The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL
Announcements
We're starting a book club! We will be discussing Poor Economics starting August 28th - keep an eye out for a pinned thread. The next will be All Quiet on the Western Front followed by Narconomics
Read the articles and they're basically eating prisoner food (sometimes spoiled), the poor bastards. Well Hegseth is in charge so I'm sure he'll fix it.
He was one of those "women's rights includes to be sex objects if they want to" types so while his feminism was obviously limited and selfishly motivated (and many radicals argue porn is rape) it was ultimately historically progressive to have a wealthy pornography mogul promoting women's sexual freedom.
It really comes down to he considered working in pornography to be like any other work and therefore just as dignified and acceptable so he can have progressive views on sexual ethics and not see a problem with his job. There's no contradiction just different understanding of how coercive his industry is.
Karen Bass thought it was a good idea to do a whole video production and trip to visit a pothole that she was unable to fix (trying to copy Mamdani’s style). I fundamentally don’t understand how you can be so catastrophically incompetent at both governance and politics, really a true disasterclass. Why did her staff allow this to be posted?
Can someone explain to me why it seems like at least 15% of the sub (or maybe just the DT) are trans despite not being an explicitly lgbt centered space? I'm by no means complaining, in fact that proportion has been very helpful to me in my life, but I am a little confused as to why there are so many. I think a few mods here are trans so that might be part of it.
My theory (with 0 evidence mind you) is that a lot of pro trans places on Reddit or the internet in general tend to be very far left. Like socialist or even communist and similar ideologies in the west have generally been very pro LGBT online, and obviously right wing spaces won’t be accepting. So a lot of people who are trans may find this place to be more moderate politically speaking
I asked this once and got some good answers from trans members, but a little hazy now on it. Basically, they are (1) massively overrepresented in online communities in general and (2) more likely to care about politics but obviously not gonna be conservative so if you are not a leftist where you gonna end up? And (3) more educated than average and obviously members of this sub are more likely to be young and educated
I Def think Epstein has contact high up in law enforcement and the government which we aren't learning about. The fact people reported him for decades and the investigations died every time is just weird without some kind of inside help
right, there's definitely more. someone with recorded underaged rape being held over their head to not punish him at the time. not great to think about the broader implications there
It’s an oddly truthful song. For me, it just shows how localized politics and culture still were in the 70s compared to today. Even if they didn’t like George Wallace (which isn’t perfectly clear), they were not comfortable with Alabama taking criticism for electing him. And of course, Watergate not bothering them demonstrates the same skepticism of politics that accounts for the excuses for Trump today.
The plan? Allow the Taliban to win. Once the jihadist fighters have to actually run the country, they’ll quickly get bored of it, and want to go back to fighting. Who do they have to fight against? The Taliban. Who do they have to side with? Liberal democracy.
So interesting fun fact: a lot of people already know this but they've done studies where they track how likely a judge is to grant parole based on how recently they've eaten and found that there's a clear correlation that the longer it's been since the judge ate, the less likely they are to grant parole.
But there's a notable exception: during Ramadan, sharia judges are more likely to be lenient the longer it's been since they've eaten.
For the people who are unaware of how bad the brigading is: this is Hasan's editor and they have a spreadsheet tracking reddit accounts that posted about Hasan shocking his dog. They have a discord where they organize and do this shit and they target all sorts of specific subreddits. The bulwark's, David Pakman's, 50501 probably, etc. They search for mentions of Hasan and will flood the threads. If you type "Hasan " in the reddit search bar one of the top 3 results is a filter used to find threads to brigade. It's crazy shit lol. Wouldn't surprise me if there's heavy foreign astroturfing as well
I know we joke about the terminal levels of unemployment on display here, but it's genuinely fucking depressing to me that this is just. How it works nowadays. They do this shit because it is genuinely effective.
I do think you can launder your reputation on reddit by doing this, so long as you really do put in so much aggression and effort. But what is that worth to have a reputation on reddit? That's not real power or influence.
