Renzatic on 17/8/2018 at 01:52
Not insane (at least until recently). Just cheap.
Gingerbread Man on 17/8/2018 at 02:08
we're gonna build a space force and the martians will pay for it
Renzatic on 17/8/2018 at 02:10
When have the Martians paid for any goddamn thing here in the states? Why the hell are we expecting them to do so now?
Martians are moochers.
Gingerbread Man on 17/8/2018 at 02:20
FIST BUMP
You're absolutely right! They come here with their tripods and their lipless mouths and they harvest all out people for blood! They say they need women, but do you know what?? THEY ARE WOMEN! They just on't know it because there are no genders on Mars. Wankers! LIPLESS WANKERS!
On a serious, dough... I have always been interested in why we haven't even done a legit moonshot since I was born. There must be some crazy shit out there that we still can't deal with. Unless, of course, it's simply prohibitively expensive to escape orbit without a damned good reason.
SPACE FORCE
Renzatic on 17/8/2018 at 02:37
I think the reason for not doing such is one of boring practicalism. The Soviets are gone, our next closest competitors are at least a full decade behind us on the technology front, and there's no financial or military gains to be made from going to the moon. So why bother? For the most part, we're not a country that does things just to see if they can be done anymore.
We traded starry eyed idealism for cold pragmatism sometime back in the 70's, and we're a lesser people for it.
demagogue on 17/8/2018 at 03:56
I wouldn't say this is even a new thing. I think the vast masses out there have always been this unhinged, and the only thing really different these days is they're connected online and making their voices heard in a way they couldn't in the past.
Naartjie on 17/8/2018 at 04:37
Quote Posted by demagogue
I wouldn't say this is even a new thing. I think the vast masses out there have always been this unhinged, and the only thing really different these days is they're connected online and making their voices heard in a way they couldn't in the past.
I basically agree with this, though I think the availability and tendencies of the internet as a communication tool have amplified these tendencies intensely over the past decade +.
It's much easier to become incredibly angry about 'the other side' (and to believe that there actually is an 'other side') when you don't actually speak to anyone with a different opinion face-to-face, but just see stuff being posted online that you can't associate with an actual human being so easily, and in a context where you can't pick up on the kind of nuance you get from physical communication. And as others have said, the echo chamber effect and structures like comment chains feed you news in a one-dimensional way which prevents exchange until your opinion is well on its way to being formed.
It's also much to behave like a shit when you're anonymous. Until recently I have found myself saying things on reddit that I would just
never say to a person in front of me, so I have made more of an effort to step back and not care.
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
I've been thinking about this a LOT lately. I spent many years balls-deep in the linguistics of conflict, the ways in which people protect themselves from things they don't want to hear, all that nonsense. Well, it's not really nonsense, but it IS sad.
You have a psychology PhD right? I think I remember a thread from forever ago posted by MsLedd in which you'd just got the degree and were recounted being tossed out of a bunch of bars :cheeky:
Starker on 17/8/2018 at 05:52
There is a swarm of people now who apparently think that they have a right to demand justifications and explanations for anything they don't like or that they might disagree with. For example, there are lot of people that think Anita Sarkeesian owes them "debate", as if she has nothing better to do than argue with thousands of random people on the internet.
Not to mention that lot of the "debate" is really just thinly veiled harassment in the form of pretty aggressive sealioning, if not outright abuse.
To think that debate is possible in such a climate is naive at best. Let's say there's a guy who decides to wear a blue hat in a town where people mostly wear red hats. As people get wind of it, they gather around him and hurl abuse at him. Soon there's a crowd of angry yelling people "debating" the blue hat guy. If you now wanted to debate the merits of wearing the blue hat and went over and asked why the guy wears a blue hat, how do you think it would go over when there are all the people angrily demanding to know why he wears a blue hat?
Naartjie on 17/8/2018 at 05:58
Quote Posted by Starker
Not to mention that lot of the "debate" is really just thinly veiled harassment in the form of pretty aggressive sealioning, if not outright abuse.
I'd never heard of sealioning but that's actually hilarious
Inline Image:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/873/260/a5b.png
jkcerda on 17/8/2018 at 06:04
I find it hilarious BOTH sides have snowflakes.