1

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Hey, Congrats Sean

« on: April 22, 2022, 04:12:47 PM »

https://people.com/tv/sean-hannity-becomes-longest-running-cable-news-host-breaks-record-previously-held-by-larry-king/

Hey, congrats Sean. You've managed to become the longest running cable news host in history, despite both you and your network clarifying several times over the course of your career that what you do isn't truly classifiable as "news" (I would call it propaganda, of course, but I think you and your cronies found a more respectable sounding way to put it). A staggering achievement, and yet another sign that the end times are near. It's time to repent if you believe that will help you folks.

2

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Putin pulling the strings of Republicans

« on: March 07, 2022, 12:21:19 PM »

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/03/06/putin-information-war-trump/

Well Action80 and Tom, keep doing what you're doing. It's exactly what Putin wants. It must be comforting letting others tell you what to do and think, rather than trying to do so on your own (I know, thinking for yourself is HARD, who has the energy)?

You're still puppets. It's just that now instead of the Right pulling your strings it's your beloved comrades in Mother Russia!

3

Philosophy, Religion & Society / African-Americans and Americans are two different groups

« on: January 21, 2022, 01:43:02 AM »

That's what everybody's favorite human eel, Mitch McConnell thinks, anyway.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/20/mcconnell-waves-off-voting-concerns-since-black-people-turn-out-heavily-americans/

"African-American voters are voting in just as high percentages as Americans."

Yep. Every now and then these assholes say the quiet part out loud.

Let's face it, he really thinks the concerns are misplaced because he doesn't see black people as Americans.

Should be fun seeing Tim Scott's awkward attempt at justifying the comment. The Republicans just love trotting out their token black Senator for damage control in these situations.

4

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Cancel culture

« on: October 20, 2021, 03:21:56 PM »

So, Dave Chappelle basically just doubled down, tripled down, and quadrupled down on his comments about trans folks, even daring to declare himself "team TERF", which is someone who considers himself a feminist, but excludes trans people.

And the internet is really angry! Several personalities have said they would no longer work with Netflix over it. Twitter is abuzz, as it tends to get in these situations.

But you know what? Far from ending his career, all the hubbub seems to be doing is providing free publicity for Dave. His career is just fine, as it has been after years of complaints over his past comments.

Is Netflix hurting over it? Based on the success of shows like You, Clickbait, and the legitimately amazing Squid Game, apparently not.

JK Rowling pissed a lot of people off with her "trans phobic" comments. But people are still reading her books and going to see the awful movies being made that are connected to them. I understand she's starting a new series. People have complained, but her career seems just fine.

Even Shane Gillis, the guy who lost his job at SNL for telling some jokes that some people found offensive on his podcast, is still practicing comedy. He's still making money. Yes, he lost an opportunity over it. But people have lost high profile jobs for saying controversial things as long as TV has existed. Contracts have included clauses saying people would lose their jobs if they say or do the wrong thing as long as the entertainment industry has existed. He lost an opportunity, sure. But he probably would have been in the same position 20 years ago. Michael Richards' career still hasn't recovered from the racist comments he made a couple decades ago or so.

Pity Joe Rogan, huh? He pisses the Left off all the time! His career is really suffering for it, huh?

Cancel culture as it applies to people like Kevin Spacey or Matt Lauer are different, I think. In the other cases, people are trying to cancel celebrities for expressing an opinion, or telling an offensive joke (which is ridiculous, because if comedy isn't offending to some degree they're doing it wrong). When the attitude is directed towards sexual predators, it's a completely different thing, and absolutely justified.

Canceling celebrities for expressing a controversial opinion, or even telling a racist joke, is not. But fortunately that doesn't actually seem to be happening. Where cancel culture is hurting the industry right now is studios treating it like a real thing, and fearing crossing lines as a result. But hopefully the survival of Dave's career has shone a light on just how overblown that fear really is, and will hopefully lead to creators not being afraid of taking chances again, and studios recognizing that they can survive even if they have someone on their roster who once said it was child abuse to give hormone suppression therapy to little trans kids who don't have any way to fathom how awesome an orgasm really is, or have expressed the opinion (as I have) that allowing women who were born as men to compete in women's sports is inherently unfair. So kudos to him for that, because it's about time.

/soapbox

5

Philosophy, Religion & Society / We're not just partisan hacks, wah

« on: September 18, 2021, 01:41:43 PM »

"Justice Amy Coney Barrett: Supreme Court isn't driven by politics" https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell/2021/09/12/justice-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-decisions-arent-political/8310849002/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/justice-clarence-thomas/2021/09/16/d2ddc1ba-1714-11ec-a5e5-ceecb895922f_story.html



It's cute that a couple of the most conservative members of the Supreme Court want to now convince the public that the Supreme Court isn't politically-driven. But that veneer was basically blasted away when the Republicans refused to allow the confirmation of Merrick Garland. Kinda tipped their hand there. The Supreme Court is as obviously corrupted by partisanism as any other branch of the government.

6

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Holy shit, vegans suck

« on: September 08, 2021, 02:11:46 PM »

"It is meat eaters – not vegans – who are the preachy ones | The Independent" https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/vegan-meat-veganism-stigma-principles-b1913217.html?amp

I mean, you might think a journalist trying to make a point about others being preachy might minimize her own level of preachiness in order to avoid undermining her own point, but not this one. This woman just can't help but pepper her article about the preachiness of non-vegans with constant reminders that meat is murder and eating meat is evil (or immoral, at the very least).

She points out that many more people say they care about animals, yet a very small percentage of them actually avoid meat, suggesting that all those people who say they care about animals but still eat meat must be doing so because society pressures them. It's much more nuanced than that.

