CaptWillard

To be fair, I was never all that good.

The entire concept of American masculinity is about inflicting yourself on as many other people as you can.

Haha, what?

You're describing a mindset and behavior that is indeed more prevalent than it should be or used to be, but it's got nothing to do with the "concept of American masculinity"

I've known a lot of academics and more than a few (adult) athletes, and in my experience, cannabis is quite popular in both crowds.

What you describe is one of the reasons I've always favored legalization of cannabis (though I wouldn't describe it as a "pipeline")

I didn't want my kids to have any reason to know the types of people we had to deal with.

'I've been inactive for too long, I can't call and reveal that I haven't started'.

Dang. That's a huge part of my problem over the years. Nicely articulated.

I'm curious what "red pilled" means to you.

I would think a "red pilled" book would focus on resisting manipulation, specifically emotional manipulation.

Big difference between gaining knowledge and building/maintaining cognitive skills.

I say this with all due respect and as someone who is struggling to envision their own ability to meaningfully contribute in the likely future:

Nature is ableist. Humanity rises above it to the extent that we can, but ...

If cheating were widespread it would have been detected much more easily.

This is a ridiculous assertion.

I like to think that Bjork loves me, but deep down I know it's not true.

Because AI can't be held accountable. Ever.

That will probably save some jobs, but it's a problem in most other contexts.

The early nod to Agora Institute mission of “building stronger global democracy” Followed by bemoaning USAID cuts makes me wonder if the author is deliberately missing one of the most glaring examples of this.

This is all debatably valid, except for the fact that the entrenched system produced massive fraud, money laundering, wagging-the-dog and worst of all, a decade of domestic propaganda and anti-democratic schemes in an attempt to protect the machine from widespread exposure.

His "friends" like Reid Hoffman and Epstein himself? They do talk about Trump a lot in those files.

Why are you defending X here?

What a strange question.

On the contrary ... we LOVE the perennial underdog who stays in the fight. Like the British, once you start winning consistently you quickly earn our contempt.

American football is packed with great examples.

so British people get their fill of competent, triumphant heroes from American media

Conversely, American culture has historically included all the best of the British.

In addition to those mentioned above, Hitchhikers Guide, Monty Python, Watership Down, The Young Ones, etc.

Out of respect for your effort to keep it civil, I'll answer some of that:

I'm a liberal as defined up until 2012 or so.

Never been socially conservative at all. I'm not a libertarian, as I do support some social safety nets. That being the case, I am strongly against open borders and unchecked fraud.

You're actually right about a lot of the rest (minus the snark.)

No, I think my stance is pretty clear.

If you don't recognize the patterns of incuriosity, groupthink and misguided confidence that have permeated western society in the last ten years, nothing I say here is going to enlighten you.

"We need to make it shameful to be bigoted again"

Interesting way to put it. For the past decade or so, many flavors of bigotry have been lauded and socially rewarded.

At the same time, many valid viewpoints and statements have been mislabeled as "bigotry" by the incurious and hivemind-compliant.

These things are balancing out lately, but quite a lot of damage was done.

Amen. I can appreciate films. Reiner made Movies. Great movies.

Spielberg is an apt comparison.

Posts like this make me appreciate my boss.

I've been very lucky to work for some great people, even/especially when the situation above them is borked.

Watch for widespread outages attributed to Vogon poetry and Marty the landlord's cycle (you know ... his quintet)

According to the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Vogon poetry is the third worst in the Universe.

The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria, and the worst is by Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex, who perished along with her poetry during the destruction of Earth, ironically caused by the Vogons themselves.

Vogon poetry is seen as mild by comparison.

My dad used to write Forth ... for fun.

The comedic/horrific possibilities as presented are compelling, if comedy and horror are the goals.

Maybe better as a second date.

The most important goal IMO is to expose and weaken the misguided use and expansion of "soft power" in my name, with my tax dollars and without my consent.

Ironically, one of the consistent outcomes is starving and dying children. They're just delivered asynchronously and from the "wrong" side of the ledger.

I am a messenger, and it turns out I've got some bad news as well.

My contention is that this kind of emotional appeal has been exploited to the point of (quickly) diminishing returns.

People are scratching the surface and following the money. Those who used such maudlin tactics to protect money laundering, war mongering and such things would do well to go and sin no more, lest more serious consequences come knocking.

Please show your work.

Pre-2022, Twitter was subject to heavy editorial oversight from D.C. and northern VA.

Censorship and propaganda at breathtaking scale.

This is a good place to start: https://twitterfiles.substack.com/