Open Thread

Open Thread #135

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32 thoughts on “Open Thread #135

  1. Here is a great example of how the Left lies (in German):
    https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/plus231523163/Flugzeug-fuer-Festnahme-in-Russland-gestoppt-auch-deutsche-Stiftungen-im-Visier.html
    Apparently, Putin forced a plane to land and pulled out a terrorist. This is now framed as an attack on German NGOs. The chutzpah is off-the-charts. Instead, we need to view NGOs as what they all-too-often are, i.e. agents of hybrid warfare. They simply provide a cover, just like embassies provide a cover for espionage operations.

    1. He upgraded from Better to Eternal Bachelor? 😉

      I think his channel is too repetitive at this point. The truth is out and not much more to say about it in my humble opinion.

      When in doubt, it’s mens fault. And there is always doubt.

    2. Haha I didn’t even notice I modified his name that way ? Freudian slip I guess

  2. Are there any sources that you guys use for trading in the stock market? Basically the equivalent of aaron’s blog, but then for trading.

    I already have a solid portfolio but was looking into option strategies for generating extra income. Especially deep in the money covered calls caught my attention.

    1. haha, the thing is you really need to look for quality content.

      The moment it involves money or women, it’s very prone to attracting scammers.

      Aaron are there any sources on the stock market or trading that you have followed over the years or could recommend?

    2. Maybe use the search function of this blog. This topic has come up a few times in the past already.

  3. I just noticed that 1 June kicked off “Pride month”. Yet, I vaguely recall that “Pride” used to be merely one day or, more precisely, one evening of debauchery. Then it got extended to a weekend, a week, and now it’s “Pride month”. Funny how this works. It also reminds me of some women who not only celebrate their birthday but instead celebrate “birthday week”. Let’s give it a few more years and see if “birthday months” will start to get mentioned more frequently.

    1. My sister celebrates her “birthday month.” My poor brother-in-law.

    2. I wonder if some women want a present for ever day of their birthday month. It does not strike as unimaginable. Some probably think they deserve it.

    3. I don’t think my sister gets a gift every day of the month, or at least I hope not. But I’m sure he buys her things throughout the birthmonth.

    4. Hell, he buys her things throughout the year. And they are not rich. Upper-middle class I’d say.

    5. I was not aware of this. Well, Canada is at the forefront of human progress. In reality, we have been having pride year every year for quite a while now. In that regard, it’s just a matter of the narrative catching up with the policies that have been pushed on us.

  4. Aaron,
    I’ve often seen parents tell their kids that they can be anything in life if they really work hard and pretty much accomplish anything. Upon reflecting on this question, I’ve noticed that theirs an inherent flaw with this statement. Parents are not taking IQ into account. Would you say that it is reasonable to tell one’s kids that no matter how hard they work they will never become what they truly desire unless they have the IQ for it? For example, if you have a kid who has an average IQ and wants to become a Nuclear Physicist, isn’t reasonable to tell him that he better change his career prospect because he’s not smart enough? The majority of students in universities major in the social sciences. The slightest challenge and difficulty they encounter in the stem field is enough to drive them away.

    1. I have some firsthand experience with this. I was in high school and my father was fed up with me over some slipshod scholarship applications. It was partly my fault but not entirely as I also lacked guidance in navigating the process. In any case, he told me harshly that I wasn’t scholarship material. Looking back he was right (at least for that stage in my life) but it stung and wasn’t constructive. So while I think it’s reasonable to tell your kid there’s a ceiling to their achievement based on IQ that hard work cannot help break through, the advice shouldn’t stop there. It would be good to help the kid see alternative paths he can take that are more suited to his personality and abilities, and to do it in a way that’s not demeaning.

      In fact I think it’s a disservice to encourage a clearly not bright enough kid that they can achieve their out-of-reach ambition. Money and lots of time is going to be wasted. I’ve a cousin who isn’t very bright but has been nudged by her parents to go down the generic business studies route so that she can eventually get some BS white-collar job (she says she wants to be a psychologist). She’ll be competing with many others from better schools (hers is ranked last and stigmatised) so the odds really aren’t in her favour.

    2. As this comment can be easily misinterpreted, I should probably add that my wife has a stellar academic record and the scholarship in question is the absolute top-tier in Singapore. She won different scholarships and got a free ride through university, though. In fact, she graduated with money in the bank. Also, her father did not necessarily want to discourage her as he is quite familiar with those scholarships.

