The Refuge of the Toads

#5641

Here's the link to the above ^ https://richarddawkins.net/2016/02/necs ... -response/

I'm a little disappointed that he chose to address something written by Oafie because it implies she's still in some way relevant when she's not.

#5642

VickyCaramel wrote:
free thoughtpolice wrote:
EctocoolerHi-C wrote:
I just spent a couple days arguing with a right wing christian about the existence of god. I had asked him for objective evidence god exists only for him to bring up DUN DUN EAAN and after 2 days of trying to explain the difference between objective science and well refuted bullshit semantics philosophical non-argument he finally says: God existence isn't a scientific argument it's a philosophical one and anyone who claims they have objective scientific evidence god exists is retarded.

Remember that time the philosopher split the atom with his quick wit and clever prose?

Me neither. Sorry Socrates....I love your method but boy did did you give rise to some painfully aggravating sophists.
Ever run across Kristi Winters? :drool:
[youtube]tbT9V4SGXPQ[/youtube]
She appears to be the William Lane Craig of the Youtube Atheist+ revival... at least thats how they seem to see her.
Or maybe their Richard Carrier... the intellectual artillery?

I'm surprised more people haven't gone after her.

Isn't there a "Liberal. Atheist. Feminist. Social scientist. Nerd." from Germany who's a Horde member? Is it Caine I'm thinking of? It's been a while since I visited their site. She's got to be one of them

#5643

CommanderTuvok wrote:This "punching up/down" bullshit.

I guess working class people can "punch up" middle class SJWs and FTBullies? Or doesn't it work that way?

#rhetoricalquestion

I still await the chance to ask a moonglamper (let's not leave it at the glasses, people - it's the perfect term to describe your typical SJW) if they'd have no problem making nigger jokes if the world was such that they perceived black folks as generally holding more privilege than whitey.

#5644

Guestus Aurelius wrote: You fucked up the quote tags—it was I, not Breeve, who linked to that MassPig comment.

I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with stealing my hugs over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, welch. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

I prefer the PZ Myers version:

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you shitlord? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the University of Oregon, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret experiments on zebra fish, and I have over 300,000 confirmed unique hits on my blog. I am trained in gorilla dialectics and I’m the top speaker in the Social Justice atheist movement. You are nothing to me but just another misogynist to roast. I will name and shame the fuck out of you with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of college students in the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, demented fuckwit. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking banned, wanker. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can expose you to public shame in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my little blog. Not only am I extensively trained in feminism, but I have access to the entire intellectual artillery of Richard Carrier, the peer-reviewed historian and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

Guest_ef741fbf · #5645

Can I get my account back via a new e-mail/private contact w/fascist tit? My IP address might have changed but it will be consistent with the east side of Ireland. No idea what I could have signed up with, I only use two emails, but might have been a burner account that I've forgotten. I'm stupid with tech stuff.

It's been hell surfing without Steersman on ignore. I swear to God when I scroll down I recognise him - every single time out - of the smallest sentence fragments, even when he doesn't use words I consciously associate with him (apropos blahlbah)

#5646

Yes contact the Tit with your IP address.

#5647

John D wrote:Damn... I had to layoff someone today. He was a really nice guy and his heart was always in the right place. He just didn't have the chops and communication skill to fit the work we do. We gave him a severance package which we didn't have to do... so I feel good about that at least. Terminating people sucks! I haven't slept well in days.

I'm sure Steve Novella can relate.

#5648

Aneris wrote:
Matt Cavanaugh wrote:
Brive1987 wrote: Poor MassPig. No-one appreciates his cleverness. His is an intellect that would shrivel and die if constrained by 140 characters. I still maintain he holds everybody in intellectual contempt.
He and Dick Carrier, PhD, should set aside their minor differences and get married.
They'll be erm... jousting ... every night who gets to be rider or horse.

... fighting over the mirror & astro-glide ...

#5649

jugheadnaut wrote:
Kirbmarc wrote:
Gould, for ideological reasons, couldn't accept the idea that one's genetic heritage plays a key role in people's lives, so he struggled to "improve" theory of evolution so that the role of genetics and natural selection would be greatly reduced.
It's always stunned me that Gould almost entirely escaped criticism for intermingling radical leftist politics (he was a red diaper baby) with his scientific thinking. At its worst, it was Lysenko-lite. From an obituary in an ideologically friendly source:

Gould freely admitted that he was attracted to the idea of punctuated equilibrium because of his knowledge of the dialectical theories of Hegel and Marx. "The dialectical laws are explicitly punctuational. They speak, for example, of the ‘transformation of quantity into quality.’ This...suggests that change occurs in large leaps following a slow accumulation of stresses that a system resists until it reaches breaking point. Heat water and it eventually boils. Oppress the workers more and more and bring on the revolution."

Gould's butt-buddy, Lewontin, is a pinko, too.

