if it was some kind of magic bullet, I think we'd know already. — Olivier5
I'm joking, of course. — Kenosha Kid
these beliefs you hold to be beyond contradiction lean heavily toward the racist, homophobic, transphobic, fascistic and, in the case of your ideas for environmental science, utterly batshit insane. — Kenosha Kid
No you're not. — counterpunch
The problem is you think deferring to others on the basis of their arbitrary characteristics is the definition of decency and humanity — counterpunch
I have zero expectation that you would ever acquire sufficient humanity to give you pause before cheering on a murderous mob if that mob's interests happen to coincide with your own, — Kenosha Kid
The beauty of not being a piece of shit — Kenosha Kid
is that I don't have to base my attitudes on secondary characteristics. — Kenosha Kid
Wanting, say, gay people to have the same quality of life as me, the same opportunities and advantages, follows naturally from an egalitarian position. — Kenosha Kid
Your view is that extending these opportunities and advantages to people with different characteristics to yourself is bad because it doesn't help straight white males, i.e. people with your characteristics whom are already amply advantaged compared to others. — Kenosha Kid
I AM a philosopher. I have philosophical views, on a range of subjects, of my own devising. They are informed by extensive reading; written in relation to modern western philosophy since Descartes, and intended to save the world by providing for a long, prosperous, sustainable future.
Recently, I showed that the subjectivist, post modernist, anti-truth position of the left is false, with numerous examples, in an argument peppered with literary and philosophical references, and ran into an ideologically indoctrinated brick wall of direct contradiction. This inability and/or unwillingness to learn plunged me into a sudden and deep depression, for - if humankind cannot learn, cannot correct this mistake, we are doomed. — counterpunch
And I have zero expectation that you would ever back democracy against fraud, or law and order against a black criminal. — counterpunch
You lump people into groups based on their arbitrary characteristics. — counterpunch
Many gay people are quite well off. — counterpunch
Not all white people are privileged. — counterpunch
I would argue that people should be treated fairly, as individuals, regardless of what arbitrary group categories they happen to belong to - because those coincidences of identity say next to nothing about who an individual is, or where they stand in society. Particularly as equality legislation on race, gender, sexuality - was passed into law years ago. — counterpunch
What you seem to be arguing for is not an equality of rights, but equality of outcome - with the most privileged, regardless of individual merit, for everyone but poor whites, about whom you couldn't care less. — counterpunch
I would thank you - and mean it, had I not just glimpsed at your profile and recent comments, and discovered a disregard for the consequences of philosophy. Publish and be damned - seems to be your byword, whereas I have struggled mightily to secure the future - with the least possible disruption. I worry that seeking to emphasize the truth value of science will merely cause a disenchantment with the ideological architecture of society - and plunge us into some anomic, nihilistic abyss. It's true, we made a mistake in relation to science 400 years ago that hasn't been corrected, and is key to securing the future. But we have to learn that lesson and bring it home - and with regard to the future, we have to get there from here. I've no desire to upset the applecart. Where then would I get my apples? — counterpunch
The fact that your brain takes "Murdering black people is wrong" and gets to "Would defend a black criminal against prosecution" is a testament to precisely how racist you are. They are not comparable. Wanting law and order is not a carte blanche to murder criminals in your protection. — Kenosha Kid
No, *you* do. Equal to that's in your eyes is a failure to represent "straight white males". — Kenosha Kid
That is not a rational measure of the D advantages they may have had specifically because of their sexuality. — Kenosha Kid
Many gay people are quite well off. Some are not. Why lump them into the same, supposedly disadvantaged group on the basis of who they are attracted to? — counterpunch
Murder is wrong. Show me a murder and I'll tell you — counterpunch
Straight white males are singled out by political correctness for a lack of representation. — counterpunch
Answer the question, or don't respond. The latter is my preference - if that helps! — counterpunch
I see that your ideas are founded on a strong will to change the world, or to cause the same change of thought that had completely transformed the future of humanity as Christianity did in late antiquity. You seem convinced that you know something that we all don't know. — Gus Lamarch
Maybe I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Maybe we are headed, inexorably for the abyss. Maybe that's what we want - to wipe ourselves out. I don't know what you know. I'm not a particularly sociable person. But I know I want to belong to a species with a future - because otherwise, it just makes everything I am and everything I do seem...masturbatory. — counterpunch
Humanity and everything it has built and developed has been maintained for thousands upon thousands of years of hypocrisy and lies. And why? Because we are intrinsically egoist beings; we want individual, not collective, achievement. — Gus Lamarch
No. That's not right. Human beings lived as hunter gatherers, in tribal groups of around 40-120. Then, these tribal groups joined together to form civilisations. To join together, to prevent any little dispute splitting society along tribal lines, they needed laws, and so needed to justify law and order in society. They made God the objective authority for law and order. It was a convenience - not a lie, and civilisation has conferred huge benefits.
