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The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

charliechaplin.com

301–310 of 412 posts

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#301
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the amount of bad encounters I've had driving post-2020, and interacting with strangers, I think it's seeping into the real world as well. The way people act and speak in public feels noticeably different than even a few years ago, let alone 10-20. People are very short with each other now. Even more disturbing, I think I can feel the change in myself too at times.

I have a theory that the covid experience is behind this. We all got used to being implicitly afraid of people because of social distancing. We also became so incredibly angry about people either forcing us to do things like wear masks or about people not doing those things. On top of that we were encouraged to drive our personalities into the internet even further, and we became even more used to being isolated from…

I think it certainly exacerbated it, but the trend started long before.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#302
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's so simple. Support for fascism can seem sensible and logical if you let yourself think that between you and greatness stands a minority whose sole purpose is to prevent you from becoming great. You could argue it's not emotion but a calculation coming from struggle and an easy explanation for that struggle. Not every wrong assumption comes from emotion and we have the whole history of science to pr…

If you reduce fascism to "let's genocide everyone else", of course the ideology doesn't make sense. I would say the idea of fascism is more about doing what's best for the nation or people, guided by a strong centrally led state, and a belief that imperialism and war can be appropriate tools to further this goal. It's adjacent to ultranationalism (though it doesn't have to be about the nation). For example to name th…

It's very easy to get to fascism from Darwinism: the best are destined to prosper and rule, everybody else is doomed to servitude and eventual extinction, and that's how progress is made.

In fact, all sorts of eugenic and racist ideas were popular in the West until the Nazis took them to their obvious conclusion.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t think of a single fact on its own that presents any danger. If anything, facts through the lens of ideology may become dangerous, but data on its own is like technology. Neutral without application, good or evil depending on situation.

Hypothetically if the world's scientists were to all prove that blacks were inferior to whites, what good would come out of that? I can't think of a single good thing that would come from that- the world would be worse for knowing such a fact.

People would have to think further than just assuming that blacks are less well off purely because of systemic oppression.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#304

I'd wager it's more like we don't think at all and feel only anger. At least online that is.

I feel in my heart a deep sense of empathy after watching that. Like the quote from National Treasure, “People don’t talk like that anymore.” But the response from Nicolas Cage is, “But they feel it”. As I understand it, Hitler used an economic narrative to build his team of supporters and eventually, desperate times cause people to vote with their wallets. Does anyone else feel like the advent of modern online inter…

Does anyone else feel like the advent of modern online interactions is different from the early web?

idk about that. I remember being appalled at the political atavism on Usenet in the 1992 election. Douglas Adams was right to describe telepathy as 'that most cruel of social diseases.'

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a theory that the covid experience is behind this. We all got used to being implicitly afraid of people because of social distancing. We also became so incredibly angry about people either forcing us to do things like wear masks or about people not doing those things. On top of that we were encouraged to drive our personalities into the internet even further, and we became even more used to being isolated from…

I think it certainly exacerbated it, but the trend started long before.

yeah I should have qualified it with that. definitely it didn't start with covid. but I myself have noticed this kind of strange general coldness that is persisted since and I have noticed many comments on Hacker News about it too.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#306
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we may be too often missing the important part of being a decent human being. "decent human being" is too vague and easily manipulated term, so it could be better to follow hard metrics and data.

Showing unselfish concern for the welfare of others. Will that do as a definition? Be altruistic.

But “unselfish concern for the welfare of others” doesn’t necessarily make those other people better off or help them. As someone from a poor country, I’d trade a million gentle, well meaning western feelers for a single Lee Kuan Yew.

Selfless altruism is a red flag. Be suspicious of anyone who wants to apply a different standard to you than to themselves—even if they think they’re being altruistic about it. The golden rule is better: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hypothetically if the world's scientists were to all prove that blacks were inferior to whites, what good would come out of that? I can't think of a single good thing that would come from that- the world would be worse for knowing such a fact.

Does “inferior” mean statistically less likely to be good at logic games? Because I don’t believe people’s claim to humanity is defined by that.

Right. Humanity is not defined by IQ or knowledge, and it's perfectly okay for people to prefer the company of some without denying the humanity of others.

Re: The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)

#310

It would be really cool if people stopped being gullible marks for psychopathic pedophiles. ‘Perverted, degenerate and indecent acts’ http://archive.today/2020.07.25-172048/https://www.telegraph...

Pls add Shakespeare. Add Carrol. Add Faulkner. Add Poe. Commit -m "people I despise for some strange reason, not for their work"
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