CuriousCat Archive Page 13 of 202

  2. What do you think of the people who say "the problem with Israel isn’t with the far-right cabinet in power, it’s with Israeli society as a whole"

    well... the far right cabinet in power has shaped that society massively, so the two aren't ENTIRELY separable. but it's kinda like how the US is shaped by its Far Right, by the history of slavery and native genocide, by racist immigration laws and imperialism overseas. it would be wrong to say ANY of us are not shaped by that. but, similarly, it would be wrong to say we are ALL to blame for them. there are loads of us who have opposed them every step, and the most important efforts to fight these things are happening within the country.

    we can neither blame nor absolve the Israeli people of the sins of their government. but we know many Israelis are appalled by their government.

  3. Do you have just the conclusion left for TARP? How will you celebrate once it's released?

    there are still several shorts in the works, and the conclusion is gonna be multi-part and some of it still has a lot of research left to do. I keep saying "this is the year I finish it" but I just can't work as fast as I used to.

    I can't even imagine how I'll celebrate. I feel like I'll have to scramble to find a new breadwinner cuz nothing else I make does those kinda numbers.

  4. (diff anon)
    Any reason to think that'll be a Nintendo press release? Didn't Hollow Knight get released for Switch like a year and change after other platforms?

    in response to What did you think of the Nintendo Direct? It was one of the best in a long time.

    Silksong has been announced as launching on multiple platforms, and everyone seems to assume it'll be announced for Switch

  5. What do you think of Napoleon?

    GOSH

  6. Do you think it's morally justified to attack factories that are funding the Israeli military?

    pfft, I'm not answering that, but now is a great time to mention this movie I saw called How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which is really good and you should check it out!

  7. Do you have any thoughts on the John Oliver discourse that seems to pop up every other goddamn month?

    is that the "John Oliver is Joe Rogan for people who like Hamilton" discourse, or is there a different discourse?

  8. Do you like hanging up the American flag?

    I have enjoyed burning it once or twice

  9. What evolutionary purpose is there for homosexuality?

    you mistake how evolution works. it has no purpose, no goal or endgame. things come into existence and they survive or fail depending on whether or not they aid or hinder life. so, in fact, evolution has more or less proven that homosexuality is at worst harmless and more than likely beneficial, because it exists across the entire human species and hundreds of other species as well. millions of years of evolution and natural selection has never eliminated it. I could sit here and hypothesize why, and get into the evolutionary value of widespread happiness across the community even among those that don't pass on their genes, but I wouldn't be trying to convince you. I'm not an expert. but it is a demonstrable fact that homosexuality is evolutionarily successful.

  10. How do you know if people are asking for intervention? People bring up all the pro-government marches in North Korea for example, but I don't think they have a choice. Would intervening there be justified?

    in response to Where do you draw the line between imperialism and humanitarian intervention?

    what do you mean, "how do you know?" Palestine is under massive lockdown, most of their power has been cut off, they are dying by the thousands, and we still know what aid they are asking for. you live in the modern world, it is incredibly easy to hear what aid is being requested.

  11. doesn't matter, it still presupposes ownership over 1s and 0s, the bullshit that techbros come up with...

    in response to Piracy is praxis, James Somerton did nothing wrong. Copyright is part of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

    he didn't steal the ones and zeroes, he stole the words. this attitude that creative work is valueless and can be taken without consent is way more techbro than anything I'm saying - this is the logic behind AI models.

    I would love to live in a world where all our work is out in the commons to be remixed and remade without intellectual property and copyright. sadly, in the meantime, I have to live under capitalism, and plagiarizing my work makes it harder for me to pay my rent. and even in the commons, you would still be an asshole if you passed your remix off as original work.

