Anyone who finds correlation in this doesn’t know what noise means.
Asides
Squid ink
Mediterranean cultures actually have tall shaming. “homo lungus raro sapiens”, “tawil habil”, “Troppo lungo non fu mai buono”, “Uomo lungo, testa corta” etc. See Reich (2018) @Steve_Sailer The closer to old settled societies, the more tall shaming. Reverse in roaming hunters
Belgrade is full of charm & a great flaneuring city. Perfect size (`1m), some parts are renovated, others look like they have been forgotten by history, which makes them mysterious, real, and at times, gripping. Food is ⅓ Ottoman, People look 3/8 Ottoman Marvelous
My cousin @GeorgeJNasr started a #Flaneuring hashtag. It should have strict rules: NOTHING TOURISTIC. A flaneur is the reverse tourist. See touristification in #Antifragile.
OVERT CLUELESSNESS These croissants are bought for ~$.40 to $.80. The markup comes from the monopoly given to the concession. @AOC is the logical empiricist’s nightmare.
There are still people who don’t realize that 1) “Arab” “identity” is a 19th C. concoction from the Euro-Med movements, 2) It is not “inclusive” but segregates, 3) Is fraught w/logical incoherence, 4) Is a fundamentally fascist form of nationalism.
IDENTITY MONGERS “Art and Identity in the Ancient Middle East” at @metmuseum : Edward Said-style identity mongers proceed to destroy the notion of cosmopolitan localism/Mediterraneanism of the Phoenicians. It shows the horrors of non-localist Nationalism. 2/ Since ~1100 BC Phoenicians (then “Lebanese”) have been the MOST MEDITERRANEAN of pples: look at food/behavior/looks. But since 1860 some low-Intellect Westerners (Arabists & founders of AUB, etc.) have decided de-Mediterraneanize (initially de-Ottomanize) to satisfy “identity” These dumb fucks at @metmuseum were trying to illustrate their theories of “Middle East identity” showing a Hellenistic sarcophagus from Sidon with… Greek inscriptions on it.
Nationalism and socialism are the first trap for the semi-educated. Platonic ideas appeal. The “Nation” as a Platonic object. Novel “ghadt Karbla” Also tell them I was part of a Trotskite cell in high school. Others were… Shiite. (Note my allergy to nationalism has always been present).
Localism means there is NO identity other that what YOU decide to build. I see a misunderstanding. The standard acceptance of liberty is #Nocoersion; people should not be coerced by the state into a monoculture or some bucket. Localism is not “terroir” theories, rather a more intelligently branch of libertarianism –one that accept scale.And I see on the wiki page of @asadabukhalil that he is an anarchist. Localism is an adaptation of anarchism. And, BTW, the only enterprise that did fail more than “secular Arabism ” under a centralized state over the past century is perhaps the attempt to make a collection of pigs sing the Latin version of Te Deum in a syncronized way in a Gothic Cathedral. But not sure.
