• US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    They’re complete lies.NOS4A2

    Well, no, all four are plainly true. Their implication is another thing. But I'd hazard a differing between us there too.
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    I was under the impression it was more-or-less foregone that it was Trump v Biden this year and that the legal pressure on Trump was kind of the only upset to the apple cart.
    Was that not the vibe in other quarters?
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    Oh mate, this is so difficult.

    Once again: I am not, have not, and will not lay out my opinion on this. I am asking you about yours. You seem to be really, seriously, entirely missing the point of what I'm asking here. The facts are completely irrelevant to my question.

    It doesn't matter how I or they feel about that.Wayfarer

    Except this is exactly what I'm asking you about. So, yeah, this is literally the only thing that matters. I am not engaging you in a political debate. I am asking you a personal psychological question. If you don't care to answer, that's fine, but is an entirely different response to what you've, so far, jumped headlong into.

    It is a fact that Trump has said he wants to suspend the Constitution, jail his critics and purge the civil service. It is also a fact that neither Joe Biden nor any other Democrat has said any such thing.Wayfarer

    Yes. Those things seem to be clearly true. I never denied any of this, or intimated that I did/would (though, as a matter of curiosity I have heard talk from Dems of doing away with the Electoral College... It's no matter, don't get stuck on it. Just in passing).

    Real politics is at stake.Wayfarer

    Not in the question I asked. Not quite sure why you're hell-bent on bringing up the most dire and intense version of this. I haven't asked about any of that.

    What the heck is going on my dude? This is so bizarre. Let me rephrase the question in a way that is politically expedient, and will massage your political leanings:

    Why you think (some)Republicans feel exactly the same way?
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    It absolutely, in no-way whatsoever imports a moral question of any kind, in any way.

    What i asked was exactly as you quoted - Are you sure this isn't just that half the country agree with teh things you dont (they may be blatantly wrong - it's not relevant) and that what they believe is in line with whomever they see as a leader (who could be a murderous psychopath - it simply doesn't matter to the question i'm asking).

    You: Agree with Biden (i assume) and Disagree with Trump (let's assume you're 100% in the right, there's no debate or 'other side' to be seen. I know you do). Therefore, to live under Trump would be to be required to live under a leader you vehemently disagree with on just about everything - which would feel like a Dictator.

    Others: Agree with Trump and disagree with Biden. Same as above, in reverse.

    Are you sure that your take here:

    and a dictatorship, where everyone must agree with the leader.Wayfarer

    is not, in fact, the exact same thing the other side claims is the case, but in reverse? The facts of the matter are literally irrelevant. I want to know hwo you frame that opposedl psychologies when they are claiming the same thing. Most Republicans of the kind you're highlighting believe Biden is the Dictator (and, unless you've lost your mind, there's some extremely minor truck to that if you think the COVID measures were out of line - doesn't matter if you're right, it just explains the psychology of it, in that extremely minor way that it can) for the same reasons.

    I literally said nothing that could possibly import the notion that I think you're inaccurate in your position on the facts.
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    You have gone from 0-100 and it speaks directly to me earlier comments about polarization.

    Nothing you just said has much at all to do with why I asked, or what i asked you about..
    I asked you a simple question, importing zero opinion of my own (which you already know doesn't comport with your comments here). I am interested in your answer - I have no debate to ascend to, or even an oppositional opinion to lay out. There is no 'moral equivalence'. It's a psychological question that I'm interested in your answer to.

    Please, for the love of Philosophy, stop importing entire belief systems into my posts to avoid answering a simple question. If it is the case that you cannot speak in a political thread without doing so, please let me know immediately as I wont bother asking for your takes anymore. I sought to explore your thought on the matter, and nothing else. Assume whatever you want, but do not lay your assumptions on me. The plain fact is, I am interested as to why you see that psychological condition as one-sided. The facts don't get me there (which I don't deny).
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    where everyone must agree with the leader.Wayfarer

    Are you sure this isn't just that half the country agree with things you don't - and that's in line with whomever they are seeing as 'leader'?

