Eetan
11mo ago
Big culture war battle from the antediluvian year of 2019.
New Gillette ad shows father helping transgender son to shave
Eetan
11mo ago
So, if Joe Biden fired all Jews and replaced them with good Catholics, as good Catholics as himself and his family, your culture would be protected and you would be happy?
You in 1923:
These Jewish bolsheviks are horrible, this life is unbearable.
If only they were fired and replaced with Christians, if some good Christian man was in charge of the Party, someone who was raised by pious Christian mother, perhaps even someone who studied in Christian school, things would be so much better!
Eetan
5mo ago
At any rate, I've never heard of this woman, even if I am familiar with the usual thought-leaders in the early 2000s New Atheism movement, even if that was before my time really. I don't mourn it, it managed to do its job before it died, or was subsumed into proto-Wokism as Scott suggests.
If you missed the Great Atheist-Christian War of the noughties, you missed the peak of the internet. All went downhill since then.
And if you were there, you would know that the "proto-woke" side was the creationist intelligent design one.
At least the better part of them - while the dumb ones tried to scientifically prove that six day creation and Noah flood were literally real, the smarter were loud antiracists and antifascists who were roaring how Darwin was racist colonialist genocidist and how "Darwinism" is source of all evil in modern history.
You got things like From Darwin to Hitler, Darwin's Plantation: Evolution's Racist Roots or even this.
STALIN'S FAITH--WHAT WAS IT?
Often an individual's faith is firmly attached to a book of some kind. Muslims have the Koran; Hindus, their Veda; and Christians, the Bible. Writings of Confucius, Buddha, and indeed, Mao Tse-Tung, serve similar purposes for other groups. In Stalin's case, the writings of Marx, Engels, and Lenin incited him, but to stop here would be premature. There is one man-book amalgam which may have been even more determinative for Stalin, especially during his youthful, impressionable years.
The man was Charles Darwin.
The book--his The Origin of Species.
To document this, appeal is made first to a book published in Moscow entitled, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin. It was written during Stalin's "glory," and was designed to set him in a positive light. Note in the selection cited, that faith in Darwin and his "book" contrasts markedly with faith in a supreme being:
At a very early age, while still a pupil in the ecclesiastical school, Comrade Stalin developed a critical mind and revolutionary sentiments. He began to read Darwin and became an atheist.
G. Glurdjidze, a boyhood friend of Stalin's, relates:
"I began to speak of God, Joseph heard me out, and after a moment's silence, said: "'You know, they are fooling us, there is no God. . . .' "I was astonished at these words, I had never heard anything like it before. "'How can you say such things, Soso?' I exclaimed. "'I'll lend you a book to read; it will show you that the world and all living things are quite different from what you imagine, and all this talk about God is sheer nonsense,' Joseph said. "'What book is that?' I enquired. "'Darwin. You must read it,' Joseph impressed on me"
They failed to cancel Darwin and all of his work, but not for the lack of trying.
Eetan
7mo ago
Why should we take a step back to religious social technology? Well, I think we’re in a social dark ages. Our attention is consistently brought down to matters of consumerism and social strife. The idea of genuinely talking about and encouraging virtue among peers is Don Quixote levels of comical.
The idea of "encouraging virtue among peers" is stronger than ever, but for different definition of "virtue". People are very strongly encouraged and pushed every day to be more woke, more anti-racist, more anti-Trumpist, more active LGBTQ+ ally, more climate activist (insert another current week-month-year causes).
Yes, you would say that Christianity was not replaced with scientific reason and logic, but another religion, much more crazy and insane.
This is not good argument for Christianity - if it was so easily defeated and supplanted by something as absurd as bouquet of modern woke causes, then it was no barrier and no protection at all.
Eetan
9mo ago
Why do this at all? The most powerful people I know. The smartest, the most creative and most successful dont struggle with the kind of ideas we discuss on the motte.
Yes, powerful and succesful people are busy pursuing power and success 24/7/365 and have no time for any knowledge or ideas.
These things are for peasants. If CEO, billionaire or president finds he needs any ideas, he just tell his assistant to add some to his speech or powerpoint presentation.
Obligatory dead bird unverified anecdote thread.
Of course, the young promising lawyer who has no idea what is atomic bomb and what is communism, has already more power and success that 90% of this forum.
Eetan
3mo ago
In your opinion, should the mullahs try harder? Should they do more?
Assuming they could try harder - remember that Iran is country with massively disaffected populace, with regular riots and urprisings with death toll in the hundreds. Country more like Tsarist Russia than Stalin's one.
