Every rationalist is a disappointed lover. The rationalist becomes a rationalist because he has one simple dream: he wants the world to be ruled by reason. This dream always lets him down and always will.

It’s easy to fault the rationalists for the semiotic arrogance of their self-selected label. As if no one in history had ever thought of being rational! This is uber cringe.

These clowns always have no conception of the sins/virtues and how they just so happen to line up on emotion/reason. It's always the same old fight by the clueless.

The disappointed lover keeps being disappointed. And he keeps coming back: like the dolphin, he enjoys his rest in motion. The dissident is trying to get out of Plato’s cave. The rationalist is trying to furnish it. Tough when the trees are so drippy, and the sun is so weak—the upholstery gets moldy so fast…

Late in any empire, there is an air of dismal futility to all these efforts at reform. Since talking about what should be done is a pastime, a profession, a pretense that will never cease before they stop having Super Bowls, the discourse continues. Everyone really knows the real answer: nothing can be done. Nothing will be done.

Doubly so because the woke BS is just a right wing conspiracy conning them into not paying attention to the wars and the vortex of corruption.

Seems they started playing ball and joined "team Persia haters"

Remember: every phone has a black box.

Klein's core thesis is that it's all because the Dixiecrats flipped R in the 70s, and the answer is to disenfranchise the republicans forever.

Of course, being in the Yank matrix, SSC can't see what's staring himself in the face, even though he has a hint by alluding to WTF happened in 1971?

The reality is that the dixiecrats wouldn't have made their devils' bargain with the party of lincoln had the Yanks not decided to just print money to the moon so that they could do literally everything they wanted and ignore all others. Yanno, kinda like the yanks did back during reconstruction.

It really is that simple to fix the country. Just stop believing Yank lies. Or, wait until they blow up in their faces again.

SSC thinks prediction markets are the answer we need for Full Communism Now(TM). He fails to realize it will fail for the same reason; participants optimize for success. You get more of what you reward, less of what you punish.

NO SNITCHIN'

When you realize the implications for crypto you'll be more bullish than you ever thought possible

Sounds about right

Some serious bread and circus action right there. Yearly costs are almost as bad as our current yearly war costs. Since we can't even afford the wars "as-is", all this means is more inflation and debt (accelerating the time table for bankruptcy or hyperinflation).

Neat story of early 1900s England life

MICHAEL VICK DID NOTHING WRONG

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Author suspects an anschluss will be the end scenario, just because the locals aren't enthusiastic enough about their local tyrants. Probably correct; modern militaries are in a box as nobody intelligent enough to be an effective fighter is patriotic anymore. That leaves fighting for ones' family or plunder (the former is being actively undermined by the government, and the latter expressly prohibited).

In short, the mechanics that made mass mobilization work have collapsed for the westernized (read: feminized) countries. This will make them international "sick men" who can do practically nothing about encroachment once their peer competitors such as China reach similar levels of capitalization.

This month's "must read". This will breathe new life into the conservatives.

What seems clear is that Biden’s inauguration marks the hegemony of an American oligarchy that sees its relationship with China as a shield and sword against their own countrymen. Like Athens’ Thirty Tyrants, they are not simply contemptuous of a political system that recognizes the natural rights of all its citizens that are endowed by our creator; they despise in particular the notion that those they rule have the same rights they do. Witness their newfound respect for the idea that speech should only be free for the enlightened few who know how to use it properly. Like Critias and the pro-Sparta faction, the new American oligarchy believes that democracy’s failures are proof of their own exclusive right to power—and they are happy to rule in partnership with a foreign power that will help them destroy their own countrymen.

What does history teach us about this moment? The bad news is that the Thirty Tyrants exiled notable Athenian democrats and confiscated their property while murdering an estimated 5% of the Athenian population. The good news is that their rule lasted less than a year.

I suspect things will get far, far bloodier.

Part and parcel of our "let's never take responsibility for anything" emotional ninny culture

Glad to see what guys like the daily reckoning figured out 15 years ago finally getting some more mainstream traction. Despite all our efforts, productivity has flatlined; we are strangled by red tape, or crowded out by .gov domination of the sciences. The guy's "Qualitative" focus is essentially just looking at productivity from the side. We are no better in any major field essentially because we are no more productive (in fact measurably less so).

At 0.1% interest already, this means inflation already makes it negative. Why the fuck did they go for Brexit if they were not going to get their act together? Who knows...

If you don't really need containment...It might just work!

Pretty much perfectly captures it

He's correct that it's tech which will actually liberate you. This was the core thesis of "Tragedy and Hope" and is not wrong.

If the USA is so powerful, how is it that it failed to crush Russia? What about Iran? Or, in extremis, Venezuela? Yet, even the the last case, the “best” this supposed World Hegemon did was send a few clueless ex-special ops to get caught and give case of hysterical laughter to the entire Latin American continent!

The inability of the empire to yanno...be imperial is a slow poison, much like the factions I speak of in the previous post.

He correctly sees that lack of retaliation against enemies (showing weakness) to political factions is usually what causes revolutions. What he doesn't understand is that the Wokeists are already in charge, and this is more of a mass religious conversion of the elite.

I think the bias against the able in this new religion has planted the seed for future revolution, however. Without the able backing them they will increasingly rely on a hostile faction, making revolution inevitable.

80k redirects to titty related articles

A true gentleman 🤤

Unz is right to point out the suppression of the Hunter story was the "real steal".