Public misogynists posing as ‘self help’ have been around forever and the only thing that changes is the nomenclature.

The movie “Magnolia” (1999) features a character that does the whole manosphere shtick back when those grifters had to sell their merch on stage at conference centers because Youtube wouldn’t even be a thing for 5-6 more years.

The problem with structuralism is that it overvalues language. Structuralists seem to forget that words are signfiers and signs of meaning, not the source of meaning.

The word “car” points to all kinds of meaning, but you can’t drive it home.

Love it that this chart’s purpose is to convince people to breakup with Reddit.

Are you saying that some mathematics cannot be calculated on silicone?

Do you have some examples?

If the universe is “built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm”, doesn’t that also make it beyond the reach of mathematics?

Kinda weird to use math to “prove” that math can’t work. But I’m not a PHD physicist (or a sex pest) like the authors.

Just want to add a couple of things

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There were no extra-Biblical references to Pontius Pilate until 1961. Now imagine how much documentation must have surrounded the Roman prefect of Judea. All of it gone, except for a bit of limestone.

Also an argument (I think I heard it from Hitchens, but not sure): We know that the Nativity story is bogus because the Census that was supposed to bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem is anachronistic. And we know that it’s important that Jesus be from Bethlehem (City of David) because the Messiah was prophesized to be from there.

So the question is: if were making up Jesus from whole cloth, why not just make him Jesus of Bethlehem? Why go to the trouble unless Jesus of Nazareth was something people were already familiar with?

Any platform that’s advertising based is a propaganda outlet. Reddit’s function is to manipulate pubic opinion.

Why not both?

No different than Windows. Kids will use what you put in front of them.

When I was fist getting interested in computers I didn’t want to run DOS, I wanted to play Doom.

Choosing to believe in free will because it would be better or “more rational” than not is “argument from consequence”. It also privileges “rationality” as though those concepts were divine and beyond examination.

It’s saying that Free Will is a concept so essential to dear ideas like religion and social order that arguing against it rocks the boat too much. It would be better if it were true, so let’s just go with that.

Usually, when the FBI arrests “terrorists”, you find out that the FBI was the mastermind of the plot; provided materials and weapons; and the people arrested were recruited by the FBI. This pattern holds true with the militia types and the jihads.

Not that violent idiots don’t belong in jail, but it’s just funny that the FBI has planned more attacks on US soil than any other terrorist org. And it’s depressing because any smart and capable terrorist would never come within a mile of the FBI’s amateur hour entrapment.

Just for some context: the prohibition of using the Military in the States dates back to reconstruction. Slaveholding States didn’t like the Yankee Army protecting Civil rights.

I’m not defending Trump, but the idea that using troops as law enforcement is “Un-American” or tyrannical is Confederate propaganda.

Yea it’s funny to call powerful men gay because that would undermine their legitimacy as a leader and a person!

Just want to add my own conspiracy theory: Junior is not reacting to the lack of evidence, but push-back from the antivaxers.

Nvidia is worth more than the pharmaceutical industry. Tesla is worth more than all other car manufacturers combined.

Anti immigration politics cannot be understood without racism.

Ideals like immigration is going to change the national character is just another way to say some people are better than others.

Opposition to immigration is incoherent unless racism is true.

What you describe is individualism. And while I agree that individualism has poisoned the Western mind, it comes from enlightenment philosophy, industrial capitalism, and economics, not faith. Viewing the whole world as the sum of individual choices is way younger than any major religion.

I would argue that the atomization of Western society has harmed religion as much as anything since religion is a cultural relic that still relies on communal activities.

The second Bernie became popular, a backlash like this was inevitable.

A material analysis of Bernie Sanders would rule out a backlash because he’s never held power or set policy.

But even if you rate effectiveness by how much they aggravate the right, politicians like Pelosi prove that being effective is more threatening than being left. Politicians like Obama prove that being black is more threatening than being radical.

I think you’ll find Bernie Sanders rates far higher in MAGA circles than Pelosi or Obama. Because he doesn’t represent any threat to them. (check out his defense of Trump’s immigration policy)