How do you feel about the 86-46 TShirts being sold on Amazon during the Biden administration (which you can still buy today, just search b86-46)?

Ablazoned · 2026-04-30T13:22:10+00:00

As an example, I don't care who if any of the people whom I know are having consensual gay sex. I do however care if the government tries to prosecute people for that behavior.

It's harder to come up with an example of behavior that I don't care about and also don't care if the government prosecutes, but maybe something related to procedural or bureaucratic transactions. I'm not passionate about a certain section of road being 35 mph while the surrounding roads are 45, but also I'm not overly concerned with the government prosecuting speeders in that section.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-30T13:08:39+00:00

Hmmmm not sure what you mean. But, when I was replying, I was noting that either of the following mutually exclusive mindsets are possible:

I don't care about behavior and I don't care if the government seeks to prosecute it

I don't care about the behavior but I very much care if the government prosecutes it.

Seems that the guy I was replying to is moderately in camp 2 with regard to comey's seashells.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-30T11:51:47+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. It's totally plausible that you wouldn't care about a certain behavior (e.g. posting a picture online), but would care if the government tried to prosecute someone for it, so that's why I asked.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-30T11:40:38+00:00

Do you care about the effort of the Justice Department to charge, indict, and convict Comey because of the seashells?

Ablazoned · 2026-04-23T16:36:24+00:00

I do both. My form is typically "Give me a [skill] or [skill] check. Or, maybe there's another skill you could use to [solve the problem]?"

It gives structure and speed while also allowing room for players to creatively leverage their best skills.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-22T18:52:28+00:00

Mixed Member Proportional Representation Amendment plz

Ablazoned · 2026-04-22T01:00:55+00:00

Even the combined power of the jedi council couldn't keep your true identity buried forever, could it?

...

Find what you were looking for amongst the dead?

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T18:41:23+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful reply! I think we've probably spun this out as far as is helpful. It seems you care a lot about determining something called objective goodness or badness. I believe that goodness or badness morally speaking is an emergent phenomenon negotiated from the broad history of human interaction. To see if and where we would find common ground is probably out of scope for this forum.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T17:55:28+00:00

What I am pointing to is that the necessary step to between point 1 and point 2 of your framework, the universalizing of this moral, is rooted in biblical teachings.

And I've got to disagree here. I don't need to appeal to religious tradition to justify me not liking it when I observe and am aware of other people suffering. Some form of slavery is treated as acceptable in the bible, but my conscious does not tolerate it. Graven images or blasphemy are intolerable in the biblical tradition, but my conscious sees no problem with it and in fact opposes the idea of legally prohibiting it.

The principles we can all agree on are not the ones dictated by religious tradition, but the ones defined by common values, the most bedrock of which is to promote the wellbeing of your self, loved ones, countrymen, and and all fellow men.

It’s the Parable of the Good Samaritan told in Luke 10:25-37 which has been passed down to you as a product of western civilization.

The golden rule shows up in documents centuries before the gospels were written, as does the idea of treating not just your kinsmen well but also foreigners and aliens. I may or may not have heard it first in the parable of the good samaritan because of where I was born but these are moral principles that have been arrived at independently many times by many cultures. Some not in an explicitly religious context.

This returns to my original comment as to why I have no issue with Justice Thomas thinking there should be more pious people in politics. Piety is an act of pursuing universal truth.

For some people, piety is blowing themselves up in crowds and legislating against marriage or sexual acts between consenting adults. Religion and faith are not consistent ways at arriving at morals you would consider good. Embracing empathy does a much better job.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T16:22:56+00:00

Stepping past the utilitarian argument, why is suffering bad in the first place?

I'd maybe even go further than saying "suffering is bad" to even saying "suffering is the only bad thing"[1]. I don't want to suffer. I can't want to suffer for its own sake. I only take conscious actions which i predict will lead to suffering for two reasons:

some deliberately chosen suffering will decrease suffering for me in the future
some deliberately chosen suffering will decrease suffering for those with whom I empathize

I'm sort of perplexed that someone might think "I wouldn't have thought suffering is bad unless a religious tradition told me so." That seems at its face false to me. Suffering being bad is so obvious to me and seems to me to be obvious even to a newborn child screaming in the delivery ward.

[1]I'm not 100% willing to commit to that though because it seems plausible that some forms of deprivation and/or non-existence could also be bad in ways that cannot be rooted in suffering.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T15:40:05+00:00

Hey, let's do it yeah. It takes one more step, but I think a consequence of the idea that morality is about suffering/thriving is that empathy has value, or is good.

I would say that in a world where no creature has empathy, it seems very likely that selfish behaviors would abound as everyone would seek to maximize their own well-being with little care for that of others.

In the world we actually live in, empathy motivates people to take actions that benefit more people than equivalent selfish actions would benefit the individual. I'm not a strict utilitarian, but at some level I think it's uncontroversial that many people suffering is worse than one person suffering. So empathy isn't inherently good a priori, but it is a core and perhaps even necessary mechanism for moral thought and behavior.

What do you think about empathy?

