General Politics Thread

My Both Sidist Chaotic Good self proclaimed anarchist friend is now saying that USA wasnt justified at waging war against the Axis because War is unambiguously bad unless we are talking about small tribes waging war against each other.

Becuase apparently "every society larger than a tribe is a machine with animal impulses, something that is inmoral for itself" (also, despite this, ethics are not real and are only biases created for people to justify themselves).

He is literally saying that all societies larger than a tribe are inmoral, so much that they dont have a point when they fight societies that are actually based on inmorality (also, despite that, ethics are just lies).

I forgot saying that he believes that the Jedi are evil and that the Siths are better, just that in the times of the movies, their members are corrupted, nevermind that they are a group that practique Mysthical Objetivism.

Why people think in that way, why?

-ethics are not real

-all societies that arent small comunees are bad

-War is bad, even if is against a group that is almost trying to be as inmoral as possibly.

edited 17th Dec '17 7:14:09 PM by KazuyaProta

Watch me destroying my country

My guess is your friend is being a contrarian for the sake of making himself interesting.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Your friend is full of shit. You probably shouldn't talk politics with him again if you value your sanity.

As for the Sith...they didn't become more evil. They have always been that bad. The only difference is that by the time of the movies they had become more creative. Rather than being deranged warrior cultists, they became politicians.

edited 17th Dec '17 7:19:04 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised

I actually think that of him, dont said that to him.

Dunno, I am The Cloudcuckoolander of my circle of friends, I dont have sanity to lose. Also, he is the Sith Apologist, not me, I think that the Siths are bad for the start, I mean, they practique Mysthical Objetivism, how that can be anything but bad?

I like seeing opinions different to mine, in general, I just wish find some that while different, are not dumb as hell.

He actually ask me to share drugs with him, because I am by far the most excentric of the group. Again, I think the Knight Templar Lawful Neutral Dark Shade Of Grey Angels of SMT are the good side, so he had a point.

edited 17th Dec '17 7:33:29 PM by KazuyaProta

Watch me destroying my country

Ask your friend to share their drugs with you, because they are clearly on some good stuff.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

Done.

You know guys, Venezuela might be a dictatoship, but for the normal people on the streets, is like if the goverment dont exist and they were in some bizarre post apocalyptic land where random local polices and the fucking gangs are the closest to a organizated goverment that exist, to the extend that sometimes they basically are fused.

Of course, it makes sense, if you want stay on top, just let the chaos run on the lowest levels of the social hierarchy, they will be too busy trying to hold some type of civilization to actually start protesting.

Watch me destroying my country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgaiOe_qD-Y

That is a Spanish video, but damn, that is so fucking bothsidist that is actually repugnating.

I used to like this guy, his analysis of fictional works were pretty fun, but his critics against Obama are nonsense, his whole speech is basically a "Obama and the left are hypocrites as bad as the Right because they arent freethinkers".

Both sidism is really damn, well, nauseating when you realize that said class of thinking just harms any ideology with a actual project.

I mean, he said that Obama is a hypocrite for having relationships with countries like Arabia Saudi while also trying to solve LGTB issues on USA. Yet he also said that Obama ruined USA relationships with other countries.

Bothsidism and how is becoming a opinion so popular in Internet is really awful.

edited 23rd Dec '17 3:59:17 PM by KazuyaProta

Watch me destroying my country

Can we please not import drama from random YouTubers talking shit?

Especially when it’s about US politics, which has its own thread.

edited 23rd Dec '17 10:03:58 PM by Silasw

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

An excellent (and very scary) speech transcript by the sci-fi author Charles Stross on how we’re already living with unfriendly AI. Yes, this is very much on-topic.

What's precedent ever done for us?

Well that sounds like a fun Future Noir. I prefer it over Skynet but only just. The stuff about new advances in doctored video and audio and the future uses of tracking software were particularly exciting. And we're currently without leadership to even look at that possibility.

Outside the pessimism, the paperclip-maximizer metaphor was a nice touch. Although I wonder if the public will see it that way. It tends to sound less horrible stateside if one says checking account maximizer.

edited 2nd Jan '18 11:46:29 AM by CenturyEye

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives

This kind of surveillance could work both ways, though. We could make creep detection apps, showing you who uses these kinds of predatory apps. You can be a creep, but everyone will know it.

Who Watches the Watchmen? Everyone.

The problem, of course, is when those vigilante apps start running into the paperclip-maximiser problem as well.

What's precedent ever done for us?

I still think that's the best possible countermeasure, even if it is a bit of an arms race.

I mean, say that GodHatesFags calls a flash mob on a gay man. StandUpSpeakUp will respond by triggering a GHF Alert to every SUSU-er in the area, and soon GHF has to abort or face a counterprotest.

edited 3rd Jan '18 2:51:23 AM by Ramidel

What do you think when you hear the word "meritocracy"? Do you see a more "polite" term for Social Darwinism, an excuse to discriminate against others (the Poor being an obvious target)? Or do you see a philosophy that carves out a path towards a truly equal society?

9/10 times it's A trying to present itself as B.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

I see a philosophy that wants a society were the most meritorious lead, that's it. It can involve any of those motivations or none.

Generally the key context to look out for is if they're supporting the creation of a meritocracy or claim it already exists. The former probably aren't bigoted or greedy while the inverse is true of the latter.

edited 17th Jan '18 4:14:59 PM by Fourthspartan56

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

That would be the other 1/10.

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

Fair enough.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

The other problem is that merit is often based on chance (which is considered socially unfair) or inherited in various ways (which over time can create a two-class society of the lucky and unlucky ones).

More generally, it suffers from the problem all laissez faire systems suffer, nature including human wellbeing and wealth are subject to strong positive feedback loops that make the rich/lucky richer/luckier and the poor/unlucky poorer/unluckier.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I don't know if being given command over people and resources is "lucky". In egalitarian societies, that just means more work on your workaholic plate. No-one envies the Great, when the reward for success is more and bigger challenges.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Hence why a true meritocracy would have extensive social programs to smooth out the differences between the classes. Of course this is highly accurate criticism for the people who claim that we currently live in a meritocracy, they're just delusion hypocrites who want to justify their privilege.

There is nothing about meritocracy that requires a laissez faire system, I would strongly argue that it's only really possible if you have a strong central government that reduces the inefficient forms of inequality.

Of course it's lucky, the primary reason people have power is due to privilege and that is from random chance which can colloquially be called luck. Hard work matters to a certain degree but Donald Trump is a clear example that hard work is no substitute for privilege.

edited 18th Jan '18 8:25:33 AM by Fourthspartan56

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

Not if power and responsibility isn't something people want because there's no opportunity for abuse and plenty of opportunity for contempt.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I don't see how that's true, yes power requires a certain amount of work to maintain (generally) but being powerful is infinitely preferable to being powerless. Anyway it's not like powerless people don't have to work, they just lack the significance and protection that power offers.

edited 18th Jan '18 8:31:23 AM by Fourthspartan56

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

http://www.newsweek.com/united-nations-sexual-harassment-abuse-784775

Since is this the general political thread, I think something that needs to be brought up is the fact that a lot of UN employees are speaking out against abuse. UN denies the claims and say they have policies against abuse, but many people are saying that people still keep their spots.

As with all such movements I'm happy that people are going forward about sexual harassment/abuse, such behavior is shameful.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn