stubborn outspoken ignorance is a facet of every time period. the mistake is in letting it get to you. that's your personal weakness showing, not the weakness of society showing
don't pretend to yourself the "rising darkness" (wtf? is this lord of the rings?! talk about superstitious religious beliefs) is a greater force then it appears. i will tell you exactly what they are: loud, dumb, legion. same as they've ever been, same as they will ever be
there's no intelligence or force going on here. don't imagine strength and intelligence where there is none. a year or two ago, many idjits saw jenny mccarthy as the face of autism and vaccination. now she's been discredited, even in the eyes of the idjits: these things erupt, and then fade. there's no longevity to these movements because there's no force of genuine principle and conviction in them
so do not grieve for what is not dead, and do not fear what is not a monster
we need some more fucking backbones on the left in this fucking country
anyone with a strong science degree is making more money somewhere other than teaching. so either we have to pay science teachers more, or we need to accept that science isn't being taught by science majors. take your pick
it's easy to demand higher standards. it's hard to think it through and figure out how to make that happen
and i will bet you a GNP that every other country has the same problem
i'm the story submitter and the topic is movies. i was making a filipino horror movie i never finished, and announced it in my sig on slashdot for many years. my website is still up:
europe concentrates its immigrants in ghettos and denies them the social mobility you cite. they don't even talk to or mingle with immigrants. one wonders why european countries ever let immigrants in in the first place. japan is like europe in that way: it is extremely anti-immigrant, even as its population ages. but to japan's credit, it actually has prevented immigration, so even though it's attitude sucks, at least it matches its words with its actions. europe meanwhile will let the immigrants in, but then treat them like crap that doesn't belong there
immigrants in the usa do far, far better than in europe
as far as your defense of the cult of capitalism: i am a capitalist. but capitalism need social safety nets. pure capitalism is social darwinism which is a form of evil
he's making a joke on my back. i was making a filipino horror movie i never finished, and announced it in my sig here for years. my website is still up:
he's making a joke on my back. i was making a filipino horror movie i never finished, and announced it in my sig here for years. my website is still up:
using google chrome, if i open a story, there's some biolerplate under the story summery, stuff like "Share This Story" "This story has..." etc., and some graphics
even in widened ridiculously, the first 10-20px of this boilerplate is getting shuffled the left column
also, the way some comments are being rolled up into a nested structure... i don't know, i think some top level comments are being stuck under other top level comments they bear no relation too. unless people are making completely unrelated comments
not story wise or acting wise. but technically. the sound is awful, scratching, wind-blowing, the lighting is obviously amateurish. i used wireless mics and you pick up odd hums and rf ghosts. a nightmare
so there it will lie, forever, unreleased, until such time that i get over my perhaps too high self-standards about releasing a technically super-crappy movie in my name. but its embarrassing. i just don't want to edit it and release it. too depressing
someday i may finish editing it, perhaps drunk, to get over the depression of how much it technically sucks, just for laughs. so someday, you will have your laugh at how much i suck at the technical aspects of filmmaking
LOL. well said. the wealth of a society is not in its bank accounts. but a truly just society does its best to overlap between financial merit and true merit
"sooner or later, people have to grow up and accept responsibility for their own fate"
try telling that to the Tunisians who just rioted and overthrew their government. they will tell you, rightly, that their "fate" is completely undeserved and the status quo of their lives is due to political nepotism and institutional corruption keeping them down
well, come to think of it... the idea of accepting responsibility for your own fate IS acceptable to me... if you accept the notion that tearing down the structure that keeps you down is part of the process of accepting responsibility: "i am responsible for my country, and my country has unacceptable unequal wealth distributions that perpetuate themselves at my detriment. therefore, i take it upon myself the notion of personal responsibility, responsibility for my country, and responsibility for the well-being of my children, to tear down those unequal wealth distributions that infect my society"
i agree. and look at the republicans scream about evil estate taxes
personally, i think estate taxes should be capped at a fix amount: you may, if you can, pass on up to $500,000 to your offspring, no more. i think you should be able to pass on SOMETHING, but anything more than a middling amount is simply abusive and perpetuates and creates class divides
"if you think our legal code is in any way simple, clear, or easy to understand."
what?!
you ARE a moron. simpleminded legal codes are for simpletons who like cramming their little simpleminded ideas into simple fundamentalist thinking. a rich society is a complex society, and a complex society naturally has a very complex legal code, as it SHOULD be
"And if you think it's applied equally or that the punishments are consistent then quite frankly you're a raving lunatic."
judicial discretion is a GOOD thing if the only applicable statutes in a particular legal case are too harsh or too mild considering the heinousness or mildness of the crime before the judge
look: the west has PLENTY of problems. but you're a moron if you start talking about the west's problems in the same sentence as the problems in iran or north korea or china. orders of magnitude worse
yes, and people also believed in fortune tellers and witch doctors. money is a pretty good determinant of value, as long as it is managed and corrected for abuses. your agrarian fantasies are silly
we haven't and we won't ever will. all we can do is get as close as possilbe, and have artificial government mandated correctives to counteract the rot and corruption and neotism and other wealth accumulating abuses of capitalism
note: i am a capitalist. i just don't beleive in pure capitalism. we need social safety nets
but some asshole is still going to call me a communist. the same kind of asshole who would complain if i glommed him in with the extremes in his belief system. i'm simply not an extremist, nor is what i am saying extreme. its moderate
i don't know about that. europe puts all its immigrants in ghettos. europe has serious social problems. the usa has plenty of problems, but when it comes to immigration and mobility, we're light years ahead of europe. and please don't lecture americans about racism. we have problems with racism, but we elected a black president: we're making good progress on our racism issues. i don't see that happening in europe any time soon
but as you don't want me to glom you with the extremists, you shouldn't glom what i am saying with the idiocy that is cuba
when people talk about fair, rational, moderate socialist correctives to an unfair status quo, people scream communism. again, this is unfair. i am a capitalist. but i don't believe in pure capitalism, it devolves into societies of haves and have nots like haiti, or something vile like social darwinism
what i believe in is capitalism, with social safety nets. moderate, fair safety nets. that correct the abuses of capitalism, without destroying capitalism. i don't want to be called a communist, because i'm not
so i won't glom you with the extremists, if you don't do the same with me
thank you, you are correct and that was very informative. the term was libertarian was hijacked by ayn rand assholes. a shame. i learned something today, from you. again, thank you
if you don't know what exactly is illegal in iran versus western democracies, and you don't know what the punishments are in iran versus western democracies, you are an idiot. but idiots like you dependably crop up in any story critical of north korea or china or iran: "it's the same here in usa/ europe/ australia"
actually, no, moron, it clearly is NOT the same, by very very wide margins of what is illegal and what the punishments are. to announce north korea, iran, or china equivalent to what you are allowed to do and how you might be punished in western democracies is simply to loudly proclaim that you are a very ignorant person
no. because you assume that the stratums in society are determined by pure meritocracy. there needs to be more churn: rich kids sinking because they are lazy brats, and poor kids rising because they work hard. but it never works that way. in every class structure, there is corruption, nepotism: who you know rather than what you know or how hard you work. such that, over time, all stratified societies do not function anything like meritocracies. you wind up with marie antoinettes on top, who have vast wealth and do not work, and poor people who are truly gifted, but denied any right to ascending as they naturally should if society were a meritocracy. when they see the injustice of the system they are in, they naturally become revolutionaries to break the unjust class system that unjustly keeps them down
so to avoid revolution, which is highly unhealthy, you need to artificially counteract stratified societies. simply because such societies are inherently, undeniably, unjust, and not in any way like the meritocracies you believe them to be
I've known a number of rich kids in my life. Some of them are the most lazy useless wastes you'll ever meet. I've also been to 3rd world slums, some of them full of the most hard working people in the world. Why is this?
Do the rich deserve to be rich, and the poor deserve to be poor? No, most of the discrepancy in wealth is not due to hard work, but class structure: nepotism, corruption, who you know rather than what you know or how hard you work. I'm not saying that some poor don't rise up, and some rich don't sink down, as is deserving of their character. And in fact the USA does a better job of meritocracy than most other countries. But so much else going on is NOT meritocracy, clearly.
For that reason, many libertarian beliefs only serve to reinforce existing class structures, because so many libertarians don't understand how unfair the distribution of wealth is. In a just society, you NEED to artificially distribute wealth down, because the existing structure naturally concentrates wealth up.
Libertarian philosophy starts with this insane assumption that society is a meritocracy, when all evidence is to the contrary. I agree that society SHOULD be a meritocracy, but to make it a meritocracy, you need to artificially counteract the natural tendency of wealth to attract more wealth.
Libertarians: class structure is real, and growing in the USA. Now you can deny that, or you can do something about that. But making castle-in-the-sky pronouncements about adhering to a meritocracy that doesn't fully exist is just an exercise in fooling yourself.
Some people need to read less Charles Darwin, and more Charles Dickens.
