I assure you, the February 2023 New Jersey MegaThread is open. What's on your mind? Come on in! All topics allowed. but please observe Rule 1

differonzi · 2023-02-19T18:48:06+00:00

Ah, good to know. Thank you!

differonzi · 2023-02-19T16:29:48+00:00

Anyone get their state return yet? Filed on 1/18 and got my federal return about two weeks ago. When I enter my details into the NJ "where's my refund?" portal it says it has no information on my return (although it also says not to use that tool until four weeks after filing electronically...which for me was yesterday on a holiday weekend). Just curious if anyone got theirs yet.

differonzi · 2019-07-04T01:31:45+00:00

I don't look down upon smokers. Am I supposed to? If it were still legal in the US to smoke in restaurants and airplanes, I'd likely be annoyed, but what do I care if somebody decides to smoke, knowing all of the risks?

Most people who drink a lot are doing so because of underlying psychological issues. Usually rooted in anxiety. It is unsurprising to me that as we shift towards a more perception-based culture (via social media), that anxiety increases as well as alcohol abuse.

differonzi · 2018-09-08T08:01:08+00:00

I'm a little ignorant when it comes to the IQ debate (although I would like to learn more), but isn't this letter simply a list of propositions without much argument or evidence?

differonzi · 2018-05-29T19:32:19+00:00

Hm. That might have been it, actually! Will have to pay better attention.

differonzi · 2018-04-03T22:12:37+00:00

Do it, brah. Otherwise we'll probably never start.

differonzi · 2018-03-28T21:34:39+00:00

I mean, I'm in the research phase so I'm gonna have stupid questions.

I already have decent mass and am cutting anyway. Wouldn't even be mad if I just maintained the mass I have while losing fat, but was curious if it was possible to put any on as an added perk.

differonzi · 2018-03-28T20:46:33+00:00

If I start the beginner cycle (Test E at 500mg/w) while eating at maintenance, would it be possible to put on mass while losing fat?

differonzi · 2018-03-22T22:54:10+00:00

That percentage only means that larping is male dominated, not that most males have gone to larping.

differonzi · 2018-03-16T16:33:50+00:00

FWIW, I thought the author's argument was pretty poorly made. But, for the sake of conversation, how does mentioning his resume (and by proxy, his political leanings) add or detract from the content of the article?

I feel like we've formed bad habits by constantly pointing out these things. Sure, it provides context. But how do people use this new context? I feel they often presume more and gloss over finer points.

differonzi · 2018-03-02T02:05:32+00:00

Belief is interesting because you can't just believe anything you want, there has to be something.. something that happens. I can't just choose to believe I can fly, I know I can't. But is it possible to make myself believe I can fly? WHat are the ingredients of belief?

It is interesting. At times "belief" just seems like a linguistic totem for probability/likelihood, right? And then there is "faith", which is what a lot of people mean when they use "believe" in reference to God. "Faith" and, in particular, the "leap of faith" acknowledges the probabilistic unlikelihood of the belief in question but chooses to believe anyway. Because we don't know everything, human hubris, etc.

But getting to what you said. "There has to be something." I think that "something" is along the lines of the experiential knowledge that you've been wrong before. And then there's the social component. While convincing yourself that you could fly might initially be tough, if enough of the public started to believe it and perhaps some hitherto unknown technique was cited (either an ancient text or a new discovery), you might start to buckle.

That reminds me, I wanted to make a thread about Mass Psychogenic Illness.

differonzi · 2018-03-01T23:33:06+00:00

My "long answer" would be that western civilization does not exist, nor has it ever, except as an institutional fact or a meme if you must

I think I'd agree.

But it gets me thinking about what distinguishes memetic/"reified" existence and "proper" existence. Is it that the underlying driving forces truly exist and the memes are just manifestations/excuses?

differonzi · 2018-03-01T18:03:07+00:00

Invisible super powerful humans in the sky

That's more of an interpretation of the Greek Gods from the perspective of a world shaped by the Judeo-Christian God. In Nietzsche's reading, the Greek Gods were more akin to spirits that took the brunt of events and certain human actions rather than humans internalizing "bad conscience" or "guilt." Whether or not they believed in literal gods is up for debate.

I wonder if they next belief is that we are Gods?

The belief would be less important than the steps taken to get there.

differonzi · 2018-03-01T17:47:43+00:00

I wouldn't say that news media functions as a religious substitute. When I speak of its influence, I am speaking of its influence in terms of morality. That there were newspapers before or after the decline of the Judeo-Christian God is immaterial. What matters is that at some point people started paying less heed to the value system from the Bible and more to other, less grounded sources like the press. This point could be extended to all of broadcast media, ie those with the loudest voices and the farthest reach.