  12. The only thing algorithms are good at is facilitating an "infinite scroll" addiction model, but that didn't stop corporations from capitalizing on them. AI doesn't have to be "good" at anything, or good *for* anybody...it just has to be profitable.

    in response to AI doesn't have to "work" as advertised for corporations to exploit it. Algorithms were advertised as a way to automate moderation and customize and improve the user experience, and are now ubiquitous on sites like YouTube, used as a way to drive profits at the user's expense. Unless corporations are legally prevented from doing so, AI will inevitably be exploited in the same way.

    it has to be good at being profitable, which it has yet to demonstrate. corporations are jumping on it in the hope it pays off, not because it HAS or necessarily WILL.

  13. Diff Anon:
    i.e. other machine-learning/large data models actually produced something that could be exploited. And the AI craze (such as it is) is producing venture capital hype ahead of anything else?

    in response to AI doesn't have to "work" as advertised for corporations to exploit it. Algorithms were advertised as a way to automate moderation and customize and improve the user experience, and are now ubiquitous on sites like YouTube, used as a way to drive profits at the user's expense. Unless corporations are legally prevented from doing so, AI will inevitably be exploited in the same way.

  14. Different anon, stupefied that someone would think that deepfakes would have less impact on our society than a machine that writes text in a slightly coherent manner...

    in response to It’s not THAT far fetched, is it? Things like deepfakes, cryptocurrency, or even virtual reality are too situational imo to have practical uses. But ChatGPT has already had a drastic effect on the way we write and look for information. Seemingly, the sky’s the limit for what it could do. If anything, the main concerns are that it will get out of hand and we’ll have a robot uprising or something

  15. Favorite CGI Zelda character

    Urbosa

  16. What did you think of the Nintendo Direct? It was one of the best in a long time.

    no Silksong

  17. Genuinely curious, have you considered reading people like Hayek and Friedman to see if your perspectives might change?

    in response to hey maybe you should read some Hayek or some Friedman before dismissing an entire sided of the political spectrum

    oh my FUCKING GOD, I made a whole FUCKING VIDEO about the philosophical origins of conservatism! I had quotes from Hayek and Schumpeter and Burke and de Maistre! I have devoted most of my career to studying what dudes like these stand for! I do NOT need a fucking primer in conservative thought!

    y'all are being mighty vague about what, specifically, you think I'm misunderstanding about conservatism, or what perspective I might appreciate. all you've got is "read the book, you might feel different." I understand condescension is an effective recruiting tactic for the uninitiated, but how did you imagine it working HERE? with ME?

  18. AI doesn't have to "work" as advertised for corporations to exploit it. Algorithms were advertised as a way to automate moderation and customize and improve the user experience, and are now ubiquitous on sites like YouTube, used as a way to drive profits at the user's expense. Unless corporations are legally prevented from doing so, AI will inevitably be exploited in the same way.

    in response to (diff anon) Do you think in a few years AI chatbots will be forced on us without their fundamental problems getting fixed, so we'll all be unable to live without them and all their issues?

    nnnnno? the technology can only be exploited if it's actually good at something.

  19. That was hyperbolic, my point being that it's more likely that it'll go too far than just fading from relevancy.

    in response to It’s not THAT far fetched, is it? Things like deepfakes, cryptocurrency, or even virtual reality are too situational imo to have practical uses. But ChatGPT has already had a drastic effect on the way we write and look for information. Seemingly, the sky’s the limit for what it could do. If anything, the main concerns are that it will get out of hand and we’ll have a robot uprising or something

    how are you calculating "likelihood"

  21. It’s not THAT far fetched, is it? Things like deepfakes, cryptocurrency, or even virtual reality are too situational imo to have practical uses. But ChatGPT has already had a drastic effect on the way we write and look for information. Seemingly, the sky’s the limit for what it could do. If anything, the main concerns are that it will get out of hand and we’ll have a robot uprising or something

    in response to Do you think that in a few years A.I. chatbots will be the next big thing that no one lives without anymore, like what smartphones became in the 2010s?

    I promise you, 100%, that predictive text algorithms will NOT cause a robot uprising

  22. (diff anon) Do you think in a few years AI chatbots will be forced on us without their fundamental problems getting fixed, so we'll all be unable to live without them and all their issues?

    in response to Do you think that in a few years A.I. chatbots will be the next big thing that no one lives without anymore, like what smartphones became in the 2010s?

