potatopuff

Data scientist in AI but with a geopolitics background. American of British extraction, Western Civilization appreciator, "non-male". Frustrated Flyers fan.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

"As a delusional person with a PhD from University of Phoenix who has a deep disdain for my field and seeks to fundamentally alter it with dogma, I can tell you only bigots think science matters "

[Hood Biologist, PhD @Hood_Biologist]

As a man who has a period & a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology, I want Jess Hilarious & those supporting her tirade to stop acting like “biology” justifies their transphobia.

Y’all don’t know biology. You don’t want to go there, you aren’t qualified. My Black trans ass is though.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@90s_Centrist @Oklahoma_Brave "let me project all kinds of presumptuous made up shit about a person I don't know based on a zero context three word sentence" - a lot of 90 IQ dipshits on twitter today apparently

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@TheLynx_1 @Oklahoma_Brave Good thing I'm not one, faggot. It's literally insane what people are reading into that 3 word sentence

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@JayDubbTX @Oklahoma_Brave All I said was "holy shit dude" and the number of knuckle draggers who are projecting meaning on that statement and making assumptions about me is fucking hilarious lmao

[Chris Freiman @cafreiman]

At the risk of being a libertarian killjoy, I don’t think that providing free babysitting during a night out is one of the legitimate functions of the state.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

I think the kerfuffle around this particular movie is a little overblown, as much as I enjoy dunking on Page, but I think this very eloquently describes the general issue. If people could be seen as overreacting a little to this specific situation in isolation, in context it's because the cumulative effect of this happening over and over and over is that people are getting fed up and therefore increasingly sensitive.

[Dvorstone @dvorstone]

Most people complaining about the casting in Nolan’s Odyssey don’t fully understand what they’re objecting to because it's deeper than they realize: As such, I'll explain.

The unease they feel runs deeper than superficial complaints about “realism” or skin tone. What they can't articulate is their objection to universalizing the particular; an error characteristic of philosophical liberalism.

The Odyssey is not a universal story. It is not a detachable “hero’s journey” that can be stripped of its cultural origins and modernized for contemporary audiences. Its power lies in its particularity. The audience must do the work of closing the gap; the text does not come to us.

The values that animate it, xenia (reciprocal guest-friendship), oikos (the household and its obligations), mētis (cunning intelligence), kleos (glory), and timē (honor), are not interchangeable with modern liberal abstractions. They are embedded in a specific ancient Greek moral and social world. They are not timeless “human themes” floating free of context.

This is why the Odyssey functions today primarily as an educational text rather than popular entertainment, as it once did. It belonged to the moral universe of ancient Greece. It does not belong to ours. Its value lies precisely in its alienness: it forces us to encounter a distinct way of thinking about justice, loyalty, hospitality, and human excellence.

When critics complain that an adaptation “isn’t realistic,” they are grasping for the most accessible language to express a deeper discomfort. What actually bothers them is the erosion of cultural fidelity; the required deracination for modern audiences stripping it of its required context, which in turn strips it of all of the value that it contains. A universal Odyssey has no value.

In attempting to globalize the Odyssey, they erase what remains of an already dead culture; killing even its ghost. Ancient Greece is gone, yet we have preserved its artifacts and stories not because they resemble us, but because they are different. The point of engaging with them is to contend with what is foreign, not to replace it with comforting modernity.

Ancient Greece is remarkable, horrifying, marvelous, repulsive, and admirable all at once. It is not a culture we would want to inhabit, but it is one from which we still benefit by struggling to understand it on its own terms. Turning it into a generic vehicle for contemporary sensibilities performs a kind of reverse alchemy: it transforms something rare and demanding into something familiar and undemanding, thus making gold into lead.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@BurnFrankl71101 @curbdooog @benonwine I have read actual history, it's my whole educational background through grad school. That observation says more about the democratic socialists than the Nazis. Nazism was objectively a syncretic ideology.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@bumbadum14 Because the 90s was kind of a trashy decade lol

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@BurnFrankl71101 This is so true and I say it too. The old "letting perfect be the enemy of good" line is an axiom for a reason.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

This is an underappreciated and very critical point.

[Jay’V @JayVTheGreat]

You don’t have to love Republicans to vote for them. You just have to realize that Democrats are bat-shit crazy.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@heterodoxan Oh yes - when I say thoughtless I'm mostly talking about voters, not politicians or other "thought leaders". They know what they're doing for the most part. Although the fact that we met any drooling moron run for Congress does mean there's overlap.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@GT4htxj @AndrewGold_ok Fear

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@elonmusk @the_jefferymead Not really - it's a huge oversimplification because all three are completely intertwined and whipping each other up.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@MattHay35 @RupertLowe10 That's a retard-tier emotional escalation you just did there Matt

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@VDAREJamesK Extremely heartening that there's actually such thing as a mass deportation rally though

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@fem_mb I love him so much

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@benonwine Nobody on either the right or the left understands fascism or Nazism from either a historical or political theory standpoint and it's so annoying. People need to read more books and fewer tweets.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@curbdooog @benonwine They weren't lefties. Both fascism and Nazism were weird left-right amalgamations that make zero sense in the 2026 political binary and are completely bizarre products of their time, place and creators.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@meganmichelle @Anc_Aesthetics Reasonable point, but Steve Sailer is almost certainly autistic lol

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@Anc_Aesthetics I fucking love Steve Sailer lol

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@aziz0nomics @nasdaily I've read two of his autobiographies and both were a masterclass on this topic. I cannot recommend his books enough to people with an interest in public policy, governance and the geopolitics of that region.

[potatopuff @potatopuff6]

@grok @RareAxies @daveatherton Grok, can you give us more information on "vigilante genital mutilation/castration cases seen in India"? I haven't heard of this.