Lies, Cons,and the American Way

[Immanuel Can]

No one knows moron.

I do know you...at least a bit.

But I think perhaps you meant to put a comma there.

[Gary Childress]

No one knows moron.

I do know you...at least a bit.

But I think perhaps you meant to put a comma there.

I'll put a comma next time then, moron. Go to hell where your lying, conniving brain belongs. This is a philosophy forum, not a cult.

[Walker]

But I think perhaps you meant to put a comma there.

Who knew that such a little squiggle held such ire.
It's like, the petard of punctuation.

[Immanuel Can]

But I think perhaps you meant to put a comma there.

Who knew that such a little squiggle held such ire.
It's like, the petard of punctuation.

Here's two more cases in which punctuation might save a life:

Let's eat Grandma.

Crocodiles don't swim here.

[Walker]

But I think perhaps you meant to put a comma there.

Who knew that such a little squiggle held such ire.
It's like, the petard of punctuation.

Here's two more cases in which punctuation might save a life:

Let's eat Grandma.

Crocodiles don't swim here.

I had to puzzle over that second one for a moment or two.

Oh well. That that is is.

[Walker]

The Comma (continued)

The next sentence could use another comma, although any improvement is debatable.

The strawman threat is always about what the Christians might do,while simultaneously ignoring what non-Christians do do.

[Alexiev]

So I'm interested: what have you concluded that "made in the image of God" entails?

No one knows moron. It's something written in a book by someone who probably heard voices in his head telling him to write what s/he did. If you want I can share some of my experiences of psychosis if it will fascinate you. Maybe you could consider it a "divine revelation".

Lots of people hear voices, but only a few have written them down in ways which infuence history, philosophy, and morality. When Comparative Religion is taught in universities, it is one of the Humanities, along with literature, art history, languages and other seminal and influential works on which humans have expended their talents and efforts. You could equally say: "Novels (or the German language) are just what someone dreamed up. I won't bother with them."

Fine. But why insult people who like them? Why denigrate the efforts of prophets, saints and scholars whose dilligence and intelligence far exceed your (and my) own?

[promethean75]

"Why denigrate the efforts of prophets, saints and scholars"

That's a long 'philosophical' story. This will help u understand what's happened.

https://anti-dialectics.co.uk/Rest_of_S ... Twelve.htm

[Advocate]

[quote=Alexiev post_id=671859 time=1696609236 user_id=24471]
Our mythology suggests that the "American Way" is dilligence and hard work, which will be rewarded financially (and is morally admirable). This mythology is promoted by the Capitalists who fruitlessly wish that it were true.

In fact, if there is an "American Way" or an "American Dream" it resides in the quick score. It sent our ancestors scrambling to California and the Klondike in Gold Rushes that impoverished the vast majority of the rushers. It is reflected in our election of the con-man Donald Trump as President. Lottery tickets sell well.

Mark Twain once said, "Show me a man who don't lie, and I'll show you a man who ain't got much to say." (Or perhaps that quote is a lie, too)

Two current news stories remind me of this.

First, Sam Bankman-Fried is on trial for defrauding customers out of billions of dollars in his crypto-currency company and his hedge fund. Yello Kid Weil, perhaps the greatest American con-man, once said that you can't con an honest man. You have to find those looking for an "angle". Crypoto-currency seems the perfect opportunity. It's a con, and those investing are looking for a quick score, like the Gold Rushers of yore. I haven't followed the case closely enough to have an educated opinion about Bankman Fired's guilt of innocense. What do others think? Is crypto-currency a con? Is Bankman-Fried (the son of two Stanford Law Professors who specialize in legal ethics and are also being sued for accepting gifts from their billionaire son) guilty?

Second, two superstars in social science are being accused of fraud. Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino are leaders in the post-modern movement that has questioned the foundation of classic Economic Theory: the notion that economic man is a "rational actor". Of course they are right ---but it also appears that they have both fudged their data to support their conclusions. Ariely was an economics professor at MIT, Gino a professor at Harvard. They rose to the top of their professions (with $50,000 lecture honororiums) by publishing paper after paper explaining how and when people lie and deceive. It appears that they were themselves lying and deceiving (I just read a current New Yorker article about them, but I can't find it on line to provide a link). Perhaps the dishonest are prone to studying dishonesty.

Is lying immoral? If so, would it be immoral to lie to protect a friend, or lie to the Gestapo about where the Jews are hiding? If these lies are acceptable, doesn't that show that it is not lying [i]ipso facto[/i] that is immoral, but some result that comes from lying? Any opinions?
[/quote]

We still live in a pre-truth society. Enlightenment values never stuck.

