Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
No bio...
User ID: 297
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
29d ago
I am very skeptical that you're actually serious. This is the sort of edgy "Well, I guess I'm on Team Sauron then" take that young people use to express their disgust with The Man. The reality is that you have a pretty good life under the Western elites, however much their policies and hypocrisy might disgust you, which you would not have under the Taliban.
"Well, they'd forcibly convert me to Islam, forbid me all Western decadences, my wife and daughters would have to stay inside for the rest of their lives or risk beatings or worse, and the economy under their management would almost certain drop below third world levels, but at least I wouldn't have to call anyone by their preferred pronouns!"
If you actually are serious, you either know very little about the actual Taliban, or you have become so blackpilled by the culture war that you've become the sort of person who will blow himself up to spite your neighbor.
You just tried to roast me for being too slow to see how terrible wokes would become once put in charge. It's hard to take seriously an assertion that the Taliban would be less bad.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
I'll be honest, I agree with @Ben___Garrison below that this post is just a little too pat, reads just a little bit too much like someone trying to flatter the preconceptions of certain Motters, and indicates just a little too much awareness of those issues to be someone new here. And there are a few other flags I won't discuss publicly that make me suspect you are a return guest.
That said, we prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt, and if you are sincere and who and what you say you are, I apologize for the suspicion, but understand that we deal with trolls and LARPers regularly. But I would earnestly encourage you to engage and talk more.
As to your actual point, as someone who believes HBD has much explanatory power (but I'm not a "hard HBDer," meaning I don't believe black people are just genetically predestined to always be an underclass or that it's evidence we should divide and segregate ourselves racially), I would echo what other people below say, that first of all, being a member of a group that is, on average, disadvantaged does not necessarily say anything about you as an individual, and that secondly, there's no reason to think that average gap can't be narrowed over time, and third, even if it is permanent and unfixable, we are all human beings and the goal should be to give everyone the opportunity to live their best lives, with equal justice under the law. Sounds hokey, I know, but I really believe it.
I've commented before (much to the derision of the some of the other HBDers) that I think one problem with HBD is that even if it is true to the fullest extent, it does not present a clear course of action, because "push all the races apart and create bantustans for the inferior ones" is morally repugnant, and also it would be nearly impossible to get the "inferior" ones to just accept that yes, they suck and it sucks to suck and they should accept their lot.
So, as an (alleged, sorry, I am still suspicious) black man, what would you suggest should be the message to the black community, if you really believe that the worst implications of HBD are true?
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
25d ago
Speak plainly and drop the sneering sarcasm.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
30d ago
This has been discussed before. The mod team finds it annoying too. We are not going to prohibit it, but repeated abuses will be viewed as bad faith participation. (Some people delete their posts for reasons they've discussed with us, and some people just think better of a heated post and would rather delete it than apologize.)
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
It is sad, but that's how most people vote, even here.
People also tend to upvote a nice, spicy polemic, even if they don't necessarily agree with all of it, because it's so deliciously heterodox, pisses off the right people, or tells off one's hated enemies.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
17d ago
Accepting these as the choices is still accepting the incel-yellers frame. There is a possibility that the complaints the men have do in fact have validity and are not merely some sort of injured pride.
All three can be true. This is what you absolute conflict theorists ignore: the people you hate may be making bad faith accusations, but their accusations may also have more than a little truth to them. Of course you won't acknowledge the latter because admitting your enemies have a point would be conceding ground to them, which conflict theorists (who do not care about the truth, only about winning) can never acknowledge. But your enemies still might have a point.
There are actual incels, and incel-adjacent misogynists, and some of them have been legitimately injured by feminists and have reason to be resentful, and some of them are just shitty people who can't get laid for good reason, and some are just plain old misogynists resentful that they can't get laid as much and as easily as they would like.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
10d ago
Conspiracies require conspirators. There cannot be conspiracy in SV to bring down a leftist media outlet, since leftists control it at every level. If one guy does have this goal, he is acting as a lone wolf.
