Prelude to the Apocalypse

[EmperorIng]

Maybe it's because I work in libraries, but The Atlantic is depressing when you go through some of their old issues - you can just see how much the quality of writing has fallen (at least with their online content). The magazine is filled with a potpourri of gender-theory bunk, misleading articles, and absolute garbage (see: anything by James Hamblin, who took the time to write an article telling us what "real" sex talk is like and how Donald Trump doesn't know "real" sex talk. Thanks, Jimbo.). I also think Ta-Nehisi Coates, for as skilled a writer as he is, can join up with Jamelle Boule at Slate (a man I consider much less skilled) for typing up non-stop "blame whites for everything" articles.

I still read it regularly; there's still some real gems of articles produced there. I guess with most monthly magazines that transition into online, quantity starts to outpace quality.

One of the reasons I am half-considering a subscription to Harper's Weekly. The strict paywall tantalizes, and everything I have read, even all the Marxist stuff I vehemently disagree with , is very well done.

It's very hard to find decent informational online magazines. The Week has many writers I think are excellent (Michael Dougherty, for one), but its website seems to consist of one or two long articles and 5 paragraph-long snippets, which isn't very enriching. National Review Online is generally a very good partisan site inasmuch as it raises actual thoughtful objections to prevailing assumptions in the media, politics, and culture, but it can come off as whiny as any liberal rag (the conservative intellectual ghetto can sometimes be as ill appealing as the liberal intellectual ghetto). Jacobin is garbage. Salon is garbage. It's a shame that Marxist writers write well-written academically-styled articles (maybe because there's a lot of you-know-who in academia*), because it allows them to skillfully prop up some very bad ideas!

*Graduate school anecdote: remembering a PhD history TA gloating about she was able to turn a student into a communist, just like her: "After everything I taught him, he finally started writing essays about the evils of capitalism, class struggle and imperialism; I felt so proud!"

I consider it a weird mark that I went into college left-leaning and left it right-leaning; it was not the usual trajectory. I attribute this to a history education that inadvertently imprinted on me a fear centralized power and its tendency of destroying, cannibalizing, or co-opting indigenous cultures and ways of life. I am not sure if this was the intended result. It's not as if the opposite approach (limited federal gov't, stronger local autonomy) is without its problems, to be fair.


EDIT: what a shame that I had to start a new page and break with last page's sequence of funposting/shitposting

[BryanM]

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Oi, this guy was used by the Clinton people as a wedge to show how white and out of touch Bernie Sanders is. His complaint? Sanders didn't support reparations for black people.

None of the candidates support reparations. To call it "divisive" is an understatement - who decides who gets what and how much? Does everyone get an acre and a mule? It's a hell of a lot more complicated than broken treaties with the Indians.

Nevermind his proposals would work enormously toward paying back reparations to the black community, on top of helping struggling white people at the same time. Nevermind it would be a herculean task to even accomplish that much in our corporate hegemony.

When asked about why he was so bitchy about Sanders later on a Democracy Now! interview, he said it was because he expected more from Sanders, and didn't expect anything from Clinton. When asked who he was voting for, "...Senator Sanders... my son talked me into it."

To quote Ben Dixon: "Yeah, blame your kid!"

Graduate school anecdote: remembering a PhD history TA gloating about she was able to turn a student into a communist, just like her: "After everything I taught him, he finally started writing essays about the evils of capitalism, class struggle and imperialism; I felt so proud!"

Ah, don't worry about it. I'm sure that had more to do with boobies than anything else.

Somehow I doubt she stressed the importance on how it's technology that is the primary agent of change in societies. (Such as agriculture bringing us feudalism.) Impassioned speeches of the struggle of the proletariat has very poor resonance or staying power; was probably all for the boobies.

Is it just me, or is this by far the most frequently posted-in thread? Most of you don't even live in America!

A decently even distribution of opinions is a necessity to keep a tire fire going. As you can see by the poll, we're split on who is The Worst here. There's even some deviants who think the male version of Hillary Clinton, Mr.Trump, is actually pretty good, for some reason.

A much easier way to ensure a thread dies is by being depressing or too deviant for social norms. If I started a thread about how Star Wars isn't very good and is only where it is today thanks to a first mover advantage, that'd peel off very quickly.

Social deviancy requires a conscious rejection of things that have been imprinted into us since birth, after all. Capitalism was married into religion, so now you can't argue against it rationally. Because you might as well be insulting Jesus. Or beer. (We have to pretend we like beer.)

Wait But Why has a pretty good article on social acceptance. Our brains are wired over millions of years of evolution to work under tribalism. We were living under that level of social development long before we were even human. Feudalism got started only thousands of years ago. Capitalism, less than a few hundred.

