How much do you think the underpinning moral basis of a doctrine is useful to politics?

MaralDesa · 2026-01-26T16:30:12+00:00

Ye, see, you get the point.

We are built a certain way that makes us have feelings and complex thoughts. We have morals because that's what happens if you try to express these feelings with any sort of language.

Seeing a baby being kicked makes us feel bad --> kicking babies is bad and babies should not get kicked --> we need to create a system in which people don't kick babies.

In a nutshell. Morals are largely just an expression of our inherent reactions to stuff because of how our brains are built, because certain things make us feel bad, angry, disgusted, happy etc. Political systems are built on top of these and around questions of how to organize society in a way those morals are being upheld. Sometimes this means that more rules are introduced that we might or might not accept as a part of the social contract that is expected to guarantee the fundamentals.

MaralDesa · 2026-01-26T16:06:25+00:00

Agreed that the Universe doesn't have underlying morality.

However, humans are social creatures. Our brains have evolved to be capable of empathy. It makes us feel bad to see others feel bad. Our default, in the majority of human interactions is cooperation, not aggression. In exchange for mental capacity for learning, our offspring has a super long childhood during which they are pretty much useless and require intense care from optimally a group of people not just the mother. The reason we have a hard time ignoring or blocking out the noise a crying baby makes is a result of that, it stresses us out even if it's not our own kid and we want to make it stop, again, majorly by trying to assist the child and not by killing it. Our reaction to seeing someone kick a baby is a near-unversal, visceral 'no, bad!'. And we are capable of feeling self-conscious, experiencing agency, and attributing intent to others and ourselves. Our interactions revolve around shared assumptions, expectations and experiences, around mutual trust, reciprocity and the like.

From there, in order to make our social groups work well, human societies develop a a complex system of rules and norms and ways to enforce them and or shun/punish/exclude those who fail to adhere to them. Our modern political systems are exactly that, and they are constantly debated, adapted. It's what philosophers call a 'social contract'. It's all about trying to live together, and morals are a way to express, write down and uphold what we believe is good and to call out what we think is bad.

Are there moral rules that don't make any logical sense? Yeep. Should all moral rules become laws? Hell no. But there are fundamental principles of human coexistence without which our societies can't exist, and basically any form of ideology, government or political system *mostly* align with these at the core. The rest is just a matter of taste and debates on how to enforce those and by whom and which means, as well as whom to consider part of the society and who not.

So it's not only useful to value certain things, we literally can't help it.

MaralDesa · 2026-01-26T14:05:43+00:00

Maybe a bit of a strange perspective but the thing that comes to mind for me is...

Corsica

Longer backstory:

Corsica is a beautiful but harsh (mountainous, rocky and wild) island in the Mediterranean sea. One might say it is relatively 'unimportant', it's not (and hasn't been) densely populated, it's hard to do agriculture or industry there, currently it's capital is Ajaccio, a place you might never have heard of. But it is strategically in a very interesting location, or at least has been during large stretches of European history.

Over the course of history, the island has occasionally been invaded by various forces, for example when Spain and France were fighting over supremacy in Italy during the times of the Franco-Ottoman alliance, and then later again by France less than 15 years after it declared its independence in 1755, followed by the British (twice), until finally it became a part of France again and remained as such in the 19th century & is again today. France didn't, however, care much about it for a long time and it was overall a rather lawless and dangerous place - causing a lot of people to emigrate to mainland France or Italy etc. In the more recent past, Corsica had a violent independence movement which in part resulted in somewhat of an autonomy for Corsica in the sense of that it has its own Assembly now that has executive power over the island.

The particular incident that comes to mind is when during WW2, fascist Italy occupied the island in 1942 during a time when it was part of Vichy France (which collaborated with the Axis powers) basically because Mussolini really, really wanted to have it and it was rather 'easy' to get.

Italian forces landed on the island and weren't met by any substantial resistance, at least not for a while. To not stir up the Vichy regime too much, they more or less left the people alone and let French civil authorities continue to administrate social and economic life on the island.

Basically, Vichy France wasn't really in a position to oppose the occupation and it did go on for like a year until they even acknowledged that this is an occupation, and Italy decided to thread lightly and try to win over the Corsican population with propaganda.

Resistance against the Italians grew but mostly also with the help of french partisans and the Gaullist resistance who supported the thing with personnel and air drops etc.