Are you saying Peter Thiel was a lone wolf, or are you claiming Gawker was not a leftist media outlet?
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
29d ago
This post alone is not the reason he was banned.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
It is a neighbouring country with deep cultural ties to Iran. Of course they are going to help them defend themselves.
"Funding terrorist networks to destabilize the government" is a funny way to phrase "help them defend themselves."
@Dean's takedown of your understanding of Venezuelan history is pretty thorough, but this is a truly impressive howler. Iran hates Iraq. It's not just Sunni vs. Shia (though that is a huge source of animosity.) The Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s began with Iraq's invasion of Iran.
Iranians are the most similar people to westerners in that part of the world and if anything they should be our natural allies.
... Yeah, Iran used to be a Western ally. We propped up the Shah for that reason, and you may recall, there was a revolution. Which is where we are now, with an implacably hostile religious theocracy in charge as a result of our earlier "alliance" with them.
You seem to have a thesis ("American imperialism is the root of all evil") to which you are attempting to fit every conflict in the world. Believe it or not, other countries are quite capable of starting armed conflicts, suffering coups and instability, and turning themselves into economic basket cases, without America being behind it.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
17d ago
Your enemies are never going to concede that calling Elon Musk (with 10 kids by 3 attractive women) an incel is at all wrong.
No, they aren't, because they are also bad-faith conflict theorists.
Calling Elon Musk an incel is obviously ridiculous, but it has nothing to do with whether incels and incel culture does in fact exist. And if you take your position, which is that you can never admit your opponents might even accidentally be right about something because that would be giving them a "win," then you are no longer able to actually distinguish between what's true and what's not, only between what helps your cause and what doesn't.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
7d ago
Yes. We allow some latitude for sarcastic or snippy responses, but we discourage it, and if you go out of your way to be condescending and sarcastic, you're going to get told to knock it off. And @FarNearEverywhere has been told many times.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
17d ago
I'm approving this comment despite it being your first and only one so far. It's a bad comment, it's nothing but "You suck," and if you just spun up an alt to attack someone you don't like, congratulations, you got your dig in, but if you post more in this vein this account will be banned.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
Had Israel supported similar politics in the west as they promote in their own country, it could have worked.
You're doing what SS and his crew do, and assuming that Jews are all part of an orchestrated ZOG movement. Jews in the West are generally sympathetic to Israel, obviously, but Israeli political concerns are very different from Western ones - Israelis generally are not trying to get Western countries to open their borders. They don't care. They actually do have specifically Israeli concerns, they aren't seeing everything through the same lens of "Jewishness" that people who hate Jews do.
As for why conservatives have traditionally supported Israel, it's pretty simple: even if most conservative Christians don't particularly like Jews, they dislike Muslims even more, and geopolitically, a local boot to put on Arabs in the region is very useful.
And that's without addressing the Christians who genuinely do believe that support for Israel is Biblically mandated.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
Based on likelihood, my best guesses would be either an escalation in the ME (Israel-Lebanon blows up into a full-scale war with other countries getting involved), or Trump or Biden kick the bucket before the election.
Really, though, I think you are hoping for something cataclysmic and it's just going to be same old same old.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
30d ago
Putting it in an index fund and forgetting about it is almost always the smarter bet, at least for long-term investing. I'd trust Warren Buffett over Paul Krugman any day.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
29d ago
You and @hydroacetylene are both falling into the trap of assuming any one subgroup or what you see in particular forums is indicative of a billion people. Muslims are much like Christians - you have your "Cultural Muslims who don't really believe," you have your "Aid Al-Fitr and Aid Al-Adha Muslims" who only remember they're Muslims on important holidays, you have your "Imperfectly practicing Muslims" who maybe feel a little guilty about smoking and drinking and premarital sex but still do it, you have your devout Muslims who actually take it seriously, go to the Mosque regularly, but think the extremists are kind of crazy and embarrassing, you have your super-serious Muslims who wear hijabs if not niqabs and thawbs, do the five-prayers-a-day thing without fail, and generally follow the religion to the letter, and then you have the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the Taliban, ISIS, etc., for whom Islam may be a serious part of their identity but is also instrumental to their political goals.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
2mo ago
Not mod-hatted, but borderline, because you're annoying me.
