COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

[Mark Rippetoe]

I agree with the fact that Islam is incompatible with the West. Not even doubting that. But to act like western civilization is superior is wrong.

Whether you like it or not, western civilization is in decline. You can keep acting like it is superior, which I want it to be tbh - I was born, raised and educated in it - but it is not unfortunately. There is no social cohesion present in western civilization whatsoever. You could never fill a room with random western europeans or americans and have them all agree on whats morally right or wrong. How are you going to survive as a society? How are you going to survive as a civilization like that?

You can have solidarity, diversity of races, diversity of heritage, diversity of ethnicities, diversity of skin color, as long as there is a shared beliefsystem, or shared moral values. What definetely does not work is a diversity in moral values. It rather creates tension and friction in society. When looking at the US - the left fucking hates the right and vice versa. How is that a functioning society? Genuienly asking.

Demographic replacement in westerm countries is a weird topic. I don't like it either. But people do not want to do the "dirty jobs", like cleaning toilets etc. That means you need foreign work forces who do those jobs the native people are too "good" for. Immigrants give birth to a lot of children, but how do you want to prevent that? It's not their fault that western women do not want to have more than 1-2 babies, in this economy where you need both parents working to sustain a normal life lol.

I think you are conflating 'Western Civilization" with the current version of American and European culture. They are not the same.

[Nicholas Laureys]

Yngvi, calm down. The people on this board are not retards, because I have culled the retards.

You in fact have way more patience than the esteemed Denniger who flinches and bans at the slightest tin-hat comment too far away from his Overton window. I got banned from his board for suggesting the vaccine trials never were valid, even decades ago, and not apologizing and retracting my idea after he demanded it. Then a month or two later Karl arrived at that very conclusion himself. If he could be a little more patient with his commenters he might understand better why violent revolution is a pipe dream even though it would be consistent with ZIRP surviving for so long in a high-inflation environment.

Your position of waiting as long as possible, until the posting retard is given enough rope by all of us to hang themselves, is really beneficial to all of us, to help us challenge our beliefs - thanks, coach!

Rippetoe will get overly excited about this news that "DOGE is going to "look at" corruption in government" while being apparently ambivalent or just happy with the fact that Zionists are in total control of the latest administration.

It would be like me celebrating the fact that Starmer's Labour is making a big noise about packing some illegal immigrants on airplanes and deporting them. So what?

Rip, if you're happy that you voted Israel First, not America First, just say it out loud. It's fine. There are millions of snake-handling Evangelicals who are the same as you.

Matt I don't know if this will perplex you or further enrage you but there are many in Russia who are convinced that Putin is in Israel's pocket as well. Maybe he is but who the fuck cares if his positions and policies get things about 80% right for the people of his nation? Or maybe the policies are right for 80% of the things that matter most (economy, border protection, restrictive immigration policy...) and only 40% right for the less-important things (healthy distrust of Israeli foreign policy & I dunno what else, unrestricted freedom of the press and freedom of assembly for the LGBTQABC's?), giving him a lower overall average....but who cares about those second-tier policy positions?

Probably the inverse is true, you're ambivalent about DOGE and everything else while getting overly excited about Trump being too lax on the Zionists. But then again isn't Kushner nowhere to be seen? That alone should have you much more excited about and patient for Trump.

[Jason Donaldson]

I agree with the fact that Islam is incompatible with the West. Not even doubting that. But to act like western civilization is superior is wrong.

Whether you like it or not, western civilization is in decline. You can keep acting like it is superior, which I want it to be tbh - I was born, raised and educated in it - but it is not unfortunately. There is no social cohesion present in western civilization whatsoever. You could never fill a room with random western europeans or americans and have them all agree on whats morally right or wrong. How are you going to survive as a society? How are you going to survive as a civilization like that?

You can have solidarity, diversity of races, diversity of heritage, diversity of ethnicities, diversity of skin color, as long as there is a shared beliefsystem, or shared moral values. What definetely does not work is a diversity in moral values. It rather creates tension and friction in society. When looking at the US - the left fucking hates the right and vice versa. How is that a functioning society? Genuienly asking.

