Inkbunny

amen

sedkitty

5 years, 9 months ago

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What would you suggest those activists do instead, aside from the obvious in November? Silence isn't an option at this point; tolerating intolerance isn't, either. And rational discourse is useless against people who act in bad faith.

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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@ sedkitty

>What would you suggest those activists do instead, aside from the obvious in November?

Actually think the protests through, centered around the idea, 'Who will this actually affect?' If all they're doing is blocking traffic, that's not hurting the government, that's making innocent citizens late for work. That makes me want guys in pickup trucks to throw beer cans at their heads. The idea of confronting Trump officials is not bad, but it should not be a violent mob. Learn from the civil rights movement: quiet solidarity wins the day. Because this is a PR game, and if you're the violent screaming one, your opponent automatically comes off better, on an instinctive level to anyone watching. Always be the calmer party.

And if all you want is to stick it to Trump, then for God';s sake take some time to understand your opponent. The big baby balloon was STUPID. Trump is a narcissist, and if he saw it at all, his first thought was, 'Look at all the people giving me attention! I'm so important!' and also, likely, 'Hey, they think I look young!' No, if you wanna hurt hum, call attention to how old he is. He's seventy-freakin'-two! Find some photos of him without his makeup where you can see all the wrinkles and saggy skin. Make signs saying his dick's a raisin. Point out that he's older than Alzheimer's-ridden Reagan was.Trump is, above all, vain. You cannot insult him by making fun of the aspects of his appearance he's proud of like his hair and his gaudy spray tan.

>And rational discourse is useless against people who act in bad faith.

Jettison that attitude. It will guarantee failure. It will lead to prejudging that they are acting in bad faith, which will justify dismissing them, and creeping dehumanization. The other side is made of people just like you, who believe they are doing the right thing. I cannot emphasize that enough. You should ALWAYS give them at least one solid chance to talk like adults. I have been amazed at how many times I've gotten good conversation from someone just by speaking to them respectfully. Often, they're so pleasantly surprised that you're not yelling at them like everyone else, they'll open right up. You have to remember that we're all human beings and we all have more in common than we do differences.

sedkitty

5 years, 9 months ago

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I'll comment more fully on this later, but I do want to quickly say, per your final paragraph, that I'm not talking about an entire political party. I'm talking about specific members of it. The ones who see nothing wrong with minorities being disenfranchised, but who scream bloody murder if someone takes a knee.

Also, the protesters weren't blocking traffic.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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I find it to be pointless, as nothing you do can change anything in American politics. I still watch some of the more credible sites, as I'd like to know when the axe falls, but other than that, I don't stress over it.

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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I think that's where the comparison to a natural disaster came from. This is clearly a new battle in the culture war, and most of us are just gonna be swept along by it. Still, none of us are powerless. If I can have an adult conversation with someone on the other side, I've cooled the fire down just that one little bit, and that's more than if I'd done nothing.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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Climate change causing severe weather patterns like hurricane Harvey, mountains of garbage in our ocean, and a government that seems hellbent on destroying the world even as us peons "discuss" it seems pretty powerless to me. To anyone paying attention to our politics (if you're American) you'll notice that the only real disagreements are with the bases of the established parties. The elites capitolize on the peasants squabbling while they make some serious money selling out our future.

And now you have them all trying to reignite the red scare because they were mortally offended Wikileaks revealed the details of Hillary rigging her primary against Bernie while telling the media to prop Trump up as her rival.Among other thing they've revealed.

I WISH I had your degree of optimism, but I've had the past two years crush that out of me.

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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>I WISH I had your degree of optimism, but I've had the past two years crush that out of me.

