they're complaining that the economy is doing poorly and getting worse, that they have no opportunity to advance
Is this not because this is the only source of meaning in their life? By and large, they have abandoned the Church, family (spouse, kids, often their parents), civic society (the mythology of the American Experience) and embraced the material as the principal metric of personal success and some form of nihilism as their guiding philosophy.
How could the framing of life you outlined possibly lead to peace? The Church’s paradigm is martyrdom in everything (serve God, love your neighbor and ignore life). Civil societies answer is to “ask what you can do for your country”. Family life offers “meaning through kids” - consider now, not only the rejection of having kids, but that someone could even be defined as their role as a parent! What did we replace those things with? Tinder, social media, college and a career for everyone…
I do not include manga in the classical tradition of drawing or painting. Digital is a different discipline. I’m not at all concerned with the production of artists, but I’m quite concerned with the loss of the discipline itself. People making digital art by and large can not paint in the western tradition. The same holds for the western tradition of music.
How have the martial arts faired over the progressive era in terms of participation and seriousness of effort? I’ve been out of the loop for 15 years. For comparison, we are rapidly losing other skills like painting and drawing.
What are the gods of our age?
Of course not in the legal sense. In terms of moral culpability, it’s better to plan to lose every argument than to plan to enter gunfights.
Concealed carry comes with the burden to lose every argument and to walk away.
that a kid loses his father over an argument about a a fence and a property line made me sad.
That is most charitable of you! The dad had a chainsaw, was on meth, and had entered the fenced in yard of his neighbor who told him to leave. Regardless of property lines - claiming a de facto easement through your neighbors fenced in yard while high with a chainsaw in Florida is asking for trouble.
As ever, Scott’s take was fair as far as it goes, but the entire discussion of when is the right time to start murdering your political adversaries in the concrete gives me pause. It’s impossible to broach that topic and not tacitly endorse murder. The conversation is definitely more murdery than the post itself, including his own replies in which he suggests coordinated ???
There isn’t a there in the article. It mentions podcasts, the price of beer, and ads, including a new one about republicans literally abducting your immigrant girlfriend… but not changes in policy, just different messaging. This is the problem, right?
Gas masks don’t seal with a beard.
Can I ask where you live and your cultural background? Food is perhaps the great cultural ambassador while simultaneously many Americans are divorced from food as culture. This is why veganism and Soylent can both thrive here. Imagine trying to integrate either one into family meals with three generations at the table. Nonna/yiayia/abuela poors everyone a glass? Soylent is not just a replacement for food, but for the meal itself. This makes sense when meals lack value beyond base nutritional requirements and expedience.
Many Americans in my experience also lack awareness of food as culture or that they are missing something (exactly like the people who are blind but don’t know it, and whose family doesn’t know it either). See the Midwest at large, and to a lesser extent, generic white people elsewhere.
It makes sense to me that we first consider food as culture, particularly amongst the coastal liberals, who have already personally abandoned religion en bloc - we can’t say much about the culture salience of something that is at best, invisible to them. What other lens would they use at that point?
ISIS? Depends on the target audience of course.
I have read the decline in the homicide rate is dominated by better medical care.
Veganism is a product of modernity that I imagine only exists due to industrial petro farming. The Jain are the closest I can think of, but they do dairy. Veganism is an impoverishing luxury diet.
How did you meet?
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I disagree on the Chinese model. China wins by not allowing foreign companies to compete in its markets, stealing everything in sight, and subsidizing industry well below cost to purposefully drive under international competition (dumping). The rest of the world could win too, if it did that.
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