It’s not a strawman. Just because the proportions aren’t as extreme as you expected doesn’t mean it’s not an issue. Just because we’re talking about the gap here doesn’t dismiss the overall problem of isolation. There are many many threads talking about the problem of social isolation overall. Go engage in those threads that are addressing the problem you’re newly woke to and are holding so urgently now instead of bickering in here about who should be talking about what where.

That’s giving some all lives matter energy. We can talk about why everyone is so closed off in general, but this thread clearly focuses on a particular men’s issue under that umbrella issue. So no, we should talk about the topic, not hijack it for “a larger issue”.

I’m a thread about the wage gap between men and women (10-15%), you don’t say “We should be talking about why the economy is struggling instead”

In a thread about the incarceration gap between blacks and whites, you don’t say “We should be talking about why crime is up overall instead”

You make a great point about society needing to change, and a particular men’s issue doesn’t mean only men need to change, it actually does speak to how broader society considers what it is to be a man. How men decide that for themselves, are socialized by their environment into it, and how they’re treated by other genders. Just as women’s issues are human issues, men’s issues are human issues too.

Money

Fuck AI, it’s a bubble, etc. But I do wonder how much of the spending is actual revenue-generating operating costs and how much is further investment/R&D. I doubt Sam Altman sees spending Microsoft’s billions on whatever tf he wants as a loss.

Sure, it’s a dick move. People should follow the rules and not be stubborn dicks. The point of the comparison is how we can expect the whole interaction, from the woman being upset to the arrest, to play out more likely one way than the other depending on whether the person being a stubborn dick is black or white.

Yes, everyone should follow the rules. This is about how we as a society handle situations where people break the rules. I’m sure you’ve been pulled over for a traffic violation before. Imagine the best case interaction and the worst case interaction that’s still within the bounds of enforcement regulations, and there’s a spectrum of everything in-between. The problem people are pointing out is that one privileged group of people statistically get better interactions and another group statistically gets worse interactions.

I am sympathetic to the frustration with and resistance to feeling marketed to, but this person just seems to lack self-awareness… And lack of awareness in general. Not a good look.

I won’t assume he’s representative of large swathes of developers 👀👀👀

Well it’s a lab in China, and neutrinos are small, like viruses. So clearly they’re developing a quantum virus to destabilize the west. Come December, we will see the first cases of the ominous QUOVID-25.

Requires account

If you’re out of the loop, I found this article fairly helpful for a primer on the issues. It’s CNN, but I can’t be arsed to find a more kosher source.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/25/us/tea-app-dating-privacy-cec

That’s… What an AI generated review is.

If budget is the top of your list, EVs currently have high depreciation. You can easily find 2-year old EVs with low mileage for 50% off MSRP.

I didn’t say it’s the same system, there are several different ways and degrees in which modern slavery exists. Trapping and exploiting migrant/seasonal workers is another popular one. Modern slavery exists from the US to Brazil, China/central Asia, Russia, Türkiye, even in parts of western Europe you’ll find it in smaller or less obvious amounts.

https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/

https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

Well, the US did have the slate truck coming up for really barebones options… But tariffs ruined that for now. Some of the lower budget Korean EVs have limited/optional connectivity.

There is plenty of modern slave labor and exploitation going around. No major manufacutring nation is innocent.

Yes, their energy requirements have also skyrocketed in the last 20 years. However if you look at their energy mix, in 2010 their energy mix was around 70% from coal, and today it’s around 50% of their totally energy mix.

The Last Jedi and and Rise of Skywalker came out during Trump’s first term, UK had triggered article 50, natural disasters, North Korea was ramping up nuclear testing, a new age of fake news was taking shape, trade war, rise of Hindu nationalism… you know what you’re right, I do miss those times compared to now… But you know maybe this is the second act when things are most dire before… Well depends on the story arc 😅

Nononono the solution isn’t for him to write that novel, it’s for him to write “The First Algorithm”.

Andy Weir found his genre niche and stuck to it. And within that genre niche, I find he’s a competent writer, both technically and I’d say artistically, with strengths and weaknesses. The combination has made his works genuinely enjoyable for me. Ernest Cline, while admittedly not for me, doesn’t seem to be in the same league.

No, I mean if we’re talking about comparing US and Chinese consumer chips on most phone activities in 2025, you aren’t likely to notice a major difference.

If you want to compare mobile camera systems, that’s a separate comparison. I like Google camera software/processing a lot, but Chinese companies have been innovating tremendously with their mobile camera stacks. I’m way more interested in the Huawei 14/15 ultra offerings for example.