The thing that keeps me going is the fact that we are aware of these things enough to be talking about them. We have a degree of real-time analysis that was not possible in the past, and we have an infinite library of history to learn from if we choose to. Our progress is excruciatingly slow, but at least we have the tools to be better, faster.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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Edited 5 years, 9 months ago by Owner

Sorry for dillay. See, I try to have a "mature" conversation with people, what I wind up with are situations like this video regarding "Judge Jeanine Pirro" on the view, I clearly stated my views that a woman who wants to end women's voting rights (womans sufferage), as Whoopie has done probably isn't the person who should be discussing politics, and I had a mob of rabid liberals (I had considered myself liberal, of sorts. At least liberal leaning) attacking me as if I had defended EVERYTHING Pirro has ever said or done.

In short: strawmanned, taken out of context, and mauled by the SJW brigade.

I did good, I suppose (lol).

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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Sadly that is what you get for trying to have a discussion about things SJWs care about or trying to have a discussion with SJWs themself. Been there, done that, unpleasant memories were made that day.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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Unpleasant, indeed. I have been convinced we're bringing our own extinction upon ourselves, and it's much sooner than anyone realizes. Between having a pile of garbage twice the size of Texas (and growing rapidly), climate change, and the way people behave like braindead zombies, I see a civilization in decline. And the government is too corrupt, people too divided to fix our problems because we're FAR too busy bitching at one another.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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Personally I never had that pessimistic outlook. Growing up with Star Trek always made me look into the future with a sense of optimism and hope for a better tomorrow. But yeah, it is kinda saddening, whenever something like that happens or when people don't care about it or are in doubt about it. But most problems have people behind them who are working hard on solutions to them. Sadly that isn't really cool or hip, so it doesn't really make big news until results happen.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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I'm an ex drunk and druggy, and haven't had an optimistic outlook in years. Especially not when climate change was a major concern in my youth, 30-40 years later, not only is it a bigger problem, I find out about the ocean. As I LOVE ocean biology (Look up the Cuttlefish, those things are freakyneat), it angers me that our kind have done that: polluted the ocean with our trash.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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Yeah, I guess that background might color your perspective quite a bit. And yeah, when I grew up, the hole in the ozone layer and the use of chlorofluorocarbons in everyday products like hairspray were wide-spread topics. I remember that even as a child I thought about those things, even if I didn't understand the half of it. Back then people also cared for the nature but were just considered to be tree-huggers. Yeah, well, I prefer tree-huggers over most of the ignorant populace, sure, but I still find it to easy to say "our kind this" or "my species that".

There are always people out there who blame all other people for things. The katholic church views humans as sinners because there were kicked out of paradise, third wave feminists think my genitals, gender-identity and skin coloration amount to any significant advantage in life (it doesn't), for some people, us germans have to feel guilty about the third reich, even generations that have grandparents who weren't even born during that time. So I have a different stance on generalizations. I mentioned Star Trek for a reason. There was a quote I really liked when growing up: "If I may, Captain? Objection, your honour. In the year 2036, the new United Nations declared that no Earth citizen could be made to answer for the crimes of his race or forbears." Although it's a fictional ruling, I always liked the philosophy behind it and try to apply it still to this day.

Yeah, some people do crappy stuff to nature, but other people also do good stuff. It's always important to keep that in mind. Personally, I heard the "we make ourself extinct" arguments since my childhood and it always looks like defeatism to me. I prefer to always focus on the positive aspects. If I fail to do so I succumb also to depressions and weltschmerz (world weariness), so that's a very important reason for me to focus on the progress we made, instead of dwelling on the mistakes a young and inexperienced species like ours made.

That said, nature will survive the trash vortex eventually, as it will the climate change, a process the world is used to. But the plastic in the oceans might contaminate fishes and the extreme weather we are getting is harmful to our way of life, so yeah, nature might get over it, us on the other hand, not so much. But still, there are ideas and projects about cleaning up the polution and reducing the human factor on the natural climate instabilities. It's not like all people just contribute to the problem and nobody cares about that.

