TheLoser
5d ago
I blame our collective forgetting about it all on Franz Fanon. Who made it clear that ethnic hate wasn't a coincidence, it was the point. He would regard modern Singapore as a failure and modern Zimbabwe as success.
Could you elaborate more on this point?
TheLoser
29d ago
Despite having individually quite radical policy prescriptions, I still call myself a "centrist."
Can you explain what those radical policy prescriptions are? I feel that depending on how radical those prescriptions, the revolutionists might have a point when claiming that only revolution can bring them about.
TheLoser
29d ago
I suspect that what he wanted to say, but shied away from, is that there are ultimately two camps: those who believe in the Christian God, and those who don't. This is undoubtedly the conclusion that one should draw if one starts from Christian priors. But since I reject Christian priors, I unsurprisingly reject the conclusion as well
But the distinction between those who believe in God and those who don't, and the consequences of those beliefs, are trivial to make. I think its axiomatic to say that non-belief in God fundamentally shapes the ideology and worldview that you adopt, and the inverse if you do believe in God; whether you specify if the God is Christian or not is irrelevant. You don't believe in God, so that puts in the non-God-believing camp, which is currently, as described, going though a civil war.
But this ignores the diversity of views about human nature you find on both the far right and the far left. The dissident right already has an essentially Hobbesian view of human nature, as far as I understand it. And even on the far left, things are not so clear. Followers of the more psychoanalytically-inflected strains of Marxism stress that there can be no final end to history, no ultimate reconciliation of the individual with the collective.
The diversity of views about human nature is reflected in the utter and complete factionalism that we see in the culture war today. That's why Hlynka's specifies "core". I'd even argue that even if people don't see or acknowledge similarities in belief between themselves and their ideological opponents, those similarities still exist. Even in your example Marxists, they still focus on the irreconcilability of the self and the collective, which is an external loci of control.
To use an example, fascism and communism are as opposite as they can be, but they are still, fundamentally, illiberal; both in practice and ideologically. Likewise, while the modern culture war might be filled with people who hold seemingly contradictorily views, they might still have common ground ideologically and in practice.
TheLoser
1mo ago
Excellent analysis. However, if I recall correctly, Hlynka never claimed that the far-left or the far-right are exactly the same; Hlynka only claimed that the implementation of their politics ended up being nearly identical. Isn't that claim compatible with your analysis? Both the far-left and the far-right, on a fundamental level, want to re-order society to elevate either the lower, middle or upper class, with moderates being agnostic or wanting to help everybody.
TheLoser
1mo ago
Is your goal to doom us to cycles of repression?
Thus has it ever been. Thus is how it always will be.
TheLoser
1mo ago
My top issues are immigration, DEI, crime, and housing prices and the Liberal failure on those files is so complete that a rational people would electorally annihilate whosoever did it to them forever. Carney's ideas on these files are either non-existent or the same the previous government.
My top issues are basically identical to yours, but wouldn't it be fair to levy this criticism at Poilievre as well? From what I can tell, Poilievre is as wishy washy as Carney. Really, only Bernier is serious about tackling immigration, although I wonder if people can pressure Carney to get tough on immigration.
TheLoser
1mo ago
Children also like to rebel against the status quo. Zoomer's increased relative conservatism compared to millennials is partially explained by the dominant culture being progressive. You're not completely wrong, but you're not completely right either.
TheLoser
1mo ago
You underestimate exactly how incompetent Qatar and UAE are. The Khaleejis couldn't win against the houthis, and they literally share a land border with them. Khaleejis themselves are not very competent; the vast majority of state capacity is in the hands of foreigners, such as arabs or westerners.
A rebellion doesn't occur because the guest-workers do not have a mind for rebellion, and their inferiority is constantly reinforced. No khaleeji even pretends that they owe rights to them, unlike in the west.
TheLoser
1mo ago
Is it all just downstream from an extreme mix of chauvinism and anti-intellectualism?
Right on the money. I'd also add an immense amount of entitlement, but whether that comes before or after the chauvinism is a chicken and egg scenario.
Arabs aren't liberals; they're best modeled after WW1 era nationalists. Completely convinced of the superiority of their country and culture.
TheLoser
1mo ago
Fruck is partially correct, but more so incorrect. I will be speaking on a personal level, because I come from MENA. Fruck is correct, in the sense that some of the lashing out stems from a sense of inferiority or ennui; however, Fruck attributes this to a fundamentally incorrect cause.
First of all, it is trivially true that Arab culture in general do not value hard work or being a provider. Is being a provider expected? Yes, especially in the upper classes. But in the lower classes, all manners of mediocrity, laziness, corruption and sloth are generally accepted; hard-work is not an arab virtue. It would be incorrect to say that these men feel insulted because they are being denied the opportunity to provide for themselves.
