I think the more accurate statement is that money represents value. It's the measuring stick by which we assess value. I don't see how money becomes "...
That's of course assuming that the goal for the republicans is a return to relative "normalcy", with power switching hands between two parties at regu...
Agreed. This is an interesting event, and some schadenfreude towards the hedge funds in question is perhaps warranted. But to treat this as anything m...
Sure, for Trump it makes sense, the more influence he can retain the better for him. But as for the Republicans, they're either very short sighted or ...
Based on recent events, I'd say he is far from useless. He is a very useful figurehead, and it looks like the attempts of the more moderate republican...
Fascism is a specific ideology, or set of ideologies. It's not just any authoritarianism. Different visions of society can all have a similar drive to...
One the one hand, this is a fun prank on the hedge funds, and a nice reductio ad absurdum of the current stock market. On the other hand, isn't furthe...
The gold standard is not directly related to fractional reserve banking, as you can have both. The gold standard only limits the primary currency, but...
Without FRL, the economy would collapse. For better or worse, FRL is a central engine of capitalism, as it facilitates investment and makes it cheaper...
Well, no, because that's exactly the premise I challenged. There is a hidden premise in the argument to that effect. 1) contingent things exist. 2) a ...
This premise is problematic. It treats the chain as composite, but it might instead merely be divisible. The divisions might even be illusory. Which w...
Yes. I wasn't intending to put words in your mouth. But I think here is an implicit premise in your argument that creating additional people also crea...
I think you have the start of a good argument here. Yes, morally, only intentions can really be relevant, not least because we also need a moral judge...
I think there is a problematic assertion here, which is present in most anti-natalist arguments, that by creating a person you thereby also create the...
Robots don't consume though, and lack of consumers seems to be the more significant problem for modern capitalism. The idea that capitalism destroys i...
With 7 Billion people, rare exceptions still happen a lot. But you don't really understand statistics, nor do you apparently care, seeing as you ignor...
I think there is a really interesting discussion to be had here about just how we're supposed to deal with risk morally. All behaviours are risky, so ...
No, I didn't mean to say that it does. But "experience" itself is already the mental correlate. All experience is mental experience, and does not ever...
Yeah, because the distinction is arbitrary. For one, everyone dies "long term", so it does matter whether people die now or later. For another, it bei...
Yes, that's the one major reason. The other is that "healthy" people still die or experience significant complications, and we only have limited resou...
Assuming you are asking me under what circumstances causing absolute harm can be a good thing. For example, if you can expect that the person will be ...
I can see what you mean here. And that seems like a reasonable position to take with regard to specific, formalised logic systems, like predicate logi...
Sure, we don't have to but that's not saying anything about whether we should. You're just short-circuiting ethics by making you preferred outcome als...
Isn't that also a conclusion arrived at by using logic? I always get confused by these kinds of arguments. But if you agree with that claim, then you ...
Dualism is an old concept, and I would say it's "meaningful" in the sense that it does seem to capture an aspect of human existence - we do divide the...
I am pretty certain we're dealing with someone with some kind of mental illness. No amount of argument will make them reconsider. People dying is a pr...
I will say that I do think you want the right thing, in your own way. You want to protect people from harm and protect their dignity. That I can get b...
But physical reality, insofar as we can access it, must logically be part of mental reality. So there are two contradictory statements, both seem to b...
This is just a really weird thing to say as a justification for not allowing individuals to exist. Like your argument is that we must respect the indi...
Quite apart from this particular discussion, I think when we say things like "clear harm", or "reasonable prediction", we're not actually using any st...
Consider me impressed as well. It's indeed quite rare to see someone actually be open to changing their mind. And I admit being angry and combative on...
The answer always seems to be arbitrary fiat. That's not telling me anything useful. What kind of consequences do I need to consider? Is there some cu...
This is true of everything you do, not just of having children. At the very least, you're probably a cause for a lot of children to be born, even if y...
It also tells us this takes time. More time than the virus needs to replicate. Interferons are not 100% effective, and leukocytes only work after the ...
How do you suppose we get immune people? That's the whole point of the vaccination drive. I think I am going to trust actual scientists over your opin...
If you want an example of what I mean, watch his interview with Steven Pinker. I'd guess you probably agree with Pinker's positive outlook on the achi...
This part: It strikes me as completely absurd. There is a risk some action might cause a negative subjective evaluation in someone, and so it needs ju...
Immune people will "kill" whatever virus enters their system, but obviously this doesn't mean that they don't infect vulnerable people before they are...
How do you know this? What research has been done on direct Vs indirect exposure? I don't know where you picked this notion up, but it's false. CoViD ...
Exposing healthy people automatically also exposes vulnerable people. That's the problem. There is no way to neatly separate society into those that w...
Yes, the R-rate goes down as more and more people get immune. Because infections aren't instantly over though, there is a significant time lag, so the...
Depends on the definition of a country, of course. The EU is usually considered a federation of states, but not a federal state. It's also pretty much...
I think the relation with incel culture comes from an interview with JP where he showed sympathy with the demand (voiced by some incels) to be assigne...
Why though? I mean what's the point? Why would I conceive my relationship towards other people as primarily negative, in the sense that any interactio...
Significant herd protection requires probably at least 60% of the population to be immune. I trust you can make your own calculation, based on current...
A lot of "natural" human behaviours are bad, we could just add the tendency towards authoritarianism on the list. But calling it a tendency towards au...
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