    I don't predict the future. I think that is what a lot of tech people would like and they are trying to make it happen. I also think the obvious failures of AI are gonna cost them a lot of money in the short term. I'd give "AI is everywhere in the future" long odds, but "AI is just common enough to lower the quality of the internet and suppress the wages of creative professionals" seems likely.

  25. Do you think "hurt people hurt people" explains why Israel is destroying Gaza right now? Like centuries of antisemitism, pogroms, and the Holocaust.

    no

  26. Would any other army be able to defeat and dismantle Hamas in the Gaza Strip without causing massive casualties? Not asking in bad faith.

    it's weird to ask about the correct form of army intervention when Hamas has been offering diplomatic solutions for the entire conflict, and indeed escalated to violence because of Israel's decades of diplomatic failure. if Israel wanted to avoid casualties, they wouldn't be using an army in the first place.

  27. Where do you draw the line between imperialism and humanitarian intervention?

    I'm not sure there IS a hard line between them and there are times where it's hard to do the latter without doing a bit of the former. but I would say the first thing I ask is, "did anyone ask for intervention?"

  28. Do you think that in a few years A.I. chatbots will be the next big thing that no one lives without anymore, like what smartphones became in the 2010s?

    lol. lmao, even.

  29. what are your thoughts on the YIMBY movement?

    I don't know much about it.

  30. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I'm just trying to think of a way to stop him from fucking over the people he stole from, just without all the schadenfreude from the hbomberguy video, but I'm coming up blank. Do you think there was any kind of third option, or was a call-out the only feasible method of stopping him?

    in response to Do you think the hbomberguy/James Somerton situation a good time for a call-in, instead of a call-out?

    the legal system. people he stole from could sue. I don't think that was a better option than a call-out.

    I wish I lived in a world where restorative justice practices were normalized and we could publicly ask him to do them and there would be enough public pressure for him to agree, and the community could mobilize to say "here are the demands from the people you harmed" and he could be asked to make it up to them directly, and the facilitators would actively intervene to protect him from harassment because that is NOT the way we do things, and his career would not necessarily have to end if he demonstrated MATERIAL PROOF that he is improving.

    that is, unfortunately, not the world we live in presently, and the tools we have available are the a) call-outs, b) call-ins, and c) the legal system. c) was the least safe and b) was the least effective, so we were left with a).

  31. Much a Method to the Methodism?

    in response to What denomination were you raised as?

    I mentioned I was a raised Methodist in a video and a commenter asked, "what's a mathdist? did you warship math?"

    yes. yes, I warshipped math.

  32. If you converted back to Christianity would you still be a Methodist?

    in response to What denomination were you raised as?

    I guess I'd either be a "personal faith" nondenominational or some kinda Unitarian, but I don't see that happening

  33. Do you think the hbomberguy/James Somerton situation a good time for a call-in, instead of a call-out?

    lol, no. you call in people you trust and want to stay in community with. expecting James to act better if the community reached out privately after spending YEARS stealing from that community and denying the theft? you'd have to be a fool to think it would work.

  34. What denomination were you raised as?

    Methodist

  36. Has anything good come out of 4chan (besides the leaking of pilots for cartoon shows for preservation purposes)? I can't think of a single thing otherwise.

    Anonymous has done a lot of good things and I think they were based out of 4chan

  37. (diff anon) For what it's worth, Uncharted 4 is my game of the last decade. I found it incredibly compelling.

    in response to But Uncharted is fun so it’s okay

    I have watched LP's of all four Uncharted games, and I find a lot of things about it's plotting and spectacle compelling. and maybe folks who've actually played it can tell me the gameplay is a joy, but it certainly didn't LOOK particularly interesting, and I've never heard anyone praise it for its mechanics and gamefeel.

