Hot Takes Discussion

[Ifreann]

Elden Ring should have something like a quest log.

[The Jamesian Republic]

The US should give some F R E E D O M to Belarus

Post edited due to further contemplation

[State of Imperial Russia]

The US should give some F R E E D O M to Belarus

As a Belarusian, I don't want to die at the hands of one of your merciless goons. Don't need another situation resembling the one in Mukaradeeb, do you?

[Port Caverton]

The US should give some F R E E D O M to Belarus

As a Belarusian, I don't want to die at the hands of one of your merciless goons. Don't need another situation resembling the one in Mukaradeeb, do you?

Caring for other people is for libs. Plus is not like the the gov cares either.

[The Jamesian Republic]

As a Belarusian, I don't want to die at the hands of one of your merciless goons. Don't need another situation resembling the one in Mukaradeeb, do you?

Caring for other people is for libs. Plus is not like the the gov cares either.

Though isn’t this what Russia is doing Ukraine “liberating it”

[Port Caverton]

Caring for other people is for libs. Plus is not like the the gov cares either.

Though isn’t this what Russia is doing Ukraine “liberating it”

Consider:

Also hypocrisy and double standards in geopolitics are a great thing

[The Jamesian Republic]

Though isn’t this what Russia is doing Ukraine “liberating it”

Consider:

Also hypocrisy and double standards in geopolitics are a great thing

Okay. But there’s a difference between actually liberating a country and using liberation as an excuse to colonize a country.

[Ethel mermania]

The US should give some F R E E D O M to Belarus

As a Belarusian, I don't want to die at the hands of one of your merciless goons. Don't need another situation resembling the one in Mukaradeeb, do you?

To be honest, at this point in time, I wouldn't mind turning Minsk and Moscow into Mariupol.

Payback should be a bitch

[Port Caverton]

Consider:

Okay. But there’s a difference between actually liberating a country and using liberation as an excuse to colonize a country.

Tbf Belarus would be great for the West since Kaliningrad will be far behind a country with a pro-US and hopefully democratic government + Russia would lose it's biggest ally in Europe.

[State of Imperial Russia]

Okay. But there’s a difference between actually liberating a country and using liberation as an excuse to colonize a country.

Tbf Belarus would be great for the West since Kaliningrad will be far behind a country with a pro-US and hopefully democratic government + Russia would lose it's biggest ally in Europe.

If its good for the west, its bad for ninety percent of the world. I don't want my government to be run by puppets like most of Europe is.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Tbf Belarus would be great for the West since Kaliningrad will be far behind a country with a pro-US and hopefully democratic government + Russia would lose it's biggest ally in Europe.

If its good for the west, its bad for ninety percent of the world. I don't want my government to be run by puppets like most of Europe is.

Hate to break it to you friend but your government is going to be run by puppets regardless. It's just a matter of who they serve.

[The Jamesian Republic]

Okay. But there’s a difference between actually liberating a country and using liberation as an excuse to colonize a country.

Tbf Belarus would be great for the West since Kaliningrad will be far behind a country with a pro-US and hopefully democratic government + Russia would lose it's biggest ally in Europe.

Why not prop up a Democratic Revolution?

[Port Caverton]

Tbf Belarus would be great for the West since Kaliningrad will be far behind a country with a pro-US and hopefully democratic government + Russia would lose it's biggest ally in Europe.

Why not prop up a Democratic Revolution?

The Belarussian government is too authoritarian for that kind of thing to happen.

[The Jamesian Republic]

Why not prop up a Democratic Revolution?

The Belarussian government is too authoritarian for that kind of thing to happen.

Alexa play Revolutions of 1989

[Rostavykhan]

Elden Ring should have something like a quest log.

Fromsoft game difficulty was just a meme that From bought into and unironically became obsessed with, to the detriment of their own game. Their "Le hecking prepare to die, reddit" philosophy led to them constantly pushing to up the ante with each new game, despite barely doing anything to update their 10+ year old engine - hence the reliance on delayed attacks, input reading, and spontaneous attack combo chaining/cancelling that many enemies abuse, and the much faster pace of combat despite players still having Dark Souls movement.

Bloodborne is still the best Fromsoft "Souls" game.

This isn't to say that I don't like Elden Ring.

the dumbest, most brain-melting word in the English language is “politicized” a
“Polarization” might be a close second but at least that one has some descriptive value if given a prefix

It really changes with the times. Right now it’s democracy.

