BANNED USER: /comment/21314
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
White, right-wing, male.
User ID: 101
Banned by: @ZorbaTHut
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
My 5' 4" female self looks around at all the guys around me, who are between 3-6" taller than me at a pinch.
Have you tried just being taller? Grow more smh
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Yeah, I'm talking about new partners of biological parents. I don't know how adopted parents are. I would suspect less likely to abuse due to selection effects, but I don't actually know how (dys)functional the American adoption system is.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Why is it intuitively off to you? It's the opposite for me -- we see numerous cases in nature of males killing off a rival male's offspring to secure their own genetic legacy, and I would expect people to innately have a much higher level of sympathy for their blood. Of course step parents are significantly more likely to abuse kids -- they're not their kids.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
This is the only insult I've ever gotten here that's stung.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Once you've learned enough about the world to realize how little you know and how easy it is for power to lie, everything collapses. If you're on the right side of our culture, you have seen, in real-time, how captured institutions propagate falsehoods and immediately sear them into public consciousness; 80 years from now, the official story of Gamergate will be what the journalists said, even though they lied constantly and it was called out constantly.
Now, Gamergate's not really a big deal. But once I realized every respected institution in the country -- if not the world -- was ideologically corrupted and willing to lie in unspoken cooperation, I realized I can't really trust what I know about the world and history. Epistemic learned helplessness is real, and conspiratorial thinking is one of the ways to cope; you can't tell when something is true or false, but you're pretty sure the people telling you are bad, so just assume they're lying.
I'm educated enough that I don't believe most of these things. But the older I get, the less I trust what I used to believe. Who knows. Talk to me again in ten years and maybe I'll have radicalized into a Holocaust denier insisting the Jews faked the moon landing to hide Bigfoot.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
A family member of mine is a deeply committed QAnon type. I've heard about it and spoken with her about it extensively. My takeaway:
QAnon isn't a conspiracy theory, it's the conspiracy theory. Q is fully generalized skepticism of the intellectual, moral, and scientific consensus. It started out as something specific and more focused, but now all kooky stuff falls under its umbrella -- I've found myself dragged into conversations on Bigfoot, aliens, mind control, demons under the Vatican, Jesus being fake, child abduction, the inevitable ascendance of humanity to their spiritual forms as we pass through the North Gate (or was it East? I forget)...
Q has embraced all conspiracy theories. It is the platonic embodiment of Conspiracy Theory. And like all conspiracy theories, really, what it means is that the people have decided authority can't be trusted.
So Q's crazy, and wrong, but they're wrong in the right direction, usually. I find them pretty sympathetic.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
If you're an unsentimental partisan of US interests, what's not to like?
The ever-present risk of nuclear escalation for middling gains. Russia has been inflated as a geopolitical enemy for decades; they were not a serious thorn in our side or a yoke holding us back before the war with Ukraine, and they won't be after, but maybe there's a big ol' fireball along the way and that'll suck.
Like, yeah, undeniably, this has weakened Russia. From where I'm standing Russia was already very weak compared to us.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
I didn't say it did. But I suspect you are not indifferent about whether you live the next 5 years or 50, and adopting your position does not improve your life expectancy.
It would be nice to live longer, in most circumstances, but that's nevertheless not the purpose of morality.
Yes, but a world in which those armies and raiders don't exist because people agree that war and raiding are immoral is one in which those resources can be utilized elsewhere. At the very least, your time would not be spent on needing to fight.
But that's not the world. Nature is violent; maybe one day some hallowed technocrat will genetically engineer the capacity for violence out of his new slave race, but we've got to deal with the current human condition.
I didn't say your behavior would be affected - you'd still defend yourself no matter what he thought. But the fact that you have to guard against this is a drain on your time and attention at the very least. If you abandon the idea that someone is not evil for wanting to kill you, you're inviting everyone to engage in calculus to see if it's worth their time to kill you, and someone may decide to take their chances where they otherwise would not if that behavior was deemed immoral society-wide.
That calculus still exists no matter what I do. If someone wishes me dead, it is not my ability to call them evil that will stay their hand; it's my ability to defend myself, and/or the state's ability to convince them they will face legal punishment.
I've never said your morality needs my approval, but if you're not willing to entertain the idea that your morality might be flawed, then what are you even doing in a space in which nearly anything is up for debate? To proselytize?
We're having a conversation. That's not proselytization; there's not a chance you'll adopt my values and I'm not trying to persuade you to. If your goal here is to convince me my morality is flawed, I'm sorry to say you are wasting your time. My morality is perfect.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
There's a long strand of postwar Italian glorification of Mussolini by relatively 'mainstream' rightist politicians
Is this fundamentally any different from the mainstream glorification of someone like Marx or Guevara in the American Left? It seems pretty universal for groups to harken back to the icons of yesterday, regardless of affiliation; I'm not sure there's too much of interest there beyond a vague nostalgic appeal and a memory of older, more vigorous times.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Your morality is confusing to me because if everyone espoused the same ideology, your position becomes that much more tenuous on this planet. And I don't mean moral position, I mean literal position - your life.
I do not believe morality's function is to maximize lifespans.
By your standard, there's nothing inherently immoral about someone invading your nation and killing all of its citizens including you. If morality is just a conflict of might to impose on others, then physical might is very much a part of that, and foreigners have no reason to care at all, as opposed to some different morality in which some actions are immoral regardless of who or what the target is.
Yes, this is correct. That's why tribes form raiding parties and states form armies.