Also yeah, cuttlefish are cute, as are most marine organisms, personally I have a soft spot for jellyfishes and many radially symmetric lifeforms like starfishes, sea-urchins, but I also like different types of clams, sea horses, dolphins, there are many awesome varitions of life in the oceans. And best of it all is, that most of the deep sea surface isn't mapped yet, who knows what biologists might find there in the future.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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Who knows how many species will be buried in humanity's rubbish before we get the chance, I'm thinking.

Yeah, you wrote a lot, I left with a sentence long pessimistic reply. I'll try to add more later, as it is, I've been awake all night, and had THE WORST pizza delivery experience (45 minutes turned into an hour and a half, and the incompetent boob couldn't find me even as I waved my arms frantically in his fucking face). With that said, it's time I pass the hell out.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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Alright, now that I've got some shuteye... I wanted to note I blame ALL people, including myself. No reason for me to "point at the others", when we ALL contribute. And at this point, our economy and society is rather built on an environmentally unfriendly system, from the the oil and gas companies, to bottled water, which many people are better off buying because places like Flint have "leaded water".

I'd LIKE to see some positives about us, as a species. But every day I am reminded how myopic most people are. Like this study that shows a link between higher global temperatures and suicide, I look at the comments and see "This is bullshit! It's hot, here, and people aren't killing themselves!". The way we human beings seem to consistently miss the point of scientific studies has me seeing a grim outcome, no matter how much I'd LOVE to know what this "happiness" sensation feels like.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 8 months ago

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I guess it's rather hard to keep track of who did what, when it comes to errors made by a whole species. But like I said, I'm not particularly fond of generalizations, as they don't really point to the roots of problems, rather than to symptoms. For example, I don't agree that the newborn, kids in general, elderly in nursing homes, people who actively try to live as eco-friendly as possible and generally people without real power in the economy and politics are to blame. Blaming them is akin to spitting in their collective faces and gets nothing done.

The examples you mention are indeed troublesome but mostly the fault of politicians as well as industries. When most industries emerged, they didn't really care or know about how their industry impacts the world negatively. Also lobbies are to blame too, as they try to deliberatelly mislead the costumers into thinking a product is safe or not harmful to the evironment to produce.

The politicians come into play, when they stop eco-reforms. Like american news media ridicule solar arrays and other regenerative forms of energy. Our politicians in germany are more friendly towards regenerative forms of energy, but we don't have enough wind and solar farms to sustain ourself. Also the Fukushima incident in 2011 resulted in drastic changes. Instead of slowly phasing nuclear power plants out, they were, just because of the media awareness of the public shunned and were to close very soon now. But to satisfy the needs of the country, they shifted to brown coal power plants, one of the biggest climate killers. Of course that wasn't in the interest of the public, but they can't change it anyway.

And seeing how Trump deleted everything about climate change and eco-science on the White House's web presence, I guess america is in for a very eco-unfriendly lifestyle too, just because of moronic politicians and their faithful followers. Feel free to blame them too.

The pollution of fresh water that you mentioned is also very troubling. Buying bottled water should be an option in an emergency, not the normal way of life in a modern, western society. If the government doesn't do something about that it almost smells like corruption, I feel for the people there.

The study you mention sounds bizarre. Is is a study about causes for suicides? It can't be a study about higher global temperatures, cause they wouldn't rise just because of suicides. Still, it kinda sounds like one of the correlation doesn't equal causation kinda deals, where you can correlate two different types of events, that aren't really connected at all. But I can't honestly say anything about that study or what it was supposed to claim, as I haven't seen it.

In this regard, there's something else, I'd like to mention, like the Earth Overshoot Day that keeps popping up these days. It's critizised to be both, overdramatized as well as underestimated, depending on who you are asking. That's the problem with complex analyses and studies, they require precise data, when the data is incomplete or the source is doubtful, then they don't really say anything clear at all.

All that said, I agree with you, when it comes to stupid people missing the point of scientific data or studies, this is the internet, it never let to smart people understanding things. Well, sometimes it does, but the smart people are a silent mayority. It's usually the vocal minority that blurts out nonsense on the web and disagrees on most common consensus. That's where all those conspiracy nuts and flat earthers and stuff like that come from. I'd really not consider them an archetype of a typical human being, to which I compare the species.