I'm getting a heavy Nietzsche vibe from you, but Nietzsche was wrong. Primitive man was not an amoral individualist. He was a tribal animal, and could not have survived unless he were also a moral animal that shared food, and protected the women and the young. Man has a moral sense - that was made explicit when tribes joined together, and needed God to justify law and order in society.
That was the 'inversion of values' of which Nietzsche wrote - not from individual to social, not the strong fooled by the weak, but an implicit tribal morality made explicit in a multi-tribal society. This is the "lie" - but there was never an individual, amoral freedom to call truth. We are, and have always been constrained by the moral requirements of society - tribal, and later, multi-tribal. — counterpunch
fulfill their individual desires without any restriction or denial of when, how, and where to conceive that same purpose; — Gus Lamarch
The idea of egoism is extremely compelling - for it cannot be denied that the individual often finds his egoistic (hedonistic?) interests second to those of society, until one remembers that he was not always able to wipe his own arse, let alone feed himself, wash his clothes, make his bed — counterpunch
He would have to be a complete psychopath to forget that his egoistic self was born helpless, ignorant and dependent, and was nurtured at the bosom of his mother, in the schoolroom, and at an apprenticeship, where others put their egoistic desires second to his development. Do you suggest the individual just soak up all that social benefit and then declare himself owing nothing to anyone but his own egoistic purposes? — counterpunch
Even in his prime man is dependent on others, and the social division of labour. Either he will be constantly occupied building himself a house, making his own cloth and pots, raising crops (and not be able to do any of those things as well as a specialist) or, to pursue his own egoistic purposes he must necessarily outsource all kinds of needs. — counterpunch
He could live in squalor, I suppose - like Diogenes, but what kind of egoistic purposes can a squalid individual pursue? He eats scraps with the dogs, but he is free? It's compelling, but it fails. It's not honest. — counterpunch
Recently, I showed that the subjectivist, post modernist, anti-truth position of the left is false, with numerous examples, in an argument peppered with literary and philosophical references, and ran into an ideologically indoctrinated brick wall of direct contradiction. This inability and/or unwillingness to learn plunged me into a sudden and deep depression, for - if humankind cannot learn, cannot correct this mistake, we are doomed. — counterpunch
The only problem your idea of capturing energy from magma has is that the industry required for economic viability hasn't appeared. — Bitter Crank
My own experience is that I can consume less 'stuff' without the slightest reduction in my standard of living. Example: reading books and newspaper in digital form rather than paper. Drinking tap water instead of bottled water (which is often the same water one gets out of a tap). Not replacing clothing that is in very good condition. Keeping appliances until they fail. I use mass transit because I do not drive... — Bitter Crank
I'm from the North of England... — counterpunch
The technology exists. — counterpunch
liquified fuel — counterpunch
But what about the people who print newspapers, build cars, manufacture appliances, grow cotton and knit cardigans or whatever. — counterpunch
The UK seems to have clearer class lines than the US, but what happened in the north of England has happened here too. The American labor movement didn't die from natural causes--it was murdered. Killed off by the same economic interests that shafted the coal workers where you grew up. It's a disgusting story of corporate and political powers combining to suppress the working class. In this country the Democrats and Republicans found common ground in class warfare (like a Democratic governor in my liberal state who sent in the National Guard to help break the Hormel meat packing strike 40 years ago). — Bitter Crank
They court the well off with a bad conscience crowd - and make them ashamed to be white, regardless of the consequences for the working class majority. — counterpunch
Here's a didactic story for you:I AM a philosopher. — counterpunch
If you don't see the problem with your attitude ...I shouldn't have to blow smoke up the arses of idiots to be heard. Or should I? — counterpunch
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