I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, that I really like Joe Rogan, and enjoy his podcasts. Better, I admire and value his approach to things. I don’t always agree with his position, or even his take (see: drugs, immigration, most social issues, etc.), and sometimes even strongly disagree with him (ie his insistence on a JFK conspiracy). But even where I may disagree on a particular point / conclusion, I trust that he is sincere in both his underlying beliefs and in the effort he expends to get things right, even when it’s uncomfortable and inconvenient to his own proclivities and preferences. That goes a long way with me, when judging his credibility, or anyone else’s. The desire to get it right is rare enough in today’s climate, but the consistent willingness to put forth the effort is damned near extinct. I’d like to be more like him, in wrestling and testing my own beliefs, and wish others would feel and do the same. So, I recently saw a clip of one of his recent shows, where he’s discussing the MAGA kid / Native American kerfuffle, and his guest - but this isn’t about those kids, that episode, each side, etc. But amidst that discussion, his guest (I have no idea who she is, or what her politics are, tbh) said something that I felt was incredibly important, about the “..thin veneer of civilization.” and which resonated with me, as it touched on many of my own underlying thoughts, fears, misgivings, desires - and which I often struggle to fully understand, much less to explain. And to better understand ourselves, and others, seems like a worthwhile thing to do, or at least attempt. This isn’t intended to be a political thread, but it will undoubtedly touch or turn into one. This isn’t at all about the MAGA kids, that Native Americans, counter protestors, or even one single issue. But it will involve that, and other aspects of politics and beyond. So, I put this thread here, in preparation of that inevitable reality. So, while you can watch the whole clip, as there’s a lot of good stuff there, but if you’re only interested in the part that stood out to me, skip to the 4:45 mark. I’d love to hear other takes and impressions on her thoughts / remarks, and to which I absolutely and strongly agree with her, for however much that’s worth to anyone, but myself:
Agreed. And while I don’t claim to be an expert on anything, or see my own experiences as any suitable standard by which to measure anything or anyone....this really is true. I fear that society as a whole absolutely fails to fully realize the whirlwinds that we are going to reap by sowing any wind that strikes and pleases us. Worse, I think that we just don’t care to know, and in fact, go to increasingly greater lengths to outright ignore, the need to think, at all, much less to give time for those thoughts to affect our actions. How anyone can have even a casual understanding of either history, how things work, or of reality itself - and not see how we’re essentially inviting untold numbers of calamities, but each which are both very real and with the certain potential of causing irreparable harm, is just beyond me. And I’m by no means excluded, and am just as guilty as any. But thought, reason and even truth itself are no longer leading, but in many cases, seem nowhere to be found, at all. In this enlightened age, with the entirety of all human knowledge and the ability to connect with anyone, anywhere - by the computer on our desks and the phones in our pockets - we are exceedingly and willingly cloistered, and choose ignorance. Climate change, Trump, race relations, the economy, America, etc. etc. etc. et al, ad nauseam.
there is a human tendency to think because it hasn't happened lately it can't happen. It may be our fatal flaw, as much as it helps us prioritize on the short term. the interview with the old timer on mt st Helens is all of us. "... been living here for fifty years, the mountain is fine." Or something like that, to the news crew interviewing the man who refused to evacuate in the weeks prior when the USGS thought a major eruption was coming. No recoverable remains.
Take ethanol for fuel. It's just a handout to special interest, but it leads to people starving to death. If we're going to do it, at least give it away as food to starving people around the world.
Theoretically ethanol is great. As I always say, reality and theory are quite different. Personally, I don't understand why we can't drive more towards nuclear.
ethanol is fine... unless you are making it out of food or crops. which we are. make it out of algae or true waste crop material and it would be fine.
Our fear of nuclear is insanely ridiculous. It's not the 1970s anymore. It's hundreds, if not thousands of times safer, and many, many, many times more efficient than what we are doing currently.
only if you factor in pollution. Carbon emitting fuel sources socialize the cost of pollution. nuclear has the cost of managing its waste built in.
I don’t want to highjack this thread on two of my favorite things - JFK / the Navy - but how anyone could read anything about the Cuban Missile Crisis, or spend any amount of time working in the inner bowels of some beheamoth bureaucracy, and think that we have any certain grasp of just about anything. borders on madness to me. I read shit on the JFK conspiracies and often think that it’d almost be worth it for their being true, as it’d at least be the single best argument that someone or something wielded such strategic control over people and events, as conspiracy of that magnitude would require. People don’t understand how tenuously held together, it all is. This isn’t a sly way of my advancing any idea or agenda, but just speaking in pure generalities.
Corn is expensive to grow and is no way efficient. Top Soil is the life of our food supply and we have horrible mismanagement of it as a whole.
getting a little bit back on track re: the video ... I didn't have time to listen to the whole thing (thanks for pointing out the starting point)... the thing with social media technology is that, while I certainly don't think anybody went into the creation of social media with bad intentions, people can and will figure out how to turn "something designed for good" into "something useful for doing bad." if anything, the fallout from the covington catholic school thing indicates to me only that social media and technology have become just the latest tools of The Bully.... whoever is doing the bullying. We will out you *and* your family to the whole of planet Earth, because you deserve it since you don't agree with us. This is now de jure and leads to vigilante justice. I really don't see any substantive difference from racially-motivated lynch mobs during Jim Crow days, except that now, the lynch mobs are politically- and socially-motivated. At some point, I think people will figure out that the only thing social media is good for is posting youtube videos of cats jumping at the sight of cucumbers.
The control that celebrities and twatter have over some people's lives has been an issue with me for a while. And, twatter is making celebrities out of too many of the wrong type of person too. I haven't watched 1 second of the video with the kid and the Indian, and I never want to. The pages of discussion over this issue is too much. I hope to stay away from any more videos of this nature for a long time. If two groups of people want to organize at some location and push each other's buttons, please do it far away from me.
I was thinking about going onto a St Louis sports radio Facebook group and starting a Cuonzo Survivor Support Group. I’ve felt what they felt and walked where they walked. I think this would be a good use of social media
