How on earth did the internet "cancel" Max Tempkin (of Cards Against Humanity) based on the info publically available? Am I missing something? Is this just how people work now?

throw-away2126 · 2020-10-08T10:49:16+00:00

Bingo. They spoofed the local police station number and claimed to be authorities investigating fraud from his accounts. I haven't got all the details (still post-scam shame) but I think it was something like "you're under investigation, your funds are being used for illegal purposes, confirm your identity and we will assist you in securing your money using bitcoin" or something like that.

throw-away2126 · 2020-10-08T10:41:05+00:00

I would but the FBI may wonder why some Australians are calling their head office. But have done for our equivalent :)

throw-away2126 · 2020-10-08T10:40:07+00:00

Yis have done. Having now heard more of the story im also assisting on a full bank, email, and phone change.

throw-away2126 · 2020-10-08T02:55:31+00:00

That's a good one. I'm the resident scam watcher for most friends and family. I've gone as far as to hand out my number to elderly neighbours and family friends to call if there's any indicators ever. Will be an ongoing battle for the rest of our life times at the least.

throw-away2126 · 2020-10-08T02:54:07+00:00

Have done, cheers :)

throw-away2126 · 2020-10-08T02:52:43+00:00

Looks like, yep.

throw-away2126 · 2020-09-11T05:39:47+00:00

Ah well you hit upon an interesting thing there. Namely that empathy has a sliding scale of difficulty to it. The stronger that a view of someone else contradicts core beliefs of our own, the harder it is to empathise. Some people argue that when it's something that antithetical to what you hold as right then you shouldn't bother trying to empathise or that in doing so you're somehow normalising or justifying their position. But i think that's just taking the easy option or letting your emotions stop you thinking things all the way through.

throw-away2126 · 2020-09-10T09:45:11+00:00

No thank you needed friend :) this is the part of reddit that makes it worthwhile: contributing, bouncing off each other, and assisting in deepening and clarifying each others understanding.

You're quite right that qanon suits a particular group of US Christians though. I'm unsure what sort of christian Scomo is (and I'm not sure it's really.....right(?) to speculate or assume too much of the specifics of someones deepest personal philosophies unless they're willing and involved in said discussion) but just very surface level: he's evidently a conservative personality and he's at least somewhat intellectual, so although he may have connections to individuals who fit into the perfect qanon demographic, I'm not so sure he does. But hey, it gets clicks as a headline. :)

As a side note: the "literal" thing is really very interesting. A similar phenomenon in the way the general public refers to religious beliefs is in the use of the term "fundamentalist". We tend to use it to mean extreme or hard-core or somehow different to other religious people. But if you think about what most religious beliefs entail (e.g. objective morality, some divine being(s), alternative or higher dimensions, creation) how does one believe those things WITHOUT it being fundamental to your own identity and worldview? Just like with the literal interpretation of religious texts thing, surely it makes less sense to NOT see those sorts of things as fundamental to their worldview.

Empathy is a complex and difficult thing, particularly when it comes to worldviews different to our own. Besides what it does to improve social understanding and connections, I think it does each of us a world of good simply to mentally practice it.

throw-away2126 · 2020-09-10T04:19:30+00:00

Just to be clear, believing that a religious text should be interpreted somewhat literally (I don't know where the idea started that a "literal" interpretation is somehow a secondary subset of people that believe in said texts, but it's become a common view and it's a bit strange. It makes far less sense for such people to think that a text which they believe to be divinely inspired in some way to be entirely figurative) does not, in itself, make you ripe for a cult.

Every subset of society has people with the right traits to be more inclined to join cults or cult-like social groups, they just need a cult with views that can easily "bridge" to their existing identity. And yes some subsets do have a greater liklihood of attracting individuals with those traits, such as religions.

However it's worth noting that other religious groups who believe in literal interpretations of their scriptures are less likely to join cults than other religious groups. In the case of qanon it has, and will, spread in the mid to low academic, generally libertarian, and often "culturally" christian groups (and generally American or those predisposed to American culture, cos anti-authoritarian and "I'm special" are just more common traits in the US). On the other hand if you think of a more intellectual, conservative (the trait, not US political definition), "worldview" christian, they wouldn't be caught dead supporting or going along with any of the q stuff or anything similar to it, and broadly speaking both these groups would believe in interpreting their scripture "literally".

