woodenghost

joined 5 months ago
[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

And just to come full circle:

Baalbek, named after Baal, is an ancient city in the Beqaa plane in Lebanon. It was known as the bread basket of the Roman empire. The Romans build the largest temples outside of Rome there and allowed worship of Baal to continue in the large entrance building in front of the Jupiter temple. The temples stood in good condition for centuries and are now under threat by IDF bombing, which has already come as close as 500 meters, while every building in the city has been declared a target and it's people ordered to evacuate.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

She will and after that eat some noodles.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Good effort comment, thanks! Are you sure about merit based evaluation for MJ? Wouldn't people just strategically exaggerate their grades?

MJ encourages honest evaluation because exaggerating grades can backfire if too many others don't follow suit.

I guess I don't quite understand this point. Why wouldn't everyone exaggerate grades?

Dolphin liberals would just tell all the dolphins to give dolphin Harris an excellent grade, insisting she was excellent in comparison to dolphin Trump. (Sorry to break out of the thought experiment.) So this:

This can help identify when all candidates are weak

wouldn't happen when all the dolphins try to game the system. Did I misunderstand?

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

You said, all your feelings start bubbling up. So that sounds like more feelings come to the foreground other than existential dread. Maybe those are important too. In that case you could ask yourself what kind of feelings those are and maybe try to just sit with them and notice how they go away or become less intense after a while.

Existentialist philosophy recommends accepting existential dread/anxiety/absurdity as the only way to live an authentic, free life in which we might eventually build our own meaning. Monist philosophies (like mystic tendencies) emphasize the interconnectedness of things and maybe find comfort in seeing separation as an illusion.

Any way, accepting your feelings without judgement is good in general. And like others said, mindfulness based meditation might help.

Disclaimer: in case of existing traumas, mindfulness meditation can be dangerous to try alone, as it might cause people to relive their trauma. And in case of depression, it might not be enough on its own without cognitive behavioral therapy or addressing underlying causes.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wow, I do the exact same thing sometimes! Also watched allot of Star Trek. It's not ideal for me, because it's not a calm topic, but if I can't help thinking about these things anyway, might as well. How does it work for you? Any tips, what (else) to think about when falling asleep?

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's just that normal gravity on earth feels exactly like being in an accelerating elevator in space. So you can't tell the difference from the inside. Like in the elevator you can ask them, whether you're still on earth or accelerating in space. Einstein used this thought experiment to develop the general theory of relativity.

Basically Einstein thinking about that weird feeling you get in your gut when an elevator starts upwards led to him concluding that mass bends spacetime making light from distant stars go in curves around the sun, which was confirmed during the next available solar eclipse.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 23 points 1 week ago

White liberals will absolutely pick up guns and kill their enemies. It's us. They kill socialists all over the world. They don't see Nazis as their enemies, because they are not. Fascism is a natural extension of the bourgeoise state in times of crisis. There is no fundamental material contradiction between fascism and liberalism, only ideological differences.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 55 points 1 week ago (2 children)

These "right wing christians" are a militia that's responsible for the infamous massacre of Sabra and Shatila, supported by Israel. The so called "Lebanese Forces" fighters were mostly made up of the Kataeb party, which was founded, after their leader visited Nazi Germany and, deeply impressed, modeled the organization after the brwon shirts, with Nazi salut and everything.

So the US counting on literal fascists again for their regime change operation. No surprise, I guess.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 31 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

It's often like, exchanging biting polemics in theory and wholesome support in praxis.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes, I know. That's not what I meant though. It seemed idealist to me, because the author sought fascism and means against it only in the realm of culture instead of linking it to material contradictions in the real word.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 14 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

That's a really really long idealist article, that dosn't say much in the end and might have been much shorter if the author had a materialist perspective on fascism.

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Some time after Engels father died, he sold the factory. With the money, he supported not just Marx and his family, but a large part of the underground/communist/German scene in London. He also speculated at the stock exchange and he must have been good at it, because when he died, he left more than he had started out with.

Also, while Marx said: "Je ne suis pas marxiste", Engels really was the first Marxist.

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