Copilot Designer responds to the prompt "God is a bench jeweler"...
Saturday, August 31, 2024
God is a bench jeweler
HA HA HAAA...no idea what this dude is talking about, but if we know about it, of course humans 3000 years ago could know about it, too. Say, bench jewelers in Middle Kingdom Egypt. So, no mystery.
Innevarande sinnesstämning
Kan inte frigöra mig från tanken att hon sjunger om Gud, Brahman, eller något i den stilen...
Sic transit gloria mundi
I feel like linking to this, originally posted just a week after J6. The comments about Kamala Harris are insane and should not be taken seriously, LOL. The real point of the little novella is something else entirely...
Friday, August 30, 2024
Favoritmördare
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| Palmer i Las Palmas |
Dags för Gunnar Wall att läsa och kommentera den här boken, kanske?
They just want to sin
We already know why people become atheists: they just want to sin, they have an inordinate fondness for beetles, and...they are responding to sociological processes of disenchantment stemming from the industrial revolution (and its inordinate fondness for coal) circa 1750.
I mean, I could have told you that long ago. But nah, all this time, you assumed they had "reasoned themselves out of religious belief". LOL.
Reason is the slave of the passions, dude. Human, all too human!
The guns of August
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| - Don´t look, bro, but there is an orange liberal in the woods! |
This was...I don´t know...unexpected or something. Has Trump endorsed IVF and (de facto) abortion?
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Mindshift
This could be significant. For a long time, women have been more religious/spiritual than males. Also, women who were skeptical of Christianity joined alternative religions. Say Theosophy, Spiritualism or New Age. But now, it seems that young women in the United States are increasingly dropping out of religion altogether, and a faster rate than males.
Other surveys suggest that the typical American atheist is a young White college-educated male, so this could indicate a change in the atheist subculture, as well.
Personally, I doubt that this mindshift towards atheism and irreligion is sustainable. Let alone global. Bracing myself for a rebirth of Neo-Paganism followed by a Christian revival when the kids turn 35. If that´s good, bad or ugly, is another topic entirely...
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
The soul of the world
I never heard of this guy before. The story is WILD. About a 19th century German scientist who went mad, cured himself and returned a changed man, convinced that the world has a soul and plants are conscious?!
His main works are titled "Nanna" (named after Baldur´s wife in Norse mythology) and "Zend-Avesta" (just google it). Maybe we need more crazies like this?
A pluralist world
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Sometimes, AI is damn funny. As here, in answer to the prompt "William James at a séance", James of course being the famous American pro-spiritual philosopher...
Hypotheses non fingo
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| Me, writing about David Hume |
A "constructive" look at David Hume, usually depicted as a nasty little skeptic. Note the long section on religion! Good luck with this material, took me most of Monday to read it...
For the record
Since I discussed Tulsi Gabbard before, I might as well link to this clip. I haven´t really watched it. It´s interesting to note that, say, Alt-Right personality Mike Cernovich "predicted" this already in 2016, since he described Gabbard as a "centrist populist" already at a time when she was officially a left-leaning Democrat!
Oh, and then there´s this...
Monday, August 26, 2024
Ray-finned body
So I searched Academia.edu for scholarly papers on "the rainbow body", a concept within Tibetan Buddhism. I got 5,800 hits! Which sounded kind of fantastic.
But...
It turns out that most of them are fairly technical papers on - wait for it - rainbow trout?! But yeah, I suppose this particular bony fish may have an, ahem, rainbow body...
One of the papers about the fish does have a title that sounds almost Tantric: "The Kármán gait: novel body kinematics of rainbow trout swimming in a vortex street".
But no, I haven´t read it.
Foreign adventure or Russian adventurism?
Pro-Russian blogger Vox Day on the 2014 (?) Russian nuclear doctrine. Hmmm....
Acolyte
Breitbart´s John Nolte attacks "The Acolyte", which is apparently also known as "the gayest Star Wars ever". I never seen it, but I couldn´t help noticing this little contradiction in the article. First, Nolte writes:
>>>To give you an idea of how low “50+” is, last year I wrote a novel that received about a millionth of the publicity The Acolyte received, and it was selling “50+” on Amazon ten months after its release, which bummed me out.
But in the byline it says:
>>>John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
?
