The Box of Chocolates Thread (You never know what you're going to get!)

The Box of Chocolates Thread (You never know what you're going to get!)

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24 December 2022 at 08:57 AM
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1924 Replies

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by chillrob P

Obviously, as you're on it, but I figured the happy local man probably wasn't.

I know that he watches youtube videos on his phone trying to learn some English and connects his phone via bluetooth to his very loud speakers so he's on it. Guy is like 45. But everyone here is online in some capacity or at least has Whatsapp installed on their phone at a bare minimum.


by Luckbox Inc P

I know that he watches youtube videos on his phone trying to learn some English and connects his phone via bluetooth to his very loud speakers so he's on it. Guy is like 45. But everyone here is online in some capacity or at least has Whatsapp installed on their phone at a bare minimum.

Interesting, but that seems to discredit your theory that cell phones and internet are what make people unhappy. That's why I figured that guy didn't have either.


by chillrob P

Interesting, but that seems to discredit your theory that cell phones and internet are what make people unhappy. That's why I figured that guy didn't have either.

That wasn't something that I explicitly stated, only that we started downhill around the time those things came into existence-- but it's a fair enough point I suppose. I'll have to sleep on it.


i think things are overall a little bit better than in 1990

but expectations are generally much higher. its that expectations gap which is causing the agony


by Luckbox Inc P

Maybe except for literature where there is such a thing as good writing.

I think architecture is even easier of an example, as it has a functional role as well unlike most other forms of art.


by Luckbox Inc P

He fertiilizes the plants, picks the fruit, separates the beans from the fruit, dries it, takes it into the place where all the coffee is sold for not a lot of money. I think I've only ever seen him wear two different shirts. He's probably happier than 90% of Americans.

I was in Brazil last summer and talking to a girl there who had lived in Angola , and she was like "everything that you think about Brazilians and about how nice and warm and

I wish you'd write about this more often, because people on this forum (and in the West generally) are obsessed with the idea that money = happiness when in fact it's closer to the opposite.

On average Africans are certainly happier than Westerners. This comes as a shock to people brought up on a media diet of starving Africans.


by Luciom P

I think it's about family values, which are being lost fast in america.

Not only families but also communities. The cult of the individual that's become the lynchpin of Western societies has brought a wholesale dismantling of communities and the support they bring to people.


by Luckbox Inc P

If you gave a 100 people a blind taste test and 70 of them rated the Armenian variety better then you tell me.

While not proof, it would be strong circumstantial evidence that peoples tastes are subjective.


by Didace P

While not proof, it would be strong circumstantial evidence that peoples tastes are subjective.

It's never been the argument that taste isn't subjective-- only that it isn't random. I feel like everyone should agree with that and if not it's just a failure of communication on my part.


by d2_e4 P

In general, I find your arguments to legality on every topic discussing whether this or that is proper to be rather vacuous. Something being legal doesn't make it correct or desirable.

So much this, especially when you consider that he defines legal in all contexts as "not conclusively adjudicated as criminal."


by Luckbox Inc P

It's never been the argument that taste isn't subjective-- only that it isn't random. I feel like everyone should agree with that and if not it's just a failure of communication on my part.

I mean people are going to gravitate towards food that tastes good, music that sounds good, books that are well-written, visual art that is visually pleasing, etc etc etc.

You want to know how to define what is "good" and argue (or maybe just playing devil's advocate I think) that because we can't define it and because tastes do differ that it's subjective-- which I fine I don't disagree that it isn't subjective. But I also think that part of the issue is that we (or maybe just myself I can't speak for everyone) don't have the language/vocabulary to fully define what's "good". But just because we can't fully define it doesn't mean that it's undefinable or that there isn't some sort of rationale behind why we like what we like.


by washoe P

Im not a nazi expert but think that is a typical nazi talking point.

Or like what European universities taught for centuries because it's simply true?


Can I say:


- italians are probably the least intelligent people?

-Because they did nothing for human kind? They never invented anything other than pasta and now they are the fattest people. And even that they stole.

- they have no jobs and have a trash problem, so they are dirty?

- they have no jobs and get killed by the mafia in Neapel and elsewhere. They all move to my country bc they are all broke? (Which is true btw) italy is without jobs and all young people are leaving.

Which leads to people like luciom being outnumbered by african immigrants soon.

Can I say that?


by d2_e4 P

But if they came to your party and started loudly mouthing off how xyz people were much more a net positive for society than Italians, you'd be cool with that?

Depends on the definition of "loudly" but given that I had parties with people who wanted to abolish private property, which is infinitely worse than the worst form of racism could ever be by many orders of magnitude, then obviously yes if that is the only "problem"?


by washoe P

Can I say:


- italians are probably the least intelligent people?

-Because they did nothing for human kind? They never invented anything other than pasta and now they are the fattest people. And even that they stole.

- they have no jobs and have a trash problem, so they are dirty?

- they have no jobs and get killed by the mafia in Neapel and elsewhere. They all move to my city, bc they are all broke? (Which is true btw)

Can I say that?

"Can" in which context? Legally sure.

In a party I organize? Some of the claim are so utterly stupid (because objectively wrong) I would get pissed , but not for racism, for the same reason I wouldn't waste too much time talking with deniers of moon landing.

But if you just say that I don't give much of a ****. If you come and insist by physical proximity and loud voice to argument about "most stupid ethnic group" or "you didn't invent anything" for a group that measurably was among the best contributors to science I would treat you like a would treat an invadent beggar on the street.

For inventions as we invented/discovered a ton of incredibly useful stuff (like you know electricity and the radio) but btw we didn't invent pasta lol.

You know the measuring unit Volt for electric potential? That comes from Alessandro Volta.

Then there is Galvani whose name got associated with a ton of processes we still use.