What you've done is open up your very existence as acceptable for targeting, and you cannot even complain if someone tries it. Your brother is not immoral for trying to kill you if he doesn't think you deserve to live - by his morality, that's perfectly fine. The closest thing I imagine to a world in which this is believed is Hobbes' State of Nature, but your position doesn't even benefit from that resulting ceasefire and eventual peace because you don't allow anyone to actually lower their guard around others.
I don't understand what you're saying here. People don't need to think they're performing evil from their perspective for me to oppose them. My brother being immoral or not by his own reckoning is wholly unimportant to me, especially in the context of an attempted murder. Why would my behavior at all be contingent on someone else's self-evaluation?
This is a meta-position on the nature of morality that makes the world actively worse off if everyone actually believed it, and one I suspect is actively informed by your object-level considerations.
It makes the world worse in your values system, which is fine and dandy. My morality is not contingent on your approval.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Just different concepts of 'meaningful'. IQ isn't valuable in and of itself, it's what a high IQ can allow you to do that's impressive. Big number without the accolades to back it up is just... a big number.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
My intuition tells me that it's fair game to consider QAnon "political" but that tarot, astrology, and otherkin are "not political.
I don't see why this matters. The insanity of a belief seems entirely separate from its political focus. The idea Hillary Clinton is a reptile or drinks infant blood is insane; so is the idea that the moon has exerted psychic control over you since birth or that you are actually a Zergling.
Certain crazy conspiracies are popular on the right, and certain crazy conspiracies are popular on the left. They're all crazy conspiracies.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
And the second "White Patriarchy" is noticing that white men hold something like 65-70% of all US political offices, but constitute 30% of the population.
One of these is empiricism, one is insanity.
In the name of empiricism, I bid you take a deeper look. I think you'll find these positions are disproportionately held by an even smaller group than that!
But other than Jews ruling the world, this is just special pleading. There's no lack of ridiculous fringe left-wing beliefs, feminist and non-feminist; tarot, astrology, otherkin, are all as absurd as anything the worst of Q asserts, and feminism's mainstream belief is certainly more than Noticing the numbers.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Do they break laws at the same rate and with the same intensity?
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
I'm not saying it doesn't indicate high IQ. I'm saying it's useless to be intelligent but unable to leverage that into successful interfacing with your external reality.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
I'm sure there's a name for it, couldn't tell you what it is. I'm not a rationalist and only know bits and pieces of the lingo from cultural osmosis.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
If the world's smartest man routinely fails to make accurate predictions about the world, what use is his alleged brilliance? What does he have to show for his intelligence? He needs to be able to achieve or his genius is illusory.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
So I’ve now been banned on all of Reddit’s neutral subs. This might not belong here but perhaps we should go back to Reddit?
Why are you LARPing as a beaten wife?
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
The only meaningful measure of intelligence is one's ability to successfully make predictions about the world -- smart people can predict, geniuses can exploit. If you're right, you're right, and if you're wrong, you're wrong. It's a very straightforward thing.
So is this a good space full of smart people? Maybe! Go track some poster's whose opinions intrigue you and see how consistently they take accurate measure of the world and how often their predictions come to pass.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
My point is very clear when you realize I am being sincere, this is not parody. I am a genuine White supremacist, but I also unironically believe the evidence points strongly toward Whites on the whole being the least racist. While reducing racism isn't a goal of mine, nevertheless I honestly assert Whites in charge will produce a less racist society.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Yes, I don't care if someone kills an illegal immigrant. Obviously, the law cares, so you shouldn't take my apathy as a sign you're good to go a-purging.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Do...do you have a source for that, or are you just trolling?
A source for what, racial outgroup sentiments? Whites being less racist than non-Whites? PEW and your eyes are good sources for those; alone among nations have white-led ones embraced immigration policies that will lead to them becoming minorities in their own homelands, Whites show less race-consciousness than other races, and the infamous polling indicating Whites, both liberal and conservative, have less in-group preference than non-Whites
All evidence points toward the White race being a sort of enlightened species, and one best suited to elevating the rest. If we are to solve racism, it can only be through White supremacy.
Wait, you prioritize the hiring and advancement of whites because whites have decreased racial bias? Is this itself not racial bias in its clearest form?
I contribute a small amount of racism to have a disproportionately anti-racist impact down the line. This is the same thinking as affirmative action, a widely recognized and popular form of correcting racial imbalances. I, however, support affirmative action for Whites, because when Whites are in power they are demonstrably less racist than everyone else, even to their own detriment.
Edit: I meant this for @netstack whoops
Edit2: I somehow combined two replies into one. Uh, the second part is for @george_e_hale. weird.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
3yr ago
Suppose you are a billionaire and want to decrease the amount of racism in the world; what decent options do you have?
I dedicate my wealth to the advancement of Whites, who have shown themselves now and historically to be the group with the smallest outgroup bias; I myself probably can't solve racism, but I know that if White people run the world eventually it'll happen, even if they destroy themselves in the process. Help Whites network, support White entrepreneurs, donate and campaign for pro-White Republicans, etc.
Suppose you are a CEO of a corporation, what policies do you put in place to ensure there is no discrimination based on skin color in hiring, promotion, etc?
In the short term, I embrace a racist outlook to correct for past mistakes -- I prioritize the hiring and advancement of Whites, who on average demonstrate significantly less racial bias than non-Whites, and I trust that in a few decades these White saviors will have significantly decreased the racial bias on display.
Growing quick young is always a doozy. I have some pictures of myself around eight years old playing youth soccer, and in the team pictures I'm standing in the back with the adult coaches because I had some ridiculous early growth spurts. It's funny to look back on how much I out-huged my peers my entire life.
But because I'm a hard-working man and not a quitter, I kept going after 5'4".
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