2023-11-29
2023-11-21
2023-11-20
2023-11-19
Why Socialism Always Fails
A pyramid scheme is ultimately unsustainable because it is based on faulty principles. Likewise, collectivism is unsustainable in the long run because it is a flawed theory. Socialism does not work because it is not consistent with fundamental principles of human behavior. The failure of socialism in countries around the world can be traced to one critical defect: it is a system that ignores incentives.
Meanwhile, you have food lines under socialism.
Socialists point to a false sense of victimhood.
Yet, nobody starves to death under a free market. There are many programs, public and private, to help the poor and there is an abundance of food.
Meanwhile, you have food lines under socialism.
Elbert Hubbard
"Prison is an example of a Socialist's Paradise, where equality prevails, everything is supplied and competition is eliminated."
2023-11-18
People Are Doing Something Very Dark With AI-Generated Jesus, Expert Warns
To be clear, the various talking Jesuses posted by the Daily Believer account don't seem to be asking people for money in the vein of its evangelical predecessors, but the videos do ask viewers for something almost as good and well within TikTok's rules: comments, subscriptions, and shares, a sort of unholy trinity [!!!] for the streaming set.
Those who believe in God, the robotized white Jesus tells viewers, will get everything their heart desires — as long as they comment "I believe" and send videos to friends.
And if they don't, they may be subject to God's wrath, because one of the Daily Believer's animated Jesuses reminds viewers in its most popular video — "Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Those who believe in God, the robotized white Jesus tells viewers, will get everything their heart desires — as long as they comment "I believe" and send videos to friends.
And if they don't, they may be subject to God's wrath, because one of the Daily Believer's animated Jesuses reminds viewers in its most popular video — "Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
I don't think that many religious people would take this seriously.
2023-11-17
This Is Easily the Most Important Speech Jordan Peterson Has Ever Done
I differ from Peterson in that we cannot reliably assume the supernatural. There are many different opinions on what the divine means, so we cannot reliably assume that a higher power has expectations of us.
We live in a society where we think that people should be good, but not all cultures share this view, or they disagree on what good means. However, we think that societies work better when people aren't cruel, cooperate with each other, and show compassion.
---
There are different ways to interpret Jordan Peterson's comments.
People often associate Perterson with the political right because he tells people to take responsibility for their lives, which is part of the point of his speech. He rose to fame by arguing against more extreme leftist ideology.
However, he describes himself as leaning liberal, although I am not sure of what he means by that.
To some extent, his speech sounds like a far-left utopian ideal, because he says if we just sacrifice our lives for others then there is no goal that we can't achieve. We can end absolute poverty, have a shining city on a hill, and achieve our personal pinnacle.
I'm sure that the path to Utopia is a little more complicated than that.
---
The best speech I have heard Jordan Peterson give is this one...
He speaks at such a high level, it forces me to pay close attention to keep up.
2023-11-15
The Full Rand Paul: On Covid, the Lab Leak, and Anthony Fauci
0 seconds ago
This comes across as a conspiracy theory. If there was something to this then there would be indictments already.
I see a problem in Rand Paul's logic. If I am wrong I would like to know because this is such an important issue. The NIH gave the Eco Health Alliance $3.4 million to study the risk of coronaviruses from bats. The Eco Health Alliance gave $600,000 to the Wuhan lab, reportedly to catalog bat viruses. I read everything I could about this, and the grant had nothing to do with gain of function.
However, the Wuhan lab may have been doing Gain of Function Research, so Rand Paul claims that the NIH funded Gain of Function Research at Wuhan. Apparently, it wasn't on our dime, so I don't think that you can blame Fauci for it.
2023-11-14
2023-11-13
2023-11-10
My biggest fear for Star Wars... and it seems likely to happen
@john2001plus
1 second ago
To put Star Wars in context, in 1977 I was 17 years old. We were living during the Cold War, where the Soviet Union could be viewed as the Evil Empire, while the fight against the Nazis during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War didn't seem like ancient history, but were still relevant in our minds. The thought of nuclear annihilation also felt like a very real possibility.
We were going through the worst economic decade of my lifetime. Some people might look at the events that followed 2008 as being the worst, but the American economy was much more robust in 2008 and able to eventually rebound. However, the 1970s was just one piece of bad news after another. The country felt like it was in a giant malaise.
Then came Star Wars in 1977, which to my 17-year-old mind felt like a godsend. It was a metaphor for a hopeful battle against all the evils that plagued us.
Star Wars became an important part of my life, and it influenced my career toward computers and video game development. To this day, Star Wars feels like a part of my personality.
At my more advanced age of 63, I notice how violent Star Wars is. This didn't seem like much of an issue in 1977 when the characters were fighting Space Nazis, because the 1970s felt like an existential struggle against the forces of evil. For example, Star Wars calls light sabers an elegant weapon, but how elegant is cutting people in half or cutting their heads off? It would be like calling a battle axe an elegant weapon.
All this makes me wonder how relevant Star Wars is to our current time? The 20th century was by far the most violent in history, which made mechanized murder on a mass scale feel more normal. I think that there was less regard for the individual, which is something we take to extreme levels today.
I feel far less threatened by outside forces today than I did after 9-11, or in the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s.
We can still fantasize about a struggle for survival between good and evil, but good and evil in the modern world are less distinct from one another.
This makes me think that Star Wars has to change to remain relevant. The original movie gave us 1970s characters in a futuristic setting. The recent series Andor did a great job of giving us modern characters in the same setting and feels more relevant to the time we live in.
Best wishes,
John Coffey
2023-11-09
2023-11-08
100KM/H IMPACT 🤯 Extreme High Diving!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wfmci8V0In0
This woman has a bunch of high-diving videos. What she does is dangerous. I'm sure that it would kill me.
The Hostility of the Left and the Arab World Toward Israel (and Why You Should Care)
It is a mistake to say that Hitler and other Fascists were far-right. The Nazis were socialist at least in name. Mussolini started as a Communist and a Marxist. Mussolini's slogan: "Everything in the state nothing outside of the state." American leftists adored Mussolini before the war. After the war, the big lie was that these people were somehow associated with the right.
In the United States, there are hate groups that call themselves right-wing. These people are few in number and don't represent the political right.
Fwd: They eat everything—and they’re invading America’s Southeast.
From: National Geographic
National Geographic | National Geographic
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)