How Do We Make Society Better?

The Off-Topic forum for anything non-LDS related, such as sports or politics. Rated PG through PG-13.
Post Reply
_Doctor Steuss
_Emeritus
Posts: 4597
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:57 pm

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Doctor Steuss »

canpakes wrote:
Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:male birth control. <- Game changer when that comes available.

We have something like this now, with the aptly-named 'tool dip'.

Image



According to my wife, the most effective type of birth control for men is Crocs.

Image
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead." ~Charles Bukowski
_Tator
_Emeritus
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2010 9:15 am

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Tator »

There is a male birth control pill it is about the size of a marble. You put it inside your shoe and it makes you limp. I guess even a marble would work.
a.k.a. Pokatator joined Oct 26, 2006 and permanently banned from MAD Nov 6, 2006
"Stop being such a damned coward and use your real name to own your position."
"That's what he gets for posting in his own name."
2 different threads same day 2 hours apart Yohoo Bat 12/1/2015
_Uncle Ed
_Emeritus
Posts: 794
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:47 am

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Uncle Ed »

MeDotOrg wrote:I've always said Americans are watching two different movies. Republicans are watching High Noon. Democrats are watching It's a Wonderful Life. Republicans are the party of Me. Democrats are the party of We. Republicans take a family. Democrats take a village.

These philosophical differences have been exacerbated by self-segregating into liberal and conservative echo chambers, where we cherry pick information to reinforce our world views.

I think it is no accident that Democrats primarily live in urban areas and Republicans live in less concentrated areas of population. The less concentrated the population, the less infrastructure is needed to support the population. But in urban areas, you need a lot of infrastructure. Public transportation becomes essential. And public transport is where you meet the rest of the world that is not like you. I think of public transport as a crucible, and how you react defines who you are.

The Atlanta Braves had a relief pitcher named John Rocker. The New York Mets and the Braves had a bit of a rivalry in 1999, and Rocker was asked if he could ever play in New York.
"I'd retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the 7-Train to the ballpark looking like you're riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing...The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"

Rocker's reaction is what every human being who rides the subway must, at some point do: either embrace or reject humanity.

Malarkey. Nobody has to embrace humanity. And by refusing to embrace humanity you are not forced to reject humanity either. One can be honest and stoic about feelings. This admits that viscerally, I hate a lot of things about a lot of people. I am neutral about very little. To take Rocker's way is stupid; he's just running his mouth because he can get attention for it. If he's squashed between two gang bangers on the bus he won't talk that way in that venue, now will he? Hypocrite or smart? He values his hide.

Nobody is a nuanced thinker by nature. It is a learned skill, with a few people coming to it easier through talent. Nuanced thinkers first of all admit their B&W thinking. They know that everybody is a B&W thinker: it's how homo sapiens think: simplify the deluge of information coming in, break it down into small bites and store only what is required to do a job. The rest gets tossed (forgotten). Our brains are not "designed" to store large amounts of detailed things about a lot of things. So we don't really know nearly as much as we flatter ourselves into believing that we do. And most of what we think we know is just parroting what others say that they know.

Why do I bring this up? Because the voting population is composed of B&W thinkers, largely NOT devoted to, or even aware of, the problem with their own thinking.

If we think that talking talking talking talking talking about what is wrong with everybody is going to change a damned thing that's just crazy. Keep talking and expecting a different result is insane.

The world right now is seized by "the conservatives". The libs are still recovering from meltdown mode. Will the world improve or worsen under conservatism? Being a conservative myself, I say it will improve, but only marginally so. That's because being in charge doesn't change how others think or live.

So we have the ages old warfare between control freaks and individualists. I don't care what you are called by others, or what you call yourself: if you are a control freak you are the enemy. If you are an individualist you an ally. Individualists make few laws, ignore most, and let others live according to the same privilege.