Floating head
Some really trippy shit in this one! It´s the beginning of "Zardoz", the bizarre cult film starring Sean Connery as anything but James Bond.
Have only seen this film once, like 35 years ago or so! But yes, I distinctly remember the floating head and the absurd masks...
Dude!
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Enchanted, Mr Keel
If you believe these kinds of stories, they are obviously fairies, not "aliens". Everything fits with the fairy and their glamor (and awkwardness) from folklore. The first story even ends with the "aliens" walking into the woods?! Note also their propensity for kidnapping innocent little children.
Thus, the "non-human encounters" are with entities who have been on Earth FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. If you think that´s possible. Nobody from the outside has ever reached this rock, and nobody will ever leave it.
Welcome home, John.
STOP THE PRESS, CONSPIRACY IN PROGRESS
THESE ARE NOT ALIENS, THEY ARE DENIZENS OF GRAND TARTARY COMING BACK TO RECLAIM THEIR BUILDING MATERIAL, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS STONEHENGE!!!
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Deep fake confirmed
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| Credit: MidJourney (?) |
Above is an AI-generated picture of Jesus, based on the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is authentic after the latest round of "tests".
But the picture above, while fascinating, rather suggests the opposite: of course it´s a medieval forgery. Jesus wasn´t assumed to look like this until centuries after his death (and resurrection?). See my blog post "Face Off", which links to a YouTube video on the matter, presented by a scholar.
In the land of the gibbons
In the land of the gibbons, the siamang is king. We want to see a "Planet of the Apes" sequel featuring gibbons, siamangs, baboons and Bigfoot, I mean why the heck not? Who cares about the canon and continuity anyway, LOL.
The hoax of LaVeyan Satanism
Or perhaps not, since it seems that Anton Szandor LaVey *did* live as he learned...but at the expense of his own membership! I haven´t seen the original interview with Zeena Schreck (it´s two hours long), but these comments from Australian esotericist and former OTO member Frater Eletheria are interesting. And yes, Schreck is LaVey´s daughter!
Told you so
Sicilian history nerd "The Metatron" discusses whether or not female warriors existed in ancient times, based on ancient sources and archeology. He reaches the conclusion that most such warriors were mythological, fought under extraordinary conditions, or weren´t really warriors but female rulers (not the same thing).
However, one ethnic group does stand out: Scythians and their subgroup the Sarmatians. *They* had female warriors. This is confimed by both written sources and archeological digs, so it´s a settled question. Especially significant is the female "Roman" soldier found in Britain, probably a Sarmatian. It´s *very* unlikely that she was buried as a soldier for purely symbolic reasons, if he she was just the in-keeper...
No surprise there.
The Metatron ends by pointing out that there were also female warriors in Africa, but says very little about this. Maybe next time?
Anarko-imperialister
Intressant blogginlägg. Är T.H. bara historienörd, eller finns det ett dolt budskap i historien om hur spanska anarkister stödde västmakterna mot Hitler?
Deutschland über alles?
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| Nein! |
Ett land som länge samarbetat med Ryssland är inte occidentalistiskt pålitligt och får givetvis *inte* leda försvaret av Östersjön. I mean, are you kidding me?
Dessutom har Tyskland rustat ned sin militär, medan Polen rustat upp sin. Ja, Polen har den tredje starkaste militären inom NATO efter USA och Turkiet. Hade polackerna marscherat mot Berlin hade de antagligen segrat!
Alltså bör Polen och Sverige få huvudansvaret för Östersjön, punkt.
Tyskland vill ta över kontrollen av Östersjön
The Place of the Lion...or just Murphy´s cat?
A somewhat peculiar article by Richard Carrier, in which he critiques a Christian theologian who sounds almost pantheist or perhaps panentheist. He (Carrier) also makes what almost sounds like an atheist "confession of faith"...
