Open Thread

Open Thread #357

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54 thoughts on “Open Thread #357

  1. I am making hardly any progress on my gaming backlog, but Crow Country certainly looks interesting. It is a new take on the old-school Resident Evil formula:
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1996010/Crow_Country/
    I find it quite remarkable that the PS1 low-polygon look is enjoying a revival. For the longest time, the mainstream opinion was that early 3D games did not age well.

  2. Aaron,
    I’ve been watching a few YouTube videos, and I was surprised to learn that many German homes don’t have A.C. So, how do Germans cope with the summer heat?

    1. German Police vs USA Police, the last few seconds of the video are quite accurate with law enforcement in the US.

    2. Many American cops are scum bags. High school nerds taking it out on the world. It is NOT just POC that they pick on. I’ve been illegally searched before. Here you need probable cause, and he had none.

      Another time I got pulled over for expired tags. He asked me why I was breathing heavily. I was driving home from the gym. I was much more than one day late unlike the guy in the video, to be fair. I told him my situation. That I was temporarily unemployed, that the next month I would pay because my tax refund was coming. That I went to the gym because it was good for my chronic anxiety. That its only a ten minute drive. He just waved it off and told me to get out of the car. And asked if he could search me. For expired TAGS?

      I let him because I thought it would help my predicament. So it wasn’t illegal, just a dick move. Then he told me where to sit. THAT was a violation. He told me he was going to tow the car. I know that if you at least have insurance it’s their jurisdiction to tow the car or not. I had insurance. I told me that and he coldly said, “well, that’s not going to happen tonight.”

      He was a fat, brillo headed, bespectacled dork. I probably reminded him of the guys who used beat him up in high school. Didn’t help that I told him I was coming back from the gym lol.

    3. @GoodLookingAndSleazy
      For future reference do not let law enforcement search your vehicle even if you do not have anything to hide, and you’re a law abiding citizen. All they need is your “consent” to search your vehicle, or you have some kind of bench warrant. They can also use a K9 dog to sniff the outside of your vehicle without any consent and its legal to. You also don’t have to explain yourself to law enforcement. You have the right to exercise the 5the amendment. This aint Saudi Arabia or North Korea.

      If you ever get a citation for speeding or anything, I recommend you fight it in court. There’s something called Trial by Declaration which the majority of the public doesn’t know. Its your best shot at winning and challenging a citation that has been issued by an officer. If you ever need more details just reach out to me, and I can guide you. There’s no additional court cost. You typically win by default when you challenge the officer. There’s more to it, but the process is very simple.

    4. @GoodLookingAndSleazy
      There’s a lot of cops that are unfit to be in the force, and many don’t belong there. They even give good cops a bad rap as well. In 2021, Gov Noodles (Newsome) singed a legislation SB 2 which allows the Police Commission to decertify an officer for misconduct – its a lengthy process. Once an officer has been decertify he or she can no longer work as an officer in the state. Its a good thing and a bad thing as well.

    5. I guess bad experience for everybody.

      I have experienced kindness of cops. I was walking along the highway because I thought I could walk 1 bour to the bookstore. A cop stopped me and asked me go to the side and called a Uber. While walking towards the far end of the side, I stepped onto a spot of water and had my feet all wet, including my sock. I did not know what to do. He must have pitied me and called me back to his car, then he drived me to the gas station so I could call Uber.

      No matter how worse are the US cops, they are a million times better than Vietnamese so-called police, who could not cite any law and asked for bribes.

      Of course the above statement does not apply to cops who shoot people for no reasons.

    6. I don’t think above video truthfully reflects police officers in the US. It is stereotype.

    7. Another time I got pulled over for expired tags. He asked me why I was breathing heavily. I was driving home from the gym. I was much more than one day late unlike the guy in the video, to be fair. I told him my situation. That I was temporarily unemployed, that the next month I would pay because my tax refund was coming. That I went to the gym because it was good for my chronic anxiety. That its only a ten minute drive. He just waved it off and told me to get out of the car. And asked if he could search me. For expired TAGS?

