I am not saying that we shouldn’t fight injustice. And sometimes violence is needed for that. But it does make a difference if violence is the first or the last resort. And it also makes a difference how far you take the violence.
One problem with viewing your opponent as ‘evil’ is that it lowers the threshold for violence. You tend to use it sooner than you have to and take it farther than you have to.
Oh I definitely think there is evil, as in actions that have no other intention than to cause harm.
But first and foremost the concept of evil is a useful tool for storytelling and propaganda. It removes complexity. The other party isn’t morally gray, they are evil, you don’t negotiate with them, you don’t consider their perspective, you fight them. But it doesn’t just stop at the other party. If the other is evil, then we, through fighting it, become good, and it sure does feel good to think of oneself that way. And now we have flipped the moral compass on its head, inflicting suffering, previously evil, is now done in the name of good. And you better believe that children witnessing that suffering will have their own ideas who is evil, thus the cycle of suffering continues.
I have talked to many Albanians telling me how evil Serbs are, and I have talked to Serbs telling me the opposite. It just seems so painfully obvious standing on the outside.
And no, I don’t think I am immune to that. I am just lucky enough to never have been the victim of real violence. But I do believe it is worth asking: is the other party really evil, or does believing that just make my world simpler?
Regarding my stance on refugees I actually agree with you, and I have protested extraditions to the US before. This doesn’t fit into a campist worldmodel, but I think calling the US ‘good’ would miss the point just as much as calling it ‘evil’. I don’t believe in evil or good nations. Just states with more or less legitimate governments and populations prone to propaganda.
If you believe any nation is ‘cartoonishly evil’, you have probably fallen victim to propaganda as well.
I do wonder what your stance on refugees from Cuba is. Do you agree with racists wanting to send them back, just with a different kind of reasoning (i.e. ‘it’s for their own good, Cuba is better actually’)?
Thanks, now I have that acronym in my search history
I would say it depends both on the player and the game. Some games may rely on the fact that there is an online community. And some players might enjoy figuring stuff out themselves, while others just want to get past a tedious section so they can go back to the bits they actually enjoy.
I remember there was a character in Vampire Survivors that could only be unlocked by looking up a code online.
I would argue that every species alive today evidently found a strategy that works, otherwise they wouldn’t be here.
Perhaps some mushrooms actually rely on being eaten somehow. Or perhaps being poisonous comes with downsides, so it isn’t purely an advantage.
The development of Grok is quite interesting to me. Musk has two competing goals:
Musk seems to be choosing some kind of middle ground. If you look at trackingai.org Grok falls into the bottom left quadrant, like every LLM. Of all LLMs however, it leans the most towards the bottom right.
Believing something and knowing something is not the same.
I don’t believe in god, my father does, we both admit that we don’t know if there is a god.
There are varying degrees of religiosity as well. Some are absolutely convinced, others just don’t want to think that their loved ones completely disappear when they die. I personally know many people who believe in some kind of god or afterlife, who just make that their personal business and don’t bother anyone with it.
I also never said atheists are idiots. I think people who harass others for their beliefs, while not being able to prove that theirs is any more correct, are.
When atheists try to convince others that there is no god. Let people have their faith, as long as they let you have your lack thereof, and as long as they don’t hurt anyone.
I’m an atheist, I do not believe in god. But scientifically speaking, we just don’t know.
Science gives us models that allow us to describe the world. These models don’t necessarily have to be correct, they need to be the simplest explanation of our observations. These models also only describe the ‘what’, not the ‘why’.
So anyone claiming to stand on the side of science, while confidently exclaiming “There is no god” without any scientific evidence, is just an idiot. And mocking religion on top of that just makes you an asshole.
Interessanter als das Einkommen finde ich persönlich das Vermögen, denn es macht einen Unterschied ob das Einkommen größtenteils aus einem Erwerbseinkommen besteht, oder aus Kapitalerträgen.
Not a handful of people, but a ruling elite.
If it was democracy, that’s what we’d call it. But we are not talking about democracy. The post is quite explicit about the fact that after a socialist revolution and before ‘true democracy’ comes a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, which is different.
My grandparents were workers in the GDR. They were part of the proletariat, they didn’t have a say. That’s ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. A government run by ‘socialists’ with a higher standard of living than that of the general population.
I guess either I am just cynical or you are naive, possibly both to an extend.
You believe that there are people that given unchecked power, will know what the common good is and without fail work for it, indefinitely.
I don’t believe that, which is why I think power must always be checked. Honestly, for that it doesn’t even matter if the power itself has corrupting properties.
Regarding human nature. There is plenty of research (for example with babies) that shows that some behaviour is learned while some we are born with.
This doesn’t answer my question. If the dictatorship is supposed to be temporary, then how does it end?
Also, while I do agree that the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is real and quite obviously exists (money=power), I don’t agree that such a thing as a ‘dictatorship of the proletatiat’ can even exist. The proletariat has the absolute majority in the population. So rule of the proletariat is just democracy.
What ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ means in practice, is that just like in capitalist societies, there is a ruling elite, just one claiming to act in the workers best interest.
There is no magical corrupting property to power, it’s just human nature. Having power is better than not having it, so naturally noone relinquishes it willingly. Power allows you to both act in the interest of the common good, and in your own interest. Realistically, powerful people do both things to some degree, so the longer power remains unchecked, the more it gets abused. And even if there was a truely selfless powerful person, the longer that person works in a government office, the more they tend to lose touch with the struggles of an ordinary worker.
Ok, temporary dictatorship, fine. But which mechanism ensures the temporary dictatorship doesn’t turn permanent?
Power corrupts, and if this two step process of achieving a socialist utopia fails and we gets stuck in a dictatorship after the first step, what is there to justify the bloodshed of the revolution?
Böse Zungen würden Behaupten dass die nicht in einem verzerrten Weltbild gefangen sind, sondern sehr genau wissen was sie tun, und einfach nur die Taschen vollmachen.
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Yes, if you want the scent to stick longer, you need a higher concentration, not more perfume.
I like EdP, you apply it in the morning and by the evening only the base notes are left, you can then re-apply if you are going out.
Generelly, the scent of a perfume always develops while you wear it. The top notes that can be smelled immediately after applying are gone after half an hour, then you can smell the middle notes and finally the base notes.
Concentration changes how long middle notes and base notes linger, the top notes always disappear fast.
It’s also a matter of concentration. An EdC may last for only an hour, an Extrait you may smell for a few days.
I think there are two separate questions here.
What I’d recommend: Don’t stick to what you know, you have the rest of your life for that. Try new experiences, keep an open mind, meet new people, visit different places, learn things. And chase your dreams before life has got you on your knees.