In addition to NYers fun site design/cute artwork, this stood out:
"Two colleges in Pyongyang..often outperform American and Chinese colleges in the International Collegiate Programming Contest—a festival of **unsurpassed and joyful nerdery**."
there is a baseline of quantitative/logical knowhow that separates cognitively gifted people from the average—and a degree of grit, the ability to suffer with a purpose...and a canny, cunning nature, that separates the merely academically competent from real *killers*.
None of us are going to stop North Korea's cyber hackers. Again, ignore the news for what it is/The USA is over, etc. but look at this;
If you're an American nationalist (tough break, kid) or just want to do right by some swathe of people:
Universities are hugely discredited, but still the default as a route to traditional routes of employment particularly outside of non-licensed medical work
mechanistically;
There's no good reward function for huge, huge groups of American youth who could apply themselves
- money (which can also confer;)
- social esteem (which can come from;)
- provision for a family
- role in a bigger community
We could create that, couldn't we?
aren't the PMC/McKinsey types absolutely loathesome? right now, they have all of the prestige, money, and social pull—but how long? even The Economist knows it is not long for this world
I think the next US political realignment / the message the Democrats of the future (as different as 2024 Republicans vs 2004 Republicans) run on will be anti-technology, anti-automation, aesthetically “quiet”, and even pro-“family”
Totally not pride parades or ‘hope & change’
Before we get into that, let’s see what won—decisively—against the 2012 RNC Autopsy, winning in 2016, was subverted by the GOP in 2020, and in a hero’s arc, came back in 2024.
I think any clip from @REVIVALNATIONAL could work, but imho, this is the best:
@REVIVALNATIONAL What makes this (and all his content) so good, and so compelling, is the remixing of old and new. Beyond just (Heritage) American nationalism it’s a kind of “White Zionism”; tantalizing images of an American Altneuland. Synthwave, art deco, 80s, 2000s, sex, guns, flags, etc.
Conservatism today is just calling young men "entitled"
for wanting what their fathers and grandfathers had:
- gainful employment without direct foreign competition
- wives like their mothers and grandmothers were
- a living nation-State whose institutions they control
Can't get a job? Well you don't want to work 80 hours like Karthik and Juan do
Can't get a wife? That's 'cause you're not MAN enough for a 31 y.o. with crow's feet and double digit body count
Can't respect institutions? America was ALWAYS about foreign wars so sign up, LOSER
All of these issues are interlinked; starting a family, providing for a family, having the status women care about, having institutions that protect the country, etc.
And the answer *even now* of conservatism is to blame young men for not doing enough and acting 'entitled'.
Btw as you may recall——this is why the establishment media & Democrats were freaking out about Vance and begging Trump to pick a woman or a minority or anyone else except another “jock” white guy like himself.
It scares them for the very same reason fraternities scare them:
18 year old men become 36 year old men in their next 18 years of life, starting from zero.
Increasingly they look at a sexual, financial, social, and racial dynamic at play from their adolescence and see they can’t win and are hated/scorned/mocked.
For a very long time, the deal societies gave young men was to ask a lot of them, including death—but, in return, they could reasonably expect to have a young virgin bride and an economic purpose with respect (including her respect): a household of their own.