WhatTrees

your version of “pacifism” is completely meaningless, and that by your standards, you could still call yourself a pacifist while taking any side in any conflict.

Hey buddy, I’m not a pacifist. Never claimed to be one. I also never provided a personal definition of pacifism. You are the one who said that the encyclopedia of philosophy must be wrong in their definition because you don’t like it. You are the one trying to condense a topic of much discussion for thousands of years into a black and white “for or against violence in all forms” kind of pacifism. If you don’t like the definition, take it up with the people who wrote them and the people who have argued over the specifics for thousands of years. Once again, someone is not not a pacifist simply because you don’t agree with their definition. Your definition of pacifism is identical to appeasement.

Your definition of pacifism is indeed meaningless, manipulative, and self-aggrandizing, intending to steal valor from the association with people who actually stand by their strongly held moral convictions against violence.

Lol. Yes, listening to the people who believe a thing and explaining how it’s complicated to an outsider intent on painting it in black and white terms is totally stolen valor. Jesus Christ dude, get over yourself. You’re not a vanguard. Just because you want appeasement in this conflict doesn’t mean anyone else should give a shit about your opinions, especially considering that you didn’t even know there was debate about this among pacifists until today. You don’t get to define that term for them.

yOu KnOw YoUr PrEvIoUs CoMmEnTs ArE sTiLl ViSiBlE, rIgHt?" God you people can be insufferable. I stand by everything I said in my previous comments, none of which in any way contracts what I’m saying.

Ya, it’s totally me that’s been an insufferable cunt this whole conversation. Definitely. And you totally didn’t say “I’m a communist” or “I look to Lenin” in your previous comments. Got it.

How on earth does being a communist and referencing Lenin have anything to do with the positions you invented for me?

Oh ya, it’s totally a coincidence that you have been shilling for Russia this whole conversation, identified as a communist, referenced Lenin as an authority, and said Ukraine should “seek peace.” Totally unrelated things that definitely have no connection whatsoever. You think I was born yesterday? You think this is the first time I’ve interacted with a tankie too chicken-shit to say their true opinions?

Look I’ll show you what it looks like to have conviction in your opinions:

People like you are a plague on the movement to make a better world. Your insistence on providing support and cover for totalitarian ass-holes with red paint makes it impossible for anyone to take actual socialists and communists seriously. Your defense of genocide and war crimes shows the rest of the world that people like you don’t actually want a better world, you want one where American doesn’t exist, even if every civilian on earth had a worse quality of life. You make actual change impossible by pretending that you will one day have enough influence for “the revolution” while doing shit-all to actually make things better in the mean time. You reject democracy and anything that would help people now and are somehow delusional enough to think that if we let people get fucked over enough we will have our “revolution” in a way that totally wouldn’t result in far worse outcomes for everyone. You are larping and it hurts the people who actually give a shit about making things better now on the road to making them even better later. You are the reason that our movement is forever chained around the neck to the failures of the past. Men who claimed to want to support the workers of the world while killing and disappearing anyone who got in the way of their personal pursuit of power.

Again, putting words in my mouth, inventing positions whole cloth based on nothing and assigning them to me. You sure like assigning things to people just so long as they don’t happen to be phrased as labels, huh?

What the fuck did you mean by “Russia should seek peace” then? If they want peace they can fuck off! They don’t need to seek anything, they need to get fucked. By painting both sides of this as equally needing to “seek peace” you are creating the image that they are morally equal. Combine that with your weak-ass attempt at what-abouting the Donbas shows me all I need to know.

Obviously not. I’ve stated my positions numerous times. I even offered to explain the theoretical influences behind my positions. This time, you’re taking words out of my mouth lmao. I guess that’s a nice change of pace.

No one cares about the “theoretical influences” of your opinions. You’ve been “just asking questions” while defending Russia and claiming Ukraine should stop defending itself. Constantly trying to act like both parties are equally wrong and both should just stop fighting the other. One party started this war by invading the other. One party has been documented kidnapping, raping, and killing civilians. One party has had to make mass graves. One party has been condemned by practically every other country for their abhorrent actions in this war, the other hasn’t.

You seem to think that I don’t understand that language is mutable and collectively defined.

