User talk:GeeJayK

Traveling right now, so I won't be able to see messages here for two weeks. If you have something really important to tell me, email me or find me on RationalWiki:Discord. If you can wait, just drop your message and I'll answer as soon as I come home. GeeJayK (talk) 21:41, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

What is going on? World Blogs Clogs Elections The Bar (talk) (talk) (talk) (talk) (hic) Welcome to RationalWiki, GeeJayK! Check out our guide for newcomers and our community standards! Tell us how you found RationalWiki here! If you are interested in contributing: Read what our articles are intended to be Check out the to-do list See our help page and Wikipedia's formatting cheatsheet If writing a new article, consider writing up a draft And most importantly: Pull up a goat and have some fun!

Bongolian (talk) 21:06, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Autopatrolled

Because of your edits to and time on the wiki, Autopatrolled has been added to your user rights. This lets you bypass most of the abuse filters, bypass the CAPTCHA, and edit more frequently. If you have questions, bleat ask away.

We hope you enjoy your newfound POWER — and these external tools:

• Google Scholar Button ^{(Chrome, Firefox)} searches your highlighted text in Google Scholar. Easily check academic citations!
• web.archive.org and archive.today, among other tools, can save permanent copies of webpages. Never lose a crank website or racist Tweet ever again! Kevlarstar and his dog (Woof!) 07:32, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! GeeJayK (talk) 07:33, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Demotion

Because of your edits to and time on the wiki, wizard Sysop has been added to your user rights. Feel free to let your newfound POWER course through your veins. Once the high wears off, see RationalWiki:Sysop guide for more information. If you have questions, bleat ask away. Christopher (talk) 15:30, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! GeeJayK (talk) 15:32, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Gratz on getting sysopship. Techpriest ^{(I am Alpharius! / / / )} 15:43, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! GeeJayK (talk) 15:44, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Congratulations! --Goatspeed. _{Fossil evidence of my evolution}CircularRasoning^{See my experiments} 18:46, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! I guess it's not bad for someone who almost got banned only two weeks ago... GeeJayK (talk) 20:57, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

About portuguese

Hey! I've seen you had done some changes to my Canard article in portuguese. Are you a native portuguese speaker? Kaikecarlos (talk) 12:21, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Yes, ptbr. I've also edited the Draft:Libertarianismo Cultural article. GeeJayK (talk) 12:36, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

I have a Discord with 10 members interessed in translating, it would be good if you are interessed in joining Kaikecarlos (talk) 12:39, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Sure. I won't be able to contribute a lot because I have many projects that are overdued, both here and IRL, but I'll do my best. Send me an email if you don't want to post your Discord account here. GeeJayK (talk) 12:43, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Desculpem cair de pára-quedas... olá, gente fixe :-) Tuga aqui, disponível para ajudar! UninspiringNickname (talk) 18:20, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@UninspiringNickname I'm extra, extra busy right now, but I'll tell people on discord. GeeJayK (talk) 19:32, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Wait, you guys are Brazilians?

That's cool!

And kudos to you guys and other Portuguese speakers who have translated external links and edited Portuguese-language articles. I've been telling folks on this site for nearly two years that I would do that, but I've never gotten around to actually doing it. Instead, I mostly lurk on this site, and I will occasionally fix spelling and syntax mistakes. Sometimes, I will also add content to WIGO pages and missing citations wherever needed. G Man (talk) 18:59, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, there are some Portuguese-speaking users here. Glad to see another one. So far the project is on-hold, but who knows, we'll finish it. GeeJayK (talk) 19:13, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Friendly inquiry

So you're to the right of Nancy, but you support universal healthcare. Are you slightly to the right, and what issues push you further to the right than her? I just thought it was interesting, because I don't consider my political positions to be too terribly different from Nancy Pelosi (except for universal healthcare, ironically enough, which I'm against). Forgive me if universal healthcare is a moderate or centrist position in Brazil, I know next to nothing about Brazilian politics except that Bolsonaro = Brazillian Trump. IveBeenFrank (talk) 20:50, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Well, even Friedrich Hayek kinda in fact supported universal healthcare. I supported the Bismarckian model (kinda what they have on Germany and Switzerland), not the Beveridgean model we have here in Brazil (basically the same as in UK, though private healthcare here is also prominent). As for your question, changing it here is probably a right-wing (not even center-right), just like in UK, where Thacther failed to reform it. We had a shitstorm about it a few months ago here too. Another reason to reject the Beveridgean healthcare: if it doesn't work, its's almost impossible to get rid of it. GeeJayK (talk) 20:57, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Crow food

Whack! You've been whacked with a wet trout. Don't take this too seriously. Somebody just wants to let you know you did something silly.

