Primaprimaprima
No bio...
User ID: 342
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
But end of the day if your economy is not producing as much of [desirable things] as efficiently as a comparable economy using a different system, you are losing the argument.
But Marxists don't care about winning or losing "the argument". What they want to do is change the rules by which the argument itself is conducted. They want a wholesale reevaluation of what it means to "win" or "lose" "the argument" in the first place.
If your politics is based on "whoever is producing the most goods most efficiently is the winner", then Marxists would consider that to be, to use one of Zizek's favorite phrases, "pure ideology". That belief is an ideological effect of capitalism itself. It's not a natural or obvious conclusion. You could conceivably hold a different belief instead.
This is not to say that Marxists must necessarily adhere to a degrowth ideology of course. Rather they would say that, whatever historical epoch comes after capitalism, the way in which inhabitants of that epoch think about concepts like "production" and "efficiency" will be as incomprehensible to us as the capitalism vs Marxism debate is to hunter-gatherers. Marxism at its core is a theory of history, and how contradictions in social relations drive historical change (e.g. the contradiction between the formal freedom of neoliberal free trade, and the fact that this formal freedom can paradoxically result in less actual freedom as globalized hypercompetition forces homogenization). Your historical epoch plays a role in shaping what counts as a "winning" or "losing" argument to you, what counts as a "reasonable" political aim, etc.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
I don’t hate him, but anyone who ragequits a forum forever because people said mean things about them immediately loses respect from me.
The Marxist mythology is very much based on the story of Eden and the fall of man. It is imagined that the first stage of human society was "primitive communism", which is when, contrary to your assertion, society was at its most egalitarian, gender and race relations were at their most egalitarian, society was not based on hierarchical relations of authority, etc. And then that whole "agricultural civilization" thing had to come along and ruin it.
The orthodox Marxist position is that "there's nowhere to go but forward", the only way to reclaim what was lost and make Man whole again is through the ever-increasing development of the technological forces of production. But there's also an anarcho-primitivist strain of leftist socialist thought that says that we should actually be going backwards, back to the garden, back to our lost innocence. For certain environmentalists, degrowth is the mythological symbol of the ultimate fulfillment of the demands of woke identity politics.
Not to say that every member of a Green party is a self-conscious primitivist of course, only that this way of thinking is "in the air". People who emotionally resonate with these ideas are disproportionately likely to be attracted to environmentalist politics.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
If someone’s leaving because “I didn’t know people would get so angry when I asked them questions” then it’s possible that they could acclimate after getting used to the general tone of discussion here.
If someone’s leaving because “I didn’t know racism was allowed here” I would tell them to not let the door hit them on the way out.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
I was more saying that the forum can be perceived as a "right wing secret club" because, for example, a feminist might consider some of the writings about feminism to be boo outgroup, only there are no feminists here.
To some extent this is grounded in the objective facts of the matter. We were chased off of two different subreddits because we allowed discussion of controversial views. The controversial views that the authorities took issue with were, invariably, right wing.
The mods try their best to be neutral but they’re only human. There is a set of consensus views here, that does affect the moderation and it affects how users perceive different types of posts, and that’s simply going to be an unavoidable fact of any discussion space you ever enter ever.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
Although these types of retorts are exquisitely tempting, these are also exactly the sorts of reactions that Count is attempting to provoke, which he then parlays into accusations of bias and incivility.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
We’d really prefer it if you didn’t leave… we need new people to prevent this place from slowly withering away.
In any smaller and more tight-knit space it takes some time to get acclimated to the local customs, but that’s just like… normal.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
I have no idea why you're still allowed to post here.
The forum is undoubtedly better with his presence. In the words of Hitchcock, “the more successful the villain, the more successful the picture”.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
where is the shame?
I simply don’t have any!
My shame response has always been rather attenuated (in certain contexts) compared to the population average. Probably part of what makes it so easy to resist the “right-thinking” social consensus on immigration.
Anyway, no, sob stories won’t guilt us into not having borders and immigration enforcement procedures.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
2D graphics had already peaked by the late 90s; there's not much further you can go after you can already make gorgeous games like Marvel vs. Capcom.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
It’s not politics if people aren’t angry. Nothing to apologize for. Feel free to ask away as long as you find value in it.
(Also that’s just WhiningCoil don’t worry about it.)