Sorry for the long text again. I felt I had this much to say. Your response can be short, that's fine. I tend to write long responses quite often, when it's a topic that I feel I have to add something to.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 8 months ago

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The root is the entirety of us. We buy the gas. If we didn't, the Koch brothers wouldn't exploit the product. We buy the plastic that fills the ocean. Otherwise... "..."

Sometimes "generalizations" are very appropriate.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 8 months ago

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By the way, I just encountered a flat earther, earlier lol. It was on a video about how "YELLOWSTONE IS GOING TO ERUPT ANY DAY NOW!!", which these... geniuses... have been shouting for decades. Campi Flegrei has shown more concerning volcanic activity, recently. But you know how it is: some obscure supervolcano no one has ever heard of doesn't excite people's overly sensitive fear receptors long enough to get views quite like Yellowstone does.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 8 months ago

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Well, I don't own a car, so no gas for me. Also I always buy the paper bag in the supermarket instead of the plastic one for ecological reasons, but usually it's my family who ridicules me for that, since they think plastic bags are superior. Well, in chocking the eco-system they truely are. ;)

Then again, if we want to ride the generalization train, we should first remember the popular quote "nobody is perfect". That includes all forms of life. Usually people tend to follow such remarks by saying that animals are superior to humans in their natural lifestyles. But then again, some animals do pretty depraved things too, it's just how lifeforms are. Mostly selfish, ungrateful and ignorant. The alternative would be being dead or unliving like a rock. I prefer being alive though. I'm totally biased saying that just because I am alive, though. As something unliving I wouldn't comment on that matter, mostly for the fact that unliving things don't have opinions or cognitive capabilities for processing these (or any) kind of thoughts for that matter.

Regarding the supervolcano, well, people just love to predict the end of the world. And the more publicly well known the candidate, the bringer of the apocalypse is, the better. Those people don't really care about supervolcanos, eruptions or volcanic activity, they just care about being sensationalists and spreading nonsense. And that's a really old hobby, going by this comprehensive list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_f...

Note how many predictions occured during the last century and the last two decades. It seems to be a pretty popular hobby nowadays. ;)

HeavyHeart

5 years, 8 months ago

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Animals simply do what they need to survive. Yeah, some do thing like eat their own young. Others protect their young. I consider this a false equivalence, because they haven't clogged up the ocean with rubbish. I don't have a car, either. I'll own my own evil, though: I'm thoroughly addicted to soda. So it's either plastic bottles or aluminum cans. I'd love to change that habit, but I barely have the energy to clean my pit up, as I've spent years in vitual isolation and have become quite dispirited.

I still think the generalization holds true for humanity, as there may be exceptions to the rule, but you pointed out that your family go with plastic bags. You're just one person, there are BILLIONS who don't share your concern.

LOL Yeah, tell me about the failed prophesies. I've encounted far too many people making failed (and usually scientifically impossible) claims about the world's end. Personally, I like to keep my "predictions" within the realm of plausibility. The most likely outcome is that global warming (I keep seeing "new record set" year after year) reaches the point where Canada looks more like the Sahara, and the increased tensions and inhospitable conditions in equatorial zones cause mass migration, possibly conflict. In the event of conflict as we fight over dwindling resources, it's only a matter of time before nukes start flying.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 8 months ago

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Animals do many things, apart from necessities of survival. I vividly recall a youtube video of a lioness that greedily emasculated a gnu while two other lionesses were rather busy keeping him down and trying to kill him properly. Said lioness barely evaded a hoof to her face, while she tore off his dangly bits. That was unnecessary cruel and greedy of her, I just mentioned it to dispell the "nature is perfect" argument from the onset, that crops up quite often in discussions like those. Of course animals don't polute, but that's only because they are incapable of doing so. I hate to bring up grasshoppers or other swarm animals, that can devastate countrysides, because I really don't want to argue against animals in general. All I tried to say is, yeah, humans aren't perfect, but so isn't nature itself. It is highly likely that any other hypothetical sapient species would face the same struggles as we do if it were in our place. And we certainly learned from our mistakes. We are aware of the problem, now we only have to employ a solution, a goal many organisations working hard to reach right now.