Slashdot Mirror
stubborn outspoken ignorance is a facet of every time period. the mistake is in letting it get to you. that's your personal weakness showing, not the weakness of society showing
don't pretend to yourself the "rising darkness" (wtf? is this lord of the rings?! talk about superstitious religious beliefs) is a greater force then it appears. i will tell you exactly what they are: loud, dumb, legion. same as they've ever been, same as they will ever be
there's no intelligence or force going on here. don't imagine strength and intelligence where there is none. a year or two ago, many idjits saw jenny mccarthy as the face of autism and vaccination. now she's been discredited, even in the eyes of the idjits: these things erupt, and then fade. there's no longevity to these movements because there's no force of genuine principle and conviction in them
so do not grieve for what is not dead, and do not fear what is not a monster
we need some more fucking backbones on the left in this fucking country
supply and demand
anyone with a strong science degree is making more money somewhere other than teaching. so either we have to pay science teachers more, or we need to accept that science isn't being taught by science majors. take your pick
it's easy to demand higher standards. it's hard to think it through and figure out how to make that happen
and i will bet you a GNP that every other country has the same problem
he's making a joke on my back
i'm the story submitter and the topic is movies. i was making a filipino horror movie i never finished, and announced it in my sig on slashdot for many years. my website is still up:
http://bangamovie.com/
yeah europe is great
as long as you aren't an immigrant
europe concentrates its immigrants in ghettos and denies them the social mobility you cite. they don't even talk to or mingle with immigrants. one wonders why european countries ever let immigrants in in the first place. japan is like europe in that way: it is extremely anti-immigrant, even as its population ages. but to japan's credit, it actually has prevented immigration, so even though it's attitude sucks, at least it matches its words with its actions. europe meanwhile will let the immigrants in, but then treat them like crap that doesn't belong there
immigrants in the usa do far, far better than in europe
as far as your defense of the cult of capitalism: i am a capitalist. but capitalism need social safety nets. pure capitalism is social darwinism which is a form of evil
he's making a joke on my back. i was making a filipino horror movie i never finished, and announced it in my sig here for years. my website is still up:
http://bangamovie.com/
he's making a joke on my back. i was making a filipino horror movie i never finished, and announced it in my sig here for years. my website is still up:
http://bangamovie.com/
visually, it is supreme. good job
functionally, little nits
using google chrome, if i open a story, there's some biolerplate under the story summery, stuff like "Share This Story" "This story has..." etc., and some graphics
even in widened ridiculously, the first 10-20px of this boilerplate is getting shuffled the left column
also, the way some comments are being rolled up into a nested structure... i don't know, i think some top level comments are being stuck under other top level comments they bear no relation too. unless people are making completely unrelated comments
on my computer
i started editing it. one problem: it sucks
not story wise or acting wise. but technically. the sound is awful, scratching, wind-blowing, the lighting is obviously amateurish. i used wireless mics and you pick up odd hums and rf ghosts. a nightmare
so there it will lie, forever, unreleased, until such time that i get over my perhaps too high self-standards about releasing a technically super-crappy movie in my name. but its embarrassing. i just don't want to edit it and release it. too depressing
someday i may finish editing it, perhaps drunk, to get over the depression of how much it technically sucks, just for laughs. so someday, you will have your laugh at how much i suck at the technical aspects of filmmaking
LOL ;-)
that's very true
but you have to work through government nonetheless, simply because there is no other way
life isn't fair. but we are not talking about the laws of nature. we are talking about the laws of man
that nature imposes mortality on me, yeah, i don't think that's fair, but i have no way to change that
but if some group of rich assholes imposes a law on me which serves no valid purpose other than to bleed me to enrich them, guess what?
we can change that. and we will
wow, a levelheaded polite political debate between two people from different political persuasions ending in agreement
whodathunkit?
well met, friend
unfortunately, we are rare in a world full of raging braindead partisans
LOL. well said. the wealth of a society is not in its bank accounts. but a truly just society does its best to overlap between financial merit and true merit
"sooner or later, people have to grow up and accept responsibility for their own fate"
try telling that to the Tunisians who just rioted and overthrew their government. they will tell you, rightly, that their "fate" is completely undeserved and the status quo of their lives is due to political nepotism and institutional corruption keeping them down
well, come to think of it... the idea of accepting responsibility for your own fate IS acceptable to me... if you accept the notion that tearing down the structure that keeps you down is part of the process of accepting responsibility: "i am responsible for my country, and my country has unacceptable unequal wealth distributions that perpetuate themselves at my detriment. therefore, i take it upon myself the notion of personal responsibility, responsibility for my country, and responsibility for the well-being of my children, to tear down those unequal wealth distributions that infect my society"
in that sense, we are in agreement
i agree. and look at the republicans scream about evil estate taxes
personally, i think estate taxes should be capped at a fix amount: you may, if you can, pass on up to $500,000 to your offspring, no more. i think you should be able to pass on SOMETHING, but anything more than a middling amount is simply abusive and perpetuates and creates class divides
"if you think our legal code is in any way simple, clear, or easy to understand."
what?!
you ARE a moron. simpleminded legal codes are for simpletons who like cramming their little simpleminded ideas into simple fundamentalist thinking. a rich society is a complex society, and a complex society naturally has a very complex legal code, as it SHOULD be
"And if you think it's applied equally or that the punishments are consistent then quite frankly you're a raving lunatic."
