Messages

Is the book club still meeting on Wednesdays? I'm usually busy but would love to check it out if i'm ever not.

We've been living under what amounts to Pentabarf-Law up here for the better part of 5 years now. I hardly notice it anymore. But, thanks a lot Trudeau!

Is it the prevailing view on the board that there is no valid arguments against the statue destructions?

It doesn't seem simple to me.

Hmm... Perhaps it would be more effective to erect statues of these historical figures showcasing their flaws.  The opposition could rail against the ideas conveyed, but they would not have the righteous indignation that is lent by witnessing the destruction of historical public property.

If the flaws are actually depicted in some manner (not sure how that would work in every case), I can see there being benefit. But if it's just a plaque under a regular statue, I would argue it's still glorifying the subject of the statue.

I haven't taken a poll around the board, but I will go on record as stating that I don't believe there is a decent argument against the statue destruction.

WOW.

DAMN.

Oh my fucking god

This is very interesting. I will read up more on this tonight.

Bianca is not on there.

I will say this much, my dad turned 81 in May, and lives 2 hours away from me. I don't own a car. He has always been pretty difficult to buy for. One of his favorite musicians is on there for $60. I hired her to speak to him for a couple minutes and he cried because he loved it so much. So, it has its uses.

I always think it's valuable to understand the other tunnels out there.

I have libertarian friends, and used to argue them a lot.. but frankly I used to have a badly skewed notion of what they actually care about.

I took the time to really figure out what their position was and why they feel that way. I still disagree with them, but at least I'm not blasting them with strawman arguments anymore. And I admit, there's some stuff in that tunnel that I can't disagree with.

Same with cops -- my childhood best friend is a cop, and I always use our conversations as an opportunity to learn how that reality tunnel works. It takes conscious effort to disengage my mental judgment engine and just be receptive.

It definitely helped me understand their worldview and I am more sympathetic to the libertarian worldview, though I believe it helped that a large chunk of my introduction was through Penn Jillette, who I consider to be a very good person with good intentions. He showed a side of libertarianism which made it seem like the compassionate choice. It took Nigel and ECH pointing out to me that the goal is decent, but could never work without everything collapsing and being rebuilt which is unlikely to happen any time soon. Eutopias and all that.

It's worth noting that Penn has been showing major misgivings about libertarianism recently.

Good thread Cram.

I would also add to be careful about what reality tunnels you choose to enter. As an experiment I decided to take on the worldview of the libertarian, and once I was deeply in it was difficult to get back out. I credit Nigel, ECH, and LMNO with assisting me out of that mindset. Of course, other people are very likely savvier than I am, or I am more committed to the bit... but be careful.

It must be nice to be perfect

As we all know, I shit down the throat of all noobs, due to my perfection.

I don't want to get in line while everybody's knives are out, but I'm kinda missing what this guy said that's so upsetting

I have no time for people who "can't be arsed" to retrain the way their mind thinks about things which don't directly impact them. It's as simple as that.

Man, that fucking sucks Suu.

This guy's a peach.

Cool. Now I can completely ignore you with a clean conscience.

dude? if you've got a problem w/me kindly find a way to articulate it. otherwise I'm not sure how to address it. are you able to that? or do you believe I'm obligated to guess at your peruvision?

I am sorry that you are bothered by the term "racism" being applied to the dominant cultural group.  I shall send a memo to the Blacks, Browns, LGBT, Asians, Jews, and those Zoroastrian fuckers that nobody likes, and we'll see if they can't improve their attitudes.

I am sorry that we're a pack of bastards who take an undue joy in dragging you around by the ankles just because you are above worrying about "the average man" or whether "personhole" is a good replacement for "manhole."

Mostly, though, I am sorry about the lack of sincerity in this post.

honestly, mate, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and it seems like you're intent on injecting malicious intentions in the discussion here. is there something you'd like to discuss, other than insinuating people are racist?

Naw, no need to articulate anything, because that would be tacitly inviting discourse. You've actually articulated everything I needed to know.

honestly the foreskin thing was a bluff and I was just throwing it out there like a cat in the wind.

Clarify.  You say your words were a bluff.  What were you pretending, and how does that differ from the reality?

"It was all an experiment" in 3... 2...