Reposted by Dan
Being an incorrigible skirt-chaser even when married and possible low-grade sexual harasser? Bad! Not the same as being a pedophile!
Being close with industry lobbyists? Bad! Not the same as taking bribes!
The flattening of grey areas with outright evil is unironically part of why we got Trump.
Being close with industry lobbyists? Bad! Not the same as taking bribes!
The flattening of grey areas with outright evil is unironically part of why we got Trump.
December 23, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Being an incorrigible skirt-chaser even when married and possible low-grade sexual harasser? Bad! Not the same as being a pedophile!
Being close with industry lobbyists? Bad! Not the same as taking bribes!
The flattening of grey areas with outright evil is unironically part of why we got Trump.
Being close with industry lobbyists? Bad! Not the same as taking bribes!
The flattening of grey areas with outright evil is unironically part of why we got Trump.
Reposted by Dan
Also, European voters keep coming very close to electing “kill all the $slurs race war now” parties and so Americans pretending that that’s normal or that they are somehow Wise and not at all TurboReactionary is insane. The AFD is the 2nd largest party in the Bundestag!
as far as I can tell, the only piece of evidence that "Democrats would be center-right in Europe" is that Democrats mostly don't want to nationalize big chunks of the economy and there are some countries in Europe where major parties on the left still at least pretend to want it
December 22, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Also, European voters keep coming very close to electing “kill all the $slurs race war now” parties and so Americans pretending that that’s normal or that they are somehow Wise and not at all TurboReactionary is insane. The AFD is the 2nd largest party in the Bundestag!
Reposted by Dan
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
Reposted by Dan
To be clear, while Trump's HUD is telling a racist lie when they blame the housing shortage in CA and NY on immigrants, what they're saying is not all that different from the people who complain about transplants or who say California is full.
Same report: "Immigration accounts for up to 100 percent of housing demand growth in some regions, and for two-thirds of rental demand growth nationwide. In California and New York, immigrants have accounted for 100 percent of all rental growth ... in recent years."
December 22, 2025 at 10:34 PM
To be clear, while Trump's HUD is telling a racist lie when they blame the housing shortage in CA and NY on immigrants, what they're saying is not all that different from the people who complain about transplants or who say California is full.
Reposted by Dan
People don’t wanna hear it but one of the reason’s that bad actors like Chris Ruffo were able to do what they did is that center sectors of academia did in face make themselves very soft targets!
December 22, 2025 at 8:31 PM
People don’t wanna hear it but one of the reason’s that bad actors like Chris Ruffo were able to do what they did is that center sectors of academia did in face make themselves very soft targets!
Reposted by Dan
you can be proud of two white things for every one white thing you apologize for. I have said that the KKK is bad, and am thus am allowed pride in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ultimate frisbee.
December 22, 2025 at 8:46 PM
you can be proud of two white things for every one white thing you apologize for. I have said that the KKK is bad, and am thus am allowed pride in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ultimate frisbee.
Reposted by Dan
One of my professors in undergrad was a “cognitive scientist” who would insist he had proved P=NP because a certain minimal surfaces problem was NP-hard but you could use soap films to solve it in O(1).
That represented a substantially more rigorous and defensible argument than whatever this is:
That represented a substantially more rigorous and defensible argument than whatever this is:
We know — from first principles — that LLMs can only create AI slop.
Why do people keep needing empirical tests?
Why do people keep needing empirical tests?
The intractability proof (a.k.a. Ingenia theorem) implies that any attempts to scale up AI-by-Learning to situations of real-world, human-level complexity will consume an astronomical amount of resources (see Box 1 for an explanation). 13/n
December 21, 2025 at 5:13 PM
One of my professors in undergrad was a “cognitive scientist” who would insist he had proved P=NP because a certain minimal surfaces problem was NP-hard but you could use soap films to solve it in O(1).
That represented a substantially more rigorous and defensible argument than whatever this is:
That represented a substantially more rigorous and defensible argument than whatever this is:
Reposted by Dan
In the new year I want to do a series on HanksChannel called “find the papers” where I take a fun science fact and then actually find the papers that established that knowledge.
Anything you want me to dig up? I’ve already done “Male anglerfish are sexual parasites.”
Anything you want me to dig up? I’ve already done “Male anglerfish are sexual parasites.”
December 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
In the new year I want to do a series on HanksChannel called “find the papers” where I take a fun science fact and then actually find the papers that established that knowledge.
Anything you want me to dig up? I’ve already done “Male anglerfish are sexual parasites.”
Anything you want me to dig up? I’ve already done “Male anglerfish are sexual parasites.”
