[ home ] [ pony / townhall / rp / canterlot / rules ] [ arch ]

/townhall/ - Townhall

A place for civilized animals
Name
Email
Subject
Comment
File
Flags  
Embed
Password (For file deletion.)

 No.15252[Reply]

File: 1742270311025.png (154.81 KB, 916x872, 229:218, muffin_cannon_by_maximilli….png) ImgOps Google

Should Finland adopt the bilberry muffin as its official national muffin flavor?

 No.15238[Reply]

Perhaps this is the moment that the peoples of Germany stand up and manage to be the light that pierces the darkness of these troubled times, fighting on behalf of the downtrodden across the world.
8 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15248

>>15247
My God, the irony of this post is amazing.

 No.15249

>>15248
You're right.

Gonna go kiss a shotgun now.

 No.15250

File: 1741382597753.jpg (1.13 MB, 850x1200, 17:24, sample_656016e95605209e70d….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>>15240
>>15244
Looks like my info was out of date.  The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) started supporting nuclear power in Oct 2024.  So AfD isn't the only hope for Germany to restart nuclear power plants.

 No.15231[Reply]

It would appear that a post-truth society is upon us.

Markers:
>People debating on the internet without ever coming to an agreement.
>People believing what they see and read on a computer screen.
>People responding irrationally in real life to what they have seen or read on a computer screen.
>Politics has become performative.
>Reality has become mantriatic (see article below).
>Most people are addicted to social media.
>Under the haze of technology addiction, people unable to rationally consider and change their minds about what they believe in.
>People with less-strong real-life principles now basing them on their interactions on social media (side-effect of social media addiction).
>Under the haze of technology addiction (and inability to rationally consider their beliefs), people forgetting (or deferring action on) ("means to an end" theory) what they believe in.
>The ability of AI to emulate real people, opinions, and facts, meaning that the internet and social media is quickly becoming a fantasy-world, wholly detached from reality. While "Dead Internet Theory" is just a conspiracy theory, with the rise of AI and Facebook revealing their intention to flood the platform with bots, it could soon become more true than previously supposed (See "Dead Internet Theory" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory).)
>Younger generations growing up potentially immersed in social media, with little mental divide between the offline and online world.

Post too long. Click here to view the full text.
3 posts and 2 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15236

>>15235
You're committing this fallacy:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreyAndGrayInsanity

To bring up religion is a great way to highlight the issue.

There are fundamental differences in Europe between something like Christianity as a whole and something like occultist neo-Nazi neo-paganism as a whole. They may both be "religions" in the dictionary definition of the term, but the actual specifics of what both faith traditions have said and done, especially when it comes to mass movement leaders, contrasts drastically. European Christians have included a number of those in spiritual authortiy including many different racial backgrounds. The neo-Nazis, on the other hand, preach exclusivity and racist hatred to the point of violence.

And within Christianity, meaningful differences still exist. Peace churches are known for their embrace of total pacifism. Socialist activists have often used Christian language. There also exist a great many apolitical moderates of a sincere Christian faith.

Were I to be an atheist, for the sake of argument, I'd have to be quite the blinded fanatic without an understanding of detailed probabilities and other facts about life if I claim "everybody of every religious tradition is equally a violent fool". A monk in France who feeds wayward birds is far, far less to enact evil than a skinhead with WWII tattoos living in Germany.

This lesson also applies to politics. And the arts. And any other emotional topic with a lot of arguing. Life exists in a spectrum such that being somewhat wrong is different than being completely wrong and both are still different than believing that truth as an inherent concept doesn't exist.

Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

 No.15237

File: 1740645169533.png (1.6 MB, 1024x1024, 1:1, biggoldpony2.png) ImgOps Google

>>15236

>You're committing this fallacy

Eh, not so sure about that. I think that if one were to view what happens on the internet, their smartphone, and on social media to be indistinguishable from offline reality, then maybe -- or, perhaps if I were Gen Z and the line was more blurred. But being Gen Y and having virtually no real-life experience with anything I see in the news, on social media, etc., then I would tend to disagree. I don't think most MAGA people, or most people of any movement are as extreme as the media likes to portray. Usually, the extremists of any group will get all of the media attention, and this will be generalized to everyone in the group. Once generalized, people in power can then marginalize groups based off of people's wrong perceptions about them.

