Scott Adams Thread (Garfield Cartoonist)

[freebeard]

I asked you a specific question and your replies had nothing to do with the question, and frankly, it's like you're speaking in riddles.

It's not for lack of trying. I even italicized the answer so you could find it . ...if you tried.

Chattel slavery is not a case of individual exploitation- it's a case of systemic exploitation, and therefore the solutions should be systemic.

Define systemic? Solutions should be not individual?

I'd suggest that your position is received, not deduced. Stop ignoring what happened postbellum. There were ex-slaves in Congress. Their descendants were doing pretty well, despite the [Democrat] KKK, until LBJ decided to 'help'.

The US benefited from the systemic exploitation of slaves....

Wrong. Slavery was a boat anchor on the economy. It didn't help.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Wrong. Slavery was a boat anchor on the economy. It didn't help.

I had that idea for the first time just moments ago; to question the narrative of the relative prosperity of the US being derivative of slavery. We're all livin' in abundance because of inefficient cotton pickin' hundreds of years ago?

We all know slavery ended (for the advanced civilizations anyhow) because technology obsoleted it. That realization does make one wonder how much clinging onto obsolete methods propelled a society into abundance.

The whole premise of automation is to obsolete the usefulness of human effort. Things are interesting now, in that for the first time, it's unclear if physical effort or mental, is the most obsolete form of human effort. We're all painting ourselves into a corner, and it's unclear to us where that corner is.

[freebeard]

Happy to help.

It's all Overton Window. "The eye cannot see what the mind does not know."

First Colonial slave owner was black. The '3/5ths of a person' was because slaves wouldn't be able to vote their conscience. It all started with one person.

William Wilberforce
English politician and abolitionist (1759–1833)
William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, and became an independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire. Wikipedia

Do you think our co-conspirator will find where I said :"self-selected recipient"? What do you think of the idea? I think it's a win-win-win. Everyone would be better off.

Edit:
Maybe we're painting ourselves into an ever-shrinking circle?

[sgtlethargic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Do you think our co-conspirator will find where I said :"self-selected recipient"?

What does "self-selected recipient" supposedly mean? How does "self-selected recipient" supposedly answer the question? And how was I supposed to know that "self-selected recipient" was an attempt at answering the question?

[redpoint5]

There's a handful of topics that SA has a BSC (listeners would know the acronym) take. Sometimes I think he's just trying to shake the box to see what happens.

His claim is that truth is subjective... which is a truth claim. It defeats itself in the same breath. Then he goes on trying to convince people by giving examples of how people can't agree on subjective topics. "Apples are better than bananas... see truth is subjective"!

Somehow he tried to connect that with free will being an illusion, which is correct (and also a truth statement).

My guess is he doesn't actually believe there is no objective truth, but just wanted to stir things up.

There is only 1 type of person that I'll not waste any time conversing with, and that is those who don't believe in truth. Using that as an excuse to behave dishonestly is worthy of contempt, and nobody should waste their time with those individuals.

Originally Posted by freebeard

Happy to help.
Do you think our co-conspirator will find where I said :"self-selected recipient"? What do you think of the idea? I think it's a win-win-win. Everyone would be better off.

As far as entertaining utter nonsense is concerned, it's the most rational solution to a fictional problem. If we must tilt at windmills though, best to stage that activity elsewhere so the serious people can focus on problems that actually exist today.

I'd be tempted to self-select if I were a young single man. Starting out with seed money to innovate in land that merely needs to copy/paste successful templates sounds like quite an exciting adventure.

[freebeard]

What does "self-selected recipient" supposedly mean?

"Volunteer"

How does "self-selected recipient" supposedly answer the question?

It sorts out the pool of recipients from the gen pop, 'washes the hands' of the descendants of those who fought and died to end slavery, and shepherds the money that flows to the new host nation[s].

And how was I supposed to know that "self-selected recipient" was an attempt at answering the question?

I can't help you there.

[sgtlethargic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

"Volunteer"



It sorts out the pool of recipients from the gen pop, 'washes the hands' of the descendants of those who fought and died to end slavery, and shepherds the money that flows to the new host nation[s].



I can't help you there.

Can redpoint act as a translator and/or can freebeard post something that's straightforward?

[freebeard]

I can keep saying it different ways until something clicks. We may have a teachable moment here.

Hows about: Couple reparations and foreign aid, and make it opt in. The receiving nation gets investment that goes around the usual corruption. The investing country is rid of malingerers. The volunteer gets a handsome stipend that goes far in a low-pressure economy.

See also Permalink #443. "The mind cannot see what the mind does not know" means that if you don't have a mental picture of something is is invisible. It doesn't take much, one can be staring right at something and wonder where it went.

For a big picture background I recommend someone named Rudyard Lynch. His channel is WhatifAltHist

https://www.youtube.com › channel › UC5Dw9TFdbPJoTDMSiJdIQTA
Whatifalthist - YouTube
WhatifAltHist is a channel run by Rudyard Lynch that looks to try to find the patterns in history and anthropology so as to predict the future and understand the dynamics that result in ...

In addition to Scott Adams, there's also Jordan Peterson and Thomas Sowell.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by sgtlethargic

Can redpoint act as a translator and/or can freebeard post something that's straightforward?

freebeard's style is bespoke aphorism, which continually confuses me too. His last post was the most straightforward response I've seen though.

Repatriated self-selecting reparation recipients is the ideal solution because it mitigates the many serious problems with such a concept.

For example, it solves the problem of working out the relatively few who are descended of slavery from the many who freely immigrated. It works by completely ignoring that problem, and allowing anyone to opt in to the opportunity. If one believes they are descended of slavery (or are willing to lie about it), then they can choose reparations.

It solves the problem of perpetual dissatisfaction from takers by relocating them to another country, who can inherit that problem.

The relatively poor country is happy to deal with dissatisfied takers because they at least have money to spend.

A few of the opportunists will wisely invest the reparations to benefit not only themselves, but their community, which is in more need of investment than better off communities.

So, the win-win-win is:

1. the people who believe the US is the worst and are owed, get help leaving with funds

2. those who want the best for the US get to shed some portion of the dissatisfied, misplaced takers

3. poor countries get an injection of wealth, and (somewhat) educated people as citizens.

As I stated, I'd be very likely to accept such a deal if I were a young single person. The only remaining difficulty is to work out where us mutts get repatriated.

[sgtlethargic]

Thanks for trying to translate.

"Repatriated self-selecting reparation recipients" needs improvement. It looks like what you two mean is "the only way I'd ever be for reparations for chattel slavery is if the recipients willingly leave the US."