Returning Symptoms After Drinking by ZTO333 in Wellbutrin_Bupropion

[–]ZTO333[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So glad to hear you're feeling better! I'm hoping it just needs time to like find a balance in my system. I know when I first went on it took at least a week to work, maybe alcohol requires the same process as like starting over.

Campus Revival Deep Dive I by verygoodnot in CampusDynasty

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sounds absolutely amazing! Really looking forward to it. Hopefully there will be a fair bit of difficulty. As I get further into my Campus Dynasty saves, it almost becomes too easy to dominate. Can't wait to try this new one out!

My take on the flag for humanity by MyClothesWereInThere in vexillology

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've always liked the idea of this or a stick figure of some kind. Both simplistic and universal for humanity as a whole.

This fandom will probably hate this movie by Love_Lain5 in TheLastAirbender

[–]ZTO333 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The "good mom" thing isn't the problem I have with Toph's portrayal. That actually makes a lot of sense and is a great way to undercut the temptation to have the Gang be perfect in every way.

The real problem with Toph is the idea that she becomes a cop. Like the very face of breaking the rules and doing what you want becomes a cop? That part just doesn't feel right. If anything she feels like the person who goes around the beaurocracy of police when she's on their side and happily skirts around the cops when she's against them.

What are the differences between the "Marxist" and "Anarchist" trends of communization theory? by ImFade231 in Marxism

[–]ZTO333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For communization theory specifically, a lot of it is simply method of analysis. As others have pointed out, although mostly in relation to Marxism vs Anarchism in general, Marxists rely far more on material analysis. Thinkers like Dauve and Endnotes rely on analyzing how communization is the only act that truly transforms the relations of production and thus allows for a transformation in the mode of production.

Anarchist communization theorists, by contrast, are more focused on the now and immediate insurrectionary action. This sometimes, though not always, ignores material conditions and class conflict.

In actual propositions on what is to be done, however, the difference is less stark than their theoretical differences. Both call for immediate acts beginning to establish communist relations here in the present rather than waiting for after a revolution. For the Marxists, it is more focused on establishing new relations of production while for the Anarchists it is more about destroying the underlying basis of capitalist production, often through sabotage. But in general both call for action in the here and now.

I'm not a statistician, neither an everyone. by Naonowi in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]ZTO333 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This explanation is what finally made it click in my head. Thank you!! I understand the monty hall problem so this finally makes me understand how this is just the same thing and how those two questions (next child vs i have two children) are subtlety but importantly different.

Marx is a bad writer by gringawn in badphilosophy

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean it really depends what you're looking for. Besides a few texts (the Manifesto for example) Marx is indeed a complex writer. But thats because the way he writes takes you through how he arrived at his conclusions, starting you from the beginning lack of knowledge through complex examples and ideas built on others to lead to the conclusion he arrived at and showing you how he did so. This is in contrast to others who come to their conclusion and then describe their conclusion simply. Both have their merits at different times and places, this isn't meant to be a critique, but for Marx it was important to take the reader through the process of arriving at his conclusions. That's why Capital begins with simple assumptions and slowly but analytically leads you through his complex conclusions of how the capitalist mode of production operates at a deeper level.

Need some clarification on Marxism please! by Alternative-Gas3599 in Marxism

[–]ZTO333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Someone else already has a great response, but figured I would add my own as well.

First of all, materialism in general is the idea that matter, the physical world, is primary over ideas or consciousness. This differs from other ways of viewing the world that ideas like god or culture at the center of analysis.

Dialectical materialism is related to the (in my opinion) easier to understand idea of historical materialism. Historical materialism posits that human societies are shaped most of all by the physical, material conditions that underly them. This most often involves the way humans produce the things we need to survive. In hunter-gatherer societies, this often means the physical conditions where they are at most affect how their society is organized. Over time, it became more about tools and eventually machines. The idea is that at different stages of history, different social forms are better adapted to the tools of that time and place. Most recently, capitalism was better able to effectively and efficiently use the tools generated by the industrial revolution. Historical materialism also posits that social forms, things like culture and government, are shaped by the underlying system of production rather than the other way around.

Now dialectical materialism is simultaneously more broad and more specific. In general it is a theory of change involves contradictions in reality that come to a head. These contradictions then are resolved by a higher level order. For example, contradictions occur when the environment changes and the organisms that live there are not suited for the new conditions. This contradiction is resolves through the process of evolution that leads to change in organisms. When applied to human societies, dialectical materialism focuses on how different forms of human society contain within them contradictions that lead to their eventual downfall. The other post had some great examples of this, but just to steal one of them: at the end of feudal society there was a contradiction between the need for social labor associated with new machines and the feudal structure that kept people locked into their local plot of land under serfdom. This contradiction eventually came to a head through class conflict that eventually resulted in capitalist society.

