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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Was the sandy hook shooting a hoax
« on: January 17, 2018, 01:06:00 PM »
You're right. You win. Well done...
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Was the sandy hook shooting a hoax
« on: January 17, 2018, 10:52:05 AM »Seems weird to fixate on Sandy Hook considering how many other massacres happened before, happened since, and will happen again.That's why I posited a proposal that doesn't fixate on any particular one of the massacres. Providing irrelevant responses is worse than just not providing one.
Then let me be clear - the scepticism I hold for the idea that SH was a hoax? Take that and multiply it by however many massacres you think are included in this increasingly bizarre conspiracy.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Was the sandy hook shooting a hoax
« on: January 16, 2018, 08:46:01 AM »Then I'd say it's gotta be the longest-game conspiracy in history.So your best response is that you personally find it unlikely?
[snip]
Yup.
I find it so unlikely that bothering to engage with it on any deeper level feels like a waste of my time. Seems weird to fixate on Sandy Hook considering how many other massacres happened before, happened since, and will happen again.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Was the sandy hook shooting a hoax
« on: January 15, 2018, 01:13:24 PM »I always wonder why anybody would bother with false-flag mass-shootings when they're such a tediously regular occurrence in America.What if they're all (or a vast majority, at least) staged, as part of a plot to disarm Americans and then do Terrible Things™ to them?
Then I'd say it's gotta be the longest-game conspiracy in history.
"So, we're agreed - we'll keep faking mass-shootings until our goals are achieved."
"Hang on, what goals are those?"
"Ah, well, it's simple. We scare people into handing over their guns, then we take over the country once the populace is disarmed and weak."
"Right. But don't we already control the country? I mean, how else would we be able to engineer hundreds of fake civilian massacres?"
"Ah, there's the clever bit. At the moment we just rule from the shadows where we're immune to protest or official sanction. With this plan, the NWO gets to rule out in the open, with all the headaches and problems that brings."
"Oh. Right, well, do I at least get to be a duke, or something?"
"No, no, no. we don't get to openly rule. America won't hand over their guns in a single generation, we need to keep this up for fifty, sixty years..."
"So... It will be my great-grandchildren who get to be dukes?"
"Exactly..."
"...right..."
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Was the sandy hook shooting a hoax
« on: January 15, 2018, 09:43:16 AM »
I always wonder why anybody would bother with false-flag mass-shootings when they're such a tediously regular occurrence in America. It would be like a sinister government cabal plotting a false-flag train delay in the UK.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: The Commandments of Intellectual Honesty
« on: January 12, 2018, 09:20:45 AM »
What do you mean by 'common ground'? If you mean 'find words and meanings that you both agree on' then I agree, but there are some opponents that I find so morally repugnant that I have no desire to make peace with them.
As for avoiding logical fallacies - that depends on who you're talking to and the purpose of your discussion. There are times when a logical fallacy can be a useful way to frame an argument.
As for avoiding logical fallacies - that depends on who you're talking to and the purpose of your discussion. There are times when a logical fallacy can be a useful way to frame an argument.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - contains spoilers
« on: January 09, 2018, 09:35:38 AM »Quote
Also, the Phantom Menace is not only the worst Star Wars movie's ever, it is one of the worst movie's ever, full stop. I am not going to sit here and tell anyone that A New Hope is a cinematic masterpiece, but it at least had a solid story. The Phantom Menace is basically gobbledigook and it still has to answer for introducing Jar Jar Binks to the world.
Ep.1 is a bad movie, but it's not much worse than a lot of kid-friendly sci-fi action films of the nineties. It has some genuinely good moments like the Maul fight and at least clips along at a fast enough pace that, even if it's forgettable, isn't actively tedious.
Attack of the Clones is much worse. it has basically everything that was bad about TPM, but because it's wearing its big-boy-serious pants, the whole thing becomes a bloated, sluggish, tedious mess from beginning to end.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - contains spoilers
« on: December 21, 2017, 10:28:21 AM »
So I loved TLJ.
I loved the confidence in it, unlike TFA which seemed to be desperate for senpai to notice it, drowning in self-reference andripoff homage, TLJ took those same expectations and presumptions and subverted them. The hot-headed rogue doesn't save the day by flying by seat-of-his-pants, in fact his recklessness is the driving force behind the fuck-up cascade. The legendary hero doesn't appear out of nowhere to save the day. Killing the Big Bad doesn't end the struggle. The villain doesn't do a face-heel-turn when presented with the chance to walk away from his path of evil.
