baker

The problem isn't the remembering of painful or embarrassing past events; the problem is not knowing how to think about them wisely, what and how to l...

I know people who don't vote, as a matter of principle. I vote. I suppose some people are like that. But I'm not. Perhaps it's because of the specific...

Democracy isn't a given, it isn't the default. If enough people don't vote, a minority can, through what is on principle a democratic election, establ...

But they don't die out: they stick together, they're solidary with one another. They're just not solidary with outsiders.

On the contrary. They simply see that their strategy works: using it, they get the upper hand, they win, they get what they want. And they don't hate ...

Such is the power of self-actualization.

Solidarity is sometimes counterproductive. The weak and the poor being solidary with one another only keeps them weak and poor.

Yet you use the English language, you are gainfully employed, you participate at this forum. All of these require communal/collectivist/social reasoni...

Which assessment of mine do you believe is wrong?

This is a philosophy forum, not the watercooler. Why wouldn't destroying an entire social category be "sustainable" in the long term? People have alwa...

This is a philosophy forum, not the watercooler.

And get laughed at or told to leave.

Smokers tend to have a diminished sense of smell. They can't tell how bad the smell from smoking is. It's one of the reasons why it's useless to talk ...

It's about neighbors and coworkers who smoke (at work or in break). I open the windows in the morning to get some fresh air, and what do I get? The od...

Because for all practical intents and purposes the state owns its citizens. The citizens are subjects of the state.

Wrong how?

Yet such is democracy. It seems that what you really want is that your political stance should prevail with ease. Heh. I blended no knee either, but I...

For a purpose. Yes. All other action is irrational/maladaptive.

For some people, it clearly does. What you're after is objective morality, absolute authority.

And talking about it accomplishes what?

As another poster suggested earlier in this discussion (in this or another thread), the actual issue is that existence itself is problematic. Antinata...

So what are you going to do about that?

Which is why a democracy has the legal means to remove such a political leader from office.

Then what exactly is your objection to the democratic system of political parties and the process of electing them via popular vote?

An argument can only be persuasive to someone, to a person. It cannot be objectively, suprapersonally persuasive.

Hardship and suffering are two different concepts. Hardship (pain) are the external and bodily circumstances that a person is subject to: poverty, a b...

Why was that maladaptive? Why were they mistaken? Substantiate.

Not at all. What is completely avoidable is formal study of philosophy. One can perfectly well avoid enrolling in a college program the topic of which...

But perhaps your point is that you don't actually want to live in a democracy?

Such is democracy. Which is what happens when people don't believe in democracy, even though they nominally live in one. And whose problem and fault i...

You can escape teaching, practicing medicine, a hundred things. But you cannot escape being a citizen. Being a citizen brings with it rights and respo...

Unlike professional politicians, you underestimate your role as a citizen of a democratic country and you're not willing to put in anywhere near the e...

Different deliberative assemblies or electoral bodies operate by different rules. They have diffferent rules as to what constitutes a quorum, the exac...

Depends on the electoral system. Some countries have a quorum requirement even for parliamentary and presidential elections where it is the general po...

Listing names isn't a description. That's like asking whether breathing is of benefit to individuals and how would that be demonstrated. It seems your...

I generally agree, but the problem with your formulation is that it is so general that it can also be applied in ways that would generally be consider...

This is what is so dismal about the pronatalists. If life is so great, why can't they give a good reason for it? Why the exhortation to kill yourself ...

Irrelevant. It's not about what the stakes are, it's about what is at stake. People will generally do something they value highly, even if the chances...

But on the other hand, there are the tribalist pro-natalists who only look out for their own tribe/family and who feel no obligation at all to look af...

Self-confidence, a "lust for life".

But people who procreate don't typically seem to see it that way. What do you make of that?

One of the core problems in these discussions is the usual failure to distinguish between hardship and suffering, and instead conflating them. Poverty...

*sigh* Like I said more than once, I'm not an antinatalist. I'm trying to bring some balance into the discussion. I'm critical of both the antinatalis...

Except, of course, if the child is of the wrong skin color/ethnicity/socioeconomic class, has a disability, is one too many. You keep ignoring this.

Some certainly would. Most studies in human psychology are done on college students (many of whom major in psychology) and who participate in those st...

Except, of course, if the child is of the wrong skin color/ethnicity/socioeconomic class, has a disability, is one too many. You keep ignoring this. I...

That they Having children is an act of faith, an act of confidence: The prospective parents have faith, are confident that the universe will prove to ...

Ordinary people are in the position of power, so why do they play the victim? If all you've ever eaten is cold pizza and you're closed off to the poss...

To illustrate with an example: I live in a once rural area that is undergoing rapid suburbanization and gentrification. Many new people are moving in,...

The question was about _whose_ norms, not what norms. On the grounds of what should one person's moral norms be more relevant than another person's mo...