Reposted by Dan
a famously easy to manipulate experience unlike my preferred research method, making up a guy and winning an argument against him so hard everybody claps
December 19, 2025 at 7:06 PM
a famously easy to manipulate experience unlike my preferred research method, making up a guy and winning an argument against him so hard everybody claps
Reposted by Dan
I don’t understand the “oh, you have a LINE on a GRAPH, you think that MEANS anything?!” people who also self-id as some kind of socialist/communist. how exactly are you going to run the command economy, dude? macroeconomic policy made on vibes?
I don't think this a particularly accurate description.
It literally isn't.
A survey is an unscientific method of gathering information that is often delivered by a system that has gamed the very survey to give the results they desire.
A survey is an unscientific method of gathering information that is often delivered by a system that has gamed the very survey to give the results they desire.
December 19, 2025 at 7:19 PM
I don’t understand the “oh, you have a LINE on a GRAPH, you think that MEANS anything?!” people who also self-id as some kind of socialist/communist. how exactly are you going to run the command economy, dude? macroeconomic policy made on vibes?
Reposted by Dan
Crying rape is a seriously distorted version of the evidence available, emphasizing alleged Epstein atrocities and downplaying or ignoring the crucial U.S. role in imperialist-capitalist age of consent laws
December 18, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Crying rape is a seriously distorted version of the evidence available, emphasizing alleged Epstein atrocities and downplaying or ignoring the crucial U.S. role in imperialist-capitalist age of consent laws
Reposted by Dan
I think it's pretty easily matches the burrito taxi discourse, there are people who want a thing (to speed, or to get fast food delivered) and they consider themselves leftist, so therefore it is anti-leftist to do something that prevents them from their thing.
December 12, 2025 at 11:20 PM
I think it's pretty easily matches the burrito taxi discourse, there are people who want a thing (to speed, or to get fast food delivered) and they consider themselves leftist, so therefore it is anti-leftist to do something that prevents them from their thing.
Reposted by Dan
this post brought to you by a purportedly socialist city supervisor promoting a crypto rug pull named after a cat killed by a robot car
December 6, 2025 at 1:39 AM
this post brought to you by a purportedly socialist city supervisor promoting a crypto rug pull named after a cat killed by a robot car
Reposted by Dan
my most parochial take is that a lot of national dysfunction and elite pathologies genuinely do primarily spring from roots in the SF Bay Area. like why do so many tech sector types have such insane opinions about the efficacy of the govt?
December 6, 2025 at 1:34 AM
my most parochial take is that a lot of national dysfunction and elite pathologies genuinely do primarily spring from roots in the SF Bay Area. like why do so many tech sector types have such insane opinions about the efficacy of the govt?
Reposted by Dan
Yeah this has def been an evolution for me as well “markets” and “regulations” are just dumb things to have strongly held views about in the platonic abstract! They’re both social tools, the actual normatively substantive question is the outcomes they produce.
again, baby samantha absolutely thought that policy worked this way. "social problem? try regulation!" grown up samantha is living in the wreckage nimby regulations made of our cities and has different opinions.
in particular i’m struck by like, how clearly so many people’s understanding of how regulation and law work is “no, you only need to ban the bad stuff that my enemies do, and not the good stuff that my friends do” even when, from a mechanical perspective, these are the same thing
December 11, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Yeah this has def been an evolution for me as well “markets” and “regulations” are just dumb things to have strongly held views about in the platonic abstract! They’re both social tools, the actual normatively substantive question is the outcomes they produce.
Reposted by Dan
It's remarkable how perfectly this awful story is similar to The Dreyfuss Affair, from the banishment to a cruel tropical prison to the world's worst and stupidest people refusing to let it go even for decades after he was freed.
This is just some ordinary dude no one had ever heard of, quietly getting by, and the administration has decided in a fit of pique to hound him for the rest of his life because otherwise they'd have to tacitly admit they're capricious incompetent villains. Just let him live, ffs
BREAKING: At 7am ET, in response to the emergency overnight filing, Judge Xinis issued a TRO barring the Trump administration from re-detaining Abrego Garcia.
www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...
www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...
December 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
It's remarkable how perfectly this awful story is similar to The Dreyfuss Affair, from the banishment to a cruel tropical prison to the world's worst and stupidest people refusing to let it go even for decades after he was freed.
Reposted by Dan
Yeah I’m sorry, but this is indefensible and is *exactly* the kind of shit that people are talking about when they talk about non-profit/activist brainworms. And it’s causing real harm here! Minorities are more likely to be victims of drunk drivers as well!
The California ACLU is staunchly opposed to the ignition interlock device program and is a big reason that it has not been expanded. Despite the fact that California heavily subsidizes the cost for low-income drunk drivers, the ACLU says that the program is a form of "racialized wealth extraction."
December 12, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Yeah I’m sorry, but this is indefensible and is *exactly* the kind of shit that people are talking about when they talk about non-profit/activist brainworms. And it’s causing real harm here! Minorities are more likely to be victims of drunk drivers as well!
Reposted by Dan
“we would just win if we could break the laws of war” is terminal GWOT brain. its sacrificing your capacity to fight conventional wars to win asymetric fights against insurgents who dont matter bsky.app/profile/fwor...
It's almost as if militaries have understood this intuitively for centuries and that's why the law of war is what it is! But no, these assholes have to reinvent everything and do it badly.
December 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM
“we would just win if we could break the laws of war” is terminal GWOT brain. its sacrificing your capacity to fight conventional wars to win asymetric fights against insurgents who dont matter bsky.app/profile/fwor...
Reposted by Dan
Inclusionary zoning is a way of transfering the cost of social housing from the general public to new condo buyers.
In some circumstances it might just be the cost of doing business. But it's not especially progressive.
In some circumstances it might just be the cost of doing business. But it's not especially progressive.
Inclusionary zoning* is a tax on new housing that worsens the housing shortage and drives up housing prices. It’s bad policy and we should stop doing it.
The city of Los Altos charges an inclusionary fee $255,000 per unit for 1500 sq ft townhouses.
December 8, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Inclusionary zoning is a way of transfering the cost of social housing from the general public to new condo buyers.
In some circumstances it might just be the cost of doing business. But it's not especially progressive.
In some circumstances it might just be the cost of doing business. But it's not especially progressive.
Reposted by Dan
Please stop blaming on trade the things (or putative things like the $140k number) that are pretty much entirely the fault of America’s terrible nontradeable sectors. www.wsj.com/opinion/trum...
November 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Please stop blaming on trade the things (or putative things like the $140k number) that are pretty much entirely the fault of America’s terrible nontradeable sectors. www.wsj.com/opinion/trum...
Reposted by Dan
I honestly don't understand why the successes in Colorado with left focused YIMBYism does not get far more attention.
November 26, 2025 at 7:20 PM
I honestly don't understand why the successes in Colorado with left focused YIMBYism does not get far more attention.
Reposted by Dan
if the willett be claire, you're in the clear. if the willett be kate, you're not doing great
November 26, 2025 at 8:42 PM
if the willett be claire, you're in the clear. if the willett be kate, you're not doing great
Reposted by Dan
What happens when you pick an American Pope: he builds an entire international trip around a Thanksgiving Turkey pun
Pope Leo XIV embarked on his first international trip as pontiff on Thursday, traveling to Turkey to start a six-day tour that will also include Lebanon. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/w...
November 27, 2025 at 7:50 PM
What happens when you pick an American Pope: he builds an entire international trip around a Thanksgiving Turkey pun
Reposted by Dan
“If you believe the MAGA postliberal project is real, then liberalism must understand MAGA is not a reaction to economic consequences or “elite failures,” but an affirmative preference for illiberalism.
Liberalism must stop apologizing. Stop excusing. And fight.”
www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-and-l...
Liberalism must stop apologizing. Stop excusing. And fight.”
www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-and-l...
Liberals: Stop the Masochism
Why liberalism romanticizes the Forgotten Man and is reluctant to take its own side in the fight against authoritarianism.
www.thebulwark.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:17 PM
“If you believe the MAGA postliberal project is real, then liberalism must understand MAGA is not a reaction to economic consequences or “elite failures,” but an affirmative preference for illiberalism.
Liberalism must stop apologizing. Stop excusing. And fight.”
www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-and-l...
Liberalism must stop apologizing. Stop excusing. And fight.”
www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-and-l...
Reposted by Dan
I’ve begun to think there’s something more sinister about the “ackshually people in the top 10% of wage earners are in poverty too” nonsense.
What purpose does it serve other than to reassure the rich that they’re not, and try to convince the poor that raising taxes on the rich would be bad?
What purpose does it serve other than to reassure the rich that they’re not, and try to convince the poor that raising taxes on the rich would be bad?
If your wage leads to a "tight" budget that still allows you to live in a "well-off Boston suburb" it is not poverty.
December 5, 2025 at 4:30 AM
I’ve begun to think there’s something more sinister about the “ackshually people in the top 10% of wage earners are in poverty too” nonsense.
What purpose does it serve other than to reassure the rich that they’re not, and try to convince the poor that raising taxes on the rich would be bad?
What purpose does it serve other than to reassure the rich that they’re not, and try to convince the poor that raising taxes on the rich would be bad?