Open Thread

Open Thread #221

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34 thoughts on “Open Thread #221

  1. It seems that the monkeypoxx release is more difficult to handle for the elites. While they happily locked you into your homes and told you that you cannot go to Church, one issue with monkeypoxx is that it is sexually transmitted by gay men so such drastic measures would lead to a rare case of unbearable cognitive dissonance. The elites will not shut down gay bars or put gay men into quarantine camps. After all, the goal is not to protect you but to destroy you. Perhaps the angle will be that gay men have to be protected from cis-het men who may lash out at them, so you need to get locked down instead.

    1. Can you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if we put gay men into quarantine camps? Get it? Shitstorm?

  2. Hey I want some advice for a first year college student majoring in Industrial Engineering.

    I worked a few years before starting college, as the pay was low and I didn’t see much future there and that’s why I saved money for college.

    I live in Spain and I paid 1500 euros for the first year (got almost everything A/A+, don’t know how, as I didn’t study much in HS but focused on just trying to assess the important parts for exams and did pretty well).

    But I know that grades don’t tell much about the success a person will have.

    My question is what should I focus on during these 3 years left. My plan is to be able to get a high pay job first and later start a business.

    Don’t know who should I talk to about this , that’s why I’m asking here as I don’t have really people interested in financial success or a clear goal…

    1. What kind of high-paying job are you thinking of? If we are talking about traditional career paths, then the only way to get into a high-paying job, as a white male, is to study something hard and/or study anything you want but at a very selective university. The latter has been working less and less, though. To give you a practical example: you can expect to do better with a nursing degree than a degree in English Literature, even if the latter is from Oxford.

      The problem with Industrial Engineering, is that it has “Engineering” in its name but it is not seen as a rigorous technical discipline. It is like wearing a STEM skin suit, which is also quite obvious if you look at the percentage of women in this degree program. In a serious technical field, a small fraction will be women. Yet, for some reason they tend to be the majority in Industrial Engineering, in my experience. Not to give you too much of a beating, but I think the reason you got top grades in your first year is simply due to low standards. If you did not pay attention in high school but went into a serious technical field, you would get chewed out in your first semester. You probably do not even study Calculus in your program.

    2. Aaron,
      “…I think the reason you got top grades in your first year is simply due to low standards.”

      I’ve come across a lot of women who can’t make this connection. Somehow, they are so deranged they genuinely believe that they are really smart. The standards of academia in the US have dropped so much over the last 20 years or so. I’ve seen the STEM field drop their standards as well especially in the biology field since you see a lot more women pursuing the nursing field. Despite the low standards in academia, there’s no shortage of females who like to believe they have it all, “beauty and brains.”

    3. In reality, those deluded women have neither beauty nor brains. You allude to an interesting phenomenon, the feminization of once serous degree programs, which leads to lowered standards, which leads to a decrease in reputation, which leads to lower salaries. The medical profession seems to be particularly affected by this. Some time ago I read that the vast majority of students in dentistry in Germany nowadays are women. Salaries for dentists are also down, presumably because plenty of women do not need to work, so they will be less inclined to negotiate salaries.

    4. @Chris

      What you write is exactly true, I was actually studying in the medical field here in the US just prior to COVID started and it is a complete joke. My first chemistry class that I went to the Professor (a 50 something fat white woman married to a black guy) put a message on the projector screen that we had to sit at a table that was multicultural, multiracial, and multigender….LOL….imagine seeing that on your first chemistry class before you even sit down. Next up, all of the tests you were allowed to use note cards on them. In class work was completed as a group and turned in as a group. For the lab sections of the class all of the TA’s except for one guy were women. Now get this, you didn’t have to get the correct answers in lab so long as you could prove you followed the process/instructions from the TA’s and textbook…..LOL…..this pattern continued into my next General Chemistry 1 and 2 which were taught by the same people. You largely have the blind leading the blind here even in the starting courses. Mind you, the overwhelming majority of people in these courses are women who are going to be doctors, nurses, pa’s, etc. You are absolutely correct when you state that these women think they are intelligent but they do not grasp that they are just going to be mere cogs in a death cult operation and the standards have been dropped in order to accomodate them and in doing so the quality of care given to people is going to drop considerably which it has been for some time. Medical error is typically the 3rd or 4th largest cause of death in the US yearly based on official statistics and if you were to include prescription medication deaths, vax deaths, etc. it would probably rise to number one. I think one of the funniest things is that women don’t actually want to be doctors, dentists, etc., they want the imagined “status” that comes from the position and they don’t want to actually work in the field for life either which is another problem that is arising once they either become pregnant or want to stay home with children after having kids with some other doctor. Quite frankly, I had an easier time with these chemistry courses than I did with some of the upper level philosophy courses but that is just my opinion. I see academia as another failure of a failing society here in the US and I don’t see it lasting into the future in its current scope.

    5. @z

      Your experience might be due to the fact that you went to a shitty school. Degrees such as dentistry or medical requires serious commitment and brains.

