David G

@shagbark_hick These are fearful times, and fear leads to binary thinking: either this or that.

I think one of the greatest impediments to meaningful discourse on this website is the idea of "countersignaling." You know, the idea that any reflection on a given topic that is not purely laudatory is to be read as a form of opposition. Level a mild critique of homesteading or homeschooling or alternative medicine? Oof -- you must be on the side of the globalists, or else why would you be critiquing? Question the efficacy of homeschooling, or obscure diets, or MAGA's political strategy? -- you must not be "based," and will be dealt with as a subversive and as an antagonist for even raising the question. There are certain 'orthodoxies' that are for whatever reason rhetorically untouchable; they cannot be inspected or critiqued, and those who elect to do so will be punished and assumed to be mortal enemies of The Cause. It's incredibly communist-coded in this way. Pretty much any time an interesting discussion begins on here, if it goes viral there will be all sorts of stupid comments about "signaling" and "counter-signaling." It's completely facile, leaves no room for nuance. It's a cheap "gotchya" deployed by those with the dullest intellects or the most cynical idea of what discourse is.

@forestvanslyke Can't sing but dad told me I had to make a joyful noise when singing in church.

I like to make up and sing little songs when I’m happy even though I absolutely should never sing ever

I agree with me

@shagbark_hick That's too bad. Hickory was the center of NC furniture building at least through the 00's.

I find myself in Hickory, NC today, after arriving by train to Gastonia well before dawn. Very strange region here -- almost featureless. One drives for miles and sees nothing distinctive at all. It so far feels like Anywhere, USA. What do I need to know about this region?

Did you love "Angel" from #TheRockfordFiles ??? GET TO KNOW HIM BY SUPPORTING THIS EPIC DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE REAL ACTOR, STUART MARGOLIN!

@shagbark_hick As a geographer, there are cycles in the history of America. One is a 50 year socio-economic, the other is an 80 year institutional one. Both are roughly coinciding during this decade. Things will be worse for awhile. What comes after? Quien sabe.

One thing that reverting to Catholicism has taught me is that civilization is GOOD. I say this as a former anarcho-primitivist 'doomer' who used to wish for the system to collapse. In actual fact, our system is pretty good, and we'd do far better to fix it than to let it burn. My own sojourns into places where "the system" really has collapsed have convinced me that a "zero-public-good society" is in no way desirable, and we are better to strive to hold onto the public goods we still have. For example, if the government is cynical, the answer ought not to be to abolish it but to infuse it and its leaders with real virtue. I do suspect that only the Church can do this effectively. If public spaces are riddled with crime, and things like parks, libraries, public baths, or inner-city neighborhoods are unusable because of it -- clean them up rather than retreating to the countryside; overcome whatever forces have ravaged the city and make it great rather than assuming that such cannot be done. If the education system is failing, we should fix it rather than throwing our hands up, withdrawing from society, and glorifying a kind of atomized recreation of the function of the school system at the scale of the family. Far better to have functional public (or better still: religious) schools whose function is to impart lasting virtue on the students above all, and again -- the Church is best-suited to this task. If the food system is pumping out poison, can we fix it instead of abandoning the useful parts of it and withdrawing into survivalist seclusion? If the medical system is corrupt, can we reform it to use the full weight of what the medical arts has to offer instead of retreating into borderline superstitious medical practices? Again, the Church can amply help with these ends, and should. It seems very common for Americans of a certain type to engage in "bunker" style thinking, and to not only indulge but to actually valorize a genuinely anti-civilizational impulse. The "bunker" people actually think you are stupid, if not malignant, if you express any hope in the idea of the public good. The mentality seems to be: "everyone is evil except for the handful of us who are 'in the know,' the sheeple don't get it, let the system crash and burn, become self-sufficient because the very idea of civilization and public good is actually impossible." This mentality may be compatible with (or even caused by) certain strains of informal, primitive, low-church Protestantism -- but from all I have learned from the Church about human nature and the purpose of human society, these ideas are totally incompatible with the Catholic idea of civilization. Though I am a natural "libertarian," at day's end, I cannot help but admit that a robust network of commonly-held systems for the public good is FAR preferable to some sort of anarchic, anti-civilizational network of private, atomized enclaves.

