Nilsi

Literally, their only point is to put all our stakes on faith and divine intervention. You couldn’t make this shit up if you tried.

Fair enough. But this is explicitly a conversation about the meta-crisis and imminent global catastrophic risks. The audacity of these gentlemen to even show up to such a discussion with such a shockingly naive worldview is truly stunning.

You can have all the faith you want, but it won’t change the fact that we live in a world dominated by leaders like Xi Jinping and Putin, and corporate entities whose survival depends on relentless profit maximization while externalizing harm to nature and individual humans - particularly those on the lower rungs of the economic hierarchy, as usual. These entities are locked in a perpetual prisoner’s dilemma, where defection is the only way to ensure survival. If you want to pray to your God, by all means, go ahead - I have no issue with that. But to suggest that this will somehow resolve the brutal realities of capitalism is, frankly, laughable.

R.I.P.

The only reason people watch this garbage is the "man with 200 IQ" clickbait. If those so-called "open-minded materialists" actually cared, why aren’t they diving into someone like Peter Ralston instead? Nerds flock to nerds. Which is precisely why no one in this community takes continental thought seriously, dismissing it as confused, overly stylized ramblings. Meanwhile, those who engage with it - making careers out of peddling low-quality commentary on big-name European intellectuals via social media, and often serving as the sole point of contact with profound metaphysical thinkers like Nietzsche, Lacan and Deleuze - only reinforce the stereotype that European philosophy is nothing more than an aestheticized, politically charged spectacle of "academic philosophy."

That’s such a vulgar notion of God. The only threshold to heaven is to dissolve the false distinction between absolute and limited experience. But this requires confronting the raw tragedy of life and abandoning the comforting illusion of eternal salvation. Heaven is, at best, always already fleeting. To me, this represents the highest form of spirituality attainable by a human being.

You know the drill: Spotify Wrapped, Apple Replay, and all the personalized music streaming recaps of the year are out. So... What’s your most-streamed song of the year? Here’s mine:

I recommend you check out Bob Woodward's seminal book on the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine conflicts, aptly titled "War". It dives deep into the behind-the-scenes dynamics of these wars, drawing on direct communication with bipartisan government and intelligence sources. The book is also a compelling testament to the Biden administration's nuanced approach to these complex conflicts and their unwavering commitment to preventing nuclear escalation. Perhaps someday, Biden will receive his well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize for his selfless and integrous leadership. You might be tempted to dismiss it as propaganda, but consider this: it was released just three weeks before this year's elections. A 400+ page investigative journalistic work isn’t exactly the kind of thing aimed at swaying swing voters at the last minute.

That’s cap, and honestly, it’s the default reaction to modern art from people who can’t grasp anything beyond surface-level technical skill or something blatantly emotional or suggestive. Sure, a Picasso painting isn’t “terribly technical” or immediately obvious in its intent, but that’s the point. That’s why I included this bit about his youth - he mastered realism (what you probably think of as “real” art) by his early teens and then spent the rest of his career innovating, pushing past technical perfection and shallow emotionality to explore what art could truly become.

I’m genuinely impressed by your willingness to so bluntly proclaim your chauvinism and imperialist fantasies, without even bothering to veil them in the politically correct rhetoric that most people here rely on when they proudly assert their superiority based on some supposed universal truths about human development. You do realize that many of these so-called "inferior countries" existed and thrived for millennia before your empire stumbled onto the scene, raping, pillaging, and arrogantly claiming superiority?