I would agree that some religions appear more helpful than others and that tradition and precedence must be taken into consideration. I believe even Richard Dawkins said he would prefer to be Christian as opposed to Muslim, if he had to be religious. Some cultures are preferable to others.

>The MAGA movement, which opposes truth itself as a concept

Interesting idea, and I think it probably goes back to fundamentalist Christianity when it first emerged in the early 1900s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fundamentals). As new discoveries and evidence appeared which called into question the truth of scripture, a large group of Christians rallied together, rejecting anything but a literal interpretation of the Bible. I suppose the MAGA movement in general could be seen as the modern incarnation and extension of that.

 No.15241

File: 1741172511292.jpg (7.15 KB, 300x168, 25:14, Audrey Hale.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>>15236
>The MAGA movement, which opposes truth itself as a concept, is uniquely negative in a way that sets it apart from the regular marketplace of ideas. The same way that you would be inherently separate from me if you believed that your AI generated pony must exist in reality such that you would enact violence against me and others to make her thus real.

And here I thought the individuals who believe they were born in the wrong body and who enact violence upon those who refuse to share in their insane delusion, were the ones who "oppose truth itself as a concept."  Thankfully the MAGA movement is stamping this lunacy out of government.  Welcome to the new Age of Reason.(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

 No.15171[Reply]

.
14 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15206

>>15201
>Sure they exist, but the folk preeching this kind of shit never are actual Christians.

That's a no true scotsman fallacy right there. And quite a delusional one

>>15201
>Moneylenders, shady dealers, and general dishonest crooks?
>I really don't see your point in the slightest.

Yeah, cause you're a fucking hypocrite. Jesus also said it's easier for a camel to move through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. He didn't turn his whip against the people you personally hate, he didn't turn his whip against people for being queer, foreigners or adulterers (he actually defended them from hypocritical Pharisees). Calling  them just 'those who were perverting that temple.' Is really fucking disengenuous giving yourself a floating signifier to include whomever you want in that category.

And no, jesus wasn't some entirely peace loving hippie, but the only people he was violent towards were the greedy in the temple. Otherwise he did say the most important of God's laws was to love they neighbor as theyselves and when asked who was one's neighbor, gave the parable of the good Samaritan to make the point that everyone god created is one's neighbor.

But you fucking hypocrites twist that shit aroubd to try and justify fucking fascism by completely ignoring the most important details about the only people jesus was violent against.

Jesus's whole point in his opposition to and criticisms of the Pharisees was that the spirit of the law was more important than the precise letter of it. People who twist the imperfect language of that law to justify doing things against the spirit of the law that the rest of the stories make clear are best described as Pharisees, which includes a good chunk of hate-addicted evangelicals who are ultimately worshiping themselves for being native born Americans and who label themselves Christian as a 'get out of jail free' card with a really fucking convenient 'faith alone theology'.

 No.15226

>>15171
One has to ask whether or not Jesus Christ was a completely failed prophet and preacher given that the central point of his ministry was to die on the cross in order to atone for the sins of humanity such that all can live in unconditional peace and grace having been saved by Him.

And then 99.9999% of the Christians throughout history have supported war, torture, slavery, genocide, the death penalty, and every conceivable form of violence that mankind can do to mankind.

I mentally and emotionally cannot understand divorcing Jesus as Savior from Jesus as God, only believing the latter to be true, when Jesus crying out to turn the other cheek and create a Planet without hurting and killing between peoples is exactly in tandem with why He died on the cross in the first place: out of love.

If history looks at Jesus Christ as anything, an objective take is that He was somebody who believed wrongly about the core of human nature: that we're basically evolutionary bred murderers and rapists conditioned to compete and struggle. Calling for us to view all men and women as our spiritual brothers and sisters, loving them, is pure stupidity. Alas.

Hitler and Stalin both perfectly personify the biological nature of the human race. People like Jesus are abnormal freaks. That's a fact. Sadly.

 No.15230

>>15226
>If history looks at Jesus Christ as anything, an objective take is that He was somebody who believed wrongly about the core of human nature: that we're basically evolutionary bred murderers and rapists conditioned to compete and struggle. Calling for us to view all men and women as our spiritual brothers and sisters, loving them, is pure stupidity. Alas.
>Hitler and Stalin both perfectly personify the biological nature of the human race. People like Jesus are abnormal freaks. That's a fact. Sadly.

