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tadmjones

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  1. Haha
    tadmjones reacted to AlexL in Reblogged:"Racism:" A Still-Needed Classic   
    With some context:
    "their intellectual betters" means also poor, also whites, but who are hardworking and less frequently racist.
    Ayn Rand's detractors love taking her words out of context, while knowing that in her writings every word is important.
  2. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Jon Letendre in 2024 US Election   
    He won 98 or 99 of Iowa's 99 counties! Not a bad showing.
    No doubt but that with a few more indictments he could have won 100 out of 99.
    Maybe they will come through for us with yet more indictments. More Directives 10-28NeverTrump, please!!
  3. Haha
    tadmjones reacted to AlexL in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    I'll let them decide this.
    You may assume whatever you wish.
  4. Like
    tadmjones got a reaction from Jim Henderson in Original Sham   
    Thanks for a refresher on the Christian notion of sin , going through some of the linked material reveals I am /have been under a more comfortable apprehension of sin in the other Abrahamic traditions. Sin more as a failing as opposed to a corporeal state.
  5. Like
    tadmjones reacted to whYNOT in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    If there is only one honest and objectively knowledgeable historian to listen to, among an online slew of pretenders and haters of the good welcoming Israel's demise, (i.e. ethnic cleansing) I urge this one, it will be worth your time; 2 hours of Dr Benny Morris in this searching exchange of facts and aspirations.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYUkb49BdmQ
     
  6. Like
    tadmjones got a reaction from Boydstun in Original Sham   
    Thanks for a refresher on the Christian notion of sin , going through some of the linked material reveals I am /have been under a more comfortable apprehension of sin in the other Abrahamic traditions. Sin more as a failing as opposed to a corporeal state.
  7. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Boydstun in Original Sham   
    Some handy helpful background:
    Original Sin –from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Kant famously wrote: "out of such crooked wood as the human being is made, nothing entirely straight can be fabricated" (Idea for a Universal  History with a Cosmopolitan Aim, 1784, translation by Allen Wood). The context of this quote is an acknowledgement that formation and exercise of a political constitution for a society, is in human hands and minds, which means no constitution and its exercise can be perfect. The conclusion, I say, is fair enough truth, but the antecedent thought that humans are made of crooked timber—human nature is corrupt—seems very likely nothing original with Kant; rather, a common view, come down from the likes of Augustine and put about from Christian pulpits of Kant's era (and ours).
     
    Grace, Predestination, and Original Sin –from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
     
    Catholic Encyclopedia – ORIGINAL SIN
  8. Like
    tadmjones reacted to human_murda in Origins of Kashmir Conflict   
    Here is the gist of how the Kashmir conflict started in India:
    British India consisted of regions that were directly controlled by the British as well as ~500 kingdoms that were subsidiary to the British:

    Myanmar was separated from British India in 1937. When they left, the British partitioned the regions that were directly controlled by the them into a Muslim majority Pakistan and a secular India (mostly Hindu but also included non-Hindu, non-Muslim areas). The ~500 kingdoms were allowed to join India or Pakistan or remain independent. In some sense, British India was divided into ~500 countries. However, almost all of these 500 kingdoms chose to join India or Pakistan except a few:
    - Gwadar (controlled by Oman, annexed by Pakistan)
    - Khanate of Kalat (annexed by Pakistan)
    - Hyderabad State (remnant of Mughal Empire, annexed by India)
    - Junagadh (annexed by India)
    - Goa (Portuguese colony, annexed by India)
    - Puducherry (French colony, annexed by India)
    - Jammu and Kashmir

    I think there were other smaller kingdoms as well that didn't join India/Pakistan. I'm from a region which was the Kingdom of Travancore. We initially declared independence, but joined India after threats of assassination.
    Declaration of independence by the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir was the most problematic, since it's located on the border between India and Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir (or just Kashmir) was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious kingdom. Overall, it was Muslim majority, but had a Hindu ruler (Hari Singh). Kashmir also had a significant Buddhist population in the Ladakh region. This is what the kingdom looks like now:

    When the partition of India along religious lines was announced, massacres of Hindus and Sikhs in "would be Pakistan" regions started (with the opposite happening in border regions in India). After Hindus and Sikhs were massacred in Rawalpindi, the news reached Jammu and led to the "Jammu massacres" in Jammu under the rule of the king (Hari Singh). Hearing news of this, Pakistani tribesmen invaded the kingdom, which resulted in the king, Hari Singh, acceding the kingdom to India. By the time Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India, the kingdom had already lost a significant chunk of territory. The following regions are now controlled by Pakistan:
    - Azad Kashmir ("free" Kashmir) or AJK. Ethnically Pahari (similar to Punjabis)
    - Gilgit Baltistan or GB. Ethnically Balti (tibetic).
    These two regions are Muslim majority and want to be a part of Pakistan. However, Pakistan maintains them as semi-autonomous regions and claims that they support the Kashmiri independence movement and want to hold a plebiscite in the whole region (except the regions claimed by China). Since a lot of the other regions in Kashmir are Muslim majority, Pakistan also claims them as part of Pakistan. I think Pakistan also claims Jammu, even though it's Hindu majority.
    The rest of the kingdom became the semi-autonomous Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. Since legally the kingdom acceded to India, India also claims the rest of the kingdom that was invaded by Pakistan as a part of India. The regions controlled by India are:
    - Jammu: Hindu majority. Ethnically Dogri.
    - Kashmir valley: Muslim majority. Ethnically Kashmiri, speak Koshur.
    - Ladakh: around 45% Muslim and 40% Buddhist. Ladakhis are tibetic.
    Most Jammuites and Ladakhis want to be a part of India. Kashmiris from the valley want to be an independent country (neither India nor Pakistan). However, if they became independent, Pakistan will almost definitely invade them (or turn them into a puppet state).
    There was another region that India controlled that was part of the kingdom called Aksai Chin. The North-Eastern part of Aksai Chin was bounded by the Ardagh–Johnson Line during British rule. India inherited this border with Tibet when the J&K kingdom acceded to India. The border was originally drawn when Tibet was a separate country. After China invaded Tibet and the CCP took over Xinjiang, China invaded India in 1962. China also doesn't recognize the McMahon Line which the British agreed as the border with Tibet. China invaded Tibet (and stopped recognizing agreements made by Tibet), the British left and India has inherited that border dispute. China now controls the following region which was part of the J&K kingdom:
    - Aksai Chin. Almost no one lives there.
    China also claims Ladakh as a part of Tibet and threatens to invade occasionally, most recently two weeks ago.
    After Kashmir acceded to India, Pakistan started sending militants to Indian Kashmir to blow themselves up, which resulted in Indian Kashmir becoming increasingly militarized. This eventually led to an insurgency in the Kashmir Valley and increasing attacks on Kashmiri Hindus, who got kicked out in 1990. Recently (2019), India revoked Kashmir's autonomy, removing the separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir guaranteed by Article 370 of India's Constitution. Kashmir and Ladakh were turned into Union Territories. Three weeks ago, India's supreme court upheld repeal of Kashmir's special status. This is a Scottish vlogger talking to a local Kashmiri Muslim who lived through most of this.
    India follows the Israel's West Bank model for governing Kashmir, to some extend. India bulldozes the houses of Kashmiris suspected to be terrorists. Reports of rape and torture by the Indian military are common. Mass graves (most likely of Kashmiri Muslims) were found in Kashmir that weren't identified or investigated. Local Kashmiri Hindus are still being killed by terrorists. The Indian government is subsidizing migrations of Hindus from poor states to Kashmir (some of these migrants are killed by terrorists).
    Insurgency in Kashmir is dying:

    Tourism and economic activity have picked up. Here is an interview of a former Kashmiri Muslim activist (Shehla Rashid used to be a "communist" student activist at JNU, but is now slightly more favorable to the Indian government). However, it's still the most militarized region on the planet. Pakistan and China are also involved and the issue isn't easily solvable, apart from recognizing the Line of Actual Control or LAC as the international border.
    Recognizing LAC is also not completely realistic. Pakistan's military controls their civilian government. Any civilian government that suggests the recognition of LAC as an international border gets "couped" by their military. Kashmiri independence also part of Pakistani nationalism and is a cause championed by Pakistan in international forums. The largest river in Pakistan (Indus/Sindhu) also flows through Indian Kashmir. China's belt and road initiative for Pakistan also goes through Pakistani Kashmir (so China is also interested in Indian/Pakistani Kashmir, apart from Aksai Chin and Ladakh).
  9. Haha
    tadmjones reacted to SpookyKitty in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    South Africa has filed a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.
    https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/29/middleeast/south-africa-icj-israel-genocide-intl/index.html
  10. Like
    tadmjones got a reaction from SpookyKitty in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    But hypotheticals like that , even somewhat potentially hyperbolic, mess up a nice neat Dungeons and Dragons style of directing moralizations and assigning condemnation.
  11. Like
    tadmjones got a reaction from SpookyKitty in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    The Israeli government at one time allowed Hamas to form or allowed them to move into Gaza as a political tool that would be useful internally and internationally in ultimately ending a ‘two state solution’ solution. 

    Do those actions qualify as state sponsored terrorism?
    I am not making an argument that is necessarily the case , just trying to apply the rigidity of the moral standard to a particular.
  12. Thanks
    tadmjones got a reaction from Jon Letendre in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    I don’t recall any Objectivist treatises on physics, do you mean interpretations of quantum physics published by self identified ‘Objectivists’?
    And by the same token do you mean you take your standards of foreign policy from Rand’s interpretation of specific events or accept statements of standards from self identified O’ist uncritically, especially as they delineate specific events?
    Perhaps O’ist forums are not places for discussion , debate , just a search space for the ‘correct’ positions?
  13. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Eiuol in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    Or more specifically, they still maintain their rights, but because they initiated force, it isn't a violation of their rights to respond with self-defense. For whatever reason, people supportive of individual rights like to argue that people "lose" their rights if they initiate force. But that's not true. And anyway, it's not as if Palestinians are equivalent to Hamas! 
     
  14. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Easy Truth in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    If all Palestinians are criminals, then they should lose their rights based on being human. This assumes that the "initiator of force" is clear ... and that all Palestinians are criminals. We know that Hamas operatives did their heinous deeds. What Hamas did was horrible. Meanwhile, what Israel is doing is horrible too with a much higher body count. The heinousness of an act does not necessarily determine your "rights". If it was a retaliation then the horror would have some justification. If it was not, it was a meaningless savage attack.
    First and foremost, the individual has to protect their rights. After that, it's the agency that they create, relinquishing that responsibility and giving it to the monopoly on force. This means that the way HAMAS was created is relevant.
    Israel was complicit in creating this so-called government (HAMAS) to weaken the political power that the PLO provided. It also contributed to the living conditions, with 2.5 million people blockaded on 3 sides. It was a chess move Israel made that contributed to this catastrophe. Did the Palestinian people have a "right" to an un interfered with Political process? Did they have the right to the PLO representing them? Mind you, the PLO is corrupt, but it does accept Israel's right to exist.
    Successive Israeli governments and settlers have harmed Palestinians too. This is assuming that Palestinians have rights. If Palestinians are human, then they have rights. After the Oslo Agreement (with the PLO), Palestinian claims have been ignored or sidelined.
    Assuming that one side does not have rights simply based on their civilization would allow conclusions that all individuals in communist systems, feudal countries, countries with kings or Queens, or Socialist or Fascist systems don't deserve natural rights. After all, their "system" is not civilized i.e. they are not civilized.
    Individuals are not programmed by their DNA to want to kill members of certain groups. We have free will. Each wants to flourish like any human. Palestinians will need to be considered human with associated rights to enable a mutually agreeable solution. One side being subhuman is succumbing to emotion.
     
  15. Haha
    tadmjones reacted to AlexL in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    You are thus refuting your own unqualified claim that "the tunnel network is a defensive utility for the terrorists"
  16. Confused
    tadmjones reacted to Doug Morris in Seeking insights on Objectivism: Benefits and misconceptions   
    Another misconception, to quote one source I read, is that Ayn Rand "hates charity".  She has stated explicitly that there is nothing wrong with helping others provided you can afford it and they are worthy of the help.  What she objects to is the idea that helping others is an obligation or a primary virtue.
    To make sure there is no misunderstanding, this refers to epistemological integration, not mathematical or racial integration.  Although Ayn Rand was strongly opposed to racism.
    Ayn Rand was also opposed to government coercion in connection with any of the topics mentioned in my post here.  She thought that government should only be used as a defense against the initiation of direct or indirect physical force.  This is more fully explained in her writings.
     
  17. Like
    tadmjones reacted to DavidOdden in Seeking insights on Objectivism: Benefits and misconceptions   
    As I see it, the most important point made in Objectivism is the “primacy of existence”. Nature is and does what it does, regardless of your beliefs about Nature. But you can use your consciousness to understand Nature. The “primacy” part means that your consciousness should conform to reality, and simply wishing doesn’t make it so.
    “Bare” Nature is malleable. Houses don’t just appear because of the invisible hand of Nature, a consciousness has to choose particular actions that bring houses into existence. Snakes and dogs are incapable of that kind of technology – why can’t they build? They lack the knowledge tools. A central contribution of Objectivism is an understanding of “knowledge”, and how it is that we get from observed facts to choices. We can observe properties of trees, and properties of rocks, and integrate that knowledge reaching the conclusion that we can create lumber. More observation and integration leads us to the conclusion that we can (and knowledge how) build houses. Other observations and integration lead to a moral code whereby we should build houses (in order to survive).
    In short, Objectivism puts consciousness and existence in the right order.
  18. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Boydstun in Seeking insights on Objectivism: Benefits and misconceptions   
    KE,
    Any advance in understanding the world and one's place in it as the human animal is part of a person, and in that broad sense of the personal, I'd say that for me Rand's drawing out of a thing I'd somehow known but not explicitly was beneficial: that life is the final end in itself. In terms of benefit to understanding, I'd say also Rand's discovery that and how life—focally, individual human life—is the arena and ultimate basis of any value or meaningfulness. Also of personal benefit, in the broad sense of the personal, for me, is Rand's main timbers for metaphysics: Existence is identity; consciousness is identification (focally, of existents). This is a good frame for examinations of other wide frameworks in which I for one have a life-long interest in knowing, from the Greeks to the present.
    In the narrower and more usual sense of the personal, for me, that benefit came when I was a young man, about five decades ago and continues to old age: mental health. In particular, learning that (i) rationality in one's thought, values, and action suffices for authentic value, and (ii) the goodness of loving oneself, esteeming oneself.
    Concerning misconceptions of Objectivism, two come to mind: that it is primarily a political viewpoint, and that it can be adopted simultaneously with holding onto some belief in the supernatural.
    These are good questions, and I'm looking forward to what others at this site have to say on them.
  19. Like
    tadmjones got a reaction from Boydstun in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    Stephen 
    You understand that the importance placed on the existence of the tunnels and the threat they project is what I am calling propaganda.
    The breach of the world’s most secure perimeter monitoring system wasn’t achieved by dint of surprise of time and place , the 50 th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war along a section of the Gaza border, alone.
    I am sure you aware of the calls for investigating and justifying the draw down of forces in that immediate area?
    The documented barbarity and brutality gives license to Israel’s response , which in turn gives license and talk in the West of relocating the Gazans entoto , weird how that falls in place. Those damn tunnels.
  20. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Boydstun in What are some counter-cultural rules you live by?   
    What meanings do the behaviors have to the agents? What is the understanding of the scope and context of the behaviors among people who all do the same acts such as deciding on what education they should pursue, acts such as making a living, acts such as driving safely, or acts such as being in and buoying a romantic relationship? Does not a more examined and self-conducted and understood life make one more alive? Is not human life with one's living mind among others more life than life of the wild animals? and are not the animals such as a fox or chipmunk more and higher life than plants? Is not "behavior" most fitting to actions of that middle group, the non-human animals? Who would want to imitate all the acts and whole arc of a human self-directed life and not instead be directing one's own acts and arc best one can? The former, the pure imitation, warrants focus on mere human behavior, the latter on a life that is actually human.
    I share the distinctive policy and practice you mentioned for yourself. Who cares about radical differences in such things in comparison to wisdom in such things?
     
  21. Thanks
    tadmjones reacted to MisterSwig in Shameful Display of Anarchy and Violence   
    William Swig.
    Your post inspired me.
  22. Like
    tadmjones reacted to stansfield123 in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    Cool. But this thread is about war in Gaza. Not a lot of proper rational philosophy is being applied there. They're using their own babies as human shields ( the vid is in Japanese, sorry, it's what I happen to have in my news feed, but you don't need to understand the language to see the fucker with the RPG, walking into the hospital):
     
    So what's your point? How exactly are you going to build an ideal society in a world where these people are your neighbors?
    Individual rights are nonsense, in this context. Individual rights are the governing principle in a peaceful society, not when dealing with what you see in that video.
  23. Like
    tadmjones reacted to stansfield123 in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    ... you guys have very confusing buttons ... I keep pressing the wrong ones:)
  24. Thanks
    tadmjones got a reaction from Grames in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    I’m currently going through a series of articles by Whitney Webb published on Mintpressnews.com from 2019 that talk about the history of Zionism both Christian and Jewish. She pretty much ‘brings the receipts’ to the subjects she speaks on.
    I was familiar with the idea that current evangelical x-tians are for the most part Zionists , but I was not aware of the history and extent of the activism.
    Apparently the end times are serious motivating factors and bankers like war and chaos , a match made in heaven.
  25. Like
    tadmjones reacted to Grames in Israelo-Palestinian Conflict: 2023 Edition   
    Posting to subscribe to the thread.   I really don't care about this conflict because I am neither jewish nor muslim.  I would just like to remind everyone of the big picture: modern Isreal exists because of the ideology of Zionism and jewish supremacism embedded within it.  If Zionism is invalid then anything which is a consequence of Zionism is invalid.

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