Asked my wife today if anyone at the work event she traveled for was “based”. She answered the question earnestly, without irony.

Like we evaluate people now on whether they are capable of critical thought or just mindless normies who believe in the religion/narrative.

No other characteristic really matters that much in comparison. Woman is based or not? That’s really all I want to know.

Reminded me of something a former drinking buddy said 20 years ago, when I asked him if the work friend who was meeting us at the bar was cool: “Yeah, he smokes.”

Cracked me up that his co-worker’s weed use was basically sufficient to answer the question for him.

But back then, if you smoked weed (something for which you could get in *some* trouble), it meant (to an extent) you didn’t give a fuck. You didn’t live to appease the man, or obey the drug laws.

Obviously “based?” is a better question now than “smokes?” was then, but similar idea.

(Incidentally, now that weed is legal, and half the covid-era mass-formation psychosis zombies cope-smoke, that heuristic is no longer useful.)