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vpilcx

82 karma · joined January 28, 2019

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vpilcx··on I applied for a software role at FedEx and was asked to take a personality test
Maybe that was a while ago, because almost all of the personality tests that I've had to take are, question: "I enjoy the challenge of collaborating with my coworkers" answer: strongly agree, slightly agree, neither agree nor disagree, slightly disagree, strongly agree

With the questions all being like that with different wording, "I find myself getting frustrated in high stress situations.", "I enjoy high stress situations because they are exciting.", "Being around a lot of people all the time can be annoying", etc.

Over and over and over again for about fifteen minutes.

vpilcx··on Google Reader shut down announced ten years ago today
I think it's 'dead' in comparison to the way it used to be used.

I was actually just looking for RSS feeds for some of the top news sites, and a lot of them have specialized RSS feeds for a certain category but not for the entire site. (I had to eventually settle for Newsweek)

I genuinely don't know, so this is an honest question. Nowadays, outside of podcast feeds, what's the incentive for media outlets to provide RSS feeds? Isn't it just a fringe assortment of techies still using it? (To be clear, I'm part of that fringe.)

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> The thing is, as a person of color, the onus isn't on me to convert your racist grandparent or uncle from being a racist piece of shit. Fuck them. That puts me in the subordinate position of having to placate a white supremacist and that, in of itself, is fucking white supremacy. Fuck. That.
vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
Yeah, I remember during World War II, the Fascists were really giving the Nazis hell. Just classic fascism.
vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> people who absolutely hate me and want my whole race to die

What's really interesting about that is I couldn't find one bit of audio that came anywhere near what you're characterizing. Even in the one episode of Underground Dialogue Podcast where they're talking about black secession.

I typed in 'white supremacist podcast'. It took a while to actually get a link because I'm pretty sure Google is censoring the results. (Go, Google!) But here's what I listened to:

https://therightstuff.biz/2023/02/26/ftn-535-some-garbage-po...

I'm obviously just skimming through it but already just from the show notes we have anti-semitsm ('Jewish sex-trafficking money').

Hitting in random points. 22 mins in, nothing. 64 mins "KAnye was right about the jews. tell all black people" 1:51 nothing 3:12 a brief mention of a podcast that I looked up that talks about 'anti-White brainwashing' 4:19 'Columbus Jewish news'

Let's compare that with Hotep because Hoteps in general, should be theoretically the most anti-white podcast out of all the ones you mentioned.

Hotep Episode https://soundcloud.com/handymayhem/hoteps-been-told-you-236-...

First hit: nothing 58 mins: nothing 1h39: mysogyny but within the context of a 'nigga with a pussy' 2h17m - talking about Andrew Tate and Greta Thurnberg; possibly a mysogony subtext 2h43m - anti-Police

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> There is no guarantee that Nazis will not again take advantage of a population that is used to follow the state's lead, this time to silence you, or that another group won't do the same.

And that's fine. This argument keeps being brought up over and over again, but if this happened, nothing would please more because it would remove the ambiguity from the situation.

> It's frankly incomprehensible to me how anyone who doesn't support totalitarianism can look at history (or present day) and dare to normalize any amount of state control over speech.

I mean, the fact that you can look at The Holocaust or Jim Crow and think that any amount of tolerance should be shown to Nazi'ism or white supremacy is beyond incomprehensible to me. But that's the issue.

For a certain type of person, any legislation curtailing 'free speech', even if that is done to stamp out white supremacy is an existential threat to freedom in America.

But to people of color, allowing white supremacists to spout intolerance publicly with no repercussions (other than maybe getting 'cancelled') is an existential threat to THEIR freedom in America.

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
I mean, that's a pretty common narrative. "They were being ATTACKED for being racist so they became MORE RACIST." And?

There's this black guy. They did this documentary on him a while back. He went and befriended KKK members and skinheads. Through his individual action, he was able to get people away from white nationalism. White liberals absolutely love him. They point at him as an example of what all people of color should aspire to. Turning hate to friendship through personal interaction.

(Speaking generally, not to you specifically.) The thing is, as a person of color, the onus isn't on me to convert your racist grandparent or uncle from being a racist piece of shit. Fuck them. That puts me in the subordinate position of having to placate a white supremacist and that, in of itself, is fucking white supremacy. Fuck. That.

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
I mean, if banning Nazi'ism is considered 'state censorship' then yes, I wholeheartedly support state censorship. If that's 'imposing someone's truth on everyone else', so be it.
vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
Name three podcasts since there are 'a lot of black supremacists'.
vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
Honestly, I would prefer that over the ambiguity. I'd much rather live in a state in America where being a Nazi is illegal with the side effect of knowing, unequivocally, that I need to leave another state because my existence is in peril.
vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> I don't care if I'm on the receiving end of threats or actual violence because of free speech. Giving up your rights due to being scared is cowardice and allows actual authoritarians to take over your mind.

And assuming that people of color should be the victims of violence because you, personally, aren't concerned with violence is selfish and narcissistic.

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> Is it a coincidence that their movements grew significantly with the amplification of messages against them and social media censorship against them. Various right wing figures used this as leverage to increase their virulence.

Or did we just have a black president and a political party that leaned into white supremacy dog whistles?

