Transgender and transrace - what´s the difference?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2021:

They are quite different. Since as race is a purely cultural idea, there can be no biological reason for wanting to change the race you were said, by culture, to be born into, since biology only exists in the real material world and can never be a part of a purely human cultural construct. (You ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

@JeffMurray That's my main point, ( please read the one above your first comment.) it is that it is not deserving of hatred to change your race if you are wrongly assigned to a race, I give an example above where I am sure that society would be quite happy for someone to change race. It is just that it is far less likely that you will be wrongly assigned a race, than a sex/gender. People don't have a problem with people changing sex/gender when they are wrongly assigned, though they would if for example if someone were to do it for a phony reason, such as wanting to claim a social security benefit only available to the opposite sex/gender. Though because there are many genuine cases, most who do sex/gender change get the, benefit of the doubt. Likewise, anyone who was really assigned a wrong race label, as in my example above, would probably be treated with sympathy. My point being that society as a whole is not really againtst changing either, only phoney changes where the change is not because they are wrongly labeled in the first place. It is just that wrong sex/gender labeling is commonplace whereas wrong race labeling, even though it is not real, is rare. I am sorry if I was not plain but I muddied the waters a lot by trying to make an unneeded point about labeling as well. Should have given my remarks more thought.

By all means marry - if you get a good wife, you'll become happy: if you get a bad one, you'll ...

Marionville comments on Oct 31, 2021:

…or become a stand-up comedian! 😅

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

@Marionville Oh no, I think that those, are WAY older than that.

By all means marry - if you get a good wife, you'll become happy: if you get a bad one, you'll ...

Marionville comments on Oct 31, 2021:

…or become a stand-up comedian! 😅

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

The ancient philosophers and the modern stand up, may well be the same thing, certainly Socrates loved a joke, and told them in public.

Transgender and transrace - what´s the difference?

ClassicalRebel comments on Oct 30, 2021:

I was reading one of Darwin's books and became aware that in his time at least race was defined as a significant variation within a species. Look race up in the dictionary. Race not only applied to humans but to all other animals and plants. A poodle or a pit bull for instance would be examples ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

Yes I agree. Though there is the small point, that biologist do not usually recognize the idea of human races, because, although races exist in some species, the differences between humans are not considered to be great enough, or to use term you quote, there is not enough significant variation, to constitute races as the term is used in other species. This may be an example of biologists finding an excuse to be PC. But there is some good evidence for it. Especially the fact, that humans passed through a genetic bottle neck approximately some seventy thousand years ago, which means that we all carry a virtually identical X chromosome, having a single female ancestor, and that the human species as a whole has less genetic variation than that found in the average family of chimpanzee. Genetic variation exists, is real, but is not considered enough for the biological term race. Morphotype or variety perhaps.

Transgender and transrace - what´s the difference?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2021:

They are quite different. Since as race is a purely cultural idea, there can be no biological reason for wanting to change the race you were said, by culture, to be born into, since biology only exists in the real material world and can never be a part of a purely human cultural construct. (You ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

@JeffMurray Yes I was using the terms quite loose because their exact meaning did not really affect the argument. But qualification accepted.

How atheists have become racist.

Heavykevy1985 comments on Oct 31, 2021:

This article is about vaccine mandates and religious exemptions. Where is the racism?

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

Its moved on again, its about education now.

The old pine stump at the bottom of my garden, has made some late season colour, quite a spectacle.

KateOahu comments on Oct 30, 2021:

They actually look like oyster mushrooms to me, but… The sulphur shelf (Laetiporus sulphureus) mushroom is also known as chicken-of-the-woods or chicken mushroom. It’s a bright orange or yellow mushroom with a unique, meaty flavor. Growth Sulphur shelf mushrooms grow on hardwood trees ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

Thank you. I know little of fungi, that is exactly the sort of information that I hoped the post would bring out. Since it is on a conifer stump, Ishall play safe and not taste it.

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Attributed to Socrates

callmedubious comments on Oct 31, 2021:

as an unrepentant cynic i don't believe that the rich's battle is a hard as the poor's battle.

Fernapple replies on Oct 31, 2021:

Very true. Though as Dr Johnson said. Wealth only takes away one of lifes miseries. (Meaning poverty.) And Socrates did live in a culture where there was not the technical power to enable wealth to buy things like health, or faster transport, the rich and poor alike suffered primitive medicine and nobody traveled faster than a man could run.

The old pine stump at the bottom of my garden, has made some late season colour, quite a spectacle.

glennlab comments on Oct 30, 2021:

edible or no?

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

I have no idea. Not willing to risk it.

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Attributed to Socrates

Pralina1 comments on Oct 30, 2021:

Yes . I regret the many times 30 and even 15 yrs ago that I was a total asshole to people who I knew nothing important about . Judging and treating them based to my assumptions , my ideas and my opinions about their lives . Ewww🤢🙁

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

It is a good job that non of us burn in hell for our sins forever, as the Xians think. Who did not do a whole range of stupid things in youth, life is a learning curve, and no one should be punished for, or regret, the mistakes they make while learning.

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Attributed to Socrates

Pralina1 comments on Oct 30, 2021:

Yes . I regret the many times 30 and even 15 yrs ago that I was a total asshole to people who I knew nothing important about . Judging and treating them based to my assumptions , my ideas and my opinions about their lives . Ewww🤢🙁

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

@MsKathleen Just what I was going to say.

