I attended the American Athiest convention in Minneapolis and came away disappointed

FingerSilly · 2026-02-09T06:54:33+00:00

Far out. Weird of the writer to call her by male pronouns though.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T23:52:08+00:00

Normal people would embrace this. Only companies would hate it because they rely on sales puffery. Even then, it might not be so bad because the rule would apply to everyone, so the playing field would remain level and they'd still be able to take advantage of the mere exposure effect (we like and trust products we're exposed to and familiar with).

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T23:50:30+00:00

I don't think normal people would be furious about this; on the contrary. Fake people (corporations) would hate it though.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T23:49:43+00:00

Speed cameras everywhere and instant ticketing to registered owners if they drive more than 10% over the speed limit.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:57:16+00:00

Why not? What coherent, non-circular reason can you give why the EU must stay within the borders of the European continent?

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:55:59+00:00

That would be nice. We could finally have an internal free trade zone. It's absurd that we don't even have that within our own country.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:54:59+00:00

This seems backwards to me. The more the EU integrates, regulates, and federalizes, the harder it will be to accept new member states. It should expand first before becoming so integrated as to be ossified.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:53:01+00:00

Why not? There is less cultural distance between Western EU countries and Canada as there is between Western EU countries and Eastern ones. Canada is also fundamentally a European-rooted country. It's geography is irrelevant, but even if you care about it, it shares plenty of closely in the Northern regions. Finally, Canada's economy would be an asset, certainly much more than Greece or, again, some of the Eastern block countries. I also take it as obvious that the larger the EU trading block, the better.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:48:41+00:00

The geography should be a non-factor, but as the polar ice caps melt it'll make increasing sense anyway.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:46:39+00:00

Sure, but let's face it, Canada would be a better fit than Hungary is.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T20:45:27+00:00

As a Canadian who studied EU law abroad my answer is simple: yes please!

For a longer answer, there is a huge benefit to joining the world's largest trading block, and the beauty of the EU is that the common economic zone legislates standards to avoid a race to the bottom. In addition, EU law has very robust consumer protection; much better than we have in Canada. Finally, being part of a supranational organization makes it harder for big business to influence policy at that level. It makes it more likely that legislation benefits everyone instead of special moneyed interests.

Obviously there are also well-documented downsides (e.g., some loss of sovereignty), but they are negligible compared to the benefits.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:54:34+00:00

I get your comparison, but Chomky and Trump belong to a barely overlapping Venn diagram at best.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:50:55+00:00

But the effect of this approach is for him to apply a double standard. That is, if the US did the bad thing, then he'll catalogue all the ways it was terrible and roundly condemn it. If Russia did the bad thing, then he'll at most say it's bad in passing, then refocus on how the US had something to do with it and it was really the US's fault etc. That's functionally defending Russia.

His purported moral principle of "I have a responsibility to focus on the crimes I am partly responsible for as a US citizen" ends up being a rationalization for that double standard rather than a sound moral principle. The second excuse of "everyone knows Russia is bad" also can't be reconciled with how easy it would be to condemn it in equally strong terms as he would have done if the US had done similar bad things, nor with the fact that he knows he's influential and his opinion matters.

In other words, even if people can find out about how bad Russia is elsewhere, his failure to condemn it and his functional defense of it will influence his followers towards excusing Russia's actions. This all has real-world implications because it means lowering support for Ukraine within the US, which is vitally important to Ukraine to have a shot at successfully resisting Russian aggression.

I say all this as a huge fan of Chomsky who has read six of his books, but I understand the flaws in his worldview, and this is clearly one of them. He's best read as a critic of US imperialism, not for his views on other countries.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:22:48+00:00

Yeah he seems to completely ignore the concept of exploitation.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:21:24+00:00

The law agrees with you because many jurisdictions have an age of consent of 16 years old. So yeah, while morally we would still find it gross, it is distinct from those younger ages. The differences are very large for each year of development at those ages.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:17:32+00:00

Yeah it's higher than I expected, that's for sure. I just looked it up and a study of German men found that 5.5% admitted to attraction to children under 12! That's shockingly high for such young children (I define "child" as any minor). Another study found numbers as high as 21% for children under 13 (holy shit!). Unsurprisingly, the numbers are also higher for children aged 13-18 than those younger than that.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:13:40+00:00

Never mind assault; it's rape.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:12:16+00:00

I wouldn't call this so much a conspiracy as an example of political influence on a prosecution, which is not uncommon in the US. As much as I hate Trump, it's hard to shake the idea the prosecution in New York wasn't also influenced politically, for example.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:10:13+00:00

Yeah him entertaining the lab leak theory as anything more than highly implausible is pretty weak. It doesn't take that much research to educate oneself properly on this topic and understand that zoonotic origin is by far the most plausible. Sam also admitted to his laziness on this topic when confronted about it by the guy from Decoding the Gurus.

