Right to LifeBoard

Let me just state something. Democracy is flawed and all ways of voting are not applicable universally, just like government types and economic ideologies. You can only point out ideologies which will not work in any case, but not the opposite. I follow up the words of Aristotle and say "Democracy is the way for the majority to legally oppress the minority as much as the majority feels is not bad enough to stop doing it" in the same way works any other government type.

The only difference being that the words "majority" and "minority" are swapped with many different ones, including but not limited to "the people", "the party", "the men", "the women", "the Muslims", "the Jews", "The Pope", "The Fiftists"... You can literally put anything in there and you have just another type of government, or political ideology, including anarchism... Let me demonstrate:

"Anarchy is the way for the united to legally oppress the weak as much as the united feel is not bad enough to stop doing it"

In the end every single political system to be good needs the people in power to be good people and without addressing the problem within the minds of the people we can never achieve any good political state. If you say "Moralistic democracy then", then let me tell you that moral standards change over time even within one group like religion for example... Is an attack on Israel and murdering all the people, animals and insects in there moral? Why was it moral for ancient Jews then? What if a prophet said God ordered it today? What if the Pope did? What if majority of the atheists in the world democratically voted on the idea and determined it would be beneficial for the overall society?

I do not believe in right and wrong. I believe in a path to good. Evil is lack of good, and comparing two, we assume one is evil, because the other has more good in it. "Democracy is the worst system, but it's the best one we've tried so far" works only in the US, as many European countries for example had their golden ages during the rules of monarchs and China is the wealthiest it has ever been in the modern times during a social-capitalist regime. The poor are always and will always be. There will always be at least one person who does not get along with the economy, or doesn't understand it with no guilt of their own and I say it as a poor person myself. The answer is not politics but yourself.

If we ourselves become better people, no matter the system we are in, including but not limited to absolute totalitarian autocracy, with good people in power and many good people to support them, the society will become better. Changes and attempts at creating a system which prevents the evil people from power is impossible, as even if such a system could be created, it can always be easily solved by the good people dying eventually and the evil people taking charge and changing the system. The good can even make more freedoms or rights or both, which could be used by the evil to make it not work in the end. If you have one totalitarian but benevolent leader and evil in society, then they will take over, even if they are not majority, if given the chance... If you have a democratic nation with mostly good people in it, they can be fooled eventually by the evil who eventually will change the laws and rules so they can have more power.

There is nothing which can save us from ourselves, so the only answer is to change ourselves so we are no longer dangerous to us. If there is no evil, or not enough evil to lead, then there won't be any evil. Political systems, legal changes, revolutions and elections are just temporary removals of the evil, in other words a delay of the avoidable. I didn't say inevitable, as I hope and believe it is avoidable, but we don't know a way yet.

That's something I would like to discuss about, instead of engaging in actual political debate. Try to prove me wrong, or agree with me. Feel free to say "It's true, but we need x" just to find that I will agree with you. We need many Xes... Order, freedom, justice... It cannot be achieved by doing nothing, but I do not wish to agitate into any ideology or government type, including the lack of it as they all have the same rotten root, which is humanity. We are our greatest enemy and our only ally. Which is poetic and would be deep, except it's not, as it's literally the basics understood by the children and avoided by the adults, to the point in which they can't anymore and either indulge in fixing the temporary problems, or exploiting them.

I am not advocating for nihilism, as it is also useless... Things matter and doing nothing won't make you feel better. Acknowledge that you're helpless and you hate it and then accept it and try your best to fail anyway. This is the only way to live a meaningful life. Doing things knowing you will fail, not in order to fail or succeed, but in order to do them. I'm not advocating for complete hedonism, as I previously said "things matter" and they are not just material things or pleasure. Hedonism is just another way of attempting to distance yourself from the reality, by making yourself pink blindfolds. I am not advocating for conformity, or tribalism as they are the same thing as hedonism, just different blindfolds... Take them off and see the world as a true disaster it actually is and then learn to accept it. After that you're not really free, as nobody is ever truly free, for all have boundaries.

