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A Sick Giant

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Re: A Sick Giant

#31

Post by AnimalMuppet »

snarf21 wrote: post #23
jpm_sd wrote: post #5

TL;DR: political polarization in the USA has measurably increased, and this is bad for the country and its citizens. However, some data suggest that that two-thirds of Americans fall into what they call the "Exhausted Majority", people who are fed up with both major parties, and politics in general.

Especially since we live in an oligarchy but everyone still thinks in terms of red vs blue or us vs them. It is quite the trick to misdirect blame to people who are just like you.

I find it ironic that you respond to a comment about political polarization increasing with a polarizing extreme of a comment...

Re: A Sick Giant

#32

Post by AnimalMuppet »

crooked-v wrote: post #20
tehjoker wrote: post #15

The liberal worldview thinks that everything is basically ok and that the problem is that "norms" are being violated and bad information leads to pointless conflict. Liberals are wrong. There are fundemental structural problems with this country and the current psychosis is the result of neither political party addressing them while going war and profit crazy on the backs of the working people that slave and die with…

> neither political party addressing them This bothsaming is a stretch. The Democratic national platform is all about increased support for the poor and middle class, the more radical wing of the party is pushing for dramatic and fundamental restructuring of much of the national economy and welfare system as part of combating climate change, and their current Presidential slate includes several avowed anti-war anti-c…

> The Democratic national platform is all about increased support for the poor and middle class

The "basket of deplorables"? The Democrats talk about caring about them (sometimes - Hillary seems to have forgotten that part when she was running), but the contempt shows through. Actually caring about them instead of paying lip service might take the Democrats a long way. Listening to them wouldn't hurt, either.

Re: A Sick Giant

#33

Post by orf »

tyri_kai_psomi wrote: post #19
tehjoker wrote: post #15

The liberal worldview thinks that everything is basically ok and that the problem is that "norms" are being violated and bad information leads to pointless conflict. Liberals are wrong. There are fundemental structural problems with this country and the current psychosis is the result of neither political party addressing them while going war and profit crazy on the backs of the working people that slave and die with…

The comment is not fitting to the article, but I wanted to respond to it anyways because I found it interesting and it's not something talked about here much, for obvious reasons. The problem is going to escape many on the left, including most people here as well, as many people here are mostly agnostic/atheistic/anti-faith and believe having faith is somehow anti-intellectual. The reality of the situation is the US…

The backbone of the USA in its formative years was slavery and outright slaughter of native Americans. By people who went to church.

This dark legacy stretches into today - the last lynching was in 1981, and white Christian America still worships a vision of a nice, pearly white European looking Jesus, presented by millionaire preachers in mega churches who say “just give me some money and you too can be redeemed”.

And not to mention their pseudo worship of a man who is so laughably espouses the exact opposite of the Christian teachings. A man who had sex with a pornstar while his second (or third?) wife was pregnant at home and has never read the Bible.

I’d appreciate knowing how you can reconcile thinking what you commented with what actually happened, and how you can view a system of oppression, control and political propaganda (USA’s brand of “Christianity”) as anything but that.

Re: A Sick Giant

#34

Post by orf »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #32
crooked-v wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> neither political party addressing them This bothsaming is a stretch. The Democratic national platform is all about increased support for the poor and middle class, the more radical wing of the party is pushing for dramatic and fundamental restructuring of much of the national economy and welfare system as part of combating climate change, and their current Presidential slate includes several avowed anti-war anti-c…

> The Democratic national platform is all about increased support for the poor and middle class The "basket of deplorables"? The Democrats talk about caring about them (sometimes - Hillary seems to have forgotten that part when she was running), but the contempt shows through. Actually caring about them instead of paying lip service might take the Democrats a long way. Listening to them wouldn't hurt, either.

[flagged]

Re: A Sick Giant

#35

Post by Ygg2 »

Nition wrote: post #8
qub1t wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally the next paragraph he writes: “But that’s not what happened, because her aggressive tattletale move immediately threw my Primitive Mind into a rage, plummeting me down the Psych Spectrum. This banished my Higher Mind to the closet of my subconscious, allowing my Primitive Mind to come up with a genius-yet-psychotic plan for revenge. Which worked, and made my Primitive Mind feel deeply satisfied in a very no…

I'd like to think most people would act more civilized initially in that situation. In fact the most civilized thing to do would have been to simply follow the rules in the first place, knowing that most passengers will believe they must be important.

Why? The rule is absolutely stupid, and pointless. It's about as meaningful to airplane security as TSA. In other words, none at all.

I mean if rules say you need to report your fellow Uighurs, you should follow them because other will?

