Welcome To Reality - new show on YouTube

[Jim Henderson 2]

Stephen, thanks for the book recommendation. Wilentz has written some thoughtful historical tomes.

[MisterSwig 188]

In this new episode we look at parasomnias like sleepwalking. What causes them and how are they related to dreams and memory and evolution?

 

[MisterSwig 188]

We have a guest this time! Lev and I talk with an advocate of Critical Race Theory who believes America was founded on white supremacy.

 

[MisterSwig 188]

Here's a short episode, only 13 minutes long, on Trump Derangement Syndrome.

 

[Easy Truth 95]

9 hours ago, MisterSwig said:

on Trump Derangement Syndrome

Once the emotions die down we may be able to determine if the "desperate emotions" (on both sides) had any validity.

Will the negative feelings toward Trump or Biden correspond to what would have happened. Time will tell.

It's too early to determine because too much emotional intensity right now blinds a person to the truth.

 

[MisterSwig 188]

7 hours ago, Easy Truth said:

It's too early to determine because too much emotional intensity right now blinds a person to the truth.

This might be literally true. If our crow epistemology allows only so much information to be in focal awareness, then an emotional reaction will push out some awareness of reality and make it harder to think rationally about what's really going on in the world.

[SpookyKitty 26]

Cool! How the hell did I miss this?

[Eiuol 469]

On 11/6/2020 at 12:12 AM, SpookyKitty said:

Cool! How the hell did I miss this?

Definitely leave a comment on what you think once you listen to an episode! 

[MisterSwig 188]

Should mail-in ballots be used in elections?

 

[Easy Truth 95]

I think you'll have to finish off the video in writing because you will have to 

1. Identify "who should vote"

2. Identify how you will identify them

You touched on it, but it still is left as a complaint i.e. "voting by mail is too problematic".

One thing you have to take into consideration is that the (2020) voting that brought in a Democrat President also brought in a Republican Congress so one can make the argument that it worked. If it was rigged, then one would expect both president and congress to go in one direction since the same system of voting was used in both cases.

[tadmjones 56]

Voter fraud isn’t nearly as detrimental to the institutions of a republic as is counter fraud.

[MisterSwig 188]

Easy Truth, I actually cut about ten minutes of us discussing that stuff, but my performance didn't meet a minimum standard for publication. It was a rather impromptu/brainstormy discussion and I need more time to think about the details and present a decent case for raising the requirements of voting and verifying eligible voters. My general view is that the voting age needs to be higher and voting by mail needs to be severely limited.

[MisterSwig 188]

13 hours ago, tadmjones said:

Voter fraud isn’t nearly as detrimental to the institutions of a republic as is counter fraud.

Is there much counter fraud? I hear about counting "glitches" but not fraud. And I believe that viral video of the woman filling in ballots was showing the duplication process for unreadable ballots. So we need to be careful about judging these videos. Just like with the George Floyd video, just because you see something happening with your own eyes doesn't mean you understand what's happening.

[tadmjones 56]

The precinct 'bosses' , those that fill the staff positions at canvassing and counting facilities  are reliably 'above board' , and or not in a position to manipulate tallies ?

Daley did nothing for JFK? LBJ had no sway in TX?

Cheating is endemic 'everybody' does it, it rarely gets called because those who rely on it need it later too. Only a brash , no holds barred type would even think of using it as leverage in a negotiation.

Do you think we need systems of voter verification in order to stop individual voters from casting improper ballots? I think the political class engineers systems in order to prioritize the ability to manipulate voter counts in manner that would be very hard to prove legalistically. But then again I'm cynical and jaded.

[MisterSwig 188]

Alright, QAnons, tell us why we're wrong!

 

[MisterSwig 188]

This time we look at some top sci-fi movies from the last couple decades and explore their themes and important contributions to the genre. Movies discussed: The Matrix, Ex Machina, Arrival, Looper and Inception.

 

[MisterSwig 188]

This time we weigh in with regard to the Snowden question. Should he be pardoned? We think so. His crime was a benefit to Americans rather than a detriment, and the traditional whistleblower route was not a viable option.

 

[dream_weaver 604]

19 hours ago, MisterSwig said:

This time we weigh in with regard to the Snowden question. Should he be pardoned? We think so. His crime was a benefit to Americans rather than a detriment, and the traditional whistleblower route was not a viable option.

How timely. I just watched watch Snowden again last week.

Extemporaneously, law (I got the impression as a general reference) was critiqued as being "not perfect". In this arena, laws should be good laws, or they are not good and should be amended or repealed.

Even in the sciences, as an example read in another thread, water boils at 212°F, except when it doesn't. It's not a bad law. The law just needed to be amended to include the consideration of atmospheric pressure.

As to a pardon, I think it would 9help circumvent bad law(s), indeed.

Edited January 6 by dream_weaver

[dream_weaver 604]

On 12/14/2020 at 5:49 PM, MisterSwig said:

Arrival

Took the opportunity to review both the commentary and the movie this evening. 

Both of you expressed the aspect of determinism. The movie is portrayed as a somewhat past tense narrative. Yet, it was the recollection of a future event that provided the general's private phone number and words that would change his mind. 

She chose to make the call to avert the events unfolding before her. The phone number and the words to say were provided 'before their occurrence'.

Determinism implies it could not have happened otherwise.

Unlike a dice roll in a Jumanji movie where the player couldn't opt-out of the consequence, the phone call did not come across as if Louise's person had became possessed and the actions performed by some destiny that had to unfold.

Thanks for the thoughts on the films. For this one, it made for re-examining it from a perspective I hadn't acquired or considered from previous viewings.

 

[MisterSwig 188]

11 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

She chose to make the call to avert the events unfolding before her. The phone number and the words to say were provided 'before their occurrence'.

Yes, it's kind of a unique way to present events throughout time, as if she has access to knowledge of her entire lifespan. Tenet does something even stranger with time, where different temporal periods overlap in reality.

11 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

Unlike a dice roll in a Jumanji movie where the player couldn't opt-out of the consequence, the phone call did not come across as if Louise's person had became possessed and the actions performed by some destiny that had to unfold.

Right. Jumanji is like a Matrix world, where certain events are controlled by the coding. Arrival is supposed to be the real world, so Louise appears to have normal volition, yet her future is already real, which implies that her present "choices" are determined.

In Back To The Future, the writers concretize an undetermined future by showing Marty struggle to fix his interference with past events like his parents getting together. Also Marty has that family photo which tells him the future. It serves the same function as Louise's knowledge of the future. The difference, however, is that Marty's photo is not him, so we accept it as some kind of crystal ball-like, magical device to move the plot along. Louise's knowledge comes from her own brain. That's harder to accept as some magical device. It thematical suggests that she's already experienced the future of her present world, whereas Marty hasn't. He doesn't know what he's changed until he gets "back to the future."

Edited January 31 by MisterSwig

[MisterSwig 188]

In this new episode we explore the nature of consciousness and the will. We attempt to define and describe them in relation to the ideas of Rand, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Take a break from politics and come introspect with us!

 

[MisterSwig 188]

In this episode we ask whether transwomen should be allowed to compete in women's sports. Why have women's sports in the first place? And do transwomen have an unfair advantage over women? Check it out!