What will you get from that? Nothing... as the truth about the current world gives you nothing. The future may bring hope and the past may give it too, but in the end that's all you can have from the truth. If you learn to accept the truth and the lack of reward in it, you'll have peace. Those are not my words alone and they are not worth any more than the words of any other man, for this is surely just another blindfold which I can't see yet... I would call it the last stage of grief... I guess I had grief for existence itself...

Roborian wrote:

Broadly speaking, I agree with the basis of this take (highlighting the most relevant portions to be succinct), but I think your response to it is not the correct one. Given what you state, the task ought to be how to best construct a system that navigates the hazards and mitigates the evils, and I'll lay that thought process out here.

Thank you for joining the discussion, but I'm not going to comment on the parts regarding said system, as my point is not to make a system. I don't have any political point in this. I was just stating my opinion on politics in general. I have my "favorite" political systems, but it was not my intention to talk about them while posting this as I mentioned in said post.

Roborian wrote:

This seems to be your ultimate conclusion, and it is one that I would agitate against, because I think it is ultimately fallacious. Human wickedness does not affect every ideology or government type to an identical level, because not every ideology or government type is set up with the same view of humanity in mind. Human wickedness is not entropy, not something that universally degrades as a universal constant, it is, by nature of being 'human' wickedness, tied into human ability, action, and tendencies, and thus affects different structures in different ways, in the same way that a rising tide's affect on what is on the beach will depend on just how what is on the beach is constructed. Systems that either broadly ignore human wickedness or go completely backwards and promote a belief in innate human goodness are the most vulnerable because their construction allows for easy abuse when the reality of that wickedness rises. By contrast, systems which either acknowledge human wickedness, or go further and build themselves off of understanding human wickedness as a fundamental constant, are better able to withstand it through deliberate design.

The basic argument that the deep flaws of humanity ultimate degrade and harm any and all political systems is true, but the response to that must not be to declare all systems to be equally bad because they are all imperfect, but find out which works out the best under imperfect circumstances. Lacking a 100% sure-fire means of success does not mean that both the 90% successful and 10% successful solutions should be equally dismissed as imperfect, one clearly better works in a flawed world.

I agree and never stated otherwise. I meant that no system is superior in all cases, including the lack of any system. I am not advocating a rejection of all systems as we all need one, but am rather advocating for an educational approach instead of a political one... Call me a philosophy-nerd or a neo-aristotle-ist and you'll be right. Platonist is also true... My main conclusion is not that humanity is the root of all evil, but rather that there is no magical system which will work in all cases, including democracy, capitalism and all the systems which existed before.

Roborian wrote:

The acknowledgement of any systemic problem, fundamental human failings included, ought to be followed not by dismissing the systems affected by that problem, but finding or establishing the one that best combats it.

I didn't do any of it. I do not dismiss all systems, nor endorse one as the best, as there is no "best". Different people and different places are that. Different. That means different systems will better work in said places, and making others eat lasagna just because you like it and it makes your life better is not a good idea, especially if someone inherently hates it for religious reasons, moralistic reasons or health reasons and even the basic reason of not being able to afford it.

Lasagna being a political system and people being societal groups of any given variety, or size. I do not accept the notion of singularity in politics, or life in general, not endorse nihilism or anarchism as you imply.

These few posts from Roborian and Slavic lechia are reminding me of an Introduction to Political Theory course. xD

The fact check of Trump on CNN that is circulating around today is a great example of how fact-checking is poorly done: many of the points "fact checked" are not false but (1) obviously rhetorical (they may exaggerate or simplify, but communicate a perceived reality that is not unreasonable) or (2) arguments that can actually made even if you can make strong arguments against them (i.e. whether Trump is the best President for black Americans since Lincoln), or (3) actually true (i.e. 9 million jobs created) even if you could add further context (20 million jobs lost).