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Attributed to Socrates

FrayedBear comments on Oct 30, 2021:

Unfortunately most "hard battles" are due to other's stupidity. Never be kind or underestimate the number of stupids around you. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

@FrayedBear Yes, but being unkind only increases the justification they have for their selfishness.

"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Attributed to Socrates

FrayedBear comments on Oct 30, 2021:

Unfortunately most "hard battles" are due to other's stupidity. Never be kind or underestimate the number of stupids around you. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M._Cipolla

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

No. While I think that sometimes you have to be unkind to be kind, as the saying goes, I think that the stupid deserve perhaps even more kindness than most.

Transgender and transrace - what´s the difference?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2021:

They are quite different. Since as race is a purely cultural idea, there can be no biological reason for wanting to change the race you were said, by culture, to be born into, since biology only exists in the real material world and can never be a part of a purely human cultural construct. (You ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

@Matias But you are missing my point too. The national analogy works well, because it makes the point that there could be times when it is normal to change your race label. (Even if not your race because those do not exist. Which is an issue it was perhaps better not to address since it muddies the water.) So to give an example, which I seem to remember has happened, and is not just hypothetical. Forget about race as such, and think about skin colour for a second, because that is a real world genetic thing. Supposing a child is born to parents with black skin colouration, but is adopted by parents with white skin, and as it happens the child's skin is a very pale form within the normal black range. So that the child, having not been told about its adoption, grows up thinking that it has the same white skin colour genes as its adoptive parents, but later it finds out the truth, in the same sort of way, finds its birth papers. (This really has happened. ) The child then chooses to identify thereafter as having black colouration ancestry, (falsely know as race ). In this case I do not think that it is plausible that anyone, or any human sub-culture, save a few on the lunatic fringe, would have a problem with the child making the change as a correction. Because real world thing, genetics, has been mislabelled with a human cultural label of the wrong sort. That is why using race changing as an analogy of that sort, for gender changing, does not work, because it is the wrong sort of race changing. Most sex changing is to correct a error, and so could race changing be to correct an error as in my example, but you are using an example where an error is being created. Which is a false analogy because, changes made to correct errors are not the same thing, as changes made when no error is present.

Transgender and transrace - what´s the difference?

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2021:

They are quite different. Since as race is a purely cultural idea, there can be no biological reason for wanting to change the race you were said, by culture, to be born into, since biology only exists in the real material world and can never be a part of a purely human cultural construct. (You ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

@Matias Yes it does solve the riddle. Because cultural constructs are about labels, so that yes you can change your nationality from, say, German to French, if you you born German changing the label of your nationality to French. But that does not change the historical label, if someone asks you your nationality, then you say French. But if someone asks you the nationality you were born into, then you would be telling an untruth if you did not answer German. But if you thought all your life that you were born in Germany, had lived in Germany as a German person, but you then found out later that you were born in France. Say your parents died and going through their papers you found that your birth certificate was actually issued in France, then you would be telling the truth if someone asked you, what is your place of birth, and you said France. Because place of birth may be labeled with the name of a nation state, but it is still a real thing, where a nation state itself is only a cultural construct, and labels can be wrongly asigned.

COVID-19 live updates: Being vaccinated offers better protection than being infected: Study The ...

Druvius comments on Oct 29, 2021:

Duh. Vaccines are easily one of science and medicine's greatest inventions, saving literally countless millions of lives over their centuries of use. Adverse reactions are beyond trivial in comparison. Anti-vaxxers are, well, brain dead fools. No different than people who refuse to wear seat belts.

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

I always think that the anti-vax argument is like saying, you would rather be locked in a cage with a live tiger, than be in a room with a tiger skin rug, because you could have a dust mite allergy.

Just read this article on my MSN news feed.

Paul4747 comments on Oct 27, 2021:

I thought it was the Greeks who built the foundations of Western civilization and architecture. And the Founding Fathers certainly thought so.

Fernapple replies on Oct 30, 2021:

@Triphid Of course, being completely contradictory and meaningless it can be interpreted to say anything you want, which is what makes it the number one most popular book, with those who like to tell others what to think.

So, this happened this morning.

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2021:

No idea. Not enough information, you are asking us to assume, based on stereotypes. But like the old joke goes. Assume makes an ass out of you and me. (Spelling joke.)

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@KKGator You see I knew I would be no good at guessing, stick to assumptions.

So, this happened this morning.

Fernapple comments on Oct 29, 2021:

No idea. Not enough information, you are asking us to assume, based on stereotypes. But like the old joke goes. Assume makes an ass out of you and me. (Spelling joke.)

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@KKGator OK. I guess it was you.

"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.

Diogenes comments on Oct 29, 2021:

Well, I don't think 'Soc' got that one right; weak minds discuss nothing.

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@Marionville Though I would perhaps go with Keith, and say that perhaps Socrates was a little off the mark, because he also said, if I remember right, something about, the proper study of man being man. Which seems like he was contradicting himself, unless in this case he did not mean people so much as gossip, or the hollow puppet political images of people which are gossip's subject, rather than the deep meaningful study of human nature. But that is just the sort of nuance which gets lost in translation. ( Perhaps I remember wrong.)

Just read this article on my MSN news feed.