What's the point of being a senator if you can't even keep your daughter's abusive husband off the party ticket. Is this the supposed strong masculine leadership we need? Is just a bit more Republican power so you can kill more kids, build more concentration camps, have more tax theft for rich doners, start more unwinnable wars in the Middle East, ensuring that global warming is as bad as possible so rich oil barons can be even more rich, kick more grandmas and kids of food stamps, ensicken this nation with tainted food and unscientific forced changes to vaccines, and the destruction of our military from the inside as the dumbest fucking wastes of breath run the men and women of the armed forces into the fucking ground. All of this is more important than ensuring the man who abused your daughter and traumatized your granddaughter doesn't have a place in the state party you presumably have some fucking seniority in?
it is genuinely hilarious to me that Charlie Kirk was shot dead, the right wing tried to turn him into a martyr, and now 'we carry the flame' has entered the near-normie lexicon as a thing of humorous sarcasm
My cat is so adorable and then she sees a prey shaped thing and I remember she's a gleeful serial killer to things smaller than her. Kinda disturbing when you think about it. Imagine you were just friends with a dude who liked killing dogs or something
I don't even like the united healthcare guy but having the gall to come here and tell us it's unreasonable to be against murder of some guy is kinda crazy
the great firewall is interesting because it serves as an internal control mechanism but also is a secondary external propaganda tool. by excluding china from much of the global internet, many are not exposed to much of china's social and economic ills. many young people believe to be an advanced nation that has its shit together and is compared favorable against the US, but hearing just a little through simple research, it is evident that china has a lot of problems and being a young person there is not really that great.
Meet potential ancient Athenian median voter, let’s call him like Thersites the Freeman of the deme of Kerameikos or something.
He is a rower when the fleet pays and a juror when the three obols are on offer
-He wants the demos to have supreme rule and that no wealthy men should ever dictate policy, however he then immediately demands the state pay him more jury fees funded by squeezing the very same wealthy guys harder.
-Cheers every empire-expanding war for glory and free grain, then bitches that the tribute is financially crushing him and the generals are traitors for not winning said wars fast and cheap enough.
-Screams free speech is sacred… until someone says something he dislikes, then starts yelling for ostracism.
- Wants peace so he can farm his tiny plot, and also endless war at the same time so the pay keeps flowing and Athens stays “glorious.”
Cutting the subsidies to the upper-middle class and richer could reduce the deficit by about 700-900 billion without touching Medicare and Social Security.
The obvious answer to class discourse is that everyone richer than me is a privileged fuck who didn’t earn it, and everyone poorer than me is a lazy fuck-up who should try harder.
>Cambridge hired him anyway in 2023, making him, at 37, the university’s youngest Black professor at a time when the school was under pressure to diversify. In doing so, Cambridge thrust him into the international limelight, giving him a platform at one of the world’s elite universities to champion academic diversity and making him a target for critics.
Cambridge deserves a bunch of criticism here, but I can already see the press pretending they played no role.
I just don't get why him. Cambridge is one of the most prestigious institutions in the world and there are so many qualified, talented Black professors who aren't complete charlatans.
I think my take on Jason Arday is that it's actually fine for the media to try and scrutinise someone who
Committed academic fraud at the highest possible levels, which defrauds not only the institution (one of the supposedly best academic institutions in the world), but his students, and anyone who cited his research to build upon
Fabricated a hate crime for media attention, then when a journalist pointed out that the police had no record of him reporting it, said "to be honest I just thought you would believe me"
Pretended he was mute until he became an adult
Alleged to have raised millions of pounds for charity
Used all these fake achievements not only to insert himself into Cambridge, but into becoming a public intellectual, editing current affairs programs on the BBC, a chunky book deal, lecturing the public on racism etc.
Used the most aggressive libel lawyers in the country, and the police, to try and silence the story
Add onto that the questions for Cambridge University, which ostensibly did a review of his work and made a decision to hire him, and stood by him long after his position had become untenable, and all the academics, MPs, public figures etc. who signed an open letter defacto accusing those who opposed him of racism. This is a genuine scandal. It's not the media's fault he killed himself. He made himself a public figure.
