ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
No bio...
User ID: 626
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
13hr ago
Trump's behavior is kinda lame here, I tend to be of the "just fucking own in" school, but I suppose that's why I'm not a politician.
But for all his annoyance, I think Ontario is basically well within it's rights to use ads to affect US trade policy.
This on the other hand is more debatable. Wasn't there an entire drama about some pittance that Russia spent on Facebook ads during Trump's first run?
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
18hr ago
I have not gone down the rabbit hole of analysis of the video, so I'm going to try to defend Taylor's interpretation.
Is there a "not" missing there, or are you literally saying you'll defend something you want to plead ignorance about later?
Anyway, I think the concept of "two screens" has to stop short of covering scenarios where someone is outright lying, or it will lose any meaning and usefulness.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
21hr ago
Maybe the real Hock was just the landwhale waifu we met along the way.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
1d ago
Then maybe it's a bad idea to use their voting pattern as evidence that Jewish people are uniquely unsafe around the world?
I don't think those countries hate Jews nearly as much because of the lack of interaction
So...you do think they hate them, just not as much, correct?
but they do like to be part of the coalition that is formed as a result.
That such a coalition could exist, I can buy. When it supposedly encompasses literally the whole world minus two countries, that's hard to believe. "When you run into an asshole, they're the asshole, when everyone you run into is an asshole, you're the asshole" applies.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
1d ago
Have you missed the part when I said "even by proxy"?
If everyone is saying Jews bad, it must be deserved, right?
Before we continue, please clarify if you actually believe that the Chinese and Indians are full of hate for the Jews, and that hatred is what explains their UN voting patterns.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
1d ago
Not really. Most people can't be arsed to use a VPN, and the popularity of social media comes from everyone already being there. All you need to do to get a domestic SocMed is to put an obstacle high enough that a normie won't bother with.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
2d ago
There has not been a president in history who was not at some point accused of exceeding his authority and violating the Constitution
William Henry Harrison.
I think French would take two tacks here. Firstly, he'd argue that you underestimate what is and remains possible for Christians in the United States.
Well, I made my argument without reference to pragmatics of the current culture war, so this seems neither here nor there, but either way my point is that French's pointing to the cost is highly selective. Christians are already systemically excluded from public spaces, and are having hostile ideas actively promoted by the means of their own taxpayer dollars. If French wants to argue that access to public libraries in California outweighs the benefits of having a truly Christian education system in conservative pockets, he's welcome to make the case, but I need to see it before responding to it.
Secondly, he'd challenge you as to what your alternative is. Fine, abandon the idea of viewpoint neutrality, and perhaps even the whole idea of classical liberalism. What then? What do you want to build instead?
This might vary from country to country, but for the west, something like Orban's "illiberal democracy" is probably the best option, or from what few glimpses I saw of him, Bukele seems to have a good vision for his country as well.
For what it's worth I think that final crack about "assuming he doesn't know perfectly well" is conspiratorial and beneath you.
What?! How dare you! I consider myself to be the conspiracy theorist of the forum, have you not seen my flair?!
more free association
...are you sure? I don't follow him at all, but I didn't have him pegged as one of those anti-CRA guys.
In what way is he standing in the way of anyone, much less other Christians?
In that he's an influential speaker arguing for staying the course, when we're obviously headed for an iceberg.
If you'll pardon the slur, it does not surprise me that Ahmari is, by disposition, more of a bootlicker than French. Ahmari is coming from traditions that accept the right and even the duty of religious authorities to order society in a top-down way for the common good; French is coming from a tradition that sees that vision as prone to corrupt both true religion and civic society.
Asking me to pardon that is a bit of a tall order, to be honest (you were saying something about things being beneath me?), but aside from the insult I think this is an astute observation. Technically I'm in neither camp, but as the joke goes, I'm a Catholic-atheist, and I think Ahmari is just straightforwardly correct here. The Protestant approach relies on overwhelming levels of values uniformity and values adherence, and between mass migration and secularization, we are seeing the levels of both falling off a cliff.
Jew hatred appears to exist all over the place.
In China and India? Does Madagaskar have a seething hatred of Jews?
Look, I'm no stranger to irrational centuries-long ethnic resentments, but if you're saying people who never met a Jewish person in their life, even by proxy, have the opinions they do because of Jew-hatred, all you're accomplishing is making a compelling case for "wow, they must have done something really messed up if everybody hates them".
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
The people of Israel dont seem to share this confidence.
They can hardly be considered an impartial arbiter on the subject.
I have considered this and have found the hypothesis lacking. Islam appears to be the cause of most of the baddieness in the region, and when it comes to my country in large numbers causes more bad stuff here.
Normally I'd be inclined to agree, but most of the world is not Muslim, so when you get the entire world voting one way, and the only two countries voting the other are a direct party to a dispute and their greatest ally, I'd say we need more evidence then "Islam bad".
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
More pessimistic Christians might reply to French, "Hang on, a few problems here. Firstly, they won't reciprocate if we do this. They will still try to ban us. Why are you saying we should offer succour to an enemy? Secondly, this kind of 'neutrality' is a sham. A few concessions like meeting in libraries does not constitute true neutrality. It's just a cover for more legal attempts to hound Christians out of public spaces entirely; we've seen the progression of hate speech laws, for instance. Thirdly, you focus far too much on what's legally allowed, when law is actually just a frontier of this dispute. The bigger issue is culture - not just what one is legally allowed to say, but about what can say without being culturally ostracised."
