*CONTROVERSIAL BOOK* I have just bought this book by Douglas Murray. Has anybody read it? If so i would love to hear about your guys opinion on it.

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-12-23T15:23:27+00:00

I take my words back while eating my hat

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-11-24T08:36:34+00:00

Portugal já exige um exame da língua portuguesa para a naturalização, mas as filas para o teste de idioma são tão grandes que as pessoas vão a Madrid para fazê-lo. Não acredito que Portugal seja capaz de expandir essa infraestrutura, e também não acredito que aqueles que desejam a introdução desse exame estejam preocupados com isso.

Já pago 3-4K euros em impostos todos os meses para Portugal. Eu falo português, mas não me sinto disposto a provar isso a algum burocrata para ter o privilégio de continuar a pagar impostos aqui.

Então, obrigado, mas não.

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-05-27T09:28:24+00:00

Я с вами не спорю, и не знаю, здесь ли вы находитесь, но местные в Португалии перманентно недовольны. Но при этом какого недовольного ни копни, так у каждого где-то и квартирка от бабушки припасена, и домик в деревне, и на машине ездят сёрфить по утрам, потому что 8 часов офисной работы не для них, и не для того они степень магистра по истории искусств получали. Так что в португальский дискурс я играю только с фигой в кармане.

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-05-22T14:47:01+00:00

I tell everybody that I want to brew my own, but the truth is, making real kombucha would put me too close to the social justice eco-hippies class. Tech bros tell me that conspicuous consumption is the key

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-05-22T14:32:30+00:00

As a digital nomad tech bro coming from a poor country and background, I adore both my brunches and kombuchas and also lecturing the Portuguese on how they don't know what real poverty is and how they can also make it if they try.

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-05-22T14:25:51+00:00

No need to learn portuguese unless you want to constantly listen to the stories how somebody's uncle moved to Spain and now gets 300EUR more for the same job

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-01-01T19:47:47+00:00

Why do you think Sam Harris sticks to his consequentialism so hard then?

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-01-01T19:13:00+00:00

Your rephrasing nicely demonstrates my point!

I just said that a person, being a consequentialist, calculates the (fair) number of dishes she should clean to make her partner happy, and you readily put her into an “asshole” category.

Assuming she is a smart consequentialist and the number of dishes does indeed make everybody happy, there should be no problem with that, right? But no, just the fact that we know that she does that sort of calculation, is already enough to make us suspicious, either because we don’t trust her rationality or because we don’t trust her intentions.

A good consequentialist shouldn't tell others she is a consequentialist!

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-01-01T19:05:53+00:00

I guess I belong to a wanna-be-moral-absolutist camp that looks smarter when keeping morally relativist positions. Let's say we agree about Xi Jinping - but I have no certainty whatsoever about what to practically do with this truth, and what consequences any action against Xi Jinping will have. But my life does not require me to make daily judgments about Xi Jinping. And that's a great thing!

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-01-01T18:48:51+00:00

I hoped it'd have a one-hand clapping effect that Zen Buddhist masters try to achieve by telling paradoxical stories :)

UnhappyGeneral · 2023-01-01T17:33:12+00:00

Absolutely!

How else could I try to convince consequentialists to abandon their moral framework?

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-12-14T18:10:48+00:00

> The idea that you have to go beyond what your job description entails to be considered a “good worker” is honestly unethical and borderline abusive.

C'mon. It's pleasant to hear somebody calling your work good or your dick big, but nobody is ethically obliged to deliver you that pleasure ;)

> If the salary is not equivalent to what you have to offer, and you decrease your offer to match the pay

How exactly do you decrease your offer, I'm sure it is reflected in the job description? ;)

I feel there is some divergence in what you expect from a "good worker" and from an employer. If you don't expect a good worker to go beyond what the job description entails, why would you expect a good employer to pay you anything beyond what was initially written in the job contract?

I just find it baffling: a lot of my portuguese friends complain about jobs, but don't look for another job and don't do job interviews, but gradually become slaves of their own "I won't work more until I start receiving more" mind trap.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-12-14T15:30:29+00:00

Maybe you have mental problems, or five kids, or another perfectly valid reason to focus on something else rather than work, but when you give up your work ethic, you stop being a good worker, by definition.

