AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
Interesting that you clicked on this...I hope your day is going well and you're at least finding our conversation stimulating, if you're not finding it pleasant. Looking to reinforce your beliefs about about me? Dig up some dirt? Have at it! Only cowards and scam artists make their profile private.
User ID: 2897
At one point there was no real explanation for many phenomena, plus life can be hard and unfair in the here and now, humans like to see patterns and meaning in things, they also fear death and promising peasants their reward is in the afterlife not in this one was such a great idea! Religion really ticked all the boxes!
It is only natural that past humans created religious stories wherever they lived when events took place beyond their understanding. That smart people believed in gods or pretended to is no mystery, there was no real alternative. We have that alternative now. Most smart religious people are indoctrinated well before any critical thinking sets in, it becomes a part of who they are and they feel "off" without it, even if they leave the the church the brain pathways for religious belief are set and they tend to wander back later in life or find a similar thinking system to fill the hole.
If you taught no religion to a smart kid and when they turn 18 ask them to believe in all kinds of crazy magic and make pretend it is true, they would look at you like you're nuts. Imagine aliens come to live here from Sigma Tau and are asked if they have heard about their lord and savior Jesus Christ? They would laugh you out of the galaxy, and be right to do so.
Smart religious people post all these convoluted diatribes that miss the forest for the trees and put forth esoteric metaphysical apologetics to backfill their already "felt" conclusion that god is real. The truth is rather more simple, none of the thousands of religions that have cropped up over human history are even a little bit True with a capital T, yours isn't any different. The universe is a physical system that can be entirely explained by natural laws that we can discover.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
1d ago
I've been to many German Cities. Some are grimy, Stuttgart and Erfurt come to mind as places that had noticeable bad parts. I didn't see any of that while in London really. While in london I saw a grand total of one old school hard luck guy silently begging outside of a classic pub down by the river, it added to atmosphere if anything, much cleaner and less bum filled than any day I've spent in Boston or NYC. We didn't do any big 5 star meals, or stay at any place above a Marriott, just pub food and one or 2 nice dinners.
Subway was on time and clean, sure the older subway tunnels and cars were a bit small and a tad warm, but that is because they are some of the first in the world and they only could build the tunnels a certain diameter back in 1863 as opposed to the Prague subway, built over 100 years later in the 1970s. We bought the "london pass" for a few days, it gives you discounted access to all the big attractions. I had no problem getting anywhere in the city for only 8.20 pounds a day! I had low expectations (in line with what you seem to have experienced, and from reading about dystopian policies online for 2 decades) for London, and was very impressed and surprised to have a great time! I would go back any time!
Maybe you just don't enjoy visiting a large metro.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
2d ago
Perhaps, I wasn't trying for that tone. Just seems like you want it both ways. The urbane sophisticate with the strengthened faith of a revivalist preacher. I just don't see how you square that circle. A cursory examination of reality should show a person with the introspection and intelligence you clearly do posses that there is no "God" with a capital G out there, let alone the one you're lucky enough to believe in, I will say the sheer audacity to believe or claim to believe is commendable.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
2d ago
I mean if you're staying in shit places with weird people and have a bad attitude it is going to suck, you can have a bad time anywhere in the world by chance or by design. If you don't have the money to eat out a few times you can hardly fault London for that. It is a world city. To experience it you need at least a bit of a budget. I've been to Prague as well. I enjoyed it.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
2d ago
The problem for me is the source, this is just some fat Dutch born Israeli historian saying whatever comes to mind. His family were "staunch Zionists" that narrowly avoided the holocaust. This is just his personal has revenge fantasy about Europe and WWII. He doesn't have some kind of special access or insight into what Israel Nuclear stratagems are in place.
You can always find one nut on any side saying crazy shit.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
2d ago
Most countries aren't interested in actually using nukes. As evidenced by the past 80 years. They are a deterrent, a weapon of last resort. Israel has nothing to gain by pointing them at Paris or DC or Rome, a wildly speculative statement or 2 by people I've never heard of is hardly proof they are targeting Europe or the USA. They probably do have them pointed at Iran et al.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
2d ago
I think that is a wildly weird and optimistic (for lack of a better word) piece of pro-Israeli propaganda there. I suppose if you're a mid tier Israeli professor or author who is trying to make a splash and maybe strike a little fear into the hearts of your enemies; it doesn't hurt from a game theory perspective to claim you have all of this capability to lash out wildly. But Israel is tiny and would be completely destroyed by any retaliation whatsoever nuclear or not, so hardly an actual plan for them to ever use...
Israeli is also a small area to cover with countermeasures that could take out missiles in boost phase. They do have subs, but they aren't exactly stealth tech nuclear boomers deep in the Indian ocean...just a dozen diesel electrics only one of which is really a modern missile sub.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
2d ago
That divergence in beliefs and culture doesn't cause some cognitive dissonance? Even if it does I suppose it is manageable if the benefits to you are there.