I think the third problem is a significant one
I think it's all of them. Regarding the second one, access to an abundant public resource, such as a meeting room in a public library where it's usually only a question of when they will have an open slot, is probably the easiest case for the concept of "viewpoint neutrality", it would just mean "give the slot to whoever asks first, you can't say 'no'". Even then it's an open question of whether we are currently living under such a regime - there's been cases of cancelled meetings that the librarians didn't like - but fine I can accept the validity of having this sort of "viewpoint neutrality" as the goal, and to the extent there are deviations, fighting against them. Though the other issue is what counts as a "viewpoint"? Do I have a right to give public lectures about public infrastructure sabotage which use local power plants. water treatment facilities, and mass transit as examples (for purely educational reasons, of course)? How about a lecture on the most effective way to sanction Israel-affiliated institutions?
Of course the bigger difficulties start when we consider more scarce public resources. Take for example the shelf space of that same public library, does it have to stock every book in existence? Well, obviously it can't, so the answer to that is "no" and some curation will always take place, but then what kind of curation is "viewpointly neutral" and what kind isn't? A while back I got into a conversation about that with my interlocutor claiming it would be highly inappropriate for parents deciding which books to drop from their library, but apparently fine when the librarians do it, and I still can't make heads or tails out of that argument. Then you can take it even a step further than that, a library can stock books, but it can't force you to read them, but what about institutions that can? What does "viewpoint neutral" education look like? I've seen people propose a "teach the controversy" approach, but aside from "viewpoint neutral" institutions like the Supreme Court deeming it unconstitutional with regards to certain subjects, it runs into the very same resource limitation problems that the library shelves do - you don't have unlimited time to teach every perspective. Finally, even if you did, it would be dubious whether teachers can accurately portray every perspective.
As far as I can tell "viewpoint neutrality", at least outside some very narrow scenarios, is a spook. A pipe dream at best, and outright incoherent at worst.
And regarding the first problem:
I don't agree with him on everything and he has limitations as a thinker, but I do feel a level of respect for him, and I think hatred for him is overblown.
...and that's the tragedy of David French. He'll be trotted out to be put as an obstacle for his fellow Christians, but the moment he'll want to cash-in any of that "respect", the people who put him there will suddenly realize his limitations as a thinker again.
...This is, of course, assuming he doesn't know perfectly well what's happening...
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
This was juat a way to prevent him from running. They won't do it if he doesn't run to start with.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
Well, if you actually believe any of this, my offer to bet about him running for a third term is still open.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
After spending the better part of a day dumpster-diving through the worst MAGA shit I could find
Well that hardly seems fair, would you say the Smithsonian is a dumpster?
I mean, shit, it’s not like whatever I can throw at you is likely to convince you that actually, you’re wrong and I’m right; any more than than your (IMO unimpressive) examples actually convinced me that I’m wrong and you’re right.
So just to clarify, if you saw the exact same workshops / infographics published under Trump by the exact same institutions, but with races reversed, someone got outraged over it, you'd say something like "I don't see where the problem is"?
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
It's been ages since I used one, but I don't remember it being that bad... then again, I don't really mind C++ either...
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
Wait... was it ALL YOUR FAULT?!?!!
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
Not to mention good for the press.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
Maybe this is why he's the president, and I'm just a pleb, but surely, when you're pushing 80 and already have 2 terms behind you, you might want to just chill and hang out with the grandkids?
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
Partly because it's not actually everyone, but also because they're different controversies. Mr. "I once shagged my dog" is not going to be any more approving of "I think Hitler made a lot of good points", and vice versa.
Yeah, no. Aziz Ansari didn't shag a dog, and Maya Forstater didn't praise Hitler, and I know that you know that. I know we all wish we lived back in the times when everything was sane, but let's be honest about what time it is.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
I think what he was getting from his second term was revenge / general "up your's" against the people who messed up his first term. Right now he is being treated as a more or less normal president, so I don't see a reason for him to double-down on spite. Maybe if he actually had a clear and specific vision for the future of the country, I could imagine him desperately clinging on to power to ensure it's correctly implemented. The problem is that:
a) He does not strike me as the kind of man who would have such a vision
b) Even if he was, the safest way to get this sort of thing done is to groom an heir to pass the torch to, and JD Vance is a pretty good candidate for that, and he has a whole bunch of kids and other relatives.
c) If for whatever reason there is no acceptable heir, the only way these sorts of gambits work out, is when you have popular support north of 80%, and I'm pretty sure he knows it.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
What is even supposed to be the upside of this idea for Trump himself?
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
French has a clear vision - Christians can prosper in a viewpoint-neutral public sphere
That's the least clear thing I've heard in a while. What is "viewpoint-neutral" even supposed to mean?
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
3d ago
Sure, but if there were to be mass migration from Israel, there would be conflict between the groups and the two-tier policing would favor the Muslims.
But it would still place them above native Europeans.
And no, most of that Muslim migration was not caused by Israel.
Yeah, I know. It was the US.
I wouldn't call it offensive, but there's something risible about this being a property specific to this forum, or that the people making the acvusation are exempt from it.
As others pointed out this has already happened in the past, and it was defended in the exact manner it was rescribed... just not by the people some might be thinking about when they originally read the accusation.
More options
Context Copy link