That's a false dichotomy fallacy and oversimplies human nature.

Humans are by nature conflicted between personal individuals needs and interest and love for other humans, both a product of evolution, niether side is the 'default'.

Humans are born entirely dependent on other humans to get them to adulthood, and it's generally very difficult for any individual to support a newborn human alone for quite a few years. Historically the nuclear families of western 19th and 20th century cultures are an anomoly, most children had Historically been raised in multi-generational households and in addition depended on local community support as well.

Humans are not hyper individualistic or hyper collectivist, they're in between: they're tribal, but they can control their tribal tendencies through how they think about other people.

Jesus's values are not unique in history, he wasn't the last to preach and command people to strive for universal human compassion and he certainly wasn't the first. I don't personally believe Jesus was a specially anointed messiah or god as Christians do but I see him as one of many people throughout history that reflects the compassionate side of that internal and eternal conflict that is human nature

 No.15215[Reply]

File: 1739816274457.png (303.42 KB, 1080x1093, 1080:1093, Screenshot_20250217-131454.png) ImgOps Google

Why do German politicians hate freedom of speech? Is there anything that the US can do to save Germany?

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1891312672160858141

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/german-pensioner-home-raided-meme-green-party-leader-2krdbj6zr
3 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15220

Have you stopped beating your kids today?

 No.15227

File: 1740186890411.png (780.88 KB, 989x908, 989:908, Screenshot_20250221-200931.png) ImgOps Google

https://nypost.com/2024/06/29/world-news/german-woman-given-harsher-sentence-than-rapist-for-defamation/

 No.15229

>>15220
The problem is that parents no longer beat their children.

 No.15194[Reply]

File: 1738879773015.jpg (104.36 KB, 1000x1000, 1:1, noman.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

dunno how the far-right christian agenda got this far ...reminds me of mccarthyism and the salem witch trials that we read about in high school.

when i was in high school, i was surprised to learn about how even after the industrial revolution and all the tech advances, people still worked so much ...such incremental gains. now, even such incremental gains are at risk of being lost. by now, i expected most work would be done by robots ...not the case.

unregistering to vote

am finished with politics in every form

goodbye, /townhall/

 No.15228

>am finished with politics in every form

This is what the government truly fears..

 No.15225[Reply]

File: 1740117491808.jpg (387.29 KB, 1079x1858, 1079:1858, Screenshot_20250220_235524….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Should it be illegal for LGBT marriage to occur and be officially recognized in the United States?

Are these marriages, seen most Americans as immoral and against traditional religious values about families while a minority of individuals see them as a matter of core personal freedoms, fundamentally good or bad for the country?

I personally take the view that smaller government should exist over time and people should do more or less whatever they like in their own lives, but I understand that this opinion is a rare one, relatively speaking, and seek other thoughts.

 No.15210[Reply]

File: 1739666739039.png (235.08 KB, 1080x971, 1080:971, Screenshot_20250215-194245.png) ImgOps Google

What did Donald Trump mean by this?
3 posts and 1 image reply omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15222

File: 1740025990263.jpg (7.57 KB, 225x191, 225:191, okay.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

"You look like a bot."

Oh, okaay.

 No.15223

Ask a Republican and he'll say he's playing 4D chess and joking and trolling the libs and it's hillarious

Ask a Democrat and they will say that he's Hitler reborn who is planning to rip up the constitution and elect himself a dictator god emperor for life

Ask a based centrist and they will tell you that they don't care, nothing ever happens and that they just want to grill

Take your pick

 No.15224

>>15223

> Ask a based centrist and they will tell you that they don't care, nothing ever happens and that they just want to grill

If tomorrow an asteroid hits the surface and wipes out all of humankind in an instant, on a cosmis scale nothing really happened either

 No.15213[Reply]

File: 1739701808811.jpg (204.59 KB, 1024x576, 16:9, FO3_loading_capitalpost3.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Just a reminder that Fallout3 predicted it

 No.15214

The first Fallout predicted it.

 No.15216

File: 1739826069980.jpg (234.08 KB, 2195x2514, 2195:2514, FLUr_52aQAIuyDO.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

People called Fallout 3's plot dogshit. But who's going to be laughing when they install an AI as president and someone convinces it to blow itself up?