Ah, maybe I am looking at this the wrong way. It could be a huge benefit to the ego! When one is with PMC folks you get to feel morally and culturally (wedge issues) superior and when one is with your religious followers you get to feel cognitively and culturally (art, science, tech, literature) superior. I might have to try this on for size.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
3d ago
We are bogging down in semantics about what constitutes a 'tribe'. I think on a fundamental level of how you feel the world operates (by divine plan) you're in the same group as those rural baptists. If you also agree with their stances on wedge issues and are socially conservative then you're absolutely in their wheelhouse. It is like a family, you may not like your relatives, but they are still your relatives, not mine.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
3d ago
Really? I had the opposite experience last fall. It was clean, very british, tons of great architecture and history. Easy cheap transport. We had a blast. Cheaper food and beer than where I live. I didn't feel the CCTV eyes on me, although I'm sure they were there.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
4d ago
My understanding was that it is only up to a certain amount like 10 or 20k on the new 10 year plan, so not anyone for any amount. PSLF already was ten year, it was just a cluster till this admin fixed it.
I think that even if you are more erudite and sophisticated than your fellow red tribers, you still fall into that catagory if you're conservative and religious. You agree on the big stuff. You just have nothing in common beyond that. That personally would make me question some things.
Maybe you like the structure, meditative nature, history, traditions, and pomp of the church, but I still can't reconcile smart people actually believing in magic. I always personally feel that learned church muckety mucks such as any archbishop don't really go in for all of that and it is just a way of life that affords them respect, some amount of power, and for thousands of years one of the best lives that you could have. Vatican city has had the most whores per square mile in the world since its inception.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
4d ago
The last exit on I-95 is in Houlton Maine. It is wayyyyy more than 2 hours to Boston. But if you want to drink half frozen Molson beer while ice fishing, there is no better place to be.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
5d ago
Good points. There are many religious blue tribers, not many here though. Being openly religious or making it a large part of your identity is a very good marker for figuring out if someone is 'red tribe' but again that all depends on how we identify red tribe. Do we judge them by what they say they believe, or by how they say it? Semantics and what the definition of is is, I suppose.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
5d ago
For me, a lot of the 'red tribe' vibes come from the openly religious postings and occasionally really in depth wholly religious debates on the finer points of the eucharist. The tales of having religious "awakenings" and the benefits of Mormonism, the just so stories, and the backronyming of reason and logical arguments to fit fantastical superstitious beliefs, the 3 page apologetics diatribes and the constant C. S. Lewis quotes. It boggles my rational mind that people that otherwise seem like coherent thinkers and smart capable motte posters have this glaring blindspot and aren't afraid to wear it as a badge of honor. Atheism is so boring and passe after all. Trad Cath living is the New Hotness.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
6d ago
Asteroid mining won't always be expensive.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
7d ago
You don't know what you can use it for till you get that much! Heck tobacco wasn't even a thing before they brought it back! Certainly don't need sugar or tobacco, people just like them, pure luxury goods. Platinum has actual uses. From pure utils, tobacco and sugar have been huge negatives for human health and society including the horrible conditions on sugar plantations.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
7d ago
Same could be said for space. You can't find 6 trillion dollars worth of platinum laying around here anywhere!
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
8d ago
Convicting former presidents for paperwork related felonies (in a court and a state that hate him no less) is such a bad precedent to set I don't even know where to start. There is a reason Nixon was pardoned. Who will want to give up power if they know they will be possibly thrown in jail if they do? Even if that never happens the knock on consequences of this down the road are hard to overstate. Like all bad law, it might make sense morally and emotionally at the time, but it creates a monstrosity that will have to be dealt with later.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
8d ago
I resent the implication! I'm being taken out of context. Cherry-picked I tell yah! I'm sorry that I've provided the one bit of lame pushback against religiosity both acerbic and 2002 atheist cringe basic enough to be used as evidence of a greater conspiracy against Tenaz.
El Motte Parte Dos has a lot of religious folks these days that aren't shy about treating it as the truth and even openly evangelizing, which still strikes me as something weird for a place that is supposedly honestly truth seeking and at least rational adjacent. Can't help it if that grinds my gears.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
8d ago
You'll note I was kindly downvoted for my boring and tired atheistic statements and protestations against superstition.
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
8d ago
Oh man I remember playing that game over the summer between semesters in 2004. What a great game, I just don't recall if it was 1 or 2. The 3D gameplay was wild at the time, I think it still is compared to a lot of current 4x space fighting which is very flat.
No one goes to "hell" because it isn't a real place...It is just very rude to go around telling people that if they don't believe in the same imaginary world that you do they will be tortured for eternity. It is bullying people. Why would someone want to buy what you're selling?
AhhhTheFrench
We will sell no wine before its time
9d ago
It was literally a figure of speech, it wasn't an invitation to treat on religious dogma and for you to tell people they are going to hell for rejecting christ. Which is just rude really.
Poke away! I don't see where you proved that observable reality is actually faith based or where I changed the subject in that long chain of well trod ground; I believe in determinism and cause and effect and physics and materialism. These are all real things. Belief in G(g)od(s) and the thousands of religions of history have produced no actionalable technology or revealed any truth about the universe whatsoever, it is fantastical stories that sometimes teach some ok life lessons and sometimes lead to human sacrifice; no different from Grimm's fairy tales any other fiction, except that some portion of humanity takes them seriously. Materialism and hard science have opened up the universe to us and will continue to do so.
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