archhn

If someone says they don't want millions of illegal immigrants pouring into the country, are they "rallying for causes that marginalize, harass, and remove rights from others?" If someone says they don't support gay marriage on religious grounds, are they engaging in hate speech?

What issue is free from being percieved as an attack on someone else?

Want to put price controls on rent? You're stampeding on property rights. You are marginalizing landlords!

Want to create a company and hire people you want to hire? You're discriminating against those you don't want to hire.

So on, and so forth. All contentious issues involve granting the advantage to one party over another. That's why they are incendiary.

If we don't have free speech, then people will go underground and you'll have subterranean political battles with a banal surface counterpart. In other words, public speech will become completely insincere and everyone will be holding a knife behind their back while they wear big gregarious smiles and say the nicest things.

This has already happened. Free speech has already been effectively eliminated by dumbing down the population. We cannot expect any nuanced public debate. All political speech is reduced to slogan after slogan, "hope and change," laws that have catchy names like "the Patriot act," etc.

It's practically already gone and the underground pressure that one would expect in such a dysfunctional political climate is already at an eruption point.

I don't know what free speech means when most people are too stupid to understand anything above grade school level.

The citizens of Rome, at the height of its power, must have thought it could never possibly fall. But that world of Roman domination did eventually come to an end.

In America, there have already been mini-apocolypses all over the country. Great cities like Detroit rose and fell. Where there was once prosperity, there is now poverty, misery, and crime.

The world, as people knew it, has already ended many times before. Empires rise and fall. Peoples conquer and perish. All things in this world are transitory.

I'm not prophesying that it will be the end of time for everyone, but for many people it will be. And this complacent attitude, which lulls us to sleep with happy thoughts and a magical reading of history that seems to predict a bright future, can surely be counted as one of the contributing factors to the immanent end of the world as we know it.

Reading history to comprehend the present is like watching videos of other people driving, while you are driving. The past is not like the present. Things have changed. There were no nuclear bombs when the constitution was written, nor chemical weapons, bio labs, genetic engineering, the internet, etc. We live in unprecedented times--if we can believe the mainstream view of history.

Some like to think that history repeats itself. That human history is just a demonstration of invariable principles of human nature in different guises. This is an antiquated view, given man's newfound ability to change himself and his environment.

Some people have also said that we're reaching the end of history. That the systems of the world will become so stable, owing to the apocalyptic prospect of war with modern technology, that everyone will basically become a moronic beurocrat in it and there will be no more wars. Humanity will be benevolently managed a la brave new world. Social stability will become the only goal of the human race because every other aim leads to war, and war will become suicide for humanity.

I'm also skeptical of this idea as well. The will to power that breeds war will adapt. We won't fight wars with guns and nukes, but with words and culture. The new wars are psychological. And these wars are constant and just as destructive as real wars.

More Americans die from complications associated with being overweight than from fighting in foreign wars. French fries are the new bullets in modern wars. If you look at Mexico and see the alarming rise of diabetes, this can be traced back to U.S. corporations pushing unhealthy sugar drinks on their population. Pepsi is just as dangerous to these people as the cartels.

I believe we're in the midst of a war we can't recognize because it isn't fought with conventional weapons. Birth rates crashing, social blight everywhere, insane wealth inequality, families unable to stay together, cultural chaos, etc. Lives are being destoroyed, casualties are mounting, but they aren't seen as such. It's "just the way things are."

My friend, I hate to rain on your parade but my ultimate prediction is this: the psychological warfare will get so bad that people will believe things are the best they've ever been as they are being destroyed. People will be conditioned to yearn for their own destruction and will see all healthy things, all things that could save them, as bad things. Death will become the ultimate good. And when everyone is dying, the world will be seen as a paradise.

I didn't read the article. My response is addressed to the headline.

I waste so much time on the internet because I'm alone. I'm an atomized worker drone spawned from a pipeline designed to service corporations and governments.

I have very little personal human contact. Sometimes I walk the streets at night. I see a glowing box in almost every window. Almost everyone is extracting parasocial interactions from their TV sets as they mostly lay alone at night.

I crave human interaction. The internet is the only place where I can feel connected to others. That's why I'm here, that's why I waste so much time on the internet: it makes me feel more connected, less alone.

The majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. This is a precarious condition that leads to a lifetime of stress. Most people are living in extreme stress conditions.

I wouldn't call living paycheck to paycheck "making it." Most people aren't making it--by the numbers.

I know the type of person that posts these kinds of incredibly out of touch comments on here. You work at a corporation, or your skills are currently in high demmand. You are surrounded by people making good money. This insulates you, leading you to extrapolate the conditions you are living under over the WHOLE WORLD--today's world!

Let them eat cake?

In today's world it's: let them withdraw from their 401k if they fall on hard times.

It's ridiculous and frankly insulting and dismissive of the plight of many struggling people. It's the old aristocratic mentality: anyone that doesn't succeed is a fuck up. It's a method of projecting the failings of the system onto those it fails, used over and over throughout history.