#5650

I'll just leave this here:-

Atheism is not a modern invention from the western Enlightenment, but actually dates back to the ancient world, according to a new book by a Cambridge academic – which challenges the assumption that humanity is naturally predisposed to believe in gods.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/f ... -new-study

#5651

H. Korban wrote:http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/s ... 80478058/a

I wonder if Muscato is visiting Seattle?

Seattle Parks spokesman David Takami says they're still working on the issue. Right now, there's no specific protocol for how someone should demonstrate their gender in order to access a bathroom.

Have they considered colored stickers?

#5652

VickyCaramel wrote:I'll just leave this here:-

Atheism is not a modern invention from the western Enlightenment, but actually dates back to the ancient world, according to a new book by a Cambridge academic – which challenges the assumption that humanity is naturally predisposed to believe in gods.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/f ... -new-study

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/disb ... s-religion

#5653

Guest_ef741fbf wrote:Can I get my account back via a new e-mail/private contact w/fascist tit? My IP address might have changed but it will be consistent with the east side of Ireland. No idea what I could have signed up with, I only use two emails, but might have been a burner account that I've forgotten. I'm stupid with tech stuff.

It's been hell surfing without Steersman on ignore. I swear to God when I scroll down I recognise him - every single time out - of the smallest sentence fragments, even when he doesn't use words I consciously associate with him (apropos blahlbah)

What was your username? I'll fix you up.

#5654

Outed1TimeAsGrey! wrote:snip

Your rant on education. It wasn't a rant. I have heard it so many times. I have collected examples of what is happening on campuses at https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities ... 3948715294

You have probably seen these, or perhaps are wisely avoiding suicidal depression.

It is odd, the threat in America from Christian fundies is recognised and there are atheist groups and bloggers and institutions using the Constitution to combat it, but PC-SJW-Feminism is actually taught in education.

My impression is that this is a more serious problem that the fundies.

Looking at Google+ groups there are more than 50,000 members of atheist groups. I searched for freedom of speech groups and found 50 members.

Thanks, I'll give it a look.

#5655

John D wrote:Damn... I had to layoff someone today. He was a really nice guy and his heart was always in the right place. He just didn't have the chops and communication skill to fit the work we do. We gave him a severance package which we didn't have to do... so I feel good about that at least. Terminating people sucks! I haven't slept well in days.

Yeah, it sucks. The last guy I laid off should have been in mid December, but I fought with HR and got it delayed until Jan 2 so he didn't have the holidays to brood, plus it get him benefits for all of January. Hated to do it.

#5656

jugheadnaut wrote:
BarnOwl wrote: Alan Weisman wrote a book called The World Without Us, which is basically a thought experiment in which the human species disappears overnight (not raptured or anything like that). He then describes how plants, fungi, and animals invade homes, buildings, roads, etc., and how long it takes for everything to fall apart and decay.
There was an interesting series called Life After People produced a few years ago based on the same concept. By geologic standards, man-made structures are incredibly ephemeral, with almost all reduced to unrecognizable heaps within 1000 years. The speculation was that Mount Rushmore would be the last man-made structure to be obviously visible and recognizable as such. If I recall correctly, after 100,000 years the faces may still be somewhat visible, perhaps in time for a successor intelligent species to gaze upon them in wonder. The pyramids will survive for millions of years, but will be buried within 10,000.

[youtube]Y8aLKHShv9o[/youtube]

WHy do some of the buildings have numbers on the top - is this for target practice scores?

#5657

Matt Cavanaugh wrote:
CommanderTuvok wrote: Not as advanced on evolution as some of you guys, but what is the latest consensus on the Dawkins vs. Gould view? Does one have a stronger case, or are both views compatible, and the "feud" completely overblown?
Outside of SJW-dom, Dawkins won. Inside, Gould is God.

I highly recommend Kim Sterelny's Dawkins vs. Gould: Survival of the Fittest

To learn just was a disingenuous asshat Gould was, check out Robert Trivers' impression of him:
http://www.unz.com/article/vignettes-of ... and-small/

Lewontin also gets a lick. What is it with biologists gone political? A closet fear of being accused of racism/sexism if systematic research reveals that there are, in fact, differences between people?

#5658

Malky wrote:
jugheadnaut wrote:
BarnOwl wrote: Alan Weisman wrote a book called The World Without Us, which is basically a thought experiment in which the human species disappears overnight (not raptured or anything like that). He then describes how plants, fungi, and animals invade homes, buildings, roads, etc., and how long it takes for everything to fall apart and decay.
There was an interesting series called Life After People produced a few years ago based on the same concept. By geologic standards, man-made structures are incredibly ephemeral, with almost all reduced to unrecognizable heaps within 1000 years. The speculation was that Mount Rushmore would be the last man-made structure to be obviously visible and recognizable as such. If I recall correctly, after 100,000 years the faces may still be somewhat visible, perhaps in time for a successor intelligent species to gaze upon them in wonder. The pyramids will survive for millions of years, but will be buried within 10,000.