    It seems, when the roles are reversed, the assertion is the same...
  • The Great Controversy
    Okay . I don't agree with you but I don't have time to argue this morning. I think math is the language of God and there is not rock evidence of that, so it is more of a poetical notion.Athena

    Fair enough. I find the concept of God incoherent, so I guess that explains the daylight between us there :P

    Egyptians were well aware of triangles but did not have a concept of a proof making the notion of a triangle universalAthena

    As i understand it, this is true for many pre-Pythagorean cultures. Though, it's worth noting it seems like Pythagoras' school may have been the source of 'his' insights, rather than the man himself.

    The Chinese notion of chi has proven very usefulAthena

    For? Not an indictment - Just wondering where you see the utility. Given it's almost entirely absent from both psychological and physical medicine I'm hoping for a neat story about its import :)

    The link you gave us is great.Athena

    Which link, sorry? Hope that doesn't come acorss totally aloof lol
  • Suggestion: TPF Conference via AVL
    Looks like it's going down. I think I'll be aiming for something like 2 weeks from now - sometime through the first week (likely weekend) in February. Let me know days in that area you are all available/would bother. I'm happy to take the hit on timezone as i'm likely the furthest away from most.

    It seems Discord is the only platform which has been put forward.

    Is everyone happy with that, or is there a better platform more are apt to use?
  • Is this image racist? I talked to someone who thought so.
    hat is to say, as a staunch legal enthusiast it definitely becomes a relevant field to be acquainted with on many an occasion.Outlander

    Would you run a prosecution that someone making this joke intended some slur?

    To my mind, it's a really, really big reach from this to a slur of Ebonic dialect (or similar). Wondering if you 're thinking this could be rationalised to others, rather than 'for the right kind of person'?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    The underhanded insults and hidden ad hominem are really, really not helpful. I tend to appreciate more mature, pointed and honest interactions.

    Can you point out to me examples of my conduct you actually find problematic, rather than making a vague, substance-less attack?? (I also note the absolutely extraordinary irony in that fact. ). Feel free to PM me. I am open to whatever you have to say - What i am not open to is slinging shit in a drive-by on a thread irrelevant to it.
  • More on the Meaning of Life
    I've just thought of an even bigger problem, quite a huge one actually. If we take the universe as a whole, then it would seem that nothing exists. But since things do appear to exist, if we cannot experience those things as a PART of the universe, then it would seem that we are not part of that universe.Beverley

    This doesn't strike me as anything like a problem.

    Why would that 'seem that nothing exists'? I'm not following at all there. And, it follows, that I'm not following the next two deductions.

    For example, if we say that all positive energy is cancelled out by all negative energy (or gravity), then as a universe in its totality, there is no energy.Beverley

    I don't see how this is a coherent trail..

    energy and mass are equal to each otherBeverley

    Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say, but hte equation you've noted shows this is not the case. Energy is equal to Mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Not Mass as it is. Very much either i'm missing something or this is totally wrong.

    it would seem that all the positive energy is cancelled out by the negative energyBeverley

    Why? What negative energy? Im totally lost as to what you're really referring to..

    en the same applies to mass, or matter and antimatterBeverley

    No idea how that's the case..?

    And in what way is this supposed to differ from experiencing the world? Do you claim that thinking somehow removes us from the universe?Ciceronianus

    We don't experience the world(is my personal response). My question would be how do you describe experiencing 'the world'?? Not possible, best i can tell.

    the rest of the universe, necessarily.Ciceronianus

    Hmm. I don't think this is the case. We interact with an extremely, infinitesimally small sliver of the Universe (if that, tbh... ) but not the Universe.