Don't shoot until they shoot. --It's-a me, LeftyGreenMario! 22:45, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Roberts

Gonna do a couple of passes through it to straighten out some grammar and idiom. OK? I've never heard of the guy; was he any relation to Maggie Thatcher nee Roberts? Scream!! (talk) 23:30, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

No problem, thanks, a lot. Answering your question, I don't think so. He's just the son of a rich guy. GeeJayK (talk) 23:32, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

OK Scream!! (talk) 23:37, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

HAES

The version of "Health at every size" that you restored has drawn criticism for years. It is poorly-sourced, out-of-date, and not a balanced view of the current scientific understanding of obesity. Plus it contains fat-shaming and juvenile jokes. QuietLuna and myself worked to improve the article. The new version stood for over a year until Cristopher unilaterally decided to restore the old version. That reversion stated "If anyone objects then they can revert me and take it to the talk page." As one of the authors of the new version, I naturally objected. So I restored the old version, per Christopher's edit comment, and was in the process of writing a talk comment. I don't appreciate being threatened with a block for restoring a version that had stood for over a year, when it's apparently fine for Christopher to unilaterally bin a version they don't like. Splainer (talk) 06:08, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

I said I was going to block you because I asked you three times to take it to the talk page. Other sysops would've blocked you after the first warning. Many other users agreed with his move, so it isn't unilaterally, like you said. You've already posted on the talk page. Now, let's wait until there are more answers. I recommend to tell Christopher that you don't like his edit too. GeeJayK (talk) 06:12, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

His edit was a reversion to an out-dated, bigoted, and poorly-sourced attack piece. What the fuck? — Oxyaena ^Harass 06:22, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

As someone more familiar with the mathematical elements of economics...

What are you thoughts on this video essay? To lay out my position, I think its one of the most pragmatic approaches to socialism, anti-captialism, and solving class conflict that I've seen, and to a large extent mirrors many of my own opinions on how to empower organized labour, minus the strict Marxism of course. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 19:24, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

I'll watch it. GeeJayK (talk) 19:29, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

@GrammarCommie I’m not going to pretend here to be an expert on Marx nor in co-ops, but even though I’m dissatisfied with what I wrote here I’m doing my best.

My main problem with Marx is, ironically, my main problem with Smith, Ricardo, Mill and other liberal economists. They were right about many things… in the XIX century (or, in Smith’s case, XVIII). It’s hard to compare capitalism in the twenty-first century with its terrible counterpart in the XIXth century. For instance, as the guy on the video correctly acknowledges, that Marx believes there’s an ongoing conflict between labor and capital. Right now, however, I believe there’s more of a partnership between the two groups, even if conflicts often arise. Of course there’s still many forms of exploitations going on, but both sides can profit and, I believe, the best way to resolve it is to give everyone a more equal start, similar to what John Rawls believed.

Regarding the video, my main problem is that these worker co-ops make me believe that he wants to abolish property rights. As someone with a more utilitarianist view on ethics, I believe that supporting property rights because of some form of natural law is a mistake. But I do believe that property rights are important to achieve prosperity as they provide important incentives. Yeah, these co-ops might be working (I’d have to check). But in a global scale? I think that’s quite harder since, as he realizes in the Mondragon’s case, many of its problems arise by the fact that they are competing in a global market, and I believe (Ithe advantages that Mondragon provides to its workers also result at least to some extent in economic inefficacy.

And if all the companies adopt a similar model as Mondragon? There would still be a few problems. First, supposing these co-ops are less efficient that your average private company, that might also mean that the total output would be smaller, which can results in a smaller production, higher prices, etc (though you can argue that the general welfare would still be higher since the production would be more well distributed, it’s impossible to say that a priori). This possible inefficiency might even result in more environmental problems; I can elaborate that if you want to. A second problem: If some people decide to work in the old way, would they be allowed to create a private firm? What would happen after that is just speculation.

A more sociological problem I see is the Iron law of oligarchy. I believe these co-ops might turn into oligarchies very easily, becomes the very thing they wanted to destroy, though that’s just a speculation, never seen anything about it. I think his criticism on Mondragon might be in part related to that.

I don’t think these co-ops growing as fast as he suggests (and I think he also ignore those who fail). Most of the studies he linked doesn’t seem to have that many citations even if they aren’t even that recent (most of them use data from 15 years ago or more). I’m not saying these studies are bad as I haven’t read any of them, just that this might be a sign that their conclusions and/or research methods weren’t well accepted, and if these growth was so tremendous I think we would see these companies more often in the news, like we see Uber, Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla just to name a few companies that were created in the last 30 years and are among the most valuable in the world. In the Italian case, if these coops worked so well, why haven't wee heard about them getting huge and competing with the largest Italian companies? And why did the Italian people let them be destroyed by the government without fighting back in the elections? Most of the neoliberal reforms and privatizations in Italy were made by Massimo D'Alema. We do know the good and the bad about these reforms. What is the impact of these co-ops in the Italian economy as a whole?

I’m not sure if he supports these policies because of his own ethical and deontological convictions. If he does, it would be fine to support these policies even if that means sacrificing some economic efficiency and even welfare. But how much are we willing to sacrifice?

One last point I’d like to make (and here I’ll unfortunately have to mention Hayek) is that when he criticizes liberals, saying that they cannot think of anything that isn’t remotely similar to what we have today he falls into an epistemological problem that is called “rationalism constructivism”. It is not easy to create an ideal model of world and foresee all the pitfalls, challenges and flaws that this model has. Co-ops exist since utopic socialists like Owen tried them. What are the reasons why society didn’t evolve the way he wanted to? Probably the fact that authorities didn’t want to is a reason. But maybe there’s more than this. Despite some government activity against them, they are still allowed to exist, and if there’s only a handful of successful exemples around the world then maybe that’s not the best model. As I said before, I don't believe capitalism is fairier than other systems and I'll support another one if it's more efficient, but if co-ops are to substitute capitalism, I believe they are should compete with each other and (you won’t like it) let the consumers decide which one they prefer.