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2021:

A heroic act of courage and self sacrifice, going deep into the enemy camp to gather information, you deserve a medal and a pay rise ! And don't ever do anything so stupid again !!!!

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@Triphid I stand corrected. Thank you.

"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.

Diogenes comments on Oct 29, 2021:

Well, I don't think 'Soc' got that one right; weak minds discuss nothing.

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

Oh I don't agree with that, in my experience, weak minds chatter away like mad all the time, and the highest level reached is gossip, though that could count as nothing I suppose.

Just read this article on my MSN news feed.

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2021:

A heroic act of courage and self sacrifice, going deep into the enemy camp to gather information, you deserve a medal and a pay rise ! And don't ever do anything so stupid again !!!!

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@Triphid As just a mater of fact, some mental illnesses are contagious, like rabies, BSE, Consumption and brain thrush.

Just read this article on my MSN news feed.

Paul4747 comments on Oct 27, 2021:

I thought it was the Greeks who built the foundations of Western civilization and architecture. And the Founding Fathers certainly thought so.

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@Paul4747 The Bible is the one book someone will still read to you when you are grown up, like a bedtime story every Sunday. Saves you having to do any reading for yourself. And it is so mixed up and contradictory, it is virtually meaningless. Saves you having to think for yourself.

Which mask would you choose?

Lauren comments on Oct 28, 2021:

I like them all but, living in Texas, I don't need the stress of wondering whether I'll be attacked (or my tires slashed) for wearing most of them, so I choose "Vaxed and masked for your protection." It's less confrontational and less likely to incite the crazies. Although I look better in black ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

It is also quite intelligent. Maybe too much for some, could cause unfamiliar thinking.

Just read this article on my MSN news feed.

Fernapple comments on Oct 28, 2021:

A heroic act of courage and self sacrifice, going deep into the enemy camp to gather information, you deserve a medal and a pay rise ! And don't ever do anything so stupid again !!!!

Fernapple replies on Oct 29, 2021:

@Triphid Careful. The threat to mental health is serious, you would not want to catch whatever it is that Evangelloon caught would you ?

I am not short... I'm just more down to earth than other people.

barjoe comments on Oct 27, 2021:

It's better to have loved and lost a short girl than to have never loved a tall.

Fernapple replies on Oct 28, 2021:

Groan.

Just read this article on my MSN news feed.

Paul4747 comments on Oct 27, 2021:

I thought it was the Greeks who built the foundations of Western civilization and architecture. And the Founding Fathers certainly thought so.

Fernapple replies on Oct 28, 2021:

They are not required to have a knowledge of history, in fact it is better if they don't. Along with theology, science, philosophy, law, political thought, geography and........ Well its just best not to do the knowledge thing at all. LOL ( This is no joke, I really have heard believers make that argument.)

Help is on its way.

Cyklone comments on Oct 28, 2021:

Dammit, I have a right to not poke things up my nose. I've done my research and doing this will rot your nose and eat away your brain. There hasn't yet been enough research into this and it sounds as if they've just rushed it out, so I'll wait until there's better research. I'd rather let my ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 28, 2021:

Plus you may be spraying government microchips up your nose, so that the CIA can tell what you eat.

“Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ...

mcgeo52 comments on Oct 28, 2021:

This assumes organized religion has a conscience.

Fernapple replies on Oct 28, 2021:

People may indeed join religions for social support against any growing of a conscience.

Nothing can stand forever before the greatest force in human life, the one power which destroys ...

Matias comments on Oct 27, 2021:

I am not so optimistic. The interest of the public shifts quickly, it can fall and rise within weeks or months. I guess that this man will stage a comeback. Question : Is there one guy in the ´´Conservative´´ camp that could push Trump permanently into oblivion and replace him as leader of ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 27, 2021:

That could be very true, sadly yes.

"It is no longer who reaches the highest, but the one who, influenced by the beauty that surrounds ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 26, 2021:

Appreciation is the secret of life and happiness.

Fernapple replies on Oct 27, 2021:

@MsKathleen Very true.

Nothing can stand forever before the greatest force in human life, the one power which destroys ...

Organist1 comments on Oct 26, 2021:

Yes, but polls still have him tied with Biden in 2024. SMH...

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2021:

Is that him or is it just the Republicans, you get stats like that, and I will bet a few repubs are thinking. " Maybe we could do better with someone else. "

As the the darkness festival of the Autumn draws near.

Charlene comments on Oct 26, 2021:

What happened good ol' Vlad, and his sister?

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2021:

Knew he had a brother, and a wife, but never heard of a sister.

"It is no longer who reaches the highest, but the one who, influenced by the beauty that surrounds ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 26, 2021:

Appreciation is the secret of life and happiness.

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2021:

@MsKathleen Yes. Though I was thinking of the other way round. If you love a blue sky and sunshine you will be happy, but if you think that clowds are beautiful too, you will be even happier.

Seems to be a spirit world theme

creative51 comments on Oct 26, 2021:

Where do you find all this wisdom anyway?

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2021:

Me thinking the same thing.

Roll up, roll up! Going cheap. Starving Afghanistan girl babies..

Fernapple comments on Oct 26, 2021:

Yes it was on the BBC news last night too, made my friend cry.