>>>Ward now steers back to his thesis, that all concepts are “contained” within God. Which is just as true of spacetime: every point of spacetime possesses the property of potentially realizing any logically possible thing (especially if every possible thing is, or is the logically necessary outcome of, some geometric arrangement of spacetime).>>>
>>>The universe, as-is, contains all possibilities. This includes alternative physics, which simply require some reshaping of spacetime to suit. One dimension can be twisted into two, and two into three, and thence into a thousand or whatever one needs; and likewise whatever property of spacetime manifests the fundamental universal constants can be tuned to some other value; and so on. Anything physically impossible in this universe can be made possible again by changing some property of spacetime; and spacetime has the potential to possess any logically possible property.>>>
>>>Spacetime is thus omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent (just as I pointed out originally to Edward Feser): spacetime possesses all powers (just no intelligence to select when or how to use them); spacetime possesses all knowledge, by containing within itself all logical possibilities as potential outcomes (just no awareness of this so as to do anything with it); and spacetime is everywhere (you can’t go anywhere and not be in it).>>>
>>>It’s also omnibenevolent in the only sense theists can ever get their God to be: it possesses all possible goods, and makes all goods possible; and just as well evils—so spacetime, like God, is also omnimalevolent. It just isn’t intelligent or conscious, so as to select only the good and de-select all the bad. In other words, spacetime contains everything (including every potential thing), but it’s still just spacetime. It knows nothing in the cognitive sense, and wants nothing in the moral sense. It’s not a person. It’s just a thing.>>>
I think there´s more than one pantheist in the room, cough cough....
Friday, August 23, 2024
Non-human hominoid don´t kill ape
A trailer and a clip from "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes", which I haven´t seen. A propos this night´s blogging fest of evolution-related content (some of it crazy). Give the great apes a couple of million years more, and who knows? Maybe the "kingdom" will be theirs once...
Oväntade välsignelser
Denna underliga slinga har titeln "Ta emot oväntat överflöd och välsignelser i ditt liv". Fungerar ju knappast, men det kanske är värt ett försök? Fast egentligen borde jag väl ha postat detta den 11 november kl. 11:11 (lokal tid)...
Konstigheter
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| - Konstig, vaddå konstig? |
Det låter...konstigt...men att döma av den Trump-vänliga högersajten Breitbart News så är republikanerna störda över att Trump och särskilt Vance kallas "konstiga". Antagligen för att Vance faktiskt är konstig. Jag menar, killen ser ut som en jävla tomtenisse. Kanske förstår Breitbart detta och det är därför de tar åt sig. Så vitt jag vet var det också mot Vance som epitetet "weird" först användes. Nu har det tydligen utsträckts till Trump också.
Kommer taktiken att fungera? Tja, Breibart har svarat med att kalla Tim Walz...gissa vad...konstig. För *lite* konstigt är det väl att Walz som guvernör i Minnesota kommenderade att gratis tamponger skulle delas ut på samtliga skoltoaletter i delstaten. Inklusive pojkarnas toaletter. Eftersom vissa pojkar...menstruerar.
Med andra ord: Walz är inte en präriepopulist, utan ett sedvanligt Woke-knäppo.
Den amerikanska valrörelsen 2020 var nog den konstigaste hittills. Eller dittills. Kanske kommer 2024 att bli ännu märkligare...
Harris´ ordkrig som kan knäcka Trump
Reverse aging
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| A comb jelly Credit: Steven G Johnson |
A kind of weird experiment, would probably have been considered cruelty to animals had it not been a primitive/basal jellyfish-like organism, so the RSPCA and the ALF don´t give shit! Still, I suppose the ability to "reverse aging" is...interesting. What a pity it´s only cnidarians, comb jellies and the dog tapeworm (!) that has this unusual ability.
This sea creature can age in reverse
The next link goes to a Wiki article about "Ming the Mollusk", a quahog clam and the oldest animal ever recorded. Or rather "the oldest individual (non-colonial) animal ever discovered whose age could be precisely determined". Yes, it was 507 years old when it was captured and killed (!) off the Icelandic coast. So this damn mollusc was older than our industrial civilization?!
And if you absolutely want to read Wikipedia´s confusing list of the oldest organisms ever-ever-forever (many considerably more ancient than poor old Ming), you can find it here. I *think* the absolutely oldest living "things" ever were bacterial spores found in New Mexico which were revived after 250 million years. And then there´s the story about the scientist in California who sold "Amber Ale" produced with a 45 million year old revived yeast!
Somehow, I find that hard to believe.
This is not science
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| Credit: Tadek Kurpaski |
OK, my headline is click bait, but I was surprised to learn that soft tissue *has* been extracted from dinosaur fossils. I mean, the local Skeptic (TM) association assured me it was impossible. Otherwise, I assume most of this articles were published during the more "wild" period of LiveScience!