P.S..: I know I didn’t direct explain what is perhaps the most pivotal point of my post: why I think property rights are so important to economic growth. That’s because that would require an even longer post than this one, you can check Why Nations Fail, by Daron Acemoglu if you want to know more. I wanted to write a lot more, I didn't adress his point on democracy, for instance, but this post is already overly long, and I don't think it's even that good to begin with. GeeJayK (talk) 21:06, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

I did not mean to imply you were an expert, as my opinion was that you were a layman that was better versed in the subject than I in certain areas. As for proerty, I would suspect the author would prefer to abolish Private Property and replace it with "Personal/Public property" system most of the left advocates for, though that assumption is slightly speculative. Finally, unless I missed something, the video author repeatedly stresses that Co-ops are not a magic bullet solution, (and to criticize Mondragon being used as the go to "co-ops work" example), but that he thinks they're a step in the right direction. Essentially, to go back to why I asked you to begin with, I wanted your informed opinion on this person's opinion, something I occasionally do when I see my own opinions reflected back at me to a certain degree, and/or someone says something I think indicates interesting opinions on topics I'm interested in. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 23:25, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

To the last point specifically, this is where myself and the rest of the left suffer from severe disagreements. I believe we should advocate for cautious, methodological changes, so as to phase out capitalism (I also define capitalism differently, which I may have mentioned on Discord a few times) without replacing it with something worse, a cold, hard, and practical approach that is at odds with my more ideologically driven allies on the left. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 23:38, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

Could you please do one little thing for me?

Could you please move the page Hélio Couto to Hélio Couto (português)? I don't think it's right for articles in languages other than English to have a title that's just somebody's name. I think that's misleading. I would move it myself but I cannot produce the character ê on my Taiwanese keyboard. Thank you. Spud (talk) 13:03, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

@Spud Done. May I ask you a stupid question? You said you can't produce the character ê on your keyboard, but you used it twice on your post here. How did you do it then? GeeJayK (talk) 19:54, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

Also, I think the article should be deleted. I've never heard of this guy. There are many crooks selling this kind of garbage in the Brazilian Internet, and I don't think he's relevant enough. The article about him in the Portuguese Wikipedia was deleted by WP:PROD once and WP:CSD twice. Couldn't find anything about him in any major Brazilian news website either. GeeJayK (talk) 20:09, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

That's not a stupid question at all and I'm ;perfectly happy to answer it. When you edit an article, you can click on "Special characters" at the top of the editing box. That allows you to easily add versions of letters in the Roman alphabet not commonly used in English (like ê, ç, ň, ø and ü) as well as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic and Hebrew letters, characters used to write several Asian languages, International Phonetic Alphabet symbols and other symbols not found on American keyboards (¡, ¿, €, £, ♠, ♣, ♥, ♦). When you move a page, however, you don't have access to Special characters. Then you're limited to what you can produce with your keyboard. So I cannot add (português), (français) or (español) to any page by moving it.

Based on what you've said about Hélio Couto, I'm going to nominate the page for deletion. I will, of course, mention you in the reason for deletion. Spud (talk) 05:43, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

Can't you copy-paste for page moves? It seems like the simplest solution: produce or find the text, copy, go to the page move view, and just paste it in. --ApooftGnegiol (talk) 11:02, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

Congratulations ...

... would seem to be in order. Wishing you and your wife much happiness. Scream!! (talk) 18:18, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! GeeJayK (talk) 15:57, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Block of User:Derek Chauvin

I was going to find an admin to block User:Derek Chauvin, but then I noticed that you beat me to it. Any chance that I can have sysop please? Thanks. Harry Potter (talk) 16:19, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Granted. GeeJayK (talk) 16:23, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Cool, thanks. :) Harry Potter (talk) 16:26, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Opinion on Hume’s economics

David Hume and Adam Smith were close friends and, as far as I know, influenced eachothers’ economic thought. Since you appear to be the resident economist, I’ll ask you: what’s your opinion on David Hume’s economics? Leucippus^Talk 00:34, 26 June 2021 (UTC)

@Leucippus thanks for the question. I assume you don't want a lecture, just my opinion on Hume, right? So, I don't think I need to explain to you what were Hume's views on money, fiscal policy, and stuff like that. I’ll also say that I'm in fact more familiar with his works on philosophy than on economics.

My opinion on Hume (and indeed, most of the economists of his time) is that he was amazing, but today his ideas are of limited use. Indeed, he was a pioneer, and we owe a lot to him (he was, for instance, one of the major influences of the Nobel Prize winner Robert Lucas), but he was writing more than 250 years ago. A different world, where not only the economy, but science and the available methods were different. By that time, people used a very subjective approach, and most of their conclusions came from their perception of the world around them (in Hume's case, the impoverished Scotland). Many, probably most of his arguments are still valid, like the fact that money in the short run can can boost the economy, but in the long run you’ll just have higher prices but not an increase in the output but the way he puts it is unacceptable for us as he does not provide evidence as we know it.

