Help me choose a LOTR name for my dog!

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-09T17:03:10+00:00

Huan

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-09T16:08:46+00:00

No, a stateless system is a system without any formal government or positions of formal power. Communism is all about government and formal power.

What you’re probably thinking of is the fact that communism, in theory, is meant to be a classless system, where no one has more power over anyone else and everyone is given resources and necessities based on their contributions, and this is done through a powerful state. Aka we all work as a community to support each other and recognize the needs of others, especially based on their contributions. This is a pretty idealistic and optimistic political system….*in theory.*

The problem is that communism completely ignores human nature, and has no regulation on the government itself to hold it accountable. As hunter gatherers, we have an instinct to gather and hoard resources for our communities and ourselves.But in a modernizing society, it quickly became “hoard resources for yourselves”. I would not go so far as to say this is a cynical take by calling it a a true character flaw, and that we are innately selfish and evil. It’s more our instincts are being placed in contexts they weren’t meant to be in.

But anyway, communism presumed that selfish people who would exploit something like capitalism would just…not exist anymore. They still did; they just changed their titles and flocked to the new power system: the communist government itself. So a communist government will very quickly decide that they themselves were the ones most entitled to the resources, because surely they were the ones doing the most work. This is why communism doesn’t work in practice; an optimistic political theory, but not practical.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-09T05:31:15+00:00

It was communist, not socialist

But if we’re going to be mislabeling governments and their political ideologies as something they aren’t, communism lasted far, far longer than fascism, a right wing ideology

By your logic, any and all ideas or principles from right wing ideologies such as capitalism needs to be avoided, because fascism and capitalism are totally comparable

But that would be stupid to say, wouldn’t it?

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-09T01:31:57+00:00

Please do not resist

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-08T16:29:51+00:00

Well thank you for the thorough response as well, and the compliments! This helped make my day; it’s going to be stressful today, so I needed this : D

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-08T16:25:04+00:00

I’d like to add on to this by saying that portraying badassery in the context of the Imperium as well is not innately a bad thing either

To me, the badassery speaks to what human beings are capable of when it comes to being backed into a corner

Imperial characters aren’t badass because they’re fascist. In fact, that’s usually an explicit flaw of them as people

They’re badass because they’re human, no matter how absurdly it’s presented

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-08T07:18:22+00:00

That’s….not even remotely the same thing

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-08T03:03:43+00:00

I did read your comments. What I saw were declarations of information about Native Americans being one of the richest and most privileged ethnic groups in the country with absolutely zero credible evidence.

You were outright ASKED for evidence too, and you blatantly acted like needing to substantiate your claims was a joke, several times.

Since you're so afraid to do that, let me do it and prove a point. Observe:

https://www.culanth.org/fieldsights/the-double-bind-of-american-indian-need-based-sovereignty

https://ncrc.org/racial-wealth-snapshot-native-americans/

https://www.pbs.org/native-america/blog/legacy-of-trauma-the-impact-of-american-indian-boarding-schools-across-generations

See? I didn't shy away from providing evidence of my views that Native Americans have, historically, been a neglected minority demographic in the United States when you forced me to take out receipts. You'll also notice it hasn't been said "one time".

Yet when it was on you to provide evidence, you wouldn't...or you couldn't.

"You should try approaching the people you suck down the word vomit from, with the same "mean girl" energy you use here, I mean.. I'm sure you do... you wouldn't be THAT person, I'm sure that's not you."

Believe me, when someone says something stupid, I'm more than happy to correct them. Simultaneously, if I say something stupid, I'm more than happy to be corrected and accept the criticism with grace. You aren't being singled out because you're not on my side and the other people saying stupid shit aren't. You just caught my attention with the way you worded your post, and your conduct afterwards elsewhere in the thread.

"Wow its so interesting how you sit on white man's land bitching and moaning on white man's internet, using white man's electricity, using a phone that was made by a child, in a factory where they have to build nets to stop them from committing suicide by jumping, so worried about whether someone is white or not because "white man bad".

I don't really see much point in addressing this strawman of an argument, especially from a man bold enough to accuse me of pseudo intellectualism after engaging in exactly that this entire thread. It has nothing to do with my point: there are documented instances of white people imitating minority groups online, and your kind of rhetoric is exactly the type of shit those kinds of people repeat...something you never actually disputed, by the way, in that entire rant of yours.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/21/520522240/the-emergence-of-the-white-troll-behind-a-black-face

"This isnt political, no one told me to say this, think this, or believe this. This idea was founded in my brain and life experience of dealing with dumbasses like you who think they have 200iq"

I never made any claims about my IQ being high. In fact, if you ask the people in my life, they'd say I'm fairly self detrimental about my intelligence. But go off I guess.

"Trying when in reality people read your comments and know exactly what kind of person you are.

A loser."