There were problems with it. Leia's magic spacewalk, the casino bit - while I see what they were trying to do - could probably have stood to either have been shortened or left until episode IX. The whole film could probably have stood to be trimmed by about half an hour, but all that being said, I enjoyed it more than TFA and would probably put it alongside Rogue One in terms of enjoyment.
I loved the confidence in it, unlike TFA which seemed to be desperate for senpai to notice it, drowning in self-reference and
There were problems with it. Leia's magic spacewalk, the casino bit - while I see what they were trying to do - could probably have stood to either have been shortened or left until episode IX. The whole film could probably have stood to be trimmed by about half an hour, but all that being said, I enjoyed it more than TFA and would probably put it alongside Rogue One in terms of enjoyment.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Video Game Crossovers.
« on: December 14, 2017, 01:11:51 PM »
What, like Mario v Rabbids, Capcom v Marvel, Super Smash Bros., Alien V Predator, Mario & Sonic, Injustice, Soul Calibur, the LEGO games, various Mortal Kombat games, the old Crash v Spyro games, Disney Infinity, Alex Kidd v Shinobi...
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: December 11, 2017, 09:01:11 AM »Marvel's The Punisher (Season One, Steve Lightfoot, 2017)
I thought this was great, I was honestly shocked when I checked reviews afterwards and saw how harshly it was being received. I'm going to read them more in-depth later, but at a glance it looked like a lot of them were "the show wasn't visceral enough/didn't have enough violence/action" or "the show was too visceral/had too much violence/glorified violence". Was it a lot less action-packed than previous Punisher adaptations? Well, yeah, this one actually cares about Frank Castle as a character, as a human being, and decides to explore that. They probably could have explored it more deeply, probed Frank's psyche instead of always keeping the answers to his instability vaguely just out of arm's reach, but they didn't. I don't know how most people viewed it, but I saw it as we only get to see as much of Frank as he wants to see of himself. The questions are brought up—is Frank Castle sane? Is he wrong? Does he go too far? Does he have a cause, or is he kiling because it's all he knows? Is he just going to keep chasing 'new' targets? Will he ever be sated?—but they're brushed off before we dive deep enough into them to resolve it, but only because Frank himself brushes them off, not wanting the answers. Maybe that left some people unsatisfied, but I think it's fitting.
Anyway, I had to pause or look away for a lot of scenes because Jesus Christ was it violent, especially in the last two episodes, but damn it was good.
I'm about two thirds through and completely agree with this. I really like the slower pace and the introspection of this series, and I really like the way it deals with the difficulties that vets have returning to civilian life.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: December 07, 2017, 09:18:54 AM »He looks retarded. He's so big (or the room is so small) that clinging to the corner isn't even hiding him at all. He might as well have just been standing right there.
Yeah, it's like they wanted to do the awesome gargoyle-swinging bits from the Arkham games but the room with the high roofs and criss-crossing girders wasn't available so they had to settle for this.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: November 30, 2017, 02:00:09 PM »
I love how marvel seem to be taking pleasure in showing up DC nowadays. BvS:DoJ came out basically the same time as Civil War, a film with a very similar Hero v Hero premise but - you know - good. Now Marvel has let them release their big tent-pole Justice league movie and just as it's getting torn apart by critics, casually releases the trailer for Infinity War. It's almost cruel.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Soliloquies
« on: November 30, 2017, 09:07:53 AM »
Sounds brilliant. I had considered taking the telescope over and camping overnight. Glad to know it's worth considering.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Another mass shooting...
« on: November 23, 2017, 09:14:41 AM »
Anyway going to Lundy Island for a break, they have one bolt action rifle for putting down injured deer, but it is locked away and hasn't been used in living memory, i think I will be safe.
Lundy Island in the UK? I've always fancied going there, you can see it from the north coast of Devon. It's one of the many little British islands that fascinate me. Let us know what it's like.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Les Miserables.
« on: November 22, 2017, 04:55:47 PM »
I like the musical, quite enjoyed the film - despite Russell Crowe - and never read the book. My wife read me enough extracts to make me decide my time was better spent elsewhere.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Superhero Movies & Comics General
« on: November 22, 2017, 04:54:29 PM »His feet are touching the ground way too long there. His legs are moving too slow. It's like he's skating or something.
