Russell

The idea that norms are *simply good* and therefore worth enforcing (apparently at any cost) is probably just as stupid as the idea that norms are *simply bad* and therefore worth transgressing at any cost. I find habitual norm-enforcers to be insufferable simpletons. What's important is the macro negotiation between norm enforcement and norm transgression. In an ideal world, we wouldn't need their insufferable habitual norm enforcers and we wouldn't need the insufferable habitual norm transgressors. Intelligent people could have those dialogs within themselves and peer to peer. Unfortunately, most people seem to want simple categorical rules. A lot of people would be that way naturally, but I do think our society and culture makes it a more prominent problem. And so with that many "dumb nodes" you really have to 'bounce' them off each other, so to speak, and extract whatever emergent synthesis you can. You don't have to be one of those people. You aren't a simpleton. You can be more than an indistinguishable node in a crude macro system.

@TigerStripedDoc A bully's bad behavior can serve an ultimately productive purpose without that bully being "a hero" (your meme, not mine). What happened is, you shared an edge, half-baked take in a meme, and now you feel compelled to defend it.

Of course he (and occasionally, she) was (were). But you won't see that in media. Why? Because Media is run, by in large, by theater kids. The very ones who were bullied. They are the weird/abnormal (re: disordered) individuals who needed to be kept in check.

I've repeatedly heard that we "didn't know" smoking was bad for you until relatively recently. I just finished reading Crime and Punishing, written over 150 years ago, and there's a scene where a doctor lectures someone on the deleterious health effects of his smoking habit.

There's a million ways to be "weird." A lot of those ways are actually really awesome, and add to the eclectic offerings of the human species. Some ways of being weird are malignant. And some weird people are also resentful, power-hungry, etc. Again, doesn't make the bullies right.

The bullies didn't shape me in the way your braindead meme suggests. They were wrong. The fact that we put them in their place shows we thought so too. I didn't become how the bullies wanted me to be. Dull, boring, "normal." The bullies were antagonistic obstacles who made my life worse. Yes, I overcame them. Yes, overcoming them made me stronger. But overcoming an obstacle doesn't make the obstacle a hero.

The Luddites were correct about their own interests. They were skilled workers displaced by automation. It didn't make them prosperous, it made the people who displaced them prosperous. Don't want a Luddite movement? Offer a deal that doesn't ruin their lives.

@ThePrimeagen It's not en vogue to use the word, but "evil" really does apply here.

This is gross. Digital necromancy is just preying on the weak and vulnerable to turn a quick buck.

Libertarianism is a lie. A 19 year old with $40,000 in student debt, addicted to pornography, gambling his pittance wage on draftkings, eating ultra-processed slop laced with additives, with no vocational skills, no family stability, no community, and no cultural framework for meaning is not "free". He is comprehensively captured by systems specifically engineered to exploit him.

I've never enjoyed traveling for work. But ever since we had a new baby, I downright resent it.

Agreed. And as another point, this is really just a rebuke against lowering the standards for college so much to make it a mass market good. If you want all of your college students to have something smart to say about the Iranian regime, you should probably have standards that reflect that.

@thomaschattwill @Musa_alGharbi You all have this completely backwards, and I will die on this hill. 🪦🪦

A lot of the problems in the world right now can be explained by this video. For one thing, it’s a big reason why the US government is so unaccountable to public opinion. These are *college students.* A significant amount of the country is totally checked out and comfortable enough not to think it matters.

@mattfitzct @scttfrnks @klara_sjo @jay_kobbe I am not persuasive enough.

@theramblingfool @scttfrnks @klara_sjo @jay_kobbe Write that out six more times in the same tweet and then maybe I'll agree.

Saying people should read is a controversial topic over on Bluesky.

@Boggememes There seems to be a clear emergent preference in players for the velocity of cards. But Magic is mechanically designed around the scarcity of cards. You can design a game around either. But you can't selectively design around velocity for some players and scarcity for others.

If there's no Rhystic ban at least do a 3 v 1 for whoever plays it and let nature run its course.

@AllexiConn @klara_sjo Ground beef is not steak, and the difference is not *just* semantics.

@klara_sjo Yes, it's just semantics is all, b/c "reading" is the visual method of consuming literature. The latter depends on the person.

@scttfrnks @klara_sjo @jay_kobbe There should be a name for the logical fallacy/mental disorder which compels one to construct a conclusory statement, repeated over and over, and present it as if it were an argument.

@klara_sjo @jay_kobbe I like audiobooks, but listening to one is obviously not “reading”. And that is not a technicality. There is zero reading involved.

@DerekPederson3 It's obvious why it's news. It's obvious to you, too. So much so that you felt compelled to generate commentary on it.

How is this "breaking" news? Maybe their neighbors will sell and then they get to see the data center every day.

@dhh Yes! I lugged my Dell tower around with me. I would slide the side panel off and used it as a desk for my keyboard and mouse.

Some of my greatest childhood memories came from dragging a tower like that around, along with a heavy CRT monitor, to LAN parties. Quake, Starcraft, Unreal, Warcraft. Formative years!

@blippan I tried but she wouldn't get in the ozone chamber.

@theramblingfool Leave her bro she's not worth it

This is what's wrong with society. Men & women, husband & wife, there's no trust left. I worked hard on this chamber to ozone blast furniture & my wife wouldn't even go in to see it. I said I wouldn't bother making it air tight just for blood splatters & she still refused.

@octopidl Hey bro, I heard you like ads...

The ad in my timeline had an ad Wtf

The TSA is an unholy amalgamation of makework and total arbitrary authority.