mdurak
2yr ago
Huh, is there somewhere I could read about 2 - 4 explained in greater detail? I’m afraid I’m not well versed in legal proceedings.
mdurak
2yr ago
This creates a drastic division within a society where people, most often the smartest who are very capable of forming collectives of trust, close themselves off from wider society because engaging with it fairly is not worth it since it has too many trust breakers.
Interesting. Are there documented examples of this happening in real life?
Also, why is high IQ and not, say, high pro-social values so important for establishing trust?
mdurak
2yr ago
Why is that genetic material so desperately needed? Just because first world populations shrink doesn’t mean there’s not going to be plenty of first worlders still.
mdurak
2yr ago
Whoever the Left is more directionally correct than the Right is by definition
What is this supposed to mean?
mdurak
2yr ago
Why do you say he’s “obviously innocent” when the jury unanimously found him guilty after being explained all the evidence? It sounds like you think “they” can simply control what the jury believes.
mdurak
2yr ago
As someone who doesn’t know about guns, what’s the difference? And why not the common 5.56 round?
mdurak
2yr ago
Yeah, if you truly believe Trump is Hitler 2.0, then any collateral damage is just another dead Nazi
mdurak
2yr ago
In general, they say that coups aren't often the birth of a new distribution of power; they're the sudden realization (as in "being made real" not "people mentally realize") of what the distribution of power actually was already.
Who’s “they”? I would like to read up on this idea, if you have any sources for it
mdurak
2yr ago
As someone who hasn’t been paying much attention, when did the mental decline happen then? Because Biden seems much more declined compared to 2020
Edit: this commenter suggests that it is in fact a relatively recent development https://www.themotte.org/post/1054/culture-war-roundup-for-the-week/224758?context=8#context
mdurak
2yr ago
Erm, I don’t think anybody holding significant amounts of power is looking to truly upset the current neoliberal capitalistic order.
mdurak
2yr ago
The sophisticated users will resort to using VPNs (at least until those get fully banned).
Perhaps by the services themselves, rather than any government. Once I turned my VPN on, Google blocked me from search even after I solved a few captchas.
mdurak
2yr ago
authorities believe this crime was committed and would like to view all of their encrypted data.
And how do you propose authorities do that if the device is turned off and the data has been securely encrypted at rest? Put back doors into every computing device to prevent this scenario from arising?
mdurak
2yr ago
Over a decade ago, the BBC came out with a documentary titled How to Kill a Human Being that went into what the director believed to be the most humane and painless way to execute someone if you really wish to do so. Towards the end of the documentary, they interview someone who believes that death row criminals don’t deserve the most humane death possible because those criminals hardly offered their own victims a humane death. The documentary gives it an air of “Look, we’ve found a humane way to actually do executions, and these barbaric Americans don’t want to do that because to them, bloodthirsty cruelty is the point.”
Well, what do you know, Alabama has now actually implemented this “most humane” form of execution for the first time, and news coverage from the BBC and others have been almost exclusively negative. There’s little to no nuance, just statements that the UN and EU condemns this “particularly cruel and unusual punishment.” Where now is the context that the US is merely doing what it was previously criticized for not doing?
To be sure, the scene of thrashing does seem to be more violent than the documentary insinuated such an execution would be, but that itself appears to be because the inmate tried to forcibly hold their breath for as long as possible instead of allowing themselves to pass out from hypoxia. I wouldn’t pin the blame for voluntary thrashing on the method of execution.
What do you think? Am I wrong in reading this as just another case of “Americans can do nothing right”?
mdurak
2yr ago
It sounds like the chokehold lasted for some time after Neely passed out, though it’s unclear exactly how long, so I wouldn’t say Neely was obviously uncharacteristically fragile. But fair enough, it was not the greatest loss to society, as callous as that may be to say.
mdurak
2yr ago
I’m not sure what your point is. It seems we agree that the legal system is too lax on shitty mentally ill people, and we also agree that this doesn’t justify vigilante violence going too far?
mdurak
2yr ago
Did Neely actually violently attack anyone? From the wiki article it sounds like he was just screaming at people and disturbing the peace. Perhaps he deserved to get roughed up for that, but getting killed seems a bit of a reach.
mdurak
2yr ago
Ah I see what you mean now. I haven’t encountered this specific line of reasoning before, so thanks for introducing it to me.
I’m curious about a couple of follow-up questions: if animals aren’t moral actors, are animals entitled to any amount of ethical treatment? Or is it moral to torture animals for any or no reason at all?
And are only the humans that are moral actors deserving of moral rights? Would it be fine to kill an orphaned infant before it has developed enough moral understanding to be a moral agent of its own?
mdurak
2yr ago
Just to follow up in case you’re still interested: I just concluded a nice discussion with aquota where we both acknowledged it comes down to power and realpolitik rather than any higher ethical cause.
If you’re able to come up with a loftier rationale as to why the moral line should be drawn specifically at the species boundary, I would still love to hear it.
Why do they torture students so?
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