Reading classical economists like Hume or Adam Smith is, in my opinion, akin to read Darwin or Mendel. It’s important for a historical perspective but you’ll learn a lot more reading the new authors. Of couse, economics is more abstract than biology, so their works tend to age better, but you’ll learn a lot more reading a modern manual than reading stuff written when the US was still a British Colony. Does that mean it’s useless to read Hume? When it comes to economics I wouldn’t say so for two reasons. 1, History of Economic Thought is a very important subject. 2 He can still give you great insights (again, his ideas on money are still dominant after all this time, so newer economists still borrow a lot from him. That being said, you need to be really good in order to reach this level.

TL;DR: Hume was one of the greatest minds of his time, not only on economics. But on this subject I think he's outdated, not because he's wrong, but because he came to his conclusions in a way that we can't accept anymore. People will still remember him when any of my favorite economists today are forgotten, but he’s far more important on a historical perspective than as a theoretical reference, even if many of his ideas are still right as far as we know. Maybe as a historian and a philosopher that's not truth as these philosophy is overall even more abstract and tends to age a lot better, but that's how I see him as an economist. GeeJayK (talk) 01:10, 26 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the detailed response. I agree that the main limitation of Hume’s work is historical i.e. economics was in its infancy during Hume’s time, and Hume couldn’t benefit from the sophisticated mathematical tools and empirical methodology that we have today. Leucippus^Talk 12:07, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

Board nomination

You've been nominated to the RationalMedia Foundation election. Please accept or decline here; if you accept, you may wish to campaign.

Bongolian (talk) 18:45, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

Sounds fun. Thanks a lot, I'll consider it. GeeJayK (talk) 12:47, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Please do. Spud (talk) 13:00, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

Keynes

Here's the banner for you

This user is a Capitalist who supports extensive government regulation.

CorruptUser 21:55, 12 July 2021 (UTC)

@CorruptUser thanks, but despite considering myself a New Keynesian I tend to disagree with the "extensive" word in the userbox.

If you don't know the difference between New Keynesians, Neo-Keynesians and (arghh) Post-Keynesian garbage I'd recommend the The Penguin History of Economics. I think they advertised the book with this slogan . GeeJayK (talk) 20:54, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Isn't Post-Keynesian just Milton Friedman? I could remove "extensive" if you want though. CorruptUser 21:01, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

I think Milton Friedman's ghost will haunt you this night... Next time call him a Marxist, I honestly believe he holds far more respect for them. Post-Keynesian economics is MMT bullshit and a few other sections like "Circuitism" which I never got really into. I can respect a few of their modern proponents, like Thomas Palley, but it's overall rubbish. Don't worry about changing the userbox, it would be unfair with the other users that added it on their page, they might agree with the "extensive". GeeJayK (talk) 21:20, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

You the homie

That's it, just want to let you know you're coolSShinx (talk) 12:38, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I don't give sysop rights very often. Please, do not let me down ;). GeeJayK (talk) 20:33, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Since you seem to know wtf The Economy is

I’ve just been wondering. Would you happen to know what MMT is? If so, would u be able to explain it to someone whose understanding of economics is fairly limited? I’ve just never really come across anything that’s not full of jargon I just don’t get. So yeah any help would be obliged! Thanks! 💙 ASELA^कुरा 💙 12:51, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

@Asela Thank you for your question. I'll give you a detailed answer on Monday, probably. I started our article on MMT though most of its current content wasn't written by me. I don't think the article is very good ( adding stuff is on my to-do list, but I just don't have time right now), but it can give you some ideas before I give you the answer you deserve next week. GeeJayK (talk) 20:36, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

@Asela Sorry for being late, I've been just extra, extra busy recently. I think MMT pretty much works as a cult, or at least a woo: they believe they have a silver bullet solution that no one ever thought about and/or the the big bad powerful ones are preventing the rest of the world from benefiting from their ideas. Their modus operandi is pretty much doublethink: they say their theory is just a descriptive one (see positive economics and normative economics just to make tons of recommendations of which policies we should do. They say that critics don't understand their theories, but apparently if you agree with them you understood. They say mainstream economics is full of groupthink, but paradigm shift has been the norm in economics since 1936 at least, while heterodox economics still needs to resort to books and papers written decades ago as their main references. They don't have empirical evidence (indeed, their research methods resembles Praxeology and both sides acknowledge the similarities between their epistemologies): they just use a couple of countries (especially Japan) as an exemple of how their theories could work. But even Japan pretty much shows many of the problems with MMT: just like America, the interest rates that the government pay is too low, that’s what allows them to go into huge deficits. When their economy starts to grow again, they’ll either have inflation or make some adjustments. Most of their ideas have been known for decades or even more. Their love to strawman mainstream economics in many other ways. For instance, they believe that every mainstream economist is an ultra deficit hawk that believe even minor deficits will ruin the economy. That’s absurd, most economists agree that some deficit is ok, and that the government can run in larger deficits during recessions (although the limitations of this policy are still up to debate). Even other Post-Keynesian economists acknowledge that their perception of how the mainstream deals with deficits is a dishonest strawman. They supported fucking Brexit!

