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 No.13794[Reply]

File: 1720407558842.png (407.38 KB, 1080x772, 270:193, Screenshot_20240707-225554.png) ImgOps Google

I've seen a lot of complaints about the Electoral College in the US, but France is really taking it to the next level here!
7 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13803

File: 1720744438858.png (364.74 KB, 686x909, 686:909, Literally-Hitler-And-The-L….png) ImgOps Google

Whether they're in Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, or whatever other place in Europe, to be truly honest, my instinct is to just go "fuck those people".

Eight decades after World War II and the Holocaust. It's long past time to pretend that there isn't a clear moral line between good and evil. Freedom and tyranny. Love and hate. Progress and regression. Yeah.

If I'm truly, deeply honest, after reading accounts of those who participated in the Nazi oppression directly such as the excellent but haunting book 'The German War', then I kind of wish there was some way that the conflict had worked out differently so that Berlin could've gotten nuked as well as those two major cities in Japan. Because the Berliners deserved it. They seriously did. Anybody with any doubts should spend just a few minutes looking up the screenshot's aforementioned group: the SS.

 No.13806

>>13803
With European far right, there is a clear reason why they are so popular.
It is however frustrating that you can't have a legit party that brings forth their valid points, while staying away from blatant Nazi apologizing, Putin cock sucking or diving into archaeo-conservative talking points.

 No.13836

>>13806
I realize that an important part of maturity and getting older is recognizing that a gigantic percentage of both Americans and Europeans think that Hitler and the historical Nazis were unfairly demonized. And you just have to accept this fact. Nothing will decrease the raw total of those large numbers. Same as accepting something like losing your hair, your joints hurting, bad breath coming upon you, and the like. I guess. Still. It just fucking sucks.


 No.13743[Reply]

File: 1719911219680.png (1.01 MB, 980x1235, 196:247, -country-boy-music.png) ImgOps Google

Do you think that the notion that your happiness is largely determined by where you live, particularly your kind of house if you're in one, and also what vehicle you drive, particularly your large truck or van if you've got one, like... does this all really matter?

Do these two things for the most part make you happy anywhere near people are told they do?
1 post and 1 image reply omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13745

Money doesn't buy happiness, but it helps foor the bill.

To me a large part of happiness is being comfortable living a lifestyle you desire.

Having a house that is paid for, so you don't have to worry about rent, a house that is well enough equipped to not have a lot of bills for upkeep, and a car that gives you mobility to go wherever you like, whenever you like, that is also stable enough to not require worries about repairs, those go a long way into happiness for me.

Though, of course, there is a point to which it probably no longer matters how large your house is or how large your truck is.

If you prefer a lifestyle "on the road", you may prefer a larger truck and may be satisfied with a smaller house.

 No.13746

>Do you think that the notion that your happiness is largely determined by where you live

So, yes.  If you live in a swamp filled with diseased mosquitoes you are probably going to be less happy than if you lived on a nice temperate beach.  Your environment can have a big impact on your mood, though a lot of that is up to personal taste, too.

>particularly your kind of house if you're in one, and also what vehicle you drive, particularly your large truck or van if you've got one, like... does this all really matter?

This, much much less so.  Like there's definitely a lower threshold you should try to pass.  It's better to have shelter than not, and while transportation isn't strictly important, the ability to receive goods can be, unless you're fully self sufficient, but that can be difficult depending on your environment, refer to my first statement up above.

>Do these two things for the most part make you happy anywhere near people are told they do?

The people telling you that this makes you happy are the people selling you those things.  Real estate vultures and car salesmen are notorious for scamming people in a variety of ways, too.

 No.13751

>>13743
I think it plays a part. It's the 'hierarchy of needs', basically. Shelter is vital, as is the means to move from A to B.
I think a level of self reliability is vital to happiness, as else, you constantly have stressors.


 No.13521[Reply]

File: 1717024673669.jpg (357.87 KB, 1080x1895, 216:379, Screenshot_20240529_181146….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Do you ever wonder if in the future medication-resisting bacteria and viruses will cause an apocalypse type situation, someday, with something like half of the people where you live passing away? Or is this paranoia? Or maybe it's a matter of investing into medical services enough?

My instincts say that the disease risk to humanity alongside the AI risk to humanity are both serious and not at all a matter of paranoia but also are exaggerated, with there being less than 1/3 a chance of eventual human extinction. Maybe I'm just wrong?
10 posts and 5 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13616

File: 1717794865171.jpg (819.41 KB, 1024x1024, 1:1, 525863d3-c322-4caa-909a-36….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

A chiral-mirror version of cyanobacteria might lead to the extinction of most existing life on Earth...

 No.13632

I miss ebola..

 No.13725

File: 1719808665305.jpg (151.01 KB, 1050x1903, 1050:1903, EhnUXtBUwAEiEqp.jpg large.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>>13521
I don't think there's value in worrying about it. It's a big what-if and not one most people can do anything about.

