A modest proposal for Aneristic Illusions

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

• The Dirt

This may go under "Anything the powers that be do not want us to know", but it's not the hidden stuff I'm talking about, it's the stuff most people don't bother to read. Definitely U.S.-centric here, but I spend a lot of time poring over legislation, Supreme Court decisions, executive orders, etc, etc, in order to try to get past the wiki-summaries and draw my own conclusions based on the actual texts. Yeah, a lot of this involves reading something and screaming "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???" but from time to time it spurs an "a-ha" or a "holy fuck". Looking at a 1000 page piece of legislation, two sections of which are dominating our attention, it's a fairly sure bet there's 4 or 5 sections which we are ignoring at our peril.

[minuspace]

...long-term trends and events with which we should truly be concerning ourselves.
...  What things truly matter, in a political sense?

.... conflict matters.  Not just the mostly bloodless strategic manouvering and posturing of the Great Powers, as described above, but actual wars, insurgencies, assassinations and ....
....Only through correctly discerning their actions can we come to understand their motivations, and thus their vital interests... 

...we need more political theory.  Not the dry and drab theory I was taught in classrooms necessarily, but things like Machiavelli, Assange's "State and Terrorist Conspriacies", political psychology...heuristic models which can help us to understand political activities and actions and put them in some kind of framework.

I guess my thinking is that political theory runs on ideology.  Ideology is like the operating system used to actuate and tap the "human" resource.  From a Machiavellian perspective, the Prince may be allowed to act above the principles of practical reason that apply to his subjects, however, the people want to be told a story if they are to be part of the action.  I think it is plausible for some to view people as a resource, then understanding their narrative is important.  That narrative is ideology.  Ideology is the framework that informs how the polis will operate?

I was thinking something like that, but cannot really seem to express myself clearly (maybe because I don't really know what  I'm talking about... [coffee...])

[Cain]

Hahaha, well this was a waste of fucking bandwidth.

[Kai]

Hahaha, well this was a waste of fucking bandwidth.

Well, I'm sorry you feel that way. It has me thinking about my own goals for science communication and conversation, what is interesting to people and myself, how to separate science news from broader science trends and issues. &tc.

[Cain]

I give it a month, at best, before whatever plan you have falls apart due to the disinterest of others and their and unwillingness to engage.

Thinking is hard, and besides, there's another thread on copyright piracy everyone is taking part in!

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I give it a month, at best, before whatever plan you have falls apart due to the disinterest of others and their and unwillingness to engage.

Thinking is hard, and besides, there's another thread on copyright piracy everyone is taking part in!

So we're supposed to be all equally interested in the same things at the same time, or it's a giant catastrophe?

[Cain]

Yes, that's precisely what I said, well done

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Yes, that's precisely what I said, well done

People are willing to engage with you Cain, but apparently it's never high enough quality, it's never in high enough amounts, and if they have interests that don't coincide with yours they're worthless idiots.

[Triple Zero]

I dunno, I find it pretty easy not to spend much time encouraging "stupid X says stupid Y" discussions. Where X is *mostly* Republicans or USA politicians in general, but if it was continuously about Geert Wilders (or his fellow party members), I'd be done with it just as quickly.

The basic idea is similar to the drug threads and the anarchism/free will/libertarian threads. You can only make the same point so many times, until it stops being signal and becomes noise.

Maybe we should see if there's an SMF plugin that does that thing what the #XKCD moderator bot does, forbidding people from saying lines that have been said before by anyone, forever. Just for a single subforum of course. Dunno if it's feasible on a forum, TBH.



And as promised the continuation of what I wrote in the Dedicated Server thread but decided would be more on-topic here:

But then, maybe you're right. As you said in the other thread "thinking is hard!", did that attitude use to be different or are we just remembering the past with rose-tinted glasses? One thing is I can't remember people demanding entertainment as quickly if the board has a slow evening (afternoon, timezone, whatever), if you're pressuring me to post for the sake of posting, expect quips and puns. If you want an intelligent and thought-out reply, or an original story or riff on the OP, give me a day or two, three sometimes even a week. And nothing demotivates quicker than the OP declaring the thread dead or ruined before I even got the chance to give it my attention (which is different from simply posting a reminder "hey guys did anyone read this I'd really appreciate some feedback").