I modded Incanto below because "Shut up, I'm sick of you" is not a good response to someone who's being tiresome on a subject. But you really are being tiresome, and not because I disagree with you, but because it really looks like every time something even vaguely related to HBD comes up, you have to post some little jab that is clearly meant to provoke the HBDers on the Motte into going after you. Does this give you a smug sense of validation, or are you just spoiling for a fight? I don't know, but it's tiresome.
"One of the less stupid ideas..." "certain individuals" "I have my theories" - this is all weasel-wording to hide your real message which is "I want to openly display my contempt for you people." And as several people have noted, you do it even in the most tangentially related threads just because you have a hammer and you want to swing it.
As for "I have my theories but none that are likely to be considered "charitable" or "kind" by the mod team."That is "I really want to tell you what I really think of you and display my contempt even more openly, but I know I'd get modded if I did so I am just going to handwave in that direction and expect you to understand I'm insulting you even though I'm not technically allowed to do that." Speak plainly, and if you know "speaking plainly" would get you modded, then either keep it to yourself, or figure out how to express what you want to say in an appropriate manner (it's not like people here don't call each other's ideas stupid and evil every day).
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
15d ago
Don't be a dick.
When we (mods) read comments on the main page, and not by looking in the comments filter, it's not always obvious that a comment we're replying to is currently in the new-user filter and thus not visible to anyone else.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
IANAL but I think you'd have a very hard time winning a lawsuit over an unflattering fictionalized representation of you in a TV show. Think of all the celebrities and politicians who have been roasted in SNL, South Park, Family Guy, and on and on. Arguably they also can and do color the public's perception of the real person. L&O has been doing "ripped from the headlines" plots forever and this isn't the first time they've taken the real case and exaggerated it to make a stronger political point. Was this a mean-spirited and disingenuous portrayal? Yeah. I'm surprised they haven't done Kyle Rittenhouse gunning down black people and throwing White Power salutes yet. (Or maybe they have - I haven't watched L&O in years.) But I would hate to see us move towards the laws against "defamation of reputation" that exist in other countries.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
The idea that "TPTB" can control literally everything, including wars, social unrest, pandemics, the stock market, and inflation, in order to ensure that the person they want gets elected, is an Illuminati theory. And somehow the same people who also believe that TPTB are incompetent idiots mismanaging literally everything manage to believe both these things.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
20d ago
More effort, please. We do not allow "I agree!" or "This" or "Nuh-uh" posts.
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
I don't think I ever said "Everything is fine" but I will admit to not seeing just how quickly and severely things would change and remaining in the "It's just a few crazy college kids" camp for too long. That said, the reason I was on the Motte in the first place was because I was finding myself not sympatico with other people who were supposedly on "my side."
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
30d ago
I think you're just exhibiting the traits I am protesting. So if I have to wear the "right-wing" label if I continue to believe things that made me a liberal in the 80s and 90s, then sure, I guess I'll have to wear that label before I will accept the progressive redefinition of "liberal."
Amadan
"I would put a screwdriver through your eyeballs if I could"
1mo ago
Our overall traffic is down, but I think we lost high-quality users and shitposters in about the same proportion. So I don't agree the overall quality is down; we just have fewer posts overall. And this was pretty much inevitable as a result of moving from a very large platform to a very small one.
I was mildly against the move at the time (I think Zorba might have pulled the trigger too early.) That said, it's important to remember why we moved. It was inevitable that we would have been kicked off of reddit eventually, and probably sooner than later. Many of the conversations happening here simply would not be allowed on reddit today.
Tone-policing and telling people not to be antagonistic has always been a thing here. If you can't call out the witches civilly, don't spin up a new alt just so you can do it uncivilly.
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