      Is this true? From what I gather from your post, you have a high-earning job. If this is not true, you are lying to an officer and his radical reaction must have been because he knows you are lying.

    8. I’ve had a few experiences with police in America.

      They were either of the positive type the video labels as German (I have no experience with German police), or fairly “robotic” – an officer who was not kind, but not rude, either. He was just completely neutral and went through the paces of doing his job.

      I’ve never had a really bad experience with them. I generally found them to be good people.

      (The U.S. part of the video is obvious nonsense – most traffic stops do not end with murder. But it’s a parody video. 🙂 )

    9. Well, you could always be unlucky and run into a fat female cop who mistakes her gun for a taser and puts a dozen bullets into you. The original video made the rounds a few years ago. It was quite comical. Below is a news report that at least gives you an idea of that altercation. The video editing seems to have been made to make the woman look a bit less incompetent.

    10. @Chris, I should clarify that he searched my person, not my car. But asked me if I needed anything out of it. I did, I went to get it, and he shouted, “get away from the car, get away from the car!”

      Like I could fucking go anywhere. There was a tree planter in front of my car, and his car behind it.

      Thanks for the info. BTW have you heard of Mr Ticket? For when you get a traffic ticket?

      @Quang. I am not a liar. I don’t make great money. San Diego is a very expensive town (can’t go too long with no pay check, and my gym membership is only 10 bucks a month) with too many shitty cops. California in general I think.

      @Karl. I’ve had some cool experiences with SDPD. But I have to reiterate that they have a pretty bad reputation here. LA is probably worse. I know a guy who’s friends with cops, and some brag about their traffic ticket count.

      I’ve also heard of about some kind of friends and family card you can get, at least in NY. So if they pull you over for a routine traffic violation, you just show them this card and they let you go with no citation. Fucking BS.

    11. @Quang. I am not a liar. I don’t make great money. San Diego is a very expensive town (can’t go too long with no pay check, and my gym membership is only 10 bucks a month) with too many shitty cops. California in general I think

      I am sorry. I thought you were Chris because your avatar is similar to him. I am confused between you two.

      I did not intend to make you reveal your financial situation.

    12. It’s cool Quan. I’ve just had some bad experiences. Including when crimes were committed against myself and my family they didn’t do shit.

    13. GLAS:

      I mostly had contact with the LAPD, and I found them very professional.

      If they write a lot of traffic tickets, then that makes me happy. Traffic in L.A. was hell die to the amount of cars, but at least people were generally good at following the rules. I suspect the frequency of citations influences this to some degree. Admittedly a bit tasteless to brag about one’s numbers, though!

      I also heard about those “courtesy cards” that NYPD officers can pass out. Just did a quick googling, and some policeman who claims his bosses retaliated against him for ignoring courtesy cards apparently sued the department last year:
      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/04/nypd-lawsuit-courtesy-cards-traffic-tickets

      Either way those cards are a hideous from of corruption IMO.

    14. @GL&S:

      That’s some serious Latin America shit going on there, hah. We jokingly yet frustratingly say traffic cops who abuse their power are “cashing in on their 13th salary”.

      Nevertheless, just as Karl does, I’ll mention another silver lining: in a road maintenance project I worked in, common pedestrian traffic regulators were useless by the sheer amount of traffic in that particular area and the general rudeness, so we “hired” cops. Breakfast, lunch and aaaaall the tickets they could hand out to their corrupted hearts’ content. They were happy, and we could do our jobs.

    15. Summer heat is not much of a problem. First, temperatures do not nearly go as high as in large parts of the United States and, second, our houses are built differently. Insulation standards are high, and houses that protect you against the cold of wider are refreshingly cool in summer.

    16. Aaron,
      There’s a joke in law enforcement, but I’m not sure if its still popular.

      Cop 1… “I’m tired of working over-time. I can use a vacation.”
      Cop 2… “Have you thought about shooting a black man? Two weeks paid vacation.”

