I think there’s something to that, yes. I don’t know who Bernstein is, but I bet he read Heidegger.

Ideas exist in the “mindscape.” Physical cats exist in the physical world. — Art48

A lot of Cartesian dualism here— mind/body, subject/object, mental/physical, inside/outside.

Perhaps these categories too are simply part of human thought and perception and do change in time. Differing ways of interpreting the world.

When we’re even contemplating these questions, we’re “in” a type of experiencing (or a “mode of being”) that is quite different from our more common modes of experiencing — the abstract, theoretical, symbolic mode.

If we step back from this symbolic mode — what’s often called “thinking” — and notice thinking as a phenomenon, or “being” in its own right, then the question becomes: who or what is thinking? Who or what is asking these questions about thoughts/abstractions/dreams/words/numbers in the first place, and why?

I think this is very important to do, because we may be questioning on an infinite loop.

an abstract object does not exist in space and time. — Art48

It exists in the human mind, and the human mind is fundamentally temporal — in that things are constantly changing. So while numbers and classes and meanings don’t change the way material objects do — in the case of entropy, say— they still rise and pass in the mind/awareness of the thinker and perceiver.

Abstractions are a kind of being — “entity” as you said. Beings are individuated in the human being.

If you mean an object does not exist in space and time as traditionally understood in physics, then yes I understand your categorization. It’s just good to keep in mind that time (and even space) aren’t always understood in that way. Here again I use Heidegger as a starting point.

At least pollution will be manageable where we're looking, so that will do just fine. — Benkei

What kind of pollution? I was talking about climate change. Greenhouse gases don’t stay within borders, as you know.

Honestly I think you and your family — for the next couple generations at least — will be fine anyway, regardless of going all Grizzly Adams. But that’s a personal choice. Sounds good to me.

I'm now investing my energies in finding a plot of land in France big enough to sustain a family and considering getting a hunting license and learn to shoot at the shooting range. — Benkei

But that will do little good, because the people in power — the wealthy, politicians — make decisions that affect us all, wherever we live. There’s no escaping the consequences anymore. Climate change reaches everywhere, even the most remote islands. Nuclear war, likewise.

I think the only solution is to fight back and at the very least steer the ship of state in a less deadly direction. At best perhaps overthrow the whole system. That can only happen by joining with others. Unions, organizations, mass solidarity movements, and so on.

At this point it’ll have to happen at the local level — and that’s where we have real power. Maybe the Right’s takeover of national government has forced us all to act locally. I’m hopeful.

Why did [Putin] do it? There are two ways of looking at this question. One way, the fashionable way in the West, is to plumb the recesses of Putin’s twisted mind and try to determine what’s happening in his deep psyche.

The other way would be to look at the facts: for example, that in September 2021 the United States came out with a strong policy statement, calling for enhanced military cooperation with Ukraine, further sending of advanced military weapons, all part of the enhancement programme of Ukraine joining Nato.

You can take your choice, we don’t know which is right. What we do know is that Ukraine will be further devastated. And we may move on to terminal nuclear war if we do not pursue the opportunities that exist for a negotiated settlement.

- Chomsky

Lucid as ever at 93.

If Mexico would want that military alliance with China, wouldn't it then have to feel threatened by it's northern neighbor in order to try such a desperate Hail Mary pass? — ssu

I’d say that’s likely.

But regardless of the motivation, how would the US react to China building a few missiles on the border?

To dismiss or downplay the threat of NATO to Russia is not only silly, but it ignores the evidence.

That’s not justification for what Russia has done — but it’s a legitimate concern, and one they’ve been warning about for years.

The suspect was 12.

Exactly. The pendulum swings towards whichever party isn’t in control, especially when gas prices are up.

And one such explanation puts the genesis of the wealth of nations with an organized work force which exchanges its labor for tickets to exchange for goods or services. — Moliere

And on the backs of slaves, genocide, exploitation, colonialism. You know — the free market.

Further references regarding this atrocious ruling:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/opinion/environment/supreme-court-climate-change-west-virginia-epa.html

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/epzd94/supreme-court-term-abortion-climate-change-guns

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/climate/supreme-court-ruling-epa.html

The Supreme Court has said it requires Congress to speak clearly in the interest of democratic accountability. In the climate decision, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the people’s elected representatives should make decisions where the consequences are enormous.