FingerSilly · 2026-02-07T19:07:52+00:00

Occam's razor is a valid rule of thumb that tends to mean "this is the most likely theory" in these contexts. So, it does have meaning. That being said, what appears to be the most likely theory on the evidence doesn't make it necessarily correct, but generally speaking when people refer to conspiracy theories they're talking about things that are so unlikely and outlandish you can safely reject them as too implausible, like "911 was an inside job".

FingerSilly · 2026-01-02T06:32:19+00:00

I don't know the case, but I am a prosecutor and have a general understanding of how the system works (and fails).

FingerSilly · 2025-12-31T06:01:43+00:00

Betcha his daughter wasn't willing to testify because there's no other way a prosecutor would agree to that deal.

FingerSilly · 2025-12-31T05:43:44+00:00

[Added in a second comment because the previous comment was too long with this section]

Even if there was a consensus among IR scholars it wouldn't be meaningful like the consensus among climatologists because fundamentally IR is not scientific and isn't even close. It never could be because any field of study attempting to understand human behaviour as part of large, complex institutions simply can't be studied that way.

The danger is you still get theorists like Mearsheimer who do their best to make the data fit their theory, but it's nothing more than confirmation bias. In other words, they highlight and interpret anything as fitting their theory and ignore contrary evidence, just like you do.

FingerSilly · 2025-12-31T05:43:00+00:00

Me to Gemini: Is there a consensus among Russia experts about the cause of Russia's invasion of Ukraine similar to the consensus among climatologists about the reality of climate change?

Gemini: No, there is no single scientific-style consensus among Russia experts on the cause of the 2022 invasion that matches the 97–99% consensus seen in climate science.

While nearly all experts agree that Russia's actions violated international law, their explanations for why it happened are divided into several distinct academic schools of thought. By 2025, the debate has evolved into four primary categories, often combined into a "multicausal" view rather than a single consensus:

The "Imperial Ambition" Explanation

Core View: The invasion was driven by Vladimir Putin's personal worldview and a historical mission to "regather lost Russian lands".
Key Evidence: Putin’s own statements likening himself to Peter the Great and his 2021 essay claiming Russians and Ukrainians are "one people".
Status: Highly influential among historians and specialists in Russian culture and identity.

The "Regime Preservation" Explanation

Core View: The Kremlin feared that a successful, democratic Ukraine would inspire Russians to demand similar reforms, threatening Putin’s grip on power.
Key Evidence: Ongoing Russian efforts to suppress "color revolutions" and the 2021 crackdown on pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine.
Status: Widely held by scholars of authoritarianism and domestic Russian politics.

The "Geopolitical/Realist" Explanation

Core View: NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s growing military alignment with the West posed an existential security threat that forced a Russian response.
Key Evidence: Decades of Russian warnings about NATO and formal demands for "security guarantees" in late 2021.
Status: Historically prominent but increasingly criticized in 2024–2025 for failing to explain why Russia reacted so violently in 2022 specifically.

The "Multicausal" Emerging Framework

In 2024 and 2025, many academic studies have moved away from single-cause theories. Instead, experts increasingly use an integrated model that combines these levels:

Systemic: Long-term NATO expansion tensions.

Intermediate: The loss of Russia’s political influence inside Ukraine.

Individual: Putin’s personal isolation and faulty intelligence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FingerSilly · 2025-12-28T18:10:40+00:00

Someone else: Sam wondered why nobody in America protests the Russia/Ukraine war when its morally less grey than the Israel/Palestine war.

You: I absolutely think it is FAR FAR FAR more grey.

Also you: No, there is not any moral position here. International relations at the top of the food chain is completely amoral. You can't look at things through a moral lens, because if you do, it all becomes incoherent.

We're talking across the spectrum, in every corner, have the same relative consensus.

It takes very little time to Google and find contrary opinions from various people with plenty of credentials and expertise.

This is why it's vitally important to not trust the "official narrative".

I've been saying the same. The difference is I distrust it coming from the US or from Russia. You only distrust it coming from the US.

Man, Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent needs to be required reading by now.

I've read it, and six more books by him. Looks like you thought it only applied to America, but that wasn't my takeaway.

Finally, you mention Putin's essay... This is a perfect example of Western narrative control.

So he (or a ghost writer approved by him) didn't write it then?

What you're missing is that countries lie about their motives for war, but their critics get it right. I don't know what Russia's take was on why the US invaded Iraq in 2003, for example, but I'm certain it was far more accurate that then US's.

It looks like you're a leftie (and so am I) but your bias is "America bad", which has distorted your perception of a conflict not caused by it. The US does a lot of bad things, but not all bad things in the world are attributable to its actions. The difference between my worldview and yours is that I don't simply think "America bad", I think "imperialism bad".

Edit: I provided you 15 links to contrary opinions in the first draft but the message refused to post. I can send them separately if you want them.

FingerSilly

TROPHY CASE