  3. The first year of IE includes Physics I and II, Calculus I and II, Chemisty I II,Programming, etc. Calculus more than 60% of people don´t even pass the exams… and physics more of the same. What I mean is a lot of classmates got chewed but the hard classes are in second year as majority of subjects are engineering, mechanical design (80% of people don’t pass), thermal engineering, electrical, physics applied to engineering…

    It is not as technical and specialized as other careers, but it’s because it includes business related subjects, marketing, logistics, automation…

    I mean, I´m really inclined towards science, but want my own business, and IE is a flexible enough of a career and directed towards management, improvement of processes, etc

    I can really choose from a lot of different industries, at least that´s the logic I followed.

    And regards to more technical engineering …. actually that´s what I was thinking yesterday, maybe is better a technical engineering, ex: mechanical,electrical… But I chose this one for flexibility reasons as I don´t have a clear idea of what industry I want to work in plus I want a business.

    I don´t see Spain as a country where one can work and live a great life, as pay is low Minimum wage if I remember correctly is 1050 euros… Starting point of my career is 1500-1700 which is great a great first pay.
    Some students report 2500 euros after 4 years after graduation. Which is a great salary I would say.

    —–The advice that I was seeking is in regards of entrepreneurship and general advice for a successful career, where to direct my efforts, what additional skills to learn on my own or maybe some course offered by the goverment.

    I don’t know… People of my age are still wasting time playing videogames, clash royale, etc, nothing wrong but they just don’t have idea what to do but neither they try to change…

    My problem is I don’t know people that started and are running a successful business, what skills should I develop while I’m studying , what to focus on now that will help me later or give me a competitive advantage.

    Every advice is welcome as I said I don’t know people in real life that are successful in business.

    (Regards to the field I would like to work on: Something related to consulting for businesses , improving processes or finding ways to cut costs. Really anything that would be very valuable in the higher positions. )

    1. @Alex If you keep your options open, you are not going to get anywhere. You need to decide what you want to do and double down. Also, you can forget about your managerial ambitions. I find it baffling that there are people who think that they will become managers without a solid knowledge base first. Surely, unlike all those idiots who study Computer Engineering or Nuclear Engineering, you, the dazzlingly brilliant Industrial Engineer who knows less maths and science than we used to teach high school students a few decades ago, will come in and become a manger. Do you realize how ridiculous what you write is?

      Your IE degree most certainly only lightly touches upon the subjects you mentioned. You study a lot less Chemistry, Physics, or Mathematics than other engineering disciplines. A watered-down Calculus II course may very well be the end of your Mathematics education. Here is something else for you to think about: how are you going to suggest cost-saving measures if you do not deeply understand the kind of engineering you are consulting on? Businesses are also run in a quite lean way theses days, so I just do not see how you can be effective at your imagined job with your kind of generalist knowledge. Let me guess: none of your professors works in industry, yet they all tell you that you will be much sought-after once you have graduated, right? Also, if your cost-saving abilities would be so great and your skills in such high demand, why are entry-level salaries so low?

    1. I’m not going to watch the whole video, but I watched a few seconds. There’s no way of knowing if the relationship is real, and as the title says, many people seem to believe she’s a golddigger.

      I find it extremely unlikely that that’s a real relationship based on real love and mutual affection, but I suppose there can always be outliers. Personally I don’t believe it’s real for a second.

  4. I’m going to (try to) steal Herkerderker’s low-carb diet of only meat, garlic, squash, etc. Though I’d be forced to include the only food that is filling yet readily available where I’m from in its natural form and not mainly carbohydrate: peanuts. And what about broccoli? That’s a veggie I can eat a ton of.

    Speaking of the eternal fight for the allocation of willpower inside your body that Alek talks about, I’ll be closely watching two of my friends who recently slimmed down after being diagnosed with fatty liver and such. One in particular had the misfortune of having to endure incapacitating pain and eventual surgery for a disc hernia a while after boasting his lean body, so I’m very curious to watch how he develops and whether he copes with therapy, going back to work, etc. without bouncing back to his old weight or worse.

    1. I had to stop eating broccoli because it causes offensive flatulence. It would also leave so many stains on my undies that I stopped wearing them !!!

    2. @Conrad: I’m not claiming to be as successful as Alek Novy on fitness issues or otherwise, but that’s kind of the point he’s trying to make: having the willpower and concentration to count calories and baing productive at work is tricky, and if you have a high satiety threshold…

    3. For weight loss, most vegetables are fine. For immune system however, avoid nightshades to start. Do research into the other veggies.

    4. @Manuel S
      >having the willpower and concentration to count calories and being productive at work is tricky

      Pretty much one of the major reasons (I already mentioned the other) I want to get this done first before attempting my business plan or going into the workplace. Of course,there’s still the battle of actually having to maintain the weight once it is all over,but I’d rather be trying to maintain while dealing with the potential stresses and problems of work than trying to do so while trying to lose the weight. (As you probably already know,naturally everything feels worse while you’re in a caloric deficit. Its an energy deficit. You want to be at maintenance by the time you’re dealing with major problems or chances are shit will fall apart) As the saying goes by success gurus (I know a lot of them are hucksters,but this one specific saying is true); Focus on 1 major goal at a time.

