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astreus

@ astreus @lemmy.ml

Posts
13
Comments
181
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • No wonder Peter Thiel wants to build a hellworld panopticon prison. He knows.

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  • I dunno, someone anti "love your neighbour like yourself" sounds pretty real to me (and the dominant political group in the post-Keynesian/late-stage Capitalism west)

  • What are some common things people buy that you would never buy?

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  • I like to get some scratchies every now and then - it's one of the major funding sources for museums and sports in the UK, so I see it as a little donation with a dopamine hit rather than an attempt at winning big!

  • Separate Group Chat

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  • And people always forget. "Why do vegans go on and on about it?" Because we want to be able to eat? For my stag do, my brother forgot THREE times to get me vegan products. THREE. And then complained because I "mention it too much"...I just wanna eat!

  • Do well written books just not get published these days?

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  • There are LOADS of modern classics. If you're into sci-fi, try the Ancillary Justice trilogy by Anne Lecke. If you're into contemporary fiction, check out Against the Loveless World. If you like historical fiction, Bernard Cornwell has been going strong for a long time.

    What genre do you enjoy? I always recommend checking out the relevant awards and go through the shortlist for the last few years. You are sure to find something spellbinding.

    Booker - Contemporary literature

    Assimov/Philip K. Dick/Hugo/Nebula - Speculative Fiction

    Nobel Prize - Contemporary literature

  • The Department of Homeland Security allegedly went into the drafts folder of a young adult's TikTok account, pulled out an unpublished video, and added false captions to frame him as a "terrorist".

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  • Honestly, between this and 'your mom'...they've stopped even trying to hide the lying, cheating, and stealing.

  • God damnit

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  • And then you have the Xiaomi Ultra range which is basically a bridge camera with a phone attached!

  • Prescient speculative fiction

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  • Oo not heard of this one! Thanks for the rec.

  • Prescient speculative fiction

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  • I didn't mind BNW, though Huxley didn't appear to be particularly well versed in political theory. It felt very "everything is socialism (even Ford) and thus bad". However, the actual story itself with the boy? Amazing. Plus, we totally ARE controlled by our vice and pleasure far more so than information restriction.

    F451 I really, really enjoyed when I was younger...right up until the last scenes! Then it felt very...masturbatory.

  • Uncircumcised penis owners, did you ever wish you were circumcised?

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  • Mine wasn't mild, unfortunately. Fully pinhole. Luckily, I'm a "grower" so they didn't have to take the whole foreskin and the very base of my glands are still protected (and get stimulated from skin during sex). Stretches were actually counter productive for me (found that out after the skin condition got diagnosed) and likely led to a speeding up of the pinhole nature

  • Uncircumcised penis owners, did you ever wish you were circumcised?

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  • Ooo something for me!

    I am FORMERLY uncircumcised. I have a skin condition which led to phymosis a few years back forcing me to have a medical circumcision this year.

    Uncut is superior in every way. Sex is better, it's more comfortable when exercising, it's generally less of a nuisance. And in Europe, I never had an ick reaction.

    If I didn't medically need it I wouldn't have done it. That said, it's better than phymosis, I do last longer in bed, and my partner says it's actually a really nice oral experience now.

    Remember: most countries don't have a preference for circumcision, and a lot of people outside of America that are circumcised have it done due to medical issues, not moral or religious reasons.

  • 4thewords price change and alternatives

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  • This looks cool! Thanks for the rec

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • Being chronically online isn't a character trait. It's an addiction.

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • Nah didn't see your name on the door.

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • While I think that's interesting point, two things:

    Destroyed swaths of people is dubious. Cultures, yes, men, yes, but peoples, no (hence the slaves but also why those lands were still administered by high ranking officials).

    Essentially, I feel it's whataboutism. There's very good reason why it's said the Philippines was conquered by friars, the Crusades weren't caused by resources, and the age of Empire and the Atlantic slave trade were both back by the concept of monotheistic "other".

    Just because other ideologies (and theologies) have negative kernels, it does not excuse the vast negative issues the have directly born out of monotheistic religion as an aspect of otherhood and a sense of colonisation or superiority. That does not make them the sole source (the concept of land ownership, for example, is a non-theistic ideology that is used to cause group division and destruction). We could also talk about Manifest Destiny, as a non-religious movement (though it did have large religious support), but it's not what I am talking about

    Monotheism as it has manifested on the world stage has come with colonisation, destruction of old ideas, and entitled due to the other people being sinful heathens. It is a useful tool for the powerful (which is why we see the royal conversions in Europe, leading to internalised oppression of polytheistic beliefs). It is worth questioning.

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • The irony is I'm not even an atheist. I've described a specific ideological problem I have with monotheism as a concept. Why does that upset you so badly? Why would that compel you to say someone doesn't belong?

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • You are conflating my criticism of monotheism with a direct criticism of Judaism. I am saying the core value of monotheism (i.e. there is one god and its the one I picked) has created a colonial mindset in all monotheistic religion. You're saying "I did it again", but I'm doing it for all. I mean the Arab conquests soon after Muhhamad's death is the same as well.

    Monotheism, as an ideology, has stolen a lot from us in terms of ways of thinking, belief, and added division in its stead. This continues to be true in major geopolitical states including America, Israel, Iran, and many, many more countries.

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • Not really? There is an in-group (Jews) and an out-group (non-Jews, or Gentiles). The same applies for all monotheistic religions in a way that doesn't gel with the fabric of polytheism. These concepts, over centuries and through different forms (especially Christianity for the "West") were used to subjugate people by creating these in-groups and out-groups (to the point that the earliest use of the star of David to highlight the Jewish population I know of was done in England by Simon De Montfort (though I'm not an expert)).

    That legacy still exists today and the institutions of wealth and (especially in places like the UK & Iran) governance. It's a legacy of us vs them and colonialism that needs to be examined.

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • I'm saying the entire structure of monotheism has created a system of colonial thought and destruction across much of the world. Even the good theists I have met (and I have met many) will think less of or sorry for someone in the out group.

    It's not Judaism, it's not Islam, it's not Christianity: it is the colonial ideology embedded in these ideologies that I'm saying are a negative force on the planet.

    I was replying directly to the comment above, not so much the context. You are right to point that out.

  • ‘Genocide is not a Jewish value,’ say Jews and Rabbis as they storm AIPAC offices

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  • hatred and contempt

    This is a problem. Anything coming from hatred is not coming from a good place.

    However, I do have a problem with what monotheism did to the world as a colonising force.

    We have depictions of full genocide in the Torah due to a chosen people doctrine (remember, at this time gendercide was nearly the exclusive form of genocide). We had Christians take this after Constantine to take a proselytising mission and turn it into an imperial casus belli. We saw the same with the formation and expansion that lead to the Golden Age of Islam.

    While religious tolerance and practices have an increased amount of personal choice now in the "Western" world, that does not mean that the institution that they inherent aren't any more colonial now then they were then. They are ideas that replaced other ideas, often through a theology of "god strengthens my arm and weakens the heathens, so might makes right".

    It's not hatred for any set belief, but the "In" and "Out" groups created by "chosen people" dynamics that are inherent within monotheistic religion. They have always been used to perpetuate division among the "foreign", wealth for an elite, and loyalty from the masses.

    [Edited to clarify the last paragraph]