    I can't understand your position. How are you experiencing the Universe? Describe it for me. Happy to hear something new.
  • Absolute nothingness is only impossible from the perspective of something
    Perhaps it will lead to an unusual strategy for the courtroom for you. If so, let me know and I will fly to NZ for the occasion.jgill

    The implication has missed me, I'm sorry :P
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    demand from others also that they use accurate language.Tzeentch

    This doesn’t go well :sweat:
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    no thank you. I have no reason to think my take here is incorrect or that you're not wrong.
    Read the exchange. The vagueness is not mine - Paine was slinging shit. I asked for a question - He continued to be obtuse. Not my circus.
    Place your concern where it belongs.
  • Absolute nothingness is only impossible from the perspective of something
    I read the title.
    I'm heading to Hegel. The whole 'nothing requires something' seems totally incoherent. This thread may be illuminating.

    If anyone wants to give me footnotes/cliff notes, i'll take 'em :)
  • The automobile is an unintended evil
    @schopenhauer1
    @Wayfarer

    Fair enough, LOL. They are my favourite, as will be obvious.

    I've yet to drive one, though.
  • More on the Meaning of Life
    Do you mean that the room only consists of its dimensions?Beverley

    *in.

    It consists of plenty of stuff I didn't mention (per my understanding of these terms - could always have misapprehended!). But you can have the experience of being in a room, noting it's limitations. You cannot do this with the Universe. You cannot experience it's limits, and note that it is a Universe, in the way you can do for a Room. So, perhaps our discussion about 'all' is misleading. I don't intend, and hope I didn't come across as intending, that the requisite of 'experience' is to somehow empirically come across everything about the object.

    My point is that you can empirically undergo the experience of being in a room, and know about it.

    You can't do that for the Universe. We assume, or take for granted the opinions of experts. But I digress, somewhat.

    If everything around us changes constantly— and this is why no two people can experience those things in the same way— then strictly speaking, the universe is potentially the ONLY thing that we can experience.Beverley

    I have literally no idea what you're pushing for with this one - apologies.

    This seems problematic to me.Beverley

    It is.

    if the universe includes everything around us, then the rules that apply to the universe must also apply to everything around us.Beverley

    Why? They are different things. An apple is within your grasp. The Universe is not. I'm unsure I can get a thread of thought out of this paragraph, tbh.

    then nothing mattersBeverley

    I happen to arrive at this, whenever I have these thoughts.
  • The automobile is an unintended evil
    Aston Martin is the clear, undebatable, there is no contest, don't bother disagreeing quintessential British car.

    url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F3%2F3d%2FAston_Martin_DB5_%2528Skyfall%2529.jpg%2F1200px-Aston_Martin_DB5_%2528Skyfall%2529.jpg&psig=AOvVaw1f2v6n9fmXWEhF9YyvpaeV&ust=1705978632803000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjhxqFwoTCOjc5fL_74MDFQAAAAAdAAAAABA2
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    I've requested you stop being a prat and ask me a question.

    For some reason, after four direct attempts to ask you what the F you actually want, you've just, once again, shown your inability to be taken seriously.

    That's fine. I had assumed this was the case.

    I'll be open to a question, if you can muster up the courage to struggle to the end of a complete thought :)
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Once again, this entire exchange is you being a prat.

    If you have a question, lay it on me. Otherwise, all of these posts make no sense and provide merely further examples of your nonsense. Dude, I have no idea what the heck you're trying to do. I've indulged you quite enough here, so one final time..

    Ask me a question about something i've said, or don't. If the next interaction isn't a question, i revert to my previous assumption you're not to be taken seriously. Make your move.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    You made no sense in any of the exchange. You could have quoted me making a direct contradiction and I wouldn't care.

    If you have a question, direct me to it. Otherwise, I don't care for this prevaricative nonsense.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    And I don't care, as I am not taking you seriously.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Oh, well....okay....?
    What a bizarre exchange. You almost had me for a minute.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    *sigh* i've just gone back through our entire interaction, and it's its literally just you being a dummie.

    If you have a serious question, direct me to it.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Please note hte sarcasm with whcih someone who doesn't take you seriously might apologise for not taking you seriously.

    Another notch on the belt, i guess.
  • The Great Controversy
    Just so.

    I am already aware of the vast majority of those quotes. I'm really quite unsure what you wanted me to gain from them, other than that mathematicians can sometimes be poetical.