Eetan
7mo ago
I don't call it preaching to say that non-Christians go to Hell when you're making points about Christianity, in a context where argument is welcome.
Threatening someone with hell would be seen by most people as hostile act, but the original Xeet that started it all was not agressive fire and brimstone sermon, it was talking about hope, not about eternal fire.
Eetan
7mo ago
The assertions "All Cops Are Bastards" and "Some Cops Are Bastards" are vastly different.
Yes, evil bastard cops and good noble cops are very different. The bastard cops are doing their bastardly deeds, and the good cops look the other way and close ranks to defend their brothers at any cost. Such great difference.
Eetan
9mo ago
Charity is not about "helping your fellow man", if this was the case someone would notice it is ineffective for this purpose at best, counterproductive at worst, it would not take thousands of years to invent idea of effective altruism. It was always about impressing your fellow rich and showing how compassionate you are.
"Wealth redistribution" is not about helping your fellow man either, it is about avoiding situation where desperate starving masses have nothing to lose than their chains, it is investment in keeping your head affixed to your shoulder. Feudals like Bismarck, who always held longer term view than capitalists could understand it.
It is no accident that after some events that happened in 1917 labor regulations and social policies grew all around the world, that things like eight hour working day that were long said to be impossible suddely became possible. All the charity in the world somehow failed to provide it before.
https://twitter.com/RasmussenMagnus/status/1601925288736313344
We find that measures of revolutionary fear, the radicalization of worker parties and the formation of worker and soldier councils, substantially drove social policy expansion around the world. Importantly, the shock persists until today (even if its importance has sig. subsided)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/reforming-to-survive/8513341F3D95D3392917AFC4CC211A31
This Element details how elites provide policy concessions when they face credible threats of revolution. Specifically, the authors discuss how the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent formation of Comintern enhanced elites' perceptions of revolutionary threat by affecting the capacity and motivation of labor movements as well as the elites' interpretation of information signals. These developments incentivized elites to provide policy concessions to urban workers, notably reduced working hours and expanded social transfer programs.
The authors assess their argument by using original qualitative and quantitative data. First, they document changes in perceptions of revolutionary threat and strategic policy concessions in early inter-war Norway by using archival and other sources. Second, they code, for example, representatives at the 1919 Comintern meeting to proxy for credibility of domestic revolutionary threat in cross-national analysis. States facing greater threats expanded various social policies to a larger extent than other countries, and some of these differences persisted for decades.
Eetan
11mo ago
Again, do you think that White Christian White House staffers would defend your interests and would see you as their "ally"?
Eetan
1mo ago
Eh, I wouldn't blame all the Jews
Well, you might not, but Christians for 1900 years nearly unanimously interpreted this biblical passage that way.
Until Scofield Bible and Nostra Aetate, but this is another story.
Eetan
3mo ago
I am amazed that you don't think WWII is considered sacred and an unambiguous moral conflict in America.
The Western front is. All these heroic movies full of dead Nazis are set there.
Not the Pacific war (it is seen now as brutal white lynching of innocent Asian people), and definitely not Eastern front.
This thread was explicitly about Eastern front, and no one in mainstream media sees Soviets as the "good guys", no Hollywood movies celebrate heroic Red army mowing down these nasty Nazis. Today, most of Westerm normies are unsure if Russia took part in WW2 and on what side.
Eetan
3mo ago
Evidently so, if current policies are ineffective. But short of applying direct force, this is a problem virtually every developed and semi-developed country on Earth doesn't have a solid proposal for. If people's own choices can't reliably produce an outcome, and coercion can't reliably produce an outcome, all that remains is to institute more crushing and draconian penalties.
So the mullahs are weenies, so your plan for creating perfect trad society is more prisons, more torture and more executions. Your proposed solution is you and few hundred thousands of Revolutionary Guards (how many of them would be wiling to obey?) waging full scale war against the whole population (while Iran is indeed surrounded by enemies willing to exploit the opportunity).
Good luck with your plan.
And the same incidentally could be said of many western countries, where suicide rates are up, there's a great sense of apathy in the population
LOL. People willing to do this are anything but apathetic. Especially when they know they will not get slap on the wrist like BLM, when they know they can be shot or tortured to death. The Iranian government wishes the people were "apathetic".
Eetan
5mo ago
Herbivore "function" in nature is the same as of other lifeforms - survive, escape being eaten and reproduce.
Eetan
7mo ago
Anyway, if the Pentagon is using Oryx data then so much the worse for the Pentagon.