OUR DEMOCRACY

[Kowani]

a very stupid thing progressives do is assume that enacting a bunch of (good!) progressive economic policies will result in democratic dominance
full employment/empowered working class/welfare state is good, but there's a lot of historical evidence that this would not necessarily be good for the Democratic Party
more economically secure people can (and often will) vote culture instead of pocketbooks, and that’s good for Republicans (at least given the biases of our electoral system)

[Umeria]

a very stupid thing progressives do is assume that enacting a bunch of (good!) progressive economic policies will result in democratic dominance
full employment/empowered working class/welfare state is good, but there's a lot of historical evidence that this would not necessarily be good for the Democratic Party
more economically secure people can (and often will) vote culture instead of pocketbooks, and that’s good for Republicans (at least given the biases of our electoral system)

I would like to see this historical evidence.

Because I am hovering over the release button for my "interpreting real-life events by abstracting everything into statistics is never a good idea" hot take.

[Kowani]

a very stupid thing progressives do is assume that enacting a bunch of (good!) progressive economic policies will result in democratic dominance
full employment/empowered working class/welfare state is good, but there's a lot of historical evidence that this would not necessarily be good for the Democratic Party
more economically secure people can (and often will) vote culture instead of pocketbooks, and that’s good for Republicans (at least given the biases of our electoral system)

I would like to see this historical evidence.

This is the whole point of the post-materialism thesis - as people and countries get richer they go up the maslow hierarchy of needs and start to care more about self-expression of values rather than their material economic conditions. This is important because non-college educated people materially benefit from leftist policy but do not share the left's cultural values, which is why non-college educated people trend right as countries get richer/more educated. It's not a coincidence that Portugal is the last holdout! From an event study perspective I think this really proves the mechanism-An underrated (but very large) driver of education polarization is that all the voters who remembered the Great Depression have died! Across the western world, in the postwar era, voter cohorts born before the Great Depression vote more in line with their views on economic views while voter cohorts born after it vote more in line with their views on cultural issues. In the US, you can see this in places like Texas' Hill Country Counties (and as a microcosm of what happened across the Southwest in general)- the New Deal made them prosperous, and a generation later, prosperity made them Republican.

Because I am hovering over the release button for my "interpreting real-life events by abstracting everything into statistics is never a good idea" hot take.

lmao

[Chan Island]

I would like to see this historical evidence.

This is the whole point of the post-materialism thesis - as people and countries get richer they go up the maslow hierarchy of needs and start to care more about self-expression of values rather than their material economic conditions. This is important because non-college educated people materially benefit from leftist policy but do not share the left's cultural values, which is why non-college educated people trend right as countries get richer/more educated. It's not a coincidence that Portugal is the last holdout! From an event study perspective I think this really proves the mechanism-An underrated (but very large) driver of education polarization is that all the voters who remembered the Great Depression have died! Across the western world, in the postwar era, voter cohorts born before the Great Depression vote more in line with their views on economic views while voter cohorts born after it vote more in line with their views on cultural issues. In the US, you can see this in places like Texas' Hill Country Counties (and as a microcosm of what happened across the Southwest in general)- the New Deal made them prosperous, and a generation later, prosperity made them Republican.

Because I am hovering over the release button for my "interpreting real-life events by abstracting everything into statistics is never a good idea" hot take.

lmao

One nitpick though;

That is still a good thing. If peoples material well being and economic status are so secure that they do not trouble them in elections, then it is already mission accomplished. It is perfectly natural for people's priorities to change as conditions change too.

Generally though I agree. It's not a coincidence that communists only got anywhere in very poor, extremely oppressive societies.

[Kowani]

This is the whole point of the post-materialism thesis - as people and countries get richer they go up the maslow hierarchy of needs and start to care more about self-expression of values rather than their material economic conditions. This is important because non-college educated people materially benefit from leftist policy but do not share the left's cultural values, which is why non-college educated people trend right as countries get richer/more educated. It's not a coincidence that Portugal is the last holdout! From an event study perspective I think this really proves the mechanism-An underrated (but very large) driver of education polarization is that all the voters who remembered the Great Depression have died! Across the western world, in the postwar era, voter cohorts born before the Great Depression vote more in line with their views on economic views while voter cohorts born after it vote more in line with their views on cultural issues. In the US, you can see this in places like Texas' Hill Country Counties (and as a microcosm of what happened across the Southwest in general)- the New Deal made them prosperous, and a generation later, prosperity made them Republican.
lmao

One nitpick though;

That is still a good thing. If peoples material well being and economic status are so secure that they do not trouble them in elections, then it is already mission accomplished. It is perfectly natural for people's priorities to change as conditions change too.

yeah i said that in the first post

full employment/empowered working class/welfare state is good, but

[Ifreann]

Elden Ring should have something like a quest log.