  38. Maybe, I'm just not convinced that there's a new adjective's worth of difference between the two.

    in response to Does "filmic" mean something distinct from "cinematic"? I'm not judging or anything, just curious as to why everyone started using that term all of a sudden several years back.

    "filmic" is not new, I'm a former film major (sort of) and can vouch pretentious film theory books have been using it for ages. I dunno why it hit social media recently, but I've been using it this whole time.

    the only reasons to use "filmic" instead of "cinematic" are a) euphony of sentence structure (i.e. sometimes, depending on the surrounding words, "cinematic" doesn't roll off the tongue as well), and b) choosing to communicate that you've read pretentious film theory books.

    compelling that it is less pretentious to say "cinematic" than "filmic" but more pretentious to call movies "cinema" than to call them "films."

  39. Thoughts on Scooby-Doo?

    Scooby-Don't

  40. But Uncharted is fun so it’s okay

    in response to Is Nathan Drake a white savior?

    is it though?

  41. Does "filmic" mean something distinct from "cinematic"? I'm not judging or anything, just curious as to why everyone started using that term all of a sudden several years back.

    does "film" mean something distinct from "cinema"?

  43. the old British system isnt the only thing under attack by the metric system, many indigenous people around the world have their measurement systems attacked by metric
    why cant we just keep the US customary units for everyday stuff? We have a nice hybrid system, many countries have a hybrid system where they use their traditional languages and those measurement systems for many everyday stuff. But leftists want to use metric because it is French and France is socialist, and they look up to the French revolution. They will target time next

    in response to How can the left support the metric system when it is literally western colonialism?

    france is what

  44. Ian Miles Cheong was executed. Idk if I’m happier about his death or Kissinger’s?

    it's not true but it is canon

  45. hey maybe you should read some Hayek or some Friedman before dismissing an entire sided of the political spectrum

    in response to Do you think YOU could ever be won over to the right?

    you've read Marx and Bakunin I assume?

  47. How can the left support the metric system when it is literally western colonialism?

    is the British system of measurement NOT colonialism???

  48. do you think the democratic leadership will have to move left at some point? I mean you can only keep losing elections for so long until they realise their strategy is not working.

    win or lose, most of them keep their jobs. their "strategy" doesn't need to "work."

  49. can you help people and make a profit?

    to a degree, but the more you do of one the less you do of the other

  50. I am often shocked that many Trump supporters still think he's pro universal healthcare, fixing infrastructure, pulling out of the middle east and a variety of other left wing policies when he's done the exact opposite of all pf those things. How is this possible?

    I'ma level with you, anon: they're not very bright

  52. Will you make a video on Israel-Palestine?

    presently, I don't think so. it's a major issue, but there are a lot of lefty youtubers who've already made excellent videos on the subject and I don't have much to add. I don't want to make a video just to make a video, I'd want to actually contribute something of value.

    that said, it is a subject that concerns me, and often "making a video about it" is how I justify a research deep dive, at the end of which I would probably have something more substantive to add. I don't know if I have the time/energy to do that deep dive right now, but I also don't think Israel is gonna stop being a subject worth discussing anytime soon, so. maybe someday.

  54. Which is more important, peace or justice?

    true justice is predicated on peace

  55. Thoughts on Dhalgren?

    an EXPERIENCE

  57. Ever think about doing shorts on Youtube?

    yeah, a lot actually. the 1-minute limit is a stumbling block but I'm trying to find my way around it.

  58. Punch nazis? Right. There's people with Swastikas tatted, you wouldn't even be able to make eye contact with them lil bro.

    baseball bats then

  59. Do you think YOU could ever be won over to the right?

    I mean, maybe, there's a lot of dementia in the men in my family

  60. Is Nathan Drake a white savior?

    Nathan Drake is a white colonizer

  62. Polls show the vast vast majority of Jews in every country identify themselves as zionists. Do you think your ignoring this fact?

    I cannot find any study that supports your claim except the Zionist groups that say 95% of Jews are Zionists. this is deeply suspect since half the Jews in the world live in the US and only 30% of American Jews strongly identify with Israel. 95% is mathematically impossible without some extreme number fudging.

    feel free to post a source though.