Yes, both sides of this farce are simian, to use elite human capital expression. US and whole NATO are unable to supply Ukraine with such basic stuff as artillery shells - after 20 months. For comparison, in the time of world wars, 20 days would be enough to begin mass production of ammunition, starting from empty field.
In reality, the Russians have more missiles, more artillery, more heavy weapons and airpower and thus enjoy favourable kill-loss ratios.
There are people, on both sides, who are calculating the human losses using open sources (official announcements, obituaries, memorials, new graves), but this is far trickier than counting burned out vehicles.
Eetan
7mo ago
Is Elon smart? Let us check what people behind Oryx list think about it.
Elon is smart but doesn't know when to shut up.
(original Oryx is giving up, this Czech guy is now the boss of this project)
Well, is he right? Is it smart to pick so many fights at once, not only with ADL over free speech, but also with Pentagon and the deep state over Ukraine?
Pinging @Eetan, might as well.
Thanks for ping.
The question was prompted by this thread, and particularly this reply. If we argue the point, we're preaching. If we don't argue the point, there's no valid arguments.
This past thread was about preaching - compulsive, but counterproductive preaching at the wrong time and place.
TL;DR: Jewish Republican representative was so annoyed by simple expression of Christian faith that he unleashed Xer storm at fellow Republican and pro-life activist.
In related news, podcaster Daryl Cooper was so annoyed by rabbi lambasting Christianity, that he replied with attack on Judaism, especially Jewish faith in Messiah.
He hadn't noticed that rabbi with webpage full of rainbow flags would not be rabbi who every day awaits literal coming of literal Messiah and even less he noticed that many of his fans and subscribers are Jews who believe in literal Messiah and literal rebuilding of literal third Temple.
As this poster said, he was returning fire, except at the wrong adress, at his allies instead at his enemies.
*Rationalist Materialism made a great many significant promises. Among them, that it could bridge the is-ought problem, that it could build stable, functional societies, and that it could secure objective truth better than its predecessors. It has failed at these three promises, and at many besides.
Well, it depends what you mean by Rational Materialism (RM).
If you count RM beginning at the Enlightenment, then your baseline is Europe around year 1700.
And it is very low baseline. Compared to it, our societies far more stable, functional and are securing objective truth by several orders of magnitude. RM succeeded beyond any expectations.
Eetan
9mo ago
It does when they're young. Never bothered me in the slightest.
Good for you.
Traditionally, misgendering - calling man a woman or girl - was considered very seriously and treated as mortal insult.
Concern about proper gender etiquette is not something invented by LGBTQ+ activists.
Eetan
9mo ago
Yinon plan never existed, but it is working as intended.
Eetan
9mo ago
I presume that number one requirement NSA is looking for is complete political reliability, not even trace of any expressed doubt of current party line (and any previous party lines during applicant's lifetimes), plus no compromised or suspect persons among their family, friends and acquitances. One Snowden was enough.
Eetan
11mo ago
Twitter uses word "Amerikaner" for the group this thread is talking about - people descended from North-West European settlers in North America.
It is awkward, Germanic sounding name, but no one found anything better so far.
According to proponents, Amerikaners are separate nation with their own unique culture, nation colonized, oppressed and exploited, nation that is still unaware that it exists.
Some serious national revival movement is needed to save it.
Time to stop shitposting and start writing stirring poetry and plays, compose music and paint imposing works of art (or train AI to do it, we are not in 19th century any more).
Eetan
11mo ago
If "Seize the means of production to free yourself" is Marxism and "Chop off your dick to free yourself" is also Marxism, what is not Marxism?
Why cannot be "Go to church to free yourself" also Marxism?
Eetan
3mo ago
Going to an extremely corrupt shithole country fighting an existential war as an enemy propagandist is just unbelievably stupid.
It would be stupid if GL thought it was safe, but he was well aware of the danger. You can call it foolish/self sacrificing deed if you wish, but not dumb.
Eetan
3mo ago
It is accepted now that America before Columbus was no pristine wilderness, but densely populated and higly developed land. "High counters" are more vindicated every day.
More evidence that being hit by epidemic with 95% death rate is not good for civilization and progress. As Gregory Cochran pointed, it was just matter of dumb luck that nothing worse that syphilis (and possibly typhus) came back to Old World (and early syphilis was very bad).
Obviously, we need to fund science of virology much more generously and speed up gain of function research to be safe!
Shame that Christianity that sees Jews as "Christkillers" is dead and Christianity that sees Jews as "beloved elder brothers" and "forever Chosen people" is growing by leaps and bounds world wide.
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