Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain -
If the conscious mind--the part you consider to be you--is just the tip of the iceberg, what is the rest doing?
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Saturday, 2 June 2018
quote [ Most media reports about what happened at Evergreen last year go like this: Instead of people of color leaving campus, last year, a campus group requested that white students, faculty, and staff leave on the Day of Absence instead. In most reports, the drama started when a professor objected to this change. In response, outraged students protested that professor’s class, footage of the event went viral, the alt-right flocked to Evergreen, and the college was shut down, all because one professor objected to rejiggering an old Evergreen tradition.
That, if you read most reports—or the school’s official version of events—is what happened. But reality, as with most things, is more complex. ] A lot more people need to read Animal Farm.
I'm pretty far left by American political standards, but I'm also a big believer in rationalism and open discussion, and there's a dangerously dogmatic streak of batshit irrationalism in the American left that can be really disturbing (albeit not as bad as the blatantly corrupt fascism currently in power).
I disagree with Weinstein's choice to go on Fox and talk to Tucker Carlson - we shouldn't legitimize that propaganda source. But acting like self-righteous jackasses also validates Republican propaganda in a different way.
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4321 said @ 10:36am GMT on 3rd June
I’m not sure quite what we’re doing at this point. I am beginning to suspect you are simply throwing up stuff you find online as chaff. The tweet you posted doesn’t support your contention. This Patreon stuff is weaker still.
I have some familiarity with Peterson’s lectures on Dostoevsky and on Nietzsche. in fact I watched some of them again before I queried you about your claims about Peterson’s views. I suspected this was where you were going to go. But once again, I am baffled as to how you feel this supports your initial claim.
Peterson lectures on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. He gives his views on what they said and believed. This passage is overwhelmingly about them, not Peterson himself. And nowhere in those lectures, nor in this blurb, does Peterson say he believes “atheism must axiomatically end in authoritarianism or vicious nihilism”. This is blindingly evident here, even with the most casual reading.
The crux of the piece is here “It’s not clear that we can create values” (in the absence of God).
Well, then, if it’s not clear, then it’s not clear. And if it’s not clear it sure as hell isn’t “axiomatic”.
It's more than a little ironic that this conversation grew out of the contention that Peterson's views are frequently misrepresented. If this conversation is of any value at all, it's in providing a case study in exactly that kind of misrepresentation.
4321 said @ 10:38am GMT on 3rd June
I’m not sure quite what we’re doing at this point. I am beginning to suspect you are simply throwing up stuff you find online as chaff. The tweet you posted doesn’t support your contention. This Patreon stuff is weaker still.
I have some familiarity with Peterson’s lectures on Dostoevsky and on Nietzsche. in fact I watched some of them again before I queried you about your claims about Peterson’s views. I suspected this was where you were going to go. But once again, I am baffled as to how you feel this supports your initial claim.
Peterson lectures on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. He gives his views on what they said and believed. This passage is overwhelmingly about them, not Peterson himself. And nowhere in those lectures, nor in this blurb, does Peterson say he believes “atheism must axiomatically end in authoritarianism or vicious nihilism”. This is blindingly evident here, even with the most casual reading.
The crux of the piece is here “It’s not clear that we can create values” (in the absence of God).
Well, then, if it’s not clear, then it’s not clear. Maybe we can, maybe we can't. And if it’s not clear, it sure as hell isn’t “axiomatic”.
It's more than a little ironic that this conversation grew out of the contention that Peterson's views are frequently misrepresented. If this conversation is of any value at all, it's in providing a case study in exactly that kind of misrepresentation.
<-- Entry / Current Comment
4321 said @ 10:36am GMT on 3rd June
I’m not sure quite what we’re doing at this point. I am beginning to suspect you are simply throwing up stuff you find online as chaff. The tweet you posted doesn’t support your contention. This Patreon stuff is weaker still.
I have some familiarity with Peterson’s lectures on Dostoevsky and on Nietzsche. in fact I watched some of them again before I queried you about your claims about Peterson’s views. I suspected this was where you were going to go. But once again, I am baffled as to how you feel this supports your initial claim.
Peterson lectures on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. He gives his views on what they said and believed. This passage is overwhelmingly about them, not Peterson himself. And nowhere in those lectures, nor in this blurb, does Peterson say he believes “atheism must axiomatically end in authoritarianism or vicious nihilism”. This is blindingly evident here, even with the most casual reading.
The crux of the piece is here “It’s not clear that we can create values” (in the absence of God).
Well, then, if it’s not clear, then it’s not clear. Maybe we can, maybe we can't. And if it’s not clear, it sure as hell isn’t “axiomatic”.
It's more than a little ironic that this conversation grew out of the contention that Peterson's views are frequently misrepresented. If this conversation is of any value at all, it's in providing a case study in exactly that kind of misrepresentation.
