FtttG
User ID: 1175
FtttG
5mo ago
I reflexively block all women on social media
I feel this could do with some elaboration.
FtttG
5mo ago
Breaking news, there was a school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin.
It seems the shooter is a fifteen-year-old female (as in female female) who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
I first heard about this because of a meme I saw referring to unconfirmed reports claiming that the shooter had written up a manifesto concerning her motivations on Google Docs, but neglected to make the document public before going on her rampage.
FtttG
5mo ago
Givewell, a local homelessness charity, a local rape crisis centre, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Medical Aid for Palestine. For many years I donated to the Brain & Behaviour Research Foundation, but they've been a bit funny with accepting my donations recently for some reason. Used to donate to Nick Bostrom's Future of Humanity institute before it got shut down.
FtttG
5mo ago
There's also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albigensian_Crusade
Years ago, my dad told me about how in the early years of the AIDS crisis, the most at-risk groups were the 4 Hs: homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitians. This led to a joke about how if you contracted AIDS, you'd have a very hard time persuading your parents that you're Haitian.
I was talking to an Armenian guy over the weekend, who mentioned that the name "Lilith" is very popular in Armenia. He was surprised and amused to hear about the other demographic in which the name is popular. This got me wondering: if you're a socially awkward autistic male feeling uncomfortable in his body, would you be able to persuade your parents that you're really Armenian?
FtttG
5mo ago
FtttG
5mo ago
I'm sure we both have better things to do then get into pedantic debates like this.
FtttG
5mo ago
Jesse also published articles by former moderator @ymeskhout.
Well, obviously there were no holy wars (in the sense of intra-Christian wars) prior to the Reformation. Why would you start a holy war with someone who believes in the same creed you do? It's tautological.
FtttG
5mo ago
Even more than that, he stood to make millions from licensing Calvin & Hobbes for merchandise, but refused, as he wanted the comic to stand on its own. Every piece of C&H merchandise you've ever seen (including the infamous sticker of Calvin going for a piss) was unauthorised. You have to respect that kind of integrity.
FtttG
5mo ago
Of course, I am markedly more sympathetic to a victim who was entirely blameless versus partially a victim of their own carelessness. A person who gets mugged on a busy street in broad daylight surrounded by witnesses vs. a person who meets a crypto scammer on a dating app and voluntarily sends him €7k - both have been stolen from, but the latter is partially a victim of their own greed and lack of forethought.
But the thing is, even if the algorithm by which to apportion sympathy that you're describing is an appropriate one, it isn't the algorithm any of the people under discussion are using. It's not like the far-right are thinking "Ashling Murphy was just minding her own business so I'm outraged, whereas Nikita Hand got drunk at a party and brought it on herself". And it's not like woke people are thinking "Nikita Hand was brutally raped by a man she trusted, whereas Ashling Murphy should have known better than to go for a run by herself in an isolated location with no witnesses". Both groups are just thinking "(Ashling Murphy)/(Nikita Hand) was assaulted by a member of my outgroup, so I'm furious; (Ashling Murphy)/(Nikita Hand) was assaulted by a member of my in-group, so I'm going to look the other way and downplay it" (delete as appropriate). This is plainly demonstrated by the fact that Conor McGregor's admirers turn a blind eye to all the other horrible things he's done, in which the "you got too drunk and brought this on yourself" defense clearly doesn't apply e.g. assaulting a middle-aged man because he refused a glass of whiskey he was offered.
FtttG
5mo ago
I am willing and able to decouple in my head "it was despicable of that man to take advantage of you when you were in that state" from "it was careless of you to get drunk and go home with such an obviously shitty person", and I think this is a skill that everyone should master.
FtttG
5mo ago
Were you the one that made that song about Elon Musk's GFs?
I was about to say "no" and then I realised - yes, that was me!
Thanks for the tip.
FtttG
5mo ago
Then you eat her pussy like it's a pie eating contest before your cock ever comes out
Bro...
FtttG
5mo ago
I know that BJJ stands for "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu". I know this. I get it.
But whenever I see a gym with a sign saying "BJJ", my brain immediately goes to "blowjob-job".
FtttG
5mo ago
Every anti-immigration Republican is already accused of racism
Of course, but such accusations are less likely to stick if the politician in question can defend their position on the grounds of shaping the electorate rather than more nebulous concerns about "cultural homogeneity" or similar.
There are lots of them.
"Immigrants commit more crimes" might work as a piece of demagoguery, but as I noted in the original comment, the facts don't bear it out, so the more Republicans push it, the more untethered from reality they'll seem.
FtttG
5mo ago
I'm releasing an album next month, and a website I've reached out to wants to do an exclusive streaming premiere a few days before it comes out. They've asked me for "An embed-code for the record (one that would be exclusively working on [website], if possible)." Anyone know the best way to set this up?
I care about male athletes in women's sports, actually. I think allowing male athletes to compete in women's sports is an outrage.
As to your first paragraph, I agree with the general thrust of it. I conceive of immigration as a privilege, not a right. When a country has agreed to host you at its pleasure, you have a responsibility not to abuse that privilege and to treat the host country and its residents with utmost respect. When I heard about the Syrian refugees groping women on the streets of Germany in 2016, my first thought was "how ungrateful". While we might be exasperated or furious with how certain of our fellow native-born citizens behave, we're stuck with them - it's not like we can just deport the repeat offenders, much as we might like to.
All that being said, I think there's an important distinction to be made. It's one thing to get outraged when an Irishman mistreats women, and getting especially outraged when an immigrant does so. That I can get behind. What I can't get behind is "being outraged when an immigrant mistreats women, and turning a blind eye when an Irishman you admire does so".
Similarly here, even if some divine entity revealed that immigration made women safer/more in danger, who would be persuaded?
It's true, sadly. As I say, a large chunk of people who are opposed to immigration are just doing the "women's safety" bit as a fig leaf to cover up their real objections. And conversely, many social progressives have decided that immigrants commit crimes at the same rate as native-born Irish citizens; and if they commit crimes at higher rates than native-born Irish people, then that's Irish people's fault for being so racist and exclusive that immigrants feel like they have no choice but to commit crimes and sexually assault women; and whatever studies I might provide to show that this is untrue will be dismissed because the authors are biased (because if they weren't biased, their study would have come up with the "correct" answer, but it didn't, so it's biased)...
FtttG
5mo ago
What can I say, other than that I think a world in which every major power had a remote viewing program would look radically different from the one which we currently inhabit.
FtttG
5mo ago
Whatever the underlying reason for it, I think if you want to argue that Country X is more dangerous than Country Y (because of the different policies/demographic makeup/policing approach in the two countries) - your argument falls at the first hurdle if Country Y is actually more dangerous than Country X.
Would Ireland have a lower murder rate if we allowed in fewer immigrants from certain countries? Almost certainly yes. Doesn't change the fact that Ireland's current murder rate with its current population constitution has a lower murder rate than Romania.
They wouldn't have to. In another comment I wrote:
It's perfectly consistent of Locke to think "what some other person believes about the ontological character of the communion wafer does not affect you personally, so let them do as they please; but the normalisation of sodomy, adultery and promiscuity absolutely do have distributed negative effects on society, and so should be forbidden and socially stigmatised". Whereas a more modern liberal generally takes the attitude of "people are entitled to their own opinions" and "what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home is none of the government's business, and by extension none of society's business".
I don't have a good answer as to which interpretation of liberalism is better or more conducive to human flourishing. "As long as you aren't infringing on anyone else's rights" permits a lot of degrees of freedom to permit certain things and forbid others.
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