Could evolution ever bring back the dinosaurs?
Dinosaur blood vessels survived for 80 million years without fossilizing
Controversial T-Rex tissue explained
Thursday, August 22, 2024
If evolution is true, why are there still humans?
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| An evolutionary impossibility? |
Some lighter bedtime reading (my time) on the theme "we are not the crown of creation". Note the bizarre information about octopi! Note also the interview with Dougal Dixon, whose book "After Man" was one of my favorite bedtime readings when I was much younger...
Does evolution ever go backward?
Non-human animals
Sponges or comb jellies? Which animal group is the oldest? And how old exactly? Note the closing statement from the scientist interviewed: "Turner also said that the earliest animal wouldn't have won any beauty pageants. `It would have looked like a microscopic bit of slime´, she said."
And yet, they were (kind of) our ancestors. Dude!
Den sista striden
Antagligen den sista generationen som kan vara så här hypermaterialistisk. Om nu ens *den* kan det, egentligen...
Lost in infinity
For a long time, I assumed that "The Secret Doctrine" was a hybrid between mutant evolutionism and mutant Buddhism. But what if it was actually a hybrid between mutant Romanticism and a somewhat muted Shaktism? With some gravel from Igantius Donnelly thrown in for good measure.
Asking for a friend named Blavatsky´s Baboon...
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Yuge but not amazing
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| The Vitruvian Man...again! |
Always wondered why the top "Skeptic" cop in the US (and the world?) was a showman rather than, say, a scientist or philosopher. The link below goes to a republished 2020 article about James Randi. And yes, it´s...skeptical.
Face off
A propos the latest claim that the Shroud of Turin may (or must) be authentic. The mysterious face on the Shroud looks too "familiar" or "classical" to be the actual face of a historical person known as Jesus. And indeed, according to the YouTube video above (which is based on scholarly research), Jesus wasn´t originally portrayed with long hair and a beard. That came later (it´s actually a "pagan" thing), so what are the chances that an apocalyptic Jewish preacher looked like a Stoic philosopher or Roman god? Bracing myself for another round of unproductive polemix...
Unity
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OK, this could be sensitive...
An imaginary conversation between a Christian and a supporter of the
John Frum Movement.
Christian: John Frum is dead and buried. If he ever existed at all. I
mean, what is the evidence?
John: Well, what is the evidence that Jesus ever existed?
Christian: The Bible of course. And an unbroken chain of Church tradition
going back almost 2000 years!
John: Well, there is a tradition going back to John Frum´s first appearance
in 1940. The White man came and interviewed the two eyewitnesses who founded our
movement. The interview is available on something called “TV” (a special form
of blessed cargo). Due to this cargo, we don´t need no scripture or “tradition”.
It´s all on TV, bro!
Christian: TV is fake news. The apostles died for something they knew was true. They wouldn´t lie!
John: Our apostles spent 17 years in jail, bro. They suffered for what they knew was true.
Christian: Wait just a moment. You´ve been awaiting the return of John
Frum for 100 years. Well, where is he? How long are you prepared to wait?
John: You´ve been waiting for the return of Jesus for 2,000 years.
That´s 20 times longer than we´ve been waiting for John Frum. So how long are
you prepared to wait?
Christian: We are awaiting a spiritual millennium. You are just waiting
for cargo…
John: Maybe so, but many of *your* followers are Natives who just want cargo.
You know, they join your Church and in return the British missionaries give
them food, build shelters, dig wells, or fix them voting rights in UK
by-elections. Sounds like cargo, dude. Fake cargo, obviously, but it seems to
be working…
Christian: Absurd. Jesus was resurrected from the dead! John Frum was
never resurrected!
John: That´s because Frum never died in the first place. So he didn´t
have to resurrect. John Frum is a life-giving spirit. He lives in a volcano at
the island of Tanna.
Christian: But how are you going to get your sins forgiven?
John: By following the injunctions of John Frum: grow your own potatoes,
raise your own pigs, drink kava under ecstatic forms, raise the Star-Spangled banner
next to the Australian Aboriginal flag, paint “U.S.A.” on our chests, that kind
of stuff.
Christian: Sounds like work-based salvation!
John: Yeah, a bit like the Catholic Church. You know, the largest
Christian grouping in the world. They came with the French. I suppose you are
Anglican or Methodist, then?
