What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

In your head, do you think this post adds to any conceivably interesting discussion?

Wow, tough crowd.

Thank God nobody here repeats themself over and over and over making the same point again and again and again.. Because that would be kinda' tedious. I bet it happens at an alternative reality TNCR.

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

In your head, do you think this post adds to any conceivably interesting discussion?

Wow, tough crowd.

Thank God nobody here repeats themself over and over and over making the same point again and again and again.. Because that would be kinda' tedious. I bet it happens at an alternative reality TNCR.

Well, you and jon have historically accused me of that (you after jon, not coincidentally), but over here in reality, neither of you could put most of my posts into your own words. Granted, you probably could if you took some time to read and understand them, but let's stop pretending about that.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Doctor-Phibes said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

In your head, do you think this post adds to any conceivably interesting discussion?

Wow, tough crowd.

Thank God nobody here repeats themself over and over and over making the same point again and again and again.. Because that would be kinda' tedious. I bet it happens at an alternative reality TNCR.

Well, you and jon have historically accused me of that (you after jon, not coincidentally), but over here in reality, neither of you could put most of my posts into your own words. Granted, you probably could if you took some time to read and understand them, but let's stop pretending about that.

It's an honour to simply sunbathe in the light that shines out of your arse, Horace.

[taiwan_girl]

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@taiwan_girl said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

Ramaswamy's contention that the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression arguably cost Trump the election, was dismissed with prejudice by Stephens. Stephens hasn't researched the topic, but because TDS, doesn't allow the idea to surface in his mind. Ramaswamy, on the other hand, has some polls and numbers to back up his contention.

"What if" is an interesting "thought exercise", and there is the one that if the FBI had not announced they were going to re-investigate Sec. Clinton a few weeks before the 2016 election, she would have won. There are signs that that announcement changed the results of the election.

In the Many Worlds Theory, there exists one universe where the FBI did not announce in 2016, and Sec. Clinton was elected president. President Trump lost in 2016 and did not run again in 2020. In this universe, the people in 2023 skip down gold pathways with dancing unicorns at their side.

There is another universe out there where the Hunter Biden case was investigated and President Trump was re-elected. In this universe, people also skip down gold pathways with dancing unicorns at their side.

Unfortunately, in this universe, neither happened and we have to live with President Trump winning in 2016 and President Biden winning in 2020.

In your head, do you think this post adds to any conceivably interesting discussion?

You are correct. This forum thread is a bit more specific and probably wasn't a good idea to drift it.

But.......... (LOL),

you have kind of turned into a kinder, gentler @Larry. Every post that is a bit political, your default response is "The other side suffers from TDS, so they cannot and do not

A) See that President Trump was/is a great politician and president"
B) understand why their cultural values are so wrong"
C) realize that the US is in such bad shape because of people like them"
D) etc.

I do think that TDS exists on both sides. Trump Derangement Syndrome for anti-Trump and Trump Deification Syndrome for the pro-Trump.

[Horace]

@taiwan_girl said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@taiwan_girl said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

Ramaswamy's contention that the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression arguably cost Trump the election, was dismissed with prejudice by Stephens. Stephens hasn't researched the topic, but because TDS, doesn't allow the idea to surface in his mind. Ramaswamy, on the other hand, has some polls and numbers to back up his contention.

"What if" is an interesting "thought exercise", and there is the one that if the FBI had not announced they were going to re-investigate Sec. Clinton a few weeks before the 2016 election, she would have won. There are signs that that announcement changed the results of the election.

In the Many Worlds Theory, there exists one universe where the FBI did not announce in 2016, and Sec. Clinton was elected president. President Trump lost in 2016 and did not run again in 2020. In this universe, the people in 2023 skip down gold pathways with dancing unicorns at their side.

There is another universe out there where the Hunter Biden case was investigated and President Trump was re-elected. In this universe, people also skip down gold pathways with dancing unicorns at their side.

Unfortunately, in this universe, neither happened and we have to live with President Trump winning in 2016 and President Biden winning in 2020.

In your head, do you think this post adds to any conceivably interesting discussion?

You are correct. This forum thread is a bit more specific and probably wasn't a good idea to drift it.

But.......... (LOL),

you have kind of turned into a kinder, gentler @Larry. Every post that is a bit political, your default response is "The other side suffers from TDS, so they cannot and do not

A) See that President Trump was/is a great politician and president"
B) understand why their cultural values are so wrong"
C) realize that the US is in such bad shape because of people like them"
D) etc.

I do think that TDS exists on both sides. Trump Derangement Syndrome for anti-Trump and Trump Deification Syndrome for the pro-Trump.

Thank you, I'm aware of your opinion that both sides are equal. I don't think you understand much about my posts, or specifically about my opinion on Trump. Your comparison between me and Larry is noted. If you attempted to list things Larry and I agreed on, I suspect you would be wrong about each item on the list. You don't seem concerned about being wrong, and I'm not sure you ever even understand when you're wrong, so here we are. Thanks for your contribution to the thread. I'm sorry my post came off a bit aggressive, it was probably unfair.