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2021:

@Lorajay Afghanistan has been sytematically f####d up by the Saudies, the west and the old Soviet Union, with a little help from China and the UN in general, and a lot of help from the Prophet of Mecca for the last century. It is a first class example of what the international community and religion can acheive when they really fail together. Sadly the little girls who are sold to old men, for forced marriage to their grandsons when they are twelve, are perhaps the lucky ones, not all of the buyers will honour even that much of the bargin.

Richard Dawkins - Science is the poetry of reality [youtube.com]

whiskywoman comments on Oct 26, 2021:

that was it ???

Fernapple replies on Oct 26, 2021:

@phxbillcee LInk ?

Makes sense to me!

Fernapple comments on Oct 25, 2021:

To prove that your father is a dog. Imagine that you have bought a dog, therefore it is your dog. Your dog has mated with a bitch and made puppies, therefore it is a father. Therefore your father is a dog.

Fernapple replies on Oct 25, 2021:

@TheoryNumber3 It is intended to make the point that, the shambolic series of historical accidents which we call language , is no guide to truth, though many people make that error, because language, like religion, is so deeply tangled at the root of our cultures.

When I die, I want to be composted. [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2021:

Die in the forest, where the wildlife can eat me.

Fernapple replies on Oct 24, 2021:

@Barnie2years Seriously hypothermia is probably one of the best ways to go, certainly a lot better than the so called high quality deaths offered by the medical services, which having sat in several death rooms, I know to be a joke.

When I die, I want to be composted. [youtube.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2021:

Die in the forest, where the wildlife can eat me.

Fernapple replies on Oct 24, 2021:

@Gwendolyn2018 Tell him, no more cookies, then. lol

There was a time when "free-thinker" was a common synonym for "atheist".

Fernapple comments on Oct 24, 2021:

I think you have a good point. But there is a small qualification which needs to be made, which is that you are making an assumption that modern atheists and free thinkers are the "same people" as you phrase it, as the atheists and free thinkers of the past. But that of course is probably not the ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 24, 2021:

@waitingforgodo Of course, but each post is a new game.

It needs more love.....

racocn8 comments on Oct 23, 2021:

Worship??? And you can't prove it exists to those who won't listen.

Fernapple replies on Oct 24, 2021:

@Dhiltong So does the word 'prove'. And you never said "prove" to everyone.

When I die, I want to be composted. [youtube.com]

dalefvictor comments on Oct 24, 2021:

I want cheap and green. Take my dead corpse and put it in Young's Bay out far from the road and let the fish, birds, and other creatures eat me. Then perhaps a bird will eat me and fly to Washington DC and shit on a politician.

Fernapple replies on Oct 24, 2021:

I thought. That's very like mine, then I read your last line, and I thought. No that's even better than mine, by a long way. Lol

1. There is something alive, down on the ground in my garden. 2. Problem solved, terminated.

Robecology comments on Oct 23, 2021:

Cats are great predators for voles, mice and other small rodents. Unfortunately...they're very good at killing many bird species as well.

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2021:

The main victims with me tend to be the harmless shrews, which I find left for dead all over the garden.

What a tragedy.

Matias comments on Oct 22, 2021:

That was the time when almost all scientists subscribed to the "blank slate" theory, that there is no such thing as "human nature", that humans are the only animal with total malleability, not only concerning sex.

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2021:

Yep. Though it was never all of science, some, brave few, like some of the behaviorists, stuck it out. It was mostly a politically motivated influence over science, by the Stalinist left and the religious right, working in an unnatural pact. It caused some horrible crimes. Being, for example, at the bottom of the politically motivated mental health dogmas in the Soviet Union, which resulted in the deaths of millions who proved resistant to "education". I remember it being pedalled at me in college, by an extreme left religious apologist. A man so evil and twisted, ( He had to be to combine those two. ) that my memories of his dogma and smugness still fuel my disgust with religion to this day.

Jesus shaves?

Redheadedgammy comments on Oct 22, 2021:

Wait a minute, I thought Jewish men weren’t allowed to shave? Lol

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2021:

In those days most people did not shave, though it was a fashion with the Greeks, and it probably if you did do it then it signaled that you were open to and embracing Greek culture. Which included, most obviously, the celebration of homosexual love, but you would not think that thirteeen blokes who left home and mariage to form a social club and follow a charismatic leader would be open to that, would you ?

"When do we invade Australia?

Paul4747 comments on Oct 22, 2021:

Maybe so, but your link doesn't show it.

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2021:

Yep link does not work for me either.

This American is ashamed of much of our infrastructure.

Leetx comments on Oct 22, 2021:

4 trillion for Iraq, 2.5 trillion for Afghanistan.. but, roads and bridges in America ? NO WAY

Fernapple replies on Oct 23, 2021:

I think G. B. Shaw said. That a bullet takes more than one life, one the person it kills, and a little bit of all the lives wasted making it and paying for it.

Excerpts from Thomas M.

Fernapple comments on Oct 22, 2021:

Why would a relativist be defending " established knowledge" surely established knowledge is as far away from relativism as you can get. Seems ironic.

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2021:

@bbyrd009 Interesting, do please enlarge.

Excerpts from Thomas M.

Fernapple comments on Oct 22, 2021:

Why would a relativist be defending " established knowledge" surely established knowledge is as far away from relativism as you can get. Seems ironic.

