shrill/emotional attacks on......

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Peter Kropotkin
Posts: 1502
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2022 5:11 am

shrill/emotional attacks on......

Post by Peter Kropotkin »

I am currently reading about German Idealism and
its prior dominate ism which was the Enlightenment....

the best way to think of the "Enlightenment" is to recall its
most famous saying, "sepere aude" which is Latin for
"dare to know" or more loosely " dare to know things through reason"
the dominant belief in the Enlightenment, was we must follow reason
to escape our "bondage" which is from the state and church...
the question wasn't what did the state/church believed in,
but what do you believe in... the force of the state/society/church
was for force people to have a certain set of beliefs, in which
the state/society/church told you what that set of beliefs was,
in which you were to believe in....

to escape this "bondage" the Enlightenment Philosophers
preached reason...to be free of the state/society/church
meant using reason to escape their domination..

(I have held that the 'Enlightenment" was never actually
finished.. and we could/should return to the Enlightenment
arguments for reason instead of blind belief)

anyway, the next step was an attack on this idea of reason...
for what was reason and how did it work? as in epistemology,
which is defined as "the theory of knowledge, especially
in regard to it methods, validity, and scope.. we can replace
the word epistemology with the word reason....

''the theory of reason, especially in regard to it methods, validity,
and scope" that was the entire point of Kant's critique....
his "Critique of Pure Reason"...And that is where I am today...
rereading the entire German idealism era... and of course, any
review of German idealism begins with Kant...

and what can we say in regard to today's culture war that
has been noted in both the Enlightenment and German idealism...

that the state has abandoned it traditional role of being an umpire,
and is now engaged in deciding the issues by its own force...it is were,
by putting its thumb on the scale, the state hopes to decide matters...
thus an issue like abortion, instead of playing umpire, the state has
decided to influence the debate by passing laws on one side...
thus conservative are using the state to promote a certain,
conservative agenda, which is to ban abortions, and to ban drag shows
and to, if possible, end gay rights....to put gays back into the closet...

and on what grounds does the right try to enforce it beliefs
and values on the rest of America? nothing more than emotions..
and being very loud and shrill about it....for there is no rational,
logical argument for ending drag shows.. outside of "the children..
"lets protect the children" "what about the children?"

(and what about the children when we hear of daily gun attacks
on schools, what about the children then? ah, one senator said,
"well there is nothing we can do about that" .. the kids are on their
own in violent gun assaults... the leading cause of death for children is
now gun violence... "but what about the children?" given a choice
between guns and children, conservatives have chosen guns over
children and we now we know the answer, "but what about the children?")

but conservatives might argue, that those are two different issues,
but the familiar cry, "what about the children" doesn't ask about
specific issues.. it is a false and empty cry to avoid being truthful
about drag queens or drag shows or exterminating transgenderism...
and those issues are based on nothing more than shrill emotionalism...
feelings...... for what logical reasons can you give for ending
drag shows? that belief is based on the emotions that trans people
are "different" than me and must be stopped....

the conservative beliefs are nothing more than shrill emotionalism
that has no basis in logic, reason or facts...and the problem with that
is that what we feel changes, I have loved a women and then fairly
quickly stopped loving that women... my emotions change on a daily basis
and even on an hourly basis... how can we conduct public policy
based on emotions that can change daily? how can we create laws
based on emotions that have a shelf life of a day?
and therein lies the problem with basis laws on emotions....
emotionalism is risky because of its short shelf life... love them
right now, ahh, the minute passed, I now hate them.... and that is
the emotional world we as human being live in....

I point out the massive shift in the last 10 years for and against
cannabis laws... can you image how 10 years ago, how far the nation
has switch on cannabis laws... soon, virtually all states will be
pro cannabis... cannabis will be sold in grocery stores beside the milk
and bread....... I am awaiting the day....

and that switch was done based on the change in the past
shrill and emotionalism against cannabis... it was a gateway drug
to stronger drugs.... like heroin or LSD... very few believe that
nonsense today...and what was the logical reason for banning cannabis?
I don't know, there was never a logical reason for banning cannabis..
it was all emotionalism, shrill and loud emotionalism....

and today the shrill and loud emotional attacks against
gays and transgender people will be forgotten once
people lose their emotional hatred of gays/trans people...
which could be any day now... because that is how shrill
emotionalism is, here today and gone tomorrow...

Kropotkin
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Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: shrill/emotional attacks on......

Post by Agent Smith »

It's an open question as to how old the LGBTQ phenomenon is; there's evidence, some say, that it goes right back to our days in the African savannah. Enter civilization and we have, in a matter of a few hundred thousand years, this! "Like what I did to the place?" it asks, with a did-I-do-the-right-thing? expression on its face. Alack, we don't know the answer to that question.

"The ship'll sail in 15 minutes Rita, 15 minutes!"

"But, but that's not what our tickets say, darling. Our ship's The Carribean Star and it leaves at 5:00 PM. We still have an hour and half."

"Those are tickets from last year Rita! Check the dates!"

"OMG! You're right! I'm coming darling, I'm coming!"

A few moments later ...

"We nearly ... hahaha ... missed the boat, darling! Hahaha!"

"Rita, Rita, Rita, always so absent-minded."

"Darling."

"Yes?"

"Do you smell goats?"

"No, I don't."

"I can and there goats, hundreds of them. Oh darling, this isn't our ship, no, this isn't!!"
Iwannaplato
Posts: 6657
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:55 pm

Re: shrill/emotional attacks on......

Post by Iwannaplato »

Peter Kropotkin wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 8:23 pm and on what grounds does the right try to enforce it beliefs
and values on the rest of America? nothing more than emotions..
Everyone is who lobbies, votes, argues for legislation or the specifics of taxation and so on is trying to enforce their beliefs and values.
Everyone is driven by emotions.
Compassion, care, desire, love, hate, fear, contempt, empathy and so on...all emotions. Laws reflect values. Laws are enforced. Nearly everyone wants laws and want those laws to reflect the values they feel are correct.

And let's remember that the Englightenment justified colonialism often along precisely the grounds Peter uses in relation to conservatives. The emotional non- or less reasoning natives need to be controlled and their lands are not being used.

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/04 ... olonialism
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/en ... nt-thought
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