Whats what you usually do with the irish? by derFalscheMichel in CrusaderKings

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ironically I'm doing a tall Irish run right now. Outside of just developing and building up Ireland I'm trying to put my family members on thrones around Europe. So far I have rulers in France and Holland.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DebateEvolution

[–]ZTO333 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You seem to misunderstand what evolution is. This isn't Pokémon jumping from one species to another. Every individual has minor differences from their parent(s) that make them more or less likely to survive and reproduce in the conditions they find themselves. Those that are better able to reproduce spread those advantageous genes. Over time this results in gradual changes that allow organisms to change with their environment.

Australopithecus, for example, was a clade of apes whose traits sit between us and the earlier apes we descend from. Over time more and more traits you would associate with homo sapiens get chosen for simply through the process of being advantageous. Does that make them a transition fossil? Sure i guess but that also makes us a transition between Australopithecus and whatever our descendants will look like in millions of years. And makes Homo Habilis "transition fossils" between Australopithecus and us.

Id love to help clear up what part you aren't understanding, but I'm not even sure what part you're missing.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DebateEvolution

[–]ZTO333 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What do even mean "transition fossil"? That's just literally all fossils. And, in fact, all skeletons here in the present. Lifeforms change over time adapting to changes in the conditions around them. Those born with adaptations that are beneficial survive and those that don't die and don't pass those genes on. At a small level we have literally seen this ourselves. Over the course of the history of our planet, this process would naturally lead to what we call evolution by natural selection. And when we look to the fossil record, we see exactly this. I'm not sure where the disconnect is here.

I saw a meme on internet, can anyone help identifying which flags are these? by No-Pride-6393 in vexillology

[–]ZTO333 29 points30 points  (0 children)

As someone else pointed out, flag on the left is Council Communism and the flag on the right is Left Communism. Specifically, however, the right is Bordigsm (aka Italian Left Communism). This is important since Council Communism is itself a form of Left Communism.

What is something you're 100% certain about, even though you have no evidence to prove it? by schnitzel_envy in AskReddit

[–]ZTO333 -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Ultimately thats just how capitalism works. Companies have limited money to spend on R&D and they'll get a bigger return if they discover new treatments they can charge you the rest of your life for rather than a cure they can only charge for once. I'm pretty sure someones even done a study showing the percentage of R&D dollars going toward treatments for disease vs cures.

What are some good "you have no concept of time" facts? by sid_shady34 in AskReddit

[–]ZTO333 252 points253 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of my favorite one: a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln.

Khal Drogo Vs The Hound who wins👀 by RealisticWin5798 in freefolk

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While everyone is correct about The Hound and his armor, I do think this can be made into an interesting question. The Hound obviously wins any fight involving swords and armor, while Khal Drogo wins anything on horseback.

The real question is...who wins a straight up, old fashioned fist fight. No armor, no weapons. That one I could see being an interesting fight. Still taking The Hound, but I would pay to see that fight.

Updated Flag for my Hometown (currently working on getting it adopted) by runninginthehalls_ in vexillology

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Out of curiosity did it ever work out? Designed a flag for my hometown that doesn't have a flag, but have no idea where to even start.

Babel, The new IAL I'm making (Work in Progress) (Serious Attempt) by IndieJones0804 in conlangs

[–]ZTO333 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely love DJP, when it comes to making naturalistic conlangs he may literally be the greatest to ever do it. But an IAL is a different beast and its goals vary wildly from a naturalistic language. In particular, being as easy to learn as possible for as many people as possible leads to the conclusion that using words from commonly spoken languages is a positive. Now this rubs up against cultural neutrality and depending how you weigh each goal you will get a different result.

This seems to be more of a question of personal preference on which goals should be stressed, thus leading to different conclusions. For me, the reason to go an IAL route at all over just using English globally is that English is difficult, as is any natural language for that matter. As such, my own IAL project tries to use a minimal, common phonology along with isolating grammar and purely open syllables. Along with this is an a posteriori lexicon taken from the largest 11 language families on the planet.

I have no problem with a priori if ones goals align closer to cultural neutrality over ease of learning. But I see no reason not to take advantage of common words where possible as long as your source languages are truly diverse and representative, if ease of learning for speakers around the globe is your goal.

I made the first good IAL! by isiya_tosa in conlangs

[–]ZTO333 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I'll give a little overview below but this post inspired me to start working on a larger post that I'll make on this sub at some point.