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

The basic idea is similar to the drug threads and the anarchism/free will/libertarian threads. You can only make the same point so many times, until it stops being signal and becomes noise.
Maybe we should see if there's an SMF plugin that does that thing what the #XKCD moderator bot does, forbidding people from saying lines that have been said before by anyone, forever. Just for a single subforum of course. Dunno if it's feasible on a forum, TBH.

I suppose I'm interested in both signal and noise in that case, and therefore I ought to be censored.

[The Johnny]

I think one of the problems is that regarding politics, most of us here are just amateurs with no specialized knowledge in the matter.

Another problem is the tendency to be passive receivers of outrageous political stories or news that we happen to run into, and no specific build up or research of a particular topic that leads to the discussion of either local injustices that happen everyday, or major in-vogue happenings.

Although at least ive seen Nigel talk some about the system in itself regarding the work abouts of the prison system and corruption of officials and the why's of drug policy enforcement that benefit certain elites.

[Triple Zero]

The basic idea is similar to the drug threads and the anarchism/free will/libertarian threads. You can only make the same point so many times, until it stops being signal and becomes noise.
Maybe we should see if there's an SMF plugin that does that thing what the #XKCD moderator bot does, forbidding people from saying lines that have been said before by anyone, forever. Just for a single subforum of course. Dunno if it's feasible on a forum, TBH.

I suppose I'm interested in both signal and noise in that case, and therefore I ought to be censored.

In a single subforum where a special algorithm makes posting there a challenge?

Suppose I enjoy jumping in bottomless pits in videogames, and therefore I ought to lose a life and start over all the time.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

The basic idea is similar to the drug threads and the anarchism/free will/libertarian threads. You can only make the same point so many times, until it stops being signal and becomes noise.
Maybe we should see if there's an SMF plugin that does that thing what the #XKCD moderator bot does, forbidding people from saying lines that have been said before by anyone, forever. Just for a single subforum of course. Dunno if it's feasible on a forum, TBH.

I suppose I'm interested in both signal and noise in that case, and therefore I ought to be censored.

In a single subforum where a special algorithm makes posting there a challenge?

Suppose I enjoy jumping in bottomless pits in videogames, and therefore I ought to lose a life and start over all the time.

What would you call that subforum? The Free Speech Zone?

[Kai]

I give it a month, at best, before whatever plan you have falls apart due to the disinterest of others and their and unwillingness to engage.

Thinking is hard, and besides, there's another thread on copyright piracy everyone is taking part in!

Entirely a possibility. At this point, I have two options: either ignore PD because it's impossible to have a conversation above the lowest common denominator; or, attempt to discuss, regardless of my cynicism. For me, it's a xanatos gambit. If I end up buggering off like I have been, I win because I have all kinds of worthwhile things I could fill my time with, and anything I write here before that happens is practice. As is all writing I do. If I actually engage people, that's a win as well.

Thinking /is/ hard. Certainly not easy for me some days. Especially staring down the barrel of topics I've never considered before.

[Triple Zero]

The basic idea is similar to the drug threads and the anarchism/free will/libertarian threads. You can only make the same point so many times, until it stops being signal and becomes noise.
Maybe we should see if there's an SMF plugin that does that thing what the #XKCD moderator bot does, forbidding people from saying lines that have been said before by anyone, forever. Just for a single subforum of course. Dunno if it's feasible on a forum, TBH.

I suppose I'm interested in both signal and noise in that case, and therefore I ought to be censored.

In a single subforum where a special algorithm makes posting there a challenge?

Suppose I enjoy jumping in bottomless pits in videogames, and therefore I ought to lose a life and start over all the time.

What would you call that subforum? The Free Speech Zone?

I believe it's called <SomethingBot>5000 ... I can't remember.