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2021:

@TheMiddleWay Relativism above all, if it is about anything, is about the denial of established knowledge. I am not telling you to change any of your views, or that any of them are wrong, I am just saying that you have applied a wrong label to yourself. Come on man up and admit to a minor mistake. And we did not talk about this at length, if you think that, you do not know my idea of length.

if Potential Spam calls back I'm gonna ask 'em out.

Gwendolyn2018 comments on Oct 21, 2021:

I love to play with them. Next time, I am going to ask the caller what he/she is wearing and go from there.

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2021:

I go direct to the colour of their underwear.

Sometimes the little details make all the difference.

Fernapple comments on Oct 21, 2021:

I wonder what is on the front ?

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2021:

@whiskywoman Is it not the tail it seems to come out behind the bum star ?

I am sick and tired of being told I must understand Trump voters.

Fernapple comments on Oct 21, 2021:

You wrote. "To me, they are selfish, ignorant and mean." I think that you understand them perfectly, I don't see the problem.

Fernapple replies on Oct 22, 2021:

@LiterateHiker Oh I see the problem you have with them, I meant, I just don't see the problem you have with 'understanding' them, you seem to have done that perfectly.

Sometimes the little details make all the difference.

Fernapple comments on Oct 21, 2021:

I wonder what is on the front ?

Fernapple replies on Oct 21, 2021:

@zeuser I was thinking of something beginning with P and ending with S. LOL

quit chasin normal....it's a myth

Fernapple comments on Oct 20, 2021:

When I was young, I wanted to be a great eccentric. So I did my best. When I was mature, I knew that I had failed and had just become the village idiot. Now I am old, I am OK with that. Since I now know that all the worlds great eccentrics really wanted to be the village idiot, all the time. ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 20, 2021:

@whiskywoman Thank you. But sadly, that's not what the people in my village think. LOL

Religion scholar Anthea Butler on "White Christianity" and its role in fueling fascism [msn.com]

AnonySchmoose comments on Oct 20, 2021:

It is depressing to know that many people buy the BS

Fernapple replies on Oct 20, 2021:

@AnonySchmoose It is I think almost inevitable, that crazy people with crazy ideas, gravitate to religion. Since it is the one source of structure, prestige and political power, which does not require those following it, to demonstrate that their ideals are justified by logic, like academic institutions, evidence, like science, or mainstream universal democratic support, like genuine politics. Religion, in secular states especially, has always prospered, by being the provider of an alternate voice to the political mainstream, but now that we live in a world where most nation states, legal systems and academic institutions etc. have embraced evidence, reason, human rights, and universal suffrage, who needs an alternate voice except the anti-social ? The manifest destiny of religion is with the criminal until democracy fails, it may get worse yet, though hopefully it will get smaller as moderate people are driven away.

I love an old story, and they don't come much older than this.

waitingforgodo comments on Oct 20, 2021:

Mmm, bilateral symmetry, well ahead.

Fernapple replies on Oct 20, 2021:

Yes. Never managed it myself, I bend to the right, though not politically. LOL

Someone mentioned the Canadian Hubert Reeves on here a few months ago.

Robecology comments on Oct 19, 2021:

And if we "win" - NBD...99% of all life that was ever on earth is now extinct.... I think Procyon's likely to be the next dominant species;

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2021:

@Robecology Yes we still have hedgehogs, sadly they are getting fewer all the time. when I was young you saw them everywhere, but today they are an uncommon thing. And sadly again, you more often see them dead by the roadside, they have very poor road skills, which combined with the shortage of insects, due to the agricultural industry, the many hazards in gardens, rat and slug poisons, and perhaps the rising numbers of their natural predator the badger, due to legal protection of badgers, they are having a hard time.

Someone mentioned the Canadian Hubert Reeves on here a few months ago.

Robecology comments on Oct 19, 2021:

And if we "win" - NBD...99% of all life that was ever on earth is now extinct.... I think Procyon's likely to be the next dominant species;

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2021:

Your trash collectors are a lot more cute than ours, all we seem to get are ugly old blokes. ( Nothing wrong with ugly old blokes, of course, one myself. )

That tiny little town on the south coast of Crete, called Ierapetra, was where my husband and I ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 18, 2021:

Crete is lovely, though I only know the area round Rethimno.

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2021:

@TheoryNumber3 Yes they are very kind. I want to go back one day and do the more touristy things like Konosus, which I missed out on the first time.

An American asked his British friend to fill in the various US states on a blanked out map and this ...

Tejas comments on Oct 18, 2021:

He did awful. It looks more of a joke to me. I consider myself somewhat decent at geography. (I like maps history and like to know population density) I could do better with Europe than he did the us

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2021:

Yes I come from the UK and I think that he was deliberately having a joke, I mean mixing up Alaska and Hawaii, which have to be two of the most obvious.

That tiny little town on the south coast of Crete, called Ierapetra, was where my husband and I ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 18, 2021:

Crete is lovely, though I only know the area round Rethimno.

Fernapple replies on Oct 19, 2021:

@TheoryNumber3 I only took one bus ride which was not too dramatic, though very beautiful. Mainly I hiked, but I still got to some pretty dramatic places. Isolated churches in the mountians, Rethimno town centre which still has Islamic style windows, and coastal walks to bays only reachable on foot or by boat.