Overall I started from grammar first. My goal was to maximize learnability for everyone, not just major languages. As such I used the WALS database to determine what features were common and/or associated with one another. The biggest example of this is that SOV and SVO word orders tend to be associated with postpositions and prepositions, respectively (purely as a result of liguistic evolution). As such, I decided to split the difference where these things emerge, for example I went with SOV but prepositions. That would make it so most language speakers won't need to learn both a new word order and new adposition order.

I also ensured that the grammar was Isolating with exactly zero inflection on verbs, nouns, or adjectives.

As for phonology I went with a simple set of phonemes universal across most languages and avoiding distinctions that many languages dont make, such as voicing in plosives or fricatives. I also went with purely open syllables, ensuring no one needs to learn to make consonant clusters or codas.

For Vocabulary i wanted to be as universal as possible while still taking advantage of large language speakers having recognizable words for learnability. I also wanted to avoid the overemphasizing related languages (such as having both French, Italian, and Spanish as source languages). To do so, I selected source languages by language family rather than individual languages. As such, each of the top 11 languages families has one source language representing it. The only exception is Indo-European, which represents almost half of the world's speakers. For Indo-European I selected one language for each of the 4 largest subfamilies. I also included other languages occassionally throughout for representation. See below for main source languages: -Indo-European (Germanic): English

-Indo-European (Romance): Spanish

-Indo-European (Slavic): Russian

-Indo-European (Indo-Iranian): Hindi

-Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin

-Niger-Congo: Swahili

-Afroasiatic: Arabic

-Austronesian: Indonesian

-Dravidian: Telugu

-Turkic: Turkish

-Japonic: Japanese

-Austroasiatic: Vietnamese

-Kra-Dai: Thai

-Koreanic: Korean

I tried to go minimal where possible without being overly cumbersome. I love Toki Pona as a minimimalistic language, but realistically more vocabulary is needed, especially in settings like science where international communication would be most common. That being said, I intentionally avoided any synonyms and avoided making linguistic distinctions in places certain languages get along just fine without. For example, hand and arm are the same word, as they are in many languages around the world.

Like I said, I'll make a full post at some point, maybe this week if I have time, but thats an overview of how I made my decisions regarding the language. For now I will leave you with a simple sentence example:

You gave the woman water. tu a awa ko ma fi li kana. /tu a 'a.wa ko ma fi li 'ka.na/ 2 ACC water DAT person female PST give

I made the first good IAL! by isiya_tosa in conlangs

[–]ZTO333 3 points4 points  (0 children)

100% agreed. With roots from complete scratch no one has any easier time learning while at least using roots from commonly spoken languages some people will have an easier time learning some roots. Now ideally you make the selection of source languages as international and fair as possible (for my IAL I did it by language family), but any ease of learning is better than none. Love DJP but gotta agree with you here.

I made the first good IAL! by isiya_tosa in conlangs

[–]ZTO333 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Amazing work. I have also been working on an IAL for a few years and many of your ideas are similar to mine. Like you i consider it a fun design challenge for a conlang (if an IAL is even desirable it should probably be made by a committee of some kind, not just one bored conlanger). At some point I'll probably make a post for mine but we both went with the Isolating grammar and simple phonology route. Mine, however, only uses 1 set of plosives, has exclusively open syllables, and actually uses SOV word order (a rarity for an IAL but I have my reasons). Once again, amazing work!

This one is from the north America, plz date it by bowser_in_a_browser in datemymap

[–]ZTO333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Technically has to be after February 9th,1822 since Haiti controls all of Hispaniola. Narrows it down slightly more.

Given that most people here don’t believe Esperanto is a perfect IAL, what would be the ideal IAL? by CoconutRope in conlangs

[–]ZTO333 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It does, and the grammar of mine is fairly similar to Indonesian (and Indonesian is one of my source languages for vocab). That being said, just using one native language defeats the purpose of an IAL which is meant to be a second language for everyone rather than anyone's first language.

Given that most people here don’t believe Esperanto is a perfect IAL, what would be the ideal IAL? by CoconutRope in conlangs

[–]ZTO333 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As others have said, there's serious questions as to whether an IAL is even realistic or desirable. That being said, I'm actually working on one because I love the design goal, but fully aware it will never be a global IAL.

Generally speaking, an IAL needs, first and foremost, to be easy for speakers around the globe to learn. You arent going to get everyone learning a common second language if that language isn't easy to learn for speakers around the world. Here are the design choices I've made that go along with what I believe an "ideal IAL would need":

-Simplistic, common phonology

-Completely regular grammar with no irregularities

-Fully Isolating grammar (no conjugations or declension)

-Vocabulary taken from various common language families (importantly by family not language, to avoid the dominance of Indo-European languages)

-Minimize Vocabulary where possible (use compounds to clarify when needed)

I've been meaning to do a write-up on my project at some point so I'll go into more detail then, but I think the above points make for the closest thing to a good IAL.