Scott Adams Thread (Garfield Cartoonist)

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I only set an alarm if I have an early appointment.

Me too. I've been waking around 4:30 and usually try unsuccessfully to sleep again until 6.

Spin class (stationary bikes) is at 5 though, so I'm thinking that's probably a better use of my restlessness. My aim once this cold/cough is over is to get into that routine.

I've been recruited to run Hood to Coast this year, which is always how I end up on a team, because torturing myself in that way is never a thought I come up with. I'm probably about average as far as natural running ability goes, which is to say very slow compared to those who regularly run, so I can't explain why I get invited to teams.

I still wonder about them putting up big sheets of paper over the windows and not letting the poll watchers in the room.

Illicit behavior during the election is guaranteed to occur, but the biggest questions are a. how organized was the corruption, and b. did it affect the outcome. I expect corruption to occur on both sides roughly equally, considering both sides are constituted of the same meat-bodies.

The manipulation didn't occur covertly, but blatantly. All of the influential institutions used the tools at their disposal to tilt toward their political preference. The FBI was weaponized to lie about facts, for instance. Social media outlets weaponized by being "truth" gatekeepers while perpetuating hoaxes. Institutions of education have always had their agendas, and youth are susceptible to the ideas espoused by people appearing to be sophisticated. Mega corporations are politically motivated towards those willing to create restrictions in the marketplace to limit competition... and on and on.

So, I yawn when a discussion about how well a ballot box was monitored comes up, especially when the argument is centered around what color of socks the guy hitting me upside the head is wearing.

Have you listened to the speeches of Hitler translated to English in his natural speaking voice? What I got from that was that he wanted to Make Germany Great Again, and placed himself as a bulwark between the German volk and their Deep State. Not saying the one person is like the other, but history is written by the winners, and you have to wonder.... One of them pumped his fists up and down and the other plays an invisible accordion.

I'll have to give it a listen. Here's the problem I have with hating political leaders; they don't constitute the moral failing of society, but instead reflect it. 1 person didn't invent anti-Semitism and then convince millions to blame the Jews for everything; he merely organized those feelings into effective institutions...

I think we lost the moral high ground with first use of nuclear weapons...

...which segues my point about society being responsible for moral failing. Societies produce soldiers, not the other way around, which volunteers them as tactical targets, as they are the centers of mayhem.

My position on this particular subject is most entertainingly explained by Denzel Washington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hur6LcyuTuU

[freebeard]

That's a good movie scene.

I visited my friends upriver last night, and in the discussion he made reference to 'when the Capitol was attacked' without including the date. I said 'the British in 1812?' That really set him off.

They watch the TV news every night and think I'm uninformed. I remind them of the quote [mis]attributed to Samuel Clemens:

https://minimalistquotes.com › mark-twain-quote-11434
...
If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed. | Mark Twain Quote

I also remind them occasionally:

https://quoteinvestigator.com › 2014 › 11 › 18 › great-minds
...
As the unknown sage puts it, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."

Other sources attribute it to Walter Winchell or Eleanor Roosevelt.

edit:

Quote: I think we lost the moral high ground with first use of nuclear weapons...

...which segues my point about society being responsible for moral failing.

OTOH it did bring the space/future aliens into the picture.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I visited my friends upriver last night, and in the discussion he made reference to 'when the Capitol was attacked' without including the date. I said 'the British in 1812?' That really set him off.

Of course you would, lol.

On that subject, I listened to Ann's podcast with Gavin, the founder of Proud Boys. He claims to have known the walk to the Capitol was a setup, and instructed his group to not go there. Not sure how effective that instruction was.

When you get angry mobs of those proportions, mayhem always ensues. It could be a sports team losing a championship, a BLM protest, or a political loss... the orderly majority will be overshadowed by the disorderly few, and the "mostly peaceful" demonstration will be forgotten due to the not-peaceful fraction.

They watch the TV news every night and think I'm uninformed. I remind them of the quote [mis]attributed to Samuel Clemens:

I've experienced that as a subject in a newspaper article. Figured they got the facts wrong just in the piece I happened to be in, and expert to, not realizing it's commonplace. Scott references that error and it has a name, I'm just not recalling it at the moment.

