)

mitigatedchaos

More seriously, while being racist towards white people is bad on its own merits, either as a violation of justice - judging someone for the actions of another - or on more Utilitarian grounds, most of the people that are seriously racist against the whities aren’t going to accept those arguments.

Thus the appeal to something they might actually care about.

It’s possible to create political will out of thin air, but a lot of the time it’s in reaction to historical or material factors, and political will with those factors will have deeper roots.

It’s important to realize along with this, that most politics will occur around the margins - whether groups of white supremacists are growing or shrinking, whether swing voters shift from one party to another, and so on.  Strong believers do have an effect, but it’s necessary to have raw power mass at your disposal.

As such, the question is not about “but if we be nice to our rivals, they will still be maximally evil,” but about “what’s the marginal rate that people will enter or leave our enemy’s coalition?”

Now that doesn’t mean playing along nicely all the time, but for goodness sake people should be very careful and specific in who they are targetting, and most racism is really bad at doing that.

Source: argumate racepol politics the culture war
mutant-aesthetic
mutant-aesthetic

The discussion we SHOULD be having RE: the vegas attack is if nihlist mindless violence should count as “terrorism” since there’s no real set ideology driving it


I mean, assuming Stephen Paddock’s brother is correct and he didn’t have any sort of radical political or religious affiliations and just was going for the high score, is it still terror? Is murder for murder’s sake an ideology?

mitigatedchaos

Yes.  Next question, please.

flakmaniak
argumate

hmm arguing with a straight face that racism against white people is bad because it’s a slippery slope that can lead to racism against non-white people

shieldfoss

…I

OK separately I think racism against white people is bad because it is racism.

But also I actually think that yes, unironically this? If you officially start designating races and you treat them differently (e.g.: Affirmative action), people will follow suit by thinking of them differently. 

flakmaniak

Isn’t this just what @mitigatedchaos argues all the time, that all racism is empowered and normalized by all other racism? (And the generalized version of this for the left’s hypocrisies.)

mitigatedchaos

Death to the Imperialists, long live the Empire.

Source: argumate racepol the culture war
defectivealtruist
mitigatedchaos

“Nyarlothep?  Wasn’t that some anime thing?”

rocketverliden

See, though, has anyone done a parody/fanfic of the original story, except instead of being a mysterious and sinister dark-skinned Egyptian man, Nyarly was just straight-up an anime girl? Maybe like some sort of holo-idol with a hologram posse, and the narrator exits to find himself in not a world of apocalypse, but a world of moe.

defectivealtruist

Yes.

mitigatedchaos

Thus, the post. You might enjoy it, RV.

Source: mitigatedchaos