That's why an individualist riding the bus everyday has a harder time with it than a control freak (group-thinker): he sees humanity as a mass being herded by greater powers than himself. He is forced by their world to conform and suck it up. Not wanting to be seen as a buttercup he speaks out sooner or later; rather than pretend that he's okay with what he hates in others. Individualists do that. Group-thinkers fake their benevolent feelings, until it is safe to let them out in a mob. Individualists do not start riots, they start wars. Group-thinkers are part of a mob waiting to form; they just need a demagogue to set them loose. And thus, by their fruits are they always known. Individualists suck up election losses and wait for next time. Group-thinkers fall to pieces and break things at the first seized opportunity, calling this "protest".
A man should never step a foot into the field,
But have his weapons to hand:
He knows not when he may need arms,
Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38

Man's joy is in Man. - Hávamál 47
_Themis
_Emeritus
Posts: 13426
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 6:43 pm

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Themis »

Uncle Ed wrote:So we have the ages old warfare between control freaks and individualists. I don't care what you are called by others, or what you call yourself: if you are a control freak you are the enemy. If you are an individualist you an ally. Individualists make few laws, ignore most, and let others live according to the same privilege.


The problem is that control freaks, as you put it, can be found in both the right and left. It tends to be more with the extremes. I grew up in a town of religious conservatives, and they liked to make lots of laws to govern based on their religious morals. Like no shops open in Sunday, or no alcohol sold in town.
42
_Doctor CamNC4Me
_Emeritus
Posts: 21663
Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:02 am

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Doctor CamNC4Me »

Themis wrote:
Uncle Ed wrote:So we have the ages old warfare between control freaks and individualists. I don't care what you are called by others, or what you call yourself: if you are a control freak you are the enemy. If you are an individualist you an ally. Individualists make few laws, ignore most, and let others live according to the same privilege.


The problem is that control freaks, as you put it, can be found in both the right and left. It tends to be more with the extremes. I grew up in a town of religious conservatives, and they liked to make lots of laws to govern based on their religious morals. Like no shops open in Sunday, or no alcohol sold in town.


Some control freaks like to snip a woman's clitoris off, behead individualists, and throw homosexuals from rooftops.

I'm not really sure what Uncle Ed's point was.

- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.

Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
_Maksutov
_Emeritus
Posts: 12480
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:19 pm

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Maksutov »

MeDotOrg wrote:I think it is no accident that Democrats primarily live in urban areas and Republicans live in less concentrated areas of population. The less concentrated the population, the less infrastructure is needed to support the population. But in urban areas, you need a lot of infrastructure. Public transportation becomes essential. And public transport is where you meet the rest of the world that is not like you. I think of public transport as a crucible, and how you react defines who you are.

Bingo. Democrats pluralist, Republicans monoculture. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Best when they complement, which is rarely these days.
"God" is the original deus ex machina. --Maksutov
_Maksutov
_Emeritus
Posts: 12480
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:19 pm

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Maksutov »

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:
Uncle Ed wrote:The problem is that control freaks, as you put it, can be found in both the right and left. It tends to be more with the extremes. I grew up in a town of religious conservatives, and they liked to make lots of laws to govern based on their religious morals. Like no shops open in Sunday, or no alcohol sold in town.

Some control freaks like to snip a woman's clitoris off, behead individualists, and throw homosexuals from rooftops.

I'm not really sure what Uncle Ed's point was.

- Doc

He doesn't embrace humanity. :lol:
"God" is the original deus ex machina. --Maksutov
_Jersey Girl
_Emeritus
Posts: 34407
Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:16 am

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Jersey Girl »

Themis wrote: Like no shops open in Sunday,


I loved the old blue laws. I think we should still have them and that has nothing to do with religion.

or no alcohol sold in town.


Easy. Make your own.

;-)
Last edited by Google Feedfetcher on Fri Dec 29, 2017 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb
_Jersey Girl
_Emeritus
Posts: 34407
Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:16 am

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Jersey Girl »

Odd yet interesting fact, I think. In a neighboring town one side of a building is the liquor store, the other side is a gun shop.

Doesn't seem like a good combo to me. Unless of course, you aim to get fired up and blow someone's stuff away on a Friday night. :lol:
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb
_Uncle Ed
_Emeritus
Posts: 794
Joined: Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:47 am

Re: How Do We Make Society Better?

Post by _Uncle Ed »

Nothing mixes well with alcohol. So where would you legislate your location for the liquor store?

My point above was simple I thought: individualists, by any name or none at all, are allies to individual freedom and keeping gov't to a minimum of intrusion. Control freaks, a.k.a. group-thinkers, are enemies of individual liberty and pass laws legislating all manner of, well, controls of course.'

I am not sure what the point was of pointing out that religious control freaks in all parts of the world like causing mayhem for non believers / non conformists.
A man should never step a foot into the field,
But have his weapons to hand:
He knows not when he may need arms,
Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38

Man's joy is in Man. - Hávamál 47
Post Reply