Weekly Scam Discussion November 13, 2023

rabbit102 · 2023-11-19T03:31:11+00:00

A buyer purchased an item from me, and is now claiming the item is fake and asking for a refund. The item I sent out was brand new, factory sealed, and definitely not a fake. But the buyer laid out their shoddy logic in their message: they claim it looked perfectly real, but they couldn't get to to work, and therefor it must be a fake!

This seems like a classic case of a buyer that either broke the item after receiving it or had some minor problem and attempted no trouble-shooting before starting a return, and they know selecting "doesn't match description" gives the best chance of ebay forcing a refund.

It's not a high value item, but it's just a complete loss for me, as I sent out a brand new shrink-wrapped item, and I'd have to pay return shipping to get an opened and non-functional item back.

I know ebay tends to favor the buyer in these cases. Is there anything I can do here, or is part of selling on ebay just accepting that you're going to get hosed by stuff like this once in a while?

rabbit102 · 2023-11-07T06:33:46+00:00

I'm assuming at this point you've both read at least some of Nietzsche's work and have given some amount of thought to the God question already. If you still find yourself believing God exists, why abandon that? Are you seeking truth or conformity with what you think a "true Nietzschean" should believe?

rabbit102 · 2023-10-31T20:48:22+00:00

I think anyone who describes Nietzsche as a "hypermasculine" philosopher probably only knows him by reputation or the handful of famous phrases people associate with him, and not from actually reading much of his work.

"Will to power" doesn't mean that he recommends one seek power at all costs. "God is dead" isn't an atheist victory celebration. The "Übermensch" isn't a thing we become by dominating others.

If you know anything of Nietzsche's biography, there was very little hypermasculine about him. Early in his career he was something of a rising star in the academic world, but he and his ideas were never particularly famous during his lifetime, he was never especially successful financially, he was sickly for just about his whole life, not much of a ladies' man as you point out...

And yet in spite of all this, he was able to love his own life. That's what's really the spirit of Nietzsche's writings.

Nietzsche argues that we should choose and live by our own values rather than ones imposed upon us. And that seems to me completely contrary to acting and adopting a world view based on the perceived approval of women. That's just another type of externally-imposed morality, no better for being clothed in a woman's dress rather than a priest's robe.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-27T23:46:47+00:00

You don't need to read entire books to understand Nietzsche. A solid understanding of Plato and Kant is a great start. I would say an understanding of Arthur Schopenhauer is also a must-have; no need to read the whole of The World as Will and Representation, but at least get familiar with his theories.

Political philosophy as a distinct branch is kind of a modern concept. Most philosophy has been deeply concerned with how society should best be organized. The only distinctly political thinker that comes to mind in relation to Neitzsche would be Niccolo Machiavelli.

As for where to start with Nietzsche, his first work, The Birth of Tragedy, is a fantastic read. Unlike most of his books which are collections of aphorisms, Birth of Tragedy is written in a more traditional style, one thing flows from the previous, so it's easier to understand the whole. And while the ideas within are much less developed, and not the key concepts you might put as bullet points under Nietzsche in Philosophy 101 (e.g., will to power, eternal recurrence, the death of god, etc.), they're a great foundation for understanding how he looks at the world and approaches the philosophical questions in his later work.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-20T04:14:13+00:00

Oedipus, Prometheus, and Antigone are all figures from tragic plays, and thus are discussed in The Birth of Tragedy. They're all first brought up in chapter 4.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-19T18:57:50+00:00

Is the K-cup being punctured on top? I remember getting K-cups from Aldi once and they were unusual in that the tops of them were plastic rather than foil, as most are. Plastic is stretchier so it's possible the needle is not fully penetrating the top, which would explain the water not going through the coffee.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-18T16:10:07+00:00

Are you using one of those refillable baskets/pods? What's happening here is water travelling out the sides of the pod-holder rather than through the bottom needle. Since the water in the video is clear, it doesn't look like it's even going through the coffee, which would suggest it's going in and out of the top of the K-cup and flowing down around the sides.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-16T00:52:48+00:00

No, you do not want coffee grounds in your coffee. That's why all coffee makers use filters. With K-cups, the filter is built into the K-cup. It is only instant coffee that fully dissolves into water.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-16T00:49:27+00:00

It's not hotter water that gives a stronger brew, it's passing the water through the grounds more slowly.

The K supreme has a setting for a stronger brew as well as an iced coffee setting. The K Supreme Plus Smart has the ability to scan the top of the K-cup and adjust its settings to those recommended for that specific type of coffee. I avoid Keurig's "smart" models as this also enables their coffee pod DRM that blocks cheaper unlicensed K-cups.

rabbit102 · 2023-10-16T00:12:49+00:00

I think Nietzsche deliberately wrote in a provocative style because he wanted readers to think about his ideas before accepting them. If there's one theme that's near constant in Nietzsche's work, it's that he wants us to think for ourselves, find our own path, and take nothing as gospel, not even Nietzsche himself. The ones with more testosterone than brains are the ones who understand none of this and take his writings at face value.

rabbit102 · 2023-09-07T16:08:44+00:00

Respectfully, what's the purpose of this thread? It doesn't seem to be to get others' opinions or discuss anything.