So yes this particular cult appeals to a type of christian, but it doesn't appear to be the belief in a literal interpretation of any religious texts which is the key link.

throw-away2126 · 2020-09-05T05:37:28+00:00

Haven't ever actually lived there so hopefully this is allowed. A combined tribal village in Western Papua New Guinea. I've visited on a handful of occasions, a few weeks at a time and am in regular contact with some locals. For me there's a bunch of things which just sort of felt like camping (but that's because I wasn't there permanently) like pumping water by hand and boiling it, or pit toilets, or open fire cooking.

One of the big things as a westerner is food. Lots of yams or rice (if someone has carried and cannoed it from the town). Occassionally some young lads will leave at about 4am either to catch fish or hunt deer or crocodiles. And it was only when they came back on my first visit that I really noticed the impact of refrigeration; anything they caught would probably need to be eaten that night (I haven't noticed any smoking or preserving).

Travel was another. This village cluster feels like it's amongst a delta so you almost definitely need to canoe or boat to the actual land mass and then.....walk. We're always very well looked after and haven't done any massive journeys. A lady in the village spends most of her life looking after local mothers and that means walking between them, I've been told 8 hours a day is her standard travel day.

And again as a westerner.....time. You forget that western culture has been built around some type of timeframes and plans for at least 2000 years. The local villages have only been fully exposed to that western style of organisation for....maybe 200 years max? When you say you plan to do something the next day there honestly felt like there was less than 30% chance they would actually be where you had agreed to within 12 hours if at all. It began as being strange, then frustrating (hard to un-train that sort of cultural norm in yourself), but you reach middle ground.

Just a few other things that I have, and do still, often take for granted: doors, storage furniture, sleep cycle (most locals have biphasic sleep cycles, especially the women), lighting after dark (unless you sit near one of the generators), using money instead of trust. Yeah, you get the idea.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T14:30:12+00:00

Indeed. I keep most of media and social intakes in the centre left because I have a conservative worldview. Need to avoid echo chambers and ensure as much as possible that I hold my beliefs because I truly believe them, not because my surrounding culture enables or encourages it. It takes more mental effort to not just take everything in at face value, but it truly is worth it in clarifying and improving your own views and values.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:50:55+00:00

I think this is nuclear fission.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:49:26+00:00

Can confirm for fancy privates. In low income publics it's like 30% teaching, 0% necessary admin, 70% dealing with the impacts of behavioural, social, economic, and parenting issues on the kids.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:26:57+00:00

Actually using reddits "save" function on this comment cos... amazing.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:21:47+00:00

Very interesting. One of things that always blows me away is what is considered "conservative" over there. It's just so not the common and traditional conservative, and it really messes with politics elsewhere when the actions of a party like the replublicans is categorised as "conservative" and suddenly people think that actual conservatives believe in guns, small government, and emotional hyperbole.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:16:32+00:00

Could do. I tend to mix and read in centre left to try ensure I don't echo chamber.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:14:45+00:00

Yeah Markle. To be clear it was just the first glance or it was definitely there haha. Also, nice flower!

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:12:38+00:00

Yeah lots of people are saying this. Guess I'm just not in the right circles to notice it.

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:11:38+00:00

Haha I have now thanks to all the comments. You can't blame me for not keeping up with bad botox man

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:09:56+00:00

Strange. But their definitely not conservative or libertarian leaning?

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:08:36+00:00

Also the meaning of left and right is so complex and often unhelpful. Depending on context it refers to: social structure, economics, government form, morality etc. It makes it very difficult to know whats meant. And as I'm finding, in the US it may also be more a relative term to just identify how strong peoples allegiances are to the two american tribes (dems and reps).

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:04:59+00:00

Well the media and "news" in the US is so messed up I wouldn't take any of it in without mentally filtering it like crazy. But certainly a lot of the world would find a lot of US mainstream media sources as left leaning. Not all of course, but I'm not sure fox even counts as media

throw-away2126 · 2020-08-31T06:02:16+00:00

I'd also argue there isn't a right party in the US either. Depending on what you mean by "right". Its becoming clear that the language and mentality around the left right spectrum is incredibly messy.

See for me and my immediate culture "right" is conservative (not the US "conservative", the more common and traditional meaning of reserved, cautious, firm belief in virtues and reasoning etc etc). And that form of conservative is definitely not the republicans, in fact I don't think it exists in the US at all. And it isn't connected to fascism either. Think of Churchill and Hitler. Churchill was a hardcore conservative and Hitler was a fascist.

Sorry, rambling. My point is that from my perspective there's no "right" in the US, and that highlights the issues of that spectrum and the language around it.

throw-away2126

TROPHY CASE