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Doing everything exactly opposite from "The Mainstream" is the same thing as doing everything exactly like "The Mainstream."  You're still using What Everyone Else is Doing as your primary point of reference.

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Messages - LMNO

#46
altered said it better, but since I was typing this out at the same time I'll post it anyway.  It'd be a shame to waste the most words I've written on this site in more than a year.

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To quote the OP: "If I see someone else doing something that I know won't cause suffering, then I can't possibly have a reason to try and stop them."

At what point do you draw the line?  If they're using any sort of modern technology, there's a 99.99% chance that it was in part created by the exploitation of child labor.

Basically, anything that uses cobalt or lithium.

Same with mass-produced clothing - lotsa child labor there.


In fact, you can take just about any behavior, and if you look closely enough, suffering is included.  Let's think for a second that American success (and European success, if I'm guessing you're not in North America) was built upon colonization and slavery.  It's a safe bet to assume most of our lives have benefited from the suffering of others.


Not to mention, depending on your definition of "suffering", almost all agricultural products cause suffering to animals -- and not just meat production.  Farming at a scale that can feed enough people destroys ecosystems and kills all sorts of animals as "pests".  And if you don't draw the line at the suffering of animals, the process of agriculture damages the environment, depletes water supplies, engenders climate change, and causes all sorts of human suffering as a result.

So, yeah.  There is no ethical consumption, and existence is suffering.  Might as well become a Buddhist.
#47
It also occurs to me that if "suffering" is your baseline, you could be in trouble.  "There is no ethical consumption" and all that. 
#48
Or Kill Me / Re: Luka Magnotta : Everything is A Dream
January 05, 2021, 08:47:40 PM
Mrs LMNO decided to watch a movie on Netflix: Don't Fuck With Cats.

A few minutes in, I asked myself: "how do I know that name?"

A few minutes later: "Holy shit."
#50
I'm reading A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears).  It's about how a bunch of Libertarians took over a small New Hampshire town in order to create a Free Market utopia, with predicable (and hilarious) results.  It's really well written, and a lot of fun.
#51
Literate Chaotic / Re: The Swan Versus The Idiot
December 22, 2020, 07:23:07 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on December 22, 2020, 06:21:46 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on December 22, 2020, 06:17:22 PM
Quote from: Doktor Howl on December 22, 2020, 04:27:28 PM
Also, a somewhat interesting Scottish Science Fiction author wrote a series of books based on an "out of context event," which is another word for a kind of black swan event, one that in his stories often led to the complete destruction of a species that had one...Either because they *could* not see it coming, or they *would* not see it coming.

I have a feeling I'm about to slap my head and go "oh, duh!" but who are you talking about?

It's actually kind of obscure.  Iain Banks, The Culture series, book 5 "Excession".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excession#Outside_Context_Problem

The concept has since been incorporated into the workplace jargon of nerds such as myself.

I thought you were referencing Asimov's "Foundation" series, when they introduced "The Mule".
#52
Or Kill Me / Re: Season of the Hag
December 21, 2020, 04:47:42 PM
Whoa.
#53
#54
The problem is, moderate Liberals will do exactly that.  And they'll get thrashed.  Again.
#56
 :amurrica:
#58
Quote from: The Johnny on December 08, 2020, 07:35:03 PM
Quote from: LMNO on December 08, 2020, 06:49:04 PM
I'm at the point where I feel everything that's wrong is "systemic".  But it's like, not exactly the system, it's how we baked bullshit into a pretty good way of doing things since the country began, like making bread with too much salt.  The bread is awful, but you can't do anything about it.

I'll wait for you to get some gloves, so you don't cut yourself on my edgy statement... ready?:

The true systemic problem is man itself.
#59
I'm at the point where I feel everything that's wrong is "systemic".  But it's like, not exactly the system, it's how we baked bullshit into a pretty good way of doing things since the country began, like making bread with too much salt.  The bread is awful, but you can't do anything about it.
#60
I suppose it's time to hit the "Mark All As Read" button