But then I struggle with depression and culling unproductive thoughts is part of how I cope with that. So maybe y'all are seeing some kind of value I don't here.


 No.13468[Reply]

File: 1716449653487.jpg (1.63 MB, 2000x1672, 250:209, YOO This dude giving me a ….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>Absolute monarchys and benevolent dictatorships are the best ways for a country to function

This is what I unironically believe and I won't elaborate
11 posts and 3 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13716

>>13703
>>13703
>To be fair, monarchies do seem to have a better track record of it than such things as we have now.

To be fair, they also had absolutely authority over the contents of official history books

 No.13717

>>13716
Only within their own sphere of influence, and really, it's not like there were proper history books for many, so much as collections of letters, dealings, reports, and so on later folk compile.

 No.13718

>>13717
>Only within their own sphere of influence

Uh huh. And where do the majority of historical of sources about a specific monarchy tend to come from?

>and really, it's not like there were proper history books for many, so much as collections of letters, dealings, reports, and so on later folk compile.

And how much of that is both available and sufficient to draw any conclusions, and how do you account for the biases of those later folk in selecting what to preserve and compile?


 No.13678[Reply]

File: 1719373636922.jpg (90.51 KB, 623x633, 623:633, Q_MBzibFrK95NA_bFGKFUB7pgW….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Is it me.. or are people low key racist here?

 No.13679

Maybe?
I've seen some pretty wild stuff here.
Though it depends a lot on what you call "racism".

 No.13680

>>13678
Depends what you mean by "racist".
If you mean "doesn't tow the far-left/SJW line on racial issues", then yes.
If you mean "supports racial discrimination", then mostly no.(Although some might support racial discrimination in university admissions.)

 No.13681

Pretty much.


 No.13601[Reply]

File: 1717531193617.png (145.4 KB, 676x600, 169:150, medium (1).png) ImgOps Google

Is English the greatest language in the omniverse, or is there value to spreking different languages?

Ist Eaglisch dijn masgrätan täl ent dijn omnimundo, oft ist dar stok ent sprek tälän altrá?
10 posts and 5 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13631

>>13604

yes, or wat about ancient greek?

>>13608
>>13609

...that sounds kind-of like normative cultural ethical relativisism-think to me

>>13601

eh, it's alright

 No.13633

File: 1718431332922.jpg (34.17 KB, 1000x1000, 1:1, Grimm.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>>13631
>...that sounds kind-of like normative cultural ethical relativisism-think to me

It's just historical linguistics. Like how a lot of European nobility spoke French regardless of their holdings or how Italian is a homonculus a bunch of cities invented to pretend to be a country.

 No.13634

>>13631
When you think about it greek works well as a language of science because of it's highly synthetic nature.

Like. We call it a telephone, derived from Greek τῆλεφωνή. This is not the name of the device the ancient greeks used to call each other. Rather Greek words can be synthesized on the fly without an exact dictionary definition, so you can describe inventions that there is no name for succinctly without being cringe.


 No.13409[Reply]

File: 1715857040726.jpg (325.57 KB, 1200x768, 25:16, Untitled.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

So the American election is this year.

You got a Douche on one side a and Turd on the other.

But out of the two of them who do you honestly think is going to win?
32 posts and 5 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13500

>>13495
Pretty sure it's the far left chanting 'death to all jews' these days.
And they're not really all that big on Christianity.

 No.13501

>>13495
Conflating what groups like the NIFB say and painting every denomination found in the States as that is wrong.
I get you have religious trauma, but you need to stop this nonsense.

 No.13629

>>13436
>if I don't agree with you then this place is /pol/

You know for as much as people shit on /pol/, it's a wonder that those opinions seem to be sprouting up in places all over the internet outside of /pol/. It's almost like people are getting sick of radical leftist ideals


 No.13422[Reply]

File: 1716017984282.png (11.88 KB, 1131x724, 1131:724, e271028f4841337f6878bd04a1….png) ImgOps Google

Let's assume for the sake of argument that a "national divorce" is happening in the U.S. such that narrow racial and religious separation becomes a matter of ironclad law. You have to pick and choose which areas belong to Christians versus Jews, white people versus black people, Asian people versus Hispanic people, and so on.

How would you draw the map? What group gets what lands? And what motivates your lines?
17 posts and 8 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13572

>>13509
>reasons for the font choices and color choices
I'm not condemning you or anything. I just don't get it.