I care about animal welfare. I think something needs to be done about the deplorable conditions animals kept for meat currently suffer through.

At the same time, I love eating meat, and have no plans to ever stop eating meat, and I feel no shame about either.

The argument that we should stop eating meat altogether if we love animals is nonsensical. We don't need to undo millions of years of evolution to demonstrate that we care about animals.

To put it in perspective: Is it immoral to feed mice to snakes, or worms to fish? We would consider it immoral to try to force a vegetarian diet on a naturally carnivorous animal. Why isn't it immoral for snakes to eat mice?

The law of the jungle. Some animals naturally eat other animals. And humans are among them.

So if you want to be a vegan, and are willing to not be preachy about it (this journalist clearly isn't, despite the holier-than-thou attitude of her premise), go for it. Modern society actually makes it easier than ever to do so; nowadays you can even buy disgusting, super-processed plant-based food and pretend you're eating a real hamburger! But don't try to equate eating meat with hating animals, or even caving to society's pressure to eat meat. You are making an extremely nuanced issue straight black and white by doing so.

And if you're gonna call out others for being preachy... ehh... maybe think about minimizing your own preachiness while doing so. Otherwise you just look like a hypocrite, like this journalist!

7

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Trans athletes

« on: June 02, 2021, 11:12:33 PM »

I'm sorry, but... *shakes head*

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/556523-laws-banning-trans-athletes-from-competing-in

Until men and women compete in sports together, on equal footing, the premise of this article is pure uncut bullshit.

There are reasons we don't have female linebackers in the NFL, reasons why there is a WNBA separate from the regular NBA, and that is that women's and men's bodies are fundamentally different, and that difference is determined at birth, not whenever whoever decides to choose what gender they want to be.

They're seriously saying that this isn't supported by science? 

8

Arts & Entertainment / Mel Brooks movies ranked from best to worst

« on: November 20, 2020, 11:56:24 PM »

Only the movies he's directed.

1. Young Frankenstein
2. Blazing Saddles
3. The Producers (1969)
4. Spaceballs
5. Robin Hood: Men In Tights
6. History of the World: Part 1
7. High Anxiety
8. Silent Movie
9. Life Stinks
10. The Twelve Chairs
11. Dracula: Dead and Loving It

9

Suggestions & Concerns / #justiceforRonJ

« on: September 18, 2020, 01:40:49 PM »

https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=16926.msg220585#msg220585

RonJ was banned for harassment for making a derogatory post about Tom in AR. As I point out in the thread, this is wrong for several reasons. Tom never specifically asked him to stop abusing him, meaning the ban was unwarranted. RonJ never got a warning specifically about this offense, and the rule regarding harassment stipulates that one be given before a ban.

I understand he's a repeat offender but a 2 week ban without warning for something he said in AR is positively draconian.

#postingintheproperplace

10

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Joe Biden is winning by a landslide

« on: June 25, 2020, 08:02:44 PM »

At least he would be if the election were held today.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/donald-trump-swing-state-polls-new-york-times-siena/index.html

11

Flat Earth Media / ScienceAlert is confused

« on: December 01, 2017, 07:44:47 PM »

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-flat-earth-society-responded-elon-musk-twitter-beautiful-mars-conspiracy

Ah scientists.

Apparently the Flat Earth Society on Twitter responded to Elon Musk's question of why there is no "Flat Mars Society" with the perfectly reasonable response that Mars has been observed to be round.

It's quite simple really. We observe a flat Earth and we observe a round Mars. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

Maybe that's a good thing because apparently it was too complicated for the good folks at ScienceAlert (who I would assume are scientists, if not necessarily of the rocket variety) to understand. And guess why. They're subtly moving the goalposts in their response, a hallmark of scientists who have been pigeonholing inconsistencies in their flawed theories to make them appear to jibe with reality for centuries. Check it out:

Of course what's so confusing about this perfectly amicable response is that it flies in the face of conventional flat-Earther logic, which suggests that scientific observations of Earth's spherical shape are flawed or faked.

Did you see what those shysters did there? The word I bolded is the clue. They seem to be under the impression that we reject all observation because we reject science. Long-time users of these forums will recognize that we reject science in favor of zeteticism, but that zeteticism itself is rooted in observation. We believe the Earth is flat because we observe the Earth is flat. We observe Mars is round. Again, not exactly rocket science.

Now I said that the good people at ScienceAlert seem to be under that impression because I think something more insidious is going on. They so clearly move the goalposts within mere sentences of each other that it's difficult to believe that it wasn't intentional, unless the writer of the article really does have the brains of dog poop.

They know what they are doing. 

12

Arts & Entertainment / RIP Prince

« on: April 21, 2016, 05:59:26 PM »

Prince, who is arguably one of the greatest musicians of our time, was found dead today at 57. This is what it sounds like when the doves cry.

Incidentally Chyna was just found dead too so one- named celebrities are dropping like flies. Has anybody checked on Beyonce lately?

13

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Atheism vs. religion

« on: January 07, 2014, 05:49:48 AM »

Thork is right about modern atheists.  You can claim that you aren't part of the movement all you want, but when you start quoting Dawkins and Hitchens and (a new favorite, it seems) Krauss in your support of the evils of religion, you are a new atheist like it or not.  And most modern atheists get a hard-on at the mere mention of any one of those names.

Here's something to chew on: statistically, your religious friends who go to church and pay blind allegiance to a God you don't think they should believe exists are going to live several years  longer than you.  So right about the existence of God or not they must be doing something right that you aren't.

14

Flat Earth Community / MOVED: For Discussion of Hollow Earth Theory, Geocentricity, etc

« on: December 24, 2013, 01:59:47 AM »

This topic has been moved to Science & Alternative Science.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1020.0