CaptWillard

I swing between both, daily it seems.

Upvoted for "arguing with a slot machine"

I was tempted to just start smoking again, but I found that if I was distracted or my hands were busy I could go without vaping for hours at a time.

It took a few tries, but once I really decided to quit I was able to get past the worst cravings in a few days and now it's been almost a year.

Vaping definitely increased my nicotine addiction, mostly because I could do it indoors all day while working, in the car, at night, etc.

The only limiting factor was the nausea of nicotine overdose, which I remember occasionally from chain smoking indoors.

That's the real test of a song. Electric fire extinguishers are a crutch, really.

Great movie ... directed by David Bowie's son!

Quantitative easing and fiscal stimulus entered the chat a while ago.

>On top of that he's usually angry and spiteful in pretty much everything he says.

Are you really under the impression that's the truth?

To be fair, I was never all that good.

> The entire concept of American masculinity is about inflicting yourself on as many other people as you can.

Haha, what?

You're describing a mindset and behavior that is indeed more prevalent than it should be or used to be, but it's got nothing to do with the "concept of American masculinity"

I've known a lot of academics and more than a few (adult) athletes, and in my experience, cannabis is quite popular in both crowds.

What you describe is one of the reasons I've always favored legalization of cannabis (though I wouldn't describe it as a "pipeline")

I didn't want my kids to have any reason to know the types of people we had to deal with.

> 'I've been inactive for too long, I can't call and reveal that I haven't started'.

Dang. That's a huge part of my problem over the years. Nicely articulated.

I'm curious what "red pilled" means to you.

I would think a "red pilled" book would focus on resisting manipulation, specifically emotional manipulation.

Big difference between gaining knowledge and building/maintaining cognitive skills.

I say this with all due respect and as someone who is struggling to envision their own ability to meaningfully contribute in the likely future:

Nature is ableist. Humanity rises above it to the extent that we can, but ...

> If cheating were widespread it would have been detected much more easily.

This is a ridiculous assertion.

I like to think that Bjork loves me, but deep down I know it's not true.

Because AI can't be held accountable. Ever.

That will probably save some jobs, but it's a problem in most other contexts.

The early nod to Agora Institute mission of “building stronger global democracy” Followed by bemoaning USAID cuts makes me wonder if the author is deliberately missing one of the most glaring examples of this.

This is all debatably valid, except for the fact that the entrenched system produced massive fraud, money laundering, wagging-the-dog and worst of all, a decade of domestic propaganda and anti-democratic schemes in an attempt to protect the machine from widespread exposure.

His "friends" like Reid Hoffman and Epstein himself? They do talk about Trump a lot in those files.

> Why are you defending X here?

What a strange question.

On the contrary ... we LOVE the perennial underdog who stays in the fight. Like the British, once you start winning consistently you quickly earn our contempt.

American football is packed with great examples.

> so British people get their fill of competent, triumphant heroes from American media

Conversely, American culture has historically included all the best of the British.

In addition to those mentioned above, Hitchhikers Guide, Monty Python, Watership Down, The Young Ones, etc.

Out of respect for your effort to keep it civil, I'll answer some of that:

I'm a liberal as defined up until 2012 or so.

Never been socially conservative at all. I'm not a libertarian, as I do support some social safety nets. That being the case, I am strongly against open borders and unchecked fraud.

You're actually right about a lot of the rest (minus the snark.)

No, I think my stance is pretty clear.

If you don't recognize the patterns of incuriosity, groupthink and misguided confidence that have permeated western society in the last ten years, nothing I say here is going to enlighten you.

"We need to make it shameful to be bigoted again"

Interesting way to put it. For the past decade or so, many flavors of bigotry have been lauded and socially rewarded.

At the same time, many valid viewpoints and statements have been mislabeled as "bigotry" by the incurious and hivemind-compliant.

These things are balancing out lately, but quite a lot of damage was done.

Amen. I can appreciate films. Reiner made Movies. Great movies.

Spielberg is an apt comparison.

Posts like this make me appreciate my boss.

I've been very lucky to work for some great people, even/especially when the situation above them is borked.