If Mort Divine ruled the world

[EternalMetal]

Agreed. I'm not really sure where the point of contention is.

I guess I wasnt too explicit about that. In America everyone always speaks about war veterans as if they are outside reproach, but imo there is a huge difference between those who were drafted without given a choice vs those who signed up knowing the risks. I guess since you are Australian you may not see it directly, but there seems to be a public sentiment to honor modern war vets the same way that we used to venerate those who were drafted back in the WW/Cold War days. I was apprehensive about bringing this issue up since we have some modern day vets among posters here, but I still think that the idea of volunteering is significantly different than forced conscription.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

American vets are over-entitled scum of the earth, by and large.

 

[CiG]

I actually respect both around the same degree, but for different reasons. Being drafted is horrific to me and they deserve respect for being used by the government like that, at the same time people who join by choice deserve respect because it's a brave choice without which the draft would eventually have to return, because no way am I joining willingly and without joiners we essentially create a justification for the government to force us.

Does that make sense lol?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

it's a brave choice without which the draft would eventually have to return

Nice meme. America fought plenty of wars without a draft. We only really began drafting people when our leaders decided that selling out its citizenry to international powers was profitable enough. Non-participation and opposition are what stopped the draft, not bending over like a schmuck for the good of muh nation. People that willingly join the military should be shamed for perpetuating a sham institution.

 

[CiG]

Black America, Please Stop Appropriating African Clothing and Tribal Marks.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Nice find.

Insofar as cultural appropriation causes any real damage (and as far as I can tell it does not), it does seem a bit unfair to compare whites culturally appropriating blacks to blacks culturally appropriating blacks. The former took away the opportunity for culture from the latter. The wonderful culture of scarification, bizarre piercings, etc might exist among those African-Americans right now had the white man never purchased them as slaves. That being said, it's ultimately just a form of relatively benign racism to complain about cultural appropriation. The comments in those kinds of articles are always better than the articles themselves. Race-obsessed failures of life bragging about having taken a DNA test which somehow grants them the right of monopoly over ideas and creations that they themselves had no participation in developing. Can't wait for black separatism to be treated the way white separatism is.

Best comment:

Before I take this as read...who is the author? Where are their African ancestors from? Are they culturally African? Which country/region/group? Did Rachel Dolezal write this?

Because the lack of ability to know where the author is coming from, sort of negates his arguments in a big way.

That's right darkie, PROVE your blackness, show us your pure African heritage or your opinion isn't worth shit.

 

[CiG]

Just heard on the news that apparently a suicide-assassination plot on Theresa May's life was foiled. Hint: wasn't a Hindu.

 

[rms]

I dont really understand what you mean by government "control";

since we agree that public health is fiscally diffulcult, the only alternative to a Bernie Sanders type plan is to enforce citizens to be healthier: ie taxing 'bad' goods etc. This is what i mean by government control and I personally think rationing/max purchasing per period would be a real thing for booze, cigs, fatty foods etc.

Anybody signing up for a dangerous job should be considering the cost:benefit analysis of said job and be ok with it

Agreed, and part of said benefit is medical compensation for services rendered

You seem to be downplaying the potential danger of military service while simultaneously mocking the career pursuit of a teacher who decides to teach outside his/her comfort zone.

I am, because, as we've seen in this conversation by non-vets, most of the discussion centers around injuries by IEDs or fire fights. Something like 10% or less of service members even see combat, and that's in conflicts like Vietnam. I think it's only a few % now. One day public perception will change, one where military stories can be told other than combat or the slightly growing female rape thang.

Nothing against teachers, but being a combat trained service member does nothing for your professional life. My 4.5 years mean literally nothing to the outside world, except Obama gave employers a tax credit for hiring vets. If you teach in a shit area for 4.5 years, it's not going to be looked at as an indifferent or negative choice but the opposite IMO.

but there seems to be a public sentiment to honor modern war vets the same way that we used to venerate those who were drafted back in the WW/Cold War days.

I think we over estimate how the military is different because there isn't forced service and again how much 'forced' voluntarism there was because of the draft.

I'm not sure how to condition an argument about draftees vs. signed up, but I don't even think it has to go that far, combat deployments were incredibly different to anything before Desert Storm. That is intense enough.

American vets are over-entitled scum of the earth, by and large.

It's definitely effecting a large enough percentage to worry about, but if you ever talk to / hear someone complaining that vets don't get enough today -- they are part of the problem. only thing we need is adequate bureaucratic employees/oversight.

 

[Dak]

While there may be a physical difference, the moral difference between two such people is indistinguishable. You may conflate individual contribution with human worth, but this is the same fundamental issue that mankind has faced since day one. I also think that your logic is backwards: ideals should come before practicality, otherwise you are aiming for underachievement.

What is "human worth"? Some sort of metric based on the ability to breath, eat, and shit?

 

[EternalMetal]

Nothing against teachers, but being a combat trained service member does nothing for your professional life. My 4.5 years mean literally nothing to the outside world, except Obama gave employers a tax credit for hiring vets. If you teach in a shit area for 4.5 years, it's not going to be looked at as an indifferent or negative choice but the opposite IMO.

Law enforcement? Also I think many employers look fondly on the types of values and discipline one learns when in the military. Or perhaps maybe you should have done more for advancement rather than just be another combat scrub? Idk, I cant see this as a net neutral thing to put on a resume at all.

I think we over estimate how the military is different because there isn't forced service and again how much 'forced' voluntarism there was because of the draft.

I'm not sure how to condition an argument about draftees vs. signed up, but I don't even think it has to go that far, combat deployments were incredibly different to anything before Desert Storm. That is intense enough.

To be completely honest, if I was drafted in times of war I would do everything in my power to get out of it. If I were to have gone so far as to sign up, then that would mean I took on the potential risks of joining a violent organization.

I actually respect both around the same degree, but for different reasons. Being drafted is horrific to me and they deserve respect for being used by the government like that, at the same time people who join by choice deserve respect because it's a brave choice without which the draft would eventually have to return, because no way am I joining willingly and without joiners we essentially create a justification for the government to force us.

Like I said before, the people from high school that I know joined tended to fall into two categories. One, they wanted the signing bonus and the opportunity to get free college. Two, they wanted to "bag towel-heads", "blow shit up", fly fighter jets, or some other boyish 'plays-to-much-counterstrike' kind of horseshit. Someone who is forced to be trained to become a killer is someone who is very pitiful indeed, and deserves to be looked at from a different perspective than someone who signed up willingly. Some honorable people exist on both sides, but being drafted to war is probably the most fucked up thing in the history of mankind aside from stuff like the Holocaust or towns that get ravaged Genghis Kahn style.

What is "human worth"? Some sort of metric based on the ability to breath, eat, and shit?

Meh, I probably could have worded it better. I should have said something like the value of a human life, of which I mean should be equivalent regardless of contribution. Modern society was built with this ideal in mind, and is summarized well by the Golden Rule. You suggest looking at things practically before looking at them ideologically. Why?

 

[Dak]

Meh, I probably could have worded it better. I should have said something like the value of a human life, of which I mean should be equivalent regardless of contribution. Modern society was built with this ideal in mind, and is summarized well by the Golden Rule. You suggest looking at things practically before looking at them ideologically. Why?

I guess we should place equal value on the life of [insert terrible person in history] and [insert renowned person in history]. Because they both took shits and had functioning myocardium or something. Modern society was built by the discovery of and discovery of uses for oil and better understanding - in some cases anyway, of economic principles, not individual ideals.

To answer your question about practicality: I can hold any number of ideals that cannot translate into any meaningful action, or can in fact cause terrible harm to others, because material reality is ignored. See: Bolshevism. See: Venezuela. Etc.

 

[CiG]

 

[arg]

The value of human life
- perpetrators of heinous crimes should be killed.
- everyone else should be left alone and not be actively killed.
- it is ok to let them die of hunger, disease, etc though. we are not obligated to help anyone and doing it with other people’s resources is especially immoral.

 

[Einherjar86]

Hahahaha, why do you post this crap?

There are more than two genders because gender is how people choose to perform their sexuality--and that can take any number of forms. Gender is limitless. It's an impractical answer, but that's the situation we have to deal with. There's nothing essential or absolute about it. Gender is an effect of social institutions and that's all we have to work with.

There are, however, only two sexes. A woman who identifies with the masculine gender isn't under some delusion that he has a penis. He simply doesn't feel that the gender he identifies with matches up with the body he occupies. This relentlessness with trying to return gender to its appropriate sexuality is really tiresome.

 

[CiG]

Only a retard would ask why crap would be posted in the Mort thread.

 

[Einherjar86]

ba-zing

 

[CiG]

Honestly the most ridiculous part of that whole video to me was that shaved-head amorphous blob's concept of what violence is.

 

[Einherjar86]

I didn't watch the whole thing. I laughed out loud when Chowder dropped refs to de Beauvoir and Butler like he's a continental champ. The guy's on-stage performances are so staged I'm starting to think that right-wing political comedy should be its own gender.

 

[CiG]

Mkay.

 

[Einherjar86]

Lighten up toots, it's a party.