    3. I think it is better to be realistic with your children. It seems that even plenty of low-achieving parents want their children to become doctors and lawyers when in reality, their fate will be much closer to the one of the supposed “doctors and engineers” from Africa that have been flooding into Europe. In Singapore, there is a huge private-tuition industry. The vast majority of pupils goes there, spending their afternoons and evenings, often even their weekends there. Yet, for a kid of average intelligence, this is a huge waste of money and effort. For the kids it surely is also immensely frustrating to be stuck in this system.

      I would not actively discourage such kids, though. For instance, if such a kid told me that he wanted to become a nuclear physicist, I’d say that this is great and that he surely must love his calculus, physics, and chemistry. This should lead to an a-ha moment. Then again, this does not always happen. I once met a young girl who was fixated on becoming a software engineer. She had come across a blog post in which some guy wrote that coding skills don’t really matter. What matters is that you “ship code”, i.e. release a product. Of course, the author meant that, from the perspective of an app developer, it is important to release something, just like there is no point in being a writer if you never publish a book. Yet, she thought that this meant that you only have to “ship”, and that coding skills are fully optional. (She did make it through an IT degree and her first job was with Microsoft, as a project manager. I don’t think she ever grasped even the basics of programming, though.)

    4. My nephew wanted to be a doctor his whole life. Switched from premed to business after one semester. I guess he never realised that he didn’t like chemistry.

  5. As I am typing a lot on a daily basis I started to think about upgrading my keyboard. Do any of you use mechanical keyboard at the office and can recommend some concrete model?
    It should be quiet (and still comfortable) so I won’t disrupt my coworkers.

    1. Mechanical keyboards are fantastic. If you work in an open-plan office, they are not really an option, though. My keyboard manufacturer of choice is Ducky.

  6. Aaron,
    I came across this hilarious song called “cunt.” I’m not sure if you have heard of it.

    1. This is new to me. The singer has an entire album of such songs. Amusingly, you could probably sneak this into the playlist of some ditz’s birthday party and they like wouldn’t be able to process the lyrics as they would not pay attention.

  7. Master PUA John Anthony has improved his game, his is now regularly pulling multiple hot girls per day:

  8. The 1950s are generally considered a very “repressive” era in American history by the cultural Left. Was it? Let’s see……..

    –First generation to have TV every home.

    –First generation to have rock and roll.

    –First generation where most people owned homes.

    –First generation where most people owned cars.

    –First generation where most teenagers went to high school.

    Yeh, real repressive. So repressive that the patriarchy and nationalism fell within a generation without a shot being fired. These cultural things were more organic and it took a brainwashing campaign by the cultural Left to undo them.

  9. This week I learned that Guy Ritchie put out a new movie: Wrath of Man. I recommend it. It features Jason Statham playing the same kind of tight-lipped badass he always plays. The movie is devoid of CGI, the action is good, and the plot interesting enough, albeit I should point out that it would not nearly be as interesting if it wasn’t told in a non-linear manner. There is a bit of wokeness in it, one aspect of which I intend to discuss in an upcoming post, but I have seen infinitely worse.

  10. Another movie I recently watched is Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk who rose to fame as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad. The movie is pretty disappointing. It’s patterned after John Wick. As I later learned, both were written by the same guy. Nobody is pretty shoddy. I have a suspicion why the review were so positive. It may have to do with the ethnic connections of the director. Anyway, Odenkirk plays some one-man army who lives the 9-to-5. Two thugs break into his house. He lets them get away, but then he goes on a rampage, making unnecessary enemies, which only further escalates to a cringe-worthy finale that takes plenty of cues from MacGyver.

    The biggest problem with the movie is that the conflict is artificial. The protagonist could have killed the two thugs after tracking them down, in a highly unbelievable manner. In fact, he could have killed them or beaten them up in his house already. The reason the protagonist does not kill those two thugs in their own home is that they have a kid. Thus, he is looking for trouble. You see, he really needs to kill someone to feel alive. The first thing he does is challenging a Russian mob gang, and killing most of them. Somehow, the protagonist knows that none of them have children so he can really let it rip. This sets up the rest of the plot. On a side note, it’s really odd that in movies trouble makers are always white. It must be coincidence.

    The movie is also full of cringe-worthy moments that are only in there for their supposed meme-worthiness. The reason why the protagonist goes on a revenge tour is because the thugs stole some worthless “kitty bracelet” of his daughter. This triggers him. Later on, we see him brandishing a firearm in the face of the thugs, shouting that he wants to get said bracelet back. In the movie, you’ll also learn that you can buy a building by finding the owner and dumping a few gold bars on his desks. There is more such nonsense in it. Anyway, if you liked John Wick, I think you will only enjoy Nobody if you up the suspension of disbelief to 11.

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