#so it isn't changing minds or policies or culture etc etc etc

[balioc]

If you provide no incentive to Do the Thing, then very often people just won't Do the Thing.

If you provide an incentive to Do the Thing, then very often people will Do the Thing just because they want the incentive, and they'll do it in the most mercenary and antisocial way possible.

These are both, potentially, huge problems. These are both looming failure states.

(It gets super mega obvious with parenting, right? We have a ton of kids who need people to raise them -- orphans, children of abusive families, etc. This need, when it arises, is a desperate need. Having someone not show up to meet it is really really really bad. And parenting clearly isn't something that you can just make people do coercively, not if you want good results, so you need volunteers. But: if you hear the words "this person is raising kids for the money," the scenario that comes to mind is also really really really bad.)

A lot of high-level policy engineering must consist of wrestling with this nightmare dilemma, making judgments about the least-bad place on a spectrum of awfulness, and tinkering with the incentive structure accordingly.

A lot of high-level social engineering, in the ideal case, consists of finding ways to change culture and values so that you can transcend the dilemma, by inducing people to Do the Thing through methods other than direct incentives. (Or, alternatively, by reallocating a rare and precious resource -- The Right People -- to the problem of Thing-Doing. But a lot of folks are allergic to that kind of thinking these days.)

A lot of really dumb discourse consists of people understanding one of the maxims above but not the other one.

[erose-this-name]

Fantasy """races"""

We should stop calling fantasy races that. Normalize calling them "species" or "kinds" or "kin", or just anything other than "race".

A "race" is a matter of non-meaningful differences like skincolor and maybe average penis length. There is no evidence that different races are more intelligent etc which can't be explained by differences in opportunity or culture.

A """race""" is not living four times as long, and also they can read people's minds, and they are an anthropomorphic cat, and get +1 to DC saving throws against fire because why not, and have completely different origins to other """races""", also they're genetically predisposed to mindless lawful neutral rampages. That's something else.

High elves and dark elves and wood elves could probably be considered races of each other (if all any stat differences are due to culture or magic, not blood). But not in relation to humans.

I'm just saying; when Tolkien established the concept of fantasy races the word "race" meant something very different than it does now. Not to accuse Tolkien of anything, I have no idea what his stance on that matter was, but still.

Having an entire intelligent species that is inherently evil is one thing, but calling that a """race""", and especially if it gets used as a metaphor for actual races or racism, is another entirely.

The metaphor doesn't work because in real life all races are the same in ability (except for shit like +1 to milk digestion or -15 to not combusting in the sun like a vampire).

But racists don't know that or choose not to, they believe some races are better than others and there's a genocide-or-be-replaced situation when there just isn't.

Racists often hurt their own race if it means hurting a different race because they believe it's that or their race will cease to exist, like how you might sacrifice a bunch of Gondorians to defeat Mordor, but since that isn't going to happen in real life they are actually just hurting themselves and others for no reason.

The irrationality of racism is crucial for all allegories of it because it's more likely to convince evil people to not be racist than the moral argument.

If in your setting """races""" are as different as they often are in fantasy, you have created a world where replacement theory can actually happen and where there could be some strictly practical arguments for racist policies like paternalism or even genocide which aren't completely imaginary.

Speciesism is also an interesting and valuable concept to explore, since unlike racism it may be practical but still unmoral (being distrusting of or genociding Tolkien or 40k orcs is still genocide but, like, they're orcs. Mindflayers even more so, they can literally only exist by parasitizing and torturing other intelligent species, it's the lesser of two evils).

But sometimes speciesism might not be practical either. There is never a reason to discriminate against hobbits, they're just perfect little guys. They just wanna hang out and maybe sell cheap produce, without them the price of turnips will skyrocket!

But speciesism should definitely be kept separate from race.

The words we use change how we think to some extent. Especially when in so many settings the "human" ""race"" is invariably Just White People™, then people will start thinking of all non-white races with the same brain pathways we use to conceptualize Orcs and Klingons. They become part of the same "other" as POC, which probably isn't going to improve the othering situation.

I've seen friends of mine (not racists) slip up and say "Humans" when they actually just mean "Europeans" in the context of talking about actual IRL history which is a mistake writers should probably stop priming our brains to make.