You know it's bad when The Big Bang Theory has better special effects.
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Arts & Entertainment / Re: Just Watched
« on: November 13, 2017, 01:40:52 PM »
Just finished Stranger Things 2
Despite all the Stephen King references, the property this season most reminded me of was Alien in that the first season focussed on one monster in dark, unsettling locations, drilling down on the paranoia and fear, and Season 2 went the Aliens route of upping the action, expanding the cast, and even introducing more monsters and [spoilers]a Queen[/spoilers].
Despite the short season length, ST2 starts off on a slow burn but builds brilliantly to an incredibly tense last couple of episodes. Very much enjoyed it.
That said, it wasn't perfect. The episode with Eleven in Chicago felt really out-of-place.
Despite all the Stephen King references, the property this season most reminded me of was Alien in that the first season focussed on one monster in dark, unsettling locations, drilling down on the paranoia and fear, and Season 2 went the Aliens route of upping the action, expanding the cast, and even introducing more monsters and [spoilers]a Queen[/spoilers].
Despite the short season length, ST2 starts off on a slow burn but builds brilliantly to an incredibly tense last couple of episodes. Very much enjoyed it.
That said, it wasn't perfect. The episode with Eleven in Chicago felt really out-of-place.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: religion
« on: November 10, 2017, 01:53:28 PM »
Theism and atheism are just two answers to the question:
"Do you believe that a god exists?"
The answer to that is either yes or no - theist or atheist.
The confusion is asking the question: "Does a god exist?" Which can yield 'yes', 'no', or 'I don't know.' instead. That is where we get into the question of Gnosticism v agnosticism. It's a statement of what you 'know' (or think you know).
It's perfectly possible to say you don't believe in god, but when asked whether a god exists to say that you don't know. That means you're an agnostic atheist. In fact, of the possible answers to this:
1Y2Y - Gnostic Theist
1Y2N - Can't logically answer this way "I believe god exists but I know he doesn't"
1Y2DK - Agnostic Theist
1N2Y - Can't logically answer this way "I don't believe god exists but I know he does"
1N2N - Gnostic Atheist
1N2DK - Agnostic Atheist
You don't need to understand the full implications of what you believe to believe in something.
"Do you believe that a god exists?"
The answer to that is either yes or no - theist or atheist.
The confusion is asking the question: "Does a god exist?" Which can yield 'yes', 'no', or 'I don't know.' instead. That is where we get into the question of Gnosticism v agnosticism. It's a statement of what you 'know' (or think you know).
It's perfectly possible to say you don't believe in god, but when asked whether a god exists to say that you don't know. That means you're an agnostic atheist. In fact, of the possible answers to this:
1Y2Y - Gnostic Theist
1Y2N - Can't logically answer this way "I believe god exists but I know he doesn't"
1Y2DK - Agnostic Theist
1N2Y - Can't logically answer this way "I don't believe god exists but I know he does"
1N2N - Gnostic Atheist
1N2DK - Agnostic Atheist
You don't need to understand the full implications of what you believe to believe in something.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: religion
« on: November 09, 2017, 02:09:29 PM »Why so many atheists? I don't get it unless there is trolling going on
Why would you expect it to be otherwise? The majority of people in the UK and some northern European countries are atheist. Australia is about 30-40% atheist and amongst millennial Americans, between 15 and 25% are atheist.
In such a small population size, it's not unreasonable to assume that the majority of members who have answered are from a demographic which is highly overrepresented on the internet. Considering most members are from The West, it would be far more unusual if they were Hindu or Buddhist.
Atheism is primarily being formed by the constant rise of scientism.
Maybe. What's your point?
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: religion
« on: November 08, 2017, 09:16:02 AM »Why so many atheists? I don't get it unless there is trolling going on
Why would you expect it to be otherwise? The majority of people in the UK and some northern European countries are atheist. Australia is about 30-40% atheist and amongst millennial Americans, between 15 and 25% are atheist.
In such a small population size, it's not unreasonable to assume that the majority of members who have answered are from a demographic which is highly overrepresented on the internet. Considering most members are from The West, it would be far more unusual if they were Hindu or Buddhist.