[youtube]Y8aLKHShv9o[/youtube]
WHy do some of the buildings have numbers on the top - is this for target practice scores?

Helicopter landing pads.

#5659

comhcinc wrote:I just got back from deadpool. I would talk about how much I enjoyed it but I don't want to be accused of enjoying any more Mary Sues.

Fuck off with that low quality bait [emoji14] I already told you I was ceding the final word. And Deadpool was great I agree. It's doing some damage to the mantra r-rated comic movies can't be successful too.

#5660

Biohazard wrote:
Kirbmarc wrote:
The Yeti wrote:While I am sure this comes as no surprise to anybody here, PX is being a fucking dumb hypocrite again. This weekend PZ was gloating on Twitter about how he was celebrating Justice Scalia's death. It turns out that PZ has blogged before about the subject of celebrating death. Two years ago he blasted Hemant Mehta for a guest post that laughed about the accidental death of an Islamic terrorist. In that post, he lectured everone about how all lives I are sacred and how we should never celebrate death. All the usual suspects show up on the comments and agree. I guess in the baboons mind, being a conservative is worse than being a fighter for ISIS.

Here are the links I posted on Twitter:
PZ is just following the steps of Jonathan McIntosh, who wrote that he wasn't going to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden or "any human being regardless of how reprehensible they might have been" but wrote "good riddance" when Hitchens died.

https://orwelliangarbage.files.wordpres ... =474&h=459

I don't particularly mind people who celebrate the death of some truly awful people. I believe that it is absurd to say that a really despicable person should be respected only because they kicked the bucket. Murderers, terrorists, dictators and other assorted awful people do not deserve respect only because their lives have come to an end.

I also don't want people who celebrate the death of people who haven't been so awful to be punished. Yes, it's a pretty dickish thing to do if the guy was just a political rival, but I prefer honest mockery and celebrations to false tears.

However I could understand the positions of those who are against celebrating people's death, if they had some kind of consistency.

What I find despicable about the SJWs is they feel upset by people celebrating the death of terrorists but gloat and laugh when some people who simply didn't agree with them die.

I didn't like Hitchen's support for some neo-con policies, and I didn't like Scalia's positions on many social issues. But I wouldn't even dream to compare them to terrorists. The SJWs apparently think that they're worse than terrorists.

TL;DR: the SJW prefer Muslim terrorists to people who don't agree with them.
I think I see the common thread here. For the SJWs it is how the deaths occurred. With Scalia and Hitchens, for example, their deaths were natural. With the terrorists, death was the result of violence, so in their minds it is totes different.

To them it makes "sense" to mourn the, quick, violent death of a murderous terrorist like bin Laden (who also got extra sadness points for being part of an oppressed class) while celebrating the slow uncomfortable (at least with Hitchens) natural death of someone who merely disagrees with them politically (and is white cis hetero scum).

YMMV.

That's giving the cunts to much credit if you ask me. It's pure tribalism. One set of rules for them and another for you. I'd have more respect if they were honest about it and cut the finger-wagging, as if they weren't base animals like the rest of us.

#5661

Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387

#5662

EctocoolerHi-C wrote:
free thoughtpolice wrote:
EctocoolerHi-C wrote: I just spent a couple days arguing with a right wing christian about the existence of god. I had asked him for objective evidence god exists only for him to bring up DUN DUN EAAN and after 2 days of trying to explain the difference between objective science and well refuted bullshit semantics philosophical non-argument he finally says: God existence isn't a scientific argument it's a philosophical one and anyone who claims they have objective scientific evidence god exists is retarded.

Remember that time the philosopher split the atom with his quick wit and clever prose?

Me neither. Sorry Socrates....I love your method but boy did did you give rise to some painfully aggravating sophists.
Ever run across Kristi Winters? :drool:
[youtube]tbT9V4SGXPQ[/youtube]
No. I'll have to check this out later (since it's ungodly long and I'm almost drunk enough to make it to tomorrow). I was arguing with some christian fuck on Kotakuinaction.

What was their name?

#5663

Guest_ef741fbf wrote:I can't login, "The e-mail/username information submitted could not be found." Feck it. Anyway I'm Charles MacGruder.

I'm here to report that Dawkins has ripped Ophelia a new one for claiming he was saying the exact opposite of what he was saying:

Can't post links, but it's at: necss-executive-committee-statement-richards-response/

I have replied to Ophelia Benson here
butterfliesandwheels 2016/whats-that-oh-its-the-underside-of-the-bus/
as follows:-

Ophelia is apparently so eager to revel in the victim’s-eye-view of the underside of the bus, she overlooked the fact that I actually said the exact OPPOSITE of what she so spitefully alleges. I said it MIGHT have seemed easy to claim that my stroke was caused by the stress of being disinvited by NECSS. But I went on explicitly to rule that out because the stroke came AFTER the joyful news that NECSS had decided to re-invite me. And that, by the way, also rules out the equally spiteful suggestion, by one of the commenters on this site, that the NECSS change of mind was a cowardly response to my stroke. To repeat, for the benefit of those who seem to have difficulty understanding plain English, the wonderful (and stress-REDUCING) news of NECSS’s courageous change of mind arrived, and greatly cheered me up, BEFORE my stroke.

