hnhg

He also provided no numbers or evidence - did his children fail to get in or something?

And neuter the influence of deep-pocketed lobbying entities - US entities in particular seem to spend a lot of money on influencing EU politics: https://www.lobbyfacts.eu/

Short answer is that the UK gave private companies to extract as much wealth as possible with minimal re-investment in infrastructure. The nation has since seen water rationing and raw sewage being pumped into rivers and beaches, but at least some shareholders have benefited, right?

Your reply really does not need the offensive opening line.

I believe Hannah Arendt made the point that politicians lie not so much as to get away with the issue at hand but rather as a long term strategy to nullify any interest in politics overall in order to get away with absolute everything on their agenda. This might be the most recent iteration of this, aided by an often complicit media.

Seems like India is shooting itself in the foot by making it more difficult to access knowledge for the benefit of overseas publishers. Countries that don't do this will be at an advantage.

I concede that but awareness is a better starting position for potential improvement rather than ignorance. I guess we are agreeing on the substance but I am taking an optimistic view rather than a pessimistic one. I accept that I might be very misguided.

Look at the positives: now you are aware that every channel is full of misinformation and propaganda and treat it all as such. That gives you better media literacy than previous generations who tended to trust everything that was given to them "from above" - it enables us to be more intellectually mature and honest with ourselves about the nature and history of news media, even if you might not actually find that pleasant or convenient to deal with.

This feels like a crash course for people already very familiar with it all. For everyone else, Steve Brunton's courses cover a lot of the foundational stuff here on probability and stats and might be a lot more accessible: https://www.youtube.com/@Eigensteve

I found this the most interesting part of the whole essay - "the ten largest companies in the S&P 500 have so dominated net income growth in the last six years that it’s becoming more useful to think about an S&P 10 vs an S&P 490" - which then took me here: https://insight-public.sgmarkets.com/quant-motion-pictures/o...

Can anyone shed light on what is going on between these two groups. I wasn't convinced by the rest of the argument in the article, and I would like something that didn't just rely on "AI" as an explanation.

You can also sign up to Curtis Yarvin's Substack and read the kind of thinking that Thiel likes to surround himself with: https://graymirror.substack.com/

Private equity is absolutely taking over the UK - so many stories like this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/taxes/private-equity-boom-ne...

I feel across Europe at least companies are using data to optimise price by demand closely - large corporate suppliers almost definitely have the staff at hand to increase prices using data in the same way that "surge" pricing is calculated these days. They have every incentive to do so since they want to maximise profit.

Don't forget the planned obsolescence in 2020s cars.

Plus lots of salad and olive oil. I believe the use of "Mediterranean" is to avoid strange expectations about Middle Eastern food, which many people seem to erroneously expect to be more like Indian.

It depends on where you are. There are parts of the USA where a 10 million net worth does not mean you are "yacht rich" (but certainly very comfortable).

Also the top 1% covers everything from the very affluent middle class to billionaires - the distance from the least rich part of the 1% to the richest part spans billions, much greater than the rest of the distribution's 99%.

I have a perfectly good machine that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 for some arbitrary reason. Fortunately, I no longer specifically need Windows and can move on from it. I actually quite like Windows now that WSL2 is decent, but I don't need this specific form of enshittification in my life (along with all the tracking and ads). I don't use Android for the very same reason.

They still have JD Vance as a proxy for Thiel.

> they have gone to university, the only place where bad ideas can survive and be propogated out into the world

Let's not leave out think-tanks and orgs like the WEF that seem to exist only to launder the opinions of billionaires. And mainstream news publications like the New York Times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine

While I don't disagree with many of your points, we shouldn't kid ourselves that we live in the best of all possible worlds for most working or middle class people.

He carries the self-confidence that billions of dollars in wealth can give you.

There are some clear financial interests in Palantir within the UK government's top people: https://bylinetimes.com/2025/04/25/peter-mandelsons-fixing-o...

Not to be pedantic, but Donald Trump received around 77 million votes in the 2024 presidential election, which would be around 23% of the then population, I think.

Which part of Europe? It really doesn't make sense to generalise such a diverse set of countries. Can you be more specific?

I think people get confused into thinking that democracy is about voting when it is should be about reducing prolonged concentrations of power, because of the innate tendency for it to be abused and hoarded. So to support your point, if your culture does not support the concept of good "democratic" governance, and no one strives for the institutions and constitutions to support it, you might be better off with a benevolent dictator, for as long as they last before a not-so-benevolent one.

Some of them, maybe. Some others are just not tolerant of LGBT lifestyles and equality at all.

Also, I don't think someone who wants limited immigration is necessarily far right.

Some of those cultures that apparently celebrate gay people were also chemically castrating them not that long ago, and also have a lot of locals who still hate gay people and cannot wait to get back to the old ways.

The rise of the far right in Europe and USA might challenge your idea of fixed regional cultures quite soon.

Indeed she did.

You might be missing the point. They can be all of those things you say (and I very much agree with you) but they can still be very dangerous. In fact, perhaps their banality is a key part of what makes them so dangerous.

You bring up a good point in that at one point it is also about ensuring the quality of materials and construction processes so that everything lasts by default. On top of that, repairability is another factor. I have a fancy kettle that I am sure will not last five years, and I regret buying it.