I wish I had time to enter in the theoretical problems of MMT, but unfortunately I'm just too busy with everything right now. You can check here for better criticism of their theories, or, if you want to wait a bit, I can write some stuff when I have time. As I said before, updating the MMT article is on my do-list. The problem is time. Having a family consumes most of it. GeeJayK (talk) 14:57, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

You have been elected to the board of trustees

You have been elected to the board for the next 2 years. I'm assuming @Cosmikdebris will take care of all this from here as the secretary of the board, I just ran the results. -- Techpriest (talk) 22:22, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! Thank you, everyone that voted for me. I was my last vote, I'm actually surprised with the result. GeeJayK (talk) 01:42, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

Welcome to the Cabal! Spud (talk) 04:30, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, Spud! GeeJayK (talk) 15:41, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

Regarding the Prophecy of Habakkuk

The kind of editing I was referring to is here on Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiqqun_soferim . The article itself doesn’t seem to mention Habakkuk itself, although the article on Habakkuk does reference the Tiqqun Soferim, but the chart at the beginning supplies what’s needed. Skyknight (talk) 19:07, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

I apologize, but I'm not qualified to help you nor I know what you're talking about. I believe user @Bongolian might perhaps help you better than me. GeeJayK (talk) 23:32, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

This is not an area where I have expertise either. Bongolian (talk) 00:37, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

@GeeJayK You reverted their edits to an article on September 5, I think is what they're here about. 𝒮𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝑒 ^talk 00:48, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

I've no idea why I've done this. Maybe In was on my phone and I clicked on "rollback edit" by accident. GeeJayK (talk) 00:55, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Why did you ban me?

If you don't recall, my username was A Mouse from Pluto ^{— Unsigned, by: WhyMouse / talk / contribs}

I'll assume you're not the tenth account created over the last couple of days just to mock Plutocow's name and unblock you. GeeJayK (talk) 03:23, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Nommies

You've been nominated in the upcoming moderator elections. See the nomination at RationalWiki:Moderator elections/Nominations.

Wow, thank you for considering me, Cory. Wasn't expecting to be nominated. I'll consider it. GeeJayK (talk) 04:40, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Fwiw I think u would be good at it 💙 ASELA^कुरा 💙 05:44, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, Asela! I thought about it and I decided that I'll do it. GeeJayK (talk) 19:45, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Congratulations!

Congratulations, I hear that you’re going to become a father. Also forgive me for being so forward, but do you know the gender of the child yet?

In any case, I remember you saying that Lawrence of Arabia was your favourite war film, so with that in mind, what better way to mark this occasion, than with a toast from the man himself and his camel, his “noble transport”. Leucippus^{Salva veritate} 20:25, 5 November 2021 (UTC):

@Leucippus Thanks a lot! Sorry for only answering you now, I've been on a much needed vacation over the last few days and only now I saw your message. Indeed, Lawrence of Arabia is among my favorite movies of all time, and seeing O'Tool riding a camel with David Letterman is just too much fun. Regarding your question, here's the answer. GeeJayK (talk) 02:50, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Also, I still have some things I want to say on that topic about war movies. I just need to remember what I wanted to say on that day... GeeJayK (talk) 02:54, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

My pleasure. Don’t worry about that, I’m glad to hear you’re taking time to relax! Yes, I thought O’Tool and his camel would be a fitting way to celebrate this occasion. A lad! Well, best wishes for you and your soon to be son; will you be calling him John Maynard?

I believe we were discussing Das Boot originally, I suggested that it was one of the greatest war movies of all time; and if my memory serves me well, you suggested that Lawrence of Arabia, and a Japanese war film (which I’d never heard of) should also be included. I hope you remember the name of that Japanese war movie, it seemed, based on what I remember reading on IMDB, to be very interesting, and yet I can’t remember its name … Take it easy man. Leucippus^{Salva veritate} 17:28, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

@Leucippus oh, Yeah, now I remember. It was The Human Condition Trilogy. Another great Japanese war movie from the same year is Fires on the Plain. They're both extremely bleak and disturbing, on the same level as Come and See at least. We still haven't decided the name yet, but it will probably be a a more normal one... GeeJayK (talk) 16:18, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

’John Maynard’ isn’t normal?—for shame! I thought you were a good Keynesian; perhaps Milton then? Oh and thanks for remembering that war movie, I shall try and find time to watch it.

No, but seriously, I’m pleased for you man. What a momentous occasion this is, your life will never be the same once you look into the eyes of your child and they look back, once they reciprocate a smile. Leucippus^{Salva veritate} 17:00, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

BruceGrubb

So, I know I'm new here, and I don't want to come off as belligerent or like I have a grudge or something, but what's up with BruceGrubb? The more I interact with him, the more dishonest he seems to get. He was talking about Wikipedia policies and pointed to a specific section on one to back himself up. It turns out he's the one who put that on Wikipedia in the first place. I looked at those user logs you posted the other day, and he pulls the exact same stuff here that he did there. Someone perfectly described him back in 2012: "BruceGrubb has problems with original research, misrepresentation of sources, the use of poor sources, and biased editing (largely in the promotion of fringe theories and fringe viewpoints on mainstream subjects). In addition, he often derails talk page discussions with long, rambling barely-relevant edits that often include text copy-pasted from earlier posts on different topics." That's the same as he is now. I'm just kind of baffled this goes on here. Friedman (talk) 07:59, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