In the culture of victimhood, being a victim is well recognized.

linxminx comments on Oct 17, 2021:

Okay. Point taken. We can carry being a victim too far. But isn't that just as bad as not hearing nor listening to a victim at all? What's needed is balance. However, in my opinion, human beings and balance do not seem to live in the same universe. 😀

Fernapple replies on Oct 17, 2021:

Balance is good, but I think that just a lack of assumptions, is even better.

Science and medicine wins every time

RobertMartin comments on Oct 14, 2021:

I decided to update by including medicine because the comments made sense to me.

Fernapple replies on Oct 15, 2021:

Medicine could include faith healing, and new age rubbish its a very wide term, perhaps, scientific medicine, would have been the best choice.

I hear that people are quiting their jobs, can anyone explain this in common language?

waitingforgodo comments on Oct 14, 2021:

Put simply: Quantitative easing and concomitant fiscal imperatives, in the contextual framework of restrictive industrial motility and systemic crisis, has fomented a partial diversification in the attitudinal paradigm. We're all gunna die some day soon, why work.

Fernapple replies on Oct 15, 2021:

Sounds like someone actually took his new age philosophy lessons seriously. LOL

How many times a month, do you as an agnostic, answer to a point of an argument or to a direct ...

zeuser comments on Oct 13, 2021:

I've learned a while ago that you are not required to attend every argument to which you are invited. As for direct questions, if I don't know, I say I don't know. If it's important to me, I'll make a note and follow up on it. Except for little white lies (no, no, those jeans look great on you), I ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2021:

@zeuser Too late sorry.

"I've learned a while ago that you are not required to attend every argument to which you are ...

zeuser comments on Oct 14, 2021:

Well, I wish I was the one who thought it up. I stole this from a meme, I have no idea who originated it. BUT, I wholeheartedly agree with it, and I do try to live by it.

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2021:

Ten out of ten for honesty then. LOL

Dangerous unicorns

Killtheskyfairy comments on Oct 13, 2021:

And the lower two are real even!

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2021:

The top one maybe real in a sense. Since if you read the description of the unicorn in the Bible, (Job,) it is fairly obvious that what they are taliking about, is a rhino.

How many times a month, do you as an agnostic, answer to a point of an argument or to a direct ...

zeuser comments on Oct 13, 2021:

I've learned a while ago that you are not required to attend every argument to which you are invited. As for direct questions, if I don't know, I say I don't know. If it's important to me, I'll make a note and follow up on it. Except for little white lies (no, no, those jeans look great on you), I ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 14, 2021:

I love. "you are not required to attend every argument to which you are invited." That would make a great quote. Will post it, I hope you don't mind.

How many times a month, do you as an agnostic, answer to a point of an argument or to a direct ...

DenoPenno comments on Oct 13, 2021:

Let me modify the question you are giving and change it to a simple "I don't know." I say it a lot in religious discussions without going on forever about bible doctrine. One of my favorites is **"I don't know and you don't either. You're making it up." **If this gets back to "the bible says" I ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 13, 2021:

Good answer, that could have been my reply too, if I could write so well.

White Nationalist CAUGHT On Camera By Anti-Karen - YouTube

MikeInBatonRouge comments on Oct 12, 2021:

I could not help but notice the heavy presence of alcohol, which may very well impair judgment and impact the tone of the discourse, but it certainly doesn't excuse it. The alcohol seems mostly to have "helped" in the removal of this "Ken's" personal self-policing function. Perfect opportunity to ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 13, 2021:

"There is truth in wine and children." Plato or Socrates.

The Dark World of New Age Gurus

rainmanjr comments on Oct 12, 2021:

From Tao te Jing.

Fernapple replies on Oct 13, 2021:

Great quote.

Let me paraphrase an absolutely true statement by Adam Schiff: It is not true that power ...

Matias comments on Oct 12, 2021:

What political crisis? There has never been a time or place in history when men did not seek power. Therefore, the present is just business as usual. If there is a crisis, the origin is not to be found in the characters of men (because those characters are the same whereever you look), but in the...

Fernapple replies on Oct 13, 2021:

@wordywalt If your post is mainly intended to be about the USA today, then perhaps it would be good to make that plainer. Since this site is seen all around the world, and therefore people like Matias and I, who are both from Europe are bound to see it as generalized statements.

10 Reasons to Wear a Mask

Fernapple comments on Oct 12, 2021:

You should wear them all the time, corona virus or not, there are lots of other infections out there, humans are probably the dirtiest species on the planet, (we have the most diseases ) and the mouth is our dirtiest part. A no brainer as they say.

Fernapple replies on Oct 12, 2021:

@KKGator You can look really good in them too.

Boredom:

Fernapple comments on Oct 12, 2021:

I like to lower the car window, when I am passing perfect strangers, lean out for a second or two, and call out. "Hey, long time no see, how you doin', really should catch up, but anyway I will see you this weekend. See you soon !" And drive off. Sometimes I like to address small children who are...

Fernapple replies on Oct 12, 2021:

@yvilletom Yes but they are private in the UK.

Let me paraphrase an absolutely true statement by Adam Schiff: It is not true that power ...

Matias comments on Oct 12, 2021:

What political crisis? There has never been a time or place in history when men did not seek power. Therefore, the present is just business as usual. If there is a crisis, the origin is not to be found in the characters of men (because those characters are the same whereever you look), but in the...

