uziq
Member
+492|3422
i don’t think anyone thinks of lenin or trotsky as ‘brutes’. they were echt intellectuals of their time. brutal in some of their conduct and political decisions, certainly, but both came from a scholarly and philosophical background.

lenin was a school teacher for his formative years wasn’t he? entirely different from the country rube from georgia, stalin, who had to make do with the local religious education as a way to get to the imperial centre.

Last edited by uziq (2021-10-12 23:09:16)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
I would say "many people think of them as brutes" but of course I would be referring to pig people.

I like the book so far. It is obviously bias, etc. But it reads well. I can see why it was included on the list of 'Great Books'. I rather read this than some equally long book published by a university press that is boring.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3422
lenin, marx, trotsky, lúkacs, gramsci, etc. all have lots of good things to say. great theorists and political philosophers. first wave marxists were obviously plugged in to hegelian philosophy as well as emerging materialist disciplines (empiricism/positivism). far from brutes.

stalin and mao in comparison were basically pamphleteers. their ‘doctrine’ was patched together, cribbed notes and bad rewrites. like how saddam wrote a book expounding his ‘philosophy’. that’s stretching it a bit.

Last edited by uziq (2021-10-14 01:31:06)

uziq
Member
+492|3422
a nice feel-good piece from the nerd-in-chief and all-round shakespearean, patrick stewart.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl … -saved-him
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
https://i.redd.it/d2zq1fq9ytw71.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Looked it up to check out some reviews. A ton of five stars calling it Deadpool. lol

One star calling it unbridled narcissism. Now if it were intentionally that way for comedic value, that'd be … a thing.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Some of the Amazon pictures...
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81pNLRSShjL._CR0,204,1224,1224_UX175.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71EU2XB9VbL._CR0,203,1225,1225_UX175.jpg
I know the pictures are jokes but still.

Anyhow, I ain't even mad at the author. I wish I had a way to scam some Republicans by selling Patriotism.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
RTHKI
mmmf mmmf mmmf
+1,736|6707|Oxferd Ohire
Just make stuff up Mac.
https://i.imgur.com/tMvdWFG.png
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Once I get my pension maybe I will write a book about My Struggle against Critical Race Theory in schools.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Well bugger me Wilbur Smith died.

I ate up his books as a child, read them all out of sequence but it didn't matter, I think Sunbird was my favourite.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Wikipedia nerds never waste any time updating bios with deaths.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
I used to edit Wikipedia. It's actually pretty easy.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
RTHKI
mmmf mmmf mmmf
+1,736|6707|Oxferd Ohire
Awaiting the final book of The Expanse tomorrow
https://i.imgur.com/tMvdWFG.png
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0290/4932/3595/products/il_794xN.3090377769_ltif_grande.jpg?v=1622066603
Kid left this book in my class. 300 pages
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I used to read metaphysics and books like that for a goof. Never did put it into any practice, but it was giving me ideas for RPG mods.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
metaphysics is a 2,500 year old branch of philosophy involving socrates, descartes, kant, and hegel. they are really not the same thing as ‘household karen thinks crystals can help her heal’.

pataphysics was a joke designation made up by a bunch of surrealists and performance art dadaists during ww1, which does talk a lot about superstition and nonsense. perhaps you mean that.

Last edited by uziq (2021-12-03 18:10:52)

unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Still talking about the stuff in Mac's post. Metaphysics has taken on multiple meanings and is now casually used for candle circles, crystal magic, ghostbusters stuff, angels and demons. It's in the marketing and shelved in stores and sections frequented by new age soccer moms. Some of it gets really lost into its own lore, and is a bit of a trip to read. Possible treasure trove for D&D DMs looking for ideas.

I imagine the Potter craze has since diluted a lot of that with undisguised fantasy, but in the 90s I'd occasionally marvel at a chapter telling me something like how to raise a barrier against unfriendly magic. All you have to do is visualize something like a blue forcefield (all around your body, I guess a bit like the shield in the famous sci-fi, Dune) and keep that in the back of your mind so you don't drop it. Being a wizard is a bit of a headache.
uziq
Member
+492|3422
i've been in a few book stores actually that had all that housewife fluff filed under 'metaphysics'. but more often it's filed under 'supernatural' or 'occult' or something. those book stores were almost always used bookstores ran by an individual with an eccentic sorting scheme.

as in the OED for language, surely the dewey decimal is the last word in book categorisation. it restores the nobility to the term 'metaphysics', at least. phew.
https://vocabularyserver.com/ddc/en/?ar … 69dk1jg137
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I'm pretty sure I've seen a few with it actually printed on the back cover or somewhere with pretensions of categorization. At the very least, a book about "the science of crystal healing" doesn't do much to embarrass science just because it has the word in its title. Bit misleading though.

I suppose in some places in the US, you will want to put your "occult" and "supernatural" stuff in the religion or metaphysics sections to avoid beef with the kind of torchbearers who burn copies of Narnia because there's a witch in it.

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Should libraries even exist anymore?
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Definitely, and probably a good hill to die on. Imagine trying to get them back in this political climate if they were all shut down.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
This has been mentioned elsewhere before but if they weren't invented thousands of years ago, people in America wouldn't support opening any. I don't think you would need to do some searching for someone on the internet advocating they are a waste of taxpayer money. Probably a National Review article about this exist too.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Should just be common sense stuff. Forms of waste management have been around for a long time too. Homeless people should be able to take a dump somewhere that isn't the city sidewalk or behind someone's store, as a community improving service.

Libraries should exist for all communities as a service, even if they do have heretical novels like Harry Potter, or books that make people think about uncomfortable histories of the country that may be otherwise avoided by some state curriculums.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
I bet you the fat guy arguing with the vegans while murdering fish hates libraries too.

Fat people aren't readers. Here is a study to support my view.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4558558/
"Relation of intelligence quotient and body mass index in preschool children: a community-based cross-sectional study"
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg

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