“A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body,” he wrote.

But the net effect of that approach was to enhance the Supreme Court’s own authority.

“They’re saying that they’re doing it for democracy purposes, but the fact is that they’re increasing their own power,” Professor Lazarus said.

Were democracy working, Professor Huber said, there would be new federal legislation to address the threat to the planet.

“If we had a Congress that at all reflected what the median American voter wanted,” he said, “we’d have relatively aggressive climate action.”

Exactly. This goes back, once again, to how important the (original) 350 billion reconciliation bill was last year. Despite having both chambers of congress and the executive, nothing has happened on climate change. The reactionary court knows this quite well, and so like the excuse of “sending it back to states,” sending it back to Congress and the “representatives of the people” is a complete joke. Just the same old delay, delay, delay tactics of these corporate shills.

The strategy of delay: Pass it on to state legislatures, because they’re dominated mostly by corporate-stocked conservatives; kick it all back up congress, because you know the house is gerrymandered in favor of conservatives and the Senate disproportionately favors conservatives (plus it’s minority rule anyway thanks to the filibuster). This way it looks like you’re operating on principles and not nihilistic greed, Christian nationalism, and science denial.

So I know we can’t blame only one person, but at the end of the day the actions of one guy from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, has literally been the roadblock to the changes that are needed. Blocked the reconciliation bill, and refused to abolish filibuster. No winning. Where are the people going to THAT guy’s house and protesting? Now’s the time.

Between the Supreme Court, appellate courts, Congress, state legislatures, governorships, think tanks, corporate lobbying groups, and a mass of enthusiastic consumers of Fox News type propaganda — the conservatives have already won.

Turns out the 2020 election only stopped the train from going backwards, delayed the inevitable and, at best, nibbled around the edges of progress. So once again if the voters show up, it’ll have to be because they’re motivated by the horrors inflicted by the party technically not in power. Not an easy feat. And unlikely.

Which means the climate-denying, election fraud-believing, Trump-worshipping, spineless corporate servants take back Congress —and nearly nothing gets done until 2024, when things could go even worse.

All the more reason you take things local.

Reference: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/supreme-court-s-e-p-a-ruling-shifts-more-power-away-from-congress/ar-AAZ7iOq

The statist-pretending-to-be-anti-statist can start a campaign for office, but he’d rather blame his ills on big government like the snowflake he is. Ignoring, as always, plutocracy. So be it.

—

Don’t like plutocracy? Become a plutocrat.

Don’t like the Fortune 500? Get into the Fortune 500.

Don’t like the government? … Well, that’s always the problem, because daddy Reagan said so. Just try to eliminate it as much as possible.

In other words: Leave the gun democracy, take the cannoli plutocracy. Like a good corporate slave.

Fantastic, now we're also pretending capitalism would reward virtue. — Benkei

No no no, it’s about freedom. You know, the freedom to work for the plutocrats who run the corporations and the government. Because you’ll definitely be one of them one day — if only you try hard enough you lazy bastard.

Speaking of bullshit.

Don’t like oligarchy? Just become an oligarch. Bam.

Impressive logic as always. Just get in the fortune 500.

I guess the same applies for those who pretend to be anti-statist: just become the state. Run for something, get elected. Easy as that.

:yawn: Simplistic Nickelodeon political dogma. Always funny, always boring.

What has been created by this half century of massive corporate propaganda is what's called "anti-politics". So that anything that goes wrong, you blame the government. Well okay, there's plenty to blame the government about, but the government is the one institution that people can change... the one institution that you can affect without institutional change. That's exactly why all the anger and fear has been directed at the government. The government has a defect - it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect - they're pure tyrannies. So therefore you want to keep corporations invisible, and focus all anger on the government. So if you don't like something — you know, your wages are going down, etc. — you blame the government. Not blame the guys in the Fortune 500, because you don't read the Fortune 500. You just read what they tell you in the newspapers... so you don't read about the dazzling profits and the stupendous glitz, and the wages going down and so on, all you know is that the bad government is doing something, so let's get mad at the government.

(Chomsky)

—

Always worth repeating. In case anyone is taken in by the complete bullshit spouted by statist libertarians.