@Friedman thank you for your post. I'm very busy right now, but I'll give you the detailed answer you deserve in a few days. GeeJayK (talk) 16:43, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! No hurry. Friedman (talk) 17:00, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

@Friedman Sorry I'm late. I just don't have time right now. I'll be brief because I'm very busy and I actually shouldn't even be here. I'll also mark user @BruceGrubb here in case he thinks we're just gossiping about him or being unfair. What you said bothers me a lot. I remember that Bruce once claimed that it's difficult to engage with him because he's autistic and has ADHD. Although I can understand that it makes it harder for him to engage in a normal discussion, I don't think this is an excuse. I don't want to play the armchair psychologist (people have called me out in the past for that) but until the last moderation election, only a month ago, three out of six mods were also autistic, and I think at least another once claimed that they had their doubts. That didn't mean they were bad mods at all. Among the five elected board members of the RMF, at least one is an autistc woman, another is a woman with ADHD and even I had my doubts whether I'm on the spectrum or not (though I don't think I am right now). Many of our best users here (Christopher and GrammarCommie just to name two that once were mods) also said they are in the spectrum. Of course, autism is a broad spectrum and it doesn't affect everyone in the same way, but I do think Bruce could perhaps work a bit harder. According to his user page, he's educated. In fact, at least to my knowledge, very few users here have the same level of education as him. Indeed, he went through some debates during his graduation, so I think he probably learned how to debate ideas IRL. On the Internet IMO is not that different. This also leads us to the next point. I find extremely unhinged how he easly dismiss the academic consensus considering the fact that he also was in the Academia at least for a few years. Granted, Carrier, Lataster, Price and almost all other proponents of the Jesus myth theory have remarkable CVs (Godfried and Doherty apparently being the main exceptions), but still, most educated people don't offer extremely fringe, alternative explanations to the mainstream. I wonder why does he treats the mainstream with such distain. I'd like to elaborate a bit more, but I don't have time right now, probably won't have for months, but thanks anyway and sorry for not being very helpful. GeeJayK (talk) 20:21, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond in such detail. You were actually very helpful.

Thanks for the heads up. The majority of people that I've interacted with here seem like fine people, but it's always nice to know more about the community.

I inadvertently found out about Bruce's autism myself, when he later accused me of being the kind of person who wants to run autistic people like himself off of Wikipedia and RationalWiki. It kind of blind-sided me, because of how "victim complex" it came off as. Bruce is very obstinate, which may very well be an effect of his autism, but I feel like he's using his autism as an excuse to continue his behavior, instead of trying to make changes.

I'd write more, but as you probably won't see this for a few months, I'll leave it short.

Thanks again! Friedman (talk) 00:22, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

On Smith...

Oh, you should have read the whole conversation [as you seem to really know your onions...]

I [and as far as I can tell, GC] were mainly merely talking about what Smith said; I in fact explicitly said my view on the rightness of Smith wasn't the topic. The main bone I kept on trying to explain to Dutchbag was the idea that Smith hated rent-seeking activities; be it the non-investing landlord, the tithe-taking church or the artificially-protected monopolist. I also tried to explain that Smith was a man of his age; his concern about 'consumption vs investment' made more sense in an era of precious little consumer markets, very poorly-developed banking systems and a huge shortage of capital generally. If I'd felt it would actaully been worth it, I'd have pointed out things like Physiocracy, which Smith never truly left behind.

With '[landlords] don’t produce anything and we don’t need them'... neither I or GC said Smith said that. In fact, the only person who said we said that was Dutchbag [I think I literally said otherwise at least three times, which was why by the end I gave up]. This is because Dutch - for reasons honest or not - feels that Smith *has* to be in favour whatever the right-wing libertarians desire in the 2020s, getting angry and resorting to personal attacks when having pointed out the man was a lot more nuanced and writing from 250 years ago to boot.

Just thought I'd drop a line to clarify, as to be honest while the the idea that Dutchbag's ignorant monomania is easy to ignore, the idea a seemingly intelligent/sane person buying their broken record claims kinda pissed me off a bit.

KarmaPolice (talk) 19:55, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

@KarmaPolice In fact I was reading the whole thing right now and realizing how wrong I was. Sorry, I'll post on the thread again to clarify it. GeeJayK (talk) 20:05, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Well, I did put a couple bits of snark in too, which can confuse matters. Though quite ironically I wrote my own epitaph; I said near the top of the Smith bit words to the effect that he was like the Bible and Marx; often quotemined, rarely genuinely understood.

But while unnecessary, the apology is most appreciated. KarmaPolice (talk) 20:22, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

???

