NOS4A2

His only crime was publishing information. Any detractor or hater or persecutor is such because the information was not to his liking.

Plutocrats, commies, you name it.

I don’t have solutions, mostly because I don’t claim a right to tell others how to live their lives. Though I would abolish those who claim such right...

Monetary expansion, demand-side stimulus, supply-side contraction, the great resignation. There is too much printed money floating around, not enough ...

Very interesting. But with claims such as these I am always reminded of Moravec’s paradox: “it is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult l...

Idealism assumes a kind of theater, that instead of observing a material world we are observing our own minds. All experience of the world is indirect...

A sober analysis, Relativist. Respect.

Understandable. But someone who cares about free speech might forgo the authorities and take a different approach, for instance reasoning with the spe...

Yes. Free speech goes both ways. But one should never seek to censor her.

Any word affixed with the suffix “ness” is usually a descriptor of things and is not itself a thing—redness, consciousness, happiness. Nothing, though...

That’s fair. But as far as I can tell charity and helping isn’t common to the domain of socialism. It’s more about economics.

Many of us do not want your help. A moral busybody is never a welcome addition to politics, and one who believes he can solve the world’s problems thr...

I made the allusion to the book The Captive Mind by Cezlaw Milosz, which described the intellectual cowardice of writers and artists in communist Pola...

Someone is sour that others are talking about things he doesn’t like.

It’s amazing how a simple question can strike such reticence and confusion. They likely understand that an answer that runs afoul of certain ideologie...

Show us on the doll where the capitalist touched you.

Hah, nice. Censors throughout history have pretended words have the sorts of causal effects you pretend they do, and used it as justification to murde...

Well yeah, a bullet tears through flesh, ceasing bodily function, which kills the target. So you’re right. The cells transduce the waves to nerve impu...

The ball broke the window. You kicked the ball. Sure. It was designed for someone to pull the trigger and set off the mechanisms which ultimately shoo...

The movement of hair cells. That’s the extent of the causal power of words. Biology isn’t a machine or built like a gun, though. Guns aren’t conscious...

But hair cells transduce vibration into impulses.

It’s nothing like saying that. Do you think mechanical soundwaves convert themselves to nerve impulses? I guess it’s a good thing I don’t respect your...

That was a good read, Bitter Crank. Thanks.

All that soundwaves trigger is the delicate biology of the inner ear. After transduction it’s all you. The biology—you—does all the work. It causes yo...

I’m sure it’s the other way about. People act upon words. We hear them, read them, learn them, write them, speak them, use them. They do not affect us...

You said they were a part of the cause and played a causal role. You also brought up counterfactual causation. “Chris played a causal role.” “…the cir...

All I remember of counterfactual causation is the lectures I attended on it over 20 years ago, much of it criticizing Lewis’ idea (Suzy or Lucy and th...

I never said I don’t use the word. It’s that I’m suspicious of the physics of it.

Correct.

Influence: the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/influence Are we not ...

It’s not connected to anything.

Conditions are connections now? I don’t think so. The birth of Will Smith caused the slap on Chris Rocks face. You heard it hear first.

I do disagree because it’s also consistent with the criticisms of counterfactual causation. Will Smith would not have slapped Chris rock had Will Smit...

I’ve said Will Smith caused each of his movements. There is no transfer of energy from any other circumstantial object to Will Smith, and therefor no ...

I think the idea of “influence” is the sort of magical thinking I’m talking about. It implies an action at a distance I’m very uncomfortable with.

A necessary condition but not a sufficient condition. Leaving the counterfactuals aside, we can examine the video and see that Will Smith animates him...

It doesn’t follow that the circumstances are a part of the cause. The fact that it was the Oscars does not mean the Oscars were a cause of Will Smith’...

I see nothing wrong with that.

I can’t disagree with that. At best a gun can serve as an equalizer in such situations, giving the weak and vulnerable an upper hand in the admittedly...

Right, I do not think the circumstances caused Will Smith to assault Chris Rock, for instance.

I’m finding it hard to remember where we disagree.

Ukrainian authorities had to effectively beg for weapons, and of course had to make it legal for civilians to walk around with guns for self-protectio...

There is no violent crime where you live?

Do you believe Chris rock caused Will Smith to hit him?

After this therefor because of this. The post hoc fallacy lets one believe in a false cause without having to prove its effect. Every act of Will Smit...

I just can’t imagine being so trusting as to put faith in others with guns to protect my life.

Not if I spoke a different language. Same meaning, same knowledge, different symbols. You understand these words because you’ve spent time learning th...

Influence means effect. Incite means to stir up. But there is no effect or stirring involved. Setting a precedent based on magical thinking is a very ...

I understand the folk psychology of “influence”. You make decisions based on information you pick up from the environment and believe the information ...

No, I get it. If I had not started talking about this you would not have responded. But your argument is redundant. I did not influence you to read, t...