    As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
    — Albert Einstein

    This one seems to support my notion :P
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    I was mostlyPaine

    making wild assumptions, counter to that which i've actually stated and proceeding on the same basis a first-year political student who's found Twitter would do. I just can't take that type of snip-ish hang-wringing seriously, sorry.
  • Suggestion: TPF Conference via AVL
    I shall do my best! Perhaps there will another poll about what time it would be (i'd take one timezone, pick a time, list what that is in some other timezones for each option).
  • Who's Entertained by Infant and Toddler ‘Actors’ Potentially Being Traumatized?
    a lot of waitingChristoffer

    80% of my time on sets has been waiting lol.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    I've not listened as yet, but as noted, It definitely seems an impossibility that its impartial. The opening five minutes seemed to make it quite clear the guest was on a high-horse and it wasn't going to be a discussion. Ill see how i feel shortly after listening.

    20 mins in: Weirdly for this particular Podcast, this entire conversation hinges on empirical facts.
    25 mins in: She is utterly lost in her own mind. Her take on proportionality isn't academic. Its racist. The only word that mattered in her take was "jews".
    40 mins in: She seems to be the exact stereotype she takes issue with. It's actually getting difficult to continue listening - and the hosts inability to push back seems extremely out of character, and honestly a red flag in itself. So much emotive nonsense pretending to be argumentation.

    End: She is insane. She literally accounts for the anti-semitism as a result of moving to Scientism as a 'new religious movement'. What the hell... As notedd, the hosts entirely fail to challenge her in any way. This wasn't their usual podcast. This was just a platform for Natasha to rant.

    Natasha's take on the facts seems to be "true everything Israel ever says" and if you don't take that line, she cannot believe it. Can't really understand that.
    Do you have any sources for why she might be wrong, though? If her facts are correct, then I can only disagree as a matter of taste really.

    I note it would be wonderful to see a conversation between Natasha and Jeff McMahon.
  • A first cause is logically necessary
    Fair enough; makes sense. What's the implication for what i said?

    I was just pointing out that the 'uncaused caused' is obviously limited in concept to be that which is not caused - eliminating everything we know, was the implication.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Why Israel's Response to Hamas was Justified

    Brain In A Vat episode just released - they speak with a London-based International Rights rights Lawyer.

    However, she is Natasha Hausdorff, the Director of UK Lawyers For Israel. One can tell this is not a particularly impartial conversation (all three are Jewish, i believe).
  • A Case for Moral Realism
    I think that you're on the right track, but I think that this is a form of anti-realism, not realism.Michael

    I am exactly in this camp, in terms of Bob's system here.
  • What is the way to deal with inequalities?
    It’s not hard to find enthusiasts for any kind of therapy or pseudo scientific practice, from crystal channeling to psychic healing.Tom Storm

    100%. I used to be all in on 'telepathine' (its a can of worms) and various other really discreet modes of supernatural activity. I used to be 100% convinced you can think your way out of a broken arm. I took crystals seriously, at least as conduits, if not tools in themselves. Its attractive, and the less you're incline to seek 'the truth' the easier it is to seek 'the most fun' stuff and convince yourself otherwise.

    Nice. Did you mean ‘next to no’ ?Tom Storm

    Yes, will go edit that LOL thanks
  • A Case for Moral Realism
    Probably a little of both, But i'm resistant to the former as a fairly involved and directive (as an attribute) father. I must have some level of udnerstanding that I could know better than others. Maybe I'm overcautious, so unless its patent (i.e you're bloody 12 - sit down) I refuse to engage.

    That said, my understanding is that I cannot formulate a rule that accounts for my moral view on any given thing that I could universalise intellectually. I just can't understand how it's possible that my intuitions aren't entirely fallible and apply only to me as their source.
  • Is this image racist? I talked to someone who thought so.
    Ah, I get it. Ebonics.Outlander

    Oh. I hadn't even considered this. Maybe its a Rorsach :wink: