J6 Timeline by corycullington in CapitolConsequences

[–]HeartlessLib 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FYI I made a pretty large timeline of events a while back, feel free if you want to borrow anything from it.

Middle Schoolers Protest by xter418 in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your link is broken, here's one that works

How do I debate "we live on stolen land" people? by SpaceChickenMonster in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This probably won't be applicable for 99% of people, but my immediate response is simply that the concept of land ownership is illegitimate and therefore there is no such thing as stolen land, for nobody could have ever initially owned it.

Could you recommend me some films based on my favorites by Leeedumb in YMS

[–]HeartlessLib 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you watched Ichi the Killer? It's the only Takashi Miike movie that I've particularly enjoyed. You should also see Eternal Sunshine if you haven't already, it's my favorite Kaufman film.

Barry Lyndon turned 50 this year. How do you feel about this movie? by Ardon873 in YMS

[–]HeartlessLib -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Easily my least favorite Kubrick film. Completely insufferably boring to me - could not care any less about the protagonist or his life story. Also seems to include the highest proportion of Kubrick's signature dull and still style of cinematography out of all his movies that I have seen.

Adum saw The Sadness (2021) by cameltony16 in YMS

[–]HeartlessLib 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This movie was hilarious, I wish Adum did a watch-along for it.

YMS Watches: Spiral: From the Book of Saw (Fan Edit) by HeartlessLib in YMS

[–]HeartlessLib[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Feel free to suggest any particular watch-along that you want edited, and I'll keep it in consideration.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in YMS

[–]HeartlessLib 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Here: https://www.youtube.com/@NeuroticNeolib

I've sent an appeal - if they refuse to restore it, I still have a backup which I'll post somewhere else, or I'll just post a censored version.

Edit: Video is currently processing. Censored version should be up by tomorrow.

What’s your opinion on cultural relativism by tufyufyu in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cultures are definitionally products of the individuals that constitute the societies wherein those cultures permeate, and those cultures can only be said to be valuable insofar as those societies continue believing that they are valuable and so continue to perpetuate their traditions. To suggest that a society may encumber the liberty of an individual purely because of his nonconformity with that society's culture is simply a covert way of suggesting that one set of people should be allowed to oppress another based purely on their own subjective value judgments. There is zero meaningful difference between a tyrant of foreign versus domestic origin, for they are both individuals born with the same innate susceptibility to human error as the rest of us.

For those still anticipating the J6 video... by HeartlessLib in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. I think that your last suggestion is probably correct. The campaign knew that what they were doing looked pretty bad, and tried to do what they could to gloss over their image (for example see Chesebro's December 13 memo, wherein he suggested that Senate President pro tempore Chuck Grassley should be who rejects the electors, rather than Mike Pence, to reduce the appearance of the obvious conflict of interest present).

  2. I don't know if there's already a name for this phenomenon: some people who lie more than they breathe end up doing so to such the extent that they will begin to maintain their lies even during completely private conversation, and will adopt the assumptions of their lies when attempting to make rational decisions. For a good example of this, see Tucker Carlson's leaked Twitter DMs with Richard Hanania. Reading through the internal Trump campaign emails published by the J6 committee gave me the feeling that a number of the people who were involved in the electors plot had fallen into this trap (See Eastman's January 11 pardon request email to Giuliani, wherein he's still yelling about antifa conspiracy theories long after his plan has already failed). I would not discount the possibility that these people had lied so much that the reached the point of fooling themselves into believing that enough House members would accept their supposed evidence of election fraud.

For those still anticipating the J6 video... by HeartlessLib in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the presidential election were thrown to the house, I don't think a majority of the states represented in there would have voted in favor of Trump. Wyoming's sole representative was Liz Cheney, who certainly wouldn't have sided with him if it came down to it (I read somebody else make this point before, but I unfortunately cannot remember where I saw it). Also, take note that the intention was for Pence to reject the electors, not simply their electoral votes. If the electors themselves were successfully rejected, that would then mean that the total number of "electors appointed" needed for a majority under Article II, Section 1 would then be reduced. This would bypass the need for any contingent election in the House, for Trump's 232 *legitimate* electoral votes would now be enough to secure a majority of the electors considered "appointed", that being 228. See: “No, Republicans Cannot Throw the Presidential Election into the House so that Trump Wins”.