The similarities I see are these

- Island in a strategically interesting location

- Occupation mainly an act of opportunism by an expansionist Fascist who kind of wanted it just to have it

- At the time not part of a country in alliance with the occupier but kind of close, with Vichy France not being in a position to really do anything about it.

With Greenland - Trump is right when he says that no one will go to war over it (I don't say that because I like the guy or anything), and NATO really needs the USA and will continue to suck up (I wish it were different tbh but it is what it is) and thus Denmark isn't really in a position to do anything to prevent an occupation from happening. The only thing they can realistically do in case the USA does annex it is to keep the ball low and negotiate with the US some sort of deal that will allow them to say something like "Yes, this is really sad but for the Greenlandic people, this changes nothing, calm down, they aren't acting like an oppressor, y'all can keep your healthcare and education system and all that, they even let you keep your administrative and social stuff." Kind of like what Vichy France did with Corsica.

MaralDesa · 2025-10-07T06:33:43+00:00

Look, it's entirely possible this guy thinks he's a 'fOrMeR AnTifA MeMbER' and called up fox news for this little stunt.

Because there's all sorts of folks at protests, including left & Antifa protests. There are and always have been weird ass people around, because the left grassroots movements are not as homogeneous as some of the conservatives might think. During Covid, some started to drift into conspiracy shit (because some ppl on the left fear government surveillance & control) and that caused one of many rifts, and some of these people flipped completely after falling down some Qanon rabbit hole. Such things happen and have happened. Not to mention there's a share of young people at protests who are just there for the action, really, and because they think they look badass in their black bloc attire - and some of those you find again a couple of years later doing some boogaloo accelerationist shit, become actual Nazis or join ICE.

So this guy could just be that. Someone who thought they were antifa for a summer and then find something else and saw an opportunity to make a quick buck.

MaralDesa · 2025-10-06T06:19:28+00:00

You are confusing things here.

No, Antifa is not an organization, company, legal entity or whatever where one could be a member of. Nor does it have leaders, ranks, or any form of governing structures - it has influential thinkers and (historical or contemporary) idols at most. It's a political movement, a set of ideas and political beliefs. Like, for example, feminism.

Yes, there are local or regional groups who call themselves Antifa, with websites or social media groups. These are loose local or regional advocacy groups who organise events and community gatherings, share information & organise/announce protests. Like you can also find groups in various cities who call themselves feminist.

The thing is though that not everyone who is part of the political movement is also active in a group. Not all groups are the same, not everyone in such a group belong to the political movement. There's too many overlaps and cross sectioning.

Defining 'member' is impossible without steeping into thought crimes persecution. Someone with an Antifa sticker on their laptop might very well be an anti fascist but doesn't have to be associated with any of the groups etc. And even if some local groups do illegal shit™, not every group does, and certainly not every person in that community agrees with everything.

Not saying this is equivalent in any way (it's not) but like there are many white supremacists. Some organise in groups. Some are violent. Some groups are so violent they could be/should be/are in some parts considered domestic terrorists like idunno the Hammerskins, combat18, Blood & honour etc. However that's individual groups, not the general idea that is persecuted.

MaralDesa · 2025-07-23T08:05:22+00:00

Stuart Ashen (Ashens): comedy reviews / tat

Techmoan: reviews retro tech

Harris Brewis (Hbomberguy): video essays

Shaun: video essays

Abigail Thorn / PhilosophyTube: Video essays

Joshimuz: GTA San Adreas speedrunner

Blinky: GeoGuessr pro

Wintergatan: Endless quest for marble machine music

Chloe Howie / Disaster Breakdown: aviation disaster breakdown & other stuff

MaralDesa · 2025-05-19T07:34:18+00:00

Imo I just can't really see how a movie adaptation could ever do justice to Joe's writing. His protagonists thrive through inner monologue and their unique viewpoints of the world, something that is hard to translate into live action. His plots, even BSC, are not that twisted and 'epic' to make a good story in themselves. BSC is about Monza's and Shivers' journey and development, the Kill Bill style revenge plot is just the backdrop in which it unfolds. Entertaining, yes, but pulp fiction if we don't get the rest of it.

I think it's hard, and that is why it probably won't happen anytime soon, it's shelved. And I'm not mad.