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> It would be great if we could magically eliminate nazi ideology

You mean like criminalizing it like the way it is in Germany? That magic?

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
> Surely you cannot think restricting speech helps you in any way? Do you think it helps turn those that dislike you on your side?

I think it removes the ambiguity. If you find laws that prohibit someone from being a literal Nazi disagreeable and would choose not to live in a state because of it because of 'free speech', that's fine. Just as I'd be fine for not living in Florida or Mississippi for the inverse of that reason.

vpilcx··on I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it
I think that's really easy to believe in - when you're not at risk in any kind of way.

I mean, if you're a white guy, what do you give a fuck about someone turning America into a white ethnostate? Sure, theoretically, it's morally bad, but you're not really going to be directly affected.

If you're not trans, being characterized as a groomer pedophile has no effect at all to you.

I think it's easy to take a stand in favor of free speech when speech is only speech, but that's a remarkably naive and gullible viewpoint to have. Do you think white supremacists that lynch black people don't use hate speech beforehand and talk about exterminating non-whites beforehand?

"But that's violence. That's diferent.", you might say. How do you think these people meet each other and collaborate with each other and normalize this kind of behavior? Through 'free speech'.

vpilcx··on U.S. FAA closes some airspace in Montana for Defense Department activities
> last time this happened in US airspace was Pearl Harbor

Didn't this happen in 9/11 with one of the planes?

vpilcx··on The ingenious design of the aluminum beverage can (2015) [video]
It's interesting this would pop up, because I was just thinking yesterday about how the holes of cans used to be a different shape. I believe it was mid to late 90's. They switched over to a larger hole.

I was telling my mom and she was telling me that it didn't happen. I was hoping they were going to cover this in the video but no such luck. This did actually happen, right?

vpilcx··on Ask HN: How do you exercise?
I walk laps around the car in my garage and if the weather is particularly nice, I'll walk outside. I try to do this for about an hour a day.

Since this is Hacker News, and might fit the demographic, I built an abacus, specifically, for this task. Every time I make a lap, I increment it accordingly. That way I have at least some idea of the speed that I'm going.

vpilcx··on Ask HN: Where are all the parties?
> One reason parties disappeared is because we have encouraged widespread neuroticism and anxiety about maintaining purity in different and various forms, and that intolerance has effectively eroded the social fabric.

Sounds like they're pretty disgusted by those type of people. Especially characterizing that type of behavior as "neuroticism and anxiety" instead of, ya know, trying not to die.

vpilcx··on Ask HN: Where are all the parties?
"Different people have different risk tolerances and people with lower risk tolerances disgust me."

Okay, gotcha.

vpilcx··on My bad habit of hoarding information
I have a similar issue with watching TV and movies and any form of media consumption. I stopped rewatching stuff. (for the most part) And now when I save stuff for later, I ask myself, "Is this something that I find truly compelling?" And if the answer is no, I don't save it. I appreciate that I could have liked it and allow the possibility that I might run into it later and in that moment, consume it, but I don't clog up my already sizable JustWatch list with more stuff. (~300 entries)
vpilcx··on California’s population shrinks for third straight year
It's not so much 'people who left California are Republicans" but more, 'people who post on social media about how they're leaving California -are- Republicans".
vpilcx··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
That's because many of them from the Elon Musk school of problem solving.

"You're poor? Work harder. Get a better job. First principles."

"You're unhealthy? Exercise more. Eat better food. First principles."

vpilcx··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
I would have agreed with you... up until the pandemic. If we didn't live in a car dependent country, way more people I know would have died. You -could- make the argument that we'd probably be healthier and thus, wouldn't be as severe of a risk but that's neither here nor there.

I barely leave the house. And when I do, I've mostly always taken as much precautions as I could. I get curbside pickup for all of my groceries. I can't drink the water locally, so I'm dependent on bottled water.

All of this would have been a disaster if I had to cram myself on public transit to go places (definitely would have caught COVID then) or lug a fucking case of water to my house 4 times a week.

vpilcx··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
Then you haven't been to an actually poor one. Every single one I've been to looks like that one room in an old person's house, full of stuff that no one could absolutely give a shit about and priced WAY the fuck over what it should be.
vpilcx··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
> We wont let you starve to death. If you're truly physically disabled, we won't leave you to die.

Unless you're a diabetic, then fuck you. Die.

vpilcx··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
This is a really arrogant attitude that reeks of the 'pull yourself up by your bootstrap' bullshit.
vpilcx··on The cost of being poor: Why it costs so much to be poor in America
"Wokeness" is the just this century's "politically correct", except almost no one has ever seriously talked about respecting being 'woke' in the context you're talking about.
vpilcx··on Building future cities out of timber could save 100B tons of CO2 emissions
Alright, engineers, let's reference that seminal work: 3 Little Pigs.
vpilcx··on Study: Association between mask mandates and Covid infections in North Dakota
they were designed to be disposable, but when they were in short supply at the start of the pandemic, medical professionals were wearing them up to a month. There was a study that you could treat them with, I think, UV light, oh no wait, it was put them in the oven at a certain temperature, to extend their viability up to a certain point, but I think practically, most people switch off every week or so unless in extremely high risk situations.
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