sun_the_second
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User ID: 2725
sun_the_second
3mo ago
It appears that the average pro-war Russian's doublethink can perfectly reconcile "Ukrainians and Russians are the same people" and "fucking glass those salo-nazi khokhols already, I can't wait".
sun_the_second
3mo ago
I fail to see how holding elections only in the part of the country that isn't guaranteed to vote wrong, implicitly signing off on the rest, is "a lot more reasonable" than suspending elections.
It's especially funny to see people suddenly care about the legitimacy of Ukrainian elections despite normally acting like their elections, along with any elections that aren't the glorious USA true freedom elections, are worth nothing.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Such as ancient Greece and Rome, and yes, I know it was not the same conception of homosexuality that we have now, but the facts are that it was at one point common to bugger young men (and even act as if it's better than women) and later on, very much not.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
so is it "ineffectual" or "dangerous"?
sun_the_second
3mo ago
We can certainly come up with examples of cultures that have been previously bi/gay and were turned fully straight.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Homosexuality is not a health decision, sodomy is.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
I don't think I'll be looking for another power progression novel for a while after I'm done with Reverend Insanity. It really is like the fentanyl of books, or perhaps the Heartstopper Burger: incredibly easy to consume, but leaves me with something like post-nut depression as described by people on the internet.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
True, but since the narration constantly explains everything, I'd expect it to at least mention why Fang Yuan can't use any knowledge from Earth other than reciting poems and vague "business acumen".
sun_the_second
3mo ago
And as far as I can recall, the author never claimed that he was the reincarnation of a modern Chinese scholar!
At one point Fang Yuan compared something to a neon lamp. I'm pretty sure that was his own internal narration and not the author's notes. Mao was also mentioned.
The Legend of Gu Zhen Ren is polarizing, and I can honestly say I'm not a fan of it.
The parts with the mythical guy who was the progenitor of cultivators are actually pretty cool. It's the paternalistic attitude that the narrator himself adopts at other times that irks me.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Perhaps if you interrogated a perfect spherical example of a transhuman whose literally only value is "transhumanity", they'd agree that a transhuman future that replicates the power inequalities and the downtrodding of the below by the above is no less good than a transhuman future which exemplifies Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
As a social / civilizational technology it's produced better outcomes for those that have used it.
The quality of its outcomes is now secondary to the survival of the egregore. How would the indoctrinated recognize that there is a better way once there is, if it slanders and suppresses its competitors?
I'm also skeptical that the typical person encountering this hypothetical is considering the things that you're positing, not even implicitly or subconsciously.
I have seen people proposed with this hypothetical and they did not, contrary to the "NPC" narrative, immediately shut down and blare system error alarms.
You or I with our value systems shaped by our human society and human biology and psychology might find those to be failures, but who knows how someone who's transcended their humanity would judge it?
Such is the trap of value systems, you can't really live without one and any sort of conscious change to yours may run against your current one, like in the tale of Gandhi and the pacifism-reducing pills. Even those mindsets that the orthodox consider "deviation" and "degeneracy" are, by definition, part of the human condition. There is nothing in the Codex of Transhumanism that says we ought to keep our minds so open that anything can fall in.
As per @self_made_human's recommendation, I have started reading Reverend Insanity and got past the first 170-ish chapters, which is slightly less than 10% of the work.
tldr: It is a better way to fill subway rides than doomscrolling, but as the alleged gem of the xianxia, it disappointed me.
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Smart protagonist cred: 2/5. It might be intended that Fang Yuan doesn't come off as particularly smart, but rather experienced, lucky to have achieved the heights he had once despite his disadvantage in natural talent and then lucky once more to get another chance. The protagonist begins the story with the massive advantage of 500 years of foreknowledge along with a prestige boon that boosts his progress massively on top of the information he has. He does not make glaring unforced mistakes, but that is not to the credit of the story when I have never seen him learn, but instead was told how "Fang Yuan was entirely clear on X" and "Fang Yuan was utterly calm like a still lake because of his 500 years of experience". On top of that, the "Fang Yuan transmigrated from Earth" part was criminally wasted. You isekai into medieval ages from modernity and don't even consider in your internal thoughts to invent gunpowder and kickstart the industrial evolution combined with the existing magical system? Some "Chinese scholar", he is!