True, that's one of the things my family (as well as many other people) does, but I still would call them the exception to the rule, instead of vice versa. I just don't share nor appreciate a misanthropic mindset, as I think it's a waste of time to hate an entire species for the failures of individuals. I don't even hate spiders despite a strong dislike I harbor against them. In the end they didn't chose to come into this world, as we also didn't and just try to get by as best as they can.

Yeah, the world ending "prophecies" are pretty dumb and populist nonsense, paired with an unhealty dose of ignorance, for example the 2012 misinterpretation of the mayan calendar, that just marked a transitional period in their worldview, instead of the end of all things physical.

When it comes to climate change, I can't really see Canada becoming like the Sahara, the world has seen many transitional periods when it comes to the climate, but for landscapes to become barren like a desert there needs to be either a devastating natural catastrophe, or the ever so slow spread of a desert like area. I'd expect zones closer to the equator to become barren before I'd expect zones close to the artic circle becoming barren.

We also have increased tentions and inhospitable conditions in the subtropical zones now, especially in the middle east. Those tensions are mostly of political and religious nature, though and caused the current refugee problem Europe struggles to deal with right now. When it comes to nukes, they were never used during the cold war (apart from weapon testing), I highly doubt someone, except the most dangerous lunatic alive, would ever dare to use those again in any kind of conflict. Everyone dumb enough to fire the first shot would have to deal with retaliation from the rest of the civilized world. I highly doubt that this would happen, not even between Trump and Kim Jong Un. We certainly are better than this. Until proven otherwise.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 8 months ago

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Animals chase balls, too.

And since you gaslighted me, conversation is over.

HyperWolf3000

5 years, 9 months ago

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I get what you mean.... Though I'm looking forward to trump leaving office..... even though I'm from the UK, I still get a bit concerned every now and then.

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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@ HyperWolf3000

I don't honestly think Trump is any more dangerous than any other President. Certainly not our worst. George W. Bush still has a substantially higher body count. Trump, however, is thoughtless and chaotic, and mostly talk. I'll certainly say he's our most embarrassing President. And probably the best thing about him is how many bridges he burns with his own allies; he's diminishing his ability to get anything done.

He's a bull in a china shop. And while that is a catastrophe, a bull is still just a dumb animal. Dick Cheney scared me a lot more because he was much smarter.

HyperWolf3000

5 years, 9 months ago

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Well, I have hope that a new president will actually get things done, that you Americans need. I see trump as a temporal business man, before a real president comes along....

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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@ HyperWolf3000

Trump was a reaction. Norm MacDonald said it really well, "America hated Hilary Clinton so much, we voted for someone we hated more, just to rub it in."

Streifirabbit

5 years, 8 months ago

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Which always is such a smart choice to do... People (voters) will never grow up. ;)

MasterTomcat

5 years, 9 months ago

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The reason why politics are emotionally draining is because it's always about trying to impose one's will upon others

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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Maybe? For me it's often because I'm trying to remain calm and not call my opponents motherfuckers. :/

MasterTomcat

5 years, 9 months ago

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Of course. Everyone involved in a political discussion will think of his opponent as a mofo. It works both ways.

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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Though if you can manage to avoid saying that you think that, you can begin a rational conversation, and then sometimes they stop acting like a motherfucker, because they're not getting the wrathful response they expect and they realize they don't have to be on the defensive.

