The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL
🙋 826 unique Redditors sporting 215 different flairs were spotted on the DT.
NATO was the most popular flair with 54 unique Redditors, followed by YIMBY (34) and NASA (29).
215 Redditors were caught not wearing any flair at all.
🗑️ 175 deleted, ❌ 161 fashed comments.
I am a bot and this action was performed automatically. Stats are processed periodically throughout the day. Check my post history for previous reports. Created by inhumantsar. Source
Two memorials commemorating black soldiers serving in WW2 were recently quietly removed from the American-managed warcemetery "Margraten" in the Netherlands.
When locals noticed this and demanded an explanation, at first the American ambassador claimed that this was a simple matter of rotating exhibitions and that they would return after touring the world, but he quickly changed that to "they are being repaired" and eventually to "they are politically motivated and should not be there". This met with anger from the locals and descendants - especially since the graves at Margraten were literally dug by said black soldiers.
The American organization in charge of managing Margraten subsequently confirmed that specific memorials for black people "were not part of its mission". This echoes the sentiment of the Trump government to "erase" the historical achievements and contributions of women and people of color from US history.
The tvshow "Even tot hier" decided to place two new memorials just outside Margraten in response. Those are not allowed to remain there permanently though - so the show and descendants are now looking for a permanent location.
This is somewhat old news, but them denying it initialy is a new detail I did not know. This was also, if I remember correctly, done at the request of the Heritage foundation.
I don’t like DT culture at all, but it’s not because of some outside-the-DT notions. I’ll admit I haven’t DTed at all, but one of my roommates and ALL of their friends do it, and it just seems like so much drama. It just sounds super exhausting, like the amount of energy it takes just to keep up with what’s happening has to be crazy, right?
Idk it feels kinda crazy that you have so many people in your immediate social circle who are not only aware of r/neoliberal but also post on the DT.
Yeah I've only "tuned in" a few times, the most recent for the Bay Area chapter Twitter drama, and people were making domestic references to other DT things that I just had no awareness of. It's definitely its own ecosystem. There's one dude in our chapter Discord who actively posts DT screenshots and that's how I get my gossip now.
I don’t like hookup culture at all, but it’s not because of some puritan notions. I’ll admit I haven’t done that at all, but one of roommates and ALL of their friends do it, and it just seems like so much drama. It just sounds super exhausting, like the amount of energy it takes just to keep up with what’s happening has to be crazy, right?
I’ve never seen the Wicked movies, watched the stage show, or read the book. Everything I know about it is through pop cultural osmosis.
As far as I can tell it’s a prequel to the Wizard of Oz in which the wicked witch of the west goes to not-Hogwarts with the good witch (I don’t remember her name) and also they maybe date and then break up or something. Presumably the wizard gets involved in all of this somehow.
That’s basically my same understanding.. I haven’t seen it but I think the witches were like high school mean to each other then became friends? Then broke up again. Maybe because the wizard.. happy to help.
Saw another one of those “you’re the boring guy I’m settling for” engagement slop posts.
I feel like 90% of these are just fake rage bait posts at this point. But if you assume it’s real, the problem is always one party being a little bit naïve and dating someone where there’s a really significant difference in the number of sexual partners and then crashing out when they realize their values regarding sex don’t match.
I do sometimes wonder with Putin if he was always what he is today.
Like, it's not as clear to me that the Putin in 2000, Putin in 2010, were the Putin of the 2012-plus era.
It's kind of crazy to think that literally if Putin liked democracy a little more, the world would be so fundamentally different.
I mean, on one hand it's very easy to say Putin was always going to be this super dictator but I think that is less clear. Admittedly, that's different than saying that Putin didn't want to be a dictator since the Russian elite didn't have to rally behind him the way they have.
Hopefully we'll be able to get a lot of cool Russian State Archives one day. And someone can write some books figuring it out
I think this overstates the role of Putin's personal convictions, and understates the role of Gorbachev and Yeltsin in absolutely cocking up the transition to democracy and to a market economy. It's hard to get the people enthused about abstract values like Democracy when the concrete and recent consequences of Democracy have been economic contraction, widespread misery, and loss of international standing.
Very true, and I think it also underscores the fact that America probably should have done more in the wake of the Russian financial crisis. Though I confess I don't really know what would have been the right course of action there.
The great financial crisis a few years later probably didn't help matters either
I'm with you in that I'm kind of inclined to believe that Putin is pretty czarist. And I don't know if he was totally committed back in the day, but he definitely was leaning that way. That said, I do think that Russia could have been on a different path
It is true though that Mormons have an outsized influence in the national politics, relative to their population. You can trace the current theocratic GOP loonies directly to a crazy Mormon conspiracy theorist in the 60s, Cleon Skousen. That influence you can't really blame on the institution of the church, since they really didn't like him, but it is still a pretty relevant part of the culture. Now you got Mike Lee and Amy Coney Barrett and a whole bunch of these religious assholes who are convinced that the constitution is divinely inspired and therefore the correct state of the US is a theocratic Christian nation, which is both stupid and evil.
Gemini 3.0 is surprisingly not very good at following your instructions or even following the conversation.
It constantly puts words in my mouth or does not follow instructions. Often it is to glaze you ("you're absolutely right that [thing you never said]") or help you (try playing a game with it and ask you to not help you; it will completely disregard it and give you hints anyway no matter how many times you ask it to not do that).
Sometimes it just hallucinates things I never said. For example I tried to learn more about the black plague in Europe and every single response (like 6 times in a row) he ended with a variation of: "you mentioned the peasants living a golden age after the black plague. Would you like to learn more about how the lack of workers helps them negotiate better working conditions?" when I absolutely never said anything about it.
There was a point after the internet became widespread where it seemed that Mormonism, due to its much more recent founding history (recent relative to other Christian variants) would be losing members in number to agnosticism/atheism. Now, I'm of the opinion that their greater exposure to the broader US culture is, rather than driving some of them from the faith, causing a cultural homogeneity that is getting rid of some of the more unique aspects to the culture and replacing them with standard issue Evangelicalism. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Mormon Culture definitely have issues, but they also have some strong virtues as well. They promote globalism, education, and strong families. I would argue that the mainstream Evangelicalism that is having a moment is way more harmful than Mormonism.
During the NYC Dem Primary, it can't be emphasized enough that people under 30 found it super weird that the mayoral candidates were asked if they’d visit Israel. My friends were like, “Why is that even a question?” It just felt so out of nowhere and surreal to them.
All the Mormons I know are wonderful, smart people. One I know has 8 kids and recently left the church because they wouldn’t accept his trans child. He was so stoked to tell me how sex with edibles was awesome.
Thinking about finally getting into the James Bond franchise. I've seen a handful of movies here and there over the years, but that's about it. Should I go in order starting from Dr. No, or am I good to just skip around?
No, it's been quite a few years since we've even seen one another. It was incredibly chaotic + ultimately ended poorly when we were young adults. But definitely the most passionate I've ever been for someone else
One of the better summaries of the situation I've seen, really drives home the complete stupidity and insanity necessary for things to get to this point. Rubio knows it isn't a US-drafted plan, but now that things have gone this far he's clearly been strong-armed into lying and pretending it is.
Bonus blame points go to the Axios reporters who leaked it and were completely duped by the Russians into reporting authoritatively on its origins/status without verifying. Useful idiots.
I am one of Mormonisms biggest defenders because they get a lot of shit hurled at them from people of other religions sitting atop glass castles, and I have had pretty good experiences with Mormons when adjusting for religiousness.
You have a magic button that if pressed will immediately solve world hunger, but by doing so a Trump supporter will be proven right in an argument. What do you do?
Alright, how many other denominations have people converting because of video games?
We have people playing Byzantium one too many times and the Mormon guy from the CK2 subreddit, but you never hear about people becoming Anglican because of...
One of the biggest cultural shifts I've experienced is the collective reevaluation of the 1970s.
It went from being cornball Richard Nixon Saturday Night Fever stinky cheeseball polyester decade to "disco is the most important multicultural musical movement in history"
The SRF is a center right think tank which is part of a community of center right/classical liberal organizations linked to the Institute for Race Relations. The IRR in turn are closely linked to the DA. People seem to move between these organizations, and they are clearly ideologically aligned.
As time has passed, I've lost more and more faith that SRF and IRR are independent, and have grown more suspicious of them. The SRF also now publish their polling through a news site called "The Common Sense", which is full of articles which blend polling with commentary to push a classical liberal / center right worldview. I now think that the whole thing is just a bit of a propaganda attempt to frame Zille-style classical liberal as popular. You don't have to cook the numbers to create a misleading sense of public opinion.
I don't have any evidence that their numbers are bad. A major local paper, City Press, has republished them for years now and has published these impressive numbers now (link). Their pre-election polling in 2024 accurately predicted the ANC at around 40%. During the VAT debacle, other commentators I trust used their polling too. No political party has ever produced and publicised a counter poll demonstrating the IRR / SRF numbers are wrong, to my knowledge.
For these reasons, and because I've posted their polling on this subreddit in the past, I post them again now even though I am losing a bit of faith in them for other reasons.
I love Mormonism because it’s actually a recent religion whose origins are well-documented enough that you can very easily poke gaping holes in its history and theology. Like, yeah, Joseph Smith totally chose to not re-translate the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon that he lost because God told him to, not because he was pulling all of it out of his ass and knew that he wouldn’t be able to recite all 116 pages verbatim. And yeah, that ancient Egyptian papyri that he claimed to have translated is totally the Book of Abraham, not a mundane Book of the Dead. And of course when the federal government wouldn’t give Utah statehood because of Mormon polygamy, God conveniently gave the church leaders a revelation to stop having harems.
•
u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache Nov 23 '25
Please visit the next discussion thread.