Rationalskepticism,lol part III.

[Jason]

I'll fence with rEv anytime.

Go to it. I give it a week before you're tossing names back and forth and a moderator has to step in.

We've been doing that for a decade now

And you've both been banned from how many communities? But who's counting.

[Brian Peacock]

I'm depressed as all fuck. And I'm utterly alone in the world. Kind find any enthusiasm to put myself through another 30 or 40 years of this.

Hang in there, it'll pass.

[Forty Two]

Utterly alone in the world? Join the club! :-)

We are born naked and alone, and we die naked and alone.

But, if we're lucky, we get 75 or so years on the planet to feel pleasure, pain, joy, happiness, sadness, jealousy, envy, compassion, kindness and all the rest. We are the lucky few who even got to be alive in the first place.

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?” - Richard Dawkins.

[Seth]

I'll fence with rEv anytime.

Go to it. I give it a week before you're tossing names back and forth and a moderator has to step in.

We've been doing that for a decade now

And you've both been banned from how many communities? But who's counting.

Me? Only two, and bother were full of intolerant Marxist fuckwits so it's no great loss. I note that one of them sank like the Titanic after I left as well and the other one is taking on water.

[JimC]

How can people who claim to be rational and skeptical believe an idea and ideology can never be questioned, that is just seriously fucked up.

Because they are moronic, mindless Marxist idiots who aren't even all that useful to Marxism, that's how.

Ah yes.. it always comes back to the "Marxists" doesn't it?

Unfortunately ,much of modern "progressive" thought these days is decidedly Marxist in character. Class. Identity Politics. Oppression. You see various turns of phrase, like "nothing to lose but our chains" bandied about quite readily, and a massively anti-capitalist and authoritarian bent.

There may be a Marxist flavour to some of the analysis about how human societies work, but there is one huge difference to the heady early days of Marxism - very few Marxist thinkers want to follow the analysis with a serious desire for violent revolution, and "rule by the proletariat". The example of the Soviet Union, showing that totalitarian regimes are almost inevitable in such a case, and that total state control of economies is usually a disaster has greatly tempered most leftist thinking, as it should.

[pErvinalia]

"It's not about my ego, I know I'm a genius - Siva. Yes, he really did say that without realising the irony.

That's quoted completely out of context. Typical rEv. Backhanded, underhanded, any which way but straight.

You're so cute when you're sulking.

[pErvinalia]

I'm depressed as all fuck. And I'm utterly alone in the world. Kind find any enthusiasm to put myself through another 30 or 40 years of this.

I'm sorry to hear that rEv. I hope you'll keep posting.

Thanks, Sean. I wasn't really tempted to. Just really wanted to ask Samsa a psychology question. But I've got nothing much better to do, so until he shows up (if he shows up) I'll probably keep having the same brain numbing interactions with the likes of MisterMack, DaveDodo, Scot Ductchy and Strontium Dog as I did before. What's that an indication of? Insanity? Yeah,, sounds about right for me...

What about ME!

Well you and Coito etc are different from that lot. You have intelligence at least. Your rationality is questionable, but the interactions with you two aren't as brain numbing. Probably simply "annoying". There, happy now?

[pErvinalia]

Utterly alone in the world? Join the club! :-)

We are born naked and alone, and we die naked and alone.

But, if we're lucky, we get 75 or so years on the planet to feel pleasure, pain, joy, happiness, sadness, jealousy, envy, compassion, kindness and all the rest. We are the lucky few who even got to be alive in the first place.

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?” - Richard Dawkins.

I actually really hate that quote as it's overtly dualist. I can't believe he ever thought that was a good argument to prosecute.

[Seth]

How can people who claim to be rational and skeptical believe an idea and ideology can never be questioned, that is just seriously fucked up.

Because they are moronic, mindless Marxist idiots who aren't even all that useful to Marxism, that's how.

Ah yes.. it always comes back to the "Marxists" doesn't it?

Unfortunately ,much of modern "progressive" thought these days is decidedly Marxist in character. Class. Identity Politics. Oppression. You see various turns of phrase, like "nothing to lose but our chains" bandied about quite readily, and a massively anti-capitalist and authoritarian bent.

There may be a Marxist flavour to some of the analysis about how human societies work, but there is one huge difference to the heady early days of Marxism - very few Marxist thinkers want to follow the analysis with a serious desire for violent revolution, and "rule by the proletariat". The example of the Soviet Union, showing that totalitarian regimes are almost inevitable in such a case, and that total state control of economies is usually a disaster has greatly tempered most leftist thinking, as it should.

I've been telling you for a long time that the pure end-state Marxism you describe has never occurred and will never occur and indeed cannot ever occur because of the basic facts of human behavior, and Marxism always grinds to a halt at State Socialism, despotism, tyranny and usually mass murder, so your claims, while largely correct, are small comfort to those who die at the hands of Marxists in pursuit of socialistic amity and equality...something that has never existed in any socialist society.

[pErvinalia]

I'll fence with rEv anytime.

Go to it. I give it a week before you're tossing names back and forth and a moderator has to step in.

We've been doing that for a decade now

And you've both been banned from how many communities? But who's counting.

Me? Only two, and bother were full of intolerant Marxist fuckwits so it's no great loss. I note that one of them sank like the Titanic after I left as well and the other one is taking on water.

I've been banned from four (I think that's about right)! I winz the internetz!!

[Seth]

I'm depressed as all fuck. And I'm utterly alone in the world. Kind find any enthusiasm to put myself through another 30 or 40 years of this.

I'm sorry to hear that rEv. I hope you'll keep posting.

Thanks, Sean. I wasn't really tempted to. Just really wanted to ask Samsa a psychology question. But I've got nothing much better to do, so until he shows up (if he shows up) I'll probably keep having the same brain numbing interactions with the likes of MisterMack, DaveDodo, Scot Ductchy and Strontium Dog as I did before. What's that an indication of? Insanity? Yeah,, sounds about right for me...

What about ME!

Well you and Coito etc are different from that lot. You have intelligence at least. Your rationality is questionable, but the interactions with you two aren't as brain numbing. Probably simply "annoying". There, happy now?

Yes! Thank you, I was feeling rejected and dejected.

[Jason]

"It's not about my ego, I know I'm a genius - Siva. Yes, he really did say that without realising the irony.

That's quoted completely out of context. Typical rEv. Backhanded, underhanded, any which way but straight.

You're so cute when you're sulking.

I don't care particularly. People know me well enough to laugh at it regardless.

[Jason]

You know who I really miss? FBM... and about 20 other people.. but for some reason I'm thinking of FBM lately.

[pErvinalia]

Yeah, I really missed him. Pretty pissed off he just cracked it in the space of a few hours and then left and culled all his friends from facebook and left the ratz group. I considered him as good a friend as one can have online only. Ive also thought of him at times given how I cracked the shits and left ratz and defriended most of the ratzians and left the ratz group. There's not many here who I really connect with, but there are a few, and I feel bad I just left without any message on how to contact me if they were interested. Although, I think I mentioned that Bella knew how to contact me, so I didn't totally cut all ties.

[Jason]

Yeah a lot of people got fed up with things and left. Some came back to find that nothing had changed and left again. I'm not sure how many are still orbiting or what their periods are.