> I wish that was "one small change".
I believe that it may be, though the manner in which it would be that would require a long conversation to articulate - metaphysical causal power is the mechanism I would argue....this "is" "woo woo" to most, but this is due to the flawed, scientific materialist fundamentalist training they have received, which has left them with horribly flawed models of reality (which they mistake for reality itself, also due to their training). Humans live in a reality dome of their owm=n making and if you try to break them out of it, numerous (predictable) defences will emerge. Understand LLM's, and you are well on your way to understanding humanity and its follies.
> Evidence that it isn't: all of human history dating back well before we had writing.
Perhaps (if you were incorrect, would you necessarily be able to realize it?)....but watch out for any conclusions that form (or, are formed for you) based on this apparently correct observation.
>> I've heard there's a trick that can change this game we find ourselves in: stop speaking untruthfully.
> I, too, follow this one weird trick.
To some degree, surely. But to what degree? Again, where you are incorrect, would you necessarily be able to realize it? Is there a fundamental problem here, that "should be" obvious? (Think: the benefits of pair programming.)
> Evidence that people who are willing to lie to my face get power by doing so.....
100% agree! Imagine:
a) the size of the list that could be produced if you and I sat down for 8 hours and worked on it
b) the size of the list that could be produced if {all of Hacker News | all of humanity} sat down for 8 hours and worked on it
c) the causal power of such lists (perhaps combined with other things that could be done, but cannot be done, because we live in a reality dome, and do not realize it, because we cannot realize it)
> The second you can argue is capitalism.
Uh oh:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row,_Row,_Row_Your_Boat
> The first? That's democracy.
I believe that this is true. Of course, this is susceptible to the same semiotics counterargument I used above, except such an argument would work against the person who used it.
You and I happen to be in a game being run and played by silly amateurs, but the problem is that the nature and rules of this game are such that these silly amateurs run the show almost absolutely....and, they have an extremely well fortified position: they have literally hypnotized ~all players. I don't know about you, but I find this state of affairs terrifying, but also absolutely hilarious. Day after day I can come on here and laugh my ass off at "smart" people "telling us how it is....it is like being back in junior high, except this time I do not have a junior high mind.
Bold, intentionally* provocative claims (aside: is that what this site "is" "for"? Inside joke) like this are almost guaranteed to prompt memetic responses of ~impossibility, /r/iamverysmart, etc, all of which can be easily and skilfully shown to be incorrect, and mocked accordingly (if you are into having fun while playing). Unfortunately: one will always lose, because the judging is rigged, and all the players are hypnotized.
But hey: games that are easy tend to not be fun.
> this is the point at which Anarcho-Communists chime in to say "but in a post-Capitalist world there would be no need for guns", which is the same mistake Anarcho-Capitalists make: people with guns don't care that you're saying they don't need guns, and are also now taking as much of your stuff as they want.
This is but one mistake - an even more important mistake is that they mistake their hallucinations of reality for the real thing.
Also, there is flaw in your criticism:
> people with guns don't care that you're saying
I will note two flaws:
a) Technically, you have no way of knowing this.
b) While they may not currently care, it is "likely" possible to make them care. Even tyrants have numerous well known (but not realized/realizeable), as well as not very well known weak spots. We can choose to exploit these for the benefit of humanity, or we can continue to do what we do today: engage in silliness...as seen in this thread, and all others.
How will it all end!!!???? Stay tuned, perhaps you will find out!! ;)
PS: please disregard any sense of ill will directed at you personally, I tend to take out my extreme hatred of humans in general on individual instances of them, which is plausibly at least somewhat illogical and counter-productive....though not necessarily net counter-productive.