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General characterization: 4/5. Surprisingly decent. Although the author does not provide the protagonist with any sort of intellectual or ethical challenge or growth, this is compensated by surrounding him with a cast of people who are not so zero-dimensional, and the reader can observe them work towards their own interests and ambitions.
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Narration quality: 3/5. Even if it's the fault of jank translation, the narration of Reverend Insanity is aiming for entirely different standards than those we've come to expect from Western novels. It is simplistic and repetitive to nauseation (I bet the massive length of the novel could be cut in half just by removing the redundant descriptions of Gu abilities the primary characters wield), mixes crude dialogue with profound stereotypically-Chinese epithets about the beauty of nature, jumps around from third-person omniscient narrator to some sort of weird "teaching moments" between the author and the reader, with the "morals? hehe, don't be so naive" excerpts (I couldn't tell if those were supposed to be Fang Yuan's thoughts or the author's) being especially grating. On the bright side, some of the flowery descriptions are really fitting, and the constant repetition and remindings does help the reader to remember the various characters' powers and goals.
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Worldbuilding and magical system coolness: 5/5. I'd like to play a videogame based on this setting, perhaps something akin to Tale of Immortal. It is remarkably consistent and shows the author has given thought to how powers interact, the political interplay in the clans, how trade works etc.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
To me this sounds like the sort of rationalization baseless promises societies employ to keep people compliant after they realize that death doesn't scare them anymore.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
So it seems to me that if we want to transcend our humanity, having the freedom to manipulate our minds as easily as taking a pill is at least as significant as having the freedom to manipulate our physical bodies to be the other sex.
This is true, but what I'm getting at is that it has the failure mode of the ruling factions being able to breed slave castes that literally can't rebel and can't stand the thought of it, much like house elves in Harry Potter. Or insular societies becoming more and more ossified by making their children incapable of dissent.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
the wages of sin is death
As opposed to?
sun_the_second
3mo ago
If wanting the goal of medical treatment to be a return to a natural state of health
This would be the state of medical progress as exhibited by hunter-gatherer tribes who are limited to mending acquired injuries. In all other cases, such as inborn defects and genetic predispositions? If they die, they die.
The "natural state of health" is way too low of a bar even if you set immortality ambitions aside.
A pill that lets one cope with the lack of (bodily, in this case) freedom rather than provide more freedom is inherently more suspect and abusable. Or in other words, it serves the interests of those who reject transhumanist ideals and want everyone to remain in the image that they were born in, and this is why trans people, when queried, generally reject that idea in favor of the free sex change pill.
Similarly I would rather be more attractive than be able to tolerate the fruits of being less attractive; would rather be able to achieve my goals with less work than be able to work more, etc. "Be happy with natal bodies" pill is the proposal of the conformist solution rather than the personal freedom one. It is, although I admit it's a stretch, akin to "curing" the black men's desire for freedom rather than making them more suited for independent life.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Seeing how horrible everyone here says India is, it was probably helpful to try and keep the girl in America even with the risk of regretful medical operations later in her life.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Things are maximized by many people's choices to different extents. Yet the concept of "revealed preference" as used on themotte is not to attribute responsibility (and thus degree of preference) in good faith, but instead to state "my enemies are getting what they fucking deserve" in a slightly more snooty and impartial-sounding way.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Perhaps. If the lifeboat starts sinking and we have to move onto another one, though, it would be a bad idea to let that guy go in front.
sun_the_second
3mo ago
They switch off if you go monotone.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing in terms of bedtime stories?
sun_the_second
3mo ago
You know, unless I had some independent reason to think theyre crazy, I would take that as strong evidence that its in my interest what theyre saying.
I've read that several times and I still don't quite understand what you mean. That the guy who wants to shut down the lifeboat is acting in your interests?
sun_the_second
3mo ago
Doesn't help the billionaire in daily life, probably not profitable, terrible optics?
I don't believe Zelensky's current position is enviable. It's fun to be a corrupt dictator of some backwater no one cares about; less so when your country's being bombed, including occasional shots at the capital, while your job requires you to scramble around Europe and USA playing beggar-slash-hero, and the ultranationalists within your power structure allegedly aim guns at your back in case you have any thoughs of defecting.
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