[promethean75]

I never read your posts Ad becuz i can't tell where your quoting stops and your posting begins. This quote function mess u got going all the time isn't gonna work, especially if u wanna be the best philosopher in the universe.

Baby steps bro. U gotta be smarter than the quote function first... then u can advance to smartest philosopher.

[LuckyR]

I never read your posts Ad becuz i can't tell where your quoting stops and your posting begins. This quote function mess u got going all the time isn't gonna work, especially if u wanna be the best philosopher in the universe.

Baby steps bro. U gotta be smarter than the quote function first... then u can advance to smartest philosopher.

What is up with that?

[Gary Childress]

So I'm interested: what have you concluded that "made in the image of God" entails?

No one knows moron. It's something written in a book by someone who probably heard voices in his head telling him to write what s/he did. If you want I can share some of my experiences of psychosis if it will fascinate you. Maybe you could consider it a "divine revelation".

Lots of people hear voices, but only a few have written them down in ways which infuence history, philosophy, and morality. When Comparative Religion is taught in universities, it is one of the Humanities, along with literature, art history, languages and other seminal and influential works on which humans have expended their talents and efforts. You could equally say: "Novels (or the German language) are just what someone dreamed up. I won't bother with them."

Fine. But why insult people who like them? Why denigrate the efforts of prophets, saints and scholars whose dilligence and intelligence far exceed your (and my) own?

Is the world not teetering on the apocalypse; Global climate and habitat crises, expanding and intensifying wars, pandemics? There's no God. The saints and prophets were just having psychoses that people happened to find agreeable and pleasing. Their psychoses were no less delusions. They had nothing to do with reality.

If there's a God, then God needs to get off his or her worthless ass and save life from its own self-destruction. There need to be some lightning bolts landing on all the world leaders who are sending us to destruction. The climate needs to stabilize. Diseases need to be mitigated or pacified. There need to be viable solutions to our problems. Otherwise, what good is God? Belief in God is vain and pointless otherwise.

Most people go to church for no other reason than to go to heaven when they die. Who cares what happens to the dead when they're gone? They're dead. They're in oblivion. If they want to go to church, then go there to save the living (and that which or those who may live in the future).

[Walker]

Is the world not teetering on the apocalypse; ...

News Flash
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
- Dickens

Dickens certainly got to the objective root of the way things are, didn’t he now.
Finding this root from an unapproved source does not kill the root.

Did Dickens make this up, or did Dickens discover this? Are these just words, or does their meaning in relationship to one another say just the way things are for folks throughout history, since the beginning of time, for all time?

Question: Why are things this way?
Answer: Because duality of form and mind offers advantages of survival for the individual human, and thus the species homo sapiens. Two eyes, two ears, two connected halves of the brain, and most importantly, two fast feet to run from predators and maneuver while stalking their prey, not to mention other fun things like dancing to celebrate this and that.

Duality also has drawbacks such as applying a template of, either this or either that upon thoughts and perceptions.

Duality is an intrinsic imperative of the species that creates dualistic constructs to bolster notions. Duality activates the alertness for the lion lurking around the next bush.

They say you haven't lived until you've had the Dickens (the way of the world) scared out of you.
https://english.stackexchange.com/quest ... inate-from


Clay Spencer speaks his mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE5NZ0S9XmU

From this link, the bone of contention is: "If you're born ignorant, you're destined to die ignorant."

[Gary Childress]

Is the world not teetering on the apocalypse; ...

News Flash
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
- Dickens

Dickens certainly got to the objective root of the way things are, didn’t he now.
Finding this root from an unapproved source does not kill the root.

Did Dickens make this up, or did Dickens discover this? Are these just words, or does their meaning in relationship to one another say just the way things are for folks throughout history, since the beginning of time, for all time?

Question: Why are things this way?
Answer: Because duality of form and mind offers advantages of survival for the individual human, and thus the species homo sapiens. Two eyes, two ears, two connected halves of the brain, and most importantly, two fast feet to run from predators and maneuver while stalking their prey, not to mention other fun things like dancing to celebrate this and that.

Duality also has drawbacks such as applying a template of, either this or either that upon thoughts and perceptions.

Duality is an intrinsic imperative of the species that creates dualistic constructs to bolster notions. Duality activates the alertness for the lion lurking around the next bush.

They say you haven't lived until you've had the Dickens (the way of the world) scared out of you.
https://english.stackexchange.com/quest ... inate-from


Clay Spencer speaks his mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE5NZ0S9XmU

You dance and say nothing as though it's important to dance. Why is that?

[Walker]

Gary:


From this link, the bone of contention is: "If you're born ignorant, you're destined to die ignorant."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE5NZ0S9XmU

Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and why?

What does this statement mean to you, and why?


Now, you say something worth my time to read. Okay?