Christian: Christianity is obviously true, since it changed the hearts
and lives of millions, and has spread around the world. Your cargo cult only
exists in one village!
John: We are the faithful remnant. If you search your scriptures diligently,
it says that the Church in the last days will also be very small. Besides, what
makes you think our lives haven´t changed after we returned to the customs of
our ancestors?
Christian: No, your cargo cult can be empirically disproven. The United
States exists and don´t want to help you. I mean, I can call Donald Trump or
Kamala Harris right this moment, they will confirm it. No American soldiers
will ever land here and give you “cargo”, whatever that even means.
Refrigerators? Maybe gas stoves?
John: Ha ha ha, what makes you think they will never land? Are you even
reading the newspapers? The geopolitical tensions are heating up and our
volcano is right at that fault line…
Christian: Let´s just say the geopolitical tensions around Jerusalem are
heating up too…
The Vitruvian Man
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| We all know who *really* prepared that cloth, don´t we? |
Bracing myself for another round of debunking, claims and counter-claims...
Game changer?
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| - Have you heard the latest? RFK Jr is joining Team Trump! This could change the course of history!!! - Dude. |
Rumor has it that Robert F Kennedy Jr will drop out of the presidential race and endorse...Donald Trump.
Rumor as in his running mate Nicole Shanahan actually saying so in a recent podcast. RFK Jr is apparently negotiating with the Trump campaign, hoping to get an important position in a Republican administration. Perhaps as the state secretary for health. Note: RFK Jr is an anti-vaxxer.
Kennedy´s support in aggregate polls stand at almost 5% of the vote...
Custom and cargo
“Waiting for John”, retitled “Waiting for John Frum: Cargo Cult of the
South Pacific. When God is an American Soldier” by this YouTube account, is a
low-budget documentary about the John Frum Movement at Tanna, an island in the
New Hebrides. Previously a joint (!) British-French colony, since 1980 the New
Hebrides are independent under the name Vanuatu. The film crew spent some time
in the small settlement of Lamakara, the last hold out of the Movement. There, a
couple of hundred people led by one Chief Isak still await the return of their mysterious savior
figure. They also interviewed members of a breakaway faction at Sulphur Bay
(the quitters are actually the larger group) and Christian missionaries from Port
Resolution.
The beliefs of the John Frum Movement are an eclectic mix of
pro-American “modernism” and Melanesian traditionalism. Indeed, the cult
members seem to live a more traditional lifestyle than many other people in
Vanuatu. Frankly, the Movement comes across as very weird. The inhabitants of
Lamakara are self-sufficient, grow their own food, raise pigs and try to stay
out of the money economy (not entirely successfully). Ecstatic dances and kava
drinking also form part of Custom, as they call their traditional ways.
Apparently, Christian missionaries and the colonial authorities attempted to
stamp out Custom.
At the same time, the Movement has quasi-apocalyptic expectations and hopes
that America will bring them “cargo” (modern products). The main rituals of the
cult include the hoisting of an American flag and a mock US army drill, during
which Chief Isak dress in fancy uniform. John Frum himself is a
composite character. On the one hand, he is seen as an American soldier,
neither White nor Black, who speaks all languages in the world. He supposedly
appeared in 1940 and prophesized the coming of the US military to the New Hebrides.
On the other hand, John is seen as a spirit-being who can be contacted
through visionary trances. Isak “spoke” to
John in a cave at the top of a high hill. The documentary doesn´t say, but it´s
easy to suspect a connection to native shamanic practices.
Like virtually all other religious movements, the John Frum Movement has
experienced at least one split, perhaps due to the delay of the Parousia. When
based at Sulphur Bay, most adherents decided to follow a certain Prophet Fred,
who claimed new revelations from the spirits. His movement, called Unity, no longer
believes in the return of John Frum in the flesh, instead preaching concord between
cargo cultists and Christians. The few remaining stalwarts were forced to leave
Sulphur Bay and build the new village of Lamakara in the hinterland, Lamakara
meaning “outcast”. The Movement is also under pressure from Christian missionaries
(who are ethnically Melanesian) and modernity in the form of the national
capital Vila and its money economy.