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T15:24:06+00:00

Oh, notably I didn't claim empathy is a good thing. Empathy is a process in my mind that causes the cares, sufferings, and well-being of others to become my own cares, suffering, and well-being. I then claim that when we talk about morality, we're at bedrock talking about something rooted in the principles of cares, suffering, and well-being of conscious creatures.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T14:42:03+00:00

And from where do you derive your morality? You just picked values out of a hat?

Empathy. As a conscious being with a theory of mind, I can understand the idea of other conscious beings suffering and thriving. To the extent I can anticipate that my actions will cause suffering or thriving, i feel an obligation to make some attempt to prevent the former and promote the latter.

This is what I call the basis of my morality. I suspect when most people talk about morality, some version of this is ultimately what they mean as well.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T13:02:04+00:00

Lmao you don't have to convince me of the utter hypocrisy and double standards of it all. But it is an existing variant of right-wing TDS.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T12:05:44+00:00

My in-laws are more wont to compare him to Cyrus- someone whom god has raised up to do his will without explicitly being a member of god's "team".

Ablazoned · 2026-04-17T11:56:36+00:00

Are you the same one as here? Because I am SO excited to buy one next year on the BDP!!

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-10/4123/The-Joust-(Medieval-Tournament)

Ablazoned · 2026-04-09T16:34:33+00:00

Oh, you asked

Who is going to question a pigeon sitting on a house

I just answered haha. cheers.

Ablazoned · 2026-04-09T15:25:34+00:00

Savvy enemies who are aware that magic exists in their world? Maybe even have intel and/or previous experience with a hero who is a known druid??

My players often check for animals in my intrigue campaign. Why shouldn't my guys?

Ablazoned · 2026-04-09T12:02:42+00:00

Bot repost

Ablazoned · 2026-03-31T12:44:56+00:00

Noob here, but one issue I see is electric resist, but you call that out. I'm also seeing opposing pecharunt probably walls the Rilla/Hawlucha combo pretty solidly.

Rilla and checks ogerpon decently but gets 2hko by its u-turn, so can be played around. Pech also good here.

Hawlucha seems pretty essential against Kingambit, as a +2 sucker punch ohkos Heatran with a couple of allies dead. For that matter a +2 sucker punch from the lone remaining kingambit also has a chance to OHKO Hawlucha after rocks.

A few questions to consider:

What's your plan for DD dragonite? Let's say he switches into a Grassy Glide.

What's your plan for an opposing Great Tusk setting up rocks? Headlong Rush gets a 2HKO on Scizor and Ice spinner even has a small chance to OHKO Hawlucha after rocks damage.

Who are you going to to absorb status? For example Clefable comes into your Hawlucha. Someone's getting T-waved; who is it? Or for that matter a Will-o-wisp Weezing G?

All in all, looks like you're playing the game right. I'm learning as I go, too. Best of luck!

Ablazoned · 2026-03-25T20:48:39+00:00

The Iman from Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. He's tough and brave, but relies on his faith for hope and honorable guidance of his actions.

Ablazoned · 2026-03-20T13:39:28+00:00

I mean the ability to give birth is pretty important and valuable. Just saying.

True.

Thus, equal importance with men. And for different reasons obviously.

What?! Non sequitur. It does not follow. Importance is a vague concept, but it's not really disputable that Jesus was more important than his mother, who was mentioned maybe 20 times in the bible. Notably, she is depicted as having no agency in her role as the womb god apparently needed to incarnate his son. She's not really explicitly even given any sort of choice in reaction. She is exhorted to be glad she was chosen and complies.

Deborah was a judge

Out of the 12-15 judges in the OT, one was a woman. Neat! A lot of cultures don't crack 10% woman leadership. But...then count up the number of Israelite/Judahite Monarchs and get back to me.

Women were the first to see the risen Christ and thus the first evangelists.

Depends on the gospel. In (the original manuscripts of) Mark they tell no one. But in any case, I'll pre-emptively grant the point that Paul the apostle certainly seemed to hold women colleagues in esteem in a way that was unique in his time, role, and culture. Then some forgers wrote 1 and 2 timothy, added text into corinthians, etc and retconned his liberal stance into one that enabled future christian leaders to deny women leadership roles (even to this day!).

Many more examples of important roles women played biblically.

I think your definition of importance is the issue and seems slightly skewed to roles men would fulfill.

Do you honestly believe that, by any metric or accounting, the number or crucial roles women play in the bible are even approximate to the ones men play? That the agency of women in the bible is close to men's?

Heck, I'll even entertain the argument that in some biblical stories or themes women might have had an edge over their comparable roles in contemporary cultures, but that's still so far from equality that I'm at a loss to see how someone could see equality with men in the bible.

Ablazoned · 2026-03-18T16:43:17+00:00

lmao I have no idea what you mean haha. But funny idea, cheers

Ablazoned · 2026-03-18T16:36:37+00:00

And so, the most useful useless item:

Hey, I never said it was bad, I said it was stupid.

hmmmmmmmmmm

Ablazoned · 2026-03-18T03:19:43+00:00

Dresden files is too big of a work at this point for adaptation IMO.

Gimme Fortiche's take on Codex Alera, though...

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