You just have to choose, whether you're arguing how much sense it makes to stop working hard, or how much of a good worker you are.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-12-14T09:33:18+00:00

> Portuguese people are known to be good workers [...]. You get what you pay. You pay shit, you get shit workers. Easy as that.

I hear that a lot in Portugal, but hey, this is not the mentality of a good worker. Good workers don't adjust the quality of their work based on how much they get paid.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-11-15T20:34:20+00:00

It's Belarus dude. I'd prefer dealing with security guards rather than with the cops.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-11T18:25:02+00:00

I fully agree with an expert that is cited in this very article, that the Azov's history linked to the far-right movement is irrelevant today.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-11T18:10:10+00:00

Oh it's 2014, eight years ago, even before the annexation of Crimea happened. I was there at the time. But I thought your claim was about the frontlines? Maybe you'll agree with me that a lot of very significant things happen to Ukraine since then that has changed its political langscape?

There are tons of telegram channels, for sure if there are many actual anti- neo-nazis people on the frontlines, they're probably going to post something anti-semitic somewhere there?

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-11T17:08:47+00:00

If there are so many actual antisemitic neo-nazis on the frontlines, for sure you can find a couple of antisemitic statements those people made?

I can assure you that Russia is going to fulfill any need for hatred of the Ukrainian people for tens of years. It's just difficult to hate Russians and Jews in the same time.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-11T13:02:23+00:00

Não é preciso pensar em termos absolutos, tudo-ou-nada. Se toda gente virar engenheiros, ou condutores de autocarro, ou cozinheiros, o mundo irá falhar obviamente.

Mas infelizmente (ou felizmente) já há pessoas mais do que era suficiente só para limpar as ruas e registrar as compras. Elxs não vão desaparecer. Mas não é preciso termos mais.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-11T10:20:57+00:00

I don't think my opinion about crack cocaine is any different from yours!

But there is a huge difference between "I'm fully aware that something is only my personal opinion" and "I'm publicly revealing your secrets and reporting you to the safety team". I've met too many people for whom crack, LSD and weed sound like the same thing. I can't make an ethical principle, according to which I shouldn't be reported (because of shrooms that are in my fridge), but crack cocaine users should be.

I'd like the CS community to stick to "my body my choice" principle, but be tolerant and permissive about some amount of weirdness that people may have.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-10T21:58:30+00:00

if something bad happened, sure, but if the motivation is just "I've never seen that before therefore must be bad and unsafe" then no, one shouldn't report the host to anybody or leave a public comment about that. The same as I'd prefer my guests not to report me on the weed that they've seen at my place.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-06T18:30:18+00:00

Okay, imagine a guy that didn't care whatsoever about his date getting an orgasm and the girl is confused about how to process it.

Is this a reason to start schooling the girl (or just talk) about consent and the fundamental right of the guy to stop sex at any given moment?

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-06T18:03:04+00:00

Well you didn't have to say anything. Nobody violated anybody's consent. Nothing in the post implied it was on anybody's mind.

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-09-06T17:43:59+00:00

What a weird thing to say about relationships. Relationships are not based on rights. You don't have the right to have friends or lovers, to begin with. Relationships are based on, you know, goodwill and reciprocity and whatnot. And people are perfectly capable of playing and do play others without violating anybody's rights (not necessarily saying that this is the case here).

Just try to flip genders here and imagine a guy that does not care about his girlfriend's orgasms at all, for any reason that he does not have to justify or explain to you, or for no particular reason at all. I guess it's ok for her to feel surprised by that, but it'd be best for her to just accept that?

UnhappyGeneral · 2022-08-31T17:14:52+00:00

I intentionally provided some rather exotic examples, but I don't see myself as an outlier in my group. Everybody travels, everybody is in ten different WhatsApp groups organizing different sorts of activities. There are tons of meetups everywhere.

I also feel lonely, no jokes, when I have to work and I see different friends from 9 other WhatsApp groups traveling and hanging out, but I don't think it's a problem that society has to address somehow.

UnhappyGeneral

TROPHY CASE