It's hard to constantly be the calmer person in a debate. But it's so much more worth it than just screaming and throwing insults.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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The other difficulty may lay in the fact that in american politics you usually only have two parties to chose from and usually people may dismiss you as a supporter of the other side if you don't agree with their opinion. I can imagine that this makes it exceptionally hard to be a level-headed moderate who wants to listen to both sides of the argument and then decide instead of just picking and chosing one side and then running with it.

AlexReynard

5 years, 9 months ago

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DING DING DING. You areabsolutelythefuck correct. It actually hadn't occurred to me that it might just be Americans that are extremely binary-minded. Any disagreement means that you are not only on the opposite side, but the extreme opposite side. People prejudge what they think your argument will be, then argue against that instead of what you actually say. It's so tiring. Especially trying to convey, 'I am on your side, but your tactics are not working and I am trying to help fix them.'

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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Yeah, it occured to me since a friend of mine migrated into the US and keeps mentioning, how he just sees people who are absolute divided and polarized and extremely far into one side or the other. He doesn't care much about politics, but tries to maintain a moderate outlook, although slightly left leaning, considering his wife is transgender and conservative mindsets just don't cut it.

Still, recently, one of their neighbors, who they had an absolutely good relationship with, just exploded right into their faces, when he learned that they didn't vote for Trump. The previous relationships are absolutely worthless, all that counted, so it seems, was who they vote or didn't vote for. I find that kind of mindset unbelievable in the western world, but yet it seems to be the norm for America.

MasterTomcat

5 years, 9 months ago

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Not only in America. Most people around the world are binary-minded.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 8 months ago

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Edited 5 years, 8 months ago by Owner

True that, I just mentioned America, since they have this specific political model. Democrats vs. Republicans. And those aren't even ideologies. Both parties changed over time. A hundred years ago the Democrats where more conservative and the Republicans were more liberal and progressive. A change in the mindset of voters also changed the parties to become, what they are today, the polar opposite to what they were before. Of course, there are also independants, but when ever do you hear about them in international news media?

America therefore is a prime example about the binary mind set, when it comes to politics. And then there are people who don't care about politics anyway, but still are going to vote, based on popularity of candidates. America has the unsettling tendency to celebrate politicians like rockstars, which I partially blame for this. Politicians shouldn't be celebrities, they should be competent. But then again, that's a problem in many countries in the world. People voting without really caring about the outcome, as long as they can blame anything they don't like on the other party and their supporters.

This sadly reminds me of something I read once here: http://drgeorges.net/2017/09/30/the-wisdom-of-ancient-...
I quote:
"In Book Six of The Republic, Plato describes Socrates falling into conversation with a character called Adeimantus and trying to get him to see the flaws of democracy by comparing a society to a ship. “If you were heading out on a journey by sea, asks Socrates, who would you ideally want deciding who was in charge of the vessel? Just anyone or people educated in the rules and demands of seafaring?” The latter of course, says Adeimantus; “So why then, responds Socrates, do we keep thinking that any old person should be fit to judge who should be a ruler of a country?”"

Although I'm not opposed to democracy, not at all, I really like it, I'm sadly reminded of this quote any time someone babbles on voting for one candidate just to stick it to the other or in the case of many European countries, when people vote for populists, either because they genuinely believe in their lies or because they just wanted to stick it to established political parties. I'd expect acts out of spite from children, not from adults charged with the responsibility to voice their opinion and cast their vote on the future ruler of a country. But that's just reality for you... and me.

BrokenPupper

5 years, 8 months ago

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Most of the time calling someone or a group of people mofos is the reason why more and more people are engaging into politics. Some want to be subtle about it by asking for a more calmer tone to who they'll eventually say it to. XD

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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"	MasterTomcat wrote:
	The reason why politics are emotionally draining is because it's always about trying to impose one's will upon others

Ugh, I just experienced that first hand. I got harassed on a video regarding "Judge Jeanine Pirro on The View because I didn't sufficiently attack Pirro. What I DID do was suggest that a woman who wanted to end women's voting rights (womans sufferage) probably wasn't the best place to get your news from. I thought that was a fair point. But apparently not to the rabid group who decided I must absolutely love Pirro, which I do not, and attacked me over it.

