Bondeståndet

 

Ja, vad tror du själv? Kulturbarnen stretar på... 

Rich people´s problems

 

Ååååkej. Låter som en parodi...

Husdjurs skärmtid ökar

Baserad kille

 

Credit: Pure Land Buddhism/YouTube

Baserad snubbe, eller vad? Han har alltså levande hajar i vardagsrummet?!

Kritik mot artistens hajakvarium

Full spectrum bullshit?

 

Credit: Skalle-Per Hedenhös (sic)

Richard Carrier on the attack...again. An atheist-materialist take on consciousness, et cetera. 

Note the claim that some robots and smart cars may be (somewhat) conscious. Insects, on the other hand, aren´t conscious. Neither are octopi. Fish probably aren´t either: "They aren´t really alive, they´re just less dead". And if you´re not conscious, you can´t really feel anything either. So ants don´t feel anything when we dispose of them them using poison. The tuna didn´t feel anything when it was hooked and killed. Pigs do feel and experience things, but since they aren´t self-aware, their lives have no actual value to them. Like pigs to the slaughter! Human babies are more advanced than pigs (this is a veiled polemic against Peter Singer, methinks).

The "existential" consequences of the above are...interesting. So entire *civilizations* can be created simply on the basis of subconscious computation by non-sentient life-forms? I´m thinking of social insects such as ants, termites and honeybees. Where does that leave us in a wholly materialist universe? Note also that robots could (presumably) be made fully self-conscious. Finally, note that consciousness requires "modeling", which seems to imply that consciousness can only ever be "indirectly realist". Are ants direct realists?

OK, here is the link: 

Distinguishing Awareness, Intelligence and Consciousness 

The Jesus Way

 

So what is Aaron Abke doing these days? I remember when he promoted ACIM and Law of One. Today, he is more into "Essene Christianity", which seems to be a modernized version of ancient Jewish Christianity. In this long video, Abke and two associates discuss their main doctrines, which they half-jokingly dub "heresies". 

One central idea is that Jesus was an Essene, and that the Essenes were vegetarians. Jesus preached salvation through the Golden Rule (which included no killing or eating of animals) and didn´t see himself as ontologically "God". The Christology seems to be adoptionist. Jesus´ blood brother James was his true successor, not Peter and absolutely not Paul, whose message of atonement through the salvific death of Christ was a gross distortion of the original Jesus Way. Paul got his "gospel" from highly dubious visions and "revelations", not from Jesus or his true disciples. 

The true Christians were the Ebionites, the Nazarenes and other Jewish Christian sects, which were persecuted by the emergent Catholic Church. Abke and his friends reference the "Hebrew Gospel of Matthew" and the Pseudo-Clementines, while arguing that the Bible contains numerous errors. Interestingly, they also try to argue their case in a scholarly way by referencing James Tabor (who actually appeared on Abke´s pod cast). Here and there, some *truly* heretical ideas shine through, such as a belief in reincarnation, a strong skepticism towards the Old Testament, and Law of One terminology.

One thing that struck me when watching this video is that the "Jesus Way" - despite its seemingly "liberal" theology - is actually harder in some ways than mainstream Christianity (or Churchianity). For instance, the idea that salvation comes strictly through works, that the Ten Commandments must be followed rigorously, and that vegetarianism is an absolutely central rule. The fact that Jesus and the Christians were persecuted is strongly emphasized, the persecution being the work of both the Romans, the Jewish elite, and (later) the Catholic Church (which persecuted the Jewish Christians). In many ways, the Jesus Way comes across as a rigorist sect. Their alternative to "Pauline" Christianity seems...extreme. Not sure if I would like to join!

That being said, the video is nevertheless interesting in many ways. Perhaps recommended.    

Elephants have no rights

 

- Gotta problem with pachyderms, huh huh? 

Why animal rights and veganism doesn´t work. The brains of our ancestors (Homo erectus again) became big thanks to hunting and feasting on primordial elephants...

Without "speciesism", no Man. Deal with it.  

Human ancestors butchered elephants

Destroy Shambo

 

A somewhat shambolic controversy back in 2007 involving the religious sect I mentioned earlier, Community of the Many Names of God and its Welsh ashram Skanda Vale. The ashram wanted to save one of its bulls, Shambo, from being slaughtered after the animal tested positive for TB. Note the ethno-politicking involved in the case! From Wikipedia, but seems to be fully sourced. 

Shambo

This is the world atheists want

 

Some kind of John Muir-esque situation at an abandoned Russian research station in the Far East. "This is the world atheists want". Or at least animal rights activists. Or no? :P

En pro-rysk Unabomber?

 

What the fuck...

Observera det särpräglade eko-fascistiska inslaget. Vad i allsin dar är detta för något? En pro-rysk unabombare? Förresten oklart varför han ville attackera ESC. För att han inte gillar HBT-personer? 

Den s.k. överklassnazisten

Romulus and Remus

 

Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi are three dire wolves brought back from extinction by some crazy American start up. Or maybe not. It seems the "dire wolves" are really grey wolves genetically modified to look like the legendary extinct species (which may not have been a real wolf in the first place). 

But sure, the whole thing does have a certain Frankenstein-esque quality. If the three pups ever get fossilized, this may confuse genetically enhanced mad scientists in the far future. And yes, one of the puppies is named after a certain character in "Game of Thrones"!  

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf

Hjärnbrist

 

Stämmer detta? 

Vegokost ger unga tjejer järnbrist

Feralization

 

Even better than beaver bombing? What should we call this, boar bombing? The article proposes "guerilla rewilding". Lynxes, too! Note also that some of the suids released were apparently domestic pigs! Eh? Can´t the rewilders tell the difference between a feral pig and a boar?! 

Another bizarre cult in the never-ending *human* saga...  

Dartmoor wild boar sightings prompt suspicions of guerilla rewilding  

Feral pigs, lynxes released in the Cairngorms

Uncle Diego

 

Never heard of this case before. Some kind of ersatz Unabomber? Did the greener portion of the anarchist subculture just got a new cause célèbre? Or no?

FBI most wanted terror suspect arrested...in rural Wales

Peanuts

 

Since when are Trump supporters animal rights activists? Exactly. 

This is probably irony, similar to when the gorilla Harambe became an Alt Right mascot back in 2016.

But who knows, maybe the really hardcore anti-government/militia types are also rabid rabies denialists? Dude, of course you can´t just take an animal from the wild and have it in your house?!

Peanut the squirrel 

Synad

 

Centerstudenter öppnar för samarbete med SD...och blir genast synade av just SD. 

Bjuder in C-förbund på lunch (med rejäla köttbitar)

Dog days

 

Credit: Jozef Fehér (Pexels)

Governor DeSantis is back on his job...

Former dog owner prosecuted

OK, she´s got my vote (LOL)

 

Fact check: Probably not true.  

Damn vegetarians

 

I haven´t double-checked anything. Think twice before sharing. LOL! 

Taking shelter

 

“From Punk to Monk. A Memoir” is a recent book by Ray Cappo alias Raghunath Das (although the book cover gives his name as “Ray Raghunath Cappo”). He co-hosts the podcast Wisdom of the Sages, also available on YouTube, and teaches yoga classes at Supersoul Farm somewhere in New York State. Both the pod and the yoga farm are associated with ISKCON or the Hare Krishna movement. The book is very well-written and quite interesting, although sometimes hard to believe. The well-known musician Moby has contributed a short introduction.

Cappo grew up in Connecticut in a regular middle class family, but started hanging out with hardcore punks in dangerous neighborhoods in New York City already as a teenager. The nicest comment I can think of, is that this milieu was very…colorful. A less charitable comment is that we´re dealing with the Lumpenproletariat. It was a bewildering subculture of punk rockers, skinheads, anarchists, squatters, and spiritual seekers. Some individuals were virtually all of the above. Imagine teenage gangs spewing Vedic wisdom á la Hare Krishna one moment, and roughing up rival gangs with baseball bats the next! At some point during his wild peregrinations through the Lower East Side and Brooklyn, Cappo formed a hardcore punk band called Youth of Today, propagating the lifestyle known as “Straight Edge”. I didn´t know this particular subculture existed already during the 1970´s and 1980´s. I always assumed it was a typical late 1990´s thing, when the animal rights movement *really* went out on a limb. Straight Edge opposes drugs, alcohol, sexual hedonism and (often) promotes veganism and animal rights.

Gradually, Cappo became more and more drawn towards spirituality. First, an eclectic mix of essentially everything. I wonder who the psychedelic guru with the huge sword pretending to be an angel could have been! Later, he became a supporter of the ISKCON and founded a specifically Krishnaite punk band, known as Shelter. Just the other day, Shelter reunited for a tour promoting Raghunath´s book. While half of “From Punk to Monk” deals with the American punk scene, the other half describes the author´s experiences as a Hare Krishna devotee, both in India and the US. In a certain sense, this section is even wilder. Large portions of India were still poor and chaotic during the 1980´s. The description of the ISKCON ashram at Vrindavan and the author´s attempts to live the life of a Hindu monk was particularly interesting. Raghunath also mentions his encounters with Kali worshippers, Tantric yogis, and palmists (the latter correctly predicted a car crash suffered by Shelter a few years later). It should be noted that “From Punk to Monk” doesn´t contain a detailed description of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the Hindu religious tradition followed by ISKCON. In that sense, it´s a book for neophytes. In other ways, however, it´s daringly extreme…

In some relative sense, Wisdom of the Sages are more moderate than the old style cultic version of the ISKCON that became notorious during the 1970´s, but they don´t reject the hardcore approaches, simply arguing that they aren´t for everyone. Other religious paths aren´t flatly rejected either, but there is an inevitable sectarian tendency to see them as somehow lower than Vaishnavism. And compared to New Age or Neo-Paganism, the message of Raghunath and his team is still rather “hardcore”. The material world is a dangerous place, we can die at any moment, strict discipline in both matters earthly and spiritual is necessary (Shelter tried to follow the ISKCON house rules even on tour), don´t judge lest you be judged, political action is mostly meaningless, and so on. True happiness seems to be ecstatic kirtan or eating vegetarian food.

Several different groups of readers might find “From Punk to Monk” useful: people interested in punk rock and derivatives, scholars studying the transformations of New Religious Movements, India aficionados, and of course spiritual seekers in general. But of course, it´s main message is spiritual and moral. We are supposed to learn certain lessons from Ray Cappo´s journey from a hyperactive teenager to a Hare Krishna devotee, and also from the various phases of his Krishnaite journey.

If this humble reviewer has learned the lesson, I leave to the reader to decide.

Impeachment is not enough

 

Translation from Breibart speak: Hang the damn vegan autist! Hang him high!!!

He got off easy, only 25 years in prison (with no vegan meals).