Which is why you are and remain an idiot. — Benkei

:ok:

Sociopathic statist libertarians talking to themselves is sometimes fun to watch.

Let’s all help those in need. Just don’t do anything too big to help those in need.

Leave it all up to individuals, not their government. Because the government is always bad.

So you want to help those millions in need? Give a homeless person a few bucks. That’ll solve the issue.

Taking property away is unacceptable — never mind the fact that it’s precisely the owning of property and resources, especially hoarded by .001% of earthlings, that causes the millions of those in need in the first place.

So goes the tenets of antisocial personality disorder libertarianism.

A) Independents are breaking for Dems lead by "suburban soccer moms" and professional women and some young Republican women according various polls.

(B) I suspect turnout will be very high – comparable to the 2018 midterms, especially for Dems

(C) Dozens of indictable co-conspiratorial (pardon-seeking) GOP senators & congress persons who will be named by the J6 Committee by September. NB GOP silence is deafening about the J6 Cmte's findings so far (which is bound to get worse yet).

(D) I also suspect gas prices will come down during the summer and be felt by consumers / voters in the fall which makes them less eager punish encumbant Dems (though supply chain + Russian War-driven inflation will drag the G7 economies into recession by late summer)

Independents are not breaking for Democrats, so far as I see. Happy to be shown differently.

B and D are based on your suspicions. We have no idea if there will be high turnout or lower gas prices, but MY suspicion goes the opposite way — based on historical midterm trends and the Ukraine war, respectively.

As for C, I don’t think these hearings will have the slightest impact on Republican voters. They will continue voting for their Red team, because Blue team has been demonized to the point of little Anti-Christs.

Appreciate the response, just not very convincing in my view. But I hope I’m proven wrong.

Government has never hurt me.

I guess government isn’t the problem after all.

Top notch logic.

—

What a stupid political ideology.

"Vote! Contact your reps! Protest!", yes, we have been doing all this, and it's clearly not enough, otherwise none of this would be happening to begin with. The problem isn't external to the system, the problem is the system itself. — _db

True. But I’d argue it’s happening because the counter forces are stronger and better organized. They have the wealth and resources to create networks of power— mainly through use of propaganda. The Koch network is a prime example — Jane Mayer has done good work here.

But the answer, as always, is organizing. Especially on the local level. We’re often too distracted by the national drama — where we can do little to change — and pay little attention to state and local issues, where we can have a very real effect. That will have to be the way moving forward.

That’s what the right has been doing since Obama was elected— starting with state legislatures and midterm turnout. It worked very well. There’s no reason the left can’t do the same.

True, the Tea Party was largely motivated by the fear of “losing their country” to those very scary immigrants and minorities, but if the left can generate the same level of energy sans the xenophobia and racism, watch out.

The issue is we have the most disorganized Left in the world.

Lol!

I was thinking the exact same thing. Thought I misread it.

Physics IS philosophy. — Joshs

Yes indeed. It’s the fundamental branch of natural philosophy. (Perhaps astronomy is older — but physics is still central.)

I think this too often gets forgotten. People want to make sharp distinctions, as if the sciences have no need for philosophy and long ago “detached” from it. I think hidden in that view is dogmatism — namely, scientism — which arises out of a justifiable disdain for organized religion… and one I used to share.

But we throw the baby out with the bathwater if we make these rigid compartmentalizations. Better to break free of it. Life is messy.

Multiple universes seems to push the question back, much like God. Who or what created God? What created the universe or the multiverse? Etc.

Human beings aren’t omnipotent. This could be a question we just can’t answer, and perhaps demonstrates our cognitive limits.

Personally I think since the question is a scientific one, and thus assumes a concept of “nature” (the universe), we should inquire about what we mean by universe, nature, causality and time.

If the explanation lies outside our capacities, or outside of naturalism, then we need to accept it or broaden our fundamental concepts of existence.

just shut up and let me vent — T Clark

No.

If you want to vent, don’t make things up about me in the process.

Pointing out a truism isn’t being dogmatic, nor pompous.

The reality is that you’re upset he was banned, and you’re looking for a fight.

Also unwise. But I do similar things often, so I don’t hold it against you.