Fernapple replies on Oct 12, 2021:

@wordywalt Both Matias and I read it the same way, as that is what it seems to mean. And I am not sure that is true, human character is very much modified by experience, including that of power, though I would not deny all genetic determinism and certainly think some people will be more prone to corruption than others. I do think that both extremmes are in error. Corruption is in part both learned and inherent, and it is wrong to over simplify.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

Diogenes comments on Oct 12, 2021:

"Wealthy with what I've gained on the way"? Satire?

Fernapple replies on Oct 12, 2021:

No, I dont think so. In the bigger context of the whole poem, it seems to refer to experiences and memories. It is of course a metaphor using the travels of Odysseus as a base, it goes on to say that Ithaca is poor, but it is a launch pad and a retreat at the end, and better at both of those because it is poor.

Today's hike: "Don't look!"

DenoPenno comments on Oct 11, 2021:

I'm sure there are hazards of outdoor peeing. One would be in getting caught. I find it strange today that so many people now claim you are contaminating the ground and maybe should be arrested. OMG! In my youth everyone peed outdoors. Even with an outdoor toilet you ended up peeing on the ground. I...

Fernapple replies on Oct 12, 2021:

You take the wild berries and fungi out of the woods to eat, so you should put something back.

Believers and non-believers alike seem to gravitate toward literalizing mythology these days.

LiterateHiker comments on Oct 10, 2021:

Don't generalize about people. I alway have known myths, the Bible, Koran, etc. are just made-up stories.

Fernapple replies on Oct 11, 2021:

@skado No. "They are symbolic representations" yes, and sometimes of, "useful and most profound wisdom" but for the greater part by far, they are symbolic metaphorical representations of humanities collective folly, misunderstandings, lies and political propaganda. And the sad part is that religion does not make any distinction between what is true and good, and what is neither, which is why it, including its symbolism is increacingly only the resort of the anti social, and their most useful tool. Sorry but the world has moved on, and just because it is expressed indirectly by metaphor and symbolism, does not make it any less twadle than if it is expresssed directly. Saying that Adolph Hitler painted some rather nice landscapes, (they were pretty poor really) does not justify becoming a Nazi.

Where to go not just to read about or view history, but to live in it. [youtube.com]

whiskywoman comments on Oct 10, 2021:

romans bathed nude

Fernapple replies on Oct 11, 2021:

They also had showers, or something very like them, but they did not use soap, they used to rub each other with olive oil and then get a friend to rub it off. So I have this really big shower, with heads that send water everywhere, lots of room for more than one persion to splash about, and I can get olive oil. I was thinking if you are ever in England.....?

New Rule: The Slow-Moving Coup | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Oct 9, 2021:

Speaking as an outsider, who can only address the big picture, because I do not know the detail. I still think that the USA and its democracy, which has survived so much and climbed so many hurdles in its history, are stronger and better than that, and I hope I am not wrong. But if I am. ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 10, 2021:

@MyTVC15 Sorry can't help with that, it is not a new idea to draw parallels between ancient civilizations and modern ones, (often they are of very debatable value) so it could be one of many.

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and blind can see”……………..Mark Twain.

Castlepaloma comments on Oct 10, 2021:

Certainly the world can use alot more kindness than fear.

Fernapple replies on Oct 10, 2021:

@Marionville Sadly Twain's statement can be generalized to cover all emotions both good and bad.

You know you are!

DenoPenno comments on Oct 9, 2021:

I cannot go with the meme here. Science has never attempted to prove if gods were real or fake. There is no valid starting point to make them want to do so.

Fernapple replies on Oct 10, 2021:

I think that was Killtheskyfairy's point too.

New Rule: The Slow-Moving Coup | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Oct 9, 2021:

Speaking as an outsider, who can only address the big picture, because I do not know the detail. I still think that the USA and its democracy, which has survived so much and climbed so many hurdles in its history, are stronger and better than that, and I hope I am not wrong. But if I am. ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

@Buck Sadly yes. A few years ago I read a book called Rubicon by Tom Holland, about the last days of the Roman republic, and how its fall into the hands of dictators became inevitable, a story of class divisions, social breakdown, the loss of ideology, and economic corruption. It was all so familiar.

Individuals have the right to chose to not suffer, and NO government should have the power to make a...

Fernapple comments on Oct 9, 2021:

Yes, and no country should be in the business of enforcing theologically derived laws, but most of them are.

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

@Buck Its because they put the ideology first, and see people as there to serve the ideology, (as interpreted by them ) they don't see the ideology as being there to help them serve people.

New Rule: The Slow-Moving Coup | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - YouTube

Fernapple comments on Oct 9, 2021:

Speaking as an outsider, who can only address the big picture, because I do not know the detail. I still think that the USA and its democracy, which has survived so much and climbed so many hurdles in its history, are stronger and better than that, and I hope I am not wrong. But if I am. ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

@Buck He is usually correct, I do hope that this time he is in error. The one thing that I can say is that, predicting the future, especially political future, is almost impossible. Key players die suddenly, or are found to have f##ked someone else's partner, people do things like crash planes into buildings with all sorts of unforseen political consequences, the world is a very unpredictable place.

“Only stupid people never change their minds”………..….Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Castlepaloma comments on Oct 9, 2021:

I won't change my mind About being not for war, slavery, murders and stealing. Is that stupid?

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

Could not agree with you more, but it did say "never".

Found a good quote: "Correct a fool and he will get angry with you.

barjoe comments on Oct 8, 2021:

What if a fool corrects you? What if the person correcting you isn't correct? The wise man laughs.