[Opus131]

Of course, you'd click if it was breibart or RT, because they're sane, reliable sources eh ?

I don't know if you noticed, but the credibility of the mainstream press is in the gutter. Breitbart or RT are in no wise any worse.

[neorichieb1971]

Is it just me, or is this by far the most frequently posted-in thread? Most of you don't even live in America!

Most interesting Presidential election in my lifetime. If only for the dirty laundry.

JK Rowling said it best. "If Donald Trump gets his hands on the nuclear codes, its everyones business".

[quash]

Since you spellbound mofos won't make the effort;

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... al/501125/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... roll-house

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/world ... .html?_r=0

Or whatever bloody learn yourselves what are 'russian troll factories' or 'web brigades' if you seek to know more.
Then go on and keep saying quash isn't one of them, after reading him for so long unless you live on a little white cloud with ponies you'll realize it's real.

Obviously, no amount of evidence that I'm not living in a Russian troll house can prove that I'm not an agent of the Russians. But I am in the US military, and that alone should explain why I've taken a particular interest in this election and how it's affecting relations with Russia.

What kind of proof do you require to quell your doubts, resident CIA plant?

[Opus131]

JK Rowling said

[Mischief Maker]

You know, for a while I was disappointed that after all his horrible policy prescriptions and revelations about his history of failure and the simple fact that you can see him making shit up on the spot during his speeches, in the end it was the groping that brought Trump down. So many much more important issues but its the character issue that brings him down in the end. But then I remembered something.

There's a story Sam Harris tells about a short-lived cult where a group of people brought a 20-something guru over from India who they literally thought was the messiah. This guy never spoke and only communicated via chalk board, and he got everyone deliriously blissful with vigorous drumming sessions. Eventually, like all cult leaders, he said he needed to have sex with all the most beautiful wives of the people in his cult and they offered their wives up without complaint. Then one morning he was given ice cream for breakfast and he enjoyed it so much he wrote that he needed to have ice cream for breakfast every day.

So the man who was keeping the guru in his house was in the aisle at the grocery store staring at the ice cream and all of a sudden the spell broke. Despite the fact that this guru was fucking his wife it was the ice cream that broke the spell because it was such an obviously base desire it turned this guru from a god into an ordinary man. And so they sent the guru back to India.

God knows Trump uses plenty of messianic talk in his speeches, "Only I can fix this" while "believe me" is just a step away from "have faith."

[Opus131]

Seems to be like Trump is back to where he was before those spurious charges. Might be because considering the incredible scrutiny he was put through what they found in the end was very little.

[Opus131]

And speaking of cults:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqOIjzi-jE

This is one of the reasons some of us are pining for Trump. Because political correctness is now a religion in all effects, and a dangerous one at that. Trump will fix it in the sense he doesn't give a rat's ass about the sensibilities and mores of the religious left. That is his real crime. None of the things he said or did during the campaign were particularly bad or offensive, but he offends by the sheer fact he is not beholden to anything the left seems to be so hysterical about.

[Durandal]

And speaking of cults:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqOIjzi-jE

This is one of the reasons some of us are pining for Trump. Because political correctness is now a religion in all effects, and a dangerous one at that. Trump will fix it in the sense he doesn't give a rat's ass about the sensibilities and mores of the religious left. That is his real crime. None of the things he said or did during the campaign were particularly bad or offensive, but he offends by the sheer fact he is not beholden to anything the left seems to be so hysterical about.

social justice will continue to exist even after two terms of a Trump presidency

[Giest118]

If anything, a Trump presidency would strengthen their irrational frothing-mouthed rage and elevate it to look completely justified.

[Opus131]

Yeah but they won't have as much power as they have now (not to mention how much power they will have if Hillary gets elected).

[BryanM]

(not to mention how much power they will have if Hillary gets elected).

You mean, none at all?

You know what "power" is, right? Some girl in a youtube video you personally find annoying does not have any power.



^ This is power.

Only things that deal in money and blood are power. Everything else is a phantasm.

[Zerst]

Some girl in a youtube video you personally find annoying does not have any power.

[CIT]

I am in the US military

Damn, they should be doing some serious vetting. Conspiracy nuts and Putin lapdogs have no business in our forces.

[BryanM]

Some girl in a youtube video you personally find annoying does not have any power.

Yes? And what money or blood are they extracting from me here, exactly? Because to me, it looks like they're talking at some meaningless forum which will lead to nothing. Last time I checked vidya games with boobies and gore in them are still being made.

So I'm not that much of a PC outrage baby to get angry about women being allowed to talk.

The profit margin capitalists extract from me when I go to buy milk, now that I can feel. Screw milk, man. Did you know that stuff is basically water?

[Opus131]

You mean, none at all?

So SJWs have no power now. What's next, no bias in the media against Trump?

Ho right.

.

[BryanM]

So SJWs have no power now. Ho right.

So you think Rush Limbaugh and Glenn McCoy should be put to the guillotine too, right?

I'm sorry. I believe in the radical socialist idea of freedom of speech. You... you continue your anti-1st amendment SJW crusade over there, and I'll continue to protect the right of bigots and idiots to talk over here.

Man, a USA without the 1st amendment wouldn't be America. It wouldn't even be Mexico...

____

Rising inequality, escalating tensions with Russia, a smaller carry capacity of necessary employment thanks to productivity increases and outsourcing, our politicians are hired by corporations: insane right-wingers like Clinton and Trump frothing at the crotch to cut what little social aid there is, BryanM's wallet shrinking into dust from Wal-Mart's vicious milk markup....

And the #1 issue is some girl on the internet thinks AAA video games have too many boobies in them.

.... o-k.

[Giest118]

Raising inequality, escalating tensions with Russia, a smaller carry capacity of necessary employment thanks to productivity increases and outsourcing, BryanM's wallet shrinking into dust from Wal-Mart's vicious milk markup....

No, see, the problem is that that stuff is happening. Stuff that isn't happening is where it's at.

[Durandal]

You mean, none at all?

So SJWs have no power now. What's next, no bias in the media against Trump?

Ho right.

.

They pose as much of a threat as right-wing extremist nationalist fascists do in Europe, which is to say Not A Huge Priority (NAHP)
The ongoing liberal bias in the media is merely a fad, and will soon morph into Blatant Corporate Shilling (BCS)

[atheistgod1999]

The ongoing liberal bias in the media is merely a fad, and will soon morph into Blatant Corporate Shilling (BCS)

You mean it hasn't already?

TRIGGER WARNING

Spoiler

that

[BryanM]

D-didn't you just have that in spoiler tags.

Ghostbusters is my favorite movie. Spoiler that and add a trigger warning. Please.

Spoiler

I once tried thinking up ways to top Feig and make the worst ghostbusters movie imaginable. The hero was a college-aged Dudebro. His buddy was a super intelligent talking cat. The black woman was the most racist caricature imaginable - a pancake eating, sass talkin' auntie...

The various awful things still added up to something that was more interesting than a $150 million dryhump on a lifeless corpse...

[Opus131]

Raising inequality, escalating tensions with Russia, a smaller carry capacity of necessary employment thanks to productivity increases and outsourcing, BryanM's wallet shrinking into dust from Wal-Mart's vicious milk markup....

No, see, the problem is that that stuff is happening. Stuff that isn't happening is where it's at.

It is more that those things are kinda mundane and as far as i'm concerned, totally uninteresting. Underneath those type of arguments there is a sort of insipid materialism which would reduce the meaning of existence to nothing more than the simple acquisition of necessities. Don't worry about anything pertaining to the realm of ideas, what matters if whether you are going to have food on your table tomorrow, or whether you are going sleep under any roof.

The fallacy in this argument lies in the fact that, just because certain things are necessary to us on a basic level, doesn't mean life itself revolves around the acquisition of basic necessities. The fact we need to breath air to live doesn't mean we live to breath air. I'm going to quote Chesteron because he explained this fallacy better than i ever could:

The materialist theory of history, that all politics and ethics are the expression of economics, is a very simple fallacy indeed. It consists simply of confusing the necessary conditions of life with the normal preoccupations of life, that are quite a different thing. It is like saying that because a man can only walk about on two legs, therefore he never walks about except to buy shoes and stockings. Man cannot live without the two props of food and drink, which support him like two legs; but to suggest that they have been the motives of all his movements in history is like saying that the goal of all his military marches or religious pilgrimages must have been the Golden Leg of Miss Kilmansegg or
the ideal and perfect leg of Sir Willoughby Patterne. But it is such movements that make up the story of mankind and without them there would practically be no story at all. Cows may be purely economic, in the sense that we cannot see that they do much beyond grazing and seeking better grazing grounds; and that is why a history of cows in twelve volumes would not be very lively reading. Sheep and goats may be pure economists in their external action at least; but that is why the sheep has hardly been a hero of epic wars and empires thought worthy of detailed narration; and even the more active quadruped has not inspired a book for boys called Golden Deeds of Gallant Goats or any similar title. But so far from the movements that make up the story of man being economic, we may say that the story only begins where the motive of the cows and sheep leaves off. It will be hard to maintain that the Crusaders went from their homes into a howling wilderness because cows go from a wilderness to a more comfortable grazing-grounds. It will be hard to maintain that the Arctic explorers went north with the same material motive that made the swallows go south. And if you leave things like all the religious wars and all the merely adventurous explorations out of the human story, it will not only cease to be human at all but cease to be a story at all. The outline of history is made of these decisive curves and angles determined by the will of man. Economic history would not even be history.

He then goes on to say this:

But there is a deeper fallacy besides this obvious fact; that men need not live for food merely because they cannot live without food The truth is that the thing most present to the mind of man is not the economic machinery necessary to his existence; but rather that existence itself; the world which he sees when he wakes every morning and the nature of his general position in it. There is something that is nearer to him than livelihood, and that is life.

And this is the issue with SJWs or so called "political correctness". Because they present a vision of life which i personally consider to be fundamentally evil on almost every level (i'm sure i posted this before, what what the hell):

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27d5k ... non_webcam

And many of the things that are currently destroying our societies if not our entire civilization stem from those type of ideas. And even this notion that man is nothing more than an economic monad, which is the justification used to dismiss any concern regarding the ill effects of mass immigration upon our countries, also betrays this nominalistic undercurrent in modern thought. The notion of a shared identity, of a people united by certain fundamental elements that exist beyond and above the individual is anathema to the ideologues in charge of those open border policies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYqQQJcNUTE

Policies which are orchestrated precisely to demolish any notion of any basic commonality between groups of individuals for the purpose of creating a society that reflects no objective or underlying reality underneath things or classes of things, including human beings. And when you look at SJWs, you see the same type of ideas being forcibly pushed upon an unsuspecting population by means of societal bullying or emotional blackmail. Notion of gender equality which are actually meant to demolish the idea of there being any objective differences between the sexes. This whole thing about the gender being a social construct. This whole nonsense with gender pronouns and so forth. Pure nominalistic nonsense, and utterly evil to the core. So while you are told to worry about your economic well being, which, mind you, is important though not fundamental, your society is being dismantled from the ground up and reshaped in some Orwellian nightmare where 2+2=5, where "normality" is deemed to be evil, and all sorts of other aberrations that are slowly but surely bringing about the complete and total annihilation of our civilization.

So when Trump speaks about stopping immigration, while grabbing pussies on the side, all i can say is, better a man of low character than satanism incarnate.

[Mischief Maker]

And this is the issue with SJWs or so called "political correctness". Because they present a vision of life which i personally consider to be fundamentally evil on almost every level

Okay, I'm a liberal and have no sense of humor here, so bear with me.

You're being hilariously sarcastic with all this, right?

[Opus131]

No, i'm being dead serious. I literally think SJWs are useful idiots to a satanic mandate they scantly understand.

[BryanM]

You're being hilariously sarcastic with all this, right?

When he says he's dead serious, he's just foolin' ya, ya daft liberal CIS scum.

He just wants those damn Mexicans to go away and all those yappity women to shut up.





I do enjoy seeing an honest to god argument against materialism, though. Materialism - the idea that only things that are real are real. I guess his psychic pain at Mexicans and women being allowed to talk is "real" in some philosophical sense, but it's a remarkably sociopathic value system to value your beloved fantasy world, over the safety of not having poor people stab or cough on you in the real one.

that

you bastard :D

[Giest118]

You're being hilariously sarcastic with all this, right?

You're talking to Opus131, a man who does not think evidence is a real thing, and that right-from-wrong should be determined aesthetically.

Of course he's serious. He has determined that SJWs are evil based entirely on how stupid they look.

And I will admit this much: SJWs do often look pretty fucking stupid.

[Opus131]

He just wants those damn Mexicans to go away and all those yappity women to shut up.

In essence, making America great again.

Materialism - the idea that only things that are real are real.

Materialism: the idea that only that which is material is real. Of course, materialism itself isn't material, but who cares about pesky contradictions of that kind? Only that which we have physical or discursive evidence can be true, a claim for which we have no physical or discursive or physical evidence. But materialism (which cannot be proven materially) and rationalism (which cannot be proven rationally) are still absolutely true, says a group of people who often proudly claim there is no such thing as an absolute truth.

Also, this is art:



But i guess my conservative brain is too puny to understand all those complex modernist philosophies.

[BryanM]

I agree with your assertion that particles and therefore atoms are aberrations against logic that should not be. Fortunately, they won't be around forever. That's one of those problems that solves itself if you leave it alone long enough (most problems fall into this category).

I disagree with your assertion that we need a giant nanny state that shepherds people away from living their lives "wrong" led by social justice warriors such as yourself fighting against "evil".

[Opus131]

Is that what you think is going to happen if Trump wins?

Personally, i was thinking more something along the lines of being able to tell those moral busybodies and their media and corporate backers to get fucked without facing any personal repercussion, which is where a shitposter like Trump comes in handy. It is a question of braking through this psychological prison we've all been subjected by loony feminists and assorted deranged leftists. It is a question of achieving actual freedom of thought once and for all.