There's a lot of irrelevant apologism going on here (from which I will take that, deep down, you probably feel a little guilty about excusing cold-blooded murder - which at least proves that you're human). To respond to just the first point: no, chaos and vigilantism are not the only way that "civilizations advance". Some of the most advanced civilizations (let's say: Switzerland, Japan, even Britain) have managed to reform incrementally, without the need for the bloody revolution you are advocating. Recourse to lawless chaos (France 1793, America soon apparently) is a sign that one's civilization is a failure not that it's "advancing".
JubilantJaguar
joined 2 years ago
Excellent question! I too lurked on the R-site for a decade and hardly ever contributed - maybe 100 comments in total. Twitter: same story, more or less. Zuckerbook: slightly more in its heyday, but still not much. And I was on the internet in the 90s so I've used all kinds of forums and even IRC. But for better or for worse I've probably posted more here in the last 18 months than on all other social media combined in the last 25 years.
Some theories:
- Less competition! Having less contributors on a forum is worse for or passive consumers (i.e. lurkers) but it's better for the active participants. On a really busy forum, if you don't post your topic at exactly the right time of day, or your comment within a few minutes of the topic dropping, then effectively it will be invisible. Completely demotivating. Here the pace is much more human.
- No ads! This one is huge. I hate hate hate having to suffer ads. Here we're free of them.
- I like the interface! Seems a silly reason but it's true. The guys who designed this thing did a surprisingly good job. The UX and design are both really good.
The posts in this forum seem to have a systematically negative bias regarding China. It would be nice to have some good, or at least neutral, news from time to time.
It's worth clarifying here that the collapse occurred on a building dating from the 1960s. It was not caused by Chinese malpractice so much as Serbian negligence.
Here's an alternative take to upset the boring consensus here.
Patriotic pride (not necessarily nationalism) is the inevitable product of social cohesion. A society which is cohesive is one where people look at strangers and see them as members of their tribe - essentially, as extended family. It's a society where citizens are therefore willing to pay high taxes to fund those strangers' welfare benefits, for example. No welfare state has ever arisen in a country without this essential quality. Almost by definition, social cohesion is closely correlated with patriotism. In the world's most redistributive countries - I'm talking about Scandinavia, of course - you will see more national flags than you might think given their "leftist" reputation. In Sweden, ordinary houses sometime have flagpoles in the garden, I've seen them. None of this is coincidental.
Patriotism can be a dangerous slippery slope, yes. But it's also what empowers strong states and collective action. Nobody wants a patriotism-free world more than the billionaires that everyone hates here. Be careful what you wish for.
Excellent news. Next up Italy, which passed a law banning lab-grown meat because culture or something. The shamelessness of the big-ag lobby is really something.
Genocide is a big powerful word that gets your blood pumping, that's why you use it twice in the same sentence. But what exactly was October 7th, for you?
There are no massive contradictions here, only a lot of ignorant keyboard warriors who look at a complex world and see black and white.
non-TERFs
There you go again. You know very well that this is a derogatory term that is used to shut down debate. And you must also know there are a handful of situations (females in sports, children's medicine) where legitimate rights come into conflict. You have your views and values about these situations, I'm sure, but it's silly (I will refrain from any worse judgements) to pretend that debate on these subjects is morally illegitimate.
Personally I find this whole subject incredibly boring so that's all I have to say here.
Irrelevant. Japan's civilization was already "advanced" and the reforms were entirely peaceful. Unless you're advocating for foreign wars of conquest as a solution to America's feckless inability to get itself universal healthcare?