Fromsoft game difficulty was just a meme that From bought into and unironically became obsessed with, to the detriment of their own game. Their "Le hecking prepare to die, reddit" philosophy led to them constantly pushing to up the ante with each new game, despite barely doing anything to update their 10+ year old engine - hence the reliance on delayed attacks, input reading, and spontaneous attack combo chaining/cancelling that many enemies abuse, and the much faster pace of combat despite players still having Dark Souls movement.

Bloodborne is still the best Fromsoft "Souls" game.

This isn't to say that I don't like Elden Ring.

I mean, I'm on my third playthrough, the game is Good™, but it would be nice if fewer quests required looking up the steps online.

[Australian rePublic]

I don't know if this is a hot take by NS standards, but it definately is by the standards of my sports fanatic family. Sports are boring. I mean, where's the entertainment in watching a bunch of strangers moving a ball around? And also, sports fans take sports way too seriously. Why would you cry when one group of strangers inconsequentially moves a ball around in a superior manner to the other group of strangers? Even letting that affect your mood is taking things too far. And it's as if there's something wrong with you if you don't like sports. No there isn't. I mean, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against sports fans, my family are amongst the most passionate in existence, but don't criticise people who don't like sports. Everyone has different hobbies, and there's nothing wrong with people who aren't entertained by watching strangers move a ball around. And don't get me started on "we won". No you didn't. They won. They did. The group of strangers won, not you. Your only involvment in the matter was sitting on your arse criticising (as if you're some kind of professional) throughout the entire event that they won. How come it's always "we" when they won and "they" when they lost. And that's before we even consider the crowds and the noise, neither of which I am particularly partisan towards

[Forbidden Territories]

I don't know if this is a hot take by NS standards, but it definately is by the standards of my sports fanatic family. Sports are boring. I mean, where's the entertainment in watching a bunch of strangers moving a ball around? And also, sports fans take sports way too seriously. Why would you cry when one group of strangers inconsequentially moves a ball around in a superior manner to the other group of strangers? Even letting that affect your mood is taking things too far. And it's as if there's something wrong with you if you don't like sports. No there isn't. I mean, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against sports fans, my family are amongst the most passionate in existence, but don't criticise people who don't like sports. Everyone has different hobbies, and there's nothing wrong with people who aren't entertained by watching strangers move a ball around. And don't get me started on "we won". No you didn't. They won. They did. The group of strangers won, not you. Your only involvment in the matter was sitting on your arse criticising (as if you're some kind of professional) throughout the entire event that they won. How come it's always "we" when they won and "they" when they lost. And that's before we even consider the crowds and the noise, neither of which I am particularly partisan towards

There are other sports excluding football which imo are more fast paced, and exciting if you prefer those attributes.

[Malaiya Union]

In the long term, atheism, liberalism, and socialism will be annihilated by demographic collapse as conservatives and religious people outproduces them.

[Imperial States of Duotona]

I don't know if this is a hot take by NS standards, but it definately is by the standards of my sports fanatic family. Sports are boring. I mean, where's the entertainment in watching a bunch of strangers moving a ball around? And also, sports fans take sports way too seriously. Why would you cry when one group of strangers inconsequentially moves a ball around in a superior manner to the other group of strangers? Even letting that affect your mood is taking things too far. And it's as if there's something wrong with you if you don't like sports. No there isn't. I mean, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against sports fans, my family are amongst the most passionate in existence, but don't criticise people who don't like sports. Everyone has different hobbies, and there's nothing wrong with people who aren't entertained by watching strangers move a ball around. And don't get me started on "we won". No you didn't. They won. They did. The group of strangers won, not you. Your only involvment in the matter was sitting on your arse criticising (as if you're some kind of professional) throughout the entire event that they won. How come it's always "we" when they won and "they" when they lost. And that's before we even consider the crowds and the noise, neither of which I am particularly partisan towards

It's very easy to describe a sport as boring. For example, you could very easily describe my favourite sport (Formula 1) as "people driving in circles", and I've heard it plenty of times. However, I believe sport follows the philosophy of "the more you know and understand the sport, the more interesting it seems". I doubt you go out of your way to watch football/soccer (since that's clearly what you're describing) but I assume it would be even slightly more interesting if you understood how the sport worked better and the culture surrounding it.

Besides, given your nation, I assume you're Australian. Football in Australia is not nearly as large or well supported as places such as Europe and South America.