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> Masturbating is no cheaper or easier now than it ever was

Given the amount of men who can't masturbate using their imaginations, masturbation has absolutely become cheaper and easier.

The first thing I asked about was healthcare. Without the safety net of socialized healthcare, people routinely have to pay for it.

I'm pro-natalist and pro-freedom.

I know people who don't want to spend $30 on dinner because they already drained their accounts for minor medical problems, yes.

I certainly support efforts to shape US society into one where people might want children. Universal healthcare, strong social safety nets, free education, etc. Not to mention one where land is used in a conscientious way to build community, with walkable spaces, public third spaces, and strong public transit.

Barcelona and São Paulo are quite comparable to cities like NYC or Boston. I imagine people in rural Spain and Brazil also get around via car.

In the US, immigrants often do pay taxes, and use up fewer benefits[1]. Moreover, our social security relies on perpetual growth to sustain itself. So if we can't grow our population via children, we must grow it via immigrants, to remain solvent.

[1] https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-used-less-welfare-nativ...

> In fact Japanese generally make less money. IT salaries are in the $50k range. Minimum wage is $7.5 Yet they still go out.

What's their healthcare like? If something bad happens, do they need to rely on savings to pull through, or does their society have stronger social safety nets that allow them to spend their money with less concern?

> Women choose less lucrative careers

"Choose" is perhaps technically true, but misleading. Women are generally pressured out of lucrative careers.

Remember that programming started as a woman-dominated field (due to perceived proximity to typing as the fundamental skill), which is how so many pioneers and influential figures ended up being women (Grace Hopper, Margaret Hamilton). Women were ultimately pushed out as the field gained perceived prestige.

> I challenge you to consider that men and women's strength have overlapping distributions.

This is true. However, most pilots in the early days came from the military, which likely selects towards the stronger end of the men's distributions.

My university required a swim test to graduate, and also required 10 minutes of treading water in order to access sailboats. Many of my classmates talked about this being difficult, but both were trivial for me.

Fat is buoyant.

It's possible for Ian to mean what he says, while also missing additional context (high net worth) that changes the perspective of the reader.

Can you expand on what you mean by "outgroup"?

From what I see, power/wealth in the US is still disproportionately held by white men. The balance may be shifting, but a slight reduction in privilege towards the average is not the same as becoming outgroup.

> I don’t get why left is so afraid of pissing radical feminists off. It’s not like they will begin to vote right wing.

They're not. Embracing trans people runs completely counter to radical feminism. The left currently subscribes to liberal feminism, not radical feminism.

I perpetually rub/touch my eyes. My big fear around these surgeries is weakening a structure such that damage is more likely.

Debating moving to iCloud. What are other people's experiences?

> It's not my job to prove to you the object is actually a spade.

> Time is valuable. You're not obligated to let idiots waste it.

Right on both counts!

However: If insufficiently many people put in the effort to explain their proof/reasoning to others, then we shouldn't be surprised when that side loses.

I do agree that citing specific laws is best. However, if the building is on fire, I want the alarm bells on immediately even if it's low specificity.

What sort of assumptions have you been seeing?

At minimum, drawing people's attention to the ongoing issues can result in a different batch of congressional representatives in the future.

Politics doesn't always act on instant gratification.

Illegal acts should be called out, even if our government is failing to enforce the law. Otherwise it will become easy for the acts to get ignored entirely.

Men typically rely on their wives as their sole emotional support, and then people are surprised when 70% of divorces are initiated by women.

First-time home owners have increased in age[0], the middle class is shrinking[1], education costs have vastly outpaced inflation[2] as have medical costs[3].

Perhaps the generalized fear is not so much about "coddling", but concrete realities. I do not envy them.

[0] https://www.axios.com/2023/11/20/american-housing-market-old... [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/20/how-the-a... [2] https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-co... [3] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/how-does-medical-i...

Americans pronounce "lieutenant" closer to the native French pronunciation.

How much effort does one need to put into evaluating a community compared to building a well? It could be that a 60% failure rate is more efficient than a 0% failure rate with costly evaluations.

(I'm not familiar with Mr. Beast. I will say that the 2 videos I've seen bordered on psychopathy. But I think the general principle of my statement is still worth exploring.)

He still advertises on social media. He still uses Facebook for his courses.

He just uses his wife's account.

> I would literally doodle, stare out a window, zone out daydreaming, or anything else other than read a textbook I didn't want to read for one reason or another, or pay attention to a teacher for that matter.

Being bored allows for creativity and problem-solving. You might not do well at that specific subject (eg, math if you never pay attention in math class). But you might do something with some other area of your life.

Constant distraction/consumption means never doing anything of value.

They don't get smudged when giving oral?