And I most certainly do not “jeer at feminism”. I remain a passionate feminist who looks at the world beyond America and clearly sees that by far the majority of misogynistic atrocities are committed in the name of Islam.

I await Ophelia’s apology and thank her in advance for it.

Richard

I made a transcript of the relevant bit of Dawkins' recording because I knew they'd pull this sort of shit. Ophelia is using Matthew Facciani's transcript. Compare it to mine and -- HEY, WHAT DO YOU KNOW -- it's markedly different. Crucially, Facciani clips his right before Dawkins notes ironically that his stroke followed good news that "overjoyed" him. So, if these guys want to continue being assholes, they should say Dawkins is blaming Novella et al for being decent to him.

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/201 ... f-the-bus/

Matthew Facciani transcript wrote:The doctors asked if I had been suffering from stress, and I had to say yes I had, and they keep advising me not to get involved in…controversy. And I had to tell then that not getting involved in controversy, that controvery is not one of those things I can. I told them I had been distressed, that on the 28th of January, I was disinvited from conference to which I had previously been asked, this upset me very much. I’m used to getting hate from religionists, from creationists, but when I get hate from my own people, from left, liberal feminists and so on, that actually hurt me.

Ape+lust transcript wrote:The doctors obviously were worried about what caused it. I'd been having chronic blood pressure problems for a while, which the GP and I thought were under control with Candesartan, but apparently not.

The doctors asked me whether or not I'd been suffering from stress and I had to say, yes I had. They keep advising me not to get involved in controversy and I'm afraid I have to tell them that controversy... that not getting involved in controversy is one of those things I'm not particularly talented at.

I told them that I had been having a certain amount of controversy and was very distressed when on the 28th of January, I was disinvited from a conference in America to which I had previously been asked. This upset me very much. I'm used to getting hate from religious nuts and creationists, but when I get hate from what I think of as my own people -- the left, liberal, feminists, and so on -- that actually hurt me. And I might have been expected to get a stroke (chuckles) after that, if ever, but paradoxically, the stroke came after I got a bit of good news.

On the morning of February the 5th, I had a very gracious letter from the conference organizers committee, graciously apologizing for disinviting me and re-inviting me, and I was overjoyed at that. And you might think that's the last time I'd have got a stroke, but it was actually the evening of that same day that I got the stroke.

And as I said before, it's not too bad, and I'm very grateful to everybody who's been sending me good wishes from all around the world. I have had to cancel 5 or 6 speaking engagements already, and there may be more. But anyway, I'm at home and I appear to be improving, so thank you very much if you've been sending me messages and sending me good wishes. Many thanks.

#5664

jjbinx007 wrote:Here's the link to the above ^ https://richarddawkins.net/2016/02/necs ... -response/

I'm a little disappointed that he chose to address something written by Oafie because it implies she's still in some way relevant when she's not.

In my mind's eye, I had envisioned Dawkins' reaction to the NECSS disinvite to be an arched eyebrow and a chuckle. I'm unhappy to learn it upset him. It would be like hearing Paul McCartney has trouble sleeping at night over this:

[youtube]UYWSLOQ7hUA[/youtube]

I do understand, though. NECSS was not thought to be in the SJW orbit, so this looked like core-level A/S discord. Since popularizing rational thinking, and the converse of encouraging criticism of irrational thinking, are Dawkins' most important priorities as a public intellectual, it must feel like a personal failing.

#5665

paddybrown wrote:Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387

You and me both! We're now older than both Morse's, although Thaw was the first to admit he never looked his age.

#5666

paddybrown wrote:Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387

Aaaaargghh! I find I am currently 11 years older than that benchmark.

http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.16034664 ... 75x360.png

#5667

Jack Wooster wrote:
paddybrown wrote:Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387
You and me both! We're now older than both Morse's, although Thaw was the first to admit he never looked his age.

Yep, Thaw was 45 in the first Morse episode, although he looked at least 60. The new chap is just a baby, but he's good in the part.

#5668

Lsuoma wrote:
John D wrote:Damn... I had to layoff someone today. He was a really nice guy and his heart was always in the right place. He just didn't have the chops and communication skill to fit the work we do. We gave him a severance package which we didn't have to do... so I feel good about that at least. Terminating people sucks! I haven't slept well in days.
Yeah, it sucks. The last guy I laid off should have been in mid December, but I fought with HR and got it delayed until Jan 2 so he didn't have the holidays to brood, plus it get him benefits for all of January. Hated to do it.

