JarJarJedi
Streamlined derailments and counteridea reeducation
User ID: 1118
JarJarJedi
10hr ago
Elizabeth Warren identifies as Cherokee, or at least she did when it benefitted her. That doesn't make her one. If we abandon the actual ancestry, then the only thing left for us is what is profitable for a particular individual in particular moment and do they have enough power to enact it.
JarJarJedi
2d ago
I used an audiobook on Libby, it's about ~4 hours long and I listened to it in several takes.
JarJarJedi
3d ago
About the
JarJarJedi
3d ago
To be fair, it's not only third-worlders. They oppose criminal justice, on the premise that the criminals are never responsible for their own actions - it's the society that formed them and the circumstances that the external oppressive powers put them in. Since the society, in their ideology, is hopelessly broken, nobody can be held accountable for their crimes. They would apply it to the neighbor next door as readily as the third-worlder - provided that the neighbor belongs to one of the privileged categories. Of course, this instantly dissolves once the subject is of the disfavored category - then the script flips and it's the inherent evil always present in people of such category that is the reason.
JarJarJedi
3d ago
should require an abandonment of old loyalties
That wouldn't happen - people do not work this way. I mean, you can get people to say anything, especially if you pay them to say it and punish them if they don't, but words are wind, they'd say one thing and will enact another. Retaining the feelings for the "old country" is a common immigrant theme, and you will never get rid of it. You can, however, combine it with the loyalty for the new country - and in the US, this had been successfully achieved by generations of immigrants. People may be proud of their Irish ancestry (completely random here on the specific origin, would apply to the most of other origins) but you wouldn't find many to keep up with contemporary Irish politics and try to mold US society in was that would benefit Ireland - most people don't think that way and wouldn't know where to begin if they did. There's no need to burn any bridges because those bridges, for the longest time, stayed in one's imagination and one's past. You don't need to burn the past to have a future.
This however changed with the advent of wokeness and multiculturalism. This is a religion that says your past is your future, and there is no escape. Not only you are not expected to go towards your future without being bound by the past, the mere suggestion that one might do it is considered the supreme sin. Nobody can ask you to assimilate, and whoever even hints of it is the enemy. This is what broke the model. The premise that your old loyalties always define what your new loyalties must be, and it can not be and must not be otherwise. What previously had been a weird exception, became the norm. And since it is hardwired into the ideology ruling one of the major US parties, it is hard to de-normalize now - any attempt at it would automatically be considered as a partisan attack.
Finished The Screwtape Letters - extremely illuminating and thought-provoking book. On the lighter side, continued my quest through the Dresden Files with the Ghost Story. Dresden seems to reach peek goofiness in this one, it's a fun read but in the terms of universe/character development it seems to walk in circles. Hopefully it's a gravity assist maneuver for what's to come next.
Started The Seventh Function of Language - sounds to be fun so far, though a lot of it might be outside my depth, as I am not that knowledgeable in the details of contemporary French philosophy and linguistics and its personalities. I know the names but I think a lot of stuff he's making fun of them for goes right over my head.
JarJarJedi
7d ago
IIRC Tolkien initially intended for the Nazgul to keep the rings and wear them, but later changed it to Sauron taking the rings from them, once the subjugating their wills was complete, and keeping them for himself. I think the final structure was that it was Sauron's will that controls them, and the rings are only an accessory to that.
Does "to those who would accept them" then mean that those recipients were the ones willing to at least pretend they accepted Sauron as their overlord?
I am not very good at finding quotes, so if you find something to the contrary then that's what it is - but from what I have read so far everywhere, it doesn't seem to be at least explicit. And not how Sauron worked in general, at least on that stage. He'd pretend he's just a friendly gift giver. So why not accept? Later, of course, he was the Dark Lord, but that was much later I think, and those guys probably wouldn't join somebody like that willingly, they initially weren't evil, just ambitious. That's kind of the broader point I feel - you don't need to be evil and consciously join the Dark Side to get in trouble, the temptation will lead you there subtly and imperceptibly, and you will never sign the Evil Contract in blood, everything will be justifiable and reasonable, until it's too late. It's a very Christian message.
JarJarJedi
7d ago
Here the trick was that the big S pretended the guys he's giving the rings to are not owing him anything, he's just a cool dude giving out free gifts, for the love of humanity and the public benefit. Certainly not vassal loyalty - those were kings or people that saw themselves on the same footing as kings, and didn't see themselves as a vassal to anybody, not even the Valar. When they discovered what's actually going on, it was too late for them. But giving up the game upfront and saying "I am your leader and you are my subjects now" would certainly not work and not how it went in Tolkien's world. These guys were not stupid and very proud and powerful.
And yes, rings are traditionally used - not only in Anglo culture - as a sign of borrowed authority and dependency. But it's not the only use. He literally pretended to be distributing gifts from the Valar and teaching everybody how to do cool things. Including making the rings. That's what Valar did too, and there was no servitude involved. So describing it as if everybody saw what's going on is directly opposite to Tolkien's intent - the whole point is that they didn't understand what's going on, not even the Elves, initially, certainly not humans. It took centuries for them to realize what's up.
JarJarJedi
8d ago
I am giving you those pretty rings, totally gift, because you are so awesome, no strings attached whatsoever, no negative consequences, and henceforth I am going to call you "my servants by the power of the Rings" but don't pay any attention to it, it's just a technical term, there's really nothing to it, does not concern you in any way.
JarJarJedi
9d ago
My employment contract clearly says it'd be a fraud. Criminal career is not for me - it only worth it if you really good at it or have very good connections, and I am neither.