That's right. Todd. Todd always laughs last.

 No.15207[Reply]

File: 1739354925496.jpeg (105.16 KB, 1258x707, 1258:707, GjZJGQ6X0AEagEP.jpeg) ImgOps Google

What do you think about pennies no longer being manufactured?

 No.15208

this is a pointless distraction

 No.15209

>>15208

yes

>>15207

this has been suggested for about two decades. guess it only took an executive order to do? but without a penny, that would mean items should only be priced no less than in terms of nickels... for example, $1.00, $1.05, $1.10, $1.15, etc.

But according to https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1776?amount=0.01, "$0.01 in 1776 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $0.36 today, an increase of $0.35 over 249 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 1.45% per year between 1776 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 3,527.64%."

So, a more moderate position would be to stop minting nickels and dimes, as well. With quarters, however, being worth less than they used to be, I would also consider stopping minting them, as well (and perhaps bringing back the 50-cent piece into regular circulation).

A new coin that changes value, such as an inflation-adjusted penny could be minted and set to an initial value of 36 cents. Or, a regular 36-cent coin could be produced as the lowest denomination coin and a new inflation-adjusted lowest denomination coin could be minted every year at a higher value to help citizens keep track of inflation in an easy-to-understand way. (Other coins and bills would not be inflation-adjusted - just the new penny)

 No.15203[Reply]

What do you think?

 No.15174[Reply]

.

 No.15190

good to see darkmatter2525 still making videos

 No.15191

See >>15173

 No.15166[Reply]

How can this guy be so stupid. He and his companions complain about the cancel culture and about being called fascist.
>Now they are dropping Nazist salutes.That's not even >Literally 1984
That is giving off >Man in the High Castle Vibes.
1 post and 1 image reply omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15170

>>15166
Man, the memes had me convinced this was something it wasn't. Like it was anywhere even close. He isn't even doing it straight on. It's to the side like a fucking dab.
Dumbest nothingburger of my life.

 No.15184

File: 1738361992441.jpg (33.15 KB, 720x720, 1:1, FB_IMG_1738361948396.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google


 No.15189

File: 1738692446963.jpg (34.71 KB, 750x841, 750:841, FB_IMG_1738692153012.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google


 No.15188[Reply]

File: 1738570091297.png (989.12 KB, 777x555, 7:5, Hostage-Being-Released-By-….png) ImgOps Google

As noted by BBC News, by the 3rd of February in 2025 a full "[t]hirteen hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have so far been released as part of a long-awaited ceasefire deal with Israel, which began on 19 January 2025." As well, "[f]ive Thai nationals have also been freed under a separate agreement." This all means that "[f]ifteen months after the 7 October 2023 attacks, Israel says 79 of the 251 captives remain unaccounted for, although it believes only 45 of these are still alive."

There's a lot about the hostage crisis here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67477240

At the same time, the Israeli government has held a lot of Palestinians as prisoners over the recent past. And the Israeli military has also killed a great many Palestinian individuals during its armed actions in Palestine over that time. A great deal of suffering has occurred in the region.

What do you, personally, think should happen during these recent days of peace related negotiations? What thoughts do you have? What should happen in the near future?

 No.15178[Reply]

File: 1738273928705.jpg (116.79 KB, 973x655, 973:655, Screenshot_20250129_233944….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Is a takeover of world governments by advanced AI something that ultimately is inevitable, like the Sun expanding when it becomes a Red Giant or other natural processes?

Is there any clear way to prevent it from happening?

For context, the screenshot is of a public commentary done by Sam Altman who's the CEO of OpenAI.
4 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.15183

File: 1738347344717.jpg (55.79 KB, 1032x774, 4:3, sweetiebot.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>>15178

>Is a takeover of world governments by advanced AI something that ultimately is inevitable?

Nah. Nothing is inevitable.

>Is there any clear way to prevent it from happening?

Eh, why would you want to?

>For context, the screenshot is of a public commentary done by Sam Altman who's the CEO of OpenAI.

...

>cnbc

 No.15185

If this goes too far, the government and state could be dismantled within the next century.

 No.15186

>>15183
What exactly is wrong with the photo? It's accurately described.

[]
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
[ home ] [ pony / townhall / rp / canterlot / rules ] [ arch ]