[Tainari88]

I play a game called Go. It's an amazing board game, and a good gift for a teen.

Anyway, we are a long, long way from Asia (where most of the Go players are) and it's a struggle to keep a Go club going. I've had 5 die on me.

So I am at the Go club, despite being as sick as a dog.

One of the guys, nice guy but totally neurotic, always thinks he's sick. He feels he has to be sicker than me, he looks fine.

If he was sufficiently threatened, he would break through his denial, and admit the obvious.

He knew...

Neurosis is a coping mechanism. When a reality really gets to you, one way of dealing with it is to deny it.

What is the remedy for dealing with racism?

Deny it exists?

Or make sure the MAGA don't win in November? Lol.

The USA is at a historic crossroads. It will have to deal with all the flaws of a system that is not functioning or addressing pressing problems. Washington DC is happy sitting on its ass and fighting over petty shit. Not getting anything done. Mostly they are paid off cowards.

The question is what are the people of the USA going to do about that? Continue thinking the corrupt rot is going to be cleansed without any pressure? Or get organized and form a third option or a group that will do the job and not be paid off cowards?

That is the question @late

[late]

What is the remedy for dealing with racism?

Deny it exists?

Or make sure the MAGA don't win in November? Lol.

The USA is at a historic crossroads. It will have to deal with all the flaws of a system that is not functioning or addressing pressing problems. Washington DC is happy sitting on its ass and fighting over petty shit. Not getting anything done. Mostly they are paid off cowards.

The question is what are the people of the USA going to do about that? Continue thinking the corrupt rot is going to be cleansed without any pressure? Or get organized and form a third option or a group that will do the job and not be paid off cowards?

That is the question @late

I think of myself as a minor god of information. Which is not to say I think of myself as special, we are all gods. Problem is, being a god sucks, so we deny it.

We're all in denial.

Sorry.

Anyway... not all questions have answers. The politics of the present are worse than I thought they would be. We are wildly irrational, and that also means unpredictable.

When I think, I try to keep my emotions out of the picture. You really can't do that with the future. Rationality derives from ratio. But we have no way of knowing what a future ratio will be.

[Tainari88]

I think of myself as a minor god of information. Which is not to say I think of myself as special, we are all gods. Problem is, being a god sucks, so we deny it.

We're all in denial.

Sorry.

Anyway... not all questions have answers. The politics of the present are worse than I thought they would be. We are wildly irrational, and that also means unpredictable.

When I think, I try to keep my emotions out of the picture. You really can't do that with the future. Rationality derives from ratio. But we have no way of knowing what a future ratio will be.

There are patterns in the madness coming out Late.

I happen to be very hopeful. I think people are going to combat the irrationality with some logic eventually. Just because chaos is not something people can live with for long.

What happens after a bloody revolution? Usually a period of having to find stability and peace.

The pendulum has swung.

I love what I am seeing in Mexican politics. Highly entertaining and interesting.

They are gearing up for another six-year presidential election cycle. We will find out who the new president of Mexico is going to be in June of this year. Only four months away. 2018-2024 Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Who will be prez for Mexico 2024-2030? It will be a woman for sure. But who? I think it is the ex mayor of Mexico City. Claudia sure did better in English. Look at the media critics....they said Xochitl sucks in English. I am thinking both of them are good for speaking English. Biden and Trump SUCK in Spanish eh? LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/live/W22Vor7VV7 ... jWi8mgaw1S

[Pants-of-dog]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... sm-journal

The rightwing activist Christopher Rufo has links to a self-styled “sociobiology magazine” that is focused on the supposed relationships between race, intelligence and criminality, and which experts have characterized as an outlet for scientific racism.

At the time of reporting, Aporia was one of 19 Substack newsletters Rufo links to in the “recommended” section on his own newsletter, which according to Substack has more than 50,000 subscribers. Rufo also appeared on Aporia’s podcast, which has published flattering interviews with proponents of scientific racism and eugenics.

Rufo, a close ally of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and one of America’s most prominent activists fighting so-called “wokeism”, has repeatedly described his goal as “colorblind equality”, but his links to Aporia raises questions about Rufo’s proximity to extremists.