    17. @ GoodLookingAndSleazy
      “BTW have you heard of Mr Ticket? For when you get a traffic ticket?”

      I have not. I did a quick google search, and I looked into Mr. Ticket. A lot of these law firms cannot guarantee you that you will win your case. These law firms charge outrages prices to fight your traffic ticket. You are better off fighting it yourself. Many people are too scared and intimidated by the judicial system to fight their own traffic ticket, thus, they prefer to pay the fine.

      A lot of law firms charge you an hourly rate to handle your citation while others will charge you a flat fee like $300 to $500 or even more. So, what do these law firms do that the public isn’t aware of? It goes back to what I said earlier, “trial by declaration”. That’s what these law firms do, and if you are familiar with trial by declaration you can beat the system at its own game.

      You have to understand the process, and it’s not complicated. I will break it down in simple terms. Trail by Declaration is a piece of paper that the clerk at the court house will give you upon request. The clerks aren’t going to inform you how to beat the process. Once you have requested trial by declaration you write a brief summary of the incident that occurred with the officer, sheriff, or highway patrol depending on who issued it. This is where it gets tricky. You cannot be honest with your answer because then you are admitting guilt and you will lose your case. You have to lie on the document. Now, many people will tell you that it’s against the law to lie. I know…

      The courts will not go after you because you lied trial by declaration. They got better stuff to do than to go after some who lied. When you request trail by declaration the clerk at the court house will notify the officer who issued you the ticket and that his ticket is being contested. The officer has 30 days to submit his paper work at 1700 (5:00pm) hours on a certain date. If the officer fails to submit his paper work you win by default regardless if you are guilty. This is what a lot of these law firms do to win your case. They don’t do anything else or different. Some law firms will try to discourage from fighting your case by trail by declaration. Its all-fear mongering. They want your money.

      There are other steps you want to take before you do trail by declaration like requesting as many extension you can on your ticket. So, what happens if you lose trail by declaration? At this point you have to options. You can either pay the fine and go to traffic school or fight your citation a second time called trail de novo which means a new trial. Trail de Novo involves going in front of a judge and contesting the ticket. When you go in front of a judge a couple of things will happened. This is not in chronological order.

      1. Hope that the officer doesn’t appear at court. If the officer fails to appear in court you will.

      2. If the officer does appear at court then you have to present strong arguments against your case to win. In this scenario, you have to have a good background of traffic laws to win your case. If you lose your case at this point you can request traffic school but its not guarantee. Its up to the judge discretion.

    18. Ah, I see. So Mr. Ticket is a scam that benefits off of the peoples ignorance of Trial by Declaration. And peoples fear of having to go in front of a judge.

      The guy I know that used it was going 100 mph in a 45 mph zone! The cops had him exit the vehicle and lay flat on the ground. They had their guns drawn! The cops didn’t show up to court so he won! I was amazed. But I guess he didn’t even have to use Mr. Ticket.

    19. I’d like to add one important piece of information to what Chris wrote: check the rules of your jurisdiction first. In some jurisdictions, you don’t get a chance at a real trial de novo after a trial by declaration, because you have to make a choice. So if you choose a trial by declaration, you don’t get a real trial, and if you choose a real trial, you don’t get a trial by declaration.

      In those cases it might be a better idea to go for a real trial. Presumably, the chance of the cop missing a trial date is greater than the chance of him not filling out a form (yes, many have pre-written forms for the most common offenses, where the officer only has to fill in the particulars).

    1. Faggotry going mainstream doesn’t mean you aren’t a fag anymore. Besides, it has been mainstream in all kinds of media for a long while now. In the real life, the story is different, fags are still a minority.

    2. There are perverts with money and status as well. Not every perverted choice is the result of desperation (though many are).

      Besides, homosexuality has been mainstream for a while. We even have sword-swallowers and clam-lickers in top political positions in America.

