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Mole

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Everything posted by Mole

  1. 1. Losing is really, really hard. Some people take it really poorly. I’m sure alcohol is a factor as well. 2. Seeing cherished traditions like the Eyes marginalized is a tough pill to swallow. It’s an emotional thing. 3. We’ve bought a lot of romanticized visions of what makes a winner in sports. They’re largely nonsense and might have ugly cultural biases to some of them. 4. 2020 sucks. Everything is terrible, even the football apparently. This is tough. 5. Racists exist in all walks of life. Most racists don’t consider themselves racist.
  2. While an interesting idea, implicit bias studies have questionable validity and reliability.
  3. They might not love it the same way, certainly. I'd bet that many very great athletes don't "love" the game the same that the fans do. In Ball Four, pitcher Jim Bouton wrote about having to pretend to be super angry after a loss to satisfy the media. He wanted to play well and did everything he could to win, but he just didn't relate to the way sports writers and watchers relate to the sport. He certainly wasn't a hall of famer, but he had more sports success (world champion) than probably anyone on the field today will. I'm sure attitudes vary among elite athletes, but I think as spectators, we overromanticize the stuff about hating to lose, love of the game, and other symbolism. John Wooden didn't win all of those championships because he taught his players how to tie their shoes; he won because he paid the best players in the country to come play for him. I get the desire for some acknowledgement of the fans after a game and I get mourning a cherished tradition fading away. Those are fair feelings, but I think there's a lot of reading too much into this in terms of it being related to the poor play. The team lost because they aren't that good and they're poorly coached. They make timely, dumb penalties that kill them. They make mistakes that turn the ball over. They don't block well. That's not a lack of unity that's solved by singing songs together, it's just stupid plays and poor execution (ie., a mediocre team poorly coached). Especially when the team is losing, we often focus on things that are tangential to success on the field. It all reminds me a little bit of the Iverson "we talking 'bout practice" rant. Rage on surly, but the team could have concluded with a perfectly choreographed Haka to the Eyes and they would still be a mediocre team that is poorly coached.
  4. I get it, I’m just pushing back at the concept that this stuff doesn’t actually matter. It sometimes feels like that. Some people may feel somewhat insulated from this, but it’s very real if you look around.
  5. Going further in dealing with changing values: As a Christian, the witness of the American church is dead. How can anyone credibly preach the sacrificial love of the Gospel when they won’t be mildly inconvenienced for their fellow man? Despite the views regularly shared here, the church as an institution is an important part of American success. Trump didn’t cause the church to fall, but he accelerated the decline when he has the power to lead it back. As a veteran, he’s rejected and mocked our highest values of selfless service. This isn’t simply the disgusting comments that we’ve already forgotten, but the entire transactional nature of his leadership. Large parts of our country have followed his lead on this. Our sense of service to the common, American, good is dead. This death largely falls at his feet. And I’m an educated white man, so I’ve caught the best of it without dealing with the racism. Tom Herman is an overpaid football coach.
  6. Trump’s inaction has directly led to the death of two of my mentors and suffering and death for several other people in my life. I know kids in physical therapy due to prolonged intubation. So much death and suffering. His tanking economy killed off numerous likely job prospects for me this spring. The job market vanished. Long efforts in improving my economic situation vanished, and I’m one of the lucky ones to have a good, stable job in a tough field. Many of my friends are out of work and struggling to stay afloat. So much economic suffering. My parents have largely been living isolated, even from their church community, because mask-wearing become a political issue. People are living and dying alone. Everything is division. The old man that walks everywhere in my little town went from a quirky old man to a racist MAGA hat-wearer. Or rather, he was revealed. On a bigger scale, personal relationships are being destroyed because EVERYTHING, reality itself, is now a political statement. A significant part of the blame for all of this is on the president. He knew and failed to act. We all knew and he actively worked against us. He continues to work against us (we the people, not democrats or republicans) and stoke division. Tom Herman makes me a little sad for a few hours on maybe 5 or 6 Saturdays each fall. Life is better when football is fun, but it’s just a game.
  7. Pole vaulting makes sense in the context of ancient simulations of combat, such as spear throwing, hammer throwing, running and jumping, and trumpet playing (an ancient Olympic event that was a contest of volume — one of the champions slept on bearskin and could scatter a crowd when he played two trumpets at once). Using a pole/spear to quickly climb walls or traverse obstacles seems like a pretty useful skill in the ancient world.
  8. Data as a plural is a bit of an “I know what I’m talking about” shibboleth. I’ve seen antivaxers make the case that vaccination makes you morally culpable for abortion due some connection with similar fetal tissues.
  9. I’ll give him credit. He understands a spectacle. If he would have just stuck to trash TV or maybe started a Sex Pistols tribute band or something.
  10. Centuries from now, when civilization has rebuilt from the dark age we’re enthusiastically diving into, the world will look back at Reverend Ricky as the zenith of western civilization. There’s a straight line from Shakespeare to Milton to Reverend Ricky.
  11. There’s a place for art that challenges us and makes us confront the other uncomfortable reality of the oversexualizing and exploitation of young girls. Communicating that message by sexually exploiting young girls is a bit of a disconnect. Of course, that’s separate from challenging the legality of the movie, which seems like a huge stretch.
  12. King George III IMO
  13. Pro-life president.
  14. So, individual one was patient zero.
  15. For me, one of the more important things that Biden did during the debate was to give the firm reassurance that if Trump loses the election, there’s nothing he can do about it. In all the chaos, I found it calming.
  16. They’d be losers is the Trumpian worldview.
  17. FIFY
  18. A lot of the Old Testament is God mercifully delaying but ultimately giving His people the terrible things that they want, including terrible leaders. God sent does not necessarily mean God-approved. I actually agree that Trump was appointed by God, I just think it means something a little bit different than Trump’s supporters.
  19. Barron hasn't seen his dad in three years plus. Blippy and whoever Melania is actually fucking are Barron's new dads. Trump has the pee tape and Blippi has the Harlem Shake video. Seems like a pretty even exchange.
  20. So they actually did just lose a listener?
  21. I guess he’s gotta catch up on approving those TPS reports.
  22. I didn’t realize that he was still alive. It’s better to burn out than it is to rust.
  23. The simulation is buffering. There’s too much going on.
  24. From several months back, “mild” symptoms seemed to be defined as anything not requiring hospitalization, which could still be very, very sick. It seemed like it was no symptoms-> mild -> admitted -> vent -> dead Trump’s a special case for many reasons, but even if he’s just having “mild” symptoms, he could be very sick.
  25. My parents are in their mid 70s. They’re kind, thoughtful, and well-educated. They went full Trump. I think the COVID issue has turned them a bit, but they’ve made a pretty dramatic transformation from the people they were 10 years ago (a common sentiment here). The last time we visited, Tucker was appointment TV for them. Any event for the day had to be evaluated through the Tucker worldview. It’s such a powerful and destructive tool.
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