Proper Gander

Published the last post with the wrong title like a dumbass. Correct version is up: The Nuclear Streisand Effect thepropergander.org/p/guns-in-a-ro…

@_whitneywebb I can't wait for the super-fancy AI-driven spreadsheet to decide I've had enough beef for the month and have to resort to eating sewer rats to hit my macros

Palantir, a CIA front company, now has its tentacles in the food supply, our healthcare data, our growing autonomous weapons industry, the military, the entire US intelligence community, border patrol, Space Force and so on. Seemingly, Palantir is soon to become the testrun for Yarvins "sov-corp", a privatized version of govt that replaces the existing govt and is ruled by a CEO dictator. That is, unless we do something about it. cnbc.com/2026/04/22/pal…

@escapefrommelos I've spent 15 years in SEA including around 1.5 in Cambo. It's definitely its own thing. Very few rules, super friendly locals. The expats are notable and often crazy/interesting because it's rarely someone's first stop, so you find few normies and lots of characters

Some Thoughts on Cambodia After My Recent Trip: I often hear people saying it's "a ghetto version of Thailand or Vietnam", but it's very much Its Own Thing despite some similarities with both... the people and language are of course different, but its also a backwater for both that's influenced, cajoled, bickered over, and occasionally invaded. I think it's one of my favorite places in the world. Certainly, its biggest and richest cities do no feel modern and cosmopolitan in the same way Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur do. Overall it's much much more agrarian and less urban than Vietnam, and despite it's shared French Colonial History, it's closer culturally/religiously to Thailand... but it's still extremely distinct from Thailand. You can think of it as a rural and somewhat backwards cousin. That said, I like the landscapes and color in Cambodia more than almost any other place, including what I've seen in neighboring southeast asian countries... and of course, there is Angkor Wat, which has no equivalent in any nearby country, or maybe any country anywhere. It's a very visually stunning place that feels very "different" than anywhere I've been. Generally, there's a lower standard of living here, and while things are somewhat backwards (you see people harvesting rice by hand, very skinny cows, extremely low monthly wages for average workers, etc) people seem ok and like times are decent, or at least better than they were before. People smile very easily and are generally kind. There is less of the "shady" energy one encounters in thailand, and especially Bangkok, where it feels like everyone wants to sell you something. Tourism is, of course, a huge driver of the economy... but now there is major Chinese investment and development; garment factories, light-industrial plants, new PRC-owned airports and infrastructure that follows the usual Belt-and-Road extractive rent-seeking pattern (locals must pay to use chinese-built roads owned in perpetuity by some mysterious chinese conglomerate, etc). There is currently a sort of soft war going on between Thailand and Cambodia over the border lines drawn during French colonial period, and for the first time I now see ordinary people with the same image, a kneeling Cambodian soldier... sometimes as stickers on their cars, or on a football-style jersey. The cambo military has always been much less professional and competent than the thai one (ofc) and from what i've heard soldiers here pay bribes to stay on the rolls and keep getting a salary... this means the conflict is limited and basically consists of cambo guys blind-firing a couple rounds of artillery into Thai land and then sometimes getting killed in reprisals by insertions of Thai SOF or drones. Although there is technically a "ceasefire", a thai friend who is a staff officer told me that these small clashes continue.

@newstart_2024 Divorce leads to generational wealth destruction as well as mistrust of relationships, so it's far more insidious long-term than is commonly understood. Kids from broken families never inherit the wealth or institutional knowledge of what healthy relationships look like

@Beef_Backup @FromKulak Oh you poor propagandized soul

@docpropergander @FromKulak Monarchy is the most proven nonviable form of government in human history.

it's Amazing THE LIBERTARIANS got more concessions out of Trump than MAGA did. Libertarians vote 3rd party every election... So Trump vote chases and agrees to pardon Ross Ulbricht for them MAGA votes R no matter what... Why would Trump arrest Hillary for them? Democracy is like corporate life. Loyalty is punished.

