domain:city-journal.org
HereAndGone
3m ago
Once that's an option, we can trivially ensure that nothing short of vacuum decay or the end of the universe poses a meaningful risk.
Sure, once you can reliably work miracles, then that's trivial.
HereAndGone
8m ago
He outlines how Democrats could frame a compelling message around corruption and abuse of power, citing Senator Jon Ossoff’s July speech as an example of effective messaging that ties everyday struggles (like high medical costs and housing insecurity) to elite corruption.
Oh, yes? Like the allegations about Nancy Pelosi and insider trading? When you start going on about elite corruption, you have two choices:
(1) Investigate the said corruption. This may mean you piss off your deep pocket donors, which means no money, which means oops we can't run the party.
(2) "Investigate" the said corruption, but don't do anything about it really. This means the voters now know, rather than suspect, you're a bunch of hypocrites and as bad as the other guys.
If Ezra is expecting Mr. Deeds to show up and clean house, he'll be a long time waiting.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
11m ago
And this analogy doesn't work, because performing a prayer is an additional task, whereas you were probably referring to someone with a pronoun regardless.
Wouldn't that mean it would be wrong to force someone who doesn't pray, to pray to Allah, but ok to force someone who does pray 5 times a day, but to a different god?
Seems kinda backwards to me.
crushedoranges
Can Marx explain the used panties market?
13m ago
I realize that I just duplicated your post - yeah, Ezra is a dumb policy wonk who is trying to pretend that he wasn't a fellow traveller of woke to push neoliberal policy. If he recommends anything, much like the anti-compass, we should do the opposite - because anything this smug prick recommends or advocates for is the the will of smuggest of LA radlibs.
Totalitarianit
14m ago
That podcast episode kicked off the downward spiral of /r/SamHarris. It's also a great example of what reddit became across the entire site. The debate brought in tons of Klein apologists and progressives which turned the subreddit into a battleground. On one side you had liberals who simply accepted the available evidence (those siding with Harris), and on the other you had the anti-racists who alternated between the arguments of denying or questioning the data and labeling anyone who accepted it as racist (those siding with Klein). Boiled down, it was another example of secular evangelists spreading the framework of their religion: if data suggests uncomfortable conclusions about racial differences, the data is false and those who believe it are racist.
That debate and its aftermath had a significant impact on my perception of the social left. They weren't actually in favor of using objective truths to solve real world problems. They were only in favor of promoting specific moral "truths" while suppressing any evidence they deemed to be immoral.
Frankly I’m stunned that Ezra has ‘any’ audience at all. It’s even more concerning to me I live in a locality that’s colored by the mentality of his type of thinking. I understand the backdrop people like him are coming from, but he is a ‘horrible’ advocate for the cause. Sam could’ve had a much more sensible discussion about this with someone like Shaun. Ezra is too psychologically fragile and had a hard time stomaching and keeping down what he was hearing. He is not the guy for practically any subject out there.
Ezra Klein is a woke idiot who lied about Charles Murray to push blank slate liberalism and he did it knowingly, and not out of ignorance, because the narrative was more important than the truth.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=IeWMw2hb4gY&ab_channel=Motte%26Bailey
So why should we believe him now?
Edit: Tretiak beat me to the punch, but I directly linked to the podcast he mentioned. Take a listen. If Ezra Klein posted here, on the motte, with the same tone and argumentation he did on the podcast, he'd be permanently banned within the hour. Why should we listen to someone who would be just as obnoxious as Alexander Turok or BurdensomeCount?
Tretiak
24m ago
Zelensky is not a fully independent actor. There’s a lot of players involved both inside and outside his administration that are pulling chains on him. He should’ve went for a peace plan right out of the gate and tried as hard as he could for that. All of his efforts will be in vain now when he empties the clip of whatever political capital he still has left, things end the way people thought it would from the beginning only now with hundreds of thousands of bodies and a wrecked country trailing behind him.
Tiber727
27m ago
I didn't say it was my opinion. I said it's where I think a large amount of the people around the political center are at. And this analogy doesn't work, because performing a prayer is an additional task, whereas you were probably referring to someone with a pronoun regardless. This is more comparable to the euphemism treadmill.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
56m ago
I think the Internet as a global coordination platform here is undersold: it's so much easier to run a nationwide campaign on any issue today. In 1990 you'd do what, post letters and long-distance phone calls? More expensive in money and time than starting a subreddit, Facebook group, or even newsgroup or email list.