  3. Anyone read Edward Dutton books? I’ve read a couple of his books and liked them, but even between the ones I’ve read they all were pretty samey. If I wanted to cover 80% of his ideas by reading the minimal number of the books which ones should I choose?

    1. I read two or three of his books. It’s probably enough if you watch a few of his streams. Edward Dutton positions himself as some kind of eccentric genius. Yet, he holds some shockingly conservative views, and even makes fun of people holding opinions different from his. I recall him mocking people who are skeptical of the moon landing. No matter how you turn it, there are some aspects that are a little bit fishy, which even a supporter of the mainstream narrative should be able to acknowledge. For a supposed scientist, he is thus a tad narrow-minded. I would also be curious to hear his view about the mathematics of combustion. This guy knows exactly what he is allowed to say and at best he tip-toes into a grey zone and then he hides behind a bunch of academic papers.

    2. I’m not familiar with Mr. Dutton.

      I gotta say though, Aaron, that I also chuckle a bit at the fake moon landing theory.

      There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there, and most of them I judge to fall somewhere between very unlikely and possible.

      However, there are three of them which I dismiss more or less completely:
      1. Flat Earth
      2. Fake moon landing
      3. Reptilian shape-shifters à la David Icke rule the world

      I dismiss the first two because every single argument I’ve seen in favor of them can quickly be dismantled with a quick Google search.

      I trust I don’t need to explain why I dismiss #3. 😀

    3. I did not say that I dismiss the moon landing as fake. However, I am not entirely convinced that the US did not cheat a little bit here and there. For instance, we know of several “moon rocks” that are fake, such as the infamous case of the US gifting a piece of petrified wood to the Netherlands:
      https://phys.org/news/2009-09-moon-fake.html
      Also, there is video footage I found simply odd. There is a famous one showing the liftoff from the moon in which we see that the camera is moving upwards, following the trajectory of the moon capsule. How was this camera moved? I also find it rather curious that NASA destroyed the original footage of the moon landing. Should these tapes not be their most valued treasures? I get the sense that the goyim are supposed to not question the official narrative.

    4. While I may agree about a lot of things with conspiranoids (not calling that to people who, for example, question the governments or Covid vaccines, but for the more extreme “theories” out there) but, as I said earlier when I mentioned the “fake eclipse” thing, these guys need to get out more. They give me the impression that they have barely traversed their own state/country. They theorize about a world they don’t even know (yet have the means to do so. They’re not farmers from Papua New Guinea).

    5. Aaron:

      Wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of things are fudged, both by accident and intentionally (like the article you linked).

      But the notion that the whole moon landing is fake, and we never landed on the moon? Nah.

    6. @Cycle Path
      I responded to your email but just received an “undelivered mail returned to sender” message, with an error message that hints at a problem at Proton Mail. I will try again.

  4. Aaron,may I ask if you have had clients who hadn’t plowed the field (or were even virgins),but ran into high quality women who reciprocated their interest early on in their life?

    What do you usually recommend in these cases? Sadly in our modern society,genuinely high quality women (By that,I mean not just their looks,although even that is diminishing as well as the average chick just gets fatter and fatter) just get rarer and rarer,and you might have difficulties running into one again.

    I think we’ve even had readers here let go of a GF-worthy woman to continuing sowing their seeds,only to regret it because they haven’t ran into another one again. (and they can’t go back to those previous women anymore,perhaps because they already got hitched up/married,or just plain lost romantic interest.)

    I’m guessing the age of the guy will play a big factor into your advice here.

    1. Honestly, it sounds like the oneitis impulse coming up with rationalizations to onetis-ize a given chick… “I’ll never meet one like her”. Which is almost always a sign of lack of abundance.

      Reading Black Dragon’s books really made me realize that. And since I’ve recently found a way to meet more hotter chicks (think instagram model level chicks), magically the one chick I had been idealizing as “I’ll never meet another like her for another 10 years”, is no longer as impressive to me.

      Scarcity (not meeting enough, or hot enough girls) always triggers onetis episodes, masquearading as “logical deduction that one should settle down quicker, because there won’t be more girls coming”.