Re: A Sick Giant

#36

Post by [deleted] »

Nition wrote: post #2

> I recently engaged in a fun, joint Psych Spectrum roller coaster with a stranger on an airplane. We were on the runway, getting ready to take off, and I was doing my typical “I know the flight attendant said to turn all phones onto airplane mode but the whole policy is really quite inane so I’m just gonna keep texting until we take off and I lose service” thing, and a woman next to me decided I was an asshole and l…

[deleted]

Re: A Sick Giant

#37

Post by Nition »

Ygg2 wrote: post #35
Nition wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to think most people would act more civilized initially in that situation. In fact the most civilized thing to do would have been to simply follow the rules in the first place, knowing that most passengers will believe they must be important.

Why? The rule is absolutely stupid, and pointless. It's about as meaningful to airplane security as TSA. In other words, none at all. I mean if rules say you need to report your fellow Uighurs, you should follow them because other will?

Because it's likely to cause discomfort and negative attention from the other passengers who will worry it could jeopardize their flight, and not using your phone for a little while isn't a big deal. It's not so much about following a rule or not, as just being socially responsible.

Re: A Sick Giant

#38

Post by Nasrudith »

snarf21 wrote: post #23
jpm_sd wrote: post #5

TL;DR: political polarization in the USA has measurably increased, and this is bad for the country and its citizens. However, some data suggest that that two-thirds of Americans fall into what they call the "Exhausted Majority", people who are fed up with both major parties, and politics in general.

Especially since we live in an oligarchy but everyone still thinks in terms of red vs blue or us vs them. It is quite the trick to misdirect blame to people who are just like you.

To be fair thinking people "just like you" neccesarily have your interests in mind is also a dangerous and potentially fatal mistake itself, those trying to convince you are potentially engaging in misdirection themselves. Just because others are like you doesn't mean they won't also screw you over whenever convenient. Nor do differences guarantee that they will be bad. There are no guarantees, period.

Re: A Sick Giant

#39

Post by AcerbicZero »

tyri_kai_psomi wrote: post #19
tehjoker wrote: post #15

The liberal worldview thinks that everything is basically ok and that the problem is that "norms" are being violated and bad information leads to pointless conflict. Liberals are wrong. There are fundemental structural problems with this country and the current psychosis is the result of neither political party addressing them while going war and profit crazy on the backs of the working people that slave and die with…

The comment is not fitting to the article, but I wanted to respond to it anyways because I found it interesting and it's not something talked about here much, for obvious reasons. The problem is going to escape many on the left, including most people here as well, as many people here are mostly agnostic/atheistic/anti-faith and believe having faith is somehow anti-intellectual. The reality of the situation is the US…

I have no more interest in religious authoritarianism than I do with "progressive" authoritarianism. Fundamentally, its the same problem from a different direction. If your faith (religious, political, vim/emacs, whatever) requires me to do something, things aren't off to a great start.

Authoritarianism leads to tyranny, and it doesn't particularly matter who's boot is on your neck in the end.

Re: A Sick Giant

#40

Post by bendbro »

omegaworks wrote: post #26
tyri_kai_psomi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment is not fitting to the article, but I wanted to respond to it anyways because I found it interesting and it's not something talked about here much, for obvious reasons. The problem is going to escape many on the left, including most people here as well, as many people here are mostly agnostic/atheistic/anti-faith and believe having faith is somehow anti-intellectual. The reality of the situation is the US…

>the US was founded, both socially and politically on Judeo-Christian principles of morality What principles of morality excuse and justify native genocide and chattel slavery: practices that formed the actual economic and political foundation of the United States? "Judeo-Christian" is a white-evangelical term that erases Jewish culture and folds it into a narrative of supremacy. >There are positions now being held b…

> What principles of morality excuse and justify...

That a system is hypocritical or irrational is not criticism of it existing, only criticism that it should exist. The culture very obviously exists, otherwise there wouldn't be a heteronormative, patriarchal, workaholic, individualist, capitalist, suburban culture for far-left types to fight.

> Your presumption is false. Not all people follow your faith or the narrow view you have of the faithful...

You are attacking a strawman. Obviously not all faithful hold traditional views, but a large group of faithful obviously do hold traditional views.

> Among the colonists were Quakers, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, Baptists, Anglicans and many others.

All of whom were Judeo-Christian and grossly compatible with the traditional culture I described above.

The core point of the article linked and the grand-parent comment is that the US used to have a single, "traditional" base culture. We now have two, competing cultures. I don't think your comment addresses that point, rather it only addresses the inconsistencies within the traditional culture. Debating first-level politics doesn't ascend to the level of something that is "interesting to hackers," which is why political debates are softly banned on hackernews.

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