On the plus side, it's done wonders for semi-niche hobbies, though.
There’s people on the frontiers of whole brain emulation (WBE’s) already, but even they don’t seem to think a copy of you is a continuation of the present day you in the same sense that today is a continuation of the you of yesterday.
Your ontology of identity may be flexible, but that’s exactly what most people don’t want. They want a continuation of themselves for tomorrow that feels pretty much like today, only either extended perhaps in another added faculty of perception, or as a backstop or guarantee of their ordinary present day consciousness in case something (like death) happens to them.
This is why Buddhist and Hindu philosophy has never drawn or inspired any real attraction or attention from me, though I’ve read their religious texts. If I was someone in a past life, and even if the wheel of karma went on in both directions forever and there was something in me that never died, why would I care, if there’s no concrete mental and physical continuity between that life and my present life today? The two are causally disconnected. If it was me, it’s not me in any sense I regard as interesting or that I should care about. It’s about as meaningful as saying the person standing across from me is also me. I can’t see out of his eyes as well as my own. I can’t feel what he feels and I can’t think what he thinks.
If he's real, and also timeless, I'm sure he won't mind if he was to wait a few quadrillion years for my immortal soul as opposed to this century. Since Christians believe in medical care and extending healthy lifespan, there are no downsides I can see.
I think John Polkinghorne was the only theologian I’ve ever read that made a case similar to this. Even as a Catholic myself, most of the arguments I’ve seen Christian philosophers make against transhumanism are incredibly weak.
Having children is better than nothing, when it comes to leaving your mark on the world. But it is still a pale imitation of actually staying alive and healthy to tell people about it. I do intend to have kids, and I'm sorry to hear about your fertility issues. But doesn't change the fact that my kids would also like to have me around too. When I talk about life extension, it's not just me being selfish, but thinking about my parents, and my grandfather, and all the other humans alive who would like to keep on being with their loved ones.
Most people don’t consciously decide to have children because they want to extend their biological footprint into the future, although we know evolution programmed that drive into us for that specified purpose. But it’s incidental to our conscious processing. I want to have children because family is what I find meaningful and fulfilling. Hedonism is empty and a dead end and even if transhumanism could extend my life a million years into the future, lack of a family would still ultimately leave me feeling unsatisfied. Even in my life right now, I would never be in a relationship with someone who wouldn’t consider or has already decided against having a family of their own. That’s a completely worthless relationship as far as I’m concerned.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
58m ago
My father was a workhorse. I have some very good memories of spending time with him as a young boy in his workshop or getting picked up from school but he was often absent, working weekends or double shifts for the extra money and also, I suspect, as a coping mechanism for my mother's infidelity. When we moved to a small town, he was much more physically present but still preoccupied with work. In adulthood, however, he opened up and started talking, and he and I had what I considered to be an excellent relationship before he passed away. My mother, as you may have guessed, not so much. Like problem_redditor*, I also experienced my mother as being controlling, self-centered, manipulative, frequently dismissive, and derogatory towards my father in particular. She and I saw things quite differently, and as a teenager I wasn't concerned with school, college, or career. My only goal was to become independent ASAP. That earned me a measure of respect from her, and once out of the family household I drank the Kool-Aid and spent decades playing the relatively happy and successful child. A little over a decade ago, Dad started developing Alzheimer's, and my wife and I tried to help. As is common in these sorts of situations, all of my family's unhealthiness came out to play during this time period, primarily, my mother's unhealthiness. That almost undid my marriage and I've kept her at arm's distance ever since. She has also developed Alzheimer's and between that and the damage that was done to my life and my marriage, I don't really speak to her anymore.
In navigating life, I've pretty much learned by doing and did not receive much guidance from either of my parents, which is in part a generational thing. That said, I think in a lot of ways my father set a wonderful example for me to follow and I try to do that. He was the kind of guy that spent several years building his own garage/workshop and I'd like to think I have some of that focus and persistence in myself when it comes to the important things in my life, and that his example helps me to believe that I can do just about anything I set my mind to. He also had a pure and loving heart, and I try to live up to the love and acceptance that he was able to show people as well.
*In linking that Wikipedia page, please note that I am referring only to my own mother.
Tretiak
1hr ago
I stopped listening to Ezra Klein ever since he appeared on Sam Harris’ podcast and looked like a complete moron.
