Chilean activist destroys student debt papers worth $500m

[Kidlicious]

If you manage to make it halfway through Das Kapital you deserve some sort of award, possibly just for sheer persistence.

It's the conclusion that ruins the book.

[Kidlicious]

Wasting time wouldn't be an issue if we were immortal beings who could effortlessly have entire customized planets fabricated for us.

But then we wouldn't need government.

[Kidlicious]

Yeah, I know, it's just that the SoN is perhaps the central error of the Enlightenment--the basic assumption holding up the whole notion that human beings are primarily individuals, rather than members of groups. Almost everything we believe about rights, and all that rot, is based on this one misbegotten fantasy from three hundred years ago.

Why do you call that an error? Why isn't it an error that we are only members of a group? Are you talking about social constructs? If so, why is "individual" a social construct but "group" is not?

[AAAAAAAAH!]

But then we wouldn't need government.

EXACTLY! Clearly this is what Marx had in mind.

[Kidlicious]

I don't think I really realized that so many people on the Left actually believed in utopia when I was a communist. Eventually that's what caused me to stop believing in all that.

[Elok]

A truly post-scarcity world is so far removed from our world anyway that it's not really fair to say, "if only there weren't scarcity, humans wouldn't behave this way," as if that's somehow an aberration and not the norm we evolved to handle.

[Ben Kenobi]

Kidicious, how many of us were trying to tell you that?

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah, I know, it's just that the SoN is perhaps the central error of the Enlightenment--the basic assumption holding up the whole notion that human beings are primarily individuals, rather than members of groups. Almost everything we believe about rights, and all that rot, is based on this one misbegotten fantasy from three hundred years ago.

Personally I think the whole perfectibility argument of Rousseau is nonsense. People suck. People are stupid and evil and lazy. Take people and stick them in a jungle. Then you get stupid and evil and lazy people living in the jungle, not some kind of noble savage.

[Kidlicious]

Kidicious, how many of us were trying to tell you that?

I never believed that the end of the family and religion would be a good thing. I also never believed there would one day not be a government. I know people were saying that was bad but I didn't disagree.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

Personally I think the whole perfectibility argument of Rousseau is nonsense. People suck. People are stupid and evil and lazy. Take people and stick them in a jungle. Then you get stupid and evil and lazy people living in the jungle, not some kind of noble savage.

Following your assumptions, parents should put as little effort as possible into raising their kids because their kids suck, and are stupid and evil and lazy. Anyone who believes otherwise is a utopian who thinks people can be perfect.

[Ben Kenobi]

parents should put as little effort as possible into raising their kids because their kids suck, and are stupid and evil and lazy. Anyone who believes otherwise is a utopian who thinks people can be perfect.

On the contrary, if the savage were noble, why is childrearing necessary?

[Kidlicious]

Children are undeveloped evil. I doubt that molly has read Lord of the Flies.

[AAAAAAAAH!]

On the contrary, if the savage were noble, why is childrearing necessary?

You've constructed a false dichotomy. Congratulations, I guess.

[molly bloom]

I really admire Molly Bloom's ability to combine non sequitur with weaksauce burns. I really do. There's something beautiful about how it's irrelevant, unintelligent and uninteresting all at the same time.

Aaah, if that's how you feel it should be quaintly reassuring.

Like looking in a mirror for you.

[molly bloom]

Children are undeveloped evil. I doubt that molly has read Lord of the Flies.

Doubt away, tool. Read it and seen it.