I don’t read my replies

  • 14 Posts
  • 190 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • Why does “freedom of expression” always mean “let’s hear the Nazi out” in practice?

    Is it equivalent to burning the cross? The Swedish flag?

    Not all flammable things are the same. The flag and cross are literal symbols of State power in Sweden, the Quran is a book that’s only precious to an oppressed minority.

    I don’t feel like someone burning my symbol or flag should be punished with prison

    I wanna stress that the people sentencing this man to jail are not the same as the people offended by the burning. This power dynamic is important.







  • yesman@lemmy.worldtoShowerthoughts@lemmy.worldXXX
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    20 days ago

    During the early '00 flight sim fans were enjoying a Russian game called IL2. The other offerings from Microsoft and Janes just couldn’t compete with the level of detail in the flight models. Turns out, the people working on the game were all trained in aerospace engineering. The guys who went to school to work for the famous Russian aviation firms were making video games instead because it paid better.



  • Systems are not the sum of the individual actors who participate in them. Systems can influence and even control individuals back. Therefore, individual flaws in character or intellect are necessary, but not adequate to explain why systems are flawed.

    Consider the future imagined in the movie “Idiocracy 2005”. Society is collapsing because people are dumb. This is the explanation for all problems in that society. Capitalism, Resource extraction, environmental degradation, political corruption, and a rather authoritarian government are all blameless. The implication is that capitalism an authoritarianism are good if we could just be smart about it.

    This is a big difference between left and right thinking. Republicans argue problems can be solved by reforming individuals; the police are good, there are just a few bad apples. Or that the right individual, at the helm of a system, can clean up all the issues with strength and resolve. This is the central pitch for supporting Trump.




  • IQ does show differences between the races. However, this isn’t evidence that white supremacy is correct. It’s evidence that IQ testing measures culture when it’s supposed to be measuring biology.

    Race is constructed. Genetic, evolutionary, anthropological, and archeological evidence all point to shared ancestry and kinship. All the people’s of the world aren’t separated by near enough distance or time to explain a significant biological difference. And that’s ignoring the wide interbreeding that was always a thing. Remember Rome was cosmopolitan empire. Many of those Roman soldiers who marched down the first paved roads of London were swinging black cocks.

    So what can we make of a so called “objective” measure of a “biologically determined” trait that hews to culture above biology? This isn’t just a bias that needs to be tweaked, the whole concept of biologically determined intelligence is a reification fallacy and IQ as an instrument is hopelessly broken and should be abandoned.


  • In the US, everyone has the right to a trial, in theory. However, if every defendant, or even a significant minority of them demanded their trial, the system would collapse.

    To solve this problem. Prosecutors (lawyers working for the government) are given extraordinary power. They use their ability to charge any defendant with inflated charges that carry long jail sentences, then offer to reduce the charges if the defendant gives up their right to fight. Despite being obviously coercive and prone to force innocent people to confess, it’s perfectly normal, legal, and necessary to the US criminal system.



  • The idea of “political neutrality” is naive or bad faith.

    What you want is a right-wing sub. They pride themselves on being centrist, reasonable, and uncontroversial. You’re going to get lots of radical ideology, but don’t take it seriously bro, it’s just a joke.

    Left subs may seem obnoxious with their politics, but that’s just because we’re trying to persuade you with argument instead of tricking you with flattery.