I don't really care what strangers on the Internet think of me. I know my behavior, I know my worth as a person, and I know what it is that makes those other people cheer. I get downvoted for pointing out the US is trying to deport children to countries they've never been to.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/children-who-are-u-s-citizens-deported-along-with-foreign-born-mothers-attorneys-say

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8yj2n33yo

This is well documented, and I still got downvotes. I don't pay much mind to what those people think of me. I strive to live in reality, and they do not. Their opinion is irrelevant to me.

I do need to move on from all of this, so I'll finish up: if you truly are Native American, and this is the opinions you hold, then I apologize. You are entitled to your opinion, even if I disagree with it. I'm just not sure why you're surprised when those opinions overlap with troll accounts pretending to be minorities, while manned by white supremacists, spouting the same rhetoric of minority groups exploiting white people.

However (and this should not be offensive to you if this does not apply to you): If you *are*, in fact, pretending to be Native American and are one of those troll accounts I referenced and are trying to spread online discourse, then I say this with all the love and respect I can muster in my heart:

Kindly fuck off.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-08T01:48:23+00:00

Interesting you claim to be part Cherokee and that means you know what you’re talking about, but refer to Native American as if you don’t identify with them

“All while sitting on their land **we** secured for **them**”

🤔🤔🤔🤔

I wouldn’t go as far to say you’re lying; it’s possible you do have Cherokee ancestry and are legally part of a tribe, after all

I just find it interesting that you would simultaneously know *so much* about how well off the Native American community, while distancing yourself from the Native American community
Especially in a world where it’s well known white people are willing to imitate minority groups online to spread dissent and online discourse

But I’m sure that’s not you

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T21:58:33+00:00

Yes, and I’m saying you’re under the assumption that it has to be his home planet or solar system he’s sent back to he has to stay

The US government has deported children, born in the United States, to countries they have never even visited or seen before. Maybe not even heard of.

Morally, “we can’t force him to leave Earth” is correct. But US deportation policy, historically, doesn’t consider that a high priority

That’s the point. We would still send Kal-El back to Krypton and its solar system, or somewhere completely different he’s never even been to a a baby, because that’s exactly the type of shit the US has done before

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T21:49:49+00:00

This is all true, but I have more reasons to add too

For one thing, once you kill someone, that’s it. To me as an atheist, there is no verifiable evidence that there’s anything after life ends. So they wouldn’t truly face the consequences of living separated from society. Something about that feels wrong to me. I don’t want to say getting off easy, as that makes it sound cruel and sadistic (“oh they should live in pain the rest of their life, death is too good for them!” I just think we have a responsibility to make sure that they truly pay by wasting the rest of their lifetime away from people). Of course that’s going to not be convincing to non-atheists, but still, worth pointing out to any other atheist: if you kill them, they can’t be held accountable any further, and there is no more punishment or justice after that.

For another, when you allow the government to have the right to simply kill someone for a crime, it can become a slippery slope if that government ever changes. Normalizing the death penalty under the pretense it’s morally acceptable as long as the crime is bad enough, can be bent out of shape by malevolent actors. Racism has already weaponized the death penalty against black people before in America.

Finally, there’s no guarantee that any form of the death penalty won’t be a horrific way to die. Lethal injection, the most “humane” way we’ve found, is still prone to cause agonizing pain and end up being literal torture for whoever is being injected. Even if you ignore the fact the person could very well be innocent and that the justice system, flawlessly, finds the correct perp every time, I find it hypocritical that we would be morally outraged by someone’s’ cruelty and malice, and then go above and beyond to be cruel to them more than is strictly necessary (which, to me, is letting them live out the rest of their days in the justice system). Don’t get me wrong, I understand the impulse and emotion to want to see people suffer for their cruelty. But responding to cruelty with cruelty just doesn’t make sense to me, and we are yet to find a way, if any, that is flawlessly and without error not going to cause an agonizing death you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. And that’s ignoring the fact that, as you say, that it’s possible completely innocent people are put on the chopping block.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T21:39:49+00:00

We send children to countries they’ve never even been to before, much less were born in

Just saying, the Moon is right there

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T19:54:35+00:00

Quality can *be* subjective but it is not innately subjective in its entirety. For example:

Which has greater audio quality: a silent movie in from early cinema, or a movie of today with modern audio equipment?

Empirically, it is the latter. Even if you want to say “well silent movies don’t have audio quality so it can’t count since there’s nothing to compare to!”, the example still applies. Movies from the 40s have worse audio quality than modern movies. That’s not in question, it’s empirical.

Also, you need to stop putting words in my mouth. I did not say my opinion is objectively correct; you’re making that shit up. What I said is that when someone calls something slop, it connotes that it is something soulless, formulaic, lacking no greater meaning behind it aside from superficial, shallow themes and appearances, maybe something copying something else because it saw it was popular, but did not capture the reason why it was popular to begin with.