You literally still don’t get it. It’s not that it can change and is collectively defined, it’s that language is entirely defined by the meanings used by the specific members of the conversation. General uses and society at large have nothing to do with it.

What I also understand is that language can be used as a tool of manipulation.

Ahhh ok. So you think it’s manipulative to use a word like pacifism if they don’t use it the way you, a person who isn’t a pacifist and has apparently never looked up the definition or works discussing it before, define it. Got it. Good to know your intuition about what a word means is the gold standard of what other people can do without being manipulative.

You literally made everything up whole cloth, and the positions you made up for me were obviously absurd and incoherent.

Oh, so you didn’t say any of those things? You didn’t say you were a communist? You didn’t reference Lenin? Are you trying to say that you haven’t been excusing Russia’s actions (like talking about “Ukraine bombing civilians in the Donbas” ) and trying to argue against Ukraine’s? You know your previous comments are still visible, right?

Are you saying you don’t support Russia?

No, they should seek peace.

That Ukraine should continue to fight against their invaders?

No, they should seek peace.

Of course not!

Incorrect.

I love that you think that using the same words would imply that you think they are on equal footing. They aren’t. If Ukraine wants peace, they will continue to fight for peace. What you really mean is that they should capitulate so that Russia gets to keep the land they stole and rule over the citizens they haven’t raped, kidnapped or killed yet. If Russia wants peace they can fuck off back to their own country. I love that you somehow think that both are equally wrong in a situation where one autocratic government invaded a democratic neighbor and continues to attempt to steal land and rape and murder civilians.

Just man-up and state your positions with gusto.

I have. The “secret positions” that I’m supposedly hiding are entirely your invention

Cool. So we’re just going back to pretending that you’ve been commenting on this thread for hours because you really have no opinions whatsoever. You were just asking questions! Good to see you upholding the long-standing tradition of Nazi apologists and MLs alike of hiding your true positions because you’re incapable of defending them!

As long as we both understand the definitions being used there is no issue here. Again, you seem to think that words have objective meaning and that uses outside of that are “wrong”. That’s not how words work. You can call yourself a noble prize winner in this conversation since I know what you mean, but might have a harder time once you try that with someone else who doesn’t know your definition. Your argument isn’t a gotcha just because you think it sounds ridiculous.

I haven’t said anything about my positions on any topic. I’m not sure how you gathered what I support. I have called out your ridiculous attempt to define pacifism in a way that most self-identitfied pacifists don’t, claim that others are using it wrong, claim that the definition from an authoritative source is wrong because you don’t like it, and now collapsed into “I guess all words are meaningless then”. It’s not my problem that you don’t understand how words work.

You said you are a communist, you talked about following Lenin, you have been doing everything you can to justify why Ukraine should not fight back against the aggressor in this conflict. I don’t have a reach very far to find your actual opinions on things. If you think I’m wrong, you can correct me. I didn’t assign any label to you or tell you what words you can or cannot use. I extrapolated from what you have given so far, which is a defense of everything Russia has done and a sideways condemnation of everything Ukraine has done. Add a splash of references to Lenin and complaints about America bad, what else do you think someone reading this thread is going to see?

Are you saying you don’t support Russia? That Ukraine should continue to fight against their invaders? Of course not!

Just man-up and state your positions with gusto. Why do people in your camp always play the same “I’m just asking questions, I have no opinions” bullshit the right always plays? Just say it. Just say “America bad, Ukraine bad because America supports them, Russia good because America doesn’t like them.”

Words are tools. As long as both parties understand the meaning behind them, they are useful. If you don’t understand the way someone is using a term, ask them. You don’t get to tell them it’s wrong, there are no wrong ways to use words as long as both parties understand the meaning.

I don’t give a shit at all about your understanding of Communism other than as an example about how rude and condescending it is to tell other people that they are using words wrong. While I don’t think you are an actual communist by my definition, you are free to use the word to describe yourself based on your definition.

How did I know this would turn into a parade of Russia apologia. If you can’t see the difference between an army bombing violent separatists armed and given orders by a hostile neighbor and troops fighting back against that neighbor after it invades I can’t help you. Maybe get your eyes checked. If you can’t tell the difference between troops crossing into another country in order to bomb civilians and take control of land and troops fighting them back to regain land and save the civilians from the invaders I can’t help you. It’s not my fault that you are incapable of seeing the very obvious harm caused by Russia’s invasions.

