gmtx725

I think the point is people disproportionately tsk tsk about the harms of drug use compared to the harms of alcohol.

Personally I think most substances in moderate quantities taken only occasionally are no big deal. Yes there is probably some minute health impact visible in long term longitudinal studies but it's probably dwarfed by other lifestyle factors. I would rather be someone who exercises regularly, eats a healthy diet and uses MDMA or cocaine a few times a year than a sedentary obese teetolar who's never touched drugs.

it was just called "Kingdom of Great Britain" before 1801 when it only included England Scotland and Wales

The ancient Egyptian god is fuming

not 100% disputing what you're saying and im sure more automatics/EVs etc will gradually filter in. BUT it's not just an affordability thing lots of people just prefer cheaper cars and would prefer to put their disposable income elsewhere.

There's still a big demand for manuals here, not just from petrolheads either. They're popular generally but in particular with newly qualified drivers, and people who live in urban areas and drive only infrequently. They're just cheaper and more economical.

That being said it is shifting (haha) slowly- I think in the last couple of years the majority of new cars sold have been automatic. But most people buy used anyway so manual is going to be around for a long time yet.

In the UK manuals are still significantly cheaper, so the bottom end of the market prefers them as well as the petrol heads

What about the cost factor? In the UK manuals are still significantly cheaper than automatics.

I'm UK based and still drive a manual. The main reason being cost. I'm a super infrequent driver (maybe once a week for bulky shops or long weekend trips) and don't want to be paying through the nose for something that is a convenience not an essential. I drive a second hand 2013 Toyota aygo which was super cheap, is zero rated for road tax, incredibly reliable and ultra fuel efficient.

I'd be willing to bet I'm quite representative of other city based drivers who have the option of public transport, walking or cycling. That's why I don't see the demand for manual dropping any time soon.

Manuals are still ubiquitous where I am in the UK so I don't agree with that assessment. They are still vastly cheaper than automatics as well.

> So, just like almost everybody else

Projection?

Sorry I just don't agree with this. I run 50 miles a week and mix in some cycling too, and I actively have to make an effort to eat enough to maintain weight. Endurance cardio doesn't trigger hunger or cravings for me unless it's a long (90 mins plus) effort.

It's not completely an illusion. You had for example Leicester winning the league only five years ago.

you say that but a complete minnow (Leicester) won the league only five years ago putting all these 'big' clubs to shame. Yes the odds are stacked in their favour but the only thing that keeps it exciting is the (small) chance of a big upset.

What even is a "true price", ontologically speaking?

> This claim is false. If you can empirically support a result which shows that something most other economists believe is likely false and can do so convincingly

It's almost impossible to do that though isn't it? Economics isn't a hard science, it's not like you can run RCTs or experiments. And all actually-existing economic systems are situated within an actually-existing political, social and historical context, meaning we only ever observe a tiny fraction of the possible universe of economic systems. There is no possibility to explore counterfactuals.

> This demonstrates a misunderstanding of how economics departments are funded. Grant funding is a very small part of the departmental budget everywhere

I never mentioned grants, departments still have to be funded somehow, whatever that process is, it will introduce selection biases.

It's not that simplistic, it's not a conspiracy it's a self-selecting self-replicating system.

How do economics professors get hired? By impressing other economics professors. And by having the power to win funding for the department. Who are the people that tend to fit those criteria? Mostly, those who already agree with the existing establishment, and those who already have views amenable to the well-resourced bodies that distribute funding.

my main problem with economics is it makes a philosophical error in that it assumes people and economic agents are inert objects to be studied as you would chemicals or atoms, without the capacity to react and respond to economic "laws" thereby changing them. Reflexivity is a thing.

Would you apply the same criteria to literature? Film? Art? Why isn't someone like, say, Jackson Pollock as 'clear and understandable' as a renaissance painter?

I admit Deleuze's writing is hard work but he has some really interesting metaphysical ideas linked to complexity and systems theory, try reading Manuel DeLanda for a more accessible introduction

"Analytic" Philosophy is already a term, I think it does the job pretty well

IMO it's a strange misinterpretation of his work to think he's a conspiracy theorist. I think it is undeniable that every era has an ideology that captures the zeitgeist of the times, I think Curtis just explores the origins of those ideologies and what motivated their progenitors, he is not alleging they had shadowy plans for world domination...

Calm down, his films are just interesting takes on the ideologies that govern our times, combined artfully with arresting archive footage and music. They're not always claiming to be capital-t 'truth'...

I wouldnt class Adam Curtis's work as documentaries. More like... interesting stories and moods crafted from a collage of archive footage. They're just an interesting take, not necessarily claiming to be the capital-T 'Truth'...

Really, that's interesting, I've always thought about his work the opposite way. As if he's saying 'this is a story about the way the world works, you can take it or leave it'.

> Sounds like you're applying a lot of quite American assumptions to rural Wales, to be honest.

I'm British, I know Wales pretty well. Rural north Wales is pretty deprived

yeah, i'm sure a bunch of highly paid software engineers swooping in to deprived communities and inflating property prices would go down well with the locals...

Exactly, the communist manifesto is a short throwaway propaganda pamphlet that is for some reason held up as the apex of his work. Whereas Das Kapital, a mammoth 3-volume serious academic undertaking, and his real magnum opus, is ignored.

harping on about ever-increasing inequality is rich coming from the CCP...

> Interestingly, it seems the US is almost unique in our mass deindustrialization

The UK has vast swathes of poverty in the deindustrialised north of England and other areas. Former mining and heavy industry towns that even today almost 40 years on from deindustrialisation are dominated by insecure, unskilled work and unemployment

Projection. I'm a centrist not a leftist.