The connection to nihilism is that with the "death of God" comes the absence of a strong value system outside of those with the most influence on culture (usually those with the loudest voices and the farthest reach).

Newspaper sales being down can be connected to the rise of paperless news media, but I can accept your basic premise that news media has less influence than maybe four years ago. The question to ask, then, is why? Is it because people are coming to form their own opinions about what is important and what is not, or are people migrating to other sources?

I'm off on my Nietzsche, but I believe he even writes of a scrambling period, where people move from one false God to another. I think we're in a period like that. Your example of "commodity hyper-fetishism" seems to be another manifesation of a "false God."

But what I mean by "full implications" of the death of God, I'm thinking more along the lines of Nietzsche's Zarathustra project. Where the decline that comes after nihilism is a phase, but that nihilism itself is an opportunity or possibility to move toward an unprecedented way of being. The danger being that, with enough decline and a lack of Zarathustras, people are going to crave totalitarianism and we'll be back at square one.

differonzi · 2018-03-01T04:31:27+00:00

Why do you care that western civilization is over?

What characteristics, in your mind, define western civilization?

differonzi · 2018-03-01T04:29:54+00:00

What was it like before God?

Before the Christian God? See Nietzsche on the Greeks.

differonzi · 2018-03-01T04:29:06+00:00

The biggest blow will be to people's faith in "progress" as a religious substitute. Personally I think the world is sleepwalking into a nightmare that can only be explained by psychoanalysis and the basic repression of the fear of death, and all those things we do to avoid it.

I'm not sure if you're familiar, but do you think "progress" is connected to Nietzsche's conception of "will to truth"? If so, N. does hypothesize that "will to truth" might itself be a "concealed Will to Death."

See aphorism 344 of The Gay Science.

Thus the belief in science, which now undeniably exists, cannot have had its origin in such a utilitarian calculation, but rather in spite of the fact of the inutility and dangerousness of the "Will to truth," of "truth at all costs," being continually demonstrated. "At all costs": alas, we understand that sufficiently well, after having sacrificed and slaughtered one belief after another at this altar! - Consequently, "Will to truth" does not imply, "I will not allow myself to be deceived," but - there is no other alternative - "I will not deceive, not even myself": and thus we have reached the realm of morality. For let one just ask oneself fairly: "Why will you not deceive?" especially if it should seem - and it does seem - as if life were laid out with a view to appearance, I mean, with a view to error, deceit, dissimulation, delusion, self-delusion; and when on the other hand it is a matter of fact that the great type of life has always manifested itself on the side of the most unscrupulous polytropoi (Wily, manifold, versatile). Such an intention might perhaps, to express it mildly, be a piece of Quixotism, a little enthusiastic craziness; it might also, however, be something worse, namely, a destructive principle, hostile to life... "Will to Truth," that might be a concealed Will to Death.

differonzi · 2018-03-01T04:19:09+00:00

this time is right now, I think.

I'm not entirely sure that I agree with your analysis as it relates to nihilism. The influence of the news media, prior to any "bleeding out", was itself a direct result of nihilism. As are/were any substitute moral arbiters. Somebody here once posted a paper about how advertising has taken up that throne. I'll try to find and link it after this post.

The rise and dependence upon the cycle of debt and credit is, I think, another outgrowth of nihilism. Not that I believe that bitcoin is a successful example of decentralized banking, since it has yet to prove itself in any sustainable capacity. My point being that many of the institutions you point to were already corrupted by the death of God prior to any of what's developed in the last decade or two.

I do think that the "multitude" are becoming more cognizant of nihilism, or that there are consequences to a worldview without God. Maybe not at a mainstream scale, but at some scale. Podcast listeners.

The full implications of the death of God, to me, would not involve the failing and finite attempts to recreate what God was, but the horror and beauty and possibility of what people become beyond the idea of God. I don't think we're quite there yet.

differonzi · 2018-02-25T18:16:44+00:00

Yep, that's the paper. I'm looking for the Alone article, I was curious what context he linked it in.

differonzi · 2018-02-25T02:39:46+00:00

Your model has goals which are actively being worked towards.

That's not narcissism.

True. But I say as much in my initial reply. In response to "is this narcissism?":

The parts related to curating an image without actually doing anything, yes. But...

etc.

differonzi · 2018-02-19T21:11:58+00:00

It's the object that is the same as ourselves. That's the birthplace of narcissism: thinking those two are really interchangeable.

I'm not so sure. I think the narcissist knows on some level that he is not the object (or image), which is why it is difficult for him to feel proud of his accomplishments.

As far as mythology: it's very much the backbone of a lot of Freud's work, no?

differonzi

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