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Cake day: 2026年8月6日

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  • So shifting the discussion towards that rigid quantitative numbers is shifting away from where the conversation should be. That’s been my point this whole thread.

    You’re implicitly assuming that there’s one place that this conversation should be. MY point this whole thread has been that “where the conversation should be” depends on your audience. To repeat myself, “if your target audience consists of people who already agree with the basic economic principle, then by all means, add as much nuance as you like.” That’s a situation in which you can have “where the conversation should be” wherever you please.

    But if someone disagrees with you, and if your goal is to be persuasive, you need more than just being right. OP is not about the pure distillation of facts. OP is about how to be persuasive. And he’s right. That IS something that can be persuasive.


  • No, I’m not making an emotional argument.

    Perhaps not, but you indicated that the “emotionless language of finance and economics” constitues “conceding ground”.

    If you’re not making an emotional argument, then why would emotionless language be a problem? If we have no intention of making emotional arguments, why would we be conceding ground by focusing on “emotionless” disciplines?

    And then we’re talking about “winning” an argument that no longer cleanly maps onto what actually matters.

    I entered this conversation by specifying a target audience. In the same capacity, “winning” depends on who you’re talking to, as does the mappability of the argument onto real life.

    If someone already agrees with the same basic principles you do, you can just talk, and they’ll believe you, because people aren’t skeptical of people they agree with.

    But I’m not always having a discussion with someone who shares most of my fundamental beliefs. That’s simply not a situation where nuance matters. Just getting them to understand a single basic principle that they disagree with is already hard enough.


  • THIS is a ‘real problem‘? A fraction of women who are hating trans? How’s this different from those women who are punching down on trans

    Sorry wait… your question is about two actions

    A) punching down on trans people

    B) calling out other oppressed people who punch down on trans people

    … and your question is about how these two actions are different?




  • implicitly conceding ground by framing things in the language of emotionless finance and economics

    Your mileage may vary, but I do not consider this a concession. Anyone can make an emotional argument. You usually need to actually be right in order to make an emotionless academic argument.

    may actually be fighting things on less friendly territory to begin with.

    When it comes to arguing for the claim being discussed… whether you’re closer to homelessness or being a millionaire (the three month thing is incidental to the main point)… then whether these disciplines are friendly territory pretty much boils down to whether you can explain it or not.


  • If your target audience consists of people who already agree with the basic economic principle, then by all means, add as much nuance as you like.

    If your target audience is a single, white, cis male, 55k per year salary-making, apartment-renting, roommate-having, college dropout normie, then maybe a simpler distinction will be more effective?


  • There’s a difference between A) ignoring the opinions of a particular fascist and B) ignoring a year-over-year increase in the population of people openly expressing fascist opinions.

    It’s kind of like a tumor. As inconvenient as it might be, if it’s not hurting you worse than the surgery to remove it, then you should ignore it. If it starts growing, however… you probably shouldn’t ignore that.


  • the modern American use of “liberal” as a synonym for the progressive left… but word usages change

    Modern American civics education is, on average, basically non-existent. All changes in word usage trends toward less nuance, greater redundancy, and greater ambiguity.

    And that’s fine, I guess, because Descriptivism or whatever. But in the event that moderately educated people use the terms “Liberal” or “Leftist”, it’s probably okay to assume the formal meanings.

    makes references to the “liberal media” confusing."

    You seem to not be that confused, since you correctly pointed out that these companies are owned by conservatives.



  • Can you tell me: What is the y-axis of that graph? How would a person use this graph to determine how much we spent per homless person per year?

    A) The right-most column, upper value

    B) The left-most column, upper value

    C) The sum of all upper values

    D) The sum of all lower values

    E) This graph doesn’t say anything about price, and anyone trying to draw a conclusion abiut price doesn’t know how to read even the simplest type of chart.