neuron activation

for what it's worth I also think this dynamic heavily disadvantages subjects like government in favor of STEM—it's easy to (mis!)judge readings and papers as possible to wing later, whereas math is hieroglyphs if you fall behind at all, plus more problem sets are graded more often.

it's nice to get a perspective on the snare of perverse incentives from that miserable stretch of high school from the teaching side, because while of course I thought about it as a student, there's not enough room for mutual candor on the subject.

I dunno man, we have the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy in our pockets nowadays. ignorance is voluntary, unless they're completely disabled or stuck on some linguistic barrier, people are stupid BECAUSE they're evil

I sincerely do hope we have the wherewithal to hunt filth like this to the ends of the earth soon, on top of the mountains of punishment we have to dole out domestically, but in the scheme of things yeah it really can't be a priority.

the more effectively our preferences are revealed, the more I think we as a public need to not be granted them in at least a few key ways.

it kinda needs to stop mattering what those people think once we actually hold power, though, ICE became a domestic gestapo. we fully punish that when we have power or we have nothing. we can pay lip service to the idea of keeping it on the way there, fine, but heads roll when we can make them.

I'm not sure in what sense I'm supposed to consider someone normal if they're like "hell yeah" to this. that on its own is much more than a slight difference between them and I, and it's more than a slight similarity between them and Nazis. they're numerous, sure, but stunted and evil regardless.

the potential this SHOULD create for an incoming democratic government to crush and remake the judicial branch into something we own for generations is intoxicating. with no legitimacy left for it to lose, why not? I hope it keeps its authority as long as it's our authority

hey, I was that student! one time in chemistry I honestly felt like I was having a heart attack. they should absolutely stop doing that but also the time budget of student life there is messed up, school starts really early, and classes mean you can't afford the digestive impact of coffee. sucks!

counterpoint: these exact same losers say the exact same thing every time anybody talks back or puts a girl in a video game or whatever so i don't think the liberal urge to performatively flinch at the canned backlash is a useful reflex in 2025

but the things we pretend are true today become the common sense of the midwits of the next generation. you accept their bullshit apologies (for some reason?) in this way, and pretty soon a consequential number of people will ACTUALLY believe them

yeah I think we can (and need to) contest fascism's presence in american christianity while being honest about it, and while admitting that is a battle that can be lost. semantics don't matter, they make the rules about the label once they outnumber you enough.

this is how people give themselves the idea that hitlerville kentucky needs to be begged to do the right thing for the thousandth time in slightly different language, rather than marginalized into irrelevance. it's nice to not want to hate your countrymen, but be serious for a second.

the problem here is that people don't (just) want to win, they want to win in particular ways that affirm things about the electorate that they want to believe, which are almost never true. e.g. "deep red voters are waiting for socialism", or "fox news viewers are waiting for real journalism". nope!

not just better but substantially better, when you adjust for the "who exactly started it" factor

I also think that Dark Souls itself had enough "wrong" with it (alongside its brilliance) that it came together into a likeably idiosyncratic package. some of those quirks widely lost their charm by the fourth time they were replicated, and stuck out more as others were removed.

I really do think once higher education is high-quality and equitably-accessible enough in a state, it needs to start diligently rearranging its voting criteria to require proof of understanding of government. it COULD exacerbate inequalities, sure, but what has having no standards done exactly?

yeah, part of the vicious, nigh-sadistic edge of my hatred for these people comes from the fact that they could make me hate them. I wanted to be above that on principle! now basically my only principles hinge entirely on the word "unprovoked", and that's a long fall.

if this kicks off another round of difficulty option discourse I'm going to... uh... be annoyed by it again. that thought fizzled out, but god damn it's the truth

not sure how realistic a technocracy is as a practical pursuit, but requiring people to know anything about their government to vote on it seems like it would go an awfully long way and I think is still legitimately free, just not stupid.

I wonder how it even could be. telling or showing these voters that they did a morally shameful thing seems like it would just herd them further into their bespoke ecosystems, right? they already showed they'd do that in response to like, gay people existing. what can anyone do to make them reckon?

would it feel amazingly good to break that link as hard as possible with a heart full of hate? yes, and that's something to fear. but I do think we too must hate. we can't let it rule us, but better that than them.

I think there does need to be a means of responding when people express a desire to subvert human rights and our system of government, and politicians cozy up to that, all without doing anything specifically illegal. a link in that chain needs breaking, we are not obligated to commit suicide again.

I really need to work on developing the patience to say something productive in situations like these, instead of saying something overly honest. it's starting to feel limiting. but man oh man oh man. step one is stopping there, probably.

I am lapsed and never did anything noteworthy, disclaimer. but that would feel analogous to AI art for me, in the sense that the ennobling spiritual pursuit would be deadened. retracing the work of a synthetic god is no substitute for forging a path. would the benefits justify it? probably, I guess.

you'd know better than I would, but if we're too wonkish and force audiences to tire themselves out thinking, how do we tempt (some of) them away from the serpent that tells them exactly what they want to hear and never challenges them?

we were so excited to invent futuristic communications tech that we let it "democratize" the concept of expertise, and everyone promptly locked themselves in silos with morons who made them crazier. galling to have to go backwards, but we are still coming up empty for alternatives.

note that embracing that argument has turned me into a pretty insane revanchist and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it—but I don't think that changes what's true.

I have sincerely come to think that ignorance is precisely zero excuse for supporting many of these crimes by now if one has access to the internet. factually, yes, they were warned, and choosing not to investigate warnings is a choice, unforgivable for warnings this dire.

he has a psychological inability to name generic foods in a relatable, everyman way. almost like he's spent his life selling arbitrary as-seen-on-tv bullshit for specific dishes nobody makes often enough to justify buying hardware for