To me democracy is about accountable leaders and free speech. Voting is just a mechanism to gauge public opinion - - the most important aspect is the open conversation, not the score counting. So of course, majorities can be wrong and often are, but that's just systems being flawed, and is just different ways to translate conversation into law. Democracy, at its core, is listening to people who disagree with you.

News from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation:

-Søppelet i havet er en tapt sak

I en ny forskningsartikkel skriver norske forskere at rydding av søppel i havet er bortkasta tid og ressurser. -Søppelet i havet er en tapt sak, det er ingen vits i å rydde det opp, skriver forskerne i artikkelen.
______________________________________

- The rubbish in the sea is a lost cause (but cleaning the beaches helps)

In a new research article, Norwegian researchers write that clearing rubbish in the sea is a waste of time and resources. -The rubbish in the sea is a lost cause, there is no point in cleaning it up, the researchers write in the article.

https://translate.google.no/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrk.no%2Fnordland%2Fbortkastet-a-rydde-havet-for-soppel_-sier-forskere-fra-lofoten-i-nordland_-men-strandrydding-hjelper-1.15138866

https://justmoney.org/m-ricks-j-crawford-l-menand-fedaccounts-digital-dollars/

The Gallant Old Republic wrote:

John Lukacs once said that just as the fact that Americans did, after all, speak English was the defining fact of the 20th century (it brought America into the World Wars) so to the fact that Russians are, after all, European, might be the defining fact of the 21st century. I hope he is right and pray for Russia's conversion and that they will straighten themselves out, otherwise I truly fear what China might be capable of inflicting upon the world.
[Sorry, I'm feeling foreboding having just read some stuff about Xi and his monstrously abusive, modern, barbaric regime; Deo Gratias I live in the United States]

I think it's many people in the West who are worried about China becoming the new dominant superpower in the world. Where we yet don't know what that will bring in the long run. At least with the United States you know what you will get, when it comes to foreign policy and it is a part of the West, after all, which China is not.

China has a different set of values, that are not necessarily compatible with the Western ones.

Nominations are now open for the September 2020 presidential election:

https://nsrighttolife.proboards.com/thread/166/september-2020-presidential-nominations

Somebody propose something ambitious to make Right to Life exciting again.

--

And I acknowledge that my sporadic activity has been partially -- or even largely -- to blame. I'm overcommitted in real life.

EDIT: I practically live on my computer now, and the recruitment script is always running. It's curious that we haven't been getting as many bites. Two or three nations used to accept our invitations daily. I have two hypotheses: (1) more regions are using recruitment scripts than in the past, or (2) puppet nations are receiving all our telegrams.

On point (2), see the output from earlier tonight:

Telegram queued for womble 8378.
Telegram queued for womble 8380.
Telegram queued for womble 08381.
Telegram queued for womble 8382.
Telegram queued for womble 8384.

>_<

Media: More "Right-wing humor" and fewer Trump jokes on the BBC

There is too much joke about the Conservatives and Donald Trump on the BBC, according to the right wing in England. According to the newspaper The Telegraph, several popular satire programs may be in danger after the channel's new boss has announced changes.

https://translate.google.no/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrk.no%2Furix%2Fmedier_-mer-_hoyre-humor_-og-faerre-trump-vitser-pa-bbc-1.15144572

Euckadip wrote:

Hello.

Hello and welcome to RTL! :)

Norway's longest wreck find just meters from the main power cable

The last of the large German warships from World War II has been found. Luck may have meant that the submarine cables between Norway and Denmark have not hit the cannons on board.

https://translate.google.no/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nrk.no%2Fnorge%2Fstort-vrakfunn-utenfor-kristiansand-_-krysseren-karslruhe-fra-andre-verdenskrig-funnet-1.15141691

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-54033792

Story of nun who rescued Jewish children during the Holocaust.