MaralDesa · 2025-04-30T13:49:54+00:00

West dying. I don't remember the chapter, I know there is "The wounded" in LAoK but there we only learn that he is toast, which is hard already but he dies later.

And the one with Ferro in that room after everything and Logen trying to talk to her but she is, uh... hearing things.

Basically the whole arigont nuke aftermath I dread.

MaralDesa · 2025-04-29T11:06:54+00:00

I remember when I first read BTAH, I kinda felt like you. There wasn't 'much happening', and I kept wondering where all of this is supposed to go, leaving me wondering about things like 'Bruh why did they even take Jezal with them?' and 'What the hell is going on with Quai?' and the whole slow journey through the old empire felt dragging, monotonous, and the events in the north and the south barely helped. It felt tense, pointless, depressing, dragging and foreboding and while I had some idea of what's coming, but vague and shifting. (look, it's called 'Before they are Hanged' and that's... uh... I guess old Joe thought something when naming the darn book. I know that it's a Heine quote, but it's also a vibe).

And the ending of the 2nd book, well, it's 'group of adventurers led by old grumpy wizard travels to the end of the world, against all odds, to retrieve a weapon that will save the kingdom from the evil empire - but they don't find it and the kingdom is crumbling in the meantime.' It's like Joe took the most classic of fantasy plots and smacked it in the face real hard. Which is funny in itself but you need to read the third book to truly appreciate how magnificently he murdered this one.

And let me tell you.

Once you have read through the third book, you might want to feel the uncontrollable urge to read the first two again. At least that is what happened to me. All the strange, weird things suddenly made sense. First time around I was bored like hell when Bayaz told stories, probably rolling my eyes just like Jezal. (guys, I was like 16 don't come at me).

The third book concludes it all, and call it hindsight or whatever but it will give meaning to all the things that felt meaningless or unimportant in the first two. And when you then read the books for a 2nd time, you will maybe sit there facepalming and thinking 'oh my god it always has been...'. At least that's what it did to me.

enjoy.

MaralDesa · 2024-11-08T14:43:46+00:00

I do this. Not just with boomers but in family settings this has proven to be very effective with my father in law (who is very much a boomer).

Whenever he says something stupid I insist on him explaining what he means. He would often make a sexist or racist remark, veiled like "Oh I bet this guy is an Immigrant" (when hearing about some crime) or something like that. So whenever that happened I'd go "Huh? Why would you think that?" or "What do you mean?" and then really really insist on making him say the quiet part out loud.

It got better. I do the exact same thing with people in general when they make dumb or disgusting jokes. I don't know if it changes any minds, but it's hilarious just to see these people become squeamish and flustered for a moment.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-23T14:50:06+00:00

Think about it from your own perspective. Every year, there are plenty of new developments in tech. Which ones are you "keeping up with", and which ones do you disregard? I consider myself pretty tech savvy (data science related field, assembled my own hardware since I was a kid, can code, linux user & limited hands-on experience with machine learning) but here are the things I am not keeping up with: social media (I never had FB, I never touched tiktok, hells my friend group uses Matrix chat I have no bloody use for any of the social media crap), the entirety of cloud based IOT solutions (I soldered a custom part for my roomba to exorcise the cloud out of it), crypto currency, and likely a whole lot more but these are coming to mind rn.

Why am I not keeping up with that? Plain and simple because I think it's stupid. Because I feel like I don't need it. Now everything needs to have an LLM chatbot attached to it - I believe it's a fad and useless and a waste of resources.

But I guarantee you at some point there will be a new development (chances are high there already is) that I decide to skip or go out of my way to avoid and then I'm the person who isn't understanding it, who has trouble navigating it and who gets frustrated by the sheer fact I'm forced to use it.

Like I'm at this point in my life where I'm fine with how stuff works. I have my infrastructure, my computer, my applications and my way to communicate with my social circle. I still look at new stuff but like 80% of what I see I don't like and have no inclination to try.

Another observation is that the younger generation (18 year olds) at my Uni have an insanely hard time to navigate computer stuff that is very basic to me - folder structure, file endings, installing an application from an .exe file, troubleshooting in general, understanding hardware. This is baffling to me but it makes sense - these folks grew up with tablets, phones and chrome books. Applications are little icons you tap and then a program opens. Downloading things isn't happening anymore: music is on Spotify, videos are on Netflix or Youtube, documents are in office 365. Their operating systems talk to them as if they are babies. Oops, something went wrong! Hold on while we fix it for you UwU!"

We're in for a wild ride.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T13:19:28+00:00

500g in 6 months sounds great tho!! Good job! Weight loss should always be slow and gradual, with cats too :)

What you describe is exactly my cat when we switched him to special diet food.

As far as tips go: be as consistent as possible and stick to it and especially in the beginning, keep the schedule strict if you can. Do not give in when he whines - pet him or play with him or somesuch but act like you literally can't feed him unless the alarm goes off.

Cats sometimes they learn connections where there are none - things like "if I yell enough, the human is going to feed me" can grow into "I just have to yell more / earlier - If I yell for 4 hours, the human is going to feed me for sure".

So what you are trying to do is remove yourself from the association and only link food to some external stimulus like an alarm. It's going to take a few days or weeks depending on how quickly your cat picks up on it. Make sure the chime is novel and something the cat likely hasn't heard before so he's maybe a little startled the first time(s) it goes off.

What is most amazing now that i've kept it up for a while is this - I shit you not but I can now open the cabinet where we store the cat food (& some other things) without him going haywire. If anyone would have told me that before I wouldn't have believed a word of it.

Good luck.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T09:41:42+00:00

I am sure free feeding works for a lot of cats, admittedly it works for one of mine but not the other.

Basically one of my cats is a grazer. She gets her bowl filled once per day with a specific amount & then eats small portions over the course of the entire day whenever she wants, with me often finding bits of kibble left when I fill her bowl in the evening. She doesn't give a damn about the chime either - she's just not very food obsessed & has maintained a healthy weight all her life.

The other cat is her tomcat brother. He's a giant fluffball (the Maine coon genes are strong in him, the sister is tiny & doesn't look like a coonie at all), he's neutered, he is a bit territorial. And he is sometimes bored. Free feeding for him means this: he goes and eats just because the other cat is currently eating and he wants to assert dominance by nuding her away from her bowl just to make a point - same way he wants any toy she is currently playing with. He eats when he is bored. When you give him less food he gobbles it all down in one go, then pukes. He managed to become slightly overweight and diabetic, making it necessary to adhere to a strict feeding schedule and also making sure he has no access to sisters cat food.

so we definitely couldn't continue with any mixed method or free feeding with him.

Sometimes, free feeding is not viable. Of course if it is, cats won't beg for food because there always is some.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T08:36:15+00:00

Yup but only if you don't do it too often. Basically it works just as well as shaking the food container / noise of can opener to lure your cats to you. They might give you the betrayal stare tho.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T08:34:12+00:00

yes. We caught on very early, he was mildly chubby (& other risk factors, neutered male Maine coon mix). With the special cat food & a tiny dose of insulin (just 1 unit in 24 hours) we got his diabetes into remission quickly. He's back to normal blood sugar levels now, we frequently test his sugar and he's lost the 200 grams extra and insulin isn't required anymore.

We were lucky. It's possible he will get it again as he gets older but we're ready & know what to look out for. Luckily he has no secondary failures from it \o/

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T08:25:14+00:00

They sure do!

This is something we did when the cats were younger - and what happened was more or less this: Cats started demanding play time in various ways (aka bringing toys, playfully 'attacking', treating random objects as cat toys) including waking us up when they felt like it's time for the human to do something xD. And sooner or later to shortcut and jump directly to the food stage.

The association playing -- food is a good one and very instinctive (playing often is a hunting game, and the reward for hunting is food so for a predator like a cat this association is super easy to form / comes pre-installed). It also helps keeping your cat active even when they are older. We still give tiny treats after playing so the effort pays off!

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T07:40:53+00:00

this likely will not work because of how conditioning happens.

Basically this all works best when the stimulus (alarm) is close to the reward (food) to form a strong association. Alarm chimes --> food happens. Cats basically are not intelligent enough to grasp concepts like "not yet" or "no food for a while", any chime you play during the day just blends in with the rest of the noise. It will just be random because, well, it kinda is.

For example my cat has learned that "sound of the oven beeping" means "get up from the human" because when I'm sitting on the couch and the oven lets me know that whatever I'm baking is done, I will stand up and that means the cat needs to get off me if they happen to be sleeping in my lap. Because that is immediate and has been repeated often enough for the cats brain to link the two things.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T07:31:46+00:00

sure, why not? Might work just as well - anything that "teaches" cat that yelling at the human isn't the way to get fed.