 No.13611

>>13467
>>13572

for fonts, i think i mostly just started with the first letter of the group i was representing, and there was usually a good font starting with that letter that appeared to represent that group.... which was interesting. colors i just picked whatever came to mind.... for locations, just whatever came to mind first, mostly.. fairtly arbitrary but perhaps with a grain of truth

 No.13620

File: 1717981622908.jpg (118.16 KB, 850x1332, 425:666, image0(52).jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

I just close my eyes and scribble all over for borders. Then I colour-code every piece of land in the most confusing way possible (white people are black, black people are green, Muslims are white, something like that) and painstakingly assign the land so that, at the bare minimum, 90% of any one group's land is composed of random exclaves that don't border each other all over the place.

I leave a note to cede the Virgin Islands to the Punic people and the mighty nation of Carthage. I deliberately don't say anything about Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska or anything other than the mainland and the Virgin Islands.

Worst case scenario they get someone else to draw the map and I'm not responsible for any fuck-ups that ensue. Best case scenario they try to implement my deliberately stupid ideas and the whole idea collapses like a house of cards.


 No.13618[Reply]

I did one about spiders.

But how are you dealing with ants this year?

 No.13619



 No.13574[Reply]

File: 1717188259832.jpg (324.92 KB, 1080x2039, 1080:2039, Screenshot_20240531_153819….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Assume for the sake of argument that you don't have personal empathy and you don't have personal ethics besides pure utilitarianism, and so either the Chinese military or other agents working for the Chinese state killing huge numbers of innocent civilians while starting a new conflict doesn't inherently bother you at all.

Is there any rationalist, utilitarian argument to do anything to either prevent China from taking over other lands or from punishing the Chinese if they act?

What's in it for those r.e. rational self-interest? Is it nothing? Or maybe not? What's the argument for "don't murder people who're your neighbors" if you're a rationalist who doesn't consider your neighbors' worths to effect your own decision making? How can one argue with somebody like Scott Alexander from 'LessWrong' when he says that he just doesn't feel any empathy or anything else towards people that he doesnt personally know?
3 posts and 1 image reply omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13585

>>13582
Well, if you're a rationalist billionaire, say, you could choke an innocent victim to death with your bare hands and then pay the family something like $3 million in a way that makes that family better off in their view of their own circumstances (according to you). Hell, Elon Musk could recreationally nuke whole cities and then rebuild them in a way that long-run utility in those locations is higher. If he was a rationalist. He could do that. IT's all axiology without any higher morality involved.

Eh. The problem for me is I don't really have the ability to operate like a human being with no ethics and no empathy like a Scott Alexander since all kinds of moral things from national patriotism to altruism for one's neighbors to social trust to reverence for tradition and so on that rationalists don't have in their brains and souls I personally have. I still want to understand rationalists all the same though even if they're essentially an alien species from another solar system to me. Tech billionaire rationalists especially have a LOT of money and power currently so I kind of don't have a voice but to get them in some intiuitive way.

 No.13593

>>13585
>Well, if you're a rationalist billionaire, say, you could choke an innocent victim to death with your bare hands and then pay the family something like $3 million in a way that makes that family better off in their view of their own circumstances (according to you). Hell, Elon Musk could recreationally nuke whole cities and then rebuild them in a way that long-run utility in those locations is higher. If he was a rationalist. He could do that. IT's all axiology without any higher morality involved.
LOL WUT?!  Where are you getting that insanity from???

>>13585
>a human being with no ethics and no empathy like a Scott Alexander
Enough with that defamatory nonsense!

 No.13598

>How can one argue with somebody like Scott Alexander from 'LessWrong' when he says that he just doesn't feel any empathy or anything else towards people that he doesnt personally know?

I don't know who that is and I can't think of any reason to care about his opinion.


 No.13554[Reply]

File: 1717130119223.jpg (118.21 KB, 979x545, 979:545, Guilty.jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

"A New York jury on Thursday found former President Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels by his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen before the 2016 election. Trump... [has become] the first U.S. president to be convicted of any crime. He faces three other pending criminal cases."

< https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/30/trump-trial-verdict-hush-money.html >

My personal reaction is to find this conclusion to be utterly and completely meaningless. Like past messianic claimants who've assembled a ironclad movement of acolytes that no brute force could ever stop such as the Prophet Mohammed, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, and so on, any social, legal, and/or economic action at this level to harm the holy Savior figure of Trump is inherently futile and weak. He cannot be resisted in such a fashion. It's like trying to tear down a stone monument by just hitting it with your hands and feet. You don't stop a Messiah who genuinely acts on behalf of God's will this way.

What do you think, personally? Does this actually mean a lot? Could it down the line? Should it?
24 posts and 4 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13594

File: 1717286402892.jpg (88.33 KB, 960x768, 5:4, i want to come inside rain….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

>>13591
I don't. Israel is evil

 No.13595

>>13594
Do you pay taxes?

