The short answer is you don’t. Even in philosophy, a leading model of “truth” is something like “a statement is true if it’s true”. We humans are doomed to be confused and unsure.

I can’t help but notice that’s an awfully small wiener. Confirms my priors.

Everyone assumes that Uncle Tom was a character like Sam Jackson’s Stephen from “Django Unchained” or Uncle Ruckus from “Boondocks”. The character in the book is nothing like this. In fact, Uncle Tom is an admirable character. How this man’s name became a slur is more complicated than it first appears.

The weird part about reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is that its advocacy literature, and most of us don’t need much convincing that slavery is bad. But we need this context to understand that Uncle Tom was created by a white woman to appeal to a white audience because it’s his tragedy that is supposed to persuade the reader. Uncle Tom didn’t fashion himself to please some master like Calvin Candy, he was created whole-cloth as a device to awaken empathy of white audience. It’s not his character, it’s his raison d’être.

What’s learning good for?

Is that true? the space bar is a keyboard shortcut?

My latest keyboard doesn’t have a ctrl on the right side and it took me 2 weeks to adjust.

These people who get so incredulous about “soft” social sciences, (think critical theory) yet talk about IQ testing like it’s Newton’s 4^th law do not value, or do not understand the science. Even the serious people who defend IQ in good faith, speak of it with qualifications.

What is so attractive about a system to categorize and rank humanity? And what do the people who are attracted to it have in common?

Didn’t grow up with one, but consider it standard now. There should be an organic stream to waste disposal. Much more green to send your plate scrapings to the treatment plant than to wrap them up in plastic and bury it in a landfill.

Easy to replace? sure. A couple hours if your handy.

But installing one for the first time will require electrical in addition to the and plumbing work. It’s a pretty big job for a DIYer.

as a mentor

ummmmm

Frankenstein’s monster is an early incel. It’s so ugly that society violently rejects it despite herculean efforts of the monster to find belonging. It’s solution is to terrorize the Doctor into creating a “female” monster for companionship.

So the monster is miserable, hates society, and has a plan to punish and destroy leading up to a climactic suicide. And it’s only hope is for a waifu created by science.

I think about this sometimes.

Zimbardo is part of a generation of psychology that struggled with why modern European people did a Shoah. Or rather a generation that sought to confirm through experiment that the Germans were alright and it was really all Hitler’s fault. Or at least a small number of evil Germans who caused the whole mess.

It’s auspicious to bring this up now because just watching the news these days makes a fool of Zimbardo.

Eugenics is the single stupidest idea in human history. To advocate for it now is to deny biology and history.

It relies on the same misunderstanding of evolution that underpins ‘great replacement theory’.

inappropriate sexual behavior

You’re not ‘taking responsibility’ if you can’t even use the words that describe the act your guilty of.

It would be funny if this guy dies and Jesus says, sorry, you have to go to hell. Yes, we forgave you, but only for the inappropriate sexual behavior that you confessed to. You’re still on the hook for rape.

There is not more danger now than there was centuries ago

The way you describe American history as “centuries” like we’re the Roman Empire or Egypt when we’ve only got 2.5 centuries to choose from.

I still haven’t played Wasteland 3 or Divinity Original sin 2 even though I own both. And Balder’s Gate 3 is due to get discounted at Christmas. At some point, you have to measure RPG purchases against your life expectancy.

I think it’s time to consider the possibility that our grandmas and pop-pops are not tricked or indoctrinated, they just plain old support fascists.

Prices are falling in Florida, and inventory is stacking up.

AI is like the office worker who’s the nephew of the CEO. They’re never going to go away, but can be useful for tedious work, so long as someone checks behind them.

Ocean trash comes from plastic manufacturers. Responsible wealthy countries ship their dutiful recyclables to garbage pits in poor countries.

Most poor people don’t even have the education or resources to polymerize crude into poly-vinyl, it’s harder than you’d think.

When the federal government shows up to help… for free, suspicion is a valid response. Not to mention that the South has experience being occupied (not for long enough).

But the government putting people in camps for bullshit security reasons? Madness.