I suspect with the political instability of this nation, we won't be having these types of arguments much longer. As the system fails, debates will become viciously partisan. There will be no more "if you try hard, you can succeed." Everything will be reduced to, "Submit to the will of the party, and you're good. Don't and you're a traitor deserving of elimination." This is what happens when people retreat behind slogans and refuse to address reality. Things break down, then things get out of control because we have failed to adapt. Then comes the age of horror where the system has to destructively seek a new equilibrium.

That money must go somewhere in the meantime and is probably earning interest.

See "The Managerial Revolution" by James Burnham.

Then have filters that allow people to customize their experience. Don't want to see content about race? Filter it out. Only interested in science? Filter for only that subject.

The user should be the one who is given the tools of censorship.

What's wrong with this idea?

Yeah, I don't know--who does. The poem just struck me as nihilistic. If we are just star stuff in a forever bubbling and fomenting cauldron, it may be a view of reality that is hostile to life. What can console us against the slings and arrows of our outrageous existence if there is no substantial difference between us being dead or alive? If we are just a drop of goop in the cosmic cauldron, why should we not just kill ourselves when we face any discomforting challenge? Late for the bus? Kill yourself. Skipped over for promotion? Kill yourself.

As a function of survival, we need some model of reality that helps us to continue living. And that means a model to help us justify suffering--essentially. I do not find such a model reflected by the poem in question; hence, I see it as an enemy to life--nihilistic.

Yeah, maybe I'm just being an egocentric human by saying that. I don't have a way of measuring "creativity." Also, what we can measure and observe is only a reduction of the universe to terms we can understand. So, we can't even accurately reflect on things in creation, let alone pass judgment on them.

I guess I'm just trying to justify my existence in this bewildering cosmos.

Consciousness, as I understand it, evolves out of complexity. The simpler things are, the less capacity for consciousness they have. Fundamental building blocks of the universe must then be the least capable of consciousness. That's not to say they aren't "conscious," but that the conciousness they do possess is practically non existent when compared to the consciousness we, as complex systems, possess.

I still hold that our ability to create far outranks anything in the observable universe. We are actually so freakishly different from everything around us, that we might as well be aliens to this universe.

That's why I don't like being put on the level of atoms. And I already feel atomized enough in this increasingly antisocial environment.

Which is to say that he is nothing; it's nihilistic. What is a drop water in an ocean? One drop less won't make the seas recede. Life, death, where is the boundary when one is subsumed in the all?

We are not anonymous atoms in the fabric of an unconscious universe. We have friends, family, and experience life in a unique way. We have the ability to channel our uniqueness into creative acts which introduce completely new combinations into the world. A black hole, a star, can't produce the Mona Lisa, and no one other than Divinci could. It was an outgrowth of his individuality.

This idea that we are passive beings, like atoms, completely disregards our ability to create. We tower above the unconscious elements of the universe. We are creators! Putting us on the uncreative level of atoms is slander against humanity.

This poem is from outside the bounds of ordinary human experience. It conveys a sense of absurdity and an immensity of scale that belittles the individual.

I find it quite harrowing. Within the ordinary bounds of human experience, there is meaning and rich individual life. We form bonds to each other, we grow, we experience and interpret the world. When we step outside our lives and immerse ourselves in the various structures and properties of the universe, it can seem so senseless, but that's only because this realm of pure intellect is alienated from our lives.

If we follow our intellect too far away from life, things become unbearably surreal. It's like when Goethe mocks philosophers in Faust because they fly off into other barren intellectual worlds when life is all around them. I feel the same way about the mindset that produced this poem as well.

Don't like being made aware of your compliance in racist institutions? Want to just do your "science" as people outside the institutions are subject to mass incarceration?

How elysium of you.

The U.S. is a special case because of it's grandiose claims. We are supposed to be a nation by the people and for the people, a nation that is supposed to be a bastion of liberty against the dark tyrannical forces of the world that routinely attempt to enslave man.

Corruption in this context is more severe than equivalent corruption in countries differently constituted.

It's like a catholic priest who has sex with women on the side. Many men do that, but a priest is supposed to be held to a divine standard. Therefore the priest's actions are interpreted as a severe form of corruption,whereas the actions of a common man doing the same thing are perhaps not even seen as a bad thing.

America is like a high priest of liberty. When there is corruption here, it's even worse than equivalent corruption elsewhere.

Practicality speaking now, this is a huge problem because many people still believe that America is still abiding by its high ideals. This has the effect of making people blind to corruption. "That could never happen in America," is the attitude of a lot of people who still believe in the premise of this nation.

I'll admit that these are difficult questions. I don't necessarily have the best answers. All I can really say is that there's a spiritual sickness here eating away at us that undoubtedly comes from a long accumulation of lies and betrayals that undermine our collective faith in the nation.

The number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is healthcare costs. The horror stories I've personally witnessed are shocking. At the bottom of society, where I have dwelled, there's a whole undulating sea of broken toys. Ex engineers, disgraced financiers, all sorts of people that once were somebody in society, but fell down somehow into the land of the living dead; where there's no hope and mostly a silent endurance until we die in complete isolation.