If I had other things to do than politics and videogames (I wish my sleep disorder didn't interfere with work sometimes), I'd just turn my back on that nonsense. I don't really need the stress of it.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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Well, internet comment sections can turn toxic fast. They aren't called "cesspool" or "cancer" without a reason. Sad reality of the digital age.

HeavyHeart

5 years, 9 months ago

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For sure lol. I started to see how pissed I could make them, as they're determined to rage over every little thing, anyways.

Fuck, I just realized I turned into an Internet troll.

Streifirabbit

5 years, 9 months ago

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When you troll SJW's or ignorant morons on the web you are on the good side, as long as you didn't start the fights. But when they bait, you have every reason to bite. ^-^

MasterTomcat

5 years, 9 months ago

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Forget about politics. It's a waste of time and energy which leads nowhere. You will feel better afterwards. :)

HeavyHeart

5 years, 8 months ago

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No, because then I'll have NOTHING to do but videogamjes I'm already sick to death of. Besides, people pushed me into being an evil asshole, and I'm waiting for more riots, or war with Russia (I don't believe the Russiagate shit, but that doesn't matter), or something.

KichigaiKitsune

5 years, 8 months ago

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Wow, where the hell were you? Pirro is a ranging lunatic and obvious Republican demagogue who uses well coached dramatic language and presentation to foster hysteria in her audience, and that's how most people I know understand her.

Keep doing what you love, mate, keep covering politics, and stick those middle fingers up at little shits like that. :D

HeavyHeart

5 years, 8 months ago

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@ KichigaiKitsune

lol what you just referred to Pirro as is actually comparatively NICE in light of what I'd call her (psychotic retarded loony bitch) lol

KichigaiKitsune

5 years, 8 months ago

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Well, yeah, I was being nice. :P

She's a scary person, illustrative of how piss poor the mass media (especially Fox) truly is.

KichigaiKitsune

5 years, 8 months ago

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I have to admit, I'd love to chatter atya about politics again at some point! I still remember your rants in our first emails, over a decade ago. I'm curious to see where you're at now, so many years later. I promise I'm not an exhausting pain in the arse. :P

AlexReynard

5 years, 8 months ago

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@ KichigaiKitsune

Right now I'm a bit of a depressive phase. My mind keeps dwelling on the ugly side of politics and human behavior, regardless of whether I want it to or not. It's getting to the point where I'm so far ahead of the mainstream, it's infuriating that they haven't caught up. And that's not me bragging, saying I'm so smart and special. The stuff I've figured out is not difficult, and it's sitting right out in the open for anyone who wants to find it. The problem is that, if an answer is emotionally unsatisfying, people don't want it. So the truth can sit there being obvious as fuck for decades or centuries before you can drag people, kicking and screaming, into accepting it.

To give just one example, evolutionary psychology (or "evo-psych" to make it sound more dismissable) is portrayed as anti-scientific and dangerous. The reverse is true. There's literally no way it isn't true that evolution shapes human behavior. Why would we be magically exempt from something that effects all other life that has ever lived? But because racists have misunderstood it and drawn bad conclusions, and because academics really, really want 'blank slate' theory to be true (despite mountains of conflicting evidence, complete illogic, and the mere existence of transgender people). Yes, when you look into how much biology controls behavior that we think is freely chosen, it's horrifying. But we're not going to change it by pretending the problem isn't real. People who dismiss evolutionary biology are like alcoholics in denial. 'If I don't acknowledge how much I'm drinking, I don't have a problem.' And if we never acknowledge how much of our behavior is puppeteered by obsolete caveman impulses, and how much of what we are is hereditary and hardwired from birth, then we'll never be anything else. I'm a transhumanist, man! This shit matters to me!

KichigaiKitsune

5 years, 8 months ago

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