Trump is a hiccup in our democracy. Until there comes a hard and fast dismantling of institutions, you can’t license the claim that he’s an authoritarian when the same system you approve of has also put all the candidates you’re palatable to in the same seat Trump is in right now.
NYTReader
1hr ago
Ezra Klein in the pages of the NYT on why the Democrats need to Shutdown the government.
TLDR: Trump is an authoritarian.
Back in March, Democrats justified keeping the government open by saying that the courts were restraining Trump, that a shutdown would only accelerate his executive power, and that markets were already punishing his recklessness re tarrifs. But now with Trump firing dissenters, using federal agencies against political enemies, and enriching himself and his allies through foreign investments and unchecked power, Klein says that none of those arguments hold anymore. The Supreme Court is now backing Trump on key issues, DOGE’s chaotic dismantling of the bureaucracy has slowed because Trump loyalists are running it, and the markets have largely adapted to the new normal.
Maybe the markets have normalized, but we shouldn't according to Klein. Democrats are politically and morally failing by continuing to fund a government that has become an instrument of authoritarianism. He outlines how Democrats could frame a compelling message around corruption and abuse of power, citing Senator Jon Ossoff’s July speech as an example of effective messaging that ties everyday struggles (like high medical costs and housing insecurity) to elite corruption. Specific examples the firing of agency heads like those at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Defense Intelligence Agency for political reasons, targeted investigations into critics such as Senator Adam Schiff and Attorney General Tish James, the FBI’s raid on Bolton’s home, masked ICE agents now conducting raids without identification or warrants, and National Guard troops being deployed to cities LA and DC.
Corvos
1hr ago
Not me in the 'I would happily commit suicide because I'll still be alive' sense, but me in the 'exactly the same in every way' sense. Different consciousnesses but otherwise identical. And I would feel love and warmth towards him because it's the closest possible relation you can have with someone.
You might worry about divergence over the next 10, 20, 50 years but even then it would be like having a very identical twin.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
1hr ago
As long as you can't see the world through his eyes, hear it through his ears, be aware of his every thought and feeling, and directly control what he does, he's not you.
But then you're missing out on the wonderfully jingoistic lyrics!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2hr ago
If you're into soul at all, check out the Isaac Hayes versions of Joy and The Look of Love.
Chrisprattalpharaptr
Ave Imperaptor
2hr ago
NunoSempere
2hr ago
The Johnny Cash version of you are my sunshine comes to mind.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
2hr ago
For me, it's the instrumental version published by Naxos in the album Swedish March Favorites, which was included in the soundtrack of Victoria 1.
Cryonics supporters aren't "not" accepting their mortality. They still understand it perfectly well. If a human being lives for 10,000 years, that is not technically immortality. Our current understanding of the laws of thermodynamics says that isn't possible. Maybe that'll change one day but it's highly unlikely because all the laws of thermodynamics are inevitable. There's only a certain amount of negentropy left available in the universe to perform physical computations with. But if today you will want to live one more day it's not far-fetched to think tomorrow you will also want to live one more day. That's proof by induction on the positive integers. I remember the article Chris Hallquist put out that caused people to raise some interesting objections to it, namely difficulties with the preservation of the of the brain after vitrification takes place. I don't know if that's been overcome or changed in recent years but I found it somewhat persuasive.
I don't know anything at all about the financial stability of these institutions, but yeah there's that as well.
If we're counting historic songs that I like that have gone through a lot of versions before ending up in its current form then i would point you towards Björneborgarnas marsch. The melody was probably written in France, the melody was then popularised in Sweden by the famous Swedish troubadour Carl Michael Bellman and was subsequently adopted as a marsch by the Swedish army. 70 years later, and post Sweden losing Finland to Russia, a Swede living in (and naturalised citizen of) Finland wrote a poem that became the lyrics to the song of called Björneborgarnas marsch. This was eventually translated to Finnish and became the anthem of not only the Finnish armed forces but also their president and Estonia's armed forces.
Okay, thought experiment time. Let's say some friendly aliens drop by and they can do this. They produce a digital copy that is 100% identical to your brain state at the time they created it. Total fidelity. "Look!" they say, "this is you! Now step into the disintegration chamber, we'll just dispose of this meat body and leave digital you the only existing entity".
Would you do it? Would you really think "well sure, fine, me in this body being killed isn't any big deal, digital copy me is just as good" or would you go "hang on, that's going to kill me! That copy exists alongside me but isn't me!"
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