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
1yr 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
1yr ago
You can make it work, but why would you want to? Date someone who aligns with you on core values. I don't bother letting leftists into my life, and it's better for everyone that way: I don't need to deal with them, and they don't need to deal with me.
I've been with my girl for the better part of a decade. We met early twenties, and now I'm a gray-bearded, prematurely-bald thirty-something. She was more leftist when we first met, but not left-wing. Had she been, I don't think we'd have ever moved past the initial idle flirtation stage. Strong political disagreements is such an immense obstacle and even if you can tolerate each other god forbid you try to start a family.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
I will not punish Americans for exploiting non-Americans. They are outsiders and lack any moral significance. Their employment, or lack thereof, isn't worrisome; the problem isn't the illegals having jobs, the problem is there being illegals. It's not the business' duty to enforce national sovereignty and borders, it's the business' duty to do the best they can for their customers and communities -- even if that involves breaking the backs of illegals. Wring them for all their worth while the feds sort them out.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
I don't take your pearl clutching as legitimate worry. It's weaponized concern; no human is illegal, but also it's not generally your communities suffering the constant tide of human detritus.
If you want me, or people like me, to take this concern seriously, you need to put your money where your mouth is for a few generations. Spend the next thirty years getting shipped hundreds of thousands and tens of millions of these people, and then, at the end of it, still argue that you care and no human is illegal and strive to help them.
If you think this is unreasonable, then we're at an impasse, because we've already been lied to on the immigrant problem for decades. We've been betrayed by amnesty, by lax border security, by sanctuary cities and their advocates. The left mashed defect on this issue, and we're not going to hit cooperate until you give us a few wins.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
Hating progressive excess doesn't make you not on their side. Are you against leftist hegemony and what it has produced, and would be comfortable in a world with actual right-wingers in charge, or do you just not like the fringe of your own people?
Before blacks were a criminal underclass, they were the sort of people inclined to become a criminal underclass; Whites historically disliked them, and Jim Crow laws were in fact designed to disenfranchise them. Given how the black bloc consistently votes these days, I miss ol' Jim Crow.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
Not fleeing when his country was invaded by a superior military power
But his country was invaded by Russia.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
A specific type of criminal from a specific time period, rather. Don't be dense.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
The moment Cloudflare started defending its actions, it was clear to me they were about to capitulate. Those who are steadfast in their principles do not bother justifying it; principle stands on its own two feet. Cloudflare is best understood as another tentacle of Left, Inc., with all that entails, and any protestations otherwise are a thin veneer of impartiality that will not be backed up by action.
This is the fatal flaw of centralization of power, regardless of the form that power takes; the internet is small now. Far too small.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
I still think they'll lose! Just not quickly. I think Ukraine's loss will take multiple years, though it will not be a complete and total subjugation, and it will not involve Zelensky's death or imprisonment or exile. Russia is nothing if not beautifully self-destructive, and I trust the Russians to sacrifice their flesh and future in bloody droves on a war that was never going to be worth it.
Ukraine deserves a lot of credit. I'm fine with any non-nuclear outcome; I have no sentimental attachment to either nation, but I respect the willingness of both nations to bleed excessively for what they believe in. The only thing I disagree with is that Zelensky is any sort of hero; Zelensky is a would-be dictator who has opportunistically seized on a reckless gamble to purge domestic rivals and cement his influence for a long time. Whatever happens in Ukraine, Zelensky's future is comfortable; at this point, even if Ukraine loses, he'll be a hero welcome in any western nation.
Putin is not a good man. Most people agree on this. But just because he's anti-Putin doesn't mean Zelensky deserves the fawning praise he's getting from the admiring crowds worldwide ignoring what he's actually doing.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
You're evading a simple question, likely because the answer would indicate you are broadly aligned with the leftist hegemon.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
What threshold do you suggest that leaves Alex Jones culpable but doesn't simultaneously make the DNC responsible for the BLM riots and their associated crime?
Replace "the DNC" with "significant figures of importance within the Democrats" if you prefer.
It is, though your initial evasiveness now leads to my being unavoidably skeptical of your assertions. Assuming you are telling the truth, and you would indeed rather see the right flourish above the left (rather than the left above the more-left), then you are evidence against my theory. I do not have an explanation for you; you could be evidence of my being wrong, or there could be an explanation I'm simply not seeing at the moment, given my inability to holistically examine you.
So let's proceed from the position you're sincere, and I am wrong. You see before you something that is going to transform the creative landscape - by empowering people who don't yield to the progressive hegemon to create things they like. You see an evolution of expression that will offer infinitely more creative freedoms to people.
You loathe this. Why?
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
So the threshold is a sympathetic judge? Because there's an awful lot of defamation on the level of Alex Jones going around, and a whole lot of it isn't being punished with bankruptcy. What about every journalist and outlet who, even post-trial, smeared (falsely) Kyle Rittenhouse as a murderer or other sort of problem?
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
What advice do people here have for living among people they can't stand or see as ideological enemies?
Move.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr 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.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
And what would you say to people like me, who have enough experience with the woke that we've concluded progressives are not coming from that position? I absolutely refuse to lie for your feelings. If that means that you're less likely to participate, that is unfortunate but not really a problem; I'm not vulnerable to threats of taking your toys and going home.
There are certain tonal requirements per the rules, sure. But 'polite' does not demand deference to woke's self-image in contradiction of its actions.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
More elaborately: there is no moral value in the world outside of human flourishing. Morality is not a characteristic of the universe, a cold hard fact we can measure with a morality device; it is a value we assign through our own personal determinations.
Animals don't have rights. Animals have whatever we give them and nothing else. My cat is valuable because I've got a personal bond with my cat. A cow isn't because I don't and want to eat it. In a different life, maybe I'd have a personal bond with a cow, and not eat it. But that's not because cows have the right to not be eaten, it's because I have a personal, one-on-one connection to that cow specifically.
Why do we eat meat? Because we like meat. That we like it is justification enough, because humanity alone is the arbiter of right and wrong.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
You speak at length about how kind the police are. It's a very moving picture! But amidst all that praise, I forgot something, asking you to clarify for me --
Were these people voting illegally?
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
I'm not going to pretend he's too dumb to know what he was doing.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
Maybe there's some kind of meta-political belief underlying that, like obedience vs intellectual independence.
You describe obedience in both cases; the only difference you mention is the target of that obedience. Why is deference to Marx any less submissive than deference to Twitter? At least Twitter occasionally has good ideas.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
I see an obvious problem with your analysis: perhaps, regardless of feminism or wealth, the east and the west have different sexual norms and fertility baselines.
Minotaur
Si vis pacem, fac bellum
1yr ago
Indeed, it's perfectly natural that after various poll watchers in key areas were removed, Biden had a surge of unfalsifiable support coincidentally in tandem with a startling drop in ballot rejection rates. This was indeed heavily predicted.
I can't imagine caring about the work that goes into art. Art is a product; the process is not something to exalt, it's something to lament, because the process has only ever been an imperfect means of translating the perfection of thought into the rough matter of reality with crude tools. A statue is beautiful because it is beautiful; it is no less beautiful if God willed it into being with the merest flick of his finger, and no more beautiful if the most devoted artisan spent his entire life on it.
Work for work's own sake is an abhorrent waste of time and energy. I rejoice at the prospect of AI obsoleting the artist -- and any lover of the arts should. A doctor should think a world that has no need of him is amazing; a soldier should long for a world that doesn't need soldiers; and wouldn't it be grand if we had no need of farmers, for all were fed?
The ultimate triumph of a field is self-destruction.
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