How many civilizations have lasted since time immemorial? You could have said this in Rome and you would have been right. You could have said this as a slave to the pharos and you would have been right.

It never lasts forever.

The law is supposed to be the sacred foundation upon which a nation is built. Perhaps this view of law has been forgotten, which further emphasises my point about corruption.

Breaking the law, in a serious way--I'm not talking about jaywalking--shows contempt for the foundational order of a nation.

When I was younger, boy scout and all, I truly believed breaking the law was the worst thing one could possibly do. I was told how important the law is and that it deserves our utmost respect. From this mindset, breaking the law and becoming a criminal is percieved as a monstrous act-- inexusable. That's how I saw things when I believed in America.

Things have certainly changed, as your comment demonstrates. People now think it's more important to make money than abide by the law. The law is just seen as a referee, something to get around, not a noble set of rules that are laid down to govern our conduct for the good of us all.

We're living in an utterly corrupt society. I know the middle class types on here don't like to hear it, but it's true. At the bottom of society, one can see clearly how bad it is. In the middle, you are insulated in your little suburban homes with your inflated sense of self-worth.

Many people here are outright slaves. They are trapped in a predatory system that prevents them from gaining any dignity. It should be no surprise that some people say "fuck this," and drop out of the system or refuse to climb the corrupt social hierarchy. The millions of young men missing from the workforce are all speaking with their actions, "I don't approve of this system. I'd rather die than comply with it."

Without an effective system of representation, this is how people express their discontent: drop out or commit crime. No one that believes in their country becomes a criminal. A precondition for criminality is always a loss of morale. That's why the system comes down on these "criminals" so hard, not because their crimes are so bad, but because they are dissidents.

Some of you drive to work along streets full of homeless people. You are told that these are just drug addicts or problem makers. In truth, they are obsolete or noncompliant slaves.

This can't last forever. One day we'll all be asking how we could let it get so bad, but it will be too late--I fear.

Yep, it's sugar. I cut it out of my diet as much as possible and stopped having tooth problems.

Sugar drinks are a form of suicide for your teeth.

This is straight up a prelude to Orwellian thought control via language modification. Can nobody really see through this corporate "woke" smokescreen?

It's not about "social justice," it's about instilling totalitarian patterns in the population. There is no debate about these "woke" issues. There's an incredible intolerance on one side, and they claim to have indisputable moral superiority. Anyone who goes against the "woke" agenda is deemed to be evil. There's no debate. Just an automatic classification, "You're wrong AND evil."

That's just how it was in Nazi Germany. No debate, no nuance. You're a jew? To the chambers with you.

It's easy to criticize them on this issue, but it clearly demonstrates that they were struggling to monetize the site. If people paid for the software they use like they pay for their coffee, companies wouldn't have to resort to things like this.

You think Eastern European is joke? https://youtu.be/fzLtF_PxbYw

Scary, isn't it. I went on a date once with a regurgiator. Made me feel like I was talking to a drone that takes all direction from queen bee T.V.. We're living in science fiction territory now.

As long as we live for material things, there is no alternative--armageddon is guaranteed. This materialistic system naturally causes imbalances which inevitably lead to breakdown.

Democracy has always been a dog and pony show where the interests of the rich and powerful are sublimated into a socially acceptable "war of ideals." Behind every issue, some group is playing power politics. Abortion, for example, isn't about the issue in itself, but about subverting traditional GOP values, thereby weakening their platform and making them look bad.

We must fundamentally alter human beings in order to avoid doomsday. In particular, we must suppress the life instinct which demmands continual growth or death. If everyone--not just workers-- could be made to be content with just sitting in their houses, the world would be saved.

What an empty circular argument. Maybe they didn't give a damn because...they were living in bad conditions? Maybe they felt like there was no future ahead of them?

Your life isn't the success story you think it is. You bought into an overpriced housing market--probably, I don't know where you live--and had to live as a slave for 35 years.

You will continue living as a slave as you continue to pay your mortgage to a banking system that is completely antagonistic to your class interests.

Sorry man, you were taken as a fool. Enjoy your trophy for being a good compliant slave.

It's more complicated than this. Most working class people aren't even exposed to local politics. I guarantee you that the majority of working class people don't even know how or where to vote in local elections.

Democracy sounds egalitarian in principle, but in reality, economics on the ground insulates a large number of people from the power process.

I get what you are saying about not wanting these clueless people to have a say in how things are run, but they weren't born in a jungle...they were were made into what they are by the system.

It was true for my working class family.

> if they don't care enough to vote that's their problem.

The life of a renter is completely different from that of a homeowner. Most renters are of a lower class, living paycheck to paycheck. All they think about is staying afloat, not getting involved in local politics. You need a surplus of time and energy, and roots, to get involved.

Comments like this ignore the conditions under which people live and how these conditions modify their behavior.

This is an age of unprecedented pludering with the greatest circus in history--facebook, video games, TV, etc.--running diversion.