  63. We stan a short king 💅

    in response to How long are you?

    5'9" is smack dab in the average!

  65. Could you pay me in advance?

    can you put up collateral?

  66. So I've been learning about what feels like the three main leftist philosophies in the conversation these days - democratic socialism, anarchism (or I guess anarcho-socialism), and Marxism-Leninism. Are there any others I should know about, or are most specific leftist philosophies just offshoots/mashups of the above three?

    Also, do you put a comma after a parentheses, like in the above question, or no? I never know which way is right cuz they both look kinda weird in writing.

    there are many schools of leftism and, depending on who you talk to, that may or may not be the best distillation. but, in terms of which voices are the loudest right now? yeah, I think you hit the nail. centralized state, decentralized state, no state. that covers it pretty well.

    yes, I believe you punctuated correctly.

  67. I used to use the Mission Impossible theme as a popular example of 5/4, but I dunno if it's as clear an example as I thought. The first three beats are syncopated, which kinda makes it hard to hear the 5 beats rhythmically. Instead I use OK Go's "WTF?" since the five beats are laid out pretty straightforward.

    in response to Can you please teach me how you do this? I don't know how you measure time signatures lol.

    yeah, Mission: Impossible is easier if you count the eighth notes: one two three one two three one two one two.

  68. You ever done an escape room?

    yeah. and, as you can see by the fact that I'm in my living room right now: I escaped!

  70. Waiting!

    in response to Diff Anon: So you're telling me that this is a bogey man made up by conservative politicos??? Next you're going to tell me "Welfare Queens" are a plague extrapolated from a handful of caught grifters!

    undocumented immigrants aren't competing for the jobs white people want and are a massive boon to the economy! (primarily because they are deeply exploited, underpaid, and unable to access social programs!)

  71. Outer Wilds or Outer Worlds?

    in response to Portal or Postal?

    I said what I said

  72. I’m new to 2D Sonic, what order should I play the games? Sonic 1 seems too hard for me so far.

    Sonic 3 & Knuckles. 2 might be the better game but it's also hard and has some dud levels. you could also just skip straight to Mania, I won't judge you.

  73. You're correct race is a made up concept anyway but the Nazis considered groups they described as non-white today as superior to other white groups like the Japanese, Chinese, and Persians which the Nazis considered superior races to Eastern Europeans.

    This is different from white supremacist groups like Neo-Nazis an the KKK who consider all people they describe as white superior to the non-whites even if they had a hierarchy of which whites were better than others

    in response to can the nazis really be categorised as white supremacist? They considered other white groups like Russians Poles Serbians on the same level as black people and other people of coluor on their racial hierarchy. Would it be more accurate to call them Aryan suprematists.

    no, many current white supremacist groups shuffle the hierarchy. it was recently fashionable for Alt-Rightists to claim whites are only the SECOND highest on the hierarchy, claiming Asians are actually the superior race. it's a smokescreen, meant to inspire arguments like the one you're making: "surely they can't be REAL white supremacists, because REAL supremacists wouldn't put someone else at the top."

    it's necessary to understand that the ENTIRE CONCEPT OF A RACIAL HIERARCHY is white supremacy, no matter the order. the concept was invented by white people, it has always placed white people at or near the top, it had only ever been used to advantage white people, it will change the moment a given structure no longer benefits white people as much as it did (I promise you "Asians are superior" will go out the window the moment they need to villify China). there IS NO non-white supremacist racial hierarchy; it is a white supremacist concept. it was invented to justify the African slave trade. it was built to serve a function, and has continued to serve that function in every permutation: justify the subjugation of non-whites by whites. that's it. that is the whole enchilada.

  74. You ever played Silent Hill?

    hell no, looks scary

  75. Is there a correlation between people who challenge social norms, and people who challenge economic norms? i.e. LGBTQ+ are more likely to be socialist?

    in my anecdotal experience, yes

Anon commented:
Ian replied: