From: oldernow@dev.null   
      
   On 2024-05-29, D  wrote:   
      
   > Haha, no... haven't found god yet, but had a 4 week   
   > vacation and a Nietzsche deep dive, now followed with an   
   > Epicurus deep dive, to seek out Nietzsches sources. ;)   
      
   Leave it to deep dives to undo vacation benefits! :-)   
      
   > In terms of this place, there is a natural ebb and flow of   
   > the threads, so after rising to the ethereal transcendence,   
   > all words became meaningless.   
      
   Indeed.   
      
   > Maybe we should start a _philosophical_ thread about   
   > Trump? Maybe that would take us back to planet earth? ;)   
      
   Amidst a whole lot of yawning on my end....   
      
   I'm fine with the topic, but I feel confident in having   
   concluded he's mostly a story of finding a way to reveal   
   how a large block of humans took stupidity to new levels   
   by perpetually repeating to themselves the same fictions   
   amplified by a large sector of the "news" media, while   
   refusing to even consider alternative takes.   
      
   I mean, I was already convinced most humans were idiots.   
   But liberals spiraled downwardly several orders of   
   magnitude beneath stupidity, actually acting   
   proud/smug when answering decent arguments   
   with tripe like "But Russia!" or "But   
   'fine people'!" or "But bleach!"   
      
   I mean.. seriously?   
      
   >> You've been to https://midnight.pub before, right? I've   
   >> chanced upon wonderful stuff there from time to time.   
   >   
   > Never seen, but now it's saved in a browser tab for   
   > slow moments at work.  Thank you very much for the   
   > recommendation!   
      
   I chanced upon the following entitled "Human Un-nature"   
   last night, which I found considerably more interesting   
   than most of what I encounter anymore:   
      
   gemini://beyondneolithic.life/posts/human_un-nature.gmi   
      
   I'll repeat it for your benefit:   
      
   > # Human Un-nature   
   >   
   > Everyone has gotten into some kinbd of argument or   
   > disagreement about "human nature," which is supposed to   
   > be the one true thing that makes humans actually human if   
   > you dig deep enough through all the layers of society,   
   > relationships, morals, etc. Or if you haven't had an   
   > argument about it, you've at least had someone bring it up   
   > as some kind of self evident explanation for something in   
   > the world, usually something they take to be unfortunate   
   > but unavvoidable. "I don't really like the police either,   
   > but humans are naturally violent and greedy, so we need   
   > them." "My boss is a dick too, but the sad truth is that   
   > humans are naturally lazy, so what are you gonna do?"   
   >   
   > Of course, this supposedly essential, core element of our   
   > species called "human natures" has a funny way of changing   
   > depending on the time, the place, and whoever's in charge   
   > of something. In medieval Europe, humans were naturally   
   > servile which is why we needed lords and ultimatyely kings   
   > to keep everything going. In the contemporary U.S., humans   
   > are naturally greedy, which is why we need capitalism to   
   > turn that greed into wealth for all. And so on.   
   >   
   > I think we ought to take a different view entirely, and   
   > one that's actually really simple. Humans, and (so far)   
   > *only* humans, are those animals which are precisely   
   > *unnatural* to the core. There is absolutely nothing   
   > natural about humans. We are that species that presisely   
   > *does not* have a particular way to be, and in fact there   
   > might be as many ways to be human as there are humans   
   > themselves. There is no human nature, nothing at the core   
   > of the species, all of our manifold histories, cultures,   
   > societies, etc. might just be the various ways we've tried   
   > to fill in the essential *gap* that constitutes us all,   
   > individually and collectively.   
   >   
   > I think starting from this point gets us a lot further than   
   > essentializing the values of a given era and calling it   
   > "human nature." It helps us get out of the trap (at least   
   > conceptually) of neoliberalism, which tells us that this,   
   > right now, the way things currently are, is the only   
   > possible way things could be, give or take a few minor   
   > modifications here and there. No: My thesis is that we are   
   > only what we chose to be exactly because there is nothing   
   > essential about us. We are only what we practice, what we   
   > do. We are what we choose to build for oursleves. Which   
   > means we *can* change *everything*, if we wanted to.   
   >   
   > There is no human nature, there is only human un-nature. I   
   > should come up with a better turn of phrase, but for now   
   > this is what I've got.   
      
      
   --   
   oldernow   
   xyz001 at nym.hush.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)