??? ??? What's this all about? Please be concise I haven't had coffee yet. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 14:19, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

@GrammarCommie fat fingers. I reverted these two posts and by accident I reverted yours too. GeeJayK (talk) 14:24, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Ah ok. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 14:32, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Please contact me

Please contact me at ttoulouse@gmail.com. tmtoulouse 21:35, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

@Tmtoulouse Done. GeeJayK (talk) 22:37, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

@GeeJayK I’m disgusted by your advancement in this company, at my expense‽—De-motion, and de-motion, and de-motion. I’m your older brother GeeJayK, and I was stepped over! Leucippus^{Salva veritate} 01:25, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

@Leucippus Since I couldn't get the reference by myself and had to Google it... Yeah, you're probably right, I'm totally unqualified. GeeJayK (talk) 14:20, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

Aye, the scene in question (one of my favourite pieces of acting):

you try to console me with “That’s the way the RW mob wanted it”, I can only rebuff you with “It ain’t the way I wanted it!! I can handle things—I’m smart—, not like everybody says … like dumb! But smart, and I want respect!! Leucippus^{Salva veritate} 19:42, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Cheers

Thanks for the assist there. Looks like I've annoyed someone, ha. ℕoir LeSable (talk) 16:57, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

@Noir LeSable You're welcome. This idiot also tried to impersonate my a few days ago, but thank goat no one thought it was me. GeeJayK (talk) 23:33, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

Thought you might be interested

Found an econ YouTuber with some critiques of Breadtube's econ positions. Forwarning of bias, he's still mostly left leaning, so keep that in mind. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 22:09, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

@GrammarCommie, I remember seeing him on RW Twitter a year ago o so. I think he's closer to Mainstream economics than most people might think (indeed, his criticism of BreadTube is pretty mainstream]]. Oddly enough, so is CountraPoints, just like he suggested. While I don't agree with a lot of his ideas, I think his channel does an important job as he criticizes mainstream economics without strawmanning it too much, like many other critics on the left and on the right. GeeJayK (talk) 12:52, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

Gerard Armond Powell

Hi,

You just deleted the page https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gerard_Armond_Powell

Can you tell me why?

Thanks,

Jen

@Jen609 Thank you for your contact. It wasn't ready for the main space. Please, work on the page on the RationalWiki:Drafts, or in your own sandbox before puting it on the main space. GeeJayK (talk) 01:06, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

Looking back

You are probably not the South American sockpuppet. I appreciate you for being on the few who are not rude during disputes. Sending this message as I've noticed that any time me or other people get into disputes, someone starts raiding talk pages with registered-account sockpuppets to try to amplify the dispute. This happened on the MMT page (I thought it was you, but that seems unlikely now), during the last ATIM dispute, and also when GC permabanned himself. The sockpuppet has a habit of naming GC and also a few other former editors. 2friedeggs or whatever his name was, was trying to figure out with me who is doing that. I assure you it is not me. Whoever it is, whatever they are doing is also borderline illegal, and if the sockpuppets continue during disputes, I think we should ask a server admin to check the IP (real or VPN) of whoever is doing it. As they are doing it consistently. Neiltyson1fan (talk) 20:08, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

@Neiltyson1fan, thank you for your message. Problem is, we know who is harassing us. He uses Tor, and the community has rejected fair use, so even Trent cannot use it with support of the editors. GeeJayK (talk) 00:56, 25 June 2022 (UTC)

what nelson piquet said

hey there, am i right i thinking you are brazilian? if i havent just pulled that out my arse i wonder if you are able to provide any insight to what piquet called hamilton? i read 'neguihino' is translated as 'nigga' but piquet insists he didnt say anything racist. is what he said really as overtly racist as nigga is in english?is it racist at all in brazil and direct translation might be close to nigga, but usage far removed? or is racist for some parts of brazil but not for others? does context work for against piquet? is it really just a cultural misunderstanding? i cant seem to find any significant comment from brazilians, except something from urban dictionary saying it can be used for white or black people in brazil, while novelist and lyricist Paulo Coelho assures us on twitter piquet remarks were racist. piquets past statements have often been controversial for various reasons so i can understand he not getting the benefit of the doubt, and his current paling around with bolsonaro doesnt help him in some quarters, but could piquet really be right here? could he really meant something not racist, or not as racist but still racist (where i suspect is most likely, or was it really as racist as nigga is and he knew it and meant it as such? whatever the truth, piquet will still be, on balance, a bit of prick and no one seems to be jumping to his defence

i bet ayrton senna wouldnt have found himself in such a controversy.

coverage in english media and f1's official stance is uniformly piquet was super racist and against any cultural misunderstandings but little coming from brazil that would confirm or dispute this stance or give any kind of nuance. thought perhaps you might be able to add some perspective missing from what ive seen in english media. thanks if you do, butfeel free to ignore, piquet banned from the f1 paddock is the only real or lasting result of this. f1 has people actually working for them still having to walk back from controversial statements concerning driver activism while holding grand prixs in countries with appalling human rights abuses probably bigger issues in formula one AMassiveGay (talk) 19:38, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

and ofcourse please ignore if this is already beimg discussed elsewhere and ive missed it. AMassiveGay (talk) 19:40, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

@AMassiveGay thank you for your question. IMO what Piquet said was probably racist, and indeed unnecessarily offensive and uncalled for. The word “neguinho” does not translate well in English. It can be racist, but it is also often used between lovey-dovey couples, and it’s also the artistic name of Neguinho da Beija-Flor, a famous Samba composer. However, the way he used the word, “o neguinho”, is often used in a racist way to show disdain toward blacks and can be roughly translated as “that little black person”. Why would he call Hamilton as “the little black person” instead of just, you know, Hamilton, his name? In other words, I’d say the word is not inherently racist at all, but the context makes the case very difficult for Piquet