Most recently Rufo has been credited in conservative media and beyond with playing a central role in the ouster of former Harvard University president Claudine Gay, who is Black.

The Guardian emailed Rufo with questions on his apparent endorsement of Aporia, and how he reconciled that with his professed “colorblindness”. He did not respond directly to any questions put to him but instead made a crude sexual insult to a Guardian reporter.

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said: “Rufo is hanging around with some seriously nasty people,” adding: “He can’t claim that this is a casual relationship.”

According to the newsletter’s own archives, Aporia was a March 2023 rebrand of Ideas Sleep Furiously, hitherto the personal newsletter of Briton Matthew Archer, now styled “editor in chief” of Aporia.

At that time, Aporia’s newly appointed “executive editor”, Bo Winegard, commenced his tenure with an article, titled Human Biodiversity: A Moderate’s Manifesto, in which he discussed purported “evidence that human populations vary in intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, partially because of genes”.

….(article continues)….

So even if he is not racist, he definitely supports racism.

Which makes sense, since he is using racism as a way of amassing power.

[Tainari88]

This dude I am going to post is exploring some interesting points.

The problem though @wat0n you said this:

My rebuttal is that living standards in the US are still higher than in Latin America for most - which is why so many people move.

Is that the solution to immigration? All the people who are not doing well in their own societies need to pull up stakes and run through a hole in the fence and go and deal with the adaption issues of English, learning skills, get a good job.

This dude hits that whole shit idea of American Dream is still alive and well in general. He is not a radical Lefty. He is an analytical man thinking about data and not bullshit. I would blast this man's message through a huge loudspeaker in Latin America. Because what they are thinking about is unrealistic.

If you have enough people tackling the issues of income inequality? And you apply it worldwide? You will stabilize the entire world.

Have the patience to listen to that guy all the way through.

If you can't? You do not have what it takes to make it in the American Dream Wat0n. Otro chileno que va tronar. See how I tease you?

[Tainari88]

@Potemkin, tell me the truth? Would I make it in Scotland and become wealthy and powerful? People will praise my name....worship the soil I step on as a Puerto Rican who might be a Costa Rican? I think the UK is where I will become a fucking MILLIONAIRE! Don't you agree? Meritocracy....I got the goods. Lol.

No racism in the UK against the Latinos. No one knows who we are. That is why the funny money from Scotland is rejected in Mexico. Those two societies know a lot about what is going on with each other. My business better be....bringing people together when they know jack shit about each other's cultures.

Come together right now....Over ignorance...of who we are. Hee hee.

Also is Rufo a racist? Yes or no? Answer that question Pote or forever be silent.

[wat0n]

This dude I am going to post is exploring some interesting points.

The problem though @wat0n you said this:



Is that the solution to immigration? All the people who are not doing well in their own societies need to pull up stakes and run through a hole in the fence and go and deal with the adaption issues of English, learning skills, get a good job.

The solution is to improve living standards in our own countries, and to do that we have to figure out how to make our economies more productive and less unequal. I don't have the magic solution to that, but I will say it won't happen overnight even if we get it right.

This dude hits that whole shit idea of American Dream is still alive and well in general. He is not a radical Lefty. He is an analytical man thinking about data and not bullshit. I would blast this man's message through a huge loudspeaker in Latin America. Because what they are thinking about is unrealistic.

If you have enough people tackling the issues of income inequality? And you apply it worldwide? You will stabilize the entire world.

Have the patience to listen to that guy all the way through.

If you can't? You do not have what it takes to make it in the American Dream Wat0n. Otro chileno que va tronar. See how I tease you?

Honestly, some of the data he shares in the video is just wrong. No, real average income has not gone down in the US since the 1970s:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MAPAINUSA672N

No, the Cost of Thriving Index is not a valid construct:

https://michaeljhicks.substack.com/p/th ... f-thriving

And the worse one, no, the share of the middle class hasn't dropped by making most drop into the lower class. Even his own graph at the 4:00 mark shows that 7/11 of the percentage point change consists of people moving from the middle to the upper class.