Demographic replacement in westerm countries is a weird topic. I don't like it either. But people do not want to do the "dirty jobs", like cleaning toilets etc. That means you need foreign work forces who do those jobs the native people are too "good" for. Immigrants give birth to a lot of children, but how do you want to prevent that? It's not their fault that western women do not want to have more than 1-2 babies, in this economy where you need both parents working to sustain a normal life lol.

You're absolutely right, Austrian, on the necessity of shared values - I would put it in terms of worldview: a society cannot cohere without a significantly shared worldview. This doesn't mean a total unity of all beliefs and preferences, but certainly compatibility of basic ones. With a shared basic worldview, a great deal of diversity on other things can work, especially so long as groups are allowed their own enclaves to go home to, where they can share those secondary social traits in peace, instead of an attempt to grind everyone into a sickly, grey paste of bland uniformity.

I think you are conflating 'Western Civilization" with the current version of American and European culture. They are not the same.

Rip beat me to it on this point. Western civilization for quite some time and not that long ago was much more closely aligned in worldview to varying degrees, and prospered accordingly. In many ways, that very prosperity laid the ground for the declines we're seeing now.

As to the "dirty jobs" point, this is not at all specific to current western societies. Throughout human history such perceptions have been present almost universally across cultures. Most of the time, these jobs have been largely relegated to slaves in function, if not in name. (And it was western society, largely under Christian influence, that was the first in history to officially abolish slavery on a large scale, even though functional slavery has continued to operate in more clandestine forms...) When outright slavery was not the major source, it was caste, class, race, or some other such delineation.

People are generally quick to have someone else do the scut work, so long as there is a "someone else" available. It's a behavior that conscientious parenting works hard to root out. Perhaps, if we dry up the current supply of the "others" to do it, we'll see a cultural return to ideas like the dignity of work, instead of the assumption that lots of necessary tasks are somehow demeaning. We can hope...

As far as the "need" to have both parents working outside the home, there are more and more households (at least in the US) who are successfully questioning the underlying assumptions of this. That questioning is (properly) directed at that very telling phrase, "to sustain a normal life..." Being willing to question that can be quite liberating.

I whole-heartedly agree with the incompatibility of Islam and western cultures - both the older kind and the newer. With respect to its founder and its foundational documents, Christianity inherently acknowledges a dichotomy between religion and both society and government. To secularism, religion is not generally to be considered at all with regards to society and government, or at least relegated to the private sphere. Islam, however, is inherently theocratic, seeking to establish and mold society according to the dictates of its founder and its foundational documents. Since western culture was previously highly christianized, and is now far more secularized, this puts it and Islam at fundamental and irreconcilable disagreements.

[Austrian]

You're absolutely right, Austrian, on the necessity of shared values - I would put it in terms of worldview: a society cannot cohere without a significantly shared worldview. This doesn't mean a total unity of all beliefs and preferences, but certainly compatibility of basic ones. With a shared basic worldview, a great deal of diversity on other things can work, especially so long as groups are allowed their own enclaves to go home to, where they can share those secondary social traits in peace, instead of an attempt to grind everyone into a sickly, grey paste of bland uniformity.



Rip beat me to it on this point. Western civilization for quite some time and not that long ago was much more closely aligned in worldview to varying degrees, and prospered accordingly. In many ways, that very prosperity laid the ground for the declines we're seeing now.

As to the "dirty jobs" point, this is not at all specific to current western societies. Throughout human history such perceptions have been present almost universally across cultures. Most of the time, these jobs have been largely relegated to slaves in function, if not in name. (And it was western society, largely under Christian influence, that was the first in history to officially abolish slavery on a large scale, even though functional slavery has continued to operate in more clandestine forms...) When outright slavery was not the major source, it was caste, class, race, or some other such delineation.

