Comments on: Triggers

By: Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 21:52:47 +0000

and confirmation for those who had any doubt:

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/02/23/in-favor-of-niceness-community-and-civilization/#comment-42072

ozymandias isn’t a woman. He’s a man.

By: Shenpen

Shenpen — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 16:27:21 +0000

Nope. Hungarian here, things are roughly similar to the Czechs:

– University does not really carry such a high prestige as in the West. It does not quite increase the earning potential much – the people who are envied, who rake in the most money are the criminals and the political crooks or the tax cheating entrepreneurs.. So in Eastern Europe it is not really an argument that X is bad because the prof said so, the prof has little status over the tax cheating bar owner who makes 10x as much.

– People feel and see their behavior every day, it is real, it cannot be denied, largely because it is less segregated as the US cities where a white suburbian really does not see the ghetto much.

– We are poor enough that we are not going to feel much guilt for minorities. Some people think the plight of the gpysies is caused by the white majority, the usual stuff, but an unemployed white dude drawing a monthly benefit of of $60 a week is not going to beat up himself over it. He thinks life sucks for me too so your suckage is no excuse for behaving bad.

– The university educated young people are actually going towards the other extreme: they buy into crazy theories about how capitalism is a plot manufactured by jews to rob the in astonishing numbers.

By: Doug S.

Doug S. — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 08:39:26 +0000

There’s a lot more to being hot than looking like a movie star in a Twitter pic. Which is why, to approximately quote Tina Fey, “There’s always that one person on People Magazine’s sexiest people list who has no business being there, and this year I’m proud to be that person.” Marilyn Monroe apparently could turn “it” on and off at will; there’s a story of her walking through the streets of New York City without being recognized, to the confusion of the person interviewing her, until she says “Do you want to see her?”, changes the way she carries herself, and is almost immediately recognized by fans.

And Ozy is indeed that kind of hot – the kind that’s not obvious in a still picture, but comes across when you interact. (Says the guy who only knows her through the Internet.) Is it weird to say that, much like some people have sexy voices, Ozy has sexy writing?

By: spandrell

spandrell — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 11:33:19 +0000

I don’t know about libertarianism, my impression is they have no real theory of illegitimacy as government is intrinsically evil.

Demotism is the idea of popular sovereignty, that legitimacy comes from the consent of the demos, however you define it.

Surely the theory of legitimacy plays an important role in any society.

By: Peter A. Taylor

Peter A. Taylor — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:39:38 +0000

@Spandrell:
The US Declaration of Independence talks out of both sides of its mouth regarding its theory of legitimacy. Does USG theoretically get its legitimacy from securing its citizens “unalienable rights” (i.e. natural law), or from the murky “consent” of [some subset of] the governed [to an item from a menu offered by some elite]? If I understand you, “demotism” is the theory that the “consent” clause takes precedent. In contrast, libertarianism is the theory that the natural law part takes precedent. Have I got it now?

By: spandrell

spandrell — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 03:18:55 +0000

Demotism is a theory of legitimacy, and as such, it has real world consequences as it shifts many a Schelling point.

By: Peter A. Taylor

Peter A. Taylor — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 02:20:43 +0000

We already have a word for egalitarianism. The word is, “egalitarianism”. If that’s what “demotism” means, it’s just obfuscation.

By: Alrenous

Alrenous — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 22:25:53 +0000

Now I’m fond of the Czech republic. Nice work.

First nobody talks about it because everyone knows it but it’s impolite, but children are naive and don’t know any better. Since nobody talks about it, it is forgotten.

If somehow it’s not, the universities will help it along. Eventually, only those who are professionally (i.e. in person and materially) affected by the falsehoods will know better, and won’t dare to talk about it.

By: pseudo-chrysostom

pseudo-chrysostom — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 21:36:51 +0000

my view of a meaningful demotism is simply this; the practice and application of equalitarianism, the pursuit and enforcement of equality by various means, to various lengths (right down to a more perfect equality in oblivion).

By: pseudo-chrysostom

pseudo-chrysostom — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 21:31:37 +0000

double-think through redefinition is part and parcel of post modern normative justification. old precognitive associations are applied to new contexts which would otherwise imply a different sentimental reaction under the initial ideal framework being operated under. of course nature will always hurry back after routing her out, and inevitably associations will begin to change again through involvements with reality, whereupon we hop back on the neologism carousel (par example, the term gay was originally adopted by the queer community due to its positive associations).

hence we see, despite its claims of transcendence, post-modernism operates very much within the enlightenment tradition, and this phenomena in general is more properly understood as a sort of ideological parasitism. however much it claims to oppose and deconstruct ‘tradition’ in a categorical manner, it is only intelligible in anyway *through* such previous traditions, it relies on them intimately. so naturally, it is the particularly unreflective and unimaginative who are most susceptible to such sophistication. not merely voluntary crimestop, but an inability to take trains of thought further to natural conclusions to begin with, compartmentalized and dissociated, oblivious to connections and contradictions lying in different modes. as beings are world forming, the worlds they can form are rather small (the autist attempts to compute and systematize, but knows not what telos he is really advancing).

certainly it takes a, unique, sort of mind to come up with such things genuinely, but it is much easier if rather acting in bad faith.