JarJarJedi
9d ago
I don't have a problem with any of it (and equal amount of interest to it) besides one small matter - this obviously has nothing to do with Tolkien or anything remotely connected to anything Tolkien was thinking about, imagining, caring for, having in mind... If they just left his name out of it. But that's of course too much to ask.
For insurance or for healthcare? I pay $0 for the insurance - my employer covers the premiums - but OOP costs can vary significantly. For HDHP plan, family deductible is $3400 for 2 people - which is about $140/month I am on the hook for before insurance starts kicking in. But there are more costs too...
Now, you can say "you must count your employer's payments too" - but then I guess Canadians and Europeans have to count their tax payments too? I mean, where do we even stop? The system is purposely built to hide and distribute the costs so nobody would really know how much anything is costing. You can measure out-of-pocket costs at the moment of consumption, but those aren't the only costs. And if you try to account for all the costs, you very quickly get into an impenetrable maze. This is how it's designed to work. So if you want to ask "how much it costs" we'd have first to figure out what "it" is and what "costs" means.
JarJarJedi
9d ago
Yes, I know a lot of places spend significant resources to house and otherwise benefit the migrants. The question is whether they are doing it because they want to (this is frequently the case in the US - at least the wokes in the government do, but sometimes the wokes on the ground too) or because they are legally mandated to. If indeed EU laws dictate that, it's certainly not a sane or sustainable policy, but I see how the migrants would be eager to exploit it.
JarJarJedi
9d ago
at some point this world will end
The flood didn't end the world. It ended the sinners (presumably, though as we all know it didn't exactly work out that way). That's what the covenant promises not to do, and that's what the original question was about - why God didn't destroy "us all", presumably for our sins. That's exactly what happened in the story of Noah, and that's exactly what the abovementioned covenant was about. The Christian (and other religions') treatment of the Eschaton is substantially different from that. And there's no specific trigger condition for it.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
The promise of "I would not use a single one out of infinite possible ways of destroying you" is hardly worth anything, so I don't think that's what it meant. The people at that time may have lived in different societies from ours, but they weren't stupid.
JarJarJedi
12d ago
entitles you to room and board
Does it? I am not sure how it is in Spain, in US asylum claim does not entitle you to anything per se, you have to be actually approved to qualify for benefits, and even those are term-limited. There are ways around it if you land in a blue state with a developed NGO industrial complex (which are all major blue states) but I wonder how that works in Spain.
JarJarJedi
13d ago
Yes, claiming asylum is obvious, but in this case is not necessary as asylum claim protects one from deportation, and nobody seems to want to deport them now. They basically are roaming free, at least within Ceuta, but that's not a very good long term plan - they would need to have food, shelter, facilities, sources of income, etc.
Ferrying 60 thousand people would take a while I imagine? Do they have any checkpoints at the entrance/exit? Do they even have money to pay for the tickets, or ferry company is going to transit them for free?
Also, doesn't seem to be happening: https://cadenaser.com/andalucia/2026/07/31/la-crisis-migratoria-de-ceuta-no-afecta-a-la-linea-maritima-con-algeciras-radio-algeciras/ (they could be lying of course but I think somebody would notice tens of thousands of people suddenly showing up in Algeciras?)
JarJarJedi
13d ago
It's clear that the Spanish government is not inclined to do anything about it. But I wonder - what is the plan on the invaders' side? I mean ok, they took over Ceuta, then what? Are they going to settle there? I don't think local economy is able to accommodate doubling the population - so what's next? Emergency budget grants from Spain to put them all on state welfare rolls? Resettling them in Spain mainland? Just doing nothing and having them take care of getting to the mainland by whatever means they find, or not? Just pressuring Spaniards into leaving and taking over, with Morocco declaring they must extend their sovereignty there for humanitarian reasons? I'm not sure, what's the endgame here?
JarJarJedi
14d ago
Congrats on your achievement, this is great! We are almost the same height, and I've been hovering around 200-210 lbs for a while now, after going down from 230+, and I still feel like I probably need to go at least 10 down. I just did diet + IF, no meds though. It's not easy to keep consistent that way. I don't look "fat" but definitely have some noticeable extra around the belly. Note though if you start to seriously work out with weights, your muscle weight would go up, so it may make sense to start tracking body fat percentage and such, BMI won't really be a good tool I think. I think if you get to 180 while getting some muscle you'd be in an awesome shape, but probably 190 should be fine too.
Second the advice about getting a PT at least for start, to establish the form, especially if you haven't seriously exercised before. And use a tracking app (or just a spreadsheet, doesn't matter really), seeing how you can lift more than last year (no matter what the number is, just that it goes up) really helps keep the motivation going.
JarJarJedi
14d ago
It's inexplicable.
He promised not to. It's right there in the Bible.
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your [a]descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
JarJarJedi
15d ago
I don't know about every place, but there are certainly places where you still can get that. Maybe not spurs, but otherwise I think it's still around.
I've been to Europe many times, and also regularly speak to Europeans and I haven't noticed any change to the hostility. Of course, people have different opinions about things going on in the US (just as Americans have opinions about things going on in Europe) but I didn't notice anything generalizable. That said, I try to associate with people who generally would not do such sort of thing (even among the left there are people who know how to behave properly), and if someone random hated me I probably didn't even notice it.
JarJarJedi
16d ago
One may resent a loud, obnoxious, crass person who is sure the whole world was created for them. But one surely would never respect a person who apologizes for their own identity and existence, and tries their best to pass as somebody they are not.
Second this. I enjoy reading it when I'm in the mood, and if I'm not, I can just scroll past it, not a problem.
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