Don't fool yourself into thinking this barbarity will remain confined to the killing fields of Donbass and Gaza. This can and will be western people who resist domestically, huddled in sheds hunted like ants by corporate AI-directed drones or worse. When it comes to this depeved technological or exterminationist violence our idendities must be subordinate to a baseline of collective human dignity. It cannot be seen as happening to "him" or "them". It is happening to us. It's happening to you. I'm not unrealistic on these matters and know how futile and moralistic it sounds, but if it doesn't sufficiently shock and offend our conscience and wake us up to the coming reality, then we really will be dispatched eventually like cockroaches by entities barely knowable.

The boomers didn’t just break families — they made it normal not to form them at all. Helen Andrews put it sharply on Tipping Point OAN: Boomers saw any constraint on individual choice as evil, especially lifelong commitments like marriage and family. What felt liberating at 25 started looking hollow at 45 and lonely at 65. Now millennials are inheriting the wreckage — not a crisis of broken families, but a crisis of absent ones. People are reaching their 30s gripped by the quiet terror that they might never build what previous generations took for granted. We’re watching a slow-motion demographic and emotional collapse where the very institutions that gave life meaning (stable families, long-term commitments) have been hollowed out. Freedom without guardrails eventually becomes its own kind of cage — one where you have endless options but no deep roots. Do you think the biggest family crisis today is divorce (like in the 70s/80s) or the growing number of people who never form families at all? What’s one cultural shift that could actually help reverse this?

It is 53 BC. "We've got the Persians just where we want them," say the Romans. It is 117 AD. "We've beaten the Persians for good this time," say the Romans. It is 353 AD. "This campaign will finish the Persians off," say the Romans. It is 628 AD. "We've finally beaten the Persians," say the Eastern Romans. It is 1514. "We'll kick the Persians' asses," say the Ottomans. It is 1804. "We'll show the Persians who's boss," say the Russian Empire. It is 1823. "We've really shown the Persians this time," say the Ottomans. It is 2026. "We've got the Persians cornered," say the Americans and Israelis. I say all this for one reason: the only ways to fully defeat Persia are 1) if they're centered in Mesopotamia and decadent (Alexander, the Rashidun caliphate) or to conquer them from the northeast (Mongols, Seljuks, Timurids). That is, unless you want to argue with 2500 years of history.

🧵 THREAD 1/ Your daughter posts something online. She is 19. In college. Trying to figure out what she believes. She shares a political opinion that an algorithm flags as problematic. You do not see it happen. No one notifies you. No one tells her. But 72 hours later, her bank account is frozen. Her student loans are suspended. Her digital ID shows a compliance violation. And there is nothing you can do to protect her.

@s_fink2 God damn this hit home. I feel you @TheoVon

He needs someone to be honest with him. If this is real, and I have no reason to believe it’s not, I hope he finds what he’s looking for

@Cernovich I'm an American in Vietnam in a tourist town so I see people from all over the world. Everybody under the age of 60 despises Israel. People of many nations will say cheers with "Fuck Israel." It's not looking good for them

Is the anti-Israel sentiment really that strong? I live in such a biased world now. Always some op on one side or the other. I tune most of it out. What is really going out on there on the streets?

@Kevin_Cave @Devon_Eriksen_ If that's the goal then cool, I'd be happy with that

@docpropergander @Devon_Eriksen_ >I imagine the people who play it would much prefer having a real daughter Then the game has done its alleged job and has encouraged more people to become parents.

There are two neurochemicals that feel good. Dopamine, which mediates pleasure. And serotonin, which mediates happiness. Anyone who confuses the two, as we see in the comic below, puts his mind, body, and spirit in grave danger. Pleasure, unlike happiness, is not sustained. It exists only at the moment that an external, pleasurable stimulus is applied to your nervous system. Eating cake stops feeling good the moment you stop eating cake. If you want to keep feeling good, you have to eat more cake. And, for neurochemical reasons I won't get into, the second slice of cake never tastes as good as the first. So pretty soon, you're fat, and you're not even enjoying your cake all that much. Happiness, however comes from your internal state. The two most important kinds of happiness are a feeling of accomplishment, and a feeling of connection to other people. Lifting weights can sometimes feel good, if you're young and healthy and feeling particularly energetic, but it usually doesn't. Quite frequently, at the moment, it sucks. But if you can bend down, grab 525 pounds that's sitting on the floor, and stand up with it, you accomplished something. And the knowledge that you did that never entirely leaves you. It is a source of happiness, knowing that you did the thing. Serotonin, for other neurochemical reasons I won't get into, doesn't produce a diminished response. You cannot overdose on happiness and become insensitive to it. Diana, the video game character, is indeed designed entirely to make the player feel good. You're supposed to protect, care for, and teach her. And this is supposed to give you feelings of connection and accomplishment. That's happiness. But people who weren't properly loved as children (perverts), or who haven't accomplished anything in life (socialists), or both (Marxists), often haven't felt that much happiness, and haven't learned how to get it. When they look at this child character, they realize she is supposed to make them feel good, but the only way of feeling good that they understand is pleasure. Not happiness. And most basic way you get pleasure from another human being is sex. This is why they have trouble NOT sexualizing any positive interaction. They call any positive regard for another human being "dick-riding", or other sexualized terms. Any friendship between two men is a "bro-mance" to them. Human interactions are not inherently enjoyable to them, and so they analyze every relationship for dopamine potential. Can I use this person to score drugs? Can I have sex with them? Will they agree with me, praise me, or validate my opinions? Can I get money from them that I can use to get drugs or sex? What these people need explained to them is that this interaction is supposed to feel good to you without involving your penis in any way. And if it doesn't, if it doesn't even make sense to you, then your parents failed you. And you have our sympathy for that, but it isn't our fault, and we're not going to stop being happy for your sake.

@netanyahu Lmao Bibi attempts PR damage control. Why even bother trying? Your country's reputation is ruined

As the Jewish state, Israel cherishes and upholds the Jewish values of tolerance and mutual respect between Jews and worshippers of all faiths. All religions flourish in our land and we view members of all faiths as equals in building our society and region. Yesterday, like the overwhelming majority of Israelis, I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon. I condemn the act in the strongest terms. Military authorities are conducting a criminal probe of the matter and will take appropriately harsh disciplinary action against the offender. While Christians are being slaughtered in Syria and Lebanon by Muslims, the Christian population in Israel thrives unlike elsewhere in the Middle East. Israel is the only country in the region that the Christian population and standard of living is growing. Israel is the only place in the Middle East that adheres to freedom of worship for all. We express regret for the incident and for any hurt this has caused to believers in Lebanon and around the world.

A vampire can't see its own reflection

@ElectBilzerian It's gotta be revenge for talking about Epstein so much before he got that silly FBI job. Basically a "You ain't gonna do shit, pussy" message

Ok I feel like Dan Bongino is being put through a Jewish humiliation ritual right now. Why else would you post something from 2024 labeled "new data" and comment on it like it just was released today knowing he's going to get 10,000 comments calling him a retard. Like I can't believe he's this retarded. It has to be Epstein sending him humilation tasks while playing fortnite

@TheRob1772 I was there when it happened, just a few miles away. I was 8. It was deeply unsettling to see tanks and helicopters around like it was a fucking war zone and now I don't trust the government. Go figure

33 years ago I watched my government kill 86 American citizens. 25 of those were babies and children. Then spend the next 33 years trying to justify and gaslight American citizens. No I don't give a fuck about the 4 oathbreakers that got popped. I didn't then and I never will. This is when I lost any faith in our government and in 33 years NOTHING has changed and NOTHING has gotten better. If they were able to take your life away either by death or prison for exorcising your God given, immutable and inalienable rights and it's still going on now with the same bureaucracy then no... Nothing has changed for the better. Fuck the GayTF Fuck the government

@WaywardRabbler Fair warning, it's a really dense read but extremely enlightening. All about the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, Sykes-Picot and all the machinations behind it. Written in the 80s, quite predictive

@docpropergander no I haven't, I've been meaning to get more into ME history again, among a million other things

incredible stuff here, and we are told Iran is ruled by religious maniacs who don't think rationally

@WaywardRabbler Ever read the book A Peace to End All Peace? Highly recommend

@docpropergander people always say that but from older sources I've read it was actually the White Highlands in Kenya, but nevertheless. And actually Chaim Wetzel figured out how to make acetone, which was in terribly short supply in WWI, out of horse chestnuts, is why they gave them Palestine