[taiwan_girl]

@Horace Same. I hope I did not come off as too aggressive. I do enjoy your posts, but you are correct - a lot of them I do not understand! 555

But you are still a good guy!! :woman-kiss-man:

[Horace]

@taiwan_girl said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

@Horace Same. I hope I did not come off as too aggressive. I do enjoy your posts, but you are correct - a lot of them I do not understand! 555

But you are still a good guy!! :woman-kiss-man:

Thanks TG. I agree that I'm a good guy. And you're a good lady!

[Horace]

A good short excerpt about online right/left stuff:

Link to video

Unfortunately, the most incomprehensible sentence in the english language is "I support this candidate over the opposition, but I don't agree fully with everything this candidate does or says". Anybody who didn't support your candidate over the opposition, will stop listening after "I support this candidate", their minds fully sated with ideas about you to last a lifetime.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

Unfortunately, the most incomprehensible sentence in the english language is "I support this candidate over the opposition, but I don't agree fully with everything this candidate does or says"

I beg to differ

Link to video

[Rainman]

Phibes, I honestly tried, but I just cannot understand either of them due to their heavy accent and mumbling delivery. I tried adding CC (closed captioning) but it didn't help. It did translate the words better but didn't clarify the syntax.
Can you really listen to them and understand the conversation completely? It's just not that (usually) pleasant accent, like on a classical music station.

[Rainman]

Sorry, man, if that's the way you talk too.
If it is, actually it's quite beautiful -- like a babbling brook.

[Doctor Phibes]

I can’t understand Gerald at all. That’s a really strong West country accent, opposite side of the country to mine. We were near there over the summer, and most people don’t have anywhere near as strong an accent as that.

[Horace]

Sam Harris continued his public spat with Elon Musk tonight, by releasing a 10 minute monologue on assholes. Assholes are characterized by a lack of shame. He names three names, Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, and someone I didn't recognize, but the name rhymed with Orange.

Meanwhile, on one recent podcast I heard Sam on, he proudly related how he's experienced zero negative feedback in "his world" for saying several months ago that he wouldn't have cared even if Hunter's laptop had pictures of dead babies. He was almost cocky about how socially impervious he is to the blowback others assume he felt. It's almost like he's shameless in his own social bubble.

[Horace]

@Horace said in What are you listening to - Podcast Edition?:

Coleman Hughes interviewed the authors of this book:

Their thesis is fine, in that it boils down to a truism about how humans participate in groupthink for social advantage within tribes, and principle plays a minimal role. Hardly an original thesis, but it is among the true ideas that most of us could stand to remind ourselves of. But the authors take it too far, both in the podcast and in the book itself, by claiming that ideology has literally nothing to do with anything. They mostly accomplish this through anecdote and history-mining. If a party known today for one idea, was once known for the opposite, their thesis is proven. The fundamental ideological difference of big government vs small government, for instance, is claimed to be nonsensical, since GWB and Trump expanded the government, yet "conservatives" didn't "flee the GOP" (whatever that means. Flee where?) over that. Or the GOP tends to want to fund the military and the police, which means they are for the expansion of government. Lazy, anecdote based proofs of nothing in particular, based on framings of ideology that imply one idea at a time must reign supreme in a person's mind, to the exclusion of any other ideas. They accuse the American public of being blatantly stupid, then build a case against blatant stupidity. But few people are so blinkered as they describe. I do agree that most people are more consumed with socially advantageous groupthink than they realize.

Economist Bryan Caplan agrees with me that this book makes decent points, but goes too far:

Link to video

He proposes his own set of left and right principles:

• The left doesn't like markets

• The right doesn't like the left

Some amusing secondary points:

• self-identified righties would by and large rather not think about politics at all, while self-identified lefties are more absorbed by politics. It can replace religion in their psyches.
• Libertarians (like Caplan) get so much hatred from the left mostly because libertarians love markets, and that conflicts with the essential single principle of the left. But it seems weird to be so hated so much, considering the tiny power wielded by libertarians.

[jon-nyc]

Andrew Sullivan’s latest was an interview with Ramaswamy.

It was pretty good, at least half was about his upbringing and family background. They really only touched a little on his proposals.

[jon-nyc]

Sam Harris’ latest is a conversation with Graeme Wood. Many of you would have heard them talk several times in the past about jihadism, Islam, etc. They talk about the current situation in Israel but very much in the broader context of jihadism, ISIS, Saudi Arabia v Iran, etc.

I was getting to the point where I had heard enough experts interviewed about the situation for a while, but this discussion was very much worth my time.

[Horace]

Glenn Loury is coming out with a memoir, I've pre-ordered.

Link to video

I enjoyed McWhorter's ode to not leaving the house, at 36:30. He's playing piano and reading a lot instead. It's a good life.

[jon-nyc]

He’s been writing that for the better part of a decade. I’m glad to see it’s finally coming out. I’ll read it.

[jon-nyc]

I hope he narrates the audio.

[Horace]

Ezra Klein had a good discussion with a Democrat strategist who believes the party is stronger than it's ever been. Be that as it may, I was amused to hear Klein say that, if you zoom out a little bit, and think with ideas rather than labels, you can see that the American left is the party of cultural conservatism. Proving once again that if I write something here, it appears in the highest level intellectual conversations sooner or later. The thought didn't land with the guy Klein was talking to, who ignored it and changed course. The profundity of the insight was probably beyond him.