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

If the person correcting you, is not correct, then it is not a correction, and you have not been corrected. Sorry. I love playing with words. Not really a paradox, but much the same sort of word play as in the famous. The second sentence in this paragraph is true. The first sentence in this paragraph is false. (If a fool corrects you, are they not a "wise fool".)

Going down this slide is called reverse ejaculation.

p-nullifidian comments on Oct 8, 2021:

Just think about it, the little kids get to yell, “I’m a sperm!” while sliding down the dick slide in the opposite direction.

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

Maybe the religious are right, and even sperm have freewill.

Freeman Dyson - Can Science Deal with God? - YouTube

skado comments on Oct 8, 2021:

Yes religion is art. And the job of art is to give expression to the truths that cannot be expressed in literal prose. It is the use of symbol and metaphor - the one capacity humans have that other animals don’t.

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

@rainmanjr Yes, while Beethoven certainly created some wonderful music, I am a fan, I can not say that he ever gave me an idea, at least not outside of those he expressed as musical notation, which is itself a form of writen prose (his only direct product). Therefore every idea in Beethoven is expressable as writen literal prose.

Freeman Dyson - Can Science Deal with God? - YouTube

skado comments on Oct 8, 2021:

Yes religion is art. And the job of art is to give expression to the truths that cannot be expressed in literal prose. It is the use of symbol and metaphor - the one capacity humans have that other animals don’t.

Fernapple replies on Oct 9, 2021:

@skado Yes, but you could not get them to understand the colour purple, by showing them a picture of it no mater how good the artist. While using metaphors such as warmth, is prose, perhaps not literal prose if you take a very crude and simplistic view of the term, which I would not, but you yourself have just expresssed the idea in words, as your example of what you say can not be expressed in words.

Slavery in the Bible There are 4 types of slavery referenced in the bible: INTRODUCTION  ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 8, 2021:

No information is useful in deconverting the religious. They have no interest in information. Everyone has to find their own path out, and finding an interest in information is one of the last stages, after people escape.

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

@SirDaddyGru Well done. And I am corrected. But I would still hold that your case is a quite rare and exceptional one.

Freeman Dyson - Can Science Deal with God? - YouTube

skado comments on Oct 8, 2021:

Yes religion is art. And the job of art is to give expression to the truths that cannot be expressed in literal prose. It is the use of symbol and metaphor - the one capacity humans have that other animals don’t.

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

@rainmanjr They cerytainly have a lot to say, but I am sorry to say that I do not think that theyhave anything to say that is not expressable as literal prose. Indeed since literal prose is compossed of words, which are themselves totally abstract symbols and metaphores, no idea could possibly exist which is not expressible as literal prose.

Freeman Dyson - Can Science Deal with God? - YouTube

skado comments on Oct 8, 2021:

Yes religion is art. And the job of art is to give expression to the truths that cannot be expressed in literal prose. It is the use of symbol and metaphor - the one capacity humans have that other animals don’t.

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

Can you give me an example of such a truth ?

Slavery in the Bible There are 4 types of slavery referenced in the bible: INTRODUCTION  ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 8, 2021:

No information is useful in deconverting the religious. They have no interest in information. Everyone has to find their own path out, and finding an interest in information is one of the last stages, after people escape.

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

@SirDaddyGru Everone is different, but of course you deconverted yourself, I assumed, perhaps wrongly that it was talking about deconverting someone else, which is very hard, and has a lot more to do with emotion than facts.

In the 1980s, musician Daryl Davis set out to understand the Ku Klux Klan.

Fernapple comments on Oct 8, 2021:

You can do a lot with patience, its the most powerful thing there is. Wish I had some.

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

@Ryo1 Since I am not trying to convert anybody, I am able to enjoy being just as judgemental as I like, and its fun.

I often see posts containing questions about various aspects of Jesus's Christ's acts and teachings ...

NostraDumbass comments on Oct 7, 2021:

The mythicist theory of Christian origins can be summed up in 5 brief bullet points. It is elegant in its simplicity, while still retaining enormous explanatory power. 1. At the start of Christianity Jesus Christ is a celestial deity, much like any other in contemporary Pagan mystery religions...

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

Most biblical scholars think that even Mark was not the original, but probably copied from an earlier lost work.

I often see posts containing questions about various aspects of Jesus's Christ's acts and teachings ...

Fernapple comments on Oct 7, 2021:

I have heard people make a case for many different possibilities about Jesus, such as. He was real but not the myths attached to him, he was real but the stories are a result of poor copy and translation, he is a made up fictional persona, (Perhaps made up by pro-Roman Jews, in a pro-Roman ...

Fernapple replies on Oct 8, 2021:

@NostraDumbass That is very true, and that is in many ways because they wrote long after the fact, when Christianity was well established. But which also means that they too, had already lost most first hand contact with the evidence, if there ever was any.

Historic go-ahead for malaria vaccine to protect African children [bbc.com]

Fernapple comments on Oct 7, 2021:

You never seem to hear these things on the main news feeds.

Fernapple replies on Oct 7, 2021:

@FearlessFly If this is Florida, will we be seeing Dengue Fever deniers soon ? " Dengue Fever does not exist, I will not wear insect repellant, its against my rights. Its a government scam to make money for big pharma. etc."