Could you imagine if all our crime media did the same thing and made people associate criminals with people of color??? oh wait

[roguesynapses]

Have you read into Project 2025? Our options for president are very much not the same and Biden WOULD be the harm reduction, sad as that is to say. We are ending up with one or the other, and I know which one I’m voting for. Choosing not to vote or voting third party gives more power to the far right voters who always turn out to the ballot boxes. It’s how Bush won over Gore. That 6-3 Supreme Court vote to criminalize homelessness you reblogged? Would you like that to keep happening for the next 30 years if Trump wins and picks two 30-40-something justices to replace Thomas and Alito, letting them make batshit decisions until they resign or die? If so, please continue to spout the idea that voting doesn’t matter, right in the same time that a dozen republican states have passed voter suppression laws against young people and/or minorities. If you still want to dismiss this, please at least read project 2025 and rethink

i have read it, and not only do i think that it wouldn't be possible to execute given the current framework of the republican party, but most of the social/culture war positions would be seen by most in the democratic party as perfectly reasonable, especially given how the national party's reaction to taking the rights of trans people and other queer people away amounts to a shrug at best. also bush didn't win over gore because nader was a spoiler, that's a popular piece of democratic party propaganda that has been proven to not be true time and time again, since nader mostly took from voters who would not have voted for anyone at all otherwise. bush won because of political corruption via having allies on the supreme court, and gore running a milquetoast, lackluster campaign that did not engage voters in the blossoming neoliberal hellscape that clinton created. the supreme court would have voted to criminalize homelessness under a democrat, mostly because homelessness in the united states has been effectively criminalized since the 1970s, this is simply codifying that policy position. democratic mayors and governors have been pining for such an official conformation for decades now, and the national party couldn't give two shits since they see it as a local issue.

the supreme court itself is a fundamentally anti democratic institution, which is its intent, as those who drafted the constitution were of a fundamentally anti democratic mindset and the supreme court was meant to be a place where the will of the masses would be counteracted by "learned minds of the law" (read: the allies of the bourgeois)

voting doesn't matter, because ultimately, this system is against the vast, vast majority of the people in this country, especially those who are not men, those who are of racial minorities, those of queer identities, those of indigenous origin, those of non-western european origin, the disabled, etc. but really every worker. trump isn't a result of the system failing, he is a result of it functioning exactly as intended, that being a vessel for the bourgeois to exact their will in the background with the veneer of popular sovereignty via electoralism acting as a pressure valve to prevent the workers from organizing against their masters and breaking their chains.

if you want to change this, organize your community, arm yourself, build duel power structures, and strike against those who oppress you.

you have nothing to lose but your chains.

[psithuristt]

if you don't mind me asking about the sense of community post, how do you get over that fear of distrusting everyone and living like a community again? I'm in fear constantly especially living in a big city and I want to get over it so badly

Oh wow hi! I wish I had a better answer for you, but it's something I'm still learning over time, that I think we are all constantly learning and practicing.

What I did is something not everyone has the ability to do. I am super privileged and lucky and ended up there by chance. But there are some takeaways that might be helpful? I hope so. Even if Community Living TM isn't your specific goal and you just want to be more comfortable engaging in your broader community, these things absolutely help me with that. ♡

I was staying at a campground and happened to notice that they offered a work for food and accommodation exchange for backpackers. I wanted to do it but I was so terrified, my partner at the time had to pretend they were interested so I could get all the information. This place had no phone service, it was 10km from the nearest town and I couldn't drive so I'd have to hitch and rely on lifts, I was walking into a community of strangers who all already knew each other - but my partner made me promise to try it just for 3 weeks, and my 3 week stay became a year, and by the time I left I had decided I could never go back to conventional living and joined a housing co op.

I think there were key important parts of all that for me that made it work. I think those were to start small and find my footing at my own pace, but remembering to push the boundaries of my comfort zone as regularly as I could in order to expand (and maintain!!) them, without jeopardising my mental health. That's a difficult balance to strike and no one can really say what that looks like for you but you. For me that balance looked like beginning in a small, closed environment with like 15 people while I learned how to live that way, before I started trying to live in a much larger community (30+ residents and an open door policy) in a city again.

There's lots of ways to do that depending on what you have access to! Work exchanges like the one I did at the campground exist on websites like HelpX and WOOFing and Workaway. These are not perfect, the work can be hard, and the nature of the exchange can be a little exploitative in the wrong environment. But if you read the reviews, message people who leave the reviews and ask about what their experience was like, and meet people at the places you're considering in person first if you can, it can also be a life-changing experience that turns 3 weeks into a year and makes you part of a community. I met some of my best friends and true soulmates here ♡

If that's not something you have access to, if you live in a city, I'd look into communities, clubs and societies that do your hobbies or offer things you'd like to learn. Those groups tend to have a similar vibe and a culture of sharing that's a great starting point. If you live rurally, don't have access to anything like that in your area, are too anxious just yet to do something in person, etc., even online groups can provide those experiences to build from. It's important to get out there eventually, but one bite at a time!! Coming at a massive lifestyle change like that is challenging for anyone. I took my sweet time about it because I was managing ptsd along the way, but I would like to think that if it's possible for me it's possible for you too. It's hard, but it's possible, and I wish you the best of luck!!! I hope this is helpful in some small way.

(P.S: it really is so important to keep doing these things regularly. It's a skill that needs maintaining like anything else ♡)

[mcdouglecompany-blog]

Ann Coulter - U.S. Isn't Becoming Europe. We're Becoming Rome, 12 Shocking Facts About North Korean Soldiers and Who sold the solid fuel missiles to North Korea?

Ann Coulter - U.S. Isn't Becoming Europe. We're Becoming Rome, 12 Shocking Facts About North Korean Soldiers and Who sold the solid fuel missiles to North Korea?

  Ann Coulter talks w/Joe Concha & Lis Wiehl

https://youtu.be/Q5lCATuGfEk

Random Perfecta

Published on May 24, 2019

  Ann Coulter on the Lars Larson Radio Show

https://youtu.be/u07l9E9-VfU

Random Perfecta

Published on May 24, 2019

  U.S. Isn't Becoming Europe. We're Becoming Rome by Ann Coulter.

https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2019/05/22/us-isnt-becoming-europe-were-becoming-rome-n2546764 3/7

U.S. Isn't Becoming Europe. We're Becoming Rome Can we have a quick reality check and acknowledge that what is happening to America is a million times worse than what's happening in Europe and is of much greater consequence? Conservatives regularly point to the mass migration afflicting Europe as if it's the Ghost of Christmas Future for America. Since waves of Third World migrants began sweeping into the European Union, we've seen terrorism, knifings, rape gangs and riots popping up all over the birthplace of Western civilization. Sweden has gone from a country where rape was essentially nonexistent to the Rape Capital of the World. It's sweet of Americans to be so concerned about Europe, but maybe they should look at their own country. On account of a mass immigration policy imposed on us by our government, the United States has undergone a transformation unprecedented in all of world history. From 1620 to 1970, the U.S. was demographically stable -- not to be confused with "a nation of immigrants." The country was about 85% to 90% white, almost entirely British, German, French and Dutch, and 10% to 15% African American. (The American Indian population, technically in their own nations, steadily plummeted -- an example of how vast numbers of new people can displace the old, both accidentally and on purpose.) In a generation, the white majority has nearly disappeared, while the black percentage has remained about the same, with more than 90% of African Americans still native-born. White Americans are one border surge away from becoming a minority in their own country. In 2016, non-Hispanic whites were 61.3% of the population and 54% of all births. That was two years ago, before Trump came in and flung open the border to all of Latin America, especially children and pregnant ladies hoping to have an anchor baby. Back in 1995, the Census Bureau estimated that whites would decline to about 64% of the population by 2020. Today, the Census Bureau projects the nation will be less than 60% white by then. We're moving faster than even La Raza could have hoped!

This isn't about race -- though it might be of some concern to the rapidly diminishing white population that our cultural overlords are so tormented by "whiteness." E.g.: "The Unbearable Whiteness of Congress" -- The Daily Beast "Whiteness is terrorism" -- Trinity College professor Johnny Eric Williams on Twitter "The Problem of Whiteness" -- course at University of Wisconsin-Madison "Abolish the White Race" -- Harvard Magazine ("The goal of abolishing the white race is on its face so desirable that some may find it hard to believe that it could incur any opposition other than from committed white supremacists.") This stunning demographic replacement matters because American culture is the envy of the world. Not only was this wonderful culture created by white Western Europeans, but merely asking immigrants to assimilate to it is generally considered a hate crime. If everyone assimilated to our culture, who cares what race they are? But given sufficient numbers, they don't. They don't need to, and we certainly aren't asking them to. The reason we successfully assimilated not-so-different European cultures was that we controlled the numbers -- essentially stopping immigration for 50 years while we forged an American character. Let's compare our demographic situation to the European countries we're weeping over. France is still about 80% French (85% Western European), and England is about 80% English (85% Western European). Even Holland is still approximately 76% Dutch (80% Western European). What we're witnessing in Europe is that continent's first brush with the joys of diversity.