Yeah— it’s unfortunate. Personally I found most of it funny, even at my own expense. Pretty predictable.

I saw this coming back in November. So I’m not at all surprised. All the more reason to fight back in the same way the right has for the last few decades: state and local level politics. We’ve largely lost National power for a while now.

You never said you were wise, but you pontificated on another's lack of wisdom. — T Clark

“Pontificated” is an odd way to interpret me there. It’s just plainly true that he acted unwisely, to the extreme in fact, over and over again and even after multiple warnings.

No one is asking you not to miss someone you clearly have attachment to. But let’s try not to make things up in the meantime.

[irony]Thank you for your insightful comments on wisdom.[/irony] — T Clark

I’m not sure where irony fits in here. Sarcasm, perhaps?

In which case all I can say is: I never said *I* was wise. I struggle with my temper and lack of patience as much as anyone.

Still, I think the question stands.



:up:

Someone suggested how pivotal the 2014 and 2016 election were which betrays a myopic view of the conservative's legal movement to achieve political objectives; […] Regardless of how 2014 and 2016 turned out (had Hillary won in 2016 who knows how she would have fared in 2020), the conservative legal movement would be waiting by the wings. — Maw

We can go back farther than 50 years, in fact.

My point about ‘14 and ‘16 was specific to this slate of rulings. Had the Senate not been taken by the republicans in ‘14, Trump wouldn’t have gotten 3 anti-abortion appointments. I mention these years especially because many have argued that there was no point in voting since “both parties are the same.” But they’re not the same. The differences are minor, but they’re important, and Dobbs (and today’s EPA ruling) shows that very much indeed.

I’d argue if a philosopher isn’t thinking about politics, he’s hardly a philosopher at all. Here I echo (and agree with) Aristotle.

he must have known that his way of talking to people is hardly adequate, — Manuel

Yes— but couldn’t help himself.

He contributed to the forum, and it’s unfortunate.

On the other hand, how one conducts oneself is equally (if not more) important than knowledge or logical correctness, in my view. So for all the talk about how intelligent he was, he was far from wise.

Makes you ask: What good does all this reading and studying do when you’re constantly angry, hostile, demeaning, and vulgar?

I look at great teachers like Chomsky, Sagan, Zinn, etc. — their actions speak for themselves. Perhaps Street was like that in person — in which case he’s one more victim of the online disinhibition syndrome.

Heidegger: we cannot talk about objective things, because we are always immersed in the objectivity we talk about. — Angelo Cannata

This has little to do with anything Heidegger has written, ever. In fact he rejects the notion of subjective and objective— over and over again.

I wish you’d stop invoking Heidegger in your own musings if you can’t put the minimal amount of effort into representing him accurately.

Btw, Dems will retain control of Congress this fall and the White House in 2024. — 180 Proof

What makes you say this? Because of a potential reaction to Dobbs?

The Republicans have done a fine job making the country ungovernable —and here I mean especially moderate Republicans (viz., Democrats). Seems unlikely that anyone shows up in support.

No.

That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Cassidy Hutchinson Changes Everything

:rofl:

There’s almost no chance that Trump will be prosecuted for anything. “X changes everything” has been said for 7 years now.

Reasons-to-believe things are directives. Directives need a director. The director needs to be a person. — Bartricks

This is nonsense.

Evidently, there is an apparent "inside" (e.g. me), and an apparent "outside" (e.g. not me). — Relinquish

Nope. Already way too much baggage here.

What is meaningless about human existence?
— Harry Hindu

That it's all for nothing. — Tate

Which is an interpretation. If you want to interpret life that way, you’ll find plenty of evidence.

Just as if you interpret human beings are inherently selfish, sinful, and violent.

Or interpreting the glass as half empty.

It’s not that any of these interpretations are wrong— it’s simply that it’s not the whole story. What’s more interesting to me is the psychological aspects of why your mind emphasizes one aspect over another.

At that point we get into temperament, family dynamics, upbringing, culture, attitudes, habit, etc. These factors help explain one’s negative/nihilistic perceptions.

Who says we should take as a given that life is meaningless? Life isn’t meaningless.

What causes a turn from distraction to facing the meaninglessness of human existence? — Tate

Human existence isn’t meaningless, so there’s no need to deal with it.