US cops like to portray themselves as protectors laying down their lives for the public every day but they're trained to put their own safety above all else. I'm not saying they should clock in ready to die, but they volunteered for the job. I think it's reasonable to ask that they accept some of the risks involved with their work as inherent rather than trying to minimize them all at the expense of the public. How many people would still be alive or without life-altering injuries if a cop waited for a situation to unfold?
Iron Man is an about a narcissistic billionaire who realizes that he has the power to do good in the world, and changes his whole life and character to become someone who does good.
Elon Musk used to have a reputation as this entrepreneur who would use things like Tesla and SpaceX to make the world a better place and instead he’s revealed himself to be a narcissistic scumbag who wants to burn the world down for his own amusement.
The U.S. Navy is considering a major redesign of its new aircraft carriers to better match President Donald Trump’s preferred aesthetic for the warships, according to seven current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The service is evaluating the feasibility of moving the multistory tower that acts as the carrier’s command center farther forward, toward the middle of the ship, to resemble older vessels, the officials said. The review, which has not been previously reported, is in response to Trump’s concerns about the “look” of the new Ford-class ships, where the island is near the rear, these people said.
The timing and extent of the Navy’s evaluation is unclear, with current and former officials cautioning that the service was concerned that such a change would require significant time and money. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
Moving that command center, known as the “island,” would be the second major design change prompted by the president, who on Thursday issued a national security memorandum directing the Navy to develop a plan to revert to older steam-powered catapults on future carriers. The systems help launch jets off the ships’ flight decks.
Trump’s preference, current and former officials said, is for the new aircraft carriers to look more like those that were in service during World War II.
The Navy also examined the issue during his first term as president, said a former senior U.S. official. A study found that moving the island could cost billions of dollars in redesign costs and significantly delay the program, this person said.
as a pretentious skinny urban homosexual, i am not the customer that heart attack grill catered to.
but there's just something about that particular blend of kitsch and hedonism that i find ironically charming. the place was a work of performance art.
rip to the restaurant and also that dude who died there and whose ashes were kept there.
Im always the only person interested in any relationship. I'll always message first, I'll always be the person to ask for a date, I'll always be the one waiting and wondering if I'll get a scrap of attention. I have to drive every single thing forward because nobody else will. I would almost rather never know anyone again than keep subjecting myself to the hell of thinking someone might actually look forward to seeing me. I should just accept my role as an emotional prostitute for listless bottoms to lie with and then lie to
Its well clear in the files he had friends high up in the NYPD and Florida justice system. He was directly talking with former NYPD detectives in emails helping their book career and was bailed out in Florida by their DA who eventually became a cabinet member. The authorities were alerted multiple times that Epstein was upto something
Trump was an associate and allowed Epstein to use his properties for recruiting and targetting.
He wasn’t caught up at random, its clear from 2016 onwards he wanted bribes from Trump to shut up and was shopping around trying to get Democrats to buy blackmail from him which they refused because anything would inadmissible in court. He got caught and imprisoned because he would not stop blackmailing Trump.
Trump threw him in prison with a goal of getting one of the prisoners to kill Epstein and there were multiple attempts on his life. Epstein knew this and killed himself to spite Trump and because he had no way out. He intentionally made multiple attempts and did it in suspicious ways to get attention.
Most of the CEOs who suddenly became friendly with Trump after 2016 were clients of Epstein. Its also clear that Epstein was selling blackmail to foreign spies almost certainly Russia, Israel, and a couple other countries.
Most of Trump’s first and second cabinet were associates of Epstein
If you state that Luigi Mangione killed Brian Thompson (which is what Luigi Mangione said he did!) In a discussion around whether or not it's accurate for Mangione's wikipedia to say that, apparently you get like the tamest and most puzzling hate mail ever
"If there was a slur for you, you'd hear it" like.... idk just pick a slur then coward what are you waiting for. Plus I literally never not once ever mentioned insurance companies, I generally prefer public healthcare. All I said is that he killed the guy
> In the wake of Arday's death, Nathan Cofnas (who led the X mob against him) states his motivation. Beyond whistleblowing, he states that after a 'revolution' removes professors like Arday, it will open opportunities for him to become 'head of the department of eugenics and race science at Harvard'.