  American conservatives' obsession with Europe's snail-like introduction to diversity, while ignoring a demographic tsunami in their own country, is the mirror image of neoconservatives' fixation on unrest in the Middle East, while ignoring the invasion on our border.

When did it become deplorable, Walmart-y behavior to care about your own country? Not to care more, but merely to care as much as you do about the rest of the world? It seems as if progress is inevitable, that things always get better and never retrogress. But the Roman Empire had philosophers, literature, science, great buildings, statues and works of art. It had advanced communication, plumbing and transportation systems. It had a universal set of measures, laws and rules. And then the Dark Ages came. In the blink of an eye, all that was lost. The people no longer had the technological knowhow even to repair bridges and aqueducts built by the Romans. They had lost the ability to make cement. They lost many of the works of Aristotle. Roads and plumbing fell into disrepair. Statues crumbled. Nikki Haley would be happy! Only centuries later did civilization begin to reassert itself, barely climbing back to the accomplishments of several centuries earlier. Whatever the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, one thing is for damn sure: There were not vast bands of powerful Romans prattling about "Roman privilege," demanding that the Huns be given preference over Romans and writing articles with titles like "Abolish the Romans!" That is the driving impulse of one of our two major political parties. The other party can't bestir itself to care about anything other than tax cuts, abortion and moving our embassy to Jerusalem.

Ann Coulter's Latest Book Resistance Is Futile!: How the Trump-Hating Left Lost Its Collective Mind is available on Amazon

  12 Shocking Facts About North Korean Soldiers. https://youtu.be/op7N3MGhUtk

Published on Aug 2, 2018

You’ve probably heard scary stories about the lives of the 25 million people in the reclusive and isolated nation of North Korea. If things are so rough for ordinary people, imagine how hard it must be for those serving in the military! Let’s see what it’s like to be a soldier in the North Korean army. Terrible nutrition, uniforms that injure soldiers, no way to escape and even worse conditions for women who suffer emotionally and physically - things get really tough and even more horrible you could imagine.

SUMMARY -Every man must serve his country for 10 years, and every woman must serve for 7. Guys lucky enough to get into university and get a bachelor’s degree are allowed to serve for 5 years after graduation. -The Worker-Peasant Red Guards has somewhere between 1.5 and 6 million reservists. There are also teenage soldiers. -North Korean soldiers go through hard military training on raw corn kernels or a few potatoes a day. Many soldiers pass away from hunger and related health conditions. -According to former soldiers, the boots they wear in cold winter months are thin and stuffed with cotton for reasons of economy. -During their 7 years of compulsory military service, many women fall victim to sexual violence or humiliation. -Kim Jong-un forced his army to throw landmines into the Yellow Sea, which would resurface in South Korea and kill locals and tourists. -If some North Korean soldiers refuse to support violence, their army commanders are working to change that. They spend about 60% of their time learning the “right” ideology. -When interviewed, former soldiers described how they had to pay for their treatment, and, even when they did, all they got was alcohol rubbed on them. -Personalities often shift so greatly that there’s nothing that can bring things back to normal. -Kim Jong-un doesn’t approve of defection, especially when soldiers try to flee the country. Running away abroad often seems like the only route to safety. -The US has around 72 submarines, and North Korea has somewhere between 70 and 75. -Official government reports say 15.8%, but many experts agree it must be at least 38%.

  TIMESTAMPS North Korea has compulsory military service for everyone. 0:52 Their paramilitary force includes teenagers. 1:57 The nutrition is so terrible that many soldiers can barely walk. 2:53 The uniforms injure the soldiers. 4:20 Things are even worse for female soldiers. 4:58 They have to throw landmines into the Yellow Sea. 6:20 Soldiers are brainwashed. 7:10 The military hospitals are dangerous. 8:08 Soldiers’ personalities change. 8:58 There’s no way to escape. 9:43 North Korea has the same number of submarines as the US. 10:40 They spent almost half of their budget on the army. 11:18 #northkorea #northkoreanarmy

  The John Batchelor Show

Who sold the solid fuel missiles to North Korea? Bruce Bechtol North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability, @GordonGChang @TheDailyBeast

16 May 2019

Photo: http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/contact http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/schedules Twitter: @BatchelorShow

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