And anyway, the idea that more territory gives you more prosperity is basically an outdated idea... — ssu

I'm guessing someone told him Greenland and Canada will be prime real estate when climate change starts getting more severe. It's a little early to worry about that though.

What one diagnosis would that be? — javra

I'm not sure why you're asking me that?

I associate dark femininity more with Lady MacBeth - relentless manipulation of MacBeth & challenging his manhood, unbridled ambition, and complete lack of morality. — BitconnectCarlos

She's a good one, yea.

What do you here have in mind? — javra

Just trying to give one diagnosis to a bunch of people who have different ailments?

And all this to me gets exceedingly complex when philosophically enquired into. — javra

That may be because of inappropriate generalization. Diagnosis is difficult in the case of one person. Diagnosing our society would take a vantage point around fifty years in the future. Diagnosing our culture isn't possible. It's just a living thing, doing its thing.

I think @AmadeusD is right though. In a sense, there is no feminine spectrum of power from light to dark. There are veins of our heritage where femininity in general shows up as bad: frail, muddle-headed, prone to irrationality and hysterics. In order for women to step out of the shadows, they had to be careful to avoid seeming powerful, because they would come across as bitchy. The ideal is innocent Snow White. Her powerful Step-Mother is evil.

Where is the OP finding this positive adult femininity? Where in our heritage is that supposed to be coming from?

Yes, i agree with that. There's a clear area on the spectrum of 'masculine' behaviour which is pernicious and destructive. Equally with feminine behaviour (again, acknowledging that the important difference is that the in former case, people tend to die - hte latter, they kill themselves (this is a bit of jest)). — AmadeusD

I think dark femininity is more like the witches in Macbeth, allied with nature, fucking people up.

Would you say there are light and dark versions of masculinity? For instance, Superman is clearly light. He's all good. He's all about truth and justice. And then there's a darker, morally ambiguous guy. I gang member, for instance. I would say the type of masculinity that's appearing out of the US government right now is the darker kind.

Are Americans here truly OK with this? — ssu

Is your main concern that countries should respect one another's sovereignty?

If you need folk to genuflect, then I do agree that the US was a great civilisation. — Banno

Really? I'm surprised you would say that. It did have some cool things in it.

Indeed, famously Australian, but Arnott's were purchased by the US corporate Campbell's Soup in 1997. There followed an explosion of varieties in the crass US tradition, including of all things a cheese variety for the Indonesian market.

Divided loyalties. — Banno

Oh, I see. In honor of Campbell's soup and Andy Warhol, you should take one of the Tim Tam packages, frame it, and put it on the wall. The art isn't the package, it's in the experience of staring at it in a frame. Just take note of what goes through your soul as you're staring at it. See how great America is?

:grin: I wish you well though. Tim Tams aren't American, so you can buy them guilt free.

Sorry, you didn't read my post so I'm not going to read yours. :cool:

If I were you I would limit purchases from the US due to carbon emissions involved in shipping.

Imagine that you first found out that foreigners hate Australia when you were about 12. Since then that's always been in the wings as you encounter non-Australians. For the most part they hate you.

They moan and moan year after year about how ugly you are, how everything Australia does is fucked up, how the world would be MUCH better off without you, on and on and on, endlessly.

Then one day Australia feels like it's time to bounce off the global stage. Some native isolationism starts kicking. Now what do you hear?

They're moaning because Australia used to be reliable. They used to be sane. They used to save hundreds of millions of lives on the regular. They used to be there to defend us. And now they're GONE! Do you think you might be a little bemused? Anyway, the US never had any responsibilities.

The present US administration has shown that it cannot be trusted. — Banno

Kind of in the same way China can't be trusted. I was talking to a Kenyan about the weird things China does. They come in claiming they're going to employ Kenyans, they do photo ops, put up billboards with rainbows on them, and then the Chinese use Kenyan prisoners as slave labor.

Would the US do this? :chin:

abdicated it's responsibilities — Banno

responsibilities? :chin:

It's not that complicated. Don't accept intolerance.

just think, like T Clark, that there are worse things than allowing speech that may hurt feelings. — ChatteringMonkey

And you feel the same way about racist speech?

The point is that it is an argument to not have restrictions on free speech, because it can and will be used by those in power to consolidate their power. — ChatteringMonkey

So Jamal is suppressing misogynistic speech to consolidate his power?

Bit of a non sequitur. The fact that it can be applied to anything doesn't make it any less true. — ChatteringMonkey

But what is the point of saying it? "I'm not disagreeing with the people in power, I'm just saying they have all the power"

I don’t know what that means. — T Clark

It means that if we want an environment without racial, religious, or sexual intolerance, we have to be somewhat intolerant of it.

Every tyranny there has ever been has used this exact same argument. — T Clark

tyranny of tolerance

:up:

but I also respect how European countries have handled such noxious speech. — J

But antisemitic hate speech is illegal in Germany, right?

But what about when some of you justify the nuclear attack on Japan? Would I be ok with just ignoring it too?

A 'double standard' for free speech, huh. — javi2541997

I guess we could talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki elsewhere if you want. Talking about the morality of events in war isn't the same thing as outright bigotry.

But what if someone produced an antisemitic rant? Would you be ok with just ignoring it?

probably a fly in the bottle

That happened five minutes ago. — Jamal

Thank you!!

:up: :up:

People shouldn't just wink at misogyny the way we're doing with Gregory. What if someone said they hope all black people die?

Gregory should be banned.

When the US was formed they asked Thomas Jefferson to rewrite the laws of Virginia for the new country. Virginia was a big state and it was known that all the smaller states would do whatever Virginia did. Jefferson refused saying that the meaning of the law had been created by centuries of lawyers wrangling over every syllable. Jefferson said if he rewrote the law, it would condemn future generations to redoing all that wrangling.

So the law isn't words hanging in a void. Today's law has meaning forged from yesterday's problems.

No, it's like a Pandora story where the woman opens the box and evil enters the world, but in this story she eats some fruit she wasn't supposed to, becomes the first sinner, now she has the knowledge of good and evil, which is what the tree is called.

It was the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.". There wasn't any evil at first. When Eve ate from the tree (after being forbidden to), she gained the knowledge of good and evil (and became like God in this regard just as the snake had advised.) It was a set-up.

You've got quite a few loose screws.

abandon all hope ye who enter here

I imagine you charge $150 an hour. — fdrake

No it's totally free, man.

My faith's only ever been rewarded when I do something about it. — fdrake

Take out pen and paper and write down what you're going to do.

In legal terms, the International System of Human Rights is subversive towards the State. — Ludovico Lalli

That's only if the state in question is beholden to the international community. If it is, that's probably a result of a treaty of some sort, or they took a loan and they can't pay it back.

The solution is to build a giant nuclear arsenal and a bunch of missiles.

Clever soul/sole pun. — Hanover

:grimace:

This is what brought Trump to power. — BitconnectCarlos

That and a bunch of neo-Nazis.