People are generally quick to have someone else do the scut work, so long as there is a "someone else" available. It's a behavior that conscientious parenting works hard to root out. Perhaps, if we dry up the current supply of the "others" to do it, we'll see a cultural return to ideas like the dignity of work, instead of the assumption that lots of necessary tasks are somehow demeaning. We can hope...

As far as the "need" to have both parents working outside the home, there are more and more households (at least in the US) who are successfully questioning the underlying assumptions of this. That questioning is (properly) directed at that very telling phrase, "to sustain a normal life..." Being willing to question that can be quite liberating.

I whole-heartedly agree with the incompatibility of Islam and western cultures - both the older kind and the newer. With respect to its founder and its foundational documents, Christianity inherently acknowledges a dichotomy between religion and both society and government. To secularism, religion is not generally to be considered at all with regards to society and government, or at least relegated to the private sphere. Islam, however, is inherently theocratic, seeking to establish and mold society according to the dictates of its founder and its foundational documents. Since western culture was previously highly christianized, and is now far more secularized, this puts it and Islam at fundamental and irreconcilable disagreements.

I'm a muslim. The reason I mentioned that Islam is incompatible with the West, is because Western values are not on the same level of islamic values anymore. It sounds harsh, but if you're tolerant of everything, you basically stand for nothing. I personally do not care about LGBTQ (live and let live), but if the West tries to impose those ideals on Islam, it won't bend. The belief is way too strong in comparison to the West.

Is this a good thing? Well, it depends on who you're asking I guess.

My only big problem with the west is the fact that think they have a right to compel people through force. Through invasions, imperialism, occupation, colonialism, or cohercive policies. But I as a muslim, do not believe that I have the right to do that. Live and let live.

[Mark Rippetoe]

My only big problem with the west is the fact that think they have a right to compel people through force. Through invasions, imperialism, occupation, colonialism, or cohercive policies. But I as a muslim, do not believe that I have the right to do that. Live and let live.

Amusing.

[David A. Rowe]

I'm a muslim. The reason I mentioned that Islam is incompatible with the West, is because Western values are not on the same level of islamic values anymore. It sounds harsh, but if you're tolerant of everything, you basically stand for nothing. I personally do not care about LGBTQ (live and let live), but if the West tries to impose those ideals on Islam, it won't bend. The belief is way too strong in comparison to the West.

Is this a good thing? Well, it depends on who you're asking I guess.

My only big problem with the west is the fact that think they have a right to compel people through force. Through invasions, imperialism, occupation, colonialism, or cohercive policies. But I as a muslim, do not believe that I have the right to do that. Live and let live.

Holy crap, you don't know how to spell Buddhism/Buddhist.

[Ads]

Jeffrey Tucker - Access to the Books Is the Key to Control

If that link doesn't work, try it via El Gato Malo's latest - DOGE due diligence at treasury

All experience in business suggests the following rule. If you do not have access to the accounting books, in order to verify the comings and goings over the funds, you are not really in control of the company.

Imagine if you had a new CEO and he appointed a new CFO and so on, along with an auditing team. He was suddenly told that there are people who manage the books and he and his team cannot have access. He is further told that this has been going on for 80 years with no change. What would that imply about the CEO himself? It would mean that he is not really in charge. I doubt that any competent business would accept such a deal.

What happened here with the Trump administration and DOGE is that it was beginning the process of opening the books, starting with data access about payments coming and going, a reorganization of the databases, and a modernization including possibly a public listing on a blockchain. This was the essential precondition for bringing in the auditors to give a full accounting of what precisely is going on.

Sure enough, a federal judge interfered, essentially siding with the “very small group of nonpartisan career civil servants” over the people elected to oversee the executive branch. It seems incredible but that is what has happened. We now await appeals and judgments from higher courts to decide whether and to what extent elected officials can have access to the beating heart of the government’s finances.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Holy crap, you don't know how to spell Buddhism/Buddhist.

Where does he try to spell Buddhism?

[David A. Rowe]

Where does he try to spell Buddhism?

The part where he says Islam and leaving everyone alone.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The part where he says Islam and leaving everyone alone.

Ah.