 No.13596

File: 1717287068731.gif (172.67 KB, 640x360, 16:9, puppet laugh.gif) ImgOps Google

>>13595
>Do you pay your taxes

>


 No.13384[Reply]

File: 1715601891784.png (169.55 KB, 575x444, 575:444, Smells-Like-AI-Generated-U….png) ImgOps Google

Have you ever tried to express what you think about modern politics in some kind of creative piece, no matter how silly, experimental, inconsistent, or whatever else you might've thought it seems in retrospect?

Like do you think you can represent your viewpoints in a concrete way? I guess we can try that here? Maybe?
35 posts and 18 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13540

File: 1717100777713.png (3.4 MB, 1335x1263, 445:421, zxczc.png) ImgOps Google

>>13538
Doesn't look like it.

 No.13541

>>13540
>>13538
Could be worth notifying this on /canterlot/

 No.13542

File: 1717102146350.png (3.4 MB, 1335x1263, 445:421, zxczc.png) ImgOps Google

>>13541
>>13538
Never-mind, refreshed the page, the quick reply box doesn't appear until you scroll down the thread.


 No.13475[Reply]

File: 1716502500982.jpg (264.41 KB, 1352x886, 676:443, 1-s2.0-S0924224418306058-f….jpg) ImgOps Exif Google

Should fraudulently adulterating food be punishable by death?
11 posts and 1 image reply omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13498

>>13497
Alright so, one we aren't the same person.
Two, I made no claims how a system should be structured or what I want.
Three, my point was your notion of capitalism, or I suppose "pure capitalism" in your words, being impossible or I guess now "a rough battle," nice motte and bailey btw, is a defeatist notion that only further entrench the current power structures.
Four, no where did I mention the use of violence or force. I am not naive enough to purport that violence is not often the only tool that people are left, or feel left with, in the face of our current structure. That said we have the tools and means to make meaningful change and to downplay the work of the people that are fighting for what I would assume is a would you want to live in is repugnant.
My issue with your statement is I've heard it a million times from people, but anyone that holds that notion is just some theory drunk regurgitation.

If you think all hope is lost you lack a spine. If you think things can't change you lack a spine. I hope you advocate for the change you want irl. I really do, because normally those that accept your proposition cloister themselves away and try and drag others into the bog you are in.

Final response to this as the thread is completely derailed.

 No.13504

>>13497
>Capitalists taking people's private properly for their own and otherwise using the authority of the state to crush rivals
Uh, no. Not at all. What?

Capitalism is an economic system of trade between individuals.
It's purely an economic system.
It can, and has, existed inside most any state. Hell, even communism, despite their claims, had capitalism running through. Some stuff was nationalized, but there were always private enterprises still trading some items.

State authority is not required for capitalism.

 No.13507

Fraud corrects for false demand created by marketing and hype in production chains that are strained by lopsided demand pressures. Producers cannot sustain producing *only* extra virgin top quality oil but that is the only thing that their customers are interested in, despite the fact that 99% of their consumers cannot tell the difference and they want it for applications where the "inferior" oil is in fact better suited and cheaper.

Fraud is so rampant because the vast majority of consumers care more about the label on the side of the bottle than the contents, as evidenced by the overwhelming lack of passion the topic incites.

Fraud is a market force, like any other, that corrects for disparities between real and apparent demand, as well as for excessive regulation.


 No.13458[Reply]

I believe that it's incredibly helpful when looking at violent conflict to just sit down and listen to what a given solider "on leave" claims, letting them advocate even if you don't necessarily agree with or even understand that person!

Does anybody else agree? If so, would they be willing to post here similar videos interviewing soldiers from China, France, Germany, Russia, or any counties known for big armies? I'm looking to learn! Please share even if you personally dislike the soldiers' opinions!

Any other media covering the question of "What is my life as a solider, really?" is welcome too!

 No.13464

>>13458
I would have exceptional doubt as to that individual's credibility.

As a general rule, soldiers aren't allowed to just speak willy nilly about a conflict, after all.
At bear minimum, they'd risk repercussions when they return to duty.
If not being branded a traitor and incarcerated, should their dialogue not reflect the state's position.

This type of thing reaks of propaganda, to me.


 No.13304[Reply]

File: 1714563627650.png (281.5 KB, 1079x1152, 1079:1152, Screenshot_20240501-073240.png) ImgOps Google

What will come of the pro-Hamas agitators who are unlawfully harassing and intimidating Jewish students?
https://twitter.com/wanyeburkett/status/1785470499734319129
39 posts and 13 image replies omitted. Click reply to view.

 No.13371

idk. but "people are people," as it says in the song.

 No.13390

File: 1715622656081.png (801.83 KB, 1080x1045, 216:209, Screenshot_20240513-134548.png) ImgOps Google

Hmm, not sure what to make of this.  I guess both sides have some bad people.

 No.13454

File: 1716329785301.png (671.65 KB, 1080x1323, 40:49, Screenshot_20240521-181209.png) ImgOps Google



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