Random Politics & Religion #18

What if FFXI was only created so we could have a forum to talk about everything but FFXI think about it...

That goes both ways.

The whole "nothing you can do about it" is odd phrasing to me.

The whole "nothing you can do about it" is odd phrasing to me.

the man who hit Spencer was an Antifa and quite frankly we need more of them.

Assuming you mean left-leaning posters here, yes. I'll condemn them.

Turning your alt right *** into martyrs is a terrible idea.

Same as when that piece of ***Spencer got punched. I actually suspect that was a deliberate setup given we've had no ID on the "assaulters."

More *** bully tactics. Goad people until they fight back and then blame them for fighting back.

These rioters -- and the people who hit Spencer if, in fact, they weren't plants -- are both horribly wrong. The absolute last thing that we need is to make scumbag leaders martyrs for their scumbag causes.

The rioting is ridiculous.

The peaceful protest -from what I saw and according to the university officials- got high jacked by a few asshats, which sucks.

The guy should get to say his speech others should be allowed to counter what he says with their opinions.


Nothing you can do to stop what? Because I have no clue as to what you are talking about.

I believe he is referencing the proverbial pendulum swinging right after several years of swinging left.

He's right, in that regard. Unfortunately.

You can't drag people kicking and screaming into something they don't believe in. It doesn't work that way. Even if that something is a largely positive ideal, some people aren't mentally ready for that change and will resist it and if you push, they're going to radicalize.

Positive about what? Being told your inferior and should feel guilty for being born white or a male instead of a protected victim class. Being told that your expected to slave away the rest of your life to support those who hate and detest you, and that you should feel proud for being a mule. Being told your feelings, beliefs, needs and desires are not only unwanted but completely irrelevant. Being told you need to suffer to achieve the religious ideological ideals of others even if you don't share in those ideals.

When your banner says "this is war" you aren't peaceful.

... (New York Times is actually promoting violence against Republicans)...

When people start shooting/stabbing/killing other people in the streets because they are Republicans, are they (democrats/liberals/media/celebrities) going to start condemning them for such actions? Or only when people start fighting back and we end up in Civil War II: This Time, With Nukes™ (btw, you owe me $.50 for reading that).

I'm a white male and Ive never been told or been made to feel as I'm inferior to anyone or that I'm supposed to carry anyone else through life like a mule...

What's funny to me is you guys say this kinda stuff but you all seem to be in comfortable positions in life with no real day to day worries about surviving or putting food on the table or keeping a roof over your head and food in your bellies... but somehow you feel like your discriminated against to the point it's damaging... then... even feeling the way you do you dismiss others feelings on the topic that they feel discriminated against in favor of your own viewpoint...

Where a rich doctor and ad executive complain about how hard it is to be black? I guess, according to you, you can be discriminated against if you're a minority and comfortable, but not if you're white and comfortable.

I'm a white male and Ive never been told or been made to feel as I'm inferior to anyone

Clearly you've never watched porn.

People don't understand exactly how deeply and unconsciously some biases are. To the point where they'll be in the act of doing something discriminatory and still be worried they're the ones being discriminated against.

Some of the wealthiest people in America—in Silicon Valley, New York, and beyond—are getting ready for the crackup of civilization.

Steve Huffman, the thirty-three-year-old co-founder and C.E.O. of Reddit, which is valued at six hundred million dollars, was nearsighted until November, 2015, when he arranged to have laser eye surgery. He underwent the procedure not for the sake of convenience or appearance but, rather, for a reason he doesn’t usually talk much about: he hopes that it will improve his odds of surviving a disaster, whether natural or man-made. “If the world ends—and not even if the world ends, but if we have trouble—getting contacts or glasses is going to be a huge pain in the ***,” he told me recently. “Without them, I’m ***.”

Survivalism, the practice of preparing for a crackup of civilization, tends to evoke a certain picture: the woodsman in the tinfoil hat, the hysteric with the hoard of beans, the religious doomsayer. But in recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort.

....

One measure of survivalism’s spread is that some people are starting to speak out against it. Max Levchin, a founder of PayPal and of Affirm, a lending startup, told me, “It’s one of the few things about Silicon Valley that I actively dislike—the sense that we are superior giants who move the needle and, even if it’s our own failure, must be spared.”

To Levchin, prepping for survival is a moral miscalculation; he prefers to “shut down party conversations” on the topic. “I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” In his view, this is the time to invest in solutions, not escape. “At the moment, we’re actually at a relatively benign point of the economy. When the economy heads south, you will have a bunch of people that are in really bad shape. What do we expect then?”

...

On the opposite side of the country, similar awkward conversations have been unfolding in some financial circles. Robert H. Dugger worked as a lobbyist for the financial industry before he became a partner at the global hedge fund Tudor Investment Corporation, in 1993. After seventeen years, he retired to focus on philanthropy and his investments. “Anyone who’s in this community knows people who are worried that America is heading toward something like the Russian Revolution,” he told me recently.

To manage that fear, Dugger said, he has seen two very different responses. “People know the only real answer is, Fix the problem,” he said. “It’s a reason most of them give a lot of money to good causes.” At the same time, though, they invest in the mechanics of escape. He recalled a dinner in New York City after 9/11 and the bursting of the dot-com bubble: “A group of centi-millionaires and a couple of billionaires were working through end-of-America scenarios and talking about what they’d do. Most said they’ll fire up their planes and take their families to Western ranches or homes in other countries.” One of the guests was skeptical, Dugger said. “He leaned forward and asked, ‘Are you taking your pilot’s family, too? And what about the maintenance guys? If revolutionaries are kicking in doors, how many of the people in your life will you have to take with you?’ The questioning continued. In the end, most agreed they couldn’t run.”

Élite anxiety cuts across political lines. Even financiers who supported Trump for President, hoping that he would cut taxes and regulations, have been unnerved at the ways his insurgent campaign seems to have hastened a collapse of respect for established institutions. Dugger said, “The media is under attack now. They wonder, Is the court system next? Do we go from ‘facts I don't like’ to ‘fake evidence’? For people whose existence depends on enforceable contracts, this is life or death.”

The problem is that you have culturally acceptable and culturally unacceptable discrimination.

Case in point.

It is not impossible to be discriminated against for being white.

It's a lot harder than people pretend it is though.

Can't think of a lot of professions you can be when you're a white guy.

I speak to doctors, doctors offices, and to people about their doctors regularly.

I'm a fairly left-leaning person as far as today's sensibilities go. I'm married to a woman who has more education and a better job than I do, in the sciences.

I still have to catch myself sometimes when they say "I see Dr. So-and-so" and I go "Where do you see him...or her?"

People don't understand exactly how deeply and unconsciously some biases are. To the point where they'll be in the act of doing something discriminatory and still be worried they're the ones being discriminated against.

Don't know why I bothered to type this all out because I don't see my words swaying or bringing any sort of change of heart to anyone, but...wtf ever.

A father and son are in a horrible car crash that kills the dad. The son is rushed to the hospital; just as he’s about to go under the knife, the surgeon says, “I can’t operate—that boy is my son!”

I was at a conference at MacDill when a Captain told a riddle:





Many (most) in the room did not think it could his mom.

What if it's a man and they're a gay couple that adopted?

DUN DUN DUUUUN

Ever see the show Black-ish? Where a rich doctor and ad executive complain about how hard it is to be black? I guess, according to you, you can be discriminated against if you're a minority and comfortable, but not if you're white and comfortable.