escarpment

escarpment, 26 days ago

@psa @mekkaokereke You seem to be implying that "free speech ought to be universal" or "rights are universal." My response is, of course rights are not universal. The concept of rights was flawed from the start. The concept has its roots in deontological ethics which are circular and not action guiding. The bill of rights just confuses things and it's up to the judges of the era to decide arbitrarily what's an "unreasonable" search or an "unusual" punishment.

escarpment, 26 days ago

@psa @mekkaokereke The second amendment as written indicates that the right to bear arms ought not to be infringed (no exceptions) but amendments 4 and 5 seem to indicate your arms can be seized for "probable cause" or "due process" (whatever those subjective concepts mean).

escarpment, 26 days ago

@psa @mekkaokereke Deontological ethics is plagued with these sorts of judgment calls and contradictions, leaving people like me to wonder "what's the point of this?" What's the point of the categorical imperative if it can't resolve conflicts between duties?

escarpment, 26 days ago

@mekkaokereke @psa I think you're not giving the second amendment enough "credit" (philosophically), and I'm saying that as someone who personally detests guns. The 2nd amendment is a beautiful example of the problem with rights, more so than the 1st amendment. The 1st is sort of propaganda for the idea of rights: it's a right people can "get behind", despite it also having all the flaws of rights. The 2nd amendment just lays bare the problem of rights.

escarpment, 26 days ago

@mekkaokereke @psa In my view, the first and second amendments, and all other rights laid down in the bill of rights, are equally just some people's opinions at some point in time. They are vague, up to different interpretations, and internally inconsistent. I suspect that one cannot make an internally consistent and action guiding ethical framework based on rights. You don't have to read Kant, but I can tell you that problem was Kant's undoing in my opinion.

escarpment, 26 days ago

@mekkaokereke @psa Philosophy does come into your reality. You are making an ethical claim that it is "morally bad" that police officers keep drop guns on them. You are proposing an ethical framework wherein drop guns are not ethically permissible.

escarpment, 28 days ago

@timbray There is no good and evil. There is only information and consequences. Per Thurgood Marshall: "I used to have a lot of fights with Martin [Luther King] about his theory about disobeying the law. I didn’t believe in that."

"I thought you did have a right to disobey a law, and you also had a right to go to jail for it."

escarpment, 1 month ago

@ifnotnowboston @palestine Though they are loud and visible, mercifully they actually represent a small minority.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@w7voa Apparently Isfahan is a site of Iran's nuclear program.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@flexghost I disagree with most people about Israel, apparently, because I share US foreign policy and the policy of several prominent democratic politicians that Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself.

That said, I'm skeptical of the existence of an absolute or objective "right" and "wrong" and these days fail to be persuaded when people make moral claims to that effect. Morality is so subjective as to be irrelevant.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg International law is bunk. It's a set of unenforceable hot air which states selectively care about.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Morality does not exist. There is no objective metric of right and wrong. The United States is not a party to The Hague because it does not consent to the Hague's jurisdiction.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg It is immoral not to wear a hijab in Iran. It is immoral to have an abortion in Texas. I'm over "morality"- it's a self-serving cover for whatever opinions people hold.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg This is simply the mainstream philosophical school of moral anti-realism. Most people can't stomach it but it's an inconvenient observation from philosophy.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-anti-realism/

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Not simply the view of teenagers, but a view that merits serious reflection from gray haired philosophers.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg I'm not always a moral anti-realist. I'm open to different philosophical schools. But lately I find moral anti-realism compelling because it best explains situations like this and others. I find most people are selectively moral anti-realist, e.g. "drug addiction is not a moral failing" or "food is neutral".

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Because killing them has the consequence of inflaming further anger at Israel, and the defense is necessary to counteract that consequence. The consequence is another reason to try one's best to avoid doing it in the first place.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Killing whoever you want has the consequence of further isolating you and risking further retaliation. This dynamic "rhymes" with morality but isn't quite the same. Instead, I'm just thinking in terms of actions and reactions or consequences of those actions.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Moral anti-realism is not the same thing as sadism or immorality. This is another common mistake. It's just the observation that "killing is objectively neither right nor wrong, but tends to carry with it consequences, which people subjectively care about to different degrees depending on their proximity."

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Sam Bankman-Fried stealing money from crypto investors is morally neutral, but carried with it the consequence of 25 years in prison, reflecting the subjective outrage of the United States government on behalf of its citizens who were victimized.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Nothing is justified. There is no justice or justification. There are just actions and reactions. Cycles of violence exist. If they did not, we would not have this conversation. We are aligned that we subjectively prefer them not to exist. But so far, both of us (and many others) have failed to stop this cycle of violence.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Call it insufferable. I'm simply trying to understand the world. I too am shocked and outraged by violence, especially when I have never personally been violent or been the victim of violence. I live in peace. But violence seems to exist and moral shaming does nothing to lower the amount of violence.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@lzg Things matter subjectively. Jewish people matter subjectively to me. I have many Israeli friends. Israelis align with my values. I'm not fine with killing personally- I detest it subjectively.

escarpment, 1 month ago

@junkman @lzg Feel free to write off my inconvenient ideas as trolling.