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
The chances of going pro are about the same as your odds of making a living in the NFL, about 0. But if she has fun playing then sure why not.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
I was just using rightist as a synonym for anti-woke. Because I think that’s basically the most salient definition of “rightist” in the West today. Some people will say that true rightism means neo-monarchism, or tradcathism, or whatever, but what actually matters most on a day to day basis and what determines how you interact with people and how well you integrate into various social spaces is how woke you are.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
Well, there’s several hundred million white women in the world, some of whom are a bit odd and spergy themselves. If none of them will have me then I’ll simply have to be alone. But I’m not seething about it or anything. That’s my choice and I accept responsibility for it.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
Buddy. Pal. Lemme level with you here. I gotta be brutally honest, because you did ask for an explanation of why you get downvoted so much.
You have, from what I've observed in your posts, a staggering inability to ever acknowledge when the person you're talking to has ever made a valid point.
Now obviously no one in an internet debate ever actually admits they were straight up wrong. But there's a difference between "yeah ok, that's true but your position is still bullshit because of XYZ" and "ah, no, erm, you see, you've simply misunderstood the situation as it were, it's actually not like that at all, I don't know what you're talking about..."
You seem to be particularly fond of the latter. And it's one of the fastest ways to really turn people off from listening to anything you have to say.
I told you that the way you phrased your post will read as insulting to many people here. I'm quite confident that this is a fact. There are many ways you could respond to this. You could say "well fuck 'em I don't care", you could say "it shouldn't be an insult if it's true", there are lots of things you could say in your defense that aren't just total capitulation and admission of guilt. But instead you chose "nope, that never happened, don't know what you're talking about". Which is essentially the most obnoxious type of response possible.
Again, the lion's share of your downvotes come from the simple fact that your views are anti-consensus, but your particular style of argument certainly doesn't help things.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
So, to be clear, the reason people get downvoted is because they express views that go against the majority opinion. The downvote button is a disagree button. You will continue to get downvoted as long as you're not in line with the consensus. Sorry.
That being said, I think the reason @Goodguy's third comment there didn't get downvoted is because he framed the issue as being more about Trump (an individual) and Trumpism (an abstract ideology), rather than MAGA (a concrete group of people, as you seem to be using the term). In the short comment I'm replying to, you said that MAGA "likes authoritarianism" and "goes with the flow". You can't hide your contempt for the majority of people who are reading your comment. That's obviously not going to endear them to you.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
they feed into a sense that the people who are writing the comments are like athletes in the middle of an arena, fighting it out to the cheers of the audience
But we literally are doing that.
Not exactly something that inspires intelligent thought
It is the basis of all intelligent thought:
"- Is Socratic irony an expression of revolt? of plebeian ressentiment? As the member of an oppressed group, did Socrates take pleasure in the ferocity with which he could thrust his syllogistic knife? Did he avenge himself on the nobles he fascinated? - As a dialectician, you have a merciless tool in your hands; dialectics lets you act like a tyrant; you humiliate the people you defeat. The dialectician puts the onus on his opponent to show that he is not an idiot: the dialectician infuriates people and makes them feel helpless at the same time. The dialectician undermines his opponent's intellect. - What? Is dialectics just a form of revenge for Socrates?"
"I have shown how Socrates could be repulsive: which makes it even more important to explain the fact that he fascinated. - That he discovered a new type of agon, that he was its first fencing master in the noble circles of Athens - this is one thing. He fascinated by appealing to the agonistic drive of the Greeks, - he introduced a variation into the wrestling matches between young men and youths. Socrates was a great erotic too."
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
My Trump-voting mother has been saying "of course Trump's in the Epstein files too" for like, years now? Quite a while at any rate. At least some segment of his base just took it to be common knowledge and wouldn't view it as a big revelation even if it was "confirmed".
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
But groupings mix and blend like crazy
So do colors, clouds, emotions, religions, languages, etc... but there's been no mass political movement to try and convince the public that these things "don't really exist".
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
Humans are basically hardwired to care about that sort of thing.
Some are evidently hardwired to care more than others.
There's a reason why TheMotte leans heavily rightist, while leftist spaces don't even let us post there.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
That's deep. Feels like we're getting a rare look at the man behind the mask.
Never wrote a picture in his life. Does he regret that? Is there an artist in there, struggling to get out?
Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?
Better writing than most of what's on AO3.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
Or you can just like, not let it bother you?
My whole last page of comments got ratio’d and I’m still alive.
Primaprimaprima
1yr ago
No LotR experience either! Outside of half paying attention to the movies when friends/family were watching them when they first came out.
Now if you referenced Japanese pop culture I’d have a much better chance of picking that up…
I don't think we should get in the habit of "advertising" non-CW threads in the CW thread. Yeah, it kinda sucks that other threads outside of the weekly CW get less visibility, but, that's just how it goes.
Also, ending with an "In conclusion..." paragraph will make people assume you used AI in your writing.
More options
Context Copy link