    2. This is not just about looks. The combination of intelligence, based-ness, good looks and motherly qualities my wife embodies I have not encountered before. Plus, she is a lot younger than me. Some kinds of women are indeed a lot rarer than others, but if your only criterion is looks, then this does not really apply. Also, I think that “one-itis” is more of a problem for men who lack sexual experience, in particular if they did have sexual relations in their teens. In contrast, guys who have had two or three girlfriends in their teens tend to not obsess over any particular woman in their 20s.

    3. I think one could even come up with a rule of thumb here.

      Any chick that you see as the best you’ll see in a while should feel “meh” within at most 2-3 years. That is to say, you should be levelling up at a pace to where your “omg, she’s the one” chicks feel “meh” within 2-3 years. Otherwise you’re stagnating.

    4. In this model, there is a point at which you will hit diminishing returns. Once you get a certain caliber of women, I do not think you will be able to get women who are clearly more attractive than the ones you had before. Instead, there are roughly similarly attractive, but different. Also, your age will become a factor you won’t be able to ignore, in particular if you want to have children. In fact, a friend of mine is going through this right now. He is in his early to mid-40s and really enjoys playing the field; he is still doing really well, to some extend because he has a lot of money. Now he wonders if this was it and is torn on the issue of having a family of his own. The realization that if he started to seriously look for a woman to marry, he would become a father the first time at around 50 was somewhat sobering to him.

    5. Alek:

      “a way to meet more hotter chicks (think instagram model level chicks)”

      May I ask what way this is? 🙂

    6. There are ways to infilitrate any industry and build status within it. Do the research. Do note that I was already established in a parallel industry for years, so I didn’t start from scratch, though there are people showing you how to do it from scratch. Heck even Tyler Dyrden no longer teaches pickup and his whole thing is networking and building systems.

      I was surprised when i saw it. Fucking Tyler durden talking about what I had been discussing in the comments here for years. Even the cultlike believers in game are now teaching you how to build status and networking systems instead of game bullshit.

      *He does preface it by saying game bullshit is still useful if you’re travelling somewhere where nobody knows you bla BLA just so he can save face that he didn’t teach utter nonsense for decades. Otherwise he admits this approach is far superior to pickup shit

    7. Tyler Durden/RSD stopped focusing on pickup because it no longer pays. The well has run dry. This industry has basically completely disappeared and anyone still hanging around has moved into life coaching, broadly speaking.

    8. I spoke to a small number of guys like that, i.e. firmly established or at least a promising career, long-term girlfriend they are happy about and could imagine living together, no real worries about anything. They read about pickup online, wonder what is it like, and have fantasies about banging sluts in the back of their SUV. I told them to forget about it and just stay the course, and explained what it is really like to pick up women in clubs and bars.

    9. I also thought that he stopped teaching pickup as well, but apparently he only stopped talking about it on YouTube.

      Apparently they didn’t shift to life coaching, it’s just what they put on youtube.

      Their primary business is still teaching guys how to get laid. Apparently they have been teaching pickup this whole time in seminars and products. And lately they’re putting a bunch of content on getting laid, but now that it’s not pickup, maybe it’s more YouTube friendly, who knows.

      And it’s not just him, everyone is slowly shifting to the idea of building status and networks as a source of easy pussy instead of approaching random chicks and trying to pick them up right there and then.

      Pickup sounds good for bragging reasons, like I saw a chick and pulled her, but in terms of ROI, it’s very inefficient use of ones time and energy. And it has no overlap or benefit to other parts of your life.

      I’ve always said that it’s easier to become a locally known dj or band member and get pussy on autopilot, than to perfect picking up random chicks out of nothing. The return is just better.

    10. In this model, there is a point at which you will hit diminishing returns. Once you get a certain caliber of women, I do not think you will be able to get women who are clearly more attractive than the ones you had before. Instead, there are roughly similarly attractive, but different.

