Comments

  • Ontology of Time
    The law of identity is derived from, or based in, the observed temporal continuity of things, the tendency for things to remain as they are through a duration of timeMetaphysician Undercover

    That might work for some things, but not for things like Descartes' wax. What exactly are we observing that tells us it's the same wax as it melts and then solidifies as a puddle? This looks like more of a read-only memory feature. In other words, we're built to think in terms of identities with changing properties with change always appearing in association with something relatively changeless.
  • Ontology of Time
    But whether you bring in time or not, the object still moves by the force.Corvus

    Force and energy are both physical constructs. Time is part of the construction.
  • New Thread?
    I’m actually really nice. If people were equally nice, there’d be no problems.Mikie

    :up:
  • New Thread?

    I think you'd really like the climate change subreddit. Their posting structure makes it practically impossible to troll. Trolls just disappear down the branches. Plus with enough down votes, a post will disappear. But just as you can't troll, you can't bully either. They'll bomb you for that.
  • The alt-right and race
    Then maybe the first question should be, do we really want to take the time to have this conversation? Cause it’s a slog.Fire Ologist

    We need a diagram.
  • The alt-right and race
    The whole conversation about race, to me, should be “why are you afraid of your brother?”Fire Ologist

    Because he stood on my neck in the middle of the street until I was dead? It's a complicated issue.
  • The alt-right and race

    This is the 'leftist corpse' Land complains about. All posturing, no anchor to reality.
  • The alt-right and race
    Typical right-wing tactic of blaming the Left for creating their own ideologyMaw

    So it's more surprising that Land was influenced by Marx and Deleuze in his academic youth. Now he's a libertarian going on about how democracy doesn't work.
  • The alt-right and race
    Everything about the right-wing resurgence seems to me some way or another of shouting, "if you're going to do it, so shall we!" And in this sense they're right. If power is all that matters, how can you complain when the people you trample use it to trample you? Left wingers trample right wing beliefs, values, and ideas daily – like it or not. Right wingers trample in the reverse direction.kudos

    "Trample" is the key word there, each side viewing the other as a stampeding herd. No nuance allowed, no variation.

    The Left does contain braindead zombies, and if you lean left, you're going to be lumped together with them. Land complains that the same is happening to the right. No conversation is possible about the nature of systemic racism. If you ask, you're racist.

    But if it's power that you want, isn't it also the impotence that you desire?kudos

    Land's claim is that Libertarians are not sitting still. They're "exiting" regular politics, although I'm still working on understanding what that implies.

    Question is really, are you serious that these discussions are only tossing and turnings over powekudos

    In the background, authoritarianism looms, so not just more status quo.
  • New Thread?
    I think Holocaust denial is an oblique attack on Jews. It's meant to show disrespect. Climate change skepticism isn't an attack on anyone, though the deployer may be aware that it's a good way to get someone's goat.
  • Between Evil and Monstrosity

    If we relieve a person of full responsibility, why not do the same for the ideology they followed? The poor ideology was shaped by this it that circumstance. Blame the circumstances. This opens up into blaming everything for everything.

    Ultimately, there's an opposition between understanding and judging. The more you understand, the harder it becomes to judge. The more you judge, the harder it becomes to understand. We forever swing between these poles, the extremes of which are meaningless.
  • The Musk Plutocracy
    Would you like to say that to me again in the parking lot?Leontiskos

    Yes. I want to show you my bumper sticker collection.
  • The Musk Plutocracy

    I don't think your characterization is accurate tho.
  • The Musk Plutocracy

    Did you watch this video?
  • The alt-right and race
    :up: Thank you.
  • The alt-right and race
    There certainly are leftists / liberals / progressives (whatever term...) who are focussed on race and marginalized, under-represented, and disadvantaged groups. They have substituted D.E.I for the class and labor issues of the "old left". The alt-right, ultra-conservatives, far right, etc. are quite exercised about D.E.I., but that isn't the big game they are hunting for.BC

    Nick Land came from an academic setting, so I think that must be the group of leftists he thinks made race "holy." I guess some of the things you've said in the past made me think you would agree that the progressive stance on race is like doctrine that can't be discussed, it just requires agreement? The picture he paints is of a Leftism that's solidified into doctrine so that reasonable discussion can't be had. Is that totally wrong?