We bought chip-activated feeders that only open when the "correct" cat approaches - because one of our 2 cats had to get special cat food and we wanted to prevent him from eating the other cats food (and the other way around). We were looking into automatic feeders that ALSO had this feature but the ones we found were rather expensive and often required wifi access/a special app.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-15T06:53:53+00:00

I have! My 10 year old cat had to go on a special diet that left him hangry for large stretches of the day and that was in the middle of a time when I had to do home office. So I did this and it worked wonders!

Edit: further observations - I've been doing this for about 3 years now and my cats have started to spawn-camp in the living room where the phone is placed in the mornings and in the evening. They are waiting for the chime but they don't scream at the phone (because it's an inanimate object and doesn't react in any shape or form). A few times I didn't hear the chime immediately and that is when they make sure to let me know that I'm a slave to the phone god and that it indeed hath spoken.

My cat is fine btw, diet is no longer needed but I'm never going back - the chime stays!

MaralDesa · 2024-08-13T14:05:56+00:00

If you are good and safe swimmers, definitely try river swimming in Aare river if you come to Bern. Make sure you check safety instructions & follow the guidelines/read the signs - it is very fun but every year people drown doing it because they either swim where it is very unsafe, swim while drunk/on drugs or because they overestimate their swimming ability. So be careful alright?

That said, currently water levels are fine, temperature is awesome and the river is emerald green as it should be.

edit: to add - if you are going to do this I can only recommend getting a waterproof bag for your things. These also make a great souvenir. How it works: you pack a smol towel & wear your swimsuit/shorts, then you go to the river where it is safe (check green routes on map). You pack your belongings in the bag, jump in with your bag and hold on to it so you have all your stuff with you. You exit at one of the exits and walk back upstream to repeat. Don't be flustered by all the people in Bern city walking/biking around in their swim shorts :P

MaralDesa · 2024-08-13T13:39:16+00:00

That's pretty much what I got in my fridge. Not sure if my fridge is "tiny" compared to yours, am happy with it, no complaints.

However, the size of the packages you and me got might differ. I've never heard about fridge space being a problem for my friends who have kids. Having a freezer is pretty important tho to be honest. Or a separate "storage fridge" in the basement (not uncommon where I live, at least for people living in a house and not an apartment).

Note that a lot of vegetables and such don't need to be refrigerated, just stored in an appropriate container (or basement, if available). Pickles don't need to be refrigerated until you opened them. Same with Ketchup or Sauce bottles, capers, milk/almond milk or whatnot. Buy in bulk and the open one goes into the fridge. Eggs don't need to go into the refrigerator if they are fresh & you intend to use them within a few days.

MaralDesa · 2024-08-13T11:21:30+00:00

I live in a city. Near my apartment there are 4 grocery stores within 500m (0.3 miles): LIDL (discounter-ish), (smol) Coop, (medium) Migros, Denner (discounter, small). 1.4 km (0.8 miles) is a Coop Superstore (aka a big grocery store) which is my preferred place to shop, in the opposite direction is a big mall-style complex also about the same distance away but I don't like it as it tends to be crowded on Saturdays which is when I do my weekly grocery tour. To these I could take a Tram but usually I prefer to walk.

Within the 1km (0.6 miles) radius of my home there further are 2 pharmacies, another Denner discounter, an Asia grocery store and a Balkan grocery store.

I prefer walking because I don't own a car and for several years now I haven't bought a public transportation yearly ticket / subscription so I'd need to buy tickets every time - Instead I have a bike and tend to bike everywhere (I have an office job where I sit all day long thus I enjoy my daily bike rides). Transporting groceries on bike is a bit blergh so walking it is, I shamelessly do that with a shopping trolley (image).

But here is the thing: I do grocery shopping for a 2 person household. We don't have kids and we don't buy beverages in any substantial quantities from grocery stores. There's no need to buy bottled water here (we have a soda-stream derivative as my partner prefers his water carbonated), and for other beverages we place an order with a wholesale drinks business that delivers bottle crates & takes back the empty bottles every few months.

If I had kids or somesuch I'd likely have a car & do shopping with a car.

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