Lit Apropos of Nothing - ACKBAR IN CAPITALS - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0.15

The shoddy plot and terrible and forced driving still bring it down hard though.

 

My Fallout 3 run continues. There's so much satisfaction in using the mini-nuke launcher to blow up the giant mutant.

Also, starting the exploration of the Museum of Technology, where you get to see hints as to where the timeline divided from our own (i.e. the moon landing is four days earlier, with a different name for the program, and the Commonwealth flag instead of the regular US flag).

Also: Arkham Knight. Bleah. Gameplay aside (yes, Riddler has racing challenges.) the storyline is awful.

 

@GrandAdmiralJello - here you go, an old article about the rival claimants to the throne of America..

Of course, there's only one true monarch of the United States.

 

why does nothing please you

 

The tools of syndical anarchy now exist, though. The lack of stronger unions proves that capitalist society has succeeded in obscuring from its people the one tool the system left them. Unfortunately, cops are the only ones who've figured it out.

 

He I love Witcher 3

 

Blood guilt, huh? I know I should know better than to pick up the bait, especially since you followed your statement with satire, but please tell me, if you steal something, and you pass it on to your children, does that something stop being someone else's property you stole because you passed it on? Possession of stolen property is a crime, and it's a crime all monarchs and most aristocrats are guilty of.

And as for human rights, do the same rights apply to a "sovereign" and to their "subjects"? If so, how is one a "sovereign" and another a "sovereign subject"? If the same rights do not apply to both, how is it that "all humans are born free and equal in dignity and in rights"?

 

I still have no idea whether this argument is real.

Meanwhile, my verdict on my new computer after four days:



It's crashing on average twice a day despite installing all available updates. Utterly unbelievable. Fortunately it shouldn't be too hard to trade it in, but considering that I bought it because my last computer was dying... man, what are the odds?

 

So, monarchy is based on the fact that if you do something wrong long enough, it eventually stops being wrong unless someone actually does something about it (which you consider unlawful), and that a person is not a person because they are a state. Right. And I'm not human, I'm actually a carrot. That is some super solid moral human rights kind of crap. I'm sorry for ever doubting that you had the moral high ground.

I look forward to your proof that squares are circular. See you at the next as-easily-proven-to-be-compatible-with-human-rights-under-common-law witch burning, dude.

 

You're probably not going to win a law debate with Jello. Though it would be entertaining to argue against English common law, seeing as it was institutionalized under a monarchy.

Next up in the Ackbar thread: let's debate whether the concept of Westphalian nation states is oppressive!

 

So, how about those video games, huh?

 

I would think that in the 21st century, we wouldn't have to have debates about whether oppression is oppressive. I give humans way too much credit, I know. Time makes more converts than reason. I'll wait. We're, like, a bazillion monarchies down ... 10 or something like that to go? Won't be too long.

Video games are pretty cool. Need a lot of free time, though.

 

The space between the existence of a law and the equal enforcement and access to the protections of that law is where Jello's argument fails. Current systems afford plenty of technical rights, but the right to replevy spoils stolen from the poor by the imperial rich is, in fact, unattainable in a capitalist legal system wherein the side with the most high-paid lawyers either wins, or ties the case up so as to break anyone with the nerve to try.

Truth is, this invalidates a lot of what comes up in the diversity thread. There can never be social justice without class justice. This conversation's generally stigmatized by the old association of anti-monarchist intent and anti-taxation dogma, but now that corporations rule, that's only stigma, not fact; believing in tax reform to establish strong social support does not require belief in the standing systemic structure, as on principle economics and politics shouldn't be so closely tied (and for the record, while still being anti-imperial, I do believe the precedent of the American Revolution was an exploitation of the the crown's military situation at the time and not as ideologically-precise as its reputation).

This is you, Coop:



That's you. It is. It's you.

 

What the actual hell has happened to this thread

 

They're pretty awesome. I like the fact that they're games and are therefore impossible to define in any satisfactory manner. I'm also fond of the term "video game" because no one can seem to agree on where it comes from save for the fact that it might have ties to Computer Space which is interesting as it means that those college kids playing Spacewar! on old room-sized computers didn't have a technical term for it. I like to imagine they called it a "doohicky."

 

Do you know of the people depicted below? Because they have just as much role in spawning the modern fantasy as LotR

 

I can't see those images. But unless one of them is Howard, I'm probably not going to be convinced.

Edit: Now I can. Though I think of them both as being in the same vein as Howard.

 

can you see them now?

 

It doesn't invalidate any of it. Mainstream progressivism has long embraced the idea that social justice and class justice are deeply intertwined. In fact there's a strong argument to be made that awareness of class justice precedes that of social justice in the evolution of modern progressivism. Just look at Bernie Sander's platform for a current example. But it also recognizes that you can't just put off social justice until some arbitrary benchmark of class justice has been reached.
The diversity thread is about social justice and representation in media, not politics - it's not a flaw in the ideology or arguments, it's just the subject of that thread.

 

OK, I'm convinced. Witcher 3 first.
Also looking forwards to Fallout 4, Risin Tides for Beyond Earth, and Battlefleet Gothic.

 

I know we have mostly moved on, but I do have to say this:

Actually, it does. Under the "Hitler Ate Sugar" principle, it should be remembered that such an argument is almost useless beyond shock value because you could use it for nearly anything - in the contexts of politics, Hitler was anti-monarchical sure, but he was also anti-democracy, anti-capitalism, anti-communism, anti-damn near everything really. Not to mention that he was anti-smoking and anti-animal cruelty. Should we all start smoking three-packs a day and kicking puppies?

Admittedly I am pretty sure you already know this and are just joking around, but I felt the need to comment on it anyway.


In semi-related news, we have been learning about the Ming Dynasty at school recently, and its founding emperor was a fascinating figure. He is considered to be one of China's best emperors - and yet he was born a commoner. A beggar even, before he joined the anti-Yuan rebels and worked his way to the top. The only other peasant emperor, the founder of the Han, is similarly considered one of the best in Chinese history.