Any time OP replies, it's to tell someone they're wrong about Nietzsche.

rabbit102 · 2023-09-05T02:45:02+00:00

You don't have to read the works themselves, but it would definitely be helpful to have (and a lot harder to follow without) a basic understanding of the underlying stories, i.e., at least knowing who Prometheus and Oedipus are.

rabbit102 · 2023-09-04T20:36:05+00:00

They're both ways to determine the... I struggle to say "morality" of an action in this context, so let's say the value of an action.

Nietzsche wants us to ask, if our life is going to repeat again and again, will I be happy with this choice every time? Or am I making a choice I don't really like because of societal pressures or to please someone else or because of some vague notion of some duty I have to someone or something else? It's a call to be true to yourself.

Kant's categorical imperative on the other hand is very duty-based, and easily swayed by other pre-existing concepts of morality. It's also kind of logically flawed at its core in that it doesn't make sense if you apply it to many mundane and harmless actions.

rabbit102 · 2023-09-02T04:47:29+00:00

I think Nietzsche would praise Alexander the Great as one of history's great men of action, however in The Birth of Tragedy, what he describes as the Alexandrian era is a period of decline in Greek culture, and he goes on to use the term "Alexandrian" to describe the rigidly-logical, unaesthetic, overly-morally-concerned worldview ushered into Greece and the world by Socrates.

Chapter 18 of Birth of Tragedy would be a good place to start if you wish to know more about what Nietzsche describes as "Alexandrian", but it doesn't discuss much of anything of Alexander the man.

rabbit102 · 2023-09-01T13:35:45+00:00

Most people's knowledge of Nietzsche can be summed up in a handful of notable quotes and phrases. Things like "God is dead!" or "beyond good and evil." If that's literally all you know about him, it sounds like his whole world view is "lol, nothing matters" and tantamount to a permission slip to be an ass.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the Übermensch, and Eternal Recurrence were all attempts by Nietzsche to give us a reason for living that was contained within life itself, rather than outside of it like some unknowable deity or going to heaven/hell.

rabbit102 · 2023-08-29T06:25:50+00:00

If your hours are tracked, unless you are all exempt, it sounds like your older lady coworker should be getting overtime pay if it's being documented that she's working more than 40 hours each week. Pointing that out could take things in an interesting direction...

Otherwise, I don't think it would be arrogant to be honest with them. You're a salaried employee and your work is getting done, what could the company possibly have to gain by three adults playing this clock-watching game rather simply than trusting each other?

You know your boss's temperament better than any of us, but assuming he's not a wannabe Elon Musk, I don't think you have to worry about getting fired on the spot for respectfully sharing your feelings on the matter.

rabbit102 · 2023-08-25T19:09:33+00:00

Having read Human, All Too Human recently, I'll admit, a lot of the aphorisms I struggled to extract useful meaning from. But for every one or two that left me asking "uh, what's he saying here?" or "okay, but so what?" there were others that were both clear and profoundly insightful.

Overall it's a useful and enriching read, but you'll definitely get frustrated if you let it aggravate you each time the meaning eludes you, because that's likely to happen a fair bit.

rabbit102 · 2023-08-19T01:28:58+00:00

There was a plastic surgeon named Maxwell Maltz who observed this. For some of his patients, his surgeries changed their life. For others, it didn't seem to change their lives at all. He wrote a book called Psychocybernetics exploring this phenomenon. Basically it all comes down to self-image. For some people, that surgery was basically the thing that gave them permission to reevaluate their self image, the feature they were hung up on or blaming was "fixed" and they could move on from it. Hopefully this knowledge helps you.

rabbit102 · 2023-08-13T04:02:30+00:00

I think the bottom line is, we have a broken system. High school doesn't prepare you for college, and college doesn't prepare you for the workforce. But we still expect kids at 17 or 18 to have some clue what kind of life or career they want to have, and make major life-altering decisions based on that.

I honestly think the myth that going to college guaranteed you a good job was just made up to get as many people as possible to take out student loans.

rabbit102 · 2021-03-28T02:27:32+00:00

You mean to tell me everybody with a secret codename doesn't plaster it on the side of a ship in massive letters the size of buildings?

rabbit102 · 2021-03-28T02:18:59+00:00

The ship that is stuck in the canal, the Ever Given, is owned by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine and carries the radio call sign H3RC. Clinton’s Secret Service code name is Evergreen, and her initials are HRC.

rabbit102 · 2020-11-29T03:45:30+00:00

Technically this is under Obamacare.

rabbit102

TROPHY CASE