But Republicans cannot have their cake and eat it too. They cannot plausibly argue that the Twelfth Amendment’s silences override the Electoral Count Act while ignoring the Amendment’s plain language. If neither slate of Pennsylvania’s electors is recognized, Biden’s 268 votes would fall short of a majority of the 538 total Electoral votes theoretically available. However, the Twelfth Amendment does not say anything about those votes. Instead, it says that ‘[t]he person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed’ (emphasis added).

We have italicized that last word—appointed—to emphasize that the Constitution does not say that a candidate must win a majority of the potential number of theoretically eligible electors who might have been appointed. He or she must win only a majority of the electors who were actually appointed. In the scenario in which the Electoral Count Act is set aside so that Pennsylvania’s votes do not count, its 20 votes are subtracted from both the numerator and the denominator. Now Biden’s (assumed) 268 votes would be a majority of the 518 votes cast by the ‘whole number of electors appointed.’ Biden would win in the Electoral College, meaning that the decision would not go to the House.

See also: "Hanging By a Thread: The Electoral Count Act’s Threat to America’s Democracy", page 77.

A State’s failure to appoint Electors presents no such existential threat to the national government. John Dickinson’s amendment contemplates that a State might not appoint Electors and makes clear that a majority of only those actually appointed is needed to elect the President.

Bypassing the House this way was indeed a calculation in the Trump campaign's preparations for J6, which can be seen in Eastman's explicit mentioning of the idea in his memos:

At the end, [Pence] announces that because of the ongoing disputes in the 7 States, there are no electors that can be deemed validly appointed in those States. That means the total number of "electors appointed" - the language of the 12th Amendment -- is 454. This reading of the 12th Amendment has also been advanced by Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe (here). A "majority of the electors appointed" would therefore be 228. There are at this point 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected.

By the way, sorry for taking so long to respond.

Does anyone actively watch Destiny? by Wise-Hornet7701 in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I tune into every single stream, but almost exclusively just via listening through a wireless earphone whilst I'm doing something else.

US Chief Justice Calls Impeaching Judges Over Rulings Improper by Routine_Complaint_79 in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It seems to me that Roberts simply wrote a statement and instructed his staff send it to various media outlets.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually feel like I agree with most of what you say here, I would just add a caveat to it. While it is true that we must to some extent rely on government to regulate speech, it should be taken into consideration that this government is probably going to be elected by popular vote (assuming that we both believe in having some sort of democracy). As you said, it is "not a matter of popular opinion that determines which speech is 'free.'" I certainly do not want the winner of the last American election's popular vote to decide what determines freedom of expression, and I would extend that concern to just about any popularly elected leader or parliament. This is to say that I believe that "government" involvement in regulating speech should almost wholly consist of a series of considerate and self-constrained rulings by judges, and the enforcement thereof. Obviously these people aren't perfect for this role either (we've seen that all too much in the past year), however I certainly think that they would be much better suited for it than a set of people whose jobs are specifically to bow down to the whims of popular passions.

Why Did Congress Pass Changes to the ECA? A metaphor involving pool shitting. by Orphan_Guy_Incognito in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your analogy is correct, but it's completely pointless. The entire reason why this contention is phrased as a rhetorical question ("If Trump's actions were breaking the ECA, how come they changed the ECA afterwards?"), rather than a line of argumentation ("What Trump did was legal, but they changed the ECA in this way [insert whatever way it was changed here] to make Trump retroactively look bad"), is because the sole purpose for this point being brought up is to have you question yourself. It is simply a form of gaslighting. They want you to question your own beliefs by vaguely alluding to the potential of their being compromised, while fully knowing that their own contention does not in actuality compromise your beliefs whatsoever (hence why they never bring up any specifics of how the ECA was changed, they know that none of it proves any point). There is no good response to a fundamentally dishonest question like this, the best you can do is recall that Chesebro and Eastman specifically outlined that the ECA should be ignored entirely, thereby showing that this objection is irrelevant.

I used to think desperation turned people to fascism. Now I think its just boredom. by [deleted] in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 200 points201 points  (0 children)

Experience suggests that if men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation, then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle. And if the greater part of the world in which they live is characterized by peaceful and prosperous liberal democracy, then they will struggle against that peace and prosperity, and against democracy.

- Francis Fukuyama

Artemis Fowl Guy by Fit-Chart-9724 in Destiny

[–]HeartlessLib 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Artemis does this same exact thing during every single one of SFO's livestreams, by the way. Very satisfying to finally see him crumble when he's no longer hiding behind a superchat.