Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

It's all so predictable.

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Damn, the government is tanking a free, independent, decentralized currency.

Well, it does feel like there's a huge oxymoron hidden in the statement above, but never mind. The fed is at it again, DUDE!

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I'm with these guys.

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Yeah, but the thing is, I know Candace is vaccinated.

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This.

The bottom line is that the US society is more broken than the British one. The whole thing is a stress test.

Of course there are some hard-to-control variables, both external and internal, so it's not a super accurate test. But you do get some picture, and what it says is clear in the data.

Hell, the US ought to have advantages over Britain when it comes to this type of a viral disease. But they don't show up in the data*, which only means one thing.

*EDIT: They actually did in the initial wave back in early 2020. But not afterwards.

[miscmisc]

What I have been ranting about encapsulated in one simple Twitter thread, by Ed Yong.

And do read the article too.

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Random fact (according to me): The worst car drivers in the world are Mexicans (in Mexico) and Gulf Arabs.

Which is why the whole Saudi "Even beyond the issue of Islam, women are very bad and dangerous drivers" argument against women driving was hilarious; It would be humanly impossible for anyone of any gender of any race of any ethnicity to be a worse driver than Saudi men.

[K1power]

Hahaha.

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This is a very good law, and pretty much identical to one of my own principles.

I managed to stay reasonable, informed and basically *not wrong* on the vaccines, masks etc. thanks to this.

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And no, that law above is not for encouraging conservative thinking; It's for making it easy for you to tell and ignore both lazy arguments and lazy people.

And this pandemic has been so fucking full of lazy arguments made by lazy fucks with remarkably short attention spans. And those fools amplify each other in an enormous shit echo chamber, to keep telling you and me that neither vaccines nor masks work.

[K1power]

Jan 6, 2022 11:54:40 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

I don't know how many times I have said this, but again, it's rare particularly in this age of the internet and quick search to have someone who is genuinely curious about various things. Joe Rogan is one, and that's his *only* strength when it comes to his popular show. He's not dumb at all, but not very bright either.

Oh yes, "I don't think he's a genius or anything, man, but he makes a lot of sense."

Again, that game of "making sense". There are so many people who can play that silly game all day long given a good platform that that's really not saying much.

I like Joe, but less today than two years ago. I used to tune in to clips of his podcast, but it's become more of a rarity.

For one, I don't like Spotify. But more importantly, he has some awful opinions on COVID, regulations, vaccinations, the whole nine yards. Roughly a year ago he called mask wearers 'pussies', at which point Bill Burr (!) put him in his place.
He also gives too much of a platform to right-winged nutjobs and tends to go along with them.

I like Joe best when he's talking about martial arts, comedy, aliens and really out there conspiracy theories. I find all of that entertaining. Not so much the personal political echo chamber his podcast has been turning into.

[K1power]

This past weekend I had the first gathering with a small group of friends. Very relaxed and dialed back version of a New Years party. These are all vaccinated people in line to get boostered.

That said, they're slowly 'turning'. I'm paraphrasing, but comments like 'three jabs in such a short amount of time can't be good' and 'I'm just asking questions' were both annoying and concerning to me. A lot of this 'critical and alternative thinking' comes across as anything but to me. Of course, part of me can relate to the frustration and uncertainty of this whole mess we're in, but once 'just asking questions' starts, you're decidedly removing yourself from intelligence.

[miscmisc]

You could've seen from miles away how Rogan would react to the NPIs, such as masks, and vaccines, though, especially given his particular temperament.

You know, if it's astronomy I guess you can just ask Neil deGrasse Tyson. I can't stand that guy, but he wouldn't tell you total bullshit. If it's fundamental physics, perhaps the likes of Brian Greene and Sean Carroll. Those "go-to" guys.

But there was no such guy in epidemiology, and he's been listening to too many charlatans or/and can't-climb-down-the-tree-ers. He's just not bright enough to see who's more credible than whom when the topic isn't easy or popular. I mean, he's just a comedian. Sharp eyes and quick mind perhaps, but those things have little to do with knowledge-based intellect.

That's not exclusively his problem, but his platform is far too big for us to need to be "fair" to him.

[miscmisc]

Jan 10, 2022 10:55:37 GMT 1 K1power said:

This past weekend I had the first gathering with a small group of friends. Very relaxed and dialed back version of a New Years party. These are all vaccinated people in line to get boostered.

That said, they're slowly 'turning'. I'm paraphrasing, but comments like 'three jabs in such a short amount of time can't be good' and 'I'm just asking questions' were both annoying and concerning to me. A lot of this 'critical and alternative thinking' comes across as anything but to me. Of course, part of me can relate to the frustration and uncertainty of this whole mess we're in, but once 'just asking questions' starts, you're decidedly removing yourself from intelligence.

Yeah, we should encourage everyone to "ask questions," but of course the most important thing is *what* questions, and the "I'm just asking questions" questions are usually either utterly uninformed or not even questions at all.

Similarly, the business of "making sense" is actually the question of making sense to *whom/what*. If it's just the tiny mind of a Joe Blowhard, that "sense" has very little value. It's not about the argument, but about the person and their limitations. 

[miscmisc]

Sure, I do think Xi's Zero Covid policy is getting harder and harder everyday, infeasible almost, but it's just impossible not to find it hilarious that a major paper of the country that has turned out to be the land of failed policies, little compliance and one million deaths (We are getting there) can somehow maintain this incredibly patronizing attitude toward a country that has lost... (checking notes)... 4,634 lives so far.

It's foolish to completely trust their numbers, but then, unless you think they have been covering up 4 million more deaths or something, I don't think the basic story would change. I would say deaths is a damn important metric, but for the NYT what's far more important is the policy causing inconvenience and some trouble.

What the word "stubborn" means is that the NYT thinks China should just give up already. Like the US practically did.

That's just pathetic.

China’s Latest Lockdown Shows Stubborn Resolve on Zero-Covid
www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/world/asia/china-xian-lockdown-covid.html