I also remind them occasionally:

I'm partial to that quote since it flatters my interest.

To put a finer point on the morality of the use of nuclear weapons, you're already aware that more people were killed in the conventional bombings that took place than both A-bombs. If regular bombs were justifiable; the more explody ones were too.

The moral high ground was achieved by not flattening a defeated enemy, and allowing their sovereignty to remain, while developing into an economic powerhouse and ally.

Perhaps I'm biased though, since I would not exist but for those particular events (being 1/4 Japanese).

[freebeard]

I listened to Ann's podcast with Gavin, the founder of Proud Boys. He claims to have known the walk to the Capitol was a setup, and instructed his group to not go there. Not sure how effective that instruction was.

I wished I could go, until Gavin McGinnis called the play. The responses that followed would've made more sense if the Capitol had burnt to the ground.

https://effectiviology.com › knolls-law
Knoll's Law of Media Accuracy: Remember that Not Everything in the News ...
Summary and conclusions. Knoll's law of media accuracy is the adage that "everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge".

The moral high ground was achieved by not flattening a defeated enemy,

True that.

[Piotrsko]

"More people have been killed in the name of God than all wars combined"

Numerous speakers, pundits and holy men/ women

Recently back from Munich, East Berlin, they still seem sensitive.

[freebeard]

"More people have been killed in the name of God than all wars combined"

There's some overlap there. Atheistic communism killed 100 million, give or take, in the last hundred years.

Recently back from Munich, East Berlin, they still seem sensitive.

I'm not surprised. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_(1944-1950)#Human_losses

Estimates of total deaths of German civilians in the flight and expulsions, including forced labour of Germans in the Soviet Union, range from 500,000 to a maximum of 3 million people.[209] Although the German government's official estimate of deaths has stood at 2 million since the 1960s, the publication in 1987–89 of previously classified West German studies has led some historians to the conclusion that the actual number was much lower—in the range of 500,000–600,000. English-language sources have put the death toll at 2–3 million based on West German government figures from the 1960s.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

"More people have been killed in the name of God than all wars combined"

More people have been killed in the name of atheistic ideology than theistic ideology. For example; Pol Pot Communism, Lenin Communism, Mao Communism... I wonder what the common thread is with regard to the most murderous regimes in history?

Reference to God is a post-hoc rationalization having already decided to kill. In other words, it was tribal values that instigated killing, not deism/theism.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

More people have been killed in the name of atheistic ideology than theistic ideology. For example; Pol Pot Communism, Lenin Communism, Mao Communism... I wonder what the common thread is with regard to the most murderous regimes in history?

Reference to God is a post-hoc rationalization having already decided to kill. In other words, it was tribal values that instigated killing, not deism/theism.

One would think the common thread is not total supplication to the power wielding

Why would theism/deism NOT be tribal? Tribe of isreal?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

One would think the common thread is not total supplication to the power wielding

The common thread is belief in elites to centrally plan large and infinitely complex societies, and the enthusiasm to crack as many eggs as necessary to make the glorious omelet that is never quite ready.

Why would theism/deism NOT be tribal? Tribe of isreal?

I'm saying that tribalism is necessary to murder on a tribal scale, but theism is not necessary to tribalism.

For example, hunter/gatherer tribes were not theistic, but murdered, scalped, raped and exploited members of other tribes.

A tribe might have a theistic core, such as Hamas, but the necessary component to elicit torturing, raping, and murdering other tribes is early training to view outgroups as subhuman, below the dignity of other animals.

Theism itself isn't what instructs tribes such as Hamas to dedicate their lives to death (both in killing and in dying), because most other theistic religions do not place that as the highest value.

[freebeard]

I'm saying that tribalism is necessary to murder on a tribal scale, but theism is not necessary to tribalism.

Eh, Timothy Leary's eight-circuit model (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-circuit_model_of_consciousness) has four terrestrial circuits or gears -- self, then family, then tribe, then nation-state.