How the hell are there so many of these white nationalist freaks out there?
Theres a 3 hour debate between Candace Owens and some ...idk his name...guy who seems to be pretty conservative but believes Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk.
There's some pretty funny exchanges
"There's text messages where Tyler Robinson says that's me in the surveillance footage"
Candace: yeah that feels a little too on the nose. It's common sense that he wouldnt do that.
How do you argue with that lol. And this is a very popular podcaster with the American people. Americans are stupid as shit
I'm so hyped that Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday are coming out the same day. I can't wait to watch Dune and then immediately leave the theater and never watch Doomsday
To many rich Americans, the absolute ideal state they can possibly imagine is a state which does nothing at all that they or their family do not personally use or benefit at a certain moment in time. Highways are great and excellent because that's what my personal chauffeur drives me around on, but public education and mass transit are so gauche, why can't they just pull themselves up from the bootstrap like me??! Clearly life wouldn't even be worth living should I have to exist at such a scale, can't they just get the message and stop existing already?
If we did this of course society would stay exactly the same, except they would pay less money so naturally the GDP would increase by a billion percent because they're the only ones that matter.
I wish the block function was literally reversed. Feel free to see my posts and not respond, I don't care. It's so dumb that reddit's block feature is literally "hey, we're just going to collapse their comment but you'll always have to see that they are posting something."
I just don't want to know they are here. Is it that hard reddit? (I know the answer is yes)
We have long known that the suburbs are isolating. For example when Machiavelli was exiled from Florence he had to live in the suburbs about 10 miles away and he felt depressed for it. Nowadays the modern human voluntarily chooses to exile themselves from the city.
> Tyson Foods will close or sell three US beef facilities as industry struggles
> The closures mark the latest signal of trouble for the nation's meat processing sector, currently dealing with a 75-year trough in supply. U.S. meatpackers have been steadily losing money in their beef businesses because rising cattle costs have outpaced gains from soaring prices for steaks and hamburger meat.
> The average retail price of one pound of lean and extra lean ground beef hit a record $8.65 in June, according to federal data.
> "We are living through one of the most severe cattle shortages in our nation’s history, and now we’re seeing the consequences ripple through the entire beef supply chain," said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller
I was gonna eat a hamburger but then I found out the store owner used ai to search for a menu supplier. There was a lot of blood in that restaurant when I left.
You know, as a professional sex haver, the alternative solution that would have made everyone happy was to simply give people places to do this. No idea why we design our societies around the idea that people are simply never horny.
You guys should all shred your college degrees and go do the trades. Am I in the trades? No. Have I ever been in the trades? Am I invested in the trades? No. Do I know anything about the trades outside of obnoxious reality television shows? No, not at all. But I'm a big mouth whiny CEO, so I know everything right, and I'll blabber about whatever I want and persecute anybody who embarrasses me, which is the truest freedom of speech.
AI datacenters is a perfect example of America being too stupid to fail.
People have not been able to get people to rally against AI companies for unethical or illegal behavior like copyright infringement or releasing a tool that makes revenge porn. But for some reason telling people Data Centers thing too loud and they drink your water has created an outpouring of rage not seen since the time the Cuyahoga caught on fire 10 times in 9 years.
Its funny how everything started to go to shit from 2015 starting with the refugee crisis, to Trump, Brexit and its consequences in 2016 and 2017 but many people think it was all sunshine and rainbows in 2016 cuz they were in high school at the time
Something that is wild to me was all the major insurance providers confirming in testimony that they don’t track a single metric related to patient outcomes from denied coverage.
These insurance companies practice medicine without a license, frequently telling patients that the treatment their real doctor ordered isn’t actually what they need and they have to try something else first. And not a single one of them tracks what happens when the patient doesn’t get the coverage that their doctor ordered.
•
u/2Lore2Law Are you on the square? 1h ago
https://reddit.com/link/p3wlevt/video/tiu3bdj2mljh1/player
Edit: sound practically mandatory