:up: Thank you.

There certainly are leftists / liberals / progressives (whatever term...) who are focussed on race and marginalized, under-represented, and disadvantaged groups. They have substituted D.E.I for the class and labor issues of the "old left". The alt-right, ultra-conservatives, far right, etc. are quite exercised about D.E.I., but that isn't the big game they are hunting for. — BC

Nick Land came from an academic setting, so I think that must be the group of leftists he thinks made race "holy." I guess some of the things you've said in the past made me think you would agree that the progressive stance on race is like doctrine that can't be discussed, it just requires agreement? The picture he paints is of a Leftism that's solidified into doctrine so that reasonable discussion can't be had. Is that totally wrong?

The alt-right isn't screaming about unions because, as important as organizing labor is, it's at low tide in most fields, except maybe public employment. — BC

Right. But both tariffs and migration control have the potential to shore up the power of American labor. I'm not trying to be naive here, it's just that for real, it's the first substantial movement I've seen in my lifetime toward protecting American labor. It may well be that it's the bone thrown to the dogs to make them think things are getting better, but still, it's the truth. And that's what Nick Land's views leave me thinking about: telling the truth.

Just one quick addition: The alt-right most wants to destroy the gains which the 'old-left/liberals' achieved over the decades. Getting rid of DEI is just gravy. — BC

I've been looking for whether people like Land and Vance understand the population they're cozying up to. Do they understand that the alt-right is where Neo-Nazis go? Or are they just not afraid of that?

In general, the Canucks have been growing tired of the noise and crap for some time. — jorndoe

I can understand that. I'm American and I'm tired of it.

I didn't step down because of burnout. — fdrake

I hope you stepped down because of something good, and not something bad.

I think it was because possible worlds are figments of imagination. Too much dubious ontology.

How could you do quantum theory without modality? Isn't possibility central to it? If this is off topic, please ignore.

I don't think he'll want a third term. He'll just want lots of pardons. But yes, let's reassess in four years.

Well, let's revisit it in 10 years and see which of us understood the situation better. :razz:

Europe should get it's shit together at first. — ssu

If you mean they need to further integrate, I think they will, with China as an ally. It's their only choice. Europe couldn't withstand an attack from the US.

really think that Europe should first approach Canada, — ssu

Not a chance

Remember that Trump won only a narrow victory, and there are many Americans that don't like Trump either. — ssu

I think Vance comes next, and he much younger and smarter than Trump. Time to start learning Chinese.

Europe just needs to work on developing its relationship with China.

Make sure it avoids conspiracy theories and has standards for posting. — Philosophim

I think they just need to hang out at a philosophy forum and learn what "rule out" means. :grin:

If its a good one, yes. — Philosophim

How would it rule that out?

If you doubt this, go to a science forum — Philosophim

Would a science forum assure me that I'm not peeping into another universe when I'm asleep?

Innate world building capability? Imagine that the nucleus of the dream is some emotion, which surrounds itself with an event to explain the emotion. The event balloons out into a setting. What flips me out is that when my dream involves a social setting, there will be these weird customs that the people do, as if obligations are fundamentally arbitrary.

It’s text. It doesn’t sound like anything. — NOS4A2

The sound of silence.

So would this "classical" focus in education teach students to think for themselves? Or would it warn against that?

Well that didn't sound psychotic at all.

in juxtaposition to the impossibility for empirical verification, — Mww

I don't know where this is coming from. Why would empirical verification be a problem if an item is independent of us?

…..how can it possibly be independent of us? — Mww

Newton's conception of time was as something independent of us, right?

error

If Carlo Rovelli is right that time is coming from the way we perceive the universe, then time exists, it's just not what we often conceive it to be, that is, independent of us.

Think about it. If all the debt that you put out is bought by your own central bank, what will that mean to the dollar? — ssu

Nothing

When that is the majority ownership, guess what happens at some instance? — ssu

What?

The US debt is mainly to US banks.

You don't have to worry about foreign currency reserves. — ssu

I think all large banks keep foreign currency reserves.

The new world order is that of China's strategy to buy in and own companies in other nations while setting up dependence trade between them and the rest of the world. — Christoffer

It's better than military influence, right?

Why haven't we done the same when you nuked Japan? — javi2541997

You know, Japan started that.

definitely one of a kind! Enjoy it — Alonsoaceves

Thank you!

Which region and currency could be considered more stable going forward? — Christoffer

Mark Blyth said the Russians asked the Chinese to ditch the dollar (which could have resulted in a run on the dollar). The Chinese refused because they're too heavily invested in the US. The world economy is too integrated right now to do much about the reserve currency. Somewhere down the line they might change, but I don't see how it really makes much difference.

Americans don't seem to understand how much of their prosperity did come from role that the US dollar was given — ssu

How do Americans benefit from the dollar being used in global trade? It's just something the world did because of perceived American stability.

The NATO alliance was beneficial to both sides. By keeping the EU as US vassals militarily, also benefitted the US greatly. — Tobias

EU countries were terrible vassals. They never paid any tribute. :grin:

the EU will also withhold its support and its resentment towards the US will have dire consequences for both blocks. — Tobias

How so?

Do you guys think the thread suggested demands an acceptance that one's ideology is the only one worth having, or do you distinguish it from this rule? — Hanover

I don’t suffer fools. I don’t like them, I have little tolerance for them. Especially sanctimonious ones. But I do hope they find the shining path to self awareness and their own gross hypocrisy someday. — Mikie

If I had been moderating, I would have deleted and warned Mikie too, several times. I might even have deleted some of my own posts. If you are trying to make an argument that the standards are very low, too low, I agree. If you are trying to argue that Mikie is the main problem here or in the other thread, well that would be another matter entirely. — unenlightened

Thank you for saying this. I wish Mikie the best. I hope he finds a way to let go of whatever it is that makes him lean into bitterness. I hope he finds the way to have a little faith in other people.

I'm just saying that it looks like you flamed for years and years, and now you want the moderators to do something about the fact that your thread is a cesspool. *shrug*

This is another of Mikie's comments from a week ago:

Answer these questions first:

1) what is it like being a climate denying idiot?

2) is moving on to the next stupid thing after prior humiliation really a winning strategy? — Mikie

If what we desire is a high quality thread, maybe cut down on the childish flaming? I mean, these types of comments go on for pages and pages.

:up: :up: :up:

This is a comment from Mikie to Agree-to-Disagree from a week ago:

Oh hahahahaha! A line from 40 years ago that’s been quoted about a billion times before! What wit. What humor.

Just also worth pointing out how Incredibly unfunny this guy is. (Besides when he’s pretending that he’s not thought of as a complete baffoon — that’s actually hilarious.) — Mikie

This is a discussion site, and I want to discuss. But I don't want to discuss garbage. — unenlightened

Then your point is that they should ban Agree-to-Disagree? I think he's the only person who posts on that that thread with any regularity (other than yourself). His posts aren't really bad enough for banning. They'll probably ban me before they do him.

Why not make a new thread devoted to climate change links, like a reddit style listing. Leave the climate change thread for general discussion, including disagreement about details. I think that would be less confusing.

Some languages have two verbs that mean "to be.". One is for matters of identity, and the other is for transient states. That probably affects the way those speakers think. Spanish is like that.