Good job moving it to January. It also helps to avoid Friday. My brother is in HR and he tells me there are studies that show suicide rates are highest for people who get fired on a Friday compared to earlier in the week.

#5669

paddybrown wrote:Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387

I still think of Thaw as Jack Reagan rather than Morse:

[youtube]-RUoEog2M1Q[/youtube]

#5670

I have a feeling Ofie and her mob of transphobes will not take that Dawkins put-down very well.

But for us, it's :popcorn: time!

#5671

Shatterface wrote:
paddybrown wrote:Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

[bimg]https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387[/bimg]
I still think of Thaw as Jack Reagan rather than Morse:

[foutube]-RUoEog2M1Q[/foutube]

The Sweeney's doing 90 'cause they've got the word to go.
[youtube]uJ2cEc_TCH8[/youtube]

#5672

jet_lagg wrote:
comhcinc wrote:I just got back from deadpool. I would talk about how much I enjoyed it but I don't want to be accused of enjoying any more Mary Sues.
Fuck off with that low quality bait [emoji14] I already told you I was ceding the final word. And Deadpool was great I agree. It's doing some damage to the mantra r-rated comic movies can't be successful too.

How can it be a great movie with such an obvious Mary Sue? I mean Ryan Reynolds is a producer on the film and had input in writing the story for the movie. He literal made a movie about himself being the coolest thing ever that creates a happy ending for a character even though it's completely again the core story.

:popcorn:

#5673

comhcinc wrote:
jet_lagg wrote:
comhcinc wrote:I just got back from deadpool. I would talk about how much I enjoyed it but I don't want to be accused of enjoying any more Mary Sues.
Fuck off with that low quality bait [emoji14] I already told you I was ceding the final word. And Deadpool was great I agree. It's doing some damage to the mantra r-rated comic movies can't be successful too.

How can it be a great movie with such an obvious Mary Sue? I mean Ryan Reynolds is a producer on the film and had input in writing the story for the movie. He literal made a movie about himself being the coolest thing ever that creates a happy ending for a character even though it's completely again the core story.

:popcorn:

I'm not sure that Deadpool is supposed to make sense.

#5674

BarnOwl wrote:
Sulman wrote:Something a bit different. A young lad doing an urbex of an empty mall in Southampton, UK.

[youtube]7z2zExfzZCE[/youtube]

I used to have coffee in there almost every day, a few years back. How quickly decay sets in.
Cool video, and quite the athletic and intrepid dude.

Alan Weisman wrote a book called The World Without Us, which is basically a thought experiment in which the human species disappears overnight (not raptured or anything like that). He then describes how plants, fungi, and animals invade homes, buildings, roads, etc., and how long it takes for everything to fall apart and decay.

There have been a few tv shows/series about this (maybe with the same name?). The few I've seen were quite interesting.

Guest_0048cc29 · #5675

Moonglampers is a great name, though I think Glampers has a better ring. They are well aware of Harrison Bergeron, it is on their list of most hated tracts of MRAs. (And everyone not a SJW is of course an MRA).

Oops, I take that back, there are actually ghazians ready to claim

reddit.com/r/GamerGhazi/comments/31l67c/semiot_rtumblrinaction_discovers_classic/

So /r/TumblrInAction, the cesspit from which /r/KotakuInAction spawned, has apparently only just now discovered classic literature. (Apparently they must have slept through high school or something.) In this breaking discovery they find out that Kurt Vonnegut wrote Harrison Bergeron, a dystopian society where the ESS JAY DUBYAS win and force everyone to be equal by forcing handicaps on anyone who is above average in any qualitative measure, be it intelligence, strength, skill, etc.

The thing that they don't realize, though, is that Kurt Vonnegut was a socialist. What Harrison Bergeron is doing is satirizing opponents of socialism and the "everybody is equal in every possible way" strawman that anti-socialists still frequently use to this day. (Hint: there's a reason the saying is "from each according to his ability.")

In the same sense that it's satirizing straw socialism, it's also satirizing straw social justice: because it's mocking people who think that equality advocates want everyone to be exactly the same.

So in other words, Kurt Vonnegut is mocking exactly the sort of person who browses /r/TumblrInAction.