I dunno if Piquet’s actually racist, but he is indeed a bitter old man and, as far as I know he still supports Jair Bolsonaro, and their crew tries to be unnecessarily offensive all the times, so I think he wanted to show how politically incorrect he is by showing his disdain toward Hamilton. I would even say that he did it on purpose: until not so long ago you could make this sort of racist statement and get away with it. Not anymore. He wanted to show that you can still make use of these racist words and no one would care. GeeJayK (talk) 20:25, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

indeed. he said it about a year ago. i guess its possible he was pissed at hamilton for running his son in law into a wall - seems like good reason to be pissed at himi guess referring to him - a seven time world champion - like he did was intended to show disdain. choosing his race as the thing to belittle him probably a pretty dumb move considering hamiltons vocal anti racist activism. maybe lack of imagination as well thoughtless/cluelessness over racial issues sort of racism that people of a certain age tend to have. or maybe his go to insult would have been homophobic but remembered nearly getting sued by senna over it and couldnt think of anything of else to say or know anything more about hamilton than hes the black one (and 7 times world champion) so went with referring to him like he was the help. but im reading too much into it. wikipedia has virtually nothing about him since his driving career ended and ive not watched f1 since senna died.

my take home from this piquet isnt or didnt intend the overt and virulently racist implications of a 'nigga' translation, but still racist is another kind and still problematic way. 'It’s more than language. These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport' as hamilton said.

thanks for the context AMassiveGay (talk) 11:07, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

hamiltons next big struggle with the fia appears to be over if he can wear a nose ring when racing. you pick your fights i guess AMassiveGay (talk) 11:12, 30 June 2022 (UTC)

Frank P. Ramsey’s economics

Hi mate. I enjoyed having a read of your Criticism of Socialism draft. I was wondering, on a related note, whether you’ve read any of F.P. Ramsey’s economic work (for instance see this SEP article). Interestingly (If I remember correctly) Keynes was Ramsey’s doctoral adviser. Regards --Leucippus^{Salva veritate} 00:47, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

@Leucippus Thanks, I'm glad that at least someone is actually reading it. It's still far from finished, but I think I'm doing, in general, a good job. I actually read one paper by Ramsey on taxation many years ago. Very mathematical, especially for 100 years ago (you can see by you SEP link). Can't say I remember a lot, but I think his main thesis is that the government shout tax inelastic goods. Is this correct? Well, to some extent it is, but there are a few pitfalls too. Food, for instance, is very inelastic, as people just need it, while luxury goods aren't. I don't know a lot about his like, but according to his Wikipedia page he was indeed a genius that unfortunately died too young. GeeJayK (talk) 03:42, 15 August 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for demoting me

I wanted to ask, to avoid those obnoxious filters, but was afraid to because my account is less than a day old. Thanks again. Vee (talk) 20:42, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Don't worry about it, it also means less work for us sysops too. GeeJayK (talk) 20:43, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Ha ha, that's true. With the number of edits I've already made today, it must've been quite the headache. Vee (talk) 20:47, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Are you able to move pages?

Can you please move the page Stopped clock to Stopped clock moment? It is a better fit for what the article is about. Erik10012 (talk) 20:17, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

@Erik10012 While I wouldn't mind the change, I personally believe you should discuss it on the article's talk page first. GeeJayK (talk) 22:57, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

Give me 30 mins

I’m in a meeting. Aceⁱ⁹ 01:37, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

responded. Aceⁱ⁹ 01:50, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

Hello!

Someone recommended I talk to someone on the Board of Trustees to help me with my current issue.

I'm trying to get a RW page that was archived on January 29 this year--Saloon Archive Page 401--removed from web.archive.org since it contains slanderous content against me and a doxing of a friend's real name, posted by an unhinged troll who's been stalking me and a handful of my friends for three years across various Websites without ceasing or desisting—it's enough to make anyone paranoid. The archive people did nothing, as I don't own the page's address, so I was hoping you could intervene. No worries if you can't, but thanks for considering.

All the best,

~HelpWantedImParanoid

@HelpWantedImParanoid thank you for your message. As much as I'd like to help, I'm currently traveling and I have no access to a computer soI won't be able to do this (indeed, writing elaborated messages on a phone is something I can't do). So, unless you want to wait for at least two weeks, I'd suggest you to contact another staff member. I'm pretty sure @Cosmikdebris and @Spud might be able to help you out on this one better than me. I'd suggest you to setting up an e-mail on your account too. You can see on Wikipedia:Emailing users if you want to know more. Regards. GeeJayK (talk) 17:55, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

Alliance to take down pseudo academia on rationalwiki

Jungianism, Post-Keynesianism, Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, Jesus Myth Theory, Rommel myth, pollute this wiki. I propose we make an alliance to curb all these pseudo academic beliefs off of the website. Even Yahweh being a volcano, the literal mascot of r/bad history is done without irony. We need to fix this. Left wing Identity politics on this wiki are based, the economics are shit. I’ll do further research on what needs to be fixed--Jakester499 (talk) 21:56, 29 October 2022 (UTC)