yes, it's called judicial discretion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_discretion
judicial discretion is a GOOD thing if the only applicable statutes in a particular legal case are too harsh or too mild considering the heinousness or mildness of the crime before the judge
look: the west has PLENTY of problems. but you're a moron if you start talking about the west's problems in the same sentence as the problems in iran or north korea or china. orders of magnitude worse
educate yourself. then open your mouth
an ideal meritocracy will never be achieved, but we should strive to make society one as close as possible. and its very hard
so i think we're in agreement unless you are saying we shouldn't even try, in which case there's nothing else to say to you
yes, and people also believed in fortune tellers and witch doctors. money is a pretty good determinant of value, as long as it is managed and corrected for abuses. your agrarian fantasies are silly
we haven't and we won't ever will. all we can do is get as close as possilbe, and have artificial government mandated correctives to counteract the rot and corruption and neotism and other wealth accumulating abuses of capitalism
note: i am a capitalist. i just don't beleive in pure capitalism. we need social safety nets
but some asshole is still going to call me a communist. the same kind of asshole who would complain if i glommed him in with the extremes in his belief system. i'm simply not an extremist, nor is what i am saying extreme. its moderate
i don't know about that. europe puts all its immigrants in ghettos. europe has serious social problems. the usa has plenty of problems, but when it comes to immigration and mobility, we're light years ahead of europe. and please don't lecture americans about racism. we have problems with racism, but we elected a black president: we're making good progress on our racism issues. i don't see that happening in europe any time soon
fair enough
but as you don't want me to glom you with the extremists, you shouldn't glom what i am saying with the idiocy that is cuba
when people talk about fair, rational, moderate socialist correctives to an unfair status quo, people scream communism. again, this is unfair. i am a capitalist. but i don't believe in pure capitalism, it devolves into societies of haves and have nots like haiti, or something vile like social darwinism
what i believe in is capitalism, with social safety nets. moderate, fair safety nets. that correct the abuses of capitalism, without destroying capitalism. i don't want to be called a communist, because i'm not
so i won't glom you with the extremists, if you don't do the same with me
thank you, you are correct and that was very informative. the term was libertarian was hijacked by ayn rand assholes. a shame. i learned something today, from you. again, thank you
if you don't know what exactly is illegal in iran versus western democracies, and you don't know what the punishments are in iran versus western democracies, you are an idiot. but idiots like you dependably crop up in any story critical of north korea or china or iran: "it's the same here in usa/ europe/ australia"
actually, no, moron, it clearly is NOT the same, by very very wide margins of what is illegal and what the punishments are. to announce north korea, iran, or china equivalent to what you are allowed to do and how you might be punished in western democracies is simply to loudly proclaim that you are a very ignorant person
but healthy"
no. because you assume that the stratums in society are determined by pure meritocracy. there needs to be more churn: rich kids sinking because they are lazy brats, and poor kids rising because they work hard. but it never works that way. in every class structure, there is corruption, nepotism: who you know rather than what you know or how hard you work. such that, over time, all stratified societies do not function anything like meritocracies. you wind up with marie antoinettes on top, who have vast wealth and do not work, and poor people who are truly gifted, but denied any right to ascending as they naturally should if society were a meritocracy. when they see the injustice of the system they are in, they naturally become revolutionaries to break the unjust class system that unjustly keeps them down
so to avoid revolution, which is highly unhealthy, you need to artificially counteract stratified societies. simply because such societies are inherently, undeniably, unjust, and not in any way like the meritocracies you believe them to be
I've known a number of rich kids in my life. Some of them are the most lazy useless wastes you'll ever meet. I've also been to 3rd world slums, some of them full of the most hard working people in the world. Why is this?
Do the rich deserve to be rich, and the poor deserve to be poor? No, most of the discrepancy in wealth is not due to hard work, but class structure: nepotism, corruption, who you know rather than what you know or how hard you work. I'm not saying that some poor don't rise up, and some rich don't sink down, as is deserving of their character. And in fact the USA does a better job of meritocracy than most other countries. But so much else going on is NOT meritocracy, clearly.
For that reason, many libertarian beliefs only serve to reinforce existing class structures, because so many libertarians don't understand how unfair the distribution of wealth is. In a just society, you NEED to artificially distribute wealth down, because the existing structure naturally concentrates wealth up.
Libertarian philosophy starts with this insane assumption that society is a meritocracy, when all evidence is to the contrary. I agree that society SHOULD be a meritocracy, but to make it a meritocracy, you need to artificially counteract the natural tendency of wealth to attract more wealth.
Libertarians: class structure is real, and growing in the USA. Now you can deny that, or you can do something about that. But making castle-in-the-sky pronouncements about adhering to a meritocracy that doesn't fully exist is just an exercise in fooling yourself.
Some people need to read less Charles Darwin, and more Charles Dickens.