For employment I would correct the claim clarifying there is so much difference between areas of Italy using the average is bad. In my city/region women participation to the labor force is higher than the USA, in some areas, it is at Egyptian levels.

For organized crime I would clearly confirm that some areas of Italy have been and possibly still are some of the worst areas in the west wrt organized crime, and so it is fully justified to be wary of that when discussing Italian immigration.

As for the young people leaving, that's kind of true for the south, but many kist move north, total emigration outside of Italy of the 18-35 is lower than that of swiss people, as a % of the population.

I mean claims can be tested often enough, just claim real things, if some real things describe an ethnic group as inferior in some regard to others, for something we consider valuable, then that's not racism, just an objective assessment of how things are.

As for fatness/obesity I hope you realize you can measure that easier than most things so just go and check the actual numbers lol


by d2_e4 P

But if they came to your party and started loudly mouthing off how xyz people were much more a net positive for society than Italians, you'd be cool with that?

You realize that without pizza we'd be nowhere?


by Luciom P

What is Marxism is people who have nothing to do with a group getting very animated and asking for state violence to mandate the weak group requests.

It is the siding with the perceived oppressed group and the request for state violence to fix it, that's Marxism.

No. Like I said and you said, it's not per se Marxism. Mandating how people act is authoritarian (much more so if you use the power of the state obviously). Marxism, at least as practiced by Lenin and the vanguardists was necessarily authoritarian, but so are a lot of other groups.

Siding with the weak vs the powerful is on to something that is left vs right though and is leftist imo, but if the people forcing trans rights on you have won, then they are the powerful. You can't have that one both ways. If they are in charge and you are fighting them, then, in your way of (mis)defining things, you're the Marxist.


by Luciom P

Jesus didn't ask the state to mandate you to donate to the poors FFS.

Just if you don't want to go to hell. But, of course the Christians have always been extremely authoritarian, or, as you would put it, Marxist.


And probably not Jordan Peterson because he's a religious nut I think, but lots of the same people who love to say "cultural-marxism" also love to say the left is a new religion. This is all because they are a bunch of morons who don't care what words mean and they are just trolling.


by microbet P

No. Like I said and you said, it's not per se Marxism. Mandating how people act is authoritarian (much more so if you use the power of the state obviously). Marxism, at least as practiced by Lenin and the vanguardists was necessarily authoritarian, but so are a lot of other groups.

Siding with the weak vs the powerful is on to something that is left vs right though and is leftist imo, but if the people forcing trans rights on you have won

Mandating how people have to act is basic generic authoritarianism.

Inventing a frame of oppression that doesn't exist, inventing new words and concepts to describe it, describing a group as a monolith of interests, claiming to represent those interests, and then trying to mandate people how to act based on all previous passages is Marxism.

Basically cultural Marxism is a particular virulent form of authoritarianism predicated on complicated made up theories and frameworks of societal analysis , used to be able to create a clerical class alone capable to interpret those scriptures (the made up theoretical bullshit) , and which purportedly can have more staying power because of the articulated narrative behind it's justification for violence toward people on society.

Other forms of authoritarianism use different narratives to justify the violence, cultural Marxism just uses a very convoluted one which is liked a lot by people who never had a real job and spent their whole life in academia


by microbet P

And probably not Jordan Peterson because he's a religious nut I think, but lots of the same people who love to say "cultural-marxism" also love to say the left is a new religion. This is all because they are a bunch of morons who don't care what words mean and they are just trolling.

Radical leftism is a religion (not a particularly new one), with a lot of sects yes.

They have clerics, temples, rituals, sacred books, their own concept of sin, their own mythology.

Some leftist sect are millenarianist (last generation anyone?) others are more worldly.


by Luciom P


Inventing a frame of oppression that doesn't exist, inventing new words and concepts to describe it, describing a group as a monolith of interests, claiming to represent those interests, and then trying to mandate people how to act based on all previous passages is Marxism.

Is it your contention that in 1867, when Das Capital was written, that labor was not in fact an oppressed class?


by Luciom P

Radical leftism is a religion (not a particularly new one), with a lot of sects yes.

They have clerics, temples, rituals, sacred books, their own concept of sin, their own mythology.

Some leftist sect are millenarianist (last generation anyone?) others are more worldly.

Yeah, it's a religion and it's Marxism and it's any word you don't like.


by Luciom P


For inventions as we invented/discovered a ton of incredibly useful stuff (like you know electricity and the radio) but btw we didn't invent pasta lol.

You know the measuring unit Volt for electric potential? That comes from Alessandro Volta.

Then there is Galvani whose name got associated with a ton of processes we still use.

For employment I would correct the claim clarifying there is so much difference between areas of Italy using the aver


No, you dont have any jobs. your ecomony is the worst in the world
italy is going down, youre drowning in trash. if we wouldnt have saved you with money it would be even worse ofc. its already unbearable-

"Young Italians emigrate amid high unemployment rates, few prospects

Masses of young Italians under 35 are emigrating abroad as the labour market remains in crisis with a high unemployment rate and disappointing retirement prospects.
Istat (National Statistical Institute) data in November 2022 show an employment rate of 60.3%, unemployment at 7.8% and an inactivity rate of 34.5%. In this context, young people from 18 to 35 years of age represent a particularly disadvantaged category in terms of income level, hours worked and retirement prospects.


https://www.euractiv.com/section/politic...


by microbet P

Just if you don't want to go to hell. But, of course the Christians have always been extremely authoritarian, or, as you would put it, Marxist.

He literally says the opposite when asked on the subject, IE to give all to the poors only if what you wanted was perfection but that it was fine not to.

He says in other points that gratuitous generosity is the only good generosity.

That donating in order of getting something back is worse than not donating.

Literally the opposite of mandating anything


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