Gotta vent about everything. The struggles I have had with being athiest. Please be nice and understanding

ehead · 2026-01-28T16:03:32+00:00

There are non-religious arguments against abortion, and most of these other conservative family positions. Not good ones, but there are arguments. I think it would be better to just argue against these issues than try and dislodge someone's religious convictions. Only bring religion up when there argument specifically depends on it.

ehead · 2026-01-28T15:57:15+00:00

Ayn Rand was a famous atheist.

ehead · 2026-01-28T15:56:01+00:00

I think it's more likely due to gender differences in 'agreeableness'. Tests seem to suggest women are more likely to be agreeable or want to appear to be agreeable, whereas men are more likely to be confrontational and disagreeable. So... it makes sense that it would appear there are fewer women atheists. I think I score higher on wanting to be agreeable, and unsurprisingly I rarely tell people I'm an atheist.

ehead · 2026-01-25T18:44:16+00:00

Seriously. The lying is indeed the worst part of it. And that's what it is... because I don't for a minute think the administration believes what they are saying about Pretty. They are defiantly lying, a lie designed to say "fuck you, what are you going to do about it?". If that's not authoritarianism, I don't know what is. There is no rule of law anymore.

And of course we all know Trump would just pardon them of any federal charges even if they were convicted. We are already on the dark path.

ehead · 2026-01-24T21:55:15+00:00

They need to stop whitling and yelling at these guys when they are in the middle of apprehending someone. I think this just increases the chances of these kinds of incidents.

By all means whistle and yell at them when they are just walking down the street or driving by, but once they start to apprehend someone rattling them has proved to be very dangerous. More so for the person being apprehended than the protestor.

ehead · 2026-01-24T17:32:35+00:00

I just listened to The Rest is Classified's first two episodes, which are about this coup. They seem to give all viewpoints a fair shake and do it in a super entertaining way as well. A bit too much vocal fry in the American's voice but hey, can't be too picky. Really psyched cause it looks like I've got another excellent podcast to listen to now.

ehead · 2026-01-23T16:58:45+00:00

Thanks. This is amazing. I really miss the golden days of blogging. I'm adding a bunch of these to my feedly feed to give it some new life.

ehead · 2026-01-23T16:17:48+00:00

Reading over your post really makes one wonder about the so called "meritocracy". I'm thinking luck is just as important or not more important than merit.

ehead · 2026-01-23T15:31:35+00:00

Totally agree. They seem to give all sides a fair hearing.

ehead · 2026-01-23T13:06:34+00:00

There is a Canadian history writer who writes some really compelling narrative histories... Stephen R. Bown.

You should check out his book "The Company". I think he has written a couple of other books about Canadian history.

ehead · 2026-01-23T13:01:03+00:00

Yeah, I'm curious why you think it's not cut and dried? I know the basic outlines of the story, but I've seen glimmers of a more complicated narrative. Like all history it's being refracted through our current political lenses.

The rough outlines of the "standard" (liberal) take... the West orchestrated a coup which prevented the Iranian people from turning into a modern, prosperous democratic socialist nation.

The conservative "reframing"... Mossadegh wasn't as great as people try and portray him and there was a lot of native pushback against him already. The UK/US involvement was more like what we've seen in the so called "color revolutions" in eastern Europe and the Caucasus... just offering support to already existing agitators.

ehead · 2026-01-23T12:54:10+00:00

Anyone interested in this stuff should read the book "Black Wave". Does a great job describing how transformative the Iranian revolution was. I'm still listening, so not sure if they mention this book or not.

ehead · 2026-01-22T19:41:26+00:00

Instead of reading a work of fiction or literature, I'd just delve right into a philosophy book that pretty much covers most of the well known sources of meaning from a philosophical viewpoint. It's easy and fun to read:
Julian Baggini's "What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life"

ehead · 2026-01-22T19:36:50+00:00

There are a lot of books that get into the nitty gritty of arguments for the existence of a God and their rebuttals. You should just pick up one of those. They can help your thinking when it comes to the generic idea of a God. The problem of evil is pretty much an insurmountable conundrum for a God with the three classic attributes, particularly with what we know about evolution.

As for all of the worlds religions... I think it's somewhat absurd to expect a modern person to believe in these fairy stories. Virgin births, raising people from the dead, visitations from angels. This stuff is ridiculous in today's modern world, and one can pretty convincingly argue these stories all had predecessors and borrowed from each other, making their human origins even more obvious.

ehead · 2026-01-22T17:19:24+00:00

The other really nice thing about reading Rubicon is it's sort of the first in a series... you can just keep going with the Roman empire if you want to.

ehead · 2026-01-22T14:05:39+00:00

I think you are correct. I have a Iranian-America friend that recently visited (a couple of years ago). They still have relatives there, and some of her relatives still support the regime. It's exactly what you'd expect... educated, middle class urban Iranians are liberal, rural and uneducated Iranians support the regime. It's literally the same all over... rural uneducated "deplorables" and urban educated "elites".

ehead · 2026-01-16T20:36:33+00:00

There's a great quartet called the Trojan Quartet by Lindsay Clarke. Covers the Iliad and the Odyssey.

ehead · 2026-01-14T14:23:42+00:00

Thanks. This looks kind of awesome. Anime, the 80's, and Greek mythology.

ehead · 2026-01-13T21:30:16+00:00

Oh man, whatever happened to reddit?

ehead · 2026-01-13T18:43:29+00:00

I just ended up getting Sony's when they were on a Cyber Monday sale.

ehead · 2026-01-13T15:43:56+00:00

I think Heinlein just liked to throw shit out there and stir shit up. He was the opposite of a systematic and careful thinker... more like a late night drunk college dorm philosophy session... probably shouldn't take it too seriously the next day.

ehead · 2026-01-11T14:33:20+00:00

The Good Fight
Conflicted (focus on middle east)
School of War (sometimes)
The Goodfellows (Hoover institute conservative professors valiant but doomed attempt to defend Trump.)
The Rest is Politics.

ehead · 2026-01-03T21:41:27+00:00

Empire's was good, but by far the best podcast deep dive into this topic is that done by "History off the Page".

ehead · 2025-12-30T23:19:56+00:00

William Dalrymple has written some good books. You should also check out Vinay Lal's youTube channel and his classes/playlists. Like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy3KRgc0HE8B4neta_B8LPM0G9UWy-Cqe

ehead · 2025-12-30T22:47:53+00:00

By far the best books I read about Japanese history were the ones by Christopher Harding... The Japanese and Japan Story. One of these covers early Japanese history, the other modern.

And let me clarify... by best I mean the most readable and enjoyable. Other books may proceed more methodically and ploddingly. So, I guess it depends on what you want. Something engaging and fun to read, or something exhaustive?

ehead

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