They are, however, insulted by their perceived inferiority. Arabs, and arab men especially, are driven by a need to have "face". They need to appear rich, and powerful. Women need to love them, men need to obey and respect them. It's also important to note that many arabs believe that they are culturally and genetically superior to everyone else. So, when an arab refugee ends up in Europe, the cognitive dissonance between how he perceives himself (strong, virile, powerful), and what he actually is, which is a ward of the state, produces these incoherent and violent actions. In fact, their presence in Europe might actually strengthen this tension. In the Middle East, arabs can at least be ignorant of their station, but once exposed to European standards, in an ironic twist, it might drive them to further extremes of supremacy.
Of course, I would be remiss not to mention the inferiority psycho-sexual complex arabs have towards whites. Can be seen in these reddit threads: here, here, and here. For reference, /r/muslimcorner is a place where young muslims talk and discuss islam. Notice the weird comparisons towards white people? Notice the subtexual resentment?
TheLoser
2mo ago
Both men and women now have more sexual partners over the course of a lifetime than they did a hundred years ago
How true is this actually though? Is it average amount of sex partners? Because i can definetlry think of some sub-cultures 100 years ago who probably have orders of magnitude more sex partners than people today.
TheLoser
2mo ago
By food i mean in general. Increased population leads to an increase in food demand, driving up prices.
Kowloon walled city WAS real neoliberalism and it was a GOOD THING.
We've reached a terminal end in values here. There's no point in arguing this further, since I consider Kowloon walled city (and situations like it) to be the closest thing to hell that humanity has voluntarily created.
TheLoser
2mo ago
It appears that Poland's economic development has paid dividends to Germany. Developing nearby countries is a priori beneficial for Germany; not only does it get a new market for its goods, it gets a source of skilled workers. The strategic partnership improves the eurozone economy, which in turn improves Germany's position.
Germany shot itself in the foot when it comes to energy. Their hesitancy to adopt nuclear or at least diversify their natural gas sources is their problem. Blaming Poland for the inevitable energy crisis is just shooting the messenger; that pipeline was always going to be targeted by any actors that are fighting against Russia. If they weren't going to be based in Poland, they would have been based in some other eastern European country with an axe to grind against Russia (read, practically all of them).
TheLoser
2mo ago
You haven't really answered the question; in what way does Taylor Swift exist as an art form that EDM cannot? Whether she writes her songs herself or they're ghost-written has no bearing on their quality.
Earlier in this thread you said:
As an art form, EDM is sterile, mere decoration. It has nothing to say about the cultural moment except as a monument to escapism and hedonism. Its closest historical parallel is disco.
I'd argue that Taylor Swift is similarly sterile, whether ghost written or not, and I think most people who aren't part of her rabid fanbase would agree with that assessment. Yes, most EDM doesn't even attempt to have a message, but to me there really isn't much of a difference between a vapid and a non-existent message.
Acts like Tiesto and Purple Disco Machine are also good. But they are a fundamentally a different category of music that doesn't reflect on society, but exists outside of it.
I'd also argue that any piece of music inherently reflects the society in it. EDM, as hedonistic as you may perceive it as, still has its rhythms and undercurrents.
I also think you are straight up wrong when it comes to how you describe EDM. You assume that EDM is different or lesser than other genres due it not saying anything about or reflecting on society or humanity, and that as a consequence people don't care about what EDM artists say or do. I think your just wrong about this. I know, personally, an individual who did a memorial post for Avicii when they died. Daft Punk was huge, and was sampled extensively by the 2010's biggest musician, Kanye. I can't see how you can say people don't care about EDM artists; clearly, America's biggest artists do care about them.
Obviously there's less European music, but I think you are engaging in a motte-and-bailey. The motte being that there is less good European music (true by definition). But the bailey you argued was that "As an art form, American music is vastly superior to European music". Is American music inherently better than European music, or is there still comparable music, just not as much?
TheLoser
2mo ago
But the music of Dylan, The Beatles, or Taylor Swift exists as an art form in a way that EDM music, which is inherently disposable, does not.
I'm sorry, did you really say Taylor Swift exists as an art form in way that EDM music cannot? Corporate Taylor Swift? Basic white girl Taylor Swift? The most generic music of the decade, Taylor Swift?
Also The Beatles were British. And if you retort that they don't really count because of their still Anglophone, there's Rammstein, Stromae, Bladee, for your none EDM music consideration.