      Sure, if we’re purely talking physical looks, it eventually gets to a point where each bump is about being able to easily get girls who are 8.9 instead of 8.7 or something minor like that, if we are purely talking about objective physical looks.

      But it goes beyond just physical looks, and attitude/effort has a lot to do with it. It’s more like these easygoing and bubbly 8.9s are throwing themselves at me, whereas 3 years ago I idolized this 8.7 who had flaws that I made excuses for and where everything involved more effort. So in total it seems like a much better deal.

      And I don’t know if it’s just me, but for some reason the ease and smoothness with which things happen has always been a major factor in how much “value” I think I have gotten by getting with a chick. If I effortlessly get an 8.5 today and before I had to “work” to date them, it feels like a huge upgrade.

    11. Alek:

      If I’m reading you right you infiltrated some industry with IG-model level chicks and built status in it? What industry is this, if it’s ok to ask?

    12. You sound a lot like my friend who when I tell him a story of meeting a hottie in the store he asks “what store”? As if though there’s something magical about the store. Or I tell him about a chick I met on the street as she’s coming back from university, he asks what university.

    13. I don’t see the similarity at all, Alek.

      You said that you “recently found a way to meet more hotter chicks (think instagram model level chicks),” and said it had to to with infiltrating an industry.

      Hotness of girls varies a lot depending on the industry, so IMO I asked a pretty valid question.

      PS. Your friend sounds like he’s just being social, rather than thinking that there’s anything “magical about the store” just because you met a hot girl there. 🙂 But you know him better than me, obviously, so maybe he’s just a bit odd.

    14. @Karl: I think it’s a privacy issue, where Alek carefully chooses every word he types about his life so as to not doxx himself.

    15. Manuel S:

      If that’s the case, then I totally understand. All he’d have to do is say it, and of course I’d respect that. 🙂

    16. No, he really does think there’s something magical about the store. He fucking spends hours researching hacks on how to make money online, with trying to find what the latest trend is and where people are more likely to buy. Instead of going for universal principles. He even spends hours analyzing which specific streets would be better to meet girls in, and he’s been doing it for years, and he still hasn’t approached anyone.

      He just got a new job, for no purpose other than “practicing my socializing and approaching skills”, because he thought there was something magical about that job. He’s been doing this for years. Basically constantly trying to find the perfect angle before he starts actually doing shit. He knows enough, he’s been around since the PUA days, it’s just excuse making to not start doing shit. Finding the “best way to do it” and needing more examples is an excuse.

      Just like you admitted that you have to know my exact angle/what industry I infiltrated and in which way to apply the principle. If you admit that know what different industries have different quality of chicks, then you already know which ones you’d want to infilitrate in your country.

      So why the heck would you be asking me about mine? We are in different countries, have different tastes in women, different talents, backgrounds, everything really.

      The angle I took is related to something I was passionate as a kid (was a hobby then) i can now leverage it to both make money, and network with attractive influencer types. It’s completely irrelevant to you if you don’t have that background.

      If you spend time thinking what you want, understand basic principles of networking, status, ROI, you can come up with your own angle.

    17. Alek:

      Your friend sounds hilarious. 😀 Not to worry, I’m not like that.

      Bro, I just asked you which industry it was you were talking about that has such hot girls. Since you obviously don’t want to answer, all you had to do was say that. No need to make such a big deal out of it. 😀

    18. I do not know what industry Alek is in but there are cases you may be more familiar with. Andrew Tate, for instance, built a webcam/whoring business. Some guys start shooting their own amateur porn so that they can deduct their expenses for hookers from their taxes (see these two posts). Donald Trump built his own modelling agency, which is how he met his wife. I would not be surprised if he banged half the women they had under contract.

    19. If you spend time thinking what you want, understand basic principles of networking, status, ROI, you can come up with your own angle.

      If you have time, can you go over some of these principles? I am not interested in hot chicks, but fundamental principles in networking sounds interesting.

      That is, of course, if you have free time to share with us those.

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