I can well understand why cargo cultists have fascinated Western anthropologists
and scholars of religion. The parallels to Christianity are obvious. The
Christians at Port Resolution resolutely proclaim the return of Jesus, who rose
from the dead and ascended to Heaven, while insisting that John Frum is dead
and won´t return. But, of course, the John Frum-ites insist that John is very
much alive in mint spirit condition. The eagerly awaited American aid is
clearly the apocalypse of the cargo cultists, and even the peculiar combination
of nativist traditionalism and modernity could be a subconscious Christian
borrowing. Think this-worldly asceticism leading to a pie-in-the-sky reward in
the afterlife. The crisis when the Messiah doesn´t show up on schedule is a
classic. To a Christian, this simply means that the John Frum Movement are a
bunch of Anti-Christs, but from a more secular viewpoint, the Melanesian cargo
cult raises questions about Christianity itself. Isn´t it strange that the sociological
dynamic of both “true” and “false” religions are remarkably similar?
With that reflection, I end this little review.
Waiting for Tom Navy
The above is AI:s take on the arrival of John Frum and Tom Navy to New Guinea. The century seems to be wrong, though.
It struck me that perhaps our own predicament isn´t so far off from that of a cargo cult. Our rituals include demanding more money for CERN and fusion power research, building windmills, avoiding certain "offensive" words and symbols, and (I suppose) make dank memes about trans-humanism. Some of us probably worship AI in secret!
If we do this, it seems, a "Tom Navy situation" (or is it singularity) will apparently manifest itself and then...everything will go back to normal again. As in perpetual progress, and then some.
Nothing like those stupid Melanesian Natives, naaah.
Six year anniversary?
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| Credit: Richard Bartz |
I got a really bizarre e-mail today. And yeah, I didn´t even open it. Six years ago, Amazon removed all my customer reviews from their site with no option of appeal, claiming that I was a "biased reviewer". Yeah, fuck you too.
But now, "Amazon Reviews" sent me a mail headlined "Thank you for reviewing..." and then the name of a certain book?! Presumably an automated invitation to continue reviewing their products. I got a couple already in 2018, presumably because nobody told the that system that I was already banned. However, I haven´t seen these mails for years!
Ironically, the book Amazon thanks me for reviewing is - wait for it - Thomas W Chittum´s "Civil War Two: The Coming Breakup of America"?! Just as the election campaign is heating up! Oh, and isn´t it interesting that Amazon after six years still keeps track of what customer reviews they deleted...
The answer is: No thank you!
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
A national disgrace
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| Credit: Takuta - Edward Hyde - FLICKR |
Another utopia exposed?
Hundreds of thousands abused in state and religious facilities in New Zealand
Trans-boxing
A pro-Imane Khelif article from World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). They believe that the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association (IBA) faked the gender test according to which Khelif is a male when she defeated an up-and-coming Russian boxer. The IOC and the IBA are in conflict with each other, so Khelif could compete (as a female) in the recent Olympic Games.
I have no particular opinion either way, but the Russia-related political shenaningans are obvious. On a more "esoteric" note, the WSWS doesn´t strike me as particularly pro-LGBTQ. They *do* sometimes strike me as "pro-Russian", not because they actually support the Russian Federation, but because they see the US and NATO as the main enemy globally. So it´s intriguing that they suddenly take the anti-Russian/pro-LGBTQ side!
Ballot rigging
The Democrats have succesfully removed Robert F Kennedy Jr from the ballot in New York State. They have also kicked left-wing candidate Cornel West off the ballot in Michigan, a battleground state where many Muslims and Arabs voted "Uncommitted" in the Dem primaries to protest Biden´s real or percieved support for Israel.
In other words: BAU. Both parties in the US cheat in various ways...
Monday, August 19, 2024
When Doreen met the Nephilim
This is actually a quite interesting video, featuring Doreen Virtue, Jordan B Cooper and some others, critically discussing and/or attacking the ideas of the late Michael S Heiser (whom I kind of liked). I didn´t know that Virtue was associated with Heiser during a period. Nor did I know that Heiser and his writings are *that* popular in evangelical and charismatic circles. Apparently, he was also a "gateway drug" to Eastern Orthodoxy.
I watched about half of the video, and unsurprisingly it´s very "theological" and "orthodox" (with a lower-case o). The evangelicals or Lutherans are imprisoned by their respective theologies, and simply can´t think outside the box. It´s a bit ironic that one of them pronounces "prisms" almost as "prison"!
The New Testament literally quotes the Book of Enoch *and calls Enoch a prophet*, suggesting that Jude (supposedly a brother of Jesus) considered the accursed book to be...well, prophetic (i.e. inspired by God, the one with the capital G). As for esoteric knowledge, the early Church probably kept the Gospels hidden from the multitude and the catechumens, so already there you have a "hierarchy". And why does Paul talk about "milk" and "meat" in his epistles?
That being said, it´s probably true that many people drawn to Heiser are interested in fringe stuff. I smiled when Virtue mentioned that he had pictures of Bigfoot, a statue of an alien and a model of the Ark of the Covenant in his office (or perhaps home). There is also a connection to charismatic Christians who believe in literally casting out demons.
That being said, while Heiser probably wasn´t right about everything, in some paradoxical way he probably stood close to historical-critical scholarship, since he acknowledged that ancient Israelite religion wasn´t strictly monotheist in *our* sense of the term, that the "canon of Scripture" was more flexible than evangelicals usually believe, and so on. My main criticism of Heiser was that he "took an idea and run with it", in effect constructing his own theology around the Book of Enoch and then interpreting the rest of the Bible through that prism.
But then, actual "Biblical" religion was probably pretty wild, so who knows, maybe he was closer to the real thing than the people featured in this conversation...
Sunday, August 18, 2024
The ultimate cope
An absurd interpretation of the Book of Revelation, arguing that the millennium was a 40-year period between the ministry of Jesus and the Jewish War (which culminated in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple). The speaker is evidently a hyper-preterist. This school of thought (also know as full preterism) denies a literal/physical Second Advent of Christ in humanity´s future, rather claiming that Christ "returned" invisibly in AD 70. However, it´s possible that this particular content-creator (who actually calls himself Son of Man) has a somewhat different scenario.
Either way, hyper-preterism must be the ultimate cope or attempt to explain away the delay of the parousia. As for Revelation, here´s what probably happened: a guy named John who was *not* the apostle wrote a crazy apocalypse which may or may not have been about the Jewish War, but already during the 2nd century the real meaning of the book was lost. And for almost 1,900 years Christians have been un-ironically arguing about the real meaning of "John´s" revelations, basing entire eschatological scenarios (and anathemas of other groups) on a scripture nobody actually understands...
I suppose that´s a "revelation" of sorts, yes.
Närstående minoriteter
Och vilka slutsatser ska man dra av detta, då? Från vår ofrivilliga grannblogg.
Hatbrotten mot och morden på asiater fortsätter tyvärr även efter pandemin
Ett klargörande?
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| Credit: Kriolog |
Tobias Hübinette om unga kriminella i Sverige. Tycker han lägger betoningen lite olika än i ett tidigare inlägg jag länkade till...
>>>Varför en så hög andel av just Sveriges barn och ungdomar har blivit så ultravåldsamma och hyperkriminella under de senaste 10-15 åren är det samtidigt fortsatt ingen som egentligen har ett bra svar på mot bakgrund av att brotten går ned generellt i landet och att extrema våldsbrott i form av skjutningar och sprängningar går ned överallt i Europa förutom just i Sverige.
>>>Den mycket speciella kriminella subkultur som råder bland alltför många barn och unga i miljonprogramsområdena verkar helt enkelt och kort och gott vara ett i det närmaste specifikt svenskt fenomen i dagsläget.
Visst, ställer man frågan på *det* sättet blir frågan faktiskt relevant. Och svaret kan vara väldigt kontroversiellt. Se den *andra* länken, som absolut inte går till Tobias Hübinettes blogg.
Allt fler barn deltar i skjutningarna
Vården får inte ducka för "svenska sjukan"
Trump´s secret cabal?
I don´t think Sabine Hossenfelder takes the (de)population crisis seriously, per the second video, apparently hoping that birth rates will bounce right back (and right up) in the future...forgetting her own fears of a severe climate crisis for the moment.
Even so, the first video (posted last year) is still quite interesting. It deals with "longtermism", a murky philosophy loosely connected to Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. On the one hand, longtermists believe in perpetual progress, the conquest of the galaxy, and such. For that reason, the current generation must make sacrifices for the benefit of future ones. The main "sacrifice" seems to be having more children.
However, the longtermists also oppose aiding victims of famine and disaster *today*, arguing that future lives are worth billions more. They have a fratricidal relationship to a movement known as Effective Altruism, headed by none other than Peter Singer, which supports such aid. It seems many supporters of longtermism are former fanboys of Singer who switched sides!
Of course, a cabal of elite intellectuals backed by the super-rich who want to sacrifice one billion people (implied in one of the texts quoted in the video) is bound to arise suspicion. Especially if it´s coupled with a vision of a world ruled by technocrats and big capitalists. It seems the futuristic plans of the longtermists have very concrete consequences in the present. I mean, who knew? Presumably the plan is to stop depopulation, while getting rid of "the dead weight" at the same time. Somehow, the longtermists imagine that this will save the (globalist) system. Or is it *their* system, perhaps?
It may or may not be significant that Musk and Thiel both back Trump. But then, Soros and other zillionaires back the Democrats. So there´s that.
Personally, I wouldn´t worry. I mean, what are the chances that any of these factions have any kind of solutions whatsoever, even to *their own* predicament?
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Hell is capitalism
Something of a disappointment, but maybe this content-creator is afraid of YouTube censorship.
The idea that capitalism, elitism and Social Darwinism are "Satanist" are hardly original. Also, Skull & Bones and Bohemian Grove - while vaguely sinister - are hardly *that* important in the bigger conspiratorial scheme of things.
Ahem, what about Epstein Island?
Here´s a hot take: what if the worst conspirators in the world *aren´t* into dark magick, Satanism and stuff like that. They just try to serve "Christ" and "Mammon" at the same time...
Friday, August 16, 2024
I want to join a suicide cult
I still remember this episode. Jerry Springer himself considered it the worst episode ever. "Worst" as in the most crazy and unruly guests. Not shown here is how the "suicide cult" threw rubber chickens on the audience!
My guess is that the Church of Euthanasia wasn´t really a cult, but rather an avant-garde art collective. If their performance art was funny, is perhaps another thing entirely...
I almost prefer dwarf wrestling.
We are the Revcoms
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| The Great Chicago Fire |
HA HA HA. I´m old enough to remember when these shysters *actually endorsed Kamala Harris*. That is, they endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 POTUS elections. Which means they endorsed Harris, too. But listen to their whining now...
If a vote for Biden (and "Cold-blooded Kamala") was right in 2020 to stop "the fascist Trump-Pence regime" (no less), why is it wrong in 2024, to stop the "fascists" from, you know, coming back? Exactly.
However, (psycho)analyzing Bob Avakian might be completely pointless, and these days the Revolutionary Communist Party´s personality cult of their Chairman is so hilariously bizarre, that the entire "party" comes across as a one-man operation. It looks as if Avakian is effectively worshipping himself.
But who knows, maybe the RCP can move the needle with say ten votes in Illinois.
Bob Avakian is the most important political thinker and leader in the world today
On the campaign trail
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| Me, trying to sit out the POTUS elections |
The election campaign in the US is heating up. Links below are to the pro-Trump Breitbart News site. Some cynical comments...
Even if the allegations against Walz about Chinese ties are true, I´m pretty sure most American politicians did pretty much the same thing until, say, 10 years ago. So the only difference would be that Walz was stupid enough to continue in the same vein throughout the Trump years.
As for pro-Palestinian activists not voting for Kamala Harris...LOL. What are the chances? So probably a nothingburger. But sure, the slogan "Kamala, you can´t hide, we won´t vote for genocide" is almost bizarrely brilliant. I mean, who´s behind it? The Revolutionary Communist Party? The Revolutionary Workers League? Dude!
The polling results from Pennsylvania (an important swing state) are strange. Note that voters under 40 prefer Trump with a 18-point margin! Less surprising, perhaps, is that atheists overwhelmingly (84%) support Harris. If Robert F Kennedy Jr is included in the polls, Trump and Harris are tied at 47% each of the total Pennsylvanian vote. So perhaps RFK Jr can still play a role in the November elections? Or at least create havoc!
And it´s only August. Still awaiting the October surprise with much fear and trembling...
House Oversight Committee to launch investigation into Tim Walz´s Chinese connections
Pro-Palestinian protesters set to crash Harris-Walz coronation
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