TheLoser
2mo ago
it's not clear why countries like Germany or France would have any shared interests with countries like Estonia, Lithuania or Poland, which are all mooching off subsidies and still basically behaving like adversaries (between sabotaging infrastructure and demanding ever more reparations).
How are the mooching off of subsidies? As far as I know, the economic development of Poland and other eastern European states has been a great boon to both themselves and Germany; why would Germany cut that relationship off when its aids them?
TheLoser
2mo ago
The canadian construction sector is a greater proportion of its gdp than the US construction sector is. They are literally building as fast as possible.
Furthermore, the reason productivity growth is so bad is because of the complex interaction between the real eastate bubble and indian immigration. Why invest in capital when you can invest in the real state bubble? Why try to be more productive when you can import more low-wage low-skilled immigrants, who coincidentally also inflate the real estate bubble?
I can accept that your job is globalized. But everything else in your life isn't. Your house, your food, your health care, your social services, your assabiyah are all local; they aren't competing on a global level, with a global population. Your job might be fine despite it being globalized, but I can almost guarantee it that if everything else was globalized, you wouldn't enjoy it.
TheLoser
2mo ago
You mean to tell me that there's an entire population of hard workers who don't demand much in the way of resources and you want to keep them out? In the old days we used to have to round these people up with wooden ships! I can see how certain low-skilled segments of the populations are threatened by immigrant labor, but I'm not part of those segments.
You are quite literally wrong about this. Looking at Canada, even the middle and upper classes are struggling, primarily because of a real estate bubble that is continously being inflated with a stream of as you would say "low-skilled" workers. Furthermore, wages in Canada are aenemic, partly because the bottom quartile drags compensation down. You are mistaken in assuming that changes in the "low-skilled" segment of the population do not propgate to the "higher-skilled" segment.
TheLoser
2mo ago
conveniently you have no choice but to slaughter your fellow White Christians beside a Muslim ally to advance the main plot.
What exactly is the context around this?
TheLoser
2mo ago
For that matter I'm not at all convinced the Liberal government has an effective tit-for-tat tariff plan. I think they'll target something symbolic of the US like, say, guns... but that's about it.
Check again. Universal tariffs from Canada just got announced.
TheLoser
3mo ago
I knew about Undertale's general outline but couldn't piece it together, so thanks for doing that. So, in essence, ziz identifies one-to-one with Chara, an avatar of utilitarianism. He excuses his actions by simply asserting that his "true self" is a soulless consequentialist; he by-passes moral deliberation or crisis of principles by simply saying that whatever actions that puts him into conflict with himself are expressions of his true self. And because they are expressions of his true self, and therefore out of his control, he should not feel guilt over them. Determinism taken to its logical conclusions. Rationalism is just its beast.
TheLoser
3mo ago
Alternatively, an extended Undertale reference that feels so on the nose it almost hurts (yes, fucking Chara is definitely the best person to mentally consult while trying to rationalize your actions).
I'm not very well versed in Undertale lore, so can you point out how this is an extended Undertale reference?
I actually agree with you on this. It seems that, if I'm interpreting @BreakerofHorsesandMen correctly, anything outside of the most saccharine, banal works would be banned. Does description of child abuse warrant censure? How about descriptions of warfare or violence? Where does the line stop exactly? It seems that trying to ban things based off on their "appropriateness" to different age ranges is an inherently moral/political question.
However, I have to disagree with you here. It's well documented that watching too much porn can induce transsexuality or autogynephilia at least. I'd also argue that in terms of how well slippery-scope applies, sexuality is one context in which it best applies. Reading spicy genre fiction can easily lead to reading more hardcore fiction, which can in turn lead to joining adjacent online circles/forums/tumblrs that if not encourage, at least implicitly validate non-standard sexual behaviors and identities. Just see cracking-the-egg in trans spaces, or the public and shameless speculation on and encouragement for identifying as gay for anyone who even seems to be gay; see the anger when it comes to "queer-baiting".
Really, I believe the above is the crux of the argument. On one side, you have people who rightly believe that these works of art encourage or at least lower the activation energy of acceptance, so to speak, for sexual identities and behaviors that they perceive to be disordered or morally incorrect. On the other side, you have people who believe that not only are those sexual identifies and behaviors not disordered or morally incorrect, but should actively be accepted and encouraged in society; so, those works of art that can help to either cause people to tolerate those sexual identities or incorporate them into their person should be, in their view, not only permitted, but disseminated.
In Thomas Sowell terms, it's a conflict of visions.
I'd argue that you could actually make an empirical decision on which specific sexual identities are disordered or not based on empirical material outcomes, but that's beyond the scope of this comment.
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