    The alt-right isn't screaming about unions because, as important as organizing labor is, it's at low tide in most fields, except maybe public employment.BC

    Right. But both tariffs and migration control have the potential to shore up the power of American labor. I'm not trying to be naive here, it's just that for real, it's the first substantial movement I've seen in my lifetime toward protecting American labor. It may well be that it's the bone thrown to the dogs to make them think things are getting better, but still, it's the truth. And that's what Nick Land's views leave me thinking about: telling the truth.

    Just one quick addition: The alt-right most wants to destroy the gains which the 'old-left/liberals' achieved over the decades. Getting rid of DEI is just gravy.BC

    I've been looking for whether people like Land and Vance understand the population they're cozying up to. Do they understand that the alt-right is where Neo-Nazis go? Or are they just not afraid of that?
  • What should the EU do when Trump wins the next election?
    In general, the Canucks have been growing tired of the noise and crap for some time.jorndoe

    I can understand that. I'm American and I'm tired of it.
  • fdrake stepping down as a mod this weekend
    I didn't step down because of burnout.fdrake

    I hope you stepped down because of something good, and not something bad.
  • Quine: Reference and Modality

    I think it was because possible worlds are figments of imagination. Too much dubious ontology.
  • Quine: Reference and Modality

    How could you do quantum theory without modality? Isn't possibility central to it? If this is off topic, please ignore.
  • What should the EU do when Trump wins the next election?
    I don't think he'll want a third term. He'll just want lots of pardons. But yes, let's reassess in four years.
  • What should the EU do when Trump wins the next election?

    Well, let's revisit it in 10 years and see which of us understood the situation better. :razz:
  • What should the EU do when Trump wins the next election?
    Europe should get it's shit together at first.ssu

    If you mean they need to further integrate, I think they will, with China as an ally. It's their only choice. Europe couldn't withstand an attack from the US.

    really think that Europe should first approach Canada,ssu

    Not a chance

    Remember that Trump won only a narrow victory, and there are many Americans that don't like Trump either.ssu

    I think Vance comes next, and he much younger and smarter than Trump. Time to start learning Chinese.
  • What should the EU do when Trump wins the next election?
    Europe just needs to work on developing its relationship with China.
  • The Distinct and Inconsistent Reality of a Dream
    Make sure it avoids conspiracy theories and has standards for posting.Philosophim

    I think they just need to hang out at a philosophy forum and learn what "rule out" means. :grin:
  • The Distinct and Inconsistent Reality of a Dream
    If its a good one, yes.Philosophim

    How would it rule that out?
  • The Distinct and Inconsistent Reality of a Dream
    If you doubt this, go to a science forumPhilosophim

    Would a science forum assure me that I'm not peeping into another universe when I'm asleep?
  • The Distinct and Inconsistent Reality of a Dream

    Innate world building capability? Imagine that the nucleus of the dream is some emotion, which surrounds itself with an event to explain the emotion. The event balloons out into a setting. What flips me out is that when my dream involves a social setting, there will be these weird customs that the people do, as if obligations are fundamentally arbitrary.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    It’s text. It doesn’t sound like anything.NOS4A2

    The sound of silence.
  • The Boom in Classical Education in the US

    So would this "classical" focus in education teach students to think for themselves? Or would it warn against that?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)

    Well that didn't sound psychotic at all.
  • Ontology of Time
    in juxtaposition to the impossibility for empirical verification,Mww

    I don't know where this is coming from. Why would empirical verification be a problem if an item is independent of us?
  • Ontology of Time
    …..how can it possibly be independent of us?Mww

    Newton's conception of time was as something independent of us, right?
  • Ontology of Time

    If Carlo Rovelli is right that time is coming from the way we perceive the universe, then time exists, it's just not what we often conceive it to be, that is, independent of us.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Think about it. If all the debt that you put out is bought by your own central bank, what will that mean to the dollar?ssu

    Nothing
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    When that is the majority ownership, guess what happens at some instance?ssu

    What?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)

    The US debt is mainly to US banks.