jevousdisbonjour's recent activity

  1. Comment on Donald Trump administration officially bans bump stocks in ~news

    jevousdisbonjour
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    H. sapiens is a problem. A well-armed H. sapiens is hardly the hero depicted in the fictions, anthems, and lullabies that a society may create for ulterior reasons. You are free to live where you...

    people going crazy is a big enough issue for you to worry about, then you (as a nation) have bigger problems than just gun control to worry about.

    H. sapiens is a problem. A well-armed H. sapiens is hardly the hero depicted in the fictions, anthems, and lullabies that a society may create for ulterior reasons.

    I like shooting guns for the same reason I like racing cars, and just like with guns, racing can be found all over the world.

    You are free to live where you choose and to buy and enjoy many things. This is the market economy and a carefully-defined type of "freedom".

    I can only invite you to reflect (further) on the fact that these products permeate your society (based on the size of the domestic economy for each) and that humans rationalise their identity. What you internalise as values is very much a result of conditioning.

    Consider another example of social conditioning: the business of US football, a brutal concussion sport that is very lucrative for some. The cannon-fodder die miserable deaths.

    Yes, some products can be "found" elsewhere, but there are other communities and modern societies with a standard of living equal to or better than your society where these products do not shape public discourse.

    It is interesting to consider how a group rationalises the 20th century's death toll from lucrative products such as vehicles, alcohol, and tobacco. Or the rationalisation of a brutal concussion sport such as US football. The rationalisation of shootings in public schools is also staggering.

    In summary, we may think of our society as a bazaar that contains a few asylums for the insane. But it looks to be more like an asylum that contains a bazaar.

  2. Comment on What social responsibilities do fiction authors have (if any)? in ~books

    jevousdisbonjour
    Link Parent
    I agree that censorship would be a failure. Art should be free. We need a healthy public discourse, not banishment of ideas. In the case of art, one can choose to ignore. We are talking about H....

    I agree that censorship would be a failure. Art should be free. We need a healthy public discourse, not banishment of ideas.

    In the case of art, one can choose to ignore.

    we should prevent those people becoming damaged in the first place.

    We are talking about H. sapiens. Mental illness and lesser delusion are common. There are sick people; there are people who will become sick. There are artists who are sick.

    Art should be free. Lethal force should not be easy to obtain and use.

    2 votes
  3. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

  4. Comment on Is capitalism worth saving? in ~finance

    jevousdisbonjour
    (edited )
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    "Capitalism" is amoral and uncommitted to democracy. There are colluding plunderers and shareholding, temporarily-embarrassed millionnaires hoping to bend principles just enough to win at the...

    "Capitalism" is amoral and uncommitted to democracy. There are colluding plunderers and shareholding, temporarily-embarrassed millionnaires hoping to bend principles just enough to win at the casino. The laws protecting democracy itself from capitalism's excesses and corruption must be strong and demonstrably effective. Profit is usually made by buying work cheap and selling the result high. Sometimes, profit comes from a good idea. But exploitation is the usual way. Exploitation is profitable.

    Wealth is being accumulated grotesquely by the rich. Workers and their families need health care, education, affordable housing, and a place to grow old in comfort.

    The voters in a democracy need to defend their system with clear thinking, critique, and militancy. If they relinquish their civic responsibility because the fetishistic hedonism of baubles and diversions feels better, it is clear where democracy will end.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on Donald Trump administration officially bans bump stocks in ~news

    jevousdisbonjour
    Link Parent
    Let's be frank in the manner of Wittgenstein... I know absolutely nothing about you beyond what you have posted. I am not especially gifted with insight, and I have not delved further into your...

    I think you've entered this thread with a complete misunderstanding of who I am as a gun owner

    Let's be frank in the manner of Wittgenstein... I know absolutely nothing about you beyond what you have posted. I am not especially gifted with insight, and I have not delved further into your profile. (o:

    I presume that you're right when you says that guns can be found in every country. But the US has a significant domestic gun business (protected by the Constitution), as well as being the largest weapons dealing nation in the world. Militarism infuses the social discourse. We are all very much products of social conditioning. Had you been raised elsewhere in your own or another country, you might have a very different notion of self.

    People may not be crazy now, but they may go crazy. Limiting guns makes sense. Banning guns does not in some cases.

    1 vote
  6. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

  7. Comment on Donald Trump administration officially bans bump stocks in ~news

    jevousdisbonjour
    Link Parent
    I usually won't comment on posts by people who love their guns. I don't love guns -- you and I will never agree. But this phrase, "overclocked monkey", made me laugh. Did you coin it or borrow it?...

    overclocked monkey

    I usually won't comment on posts by people who love their guns. I don't love guns -- you and I will never agree.

    But this phrase, "overclocked monkey", made me laugh. Did you coin it or borrow it?

    I know it is difficult to imagine a future USA. Intelligent people two centuries ago could not imagine the poor receiving an education. Such people one century ago could not imagine black USians being free. It was hard to imagine half a century ago that women would win the fight for pay equity and homosexuals would win the right to same-sex marriage. Given enough time, given enough social culture, Bad Ideas fall.

    Some things are bad for society. Some things don't scale. Some personal kicks are destructive. You like guns because of where you live. There are socio-economic influences, and capitalism amplifies them for profit. If you had been born elsewhere, you would very likely have a different
    set of kicks. The great cultures of the world don't have citizenry awash in an easy means of slaughter.

    1 vote
  8. Comment on The greatest lesson you've learned from classical fiction? in ~books

    jevousdisbonjour
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    Reading great literature has taught me that... Language is important, powerful, and beautiful. We as readers bring an expectation of narrative, structure, meaning, characterisation... and this is...

    Reading great literature has taught me that...

    Language is important, powerful, and beautiful.

    We as readers bring an expectation of narrative, structure, meaning, characterisation... and this is true of our species in general.

    Reading itself is a deeply rewarding intellectual phenomenon.