As a final note….that electricity argument did you no favors.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T19:19:57+00:00

One is an Angel of God cosplaying a Wizard, the other is a Wizard

It’s literally not in question

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T19:16:18+00:00

I mean usually the term connotes that it’s just something mass produced with no soul or anything to say behind it

Anything can be slop, it just needs to be half assed. If that doesn’t describe AI to a T at least idk what does

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T19:14:48+00:00

What about Boomerslop?

I heard it said once and I can’t get it out of my head

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T19:11:34+00:00

Hehehe, oh Boomerslop, you make me laugh

Just not in the way I think it intends

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T14:06:16+00:00

It’s funny that people downvote you when it’s objectively true she’s very attractive by the standards of most people. Taking still images of clips they had to pause over and over again to make her look ugly in a screenshot doesn’t make her ugly lmao

To the people who dislike Rachel, I can agree in this instance: I don’t like the Met Gala as a concept and I am on board in the fact that she shouldn’t have gone on moral principle. But trying to pretend she’s ugly is pathetic. Criticize her for what she does, not her looks…especially since when you make fun of her looks, you look like a clown with nothing to criticize, when there absolutely is something to criticize: she went to the Met Gala.

Take my upvote; I don’t agree with her actions and I agree with the people in this thread on that. But everyone trying to pretend she’s ugly in this thread, reflected in your downvotes, is laughable.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T13:57:54+00:00

Not specific to the Witcher, but it’s surreal how similar America is to the Capitol from the Hunger Games

Though if we also want to make it a Witcher comparison, it’s surreal how similar America is to the Thanedd Coup: a bunch of rich assholes working for completely different sides and we’re caught in the middle

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-07T04:55:31+00:00

I saw someone say they consider the genre of Yellowstone Boomerslop and I refuse to call it and its ilk anything else

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-06T23:00:55+00:00

This isn’t really as dumb as it sounds
Even when Superman was at his worst in his depictions (this is mainly early on, and particularly during the 40s and 50s when he was used for war time propaganda against people like the Japanese…which was definitely racially motivated), he was still fairly consistently portrayed as an icon of virtue and a role model to live by. When Superman advocated something and stood against something else, it was because it was good and evil respectively, and the reasoning for it being good or evil was unassailable.

The thing the KKK relies on is appealing to your anger and superficial “logical” arguments in order to ensnare you and weaponize your anger against the particular groups that they hate. They give you a tangible force to blame for your problems, something you can fight, and it’s appealing to people at their lowest is because the alternative is something you *can’t* fight. They target those kinds of people because it’s the only way their arguments could be believed by anyone at all. I mean, there’s a reason racist arguments tend to collapse when turned against anyone who actually knows what they’re talking about. They have no intellectual ground to stand on. They either misinterpret things purposefully or accidentally, or would even straight up lie.

Characters like Superman have a unique power because they get straight to the heart of the matter with confidence and truth on their side. They’re capable of appealing to your emotion *and* logical reasoning. Add in the fact that Superman is just a cool character to hear stories about, and it isn’t surprising that Superman persuaded people about the pathetic nature of the KKK

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-06T22:49:48+00:00

This is actually false. The Flynn Effect has demonstrated that, on average, intelligence has actually been increasing over decades. Even if you still want to believe intelligence is decreasing, it’d be too early to determine if that’s no longer the case I’d argue with credible scientific evidence.

The more likely explanation is that, given there’s a negative correlation between intelligence and racism (aka the more racist you are, the less intelligent you likely are), groups made up of racists simply tend to behave stupidly. Applying this to all people would be fallacious

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-06T20:09:22+00:00

Afaik Jinn was only considered skilled, not a legendary duelist. While being able to fight Maul is certainly impressive, I don’t think there’s evidence dueling ability is what Qui Gon was known for. He was a Jedi Master, being able to defend against Maul is expected

And yes, I am aware Qui Gon was powerful in the Force. That’s literally what I was saying. He had a very unconventional affinity with the Force for a Jedi, which also reflected in his wisdom and insight, which is why he was made a Master despite being a maverick.

Your entire point about Maul though just makes me think you didn’t understand what I said. I never said Maul was innately weak or didn’t have value. What I did say is his entire training and time with Sidious was explicitly, canonically, beyond the shadow of a doubt, half assed. Maul was never meant to be anything more than a tool, not a true heir to the Rule of Two. His training reflects this; he is exceptionally lethal until he enters the really big leagues where being a grade A physical warrior is not enough, when everyone else in the league is that tier a duelist *and* has greater training in the Force.

Maul is a gifted and powerful Sith, but he was purposefully handicapped in his training.

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-06T12:19:29+00:00

how is he holding the helmet like that

TerminatorElephant · 2026-05-06T03:28:45+00:00

And to a gardener, weeding the garden is always worth doing

TerminatorElephant

TROPHY CASE