Turns out that's actually taken almost verbatim from this ASU Professor's paper with the view that we've all got it wrong and the hero is Diana Moon Glampers.

coffmanenglish1.wikispaces.com/file/view/HB+Criticism.pdf (scanned image pdf)
teacherweb.com/il/lanetechcollegeprep/briantelles/Critical-Essay-Harrison-Bergeron.doc (word doc)
justpaste.it/rgwi (word doc to html paste)

The Politics of Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron by Darryl Hattenhauer

According to all commentary on Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron," the theme of this satire is that attempts to achieve equality are absurd. For example, Peter Reed says it "satirizes an obsession with equalizing ..." (29). The critics have taken this text's absurd future utopia as representative of egalitarianism. For example, Stanley Schatt claims that "in any leveling process, what really is lost, according to Vonnegut, is beauty, grace, and wisdom" (133). But the object of Vonnegut's satire is not all leveling--"any leveling process" that might arise. Rather, the object of his satire is the popular misunderstanding of what leveling and equality entail. More specifically, this text satirizes America's Cold War misunderstanding of not just communism but also socialism. To argue that thesis, this article begins outside of the text by situating it in Vonnegut's oeuvre: his fiction, nonfiction, speeches, and interviews. Then this contextualization will attend to Vonnegut's audience. Finally, the analysis will turn to the internal evidence.

If "Harrison Bergeron" is a satire against the Left, then it is inconsistent with the rest of Vonnegut's fiction.

Like his fiction, Vonnegut's non-fiction also satirizes the Right and endorses the Left. And the Left it endorses is not liberalism (America is one of the few nations where liberalism is not centrist). ). For example, "In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself," which he wrote in response to the 1972 Republican National Convention, claims that Democrats are only a little less Darwinist than Republicans. He satirizes not only the Republicans but also the Democrats as "bossed by Winners" at the expense of "Losers." He concludes, "THE WINNERS ARE AT WAR WITH THE LOSERS, AND THE FIX IS ON" (206). In "Yes, We Have No Nirvanas," he derides notions about "the fairness of the marketplace" (38). In Fates Worse than Death, he refers to the British class system as "robbery" (132). And in his preface to Wampeters, Foma and Granfaloons, he enjoins his readers to "share wealth and work" (xxiv).

In a letter to me, Vonnegut indicated that the foregoing sympathy with "Losers" influenced "Harrison Bergeron." If the misreadings of this text were valid, then the implied author's sympathy would be for Harrison Bergeron and his antipathy would be for Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General striving to prevent privilege. But Vonnegut suggests that the character he identifies with is not Bergeron but Glampers. He begins his letter by first situating himself as not only an author with both conscious and unconscious intent, but also a reader. He writes about not only what he consciously and unconsciously intended, but also what the resulting text actually is.

I can't be sure, but there is a possibility that my story "Harrison
Bergeron" is about the envy and self-pity I felt in an over-achievers' high
school in Indianapolis quite a while ago now. Some people never tame those
emotions. John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman
come to mind. "Handicapper Generals," if you like.

I think Hattenhauer reads far too much into that quote. There are days I want to use a gun against people too. But my understanding of that similarity between me and Booth doesn't make Booth or Oswald or Chapman or Diana Moon Glampers heroes, just the reverse in fact.

Anyway, the guy then goes to explain for another two pages that we just don't understand Vonnegut

[youtube]tQnAhSzb4gY[/youtube]

This comment is gold as well:

List of people /r/TiA misunderstands:

* *scribbles in Vonnegut*
* MLK
* Orwell
* Huxley

Who will they add next to this list! O:?!

Well anyway, most of Ghazi and Social Justice land are smart enough to recognize Harrison Bergeron as the hate speech it is.

#5676

Lsuoma wrote:
paddybrown wrote:Made a disturbing discovery. John Thaw, when he started playing Inspector Morse, was younger than I am now.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=576C3387
Aaaaargghh! I find I am currently 11 years older than that benchmark.

http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.16034664 ... 75x360.png

Whut?
http://www.obskura.co.uk/wp-content/upl ... kovski.jpg

#5677

MarcusAu wrote: I'm not sure that Deadpool is supposed to make sense.

It makes sense, it is just fit the character. Well it doesn't fit the character if the character wasn't a Mary Sue :D

#5678

Brive1987 wrote:

That looks like something from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Correction: that is something from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

#5679

comhcinc wrote:
Shatterface wrote:
I've maintained for years that philosophy has replaced the priesthood as the career choice of the idiot child of the family.

Philosophy is for people who are not funny enough to be comedians.

[youtube]IgoB2JMEowc[/youtube]

#5680

comhcinc wrote:
CommanderTuvok wrote:BTW, Breitbart has an article on the emergence of "shadowbanning" at Twitter, and no doubt other sites where SJWs and FTBcunts have influence.

It again begs the question as to where are the liberal media when such 1984-esque anti-liberal behaviour is slipping into everyday culture.

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/02/1 ... e-sources/
The problem is there is zero proof other than "a source" and naming some people who think it is happening.

He pointed out Mercedes Carrera, and it's true that my feed used to be filled, now, I see nothing from her, despite her posting. Not sure about the others. Something is obviously happening, and the fact that they changed their algorithm/way they adjust the feeds has been known for a while now.

