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Thinking for yourself, and being wrong, are not mutually exclusive.

Let me further expound upon my reply to Johnny.  To simply say, the fatal mistake I made in my last couple of years here before I was shown the door, was that I willingly pigeonholed myself to the Anti-Drug Warrior trope.  I was the same person in 2013 that I was in 2005, and in the later years when we created the BIP, when I ran the BIP board and wiki, etc.  But, I am the sort of person who is a) admittedly ego-centric and b) feeds off of perceived bullying.  My perception at the time was, "Well, shit, they're all coming after me, time to strap in AND GO!" 

So invested heavily, and exclusively, into that persona.  All of the bits of me that were also totally into the BIP/TFY,S stuff was still completely there, but I cordoned it off, and said, "Okay, I'm the villain now, so let's be the villain!!!" 

To be clear, this is 100% my fault, and I own how I behaved and reacted, etc. 

Do I still believe everything I believed when I left in 2013?  Yes, but that includes all the actual Discordia stuff I stopped talking about in 2011 or so.  But also, I've had a lot of experiences since 2013, where, you know my perspectives and priorities are just different.  I ran the unsuccessful anti-pot legalization campaign in 2016.  (Lost by less than 4,000 fucking votes!)  Dude, when you lose a campaign by less than .05%, that shit keeps you up at night for awhile, and then it just gets to the point, "I'm done!".  "I'm pushing away from the table, I'm too old for this shit." 

I still care, but I don't care, you know?  I did my piece, it is what it is now, it's someone else's problem.  I'm just gonna do my job, retire, and go be a fat 60 year old on a beach somewhere.  Because, fuck, THAT'S DISCORDIAN RIGHT THERE BUB!

as a person who is able to think for himself

Is it just me, or do people who tout their capacity to think for themselves usually just turn out to be the type to reject any external evidence that contradicts their internally developed preconceptions?

Show me a human that doesn't do that. 

So, I guess now, my Discordianism is more about self-preservation than trying to address The Machine and The System. 
I just want to make it out alive with a smile on my face!

Hasn't Discordia always been just a way to save face towards yourself, to pretend you've been something more than a shill for the War on Drugs? It doesn't seem you've ever been worried about "the machine" nor "the system", and youve always been an opportunistic slime bag, a dog dancing to get his bacon.

If im recalling things wrongly, everyone and anyone feel free to correct me, for I really envy Roger's vindictive memory that burns like a thousand suns, and personally lack that capacity.

You joined in 2009, I joined in 2005.  I was here for a good 8 years, it was only in the last couple that things fell apart due to my, admittedly rather forward facing (brutally argumentative even), philosophy around drugs.  I contributed quite a bit around here before things fell apart, which if people are being honest, will recognize.  And I've even seen from time to time someone bump an old rant of mine and lament about how I used to be better.  So the answer to your question is no. 

But there are all kinds of threads started in Think For Yourself, Schmuck you can review.  That sub-forum itself was created out of the ashes of a separate board that I was the admin for, that was where a lot of TFY,S content was cultivated.  I get people's perceptions of me because of my stance on drugs, but that doesn't define me who I am as a person, nor as a Discordian.  I mean, I could go into how my stance on drugs is not incompatible with Discordianism (and to be clear, I am not implicitly arguing that anyone who believes the opposite of what I believe is by default not-Discordian, because that is obviously not true) , but to borrow an earlier phrase, I won't bore you with the details that you won't even consider. 

The reality is that the licit and illicit drug industries are, at least in my mind, part of The Machine, because for some, they can hold people back, limit their pathways, but then the industries do little to nothing to help out.  And when it boils right down to it, my problems with drugs have been less about the drugs themselves, but how rich white guys market and promote them to afflict the less powerful.  But I won't go any further down that rabbit hole. 

Anyway, again, the answer to your question is no. 

By now, some know who I am, some don't. For those of you who do, thanks for not giving me the boot!  (Yet)

In the past 6 years or so of exile, I have kept up with the whole Discordian thing.  I read the Principia from time to time, I continue to exist as some incarnation of RWHN on the Twitters (and other corners), but mainly, there' the ole space between the ears...

What instantly drew me to Discordia when I first read the PD, what solidified it, was The Golden Secret https://principiadiscordia.com/book/81.php

As an atheist, as a man of science, as a person who is able to think for himself and marvel at all of the needless, complicated bullshit created by humanity, it was one of those "yeah, preach it!" moments when I read that bit.  And that bit is strong, solid philosophy.  Joining this community for the 8 or so years I was here, was also a revelation, to commune with likewise thinking spags, especially since we all thought so differently!  And so it has been interesting on the other side of being away from this community.

So Am I Still a Discordian?  Undoubtedly Yes.  Because it's a switch you can't turn off, once switched on.  You can't unsee and unthink...and now in 2019, The Curse of Greyface seems to be particularly strong, as an avatar for Greyface occupies the White House.  And the throngs of the unthinking devotees slavishly clinging on to his every nonsensical, uneducated utterance.  And the kicker is that the morons on the Left don't seem to hate him enough, while they obsess over making sure the most "woke" candidate faces him in 2020, when, Jesus, the fucking DNC Office Manager would be an improvement over Drumpf!  Ah, but I digress...what am I talking about here...oh right, Am I Still Discordian?

Yes, but does it matter?  Probably not.  Everything is uber-fucked right now.  Probably the most coherent, spot-on thing Trump has ever uttered was when he said back in 2016 that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it. He knew he was right.  And I think then, it was under-appreciated how prophetic that statement would be to where we are now. 

So, I guess now, my Discordianism is more about self-preservation than trying to address The Machine and The System. 
I just want to make it out alive with a smile on my face!

Shut.  The Front.  Door!!!   

Rich white guy who was also an un-accomplished pilot. 

QAnon lied to us!!!

Hey!  I can be a team player!

My line of work has changed quite a bit, but I won't bore you, or anyone else with the details. 

*some incoherent babble*

If you say that the concept of social laws is detached from the physical laws then why, for the love of Eris, do they use the same word?

There is no law that says a word must mean the exactly the same thing in different contexts.
Attend a class in highschool physics, and you will learn that words like "energy", "power", and "momentum" have more rigorous meanings in a scientific context, which sometimes don't reflect how they are used in day-to-day language.

I was pretty good at highschool physics before DRUGS.

lolwut

Hey, does the Scrid still tend bar? 

I'm thinking less about the addiction part, and just purely the consumption part.  Pareto principle applies to licit and illicit.  Most of your consumption is from 20% of consumers, who tend to be daily users of [insert drug], so that is where these companies make most of their money.  Of course, that's markets as a whole.  I would expect in, say, the craft beer industry, Pareto probably doesn't apply, and is more likely the inverse, just because of price, etc. 

Interesting topic. 

At least I have the advantage of having three top priorities due for three different funders, so then I can apply the algebra of, "who is likely to get more mad sooner if this is done maybe just a tad late."

As administrations change, this algebra changes, but the algebra tends to work. 

Do we collectively have the energy to get to 100 pages? I'd be surprised if we get to 10 pages...

Maybe the real question is how batshit insane RWHN still is, since those sort of threads were about 50% his own personal contribution and the other 50% everyone chipping in.

Like, the Nigel thread was like 3 pages? We're getting old 

Yeah, that's not gonna happen, I don't have it in me anymore.  I mean, IRL, after all the death threars I've received because of my work, it's just kinda not thqt interesting to get all wrapped up into a message board thread.