• 13 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • No information is the best option. How bad the misinformation is depends on intent. Is the misinformation a lie intentionally told to conceal a truth? Or is it bullshit, information intended to persuade regardless of truth?

    Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

    From Harry Frankfurt’s essay On Bullshit










  • Republicans will have all three branches of the federal government captured, and there will be no brakes to repealing the ACA and going back to the old, much shittier system.

    There is some room for hope. The GOP gained exactly that position in 2016 after the entire party ran on promises of repealing the ACA. They promptly became gridlocked by infighting and accomplished nothing for more than a year. They eventually gave up and instead passed a big tax cut to try and save face with their base. As much as Republicans love to rail against the ACA, many parts of it are very popular with their base and the party has never had a coherent plan for what to put in its place.








  • Winter weather on the northeast US coast is a battle between cold, dry air blowing in from the northwest, and (relatively) warm, humid air from the Gulf Stream coming up from the Caribbean. The weather is determined by which of those two forces is “winning” at a given moment, and it can swing abruptly when the balance shifts.

    Expect cold, windy, rainy weather. But don’t be surprised to get snow and ice if those Canadians send a strong cold front.

    The comment comparing New York to Scotland is a good one. Dress like you are going to Aberdeen and you should be just fine in New York.