#5681

EctocoolerHi-C wrote:
comhcinc wrote:
CaptainFluffyBunny wrote:I know you loves the Twitter, but it is far from inconceivable that they're doing this. It fits their philosophy, and many people are commenting that some tweets just sink in search results, while other, less popular ones bob to the surface like a floating turd. Their opaqueness in dealing with bans, their clear and undeniable favoring of SJW ideology (try running a hashtag like #KillAllBlackGirls, as opposed to the acceptable #killalllwhitemen) and it seems probable. While I won't simply believe an "inside source", I am certainly willing to admit that it is conditionally true until further evidence shows up.
It's not a matter of loving twitter or not. It's a matter that if you are going to make a claim then you need to provide data to show that claim is true. Simple as that.

I don't quiet being skeptical just because I like the person making the claim and in this case the claim is coming from Milo who has an axe to grind with the company.

And tits.
I've met Milo in person and I think he's hilarious, even as an agnostic atheist egalitarian. I think 99% of what he says is a horseshit facade also. He's the S.E. Cupp of gay conservatism. He has valid criticisms when it comes to Twitter though. However, when it comes to the evidence of his claims that they're selectively filtering tweets, I don't necessarily disbelieve it's happening but I do want to see some evidence. I'm just not sure of how we would go about proving it.

Follow some/all of the people he's mentioned, see what shows up, then go to their feeds and see what they have tweeted. I used to get lots from MC (including tons of porn and other types of ads/clickbait/promotion) but also a lot of talk. Now....nothing.

#5682

Lsuoma wrote:
Guest_ef741fbf wrote:Can I get my account back via a new e-mail/private contact w/fascist tit? My IP address might have changed but it will be consistent with the east side of Ireland. No idea what I could have signed up with, I only use two emails, but might have been a burner account that I've forgotten. I'm stupid with tech stuff.

It's been hell surfing without Steersman on ignore. I swear to God when I scroll down I recognise him - every single time out - of the smallest sentence fragments, even when he doesn't use words I consciously associate with him (apropos blahlbah)
What was your username? I'll fix you up.

It's okay now, I remembered! Thanks

:cdc:

#5683

Søren Lilholt wrote:
Brive1987 wrote:
That looks like something from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Correction: that is something from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Witches? Or something more primal...

[youtube]3bV6RoYflpw[/youtube]

#5684

Badger3k wrote:
Follow some/all of the people he's mentioned, see what shows up, then go to their feeds and see what they have tweeted. I used to get lots from MC (including tons of porn and other types of ads/clickbait/promotion) but also a lot of talk. Now....nothing.

I follow most of those people and my timeline is full of them constantly stating they are "shadowbanned". I am just not seeing any evidence of it.

#5685

And before it continues, I am not saying it isn't happening or that twitter wouldn't do it. I am only saying that before I acknowledge these claim as true I want to see some hard evidence.

#5686

comhcinc wrote:And before it continues, I am not saying it isn't happening or that twitter wouldn't do it. I am only saying that before I acknowledge these claim as true I want to see some hard evidence.

Nor me... although i have seen some weird stuff with delays on occasions. Like i don't see their tweets even though i am reading every tweet, then i see the tweets because people have responded 1-2 hours later. I scroll down and can't find the original in my feed.
Could just be me, but if you were going to investigate it....

#5687

VickyCaramel wrote:
comhcinc wrote:And before it continues, I am not saying it isn't happening or that twitter wouldn't do it. I am only saying that before I acknowledge these claim as true I want to see some hard evidence.
Nor me... although i have seen some weird stuff with delays on occasions. Like i don't see their tweets even though i am reading every tweet, then i see the tweets because people have responded 1-2 hours later. I scroll down and can't find the original in my feed.
Could just be me, but if you were going to investigate it....

The thing is that's not anything new. I have been using the platform since 2008 and that's always been the case.

The claim is that twitter is hiding tweets from people they don't like.

#5688

Melissa McEwen is upset(of course she is-it's a day that ends in a "y")because China relocated 9,000 people in order to build a giant radio telescope. She adds:

Note that it's never, ever, white people who are displaced for the purposes of giant telescopes.

Apparently China should be building its telescopes in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

#5689

Søren Lilholt wrote:
Brive1987 wrote:
That looks like something from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Correction: that is something from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

If John Carpenter made The Thing in 2015, that would be one of the "transformation" scenes.

#5690

CommanderTuvok wrote:
Not as advanced on evolution as some of you guys, but what is the latest consensus on the Dawkins vs. Gould view? Does one have a stronger case, or are both views compatible, and the "feud" completely overblown?

Gould had several new and interesting ideas. Unfortunately, his interesting ideas were not new, and his new ideas were not interesting. His huge tome <i>The structure of evolutionary theory</i> not only weighs as much as a brick, it sank like brick too.

#5691

katamari Damassi wrote:Melissa McEwen is upset(of course she is-it's a day that ends in a "y")because China relocated 9,000 people in order to build a giant radio telescope. She adds:

Note that it's never, ever, white people who are displaced for the purposes of giant telescopes.
Apparently China should be building its telescopes in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

I'm sure that if the Chinese government had had a choice between displacing Han Chinese or Western barbarians for their telescope they would have chosen the latter in a heartbeat.