Yesterday, a federal judge barred Elon Musk's lawyers from arguing that AI could threaten humanity in his lawsuit against OpenAI. OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit focused on developing AI safely. But our recent @NewYorker investigation documented how some researchers at the company have raised concerns about safety being sidelined.

At IBM Watson health I worked for a ridiculously talented and attractive female manager. At a regional meeting 3 men showed up unprepared. We had been told in advance what was expected. When they weren’t prepared, she calmly asked them questions and met their lack of response with silence. It was painfully clear that all 3 were non-performers that until that point, had effectively hidden among the folds of bureaucracy and acquisitions. Those 3 assholes then had the audacity to file a complaint with HR for a “hostile work environment” when HR called me because I was in the meeting, I let them have it. This manager had faced countless instances of sexism, misogyny, and harassment in her career, and I argued that if she was NOT a woman there is no world where these middle aged below average men would have filed a complaint. After the “investigation” HR sided with my manager, fired the 3 men, she then found a better gig. Trip down memory lane curtesy the recent JP Morgan story.

@forestvanslyke Hair of the dog that bit you.

Please tell me the best way to cure a hangover

@shannonshaming Same. I thought he was not that good in 49. He's proven he belongs in 50.

I’ll admit when I’m wrong. Rizo is great. I admired that he escaped getting his idol flushed on a split vote in 49, but watching him strategize on 50…he’s won me over.

@michelletandler I would reword it. I accept Evolution. In God I Trust, all others pay cash. I would examine evidence to the contrary. I do not have it as part of my belief system.

Do you believe in Evolution?

Big Tech should put Data Centers in old malls Keep the malls alive by becoming the new anchors, and pay to put coffee shops, lending libraries, and other community events in the middle of them, and doesn't require new land to be developed Win-win

If you're young, you can't grasp this or believe it on an intutive level. That's not your fault--it's the condition of being young. I couldn't grasp it either. But at 51 it is true that I'm much wiser and have much better judgment than I've had before. I hope to get more still. You, too, will become concerned with the things I'm concerned with. You, too, will reach a point where you say, "Wait, why did we decide to throw out that bit of manners as if it didn't matter-just because it was 'old'? " You will care about your country and its culture very much like people my age do. -Uncle Josh

I am never leaving X.

@W0rdSmith64 @Hot_Pepper76 Lovin' You was so over the top that I liked it.

@Hot_Pepper76 Lovin You makes me gag, and anything Capt & Tennile is an automatic no... Muskrat Love anyone?

What a difference five years makes. From 1970 to 1975, you can really see the shift in music. I’d keep every song from the 1970 Billboard top hits, but a couple from 1975 wouldn’t make my playlist. Any you’d cut from this list?

@Hot_Pepper76 I went from Heavy Metal, ballads and folk, and 75 was when I was transitioning to R & B, funk and some disco.

@realitybites555 @stephenfishbach Why not? War strategy games advanced include a die, because luck and chance are part of it.

@stephenfishbach Coin toss was for sure rigged. Nobody’s game should come down to a coin toss anyway. I don’t see how this twist is interesting. Straight gameplay with immunity idols would be more than enough. I don’t need these bells and whistles.

that mr. beast twist was fantastic, great #survivor moment, best celeb twist of the season and a great twist overall, everyone owes him an apology.

@shagbark_hick The Rockefellers have managed it well while the Vanderbilts did not.

Would this mean that rich kids themselves are a "psyop"? I've met plenty of very wealthy kids, trust-funders, etc, and I've never been impressed. This doesn't strike me as any kind of a contrivance or a conspiracy. It just seems like observable reality.

@Hot_Pepper76 How you seen the clip about the turkeys yet? It is a classic.

Found a WKRP clip earlier, then headed to the barn before I had time to share it. Lucy turned into a full-on little pistol while I was there, so I filmed my part at the barn and edited everything together when I got home. And yes, that’s my real voice, not AI. Pretty easy to tell, right? Any other WKRP fans here?