reservoirofknowledge

[reservoirofknowledge]

They had me in the first half ngl

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Hm ok wait so as a degrowth enthusiast and someone who has touched the creation of patriarchy by gerda lerner and who is not a primitivist... hang on somethings off here lemme articulate it

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Just thinking of the concept of "liberal conception of violence" used pejoratively. Like wow the far left really has relinquished socially liberal values like peace and tolerance and diplomacy...

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"Because they're different and it's easy to get people to fear those they don't understand" is true for a whole lot of questions

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My mom doesn't believe in original sin but she still believed that the jews killed Jesus and that was kind of an uncomfortable conversation

Plus she's always surrounded by christians that are crazier than she is...

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What's funny is like. Are you allies to gay people? Why would the word ally make you feel excluded?

Maybe you don't feel part of a community centered around gay people because you don't want to be a part of that you want it centered on you.

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I don't actually think anti-blackness is on par with misogyny as far as structures of society... Racism as an ideology is something the vast majority of society can move past. With misogyny there is the family which is obviously such an integral piece of society. Equal and egalitarian relationships are becoming much more common but the cultural default for sex and romance is a patriarchal relationship. The man leads. Masculinity = aggressive. Dont let men be demasculated. Get a man that lets you lean into your passive femininity.

Am I saying racism is not a problem? Of course I'm not. I think fear of the other is a huge thing and it especially expresses itself in anti-immigrant sentiments, particularly when those immigrants look ethnically different. And of course it doesn't undermine what Black Americans as an ethnic group experience today wrt disproportionate poverty especially in cities, because of racist policies that have since ended but began a few generations ago and obv the way more racist policies before that point. Equal opportunity isn't a reality and the class they are in due to historical racism deeply affects their lives. Majority minority neighborhoods exist as they do because of historical racism. But we've made a lot of progress against racism as an ideology (at least when it doesn't come to immigrants). And yes I realize the irony of saying this when the far right is being empowered to say shit about racial minorities is any higher position because "DEI" but in the general population it genuinely is falling just like misogyny has in a lot of areas. But most conservatives advocate colorblindness while also advocating for men to be masculine and women to be feminine. I'm just not sure the two subjects can be put in the same sentence because they're not the same type of issue.

[reservoirofknowledge]

religious (as in religious-like adherence to ideology in general?) anti-rationalism

populist anti-elitism <- this is the main one I've been observing

unreflective instrumentalism ("what is useful to me is all that matters, knowledge is not worth anything in and of itself")

"The purpose of rationality is to make critical judgments about the value of competing claims and to give good reasons for preferring one claim over another. The absolutist fear that reason leads to relativism may mask the deeper fear that one's own views will not withstand scrutiny"

Themes:

polarization and division

pro-intellectualism

against both relativism and absolutism

truth matters; truth exists

thinking about truth is more important than adherence to absolutist ideologies

fear of diverging from your ideology

Diverging from group ideology comes with losing a sense of identity, sometimes losing a social group-- whether actual friends who share the ideology or online clout/parasocialism that passes in lieu of a real social group. Fear of becoming what has been demonized. Fear of caring about anything in a way that's been mocked.

On the opposite end of the absolutist fear of relativism is the relativist fear of absolutism. The idea that supporting one claim over another is a good thing as long as there is a reason for it, rather than considering any perspective as valid and stopping your own thinking there.

[reservoirofknowledge]

I'm thinking about how the far left has painted interest in world war 2 history as "suspicious," and I'm trying not to give in too much to conspiracy thinking, because that's the bigger problem we're fighting isnt it? But it is quite weird. Growing up on the online far left with memes making fun of men obsessed with ww2, with me still stuck in a very cultish mindset, it definitely turned me away from learning more. And because learning about the holocaust is how most people are introduced to historical antisemitism....

Most people interested in ww2 history don't defend the Nazis, but giving the benefit of the doubt to leftists, I guess "beware of Nazi sympathizers" is very likely the reason for this sentiment. Still, I'm not a fan at all of the anti intellectualism. The cure to bigotry is to learn more about something, not less.

[reservoirofknowledge]

"The purpose of rationality is to make critical judgments about the value of competing claims and to give good reasons for preferring one claim over another. The absolutist fear that reason leads to relativism may mask the deeper fear that one's own views will not withstand scrutiny"

Themes:

polarization and division

pro-intellectualism

against both relativism and absolutism

truth matters; truth exists

thinking about truth is more important than adherence to absolutist ideologies

fear of diverging from your ideology

Diverging from group ideology comes with losing a sense of identity, sometimes losing a social group-- whether actual friends who share the ideology or online clout/parasocialism that passes in lieu of a real social group. Fear of becoming what has been demonized. Fear of caring about anything in a way that's been mocked.

On the opposite end of the absolutist fear of relativism is the relativist fear of absolutism. The idea that supporting one claim over another is a good thing as long as there is a reason for it, rather than considering any perspective as valid and stopping your own thinking there.

[reservoirofknowledge]

White supremacists hate jews, black supremacists hate jews, arab supremacists hate jews... starting to think the problem is pretty clearly race supremacists and not jews

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Why would you wanna read a book simply because of the race of the author. Wouldn't you want to read books that pique your interest?

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Repurposing this blog to just be a post my thoughts blog with no followers.

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Why is every black christian such a conspiracy theorist? Is it the internet's algorithm that does this? What else is it? It's so weird but there is definitely a pattern there

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Oh and there's this

Everyone freaking out over bombs dropped in Yemen...

They were not bombing civilians. There were no civilian deaths.

I'm not saying this was a great move. I'm not really sure it was. But it was in response to drone and missile attacks from a Yemeni group, the Houthis, on US and British ships...

It was about them blocking off global commercial trade. The Houthi claimed to be blocking only ships linked to Israel, but they actually attacked any western shipping. Maybe these were ships trading with Israel, as the Houthis claim, but I'm not sure. I'm not necessarily against blocking trade with Israel. But the Houthis are an extremist religious group and they back Hamas. Long-term, that's really not great for freedom for Palestinians.

Obviously any response can be an escalation. But the US clearly only targeted Houthi military bases.

[reservoirofknowledge]

Everyone freaking out over bombs dropped in Yemen...

They were not bombing civilians. There were no civilian deaths.

I'm not saying this was a great move. I'm not really sure it was. But it was in response to drone and missile attacks from a Yemeni group, the Houthis, on US and British ships...

It was about them blocking off global commercial trade. The Houthi claimed to be blocking only ships linked to Israel, but they actually attacked any western shipping. Maybe these were ships trading with Israel, as the Houthis claim, but I'm not sure. I'm not necessarily against blocking trade with Israel. But the Houthis are an extremist religious group and they back Hamas. Long-term, that's really not great for freedom for Palestinians.

Obviously any response can be an escalation. But the US clearly only targeted Houthi military bases.

[reservoirofknowledge]

Peace is the word of a white man.

the quote is “peace is a white man's word” actually and the man who said that, kwame tur, is also quoted saying “the only good zionist is a dead zionist” and that he is proud that “africa gave birth to judaism”. in that same link you can read how when he said “zionism is about land”, this made the pro-palestine crowd stand in protest against him for “reiterating his stance on zionism”. do you follow?