Nice meme. So your definition of world peace is draining all non-Western entities of resources and agency? That’s exactly what the West, under U.S. leadership, has been doing for over 100 years, in case you hadn’t noticed. All it has accomplished is breeding contempt, deepening inequality, and causing catastrophic coordination failures - not to mention the countless humanitarian disasters born from this imperialist foreign policy. What needs to happen is the exact opposite: strengthening foreign actors and their internal security, building robust economic relationships and trade networks, and fostering strong diplomatic ties to create a multilateral world order capable of coordinating effectively and addressing the increasingly complex challenges facing civilization. I realize this may sound patronizing, but it’s not meant that way. Those foreign entities are legitimate political actors with their own national interests, and they should be treated as such. Simply recognizing and respecting this would already solve half the problem.

https://www.openculture.com/2018/08/pablo-picassos-masterful-childhood-paintings-precocious-works-painted-ages-8-15.html

The problem is that this may not be the case at all. There is a stark difference between Lavrov’s claims - which largely revolve around strategic objectives like ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and possibly securing parts of the Donbas with strong Russian national identity - and Putin’s far more expansive ambitions. Putin has made it abundantly clear, in speeches and interviews like his bizarre sit-down with Tucker Carlson, that for him, this is about much more. He envisions reinstating a "great Russian empire," one that includes all of Ukraine, which he sees as illegitimately torn away from Russia through a series of historical "injustices." There is very clear evidence of this internal rift within the Russian government: Lavrov’s continued assurances to Blinken that an invasion was off the table, along with his admission of the strategic disaster such an operation would entail, even as U.S. intelligence confirmed its imminence, speaks volumes. In a functioning government, such blatant disconnect would be unthinkable. Putin appears to be far more radical than most commentators give him credit for. His personal ideology and grand ambitions go well beyond the pragmatic concerns of most Russian officials, making meaningful negotiations not just difficult but potentially impossible.

You do realize that the Islamic world primarily seeks sovereignty over the Middle East and the ability to resolve its own conflicts - something made impossible precisely through their history of colonization and foreign (mostly U.S.) intervention, by the way? Only the most radical fringe elements of Islam would ever claim ambitions of a global caliphate - which is precisely the kind of boogeyman often conjured to justify those very interventions.

No idea what you’re on about with this gynocentrism, but we can at least agree on one thing: Trump is a vulgar pervert. I’ll take the win.

The reality is that this will have to be achieved through grounded diplomacy and realpolitik - something most utopian theorists conveniently handwave away as "not their concern." This is why Schmachtenberger is such a genius: he’s not afraid to go there. He openly engages with thinkers like Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and von Clausewitz - names that would make most leftists faint at the mere thought.

Also, what the fuck is it with this "we're the moral minority" narrative? You do realize that Donald Trump, the great Caesarian King of the alt-right, actually won the popular vote, don’t you?

If everyone behaved like you (wasting away at home with your hand in your pants), we’d never have made it out of the savannah, let alone achieved the towering accomplishments of civilization that you and your ilk so sanctimoniously worship. And we certainly won’t escape the Molochian capitalism hurtling us full steam toward the edge of an existential cliff.

It’s genuinely hilarious talking to right-wing keyboard warriors. On one hand, they loudly proclaim the greatness of Western civilization, the towering achievements of "great men," and the virtues of hard work, adventure, and responsibility. Yet, these same people often turn out to be the most pitifully incapable, castrated men imaginable - holed up in their mom's basement, marinating in Cheeto dust, and jerking off to anime porn. Isn't it obvious that what these alt-righters crave most is precisely the belonging, community, purpose, and recognition that "woke culture," at its best, seeks to provide? This is classic Lacanian perversity: the very attempt to escape the law (in this case, the "decadent modern society" they claim to despise) ends up reinstating its worst excesses. Their rebellion against "decadence" only reproduces inceldom, incapability, castration, and the very decadence they reject. They become trapped in a dependent loop, deriving their identity and pleasure from the very thing they claim to oppose, while acting out its most pathetic expressions. Which is precisely what every reactionary politics is destined to become - a grotesque embodiment of the very excesses it claims to oppose.

So, what exactly is your "opinion"? The issue on both sides is rabid ideology, and this incel proto-nazi traditionalist you're quoting - and incessantly yapping about - is a particularly comical specimen of it. At the end of the day, whether you're more conservative or liberal doesn't inherently damage your political credibility, at least not in my eyes.