Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Marcus Daniels
https://buy.taser.com/taser-bolt/ Roger writes: < The strangest thing I saw today was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXBeQwmmrc > http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/08/what_the_alt_left_was_actually_doing_in_charlottesville.html Never thought I'd

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Roger Critchlow
The strangest thing I saw today was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXBeQwmmrc To be honest, he likes to be offensive. No deep roots of xenophobia, he's open to all kinds of offensiveness. -- rec -- FRIAM Applied

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Merle Lefkoff
Steve, I trust strongly the neuroscience that insists that our brains have not totally evolved past the point of reptilian behavior emerging from what I call the left-over parts of the brain. We seem to remain wired for kin and tribe, and perhaps our survival still depends to some extent on all

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread gⅼеɳ
FWIW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness_to_experience#Genes_and_physiology > Openness to experience, like the other traits in the five factor model, is > believed to have a genetic component. Identical twins (who have the same DNA) > show similar scores on openness to experience, even

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Steven A Smith
Merle - Thanks for offering this up. My own maunderings about "what is in human nature" having me trust that we are still *mostly* the animals who gathered in groups of order Dunbar number (150?) who *mostly* loved one another and treated one another with respect and generosity (up to a

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Merle Lefkoff
Obama's tweet about the events in Charlottesville got the most "likes" of any tweet in twitter history. It is a quote from Nelson Mandela: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion … People must learn to hate, and if they can learn

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Steven A Smith
Well, just because all rule sets are faulty doesn't mean some rule sets aren't better than others. (Need I repeat it? Surely not. ... All models ... yadda yadda.) And so your intuition is right, all rule sets are faulty, including the rule set of all rule sets. The lesson isn't to throw

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread gⅼеɳ
Well, just because all rule sets are faulty doesn't mean some rule sets aren't better than others. (Need I repeat it? Surely not. ... All models ... yadda yadda.) And so your intuition is right, all rule sets are faulty, including the rule set of all rule sets. The lesson isn't to throw

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Steven A Smith
Glen - I am inclined to agree with you, but am left somewhat empty-handed with: "because ALL rule sets are faulty! Damnit." my instincts are with you on this, yet in some kind of Godelian (not Gordian) knot I find myself: A) questioning the "rule" you just stated. and B)

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Steven A Smith
Marcus/Eric - Great observations, both. I think this cuts to (part of) the heart of the matter. I just recently watched "Glass Castle" (current run at Violet Crown) with Woody Harrelson playing the role of a fairly intelligent (his daughter, the memoirist characterizes him as brilliant)

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread gⅼеɳ
Nietzsche's complaining/rejoicing re: the loss of the Christian rule set isn't all that relevant, I don't think. Those Trumpians complaining about "political correctness" aren't complaining about the lack of a rule set, because there exists a new rule set. E.g. don't chant "Jews will not

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Marcus Daniels
Eric writes: < It is not so far from Nietzche’s notion that “God is dead” creates a problem for people, and they will face a fork in the road in how they try to deal with it. > Yeah, it is probably nothing new that is happening nor a new interpretation. Institutions of various kinds can

Re: [FRIAM] the Skeptical Meme

2017-08-16 Thread Eric Smith
> Their desperation and rage just comes from a feeling that they can't > confront, that they just don't have much to offer. > > Marcus Reading this, I feel like you could found a new generation of something that is like existentialist philosophy but equally-well political theory. It is not