#5692

katamari Damassi wrote:Melissa McEwen is upset(of course she is-it's a day that ends in a "y")because China relocated 9,000 people in order to build a giant radio telescope. She adds:

Note that it's never, ever, white people who are displaced for the purposes of giant telescopes.
Apparently China should be building its telescopes in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

Does she really believe that we are oppressing the Chinese in China for giant telescopes? She is aware that the whole white patriarchy thing isn't a thing in China. In fact, white people are quite the minority. They actually manage to oppress themselves, the crazy inventive bastards. It really amazes me that they think ALL oppression stems from white people.

#5693

katamari Damassi wrote:Melissa McEwen is upset(of course she is-it's a day that ends in a "y")because China relocated 9,000 people in order to build a giant radio telescope. She adds:

Note that it's never, ever, white people who are displaced for the purposes of giant telescopes.
Apparently China should be building its telescopes in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

Would you mind linking that? It's really annoying to me when I can't read where a qoute is from.

Guest_0048cc29 · #5694

Badger3k wrote:
comhcinc wrote:
CommanderTuvok wrote:BTW, Breitbart has an article on the emergence of "shadowbanning" at Twitter, and no doubt other sites where SJWs and FTBcunts have influence.

It again begs the question as to where are the liberal media when such 1984-esque anti-liberal behaviour is slipping into everyday culture.

breitbart.com/tech/2016/02/16/exclusive-twitter-shadowbanning-is-real-say-inside-sources/
The problem is there is zero proof other than "a source" and naming some people who think it is happening.
He pointed out Mercedes Carrera, and it's true that my feed used to be filled, now, I see nothing from her, despite her posting. Not sure about the others. Something is obviously happening, and the fact that they changed their algorithm/way they adjust the feeds has been known for a while now.

Things is, the feed is supposedly merely chronological plus quality filtering. So it would seem defacto, if someone's tweets aren't showing, it's not because it's not chronological, it's because of "quality" filtering.

I suspect comhcinc should be able to detect quality filtering on his twitter account. Log in via web, follow Mercedes, Nero, Kern, the others, hit refresh once every 5 minutes and see if you see any of their tweets. Do this for an hour, count the tweets of theirs you saw and compare on their timeline with the tweets they sent out.

I suspect twitter has ways not just of filtering, but of hiding it, so if an account follows few people, they may actually see all of the tweets, but if an account follows many people (say 500+ active tweeters) the tweets of the "shadowbanned" may just be buried. The question may not be, if a person following two people sees all the tweets, but if a person following 500 people sees a tweet nero sends out that got 100 favs and 100 rts or do they first see my tweet which didn't get any favs or any rts.

It's my feeling that I haven't seen Mercedes, Nero, or Grummz tweets in ages. I see them only when others reply to them.

#5695

Guest I follow about 350 and my feed today has mostly been filled with tweets and retweets from Milo.

#5696

VickyCaramel wrote:I'll just leave this here:-

Atheism is not a modern invention from the western Enlightenment, but actually dates back to the ancient world, according to a new book by a Cambridge academic – which challenges the assumption that humanity is naturally predisposed to believe in gods.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/f ... -new-study

I suspect that there were atheists the day that some humans decided there were gods.

#5697

Søren Lilholt wrote: Cue someone finding an old Myers quote where he says it's wrong to gloat over an enemy's death in 3, 2, 1...

The Yeti wrote:While I am sure this comes as no surprise to anybody here, PX is being a fucking dumb hypocrite again. This weekend PZ was gloating on Twitter about how he was celebrating Justice Scalia's death. It turns out that PZ has blogged before about the subject of celebrating death. Two years ago he blasted Hemant Mehta for a guest post that laughed about the accidental death of an Islamic terrorist. In that post, he lectured everone about how all lives I are sacred and how we should never celebrate death. All the usual suspects show up on the comments and agree. I guess in the baboons mind, being a conservative is worse than being a fighter for ISIS.

Here are the links I posted on Twitter:

Knew it was only a matter of time.

PZ's Law strikes again. Cunt.

#5698

comhcinc wrote:Guest I follow about 350 and my feed today has mostly been filled with tweets and retweets from Milo.

Same here (because of his swag store)
But I am definitely rarely seeing Mercedes tweets...mainly people retweeting her.

#5699

HoneyWagon wrote:
comhcinc wrote:Guest I follow about 350 and my feed today has mostly been filled with tweets and retweets from Milo.
Same here (because of his swag store)
But I am definitely rarely seeing Mercedes tweets...mainly people retweeting her.

She retweets and replies more often than she actually tweets.

She has sent 4 tweets today and those are the first since the 12th.

#5700

I enjoyed the Gad Saad / Alice Dreger video.