Greatestgargadon - Hello.

I get such a kick out of the prefix 'cis'

getting a book cislated: yup, still can't read it

cisition timeline: just a selfie

cisformation: make a bunch of super saiyan sounds and walk away

cisubstantiation: by the power of god this bread has remained bread

idk its just neat

I’ve been listening to The Power Broker by Robert Caro, and I can’t remember the exact quote but something in his phrasing struck me. He associated the “Old Guard” Republicans with the defense of property rights, sometimes in opposition to human rights.

“Property rights” as they exist today in the US (I can’t claim to speak for other nations) can be traced through law back to Rome. They have a long history that has justified mass deportation, enslavement, and murder of entire continents of people.

Human rights as a secular concept trace their genealogy only back to the 1400s or so in Europe. It could be argued that Jesus preached for human rights in the time of Rome, but the development of his ideas were twisted by the absorption of his church into the Roman power structure through Constantine.

We might view the development of human history through the lens of tension between human rights and property rights. Powerful individuals’ trying to protect (or expand) their claims to land, or people fought wars over their property, expending human lives in the process. Religious leaders have pushed back, insisting on the inherent value of humanity.

Historically law has developed to organize forces around property rights, while religious practice has organized people. Today we live in a world where property rights are ascendant. The Republican party holds property rights absolute, while the Democratic party attempts merely to balance property and human rights. I’m nervous and excited to see how the social media networks that are replacing organized religion will affect these politics.

doing the obligatory atla rewatch rn, and so far the main rewatch-value takeaway has been Uncle POV Unlocked 

The age of machines sneaked up on us. Steadily over the past century, the world has been increasingly shaped to the needs of machines. Farmland is designed for the tractor, millions of miles of road and acres of parking lots designed for cars, plus airports, shipping ports, distribution centers, factories, server farms... Everywhere we find spaces hostile to humans but welcoming to machines. Human beings relegate themselves mostly to apartment buildings, offices, and houses. We spend large amounts of time and energy powering and operating machinery. Meanwhile all over the planet the land, ocean, and sky is dominated by billions of metal and plastic amalgamations animated and set loose by human beings.

Our age of machines is not the classic Terminator apocalypse scenario, where an AI script gets out of control and destroys humanity. These machines are still physically operated by people, who are taking orders from other people. But it's pretty clear that the world is more welcoming to a person in a machine than one walking free on their own feet.

#childrensrights

I think one of the most damaging ideologies towards children is the conviction that having children isn’t a calling but a moral obligation.

The perfect drink to wash down my ape biscuits

Wojtek was a Syrian brown bear adopted by the Polish II Corps during World War II. He was officially enlisted as a soldier to ensure he could travel with the unit and was given the rank of private. He became famous for helping carry artillery shells during the Battle of Monte Cassino. Wojtek was also known for drinking beer, eating cigarettes, and wrestling with soldiers.

After the war, he was taken to Scotland, where he lived at the Edinburgh Zoo until his passing in 1963.

the fact that pro-monarchy arguments have degenerated, over the past few centuries, from “the king rules by divine right and is accountable to nobody but god”, to “uhm the royals generate a lot of income from tourism” will never stop being extremely funny to me

What are the ethics of advocating violence against machines?