    5. Of course,that’s not a luxury many can afford,but I can. So I may as well use it. Huge fat loss is no doubt a difficult goal. Anything I can use to make the process easier and more pleasant (Unless you’re doing something dangerous like Meth) should be welcomed.

    6. I’m lucky I have a job where I move around a lot. Plus I work much harder than my coworkers. Lately I haven’t had much time for the gym but have not put on weight. Also if you’ve worked out for years it’s easier to keep the weight off.

    7. Pretty much one of the major reasons (I already mentioned the other) I want to get this done first before attempting my business plan or going into the workplace. Of course,there’s still the battle of actually having to maintain the weight once it is all over,but I’d rather be trying to maintain while dealing with the potential stresses and problems of work than trying to do so while trying to lose the weight. (As you probably already know,naturally everything feels worse while you’re in a caloric deficit. Its an energy deficit. You want to be at maintenance by the time you’re dealing with major problems or chances are shit will fall apart) As the saying goes by success gurus (I know a lot of them are hucksters,but this one specific saying is true); Focus on 1 major goal at a time.

      One of the major reasons people gain weight is because they under-estimate how much willpower it takes to maintain.

      Now, it is substantially less, however… that kind of makes it tricky. Let’s say that maintenance only takes 10% of the willpower than the weightloss phase… the problem is that because it is 10%, it is easy to forget it and treat it as zero… that’s when the weight creeps back up.

  5. I recently watched Top Gun, quite possibly for the first time in my life. I may have watched it as a kid with my parents but I am not sure. If you belong to the very small minority who likewise has not watched this movie, I recommend you do so. The narrative is very transparent: flawed hero, male rivalry, competition, and some romance, presumably to entertain the girlfriends of the Chads who were flocking to the cinema for the flight scenes. These scenes are indeed the highlight. They are very well made, both in terms of how they shot and how they are used for the narrative.

    I do not think that Top Gun has any real flaws. It simply knows its audience and delivers a product it enjoys. I would have cut out the romance angle, which added nothing. Also, the movie glorifies being a fighter pilot. You could mistake it for a USAF recruitment video.

    There is a modest amount of diversity in Top Gun. The female instructor serves as the love interest of the protagonist, so this one can probably be excused. There are also quite a few blacks in minor roles. Well, for Top Gun: Maverick, I expect a quota of 50% wahmen, a bunch of Asians and blacks as well as a few recruits with birth defects, perhaps a fake cleft lip, like it was done in Cobra Kai.

    1. Aaron,
      I haven’t seen the movie yet. I did read some reviews, and couldn’t I find any reviews on wokeness. However, I did come across some review about the Tom Cruise leather jacket and the patches that Paramount restored and reinstated the Taiwan and Japan flags. Aside from that, the original version did lead to an increase in military recruitment in the Navy. There was also G.I. Joe in the 80s that was used to increase the number of civilians signing up for the military. By the time I was in high school you also the saw same thing. All branches of the US military were trying to recruit high schoolers. By this time, I knew that joining the military was a joke since you were fighting for the goals for the elite and war no longer had a purpose.

    2. There’s not much wokeness in the new one. I would have liked to see more role reprisals from the original though. Flight scenes were great. Get a good feeling when you leave the theatre much like the original.

      I’m torn on military service. Often I wish I had seen combat. I come from a long line of veterans. Then again, they all got fucked up.

    3. Interestingly, some contemporary critics were not happy about the “homoeroticism” in Top Gun. Forty years ago, this was seen as negative. Today, a movie gets lambasted if it does not sexualize children, does not show men being subservient to women and incompetent in general, and if there are no trannies anywhere to be seen.

    4. I always assumed those scenes were for the women. Women love Top Gun as much as men. But the joke has always been out there.

    5. It has some flaws, mostly related to the utter lack of realism of the aerial fight scenes. They are essentially trying to tack WW2 style dogfights on 1980s state of the art jets and missiles.

      Most of the fighting would be beyond visual range, but that has little cinematic appeal. Top Gun dogfights are about as realistic as Star Wars space battles (btw: Star Wars essentially do the same for WW2 dogfights and battleships clashes, but in space).

      In addition, Mavericks rebellious antics would have him stripped of his wings and court martialed several times over in real life.

      I enjoyed it as a kid, but after learning somethings about how this stuff actually works, i have difficulty looking at it with the same eyes (or most popular films involving military matters)

  6. I’d like to revisit the old money vs new money concept I’ve been fascinated with lately. It essentially explains much of Gone with the Wind. *Spoilers ahead.* Like why Scarlet was infatuated with a dork like Ashley Wilkes when Rhett Butler was the obvious Chad. Simple. She was an aristocrat, Rhett was new money, Ashley was old money. Rhett had TONS of money, but it only mattered to Scarlett if she needed something. She said, “You grew up in dirt, and you don’t know anything else. And you are jealous of something you don’t understand.” That reaks of aristocracy.

  7. Does anyone else think there’s no point to hooking up with random women since the majority of them are vaxxed? Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have now been proven to cause VAIDS (Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and have traces of the HIV protein in them.

    Even if you don’t get sick, and get her pregnant. There’s a good chance your kid is going to become retarded.

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