Some data he shared that is right, though, is the discrimination by some (not all) universities in favor of legacy applicants. Which is why most people don't like legacy admits and they should be banned.

The MTO experiment is also well-known and underscores that much, much can be done at the state and municipal level to help with mobility.

And it is indeed true that higher inequality correlates with lower income mobility, something called the "Great Gatsby Curve" and the US isn't an outlier here. But guess what: Latin American countries are more unequal and have lower income mobility than the US. From that point of view, it's entirely rational for poor Latin Americans to try their luck in the US (or Canada, Australia, Europe, etc).

[Tainari88]

► Show Spoiler

The solution is to improve living standards in our own countries, and to do that we have to figure out how to make our economies more productive and less unequal. I don't have the magic solution to that, but I will say it won't happen overnight even if we get it right.



Honestly, some of the data he shares in the video is just wrong. No, real average income has not gone down in the US since the 1970s:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MAPAINUSA672N

No, the Cost of Thriving Index is not a valid construct:

https://michaeljhicks.substack.com/p/th ... f-thriving

And the worse one, no, the share of the middle class hasn't dropped by making most drop into the lower class. Even his own graph at the 4:00 mark shows that 7/11 of the percentage point change consists of people moving from the middle to the upper class.

Some data he shared that is right, though, is the discrimination by some (not all) universities in favor of legacy applicants. Which is why most people don't like legacy admits and they should be banned.

The MTO experiment is also well-known and underscores that much, much can be done at the state and municipal level to help with mobility.

And it is indeed true that higher inequality correlates with lower income mobility, something called the "Great Gatsby Curve" and the US isn't an outlier here. But guess what: Latin American countries are more unequal and have lower income mobility than the US. From that point of view, it's entirely rational for poor Latin Americans to try their luck in the US (or Canada, Australia, Europe, etc).

Come on @wat0n the Latin Americans need to work on their own societies without interferences from Uncle Sam. And they need to be dealing with class conscious shit that does not work in any country.

For the USA and if racism exists or not? James Baldwin dealt with the issue of race a very long time ago. I agree with what he talks about.

If being white is the great thing white Americans can hold on to that make them morally and spiritually superior to a Black African American in their own community? It is sad and terrible.

If you take whiteness out of a person's identity and there is nothing there that makes them superior to other people? Then how moral are they?

A color is not really important in terms of defining the spirit, the mind or the heart of a human being. It never will be.

Baldwin in a very old interview for ABC long ago.

The debate with Buckley long ago.

Buckley lost the debate. Despite being born into privilege and having an Ivy League University education. He lost to the eldest child in a Harlem poverty ridden family. Baldwin.

Who had more character? Baldwin did.

Lol.

The Buckleys are really just living the idea that somehow they are advanced. That is the problem. Delusions of grandeur. Despite reality.

The US society needs to get over this and start realizing that newcomers are going to be the majority. Make the experiment about equality and openness in everything. What if the racism continues with bullshit excuses and not facing the problems with courage? It won't be to survive the tumultuous realities of what the future holds.

None of the above situations have been overcome yet. No.

Baldwin is honest about his experience. That is the best any human being can accomplish.

[Godstud]

@Tainari88 There is less racism now than there was even 10 years ago. That's an objective fact, but MSM and the like do not deal with objectivity anymore so they make you think it's WORSE. It is not. Perception does not equal reality, in many cases where media is concerned.

That's as much a false premise, as people constantly claiming that there is more crime today, when it is statistically lower.

I never said racism doesn't exist, but we'll always have racism, sexism, and such things, because there will always be people who are like that, even when reality shows how stupid it is.

Americans live in, objectively, amongst the best civilizations in the history of mankind and it's only provided Americans with an excuse to bitch and moan about everything. What do they call it... First world problems?

Yes, there are racists/idiots out there, but they constitute less than 1% of the population at any given time and they no longer have societal power. USA is not the USA of 50 years ago, so stop pretending that it is. You insult your own intellect and your country.

Also, don't confuse racism with tribalism.