As long as you accept that there is a possible situation where fighting back against an invading force is good then your whole argument about the definition of pacifism is mute. You aren’t one and have no stake in that conversation at all, other than to obfuscate your actual position. “Ukraine bad because west, Russia not as bad because they used to wear red. Find any excuse possible to have Ukraine stop defending themselves.” That’s all this is. Why not just have the balls to say what you really think? Why not just say “Ukraine should stop defending itself because I think autocratic governments that used to be socialist are preferable to western democracies because America bad”?

If a person uses a term you don’t think fits them you should ask them about their definition of it. It’s not up to you to decide what labels people are allowed to apply to themselves. At best your complaint is about people not using a word “correctly” even though that’s not how words work.

For example, you call yourself a Communist but appear to be supporting the government of Russia in their actions by attempting to discourage Ukraine from defending itself and its citizens. Communism is anti-state by definition, do I get to tell you you’re not an actual communist? Or would it be better for me to ask you about your definition and get to understand the nuances of your position?

Do the people drafted to go across a border and bomb civilians and the people drafted to stay in their country and defend it against an opposing army have the same morality behind it? Can you understand how one of those actions might be more justified than the other? How one of them could be violence in the hope of future peace for others vs violence in hope of gaining more land and more bodies for the meat-grinder?

If your county was invaded by what you see as a great evil because of their actions against civilians (I’m just going to assume the US would fit that from your perspective) would you say it was immoral to fight back in the hopes of lowering civilian deaths and injustice after the land is taken?

Here’s a good breakdown of the discussions over the past 100 years including different types of pacifism. Only absolute pacifism argues for no self defense and no defense of others. There is also this that argues specifically that pacifism doesn’t always mean a lack of self defense.

As you note in the next section, the 100 years was only in reference to the time since pacifism as a term was coined and I continued to talk about religious groups that have had similar options for thousands of years.

The Jains are only one example. You should probably talk to some Jains as there is much discussion in that community about this. Not all Jains believe the way you think they do. See here as a start.

If you’re not even a pacifist, then maybe defer to them to define it.

Since you’re not, I take it you agree with what Ukraine is doing then. Good to know we are on the same page.

Then your definition of pacifism is inherently flawed. You condensed at least 100 years of discussion by philosophers (and likely thousands of years of discussion from Asian religious groups that have “do no harm” as a tenant) into a single “pacifism is when you never fight back or fight to protect others”. Only one type of pacifism defines itself that way.

Are you arguing that things would be better if every country invaded by another rolled over and accepted the aggression of the other?

Thank you. I saw it and immediately went to Miles Axelrod.

It does come pre-installed on some computers depending on the provided OS and the changes made by the manufacturer. If you install your own fresh version of windows, it should only be installed if windows believes you need it for the component to function.

My last pre-built came with a bunch of garbage before I wiped it with a fresh copy of windows and almost all went away. I would certainly not say Intel is the worst though, older dell machines and even relatively modern HP machines come with a bunch of “necessarily for the component to function” garbage that can’t really be uninstalled easily (windows will reinstall them).

Your edits do add additional context and information, but they miss the broader point

Forced marriages (sometimes called arranged marriages) are a breach of consent regardless of abuse or trafficking being involved. Having your parents set you up with a date you are free to ignore or choose to engage with is one thing, having them pick who you will marry and when without your consent is another. Regardless of culture, you don’t get to violate others consent.

He dropped out after even more polls showed he had no real chance of beating Trump. The poll that came out that morning showed him losing Michigan by 7 points. Polls earlier in the week showed too close to call for a bunch of “safe” states. Harris is not my dream candidate, but she consistently polls better against Trump than Biden did following the debate.

Was a computer repair tech until a few months ago. About 6 months ago this older guy brought in his laptop because he had been hacked and they had changed his password. Was able to change the password to something new using some fancy tools but upon getting in all his files were still missing. Turns out OneDrive was on and ALL of his important files were only on OneDrive and not the computer. Well, Microsoft had changed his password when the hackers changed his computer password so he was locked out and Microsoft didn’t believe he owned the account anymore since he didn’t know the password. After weeