TitaniumButterfly
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User ID: 2854
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
Thanks! Was just wishing for this earlier this week. I don't like blocking people but it can be hard sometimes to keep track of the ones I've decided to not respond to in the future.
Also details about people I do like. =)
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
We've addressed this and I invite you to move on to another topic. (And should mention that I'm about done with Motte time for the day)
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
No, I don't concede that. There's nothing stopping parents from just having another child (outside of etc. etc.) and having both is much better than killing one and only having the other.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
We could also trade off dumb and ugly and sad children for better ones, I guess. It's not a slope I'd care to find myself on and I have zero faith in others to not keep sliding down it.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
Not only have we shifted the goal posts to what I agree is a highly non-central situation at best, but even people who happen to be in that situation can't, in practice, know whether they are.
Seems just as plausible to me that if they're at the end of their child-bearing years they might abort what would have been their last (and in some cases only) child and not be able to conceive again.
Bird in the hand and all that.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
I'm not. I'm arguing that they're missing out, in fact impoverishing themselves, by not having and loving every child God gives them.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
Waiting for a promotion opportunity can feel like torture too. How much easier might life be if your boss unfortunately, unexpectedly passed away when you're the obvious candidate to replace him? Or if that competitor who's making business hard just vanished one day, not to be heard from again? It'd probably be really good for your kids, too.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
This seems to assume that having a Down syndrome child precludes having another child afterward, which strikes me as odd.
Not OP but that doesn't seem to follow in the slightest, no. The child is (obviously) denied a rich tapestry of experience and so is the parent. This doesn't imply that on the parent's side it's worthwhile to maximize for diversity of weird and unpleasant challenges. Only that if they do get a child with those differences, they're missing out on something by not experiencing the child and the relationship they'd have had with him or her.
As an inveterate baby-maker (on the male side) myself, my concern isn't for the burden on my wife and I. We'd rise to it well, I think. My concern is for the dampening effect it might have on the lives of my other children. I don't see murder as a reasonable solution, though; if I did, I can think of a lot of other people whose deaths would probably also improve my children's lives.
TitaniumButterfly
1d ago
I think 'human flourishing' is a dodge; a nice-sounding but ultimately empty referent. Sure, just wave vaguely in a direction that most people agree has appealing vibes. But is that really a basis on which to build any sort of worthwhile moral system or institute policy?
TitaniumButterfly
2d ago
How can you love a football team consisting of a rotating selection of foreigners and guys born on the other side of your country? And sold to the highest bidder, who also happens to be foreign a lot of the time, if not a literal multinational conglomerate?
But people do. (shrug)
TitaniumButterfly
3d ago
I think the more relevant way to look at the matter is whether there are important IQ floors below which substantial efficacy is lost. Replacing hard men with above-floor IQs with much softer men who happen to be even smarter wouldn't go great, I think, no. I also don't think it's especially pertinent to mention.
TitaniumButterfly
3d ago
See here:
The Effectiveness of Rifle Fire Across Cultures by Kulak.
Long story short, even with the same guns the minds of the people using them count for a lot.
Does the moral status of 'pogroms' change when less-unpleasant approaches have been attempted and failed?
People get arrested over there for expressing concern about it. I don't know what they're supposed to do, exactly.
TitaniumButterfly
3d ago
Just so.
Though the encroachment of violent, crime-prone minorities like blacks and Mexicans into previously-white areas might serve as a counterpoint. Many of the same problems, and nothing was ever really done, except moving further away. This strategy is also wearing thin.
I think a dictator must by nature either be vastly more competent than most others (because competition) or else at least controlled by someone who is. Little such pressure in a democracy, and especially a two-party democracy.
TitaniumButterfly
4d ago
I'm watching videos of -- allegedly -- mobs roving door to door searching for migrants and torching the place if any are found. While it's certainly small potatoes compared to a full-blown reconquista, it sure looks like a significant step in that direction to me, and while I haven't spoken to Kulak in a while I have little doubt that he approves.
Much will depend upon the scale, efficacy, and above all optics of the official response here. Because whatever else can be said, precedent is being established.
TitaniumButterfly
4d ago
I like quite a few of the Killers' songs and have listened to them a lot which is what makes this even crazier to me. Although now that I've looked into Mr. Brightside I find it an unpleasant enough experience that I'd probably have just screened it out if it came up in the wild.
TitaniumButterfly
4d ago
It's funny because I have seen references to it for years but was finally only nagged into finding out what it is once this place spontaneously generated a ton of discourse about it.
Going to jump in with what I want to see discussed:
Police and political leaders in Northern Ireland call for calm after Belfast knife attack.
What we know is that a MENA immigrant has attacked a native in the street, gouged out his eyes, and was attempting to behead him when stopped by passers-by.
Details beyond that seem shaky. I've seen the attacker described as Somali, though Sudanese is more consistent. I've seen the victim described as a man in his 40s, though 15-year old boy is also popular. And I've seen that the victim's life was saved, but also that he's perished in the hospital.
What's certain is that the major concern of the people in charge is, of course, that this is liable to upset the native population.
Perhaps that's more understandable than usual because of where it happened. Belfast! A storied town. Across twitter I see various historically-enemy paramilitary sympathizers calling to set aside their differences and unite against the common enemy; that it doesn't matter who controls Northern Ireland unless there's any such place left to save.
Last I heard, all major transport routes into and out of the city have been shut down, businesses are forced to close at 17:30, and curfews have been established. The place seems to be gearing up for major rioting.
Is it just me or have the straws been landing more heavily, lately, on the camel's back?
And, provided that the historically-armed underground belligerent factions of the area haven't withered into insignificance; provided that they do get serious about uniting and using force; might they serve as a template, or at least an inspiration, for other places?
I believe Kulak once predicted that the flashpoint for organized European resistance would happen in Northern Ireland.
TitaniumButterfly
4d ago
Am I the only person in the world who wasn't familiar with the song "Mr. Brightside"? Just looked it up and I'd believe I might have heard it once or twice in the past, but maybe not. It's musically chaotic and the lyrics are completely unintelligible to me.
TitaniumButterfly
5d ago
There's at least a few of us.
TitaniumButterfly
9d ago
A friend of mine once told a friend of his, a cop, that what the cop interpreted as respect was in fact mainly just fear. Seemed to blow his mind, he said.
I like it. Reminds me in many ways of Lord of Light.
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