Random Thread

[doctor shark]

I got accepted for a conference in Prague in June, coincidentally timed around my birthday. (Yay for multipurpose trips!)

[Travis B.]

I got accepted for a conference in Prague in June, coincidentally timed around my birthday. (Yay for multipurpose trips!)

Congrats!

[Raphael]

I got accepted for a conference in Prague in June, coincidentally timed around my birthday. (Yay for multipurpose trips!)

Congrats!

Seconded!

[alice]

I got accepted for a conference in Prague in June, coincidentally timed around my birthday. (Yay for multipurpose trips!)

Congrats!

Seconded!

Thirded! Prague is a lovely city, if you get time to see it.

[doctor shark]

Thanks, all!

Thirded! Prague is a lovely city, if you get time to see it.

I'm definitely going to make time for sightseeing: after all, work policy allows me to extend my stay without issue (on my dime, but they pay the round-trip tickets at least). It'll be nice to see how things have changed in the... uh, 23 years since my last visit. (Wait, 23 years?)

[rotting bones]

I have wondered how my life would have turned out if I had remained a conservative rather than going left wing. Presumably there's an alternate timeline where I post stuff like "It's well-known that mass shootings are actually caused by nu metal, not guns, but the satanically controlled media doesn't want to talk about that".

You would be happily cheering on your own downfall. Every time people who want to help ask for your support, you would angrily accuse them of wanting to steal from you. Every time your quality of life suffers because people steal from you, you would experience a surge of pride at having contributed to the fight against thieves. It would be a glorious life bursting with pride and joy. Sure, many people would see you as a clown, but that would only feed your self-righteousness.

Verdict: No downsides. Go for it.

[malloc]

You would be happily cheering on your own downfall. Every time people who want to help ask for your support, you would angrily accuse them of wanting to steal from you. Every time your quality of life suffers because people steal from you, you would experience a surge of pride at having contributed to the fight against thieves. It would be a glorious life bursting with pride and joy. Sure, many people would see you as a clown, but that would only feed your self-righteousness.

Verdict: No downsides. Go for it.

Part of me has always envied the right for winning so much. Now that they stand poised to win the end of history, it seems hard not to covet their victory.

[Man in Space]

Last night, I had on in the background an ambient mix of the Blade Runner 2049 OST. It opened with a recreation of the opening text from the film, but there was an interesting error that took me a hot minute to notice (change black for white but it doesn’t show well):

REPLICANTS ARE BIOENGINEERED HUMANS DESIGNED, BY TYRELL CORPORATION FOR USE OFF-WORLD. THEIR ENHANCED STRENGTH MADE THEM IDEAL SLAVE LABOR

AFTER A SERIES OF VIOLENT REBELLIONS, THEIR MANUFACTURE BECAME PROHIBITED AND TYRELL CORPORATION WENT BANKRUPT

THE COLLAPSE OF ECOSYSTEMS IN THE MID 2020s LED TO THE RISE OF INDUSTRIALIST NIANDER WALLACE, WHOSE MASTERY OF SYNTHETIC FARMING AVERTED FAMINE

WALLACE, WHOSE MASTERY OF SYNTHETIC FARMING AVERTED FAMINE

WALLACE ACQUIRED THE REMAINS OF TYRELL CORPORATION AND CREATED A NEW LINE OF REPLICANTS WHO OBEY

MANY OLDER MODEL REPLICANTS - Bs WITH OPEN-ENDED LIFESPANS - SURVIVED. THEY ARE HUNTED DOWN AND 'RETIRED'

THOSE THAT HUNT THEM STILL GO BY THE NAME…

BLADE RUNNER

I didn’t immediately pick up on the repetition of the “Wallace, who” section (nor the “Nexus Bs” that should’ve been “Nexus 8s”). It almost reads like they’re singing a hymn to, for, or about him, or something like literal hero worship.

(The idiosyncratic punctuation lends its own interesting confusions to this as well, for me at least).

[keenir]

Part of me has always envied the right for winning so much. Now that they stand poised to win the end of history, it seems hard not to covet their victory.

the "end of history" has been declared more than once...and yet we keep having more history.

[rotting bones]

Part of me has always envied the right for winning so much.

Godspeed, I guess?

You are making the same mistake as the right-wingers. The left and the right are not two horses, with the game being to bet on the champion. The right is a coalition of oligarchs who are hostile to the rights and future prosperity of our communities. Whether or not we support them, their victory is our defeat.

The rational way to be a right-winger in our position is to disclaim responsibility for our communities and dedicate ourselves to becoming servants of the oligarchs instead: Sacrifice freedom for personal prosperity like a house negro. Usually, such people have myths they tell themselves to make their choice more bearable, like the superiority of the masters or the inevitability of their victory.

Now that they stand poised to win the end of history, it seems hard not to covet their victory.

Although the mechanisms he suggests are oversimplified and not applicable to all societies, even a thinker as ancient as Aristotle suggests that political forms in Greek cities cycle through monarchy, oligarchy, democracy and back again. Paul Cockshott goes much further in his books, trying to chart stochastic transitions of political forms as a Markov model. Reading How the World Works, for example, will give you some historical perspective.

[malloc]

Although the mechanisms he suggests are oversimplified and not applicable to all societies, even a thinker as ancient as Aristotle suggests that political forms in Greek cities cycle through monarchy, oligarchy, democracy and back again. Paul Cockshott goes much further in his books, trying to chart stochastic transitions of political forms as a Markov model. Reading How the World Works, for example, will give you some historical perspective.

Sure but contemporary oligarchs have many advantages over previous ones. The military and police force of America are far better armed than anything that Aristotle could have imagined. Even the most dedicated protestors cannot survive tanks and drones, let alone defeat them in battle. Furthermore the far right controls all major social media apps like twitter and facebook while wielding the threat of defamation lawsuits against legacy media. The average American knows and thinks only what the oligarchs want and nothing can change that now.

[rotting bones]

Sure but contemporary oligarchs have many advantages over previous ones. The military and police force of America are far better armed than anything that Aristotle could have imagined. Even the most dedicated protestors cannot survive tanks and drones, let alone defeat them in battle. Furthermore the far right controls all major social media apps like twitter and facebook while wielding the threat of defamation lawsuits against legacy media. The average American knows and thinks only what the oligarchs want and nothing can change that now.

The oligarchs are not smart. We're dealing with narcissistic toddlers whose idiocy is surpassed only by that of their victims. A slight perturbation in the idiocy balance should be sufficient to put them on the back foot.

There are countries that have gone alt right and wandered back to the center-left like Brazil.

[malloc]

The oligarchs are not smart. We're dealing with narcissistic toddlers whose idiocy is surpassed only by that of their victims. A slight perturbation in the idiocy balance should be sufficient to put them on the back foot.

Considering how much you clearly detest humans, why do you care about helping them in first place? If you truly consider us horrifically stupid as your posts consistently suggest, why bother fighting for our interests at all?

[alice]

The oligarchs are not smart. We're dealing with narcissistic toddlers whose idiocy is surpassed only by that of their victims. A slight perturbation in the idiocy balance should be sufficient to put them on the back foot.

Considering how much you clearly detest humans, why do you care about helping them in first place? If you truly consider us horrifically stupid as your posts consistently suggest, why bother fighting for our interests at all?

#notallhumans

[rotting bones]

Considering how much you clearly detest humans, why do you care about helping them in first place? If you truly consider us horrifically stupid as your posts consistently suggest, why bother fighting for our interests at all?

My distrust of common sense is an implication of my radical empiricist stance. When you actually look at the facts of the world, you start to realize how many of your verities are supported by a tissue of lies.

I don't support humans because they're perfect. I'm human too, and dumber than most.

[Raphael]

Do we need the Random Thread to become the place of yet another discussion of the political state of the world? Seems to me like there are already threads for that.

[keenir]

Although the mechanisms he suggests are oversimplified and not applicable to all societies, even a thinker as ancient as Aristotle suggests that political forms in Greek cities cycle through monarchy, oligarchy, democracy and back again. Paul Cockshott goes much further in his books, trying to chart stochastic transitions of political forms as a Markov model. Reading How the World Works, for example, will give you some historical perspective.

Sure but contemporary oligarchs have many advantages over previous ones. The military and police force of America are far better armed than anything that Aristotle could have imagined.

thats like arguing that, because we moderns have a better grasp of/on obscure pollination types (such as figs), than, say, Aristotle or Buddha, that we moderns have biotechnology such as commercial and military skywhales, bombadier beetlesupertanks, and basking sharkbarges.

Even the most dedicated protestors cannot survive tanks and drones, let alone defeat them in battle. Furthermore the far right controls all major social media apps like twitter and facebook

then why are they so incompetant at it, if they supposedly control everything?

while wielding the threat of defamation lawsuits against legacy media. The average American knows and thinks only what the oligarchs want

So why do the oligarchs want Americans and the rest of the world, to know about all the troubles the oligarchs (and Trump) are having, in court and in national and international occurances??

and nothing can change that now.

except for everything.

[keenir]

If you truly consider us horrifically stupid as your posts consistently suggest, why bother fighting for our interests at all?

I don't know about Rotting Bones, but I think Methos would reply with his classic "I'm easily amused."

[malloc]

thats like arguing that, because we moderns have a better grasp of/on obscure pollination types (such as figs), than, say, Aristotle or Buddha, that we moderns have biotechnology such as commercial and military skywhales, bombadier beetlesupertanks, and basking sharkbarges.

What the hell are you talking about? Aristotle and for that matter most people predicting the collapse of existing regimes were living in an era when iron swords or wildly inaccurate muskets were the cutting edge of military technology. Do you honestly believe the French Revolution would have occurred if the ancien régime could simply annihilate the revolutionaries with predator drones and nerve gas before they could even storm the Bastille?

So why do the oligarchs want Americans and the rest of the world, to know about all the troubles the oligarchs (and Trump) are having, in court and in national and international occurances??

Obviously they want the masses to believe that Trump is struggling against ruthless and implacable enemies. They aren't presenting lawsuits against the Trump administration as successful resistance against a corrupt and weak regime but rather as attempted sabotage of a legitimate government.

I don't support humans because they're perfect. I'm human too, and dumber than most.

Then why do you support them? Wouldn't it make more sense to wash your hands of such a terrible species?

[rotting bones]

Then why do you support them? Wouldn't it make more sense to wash your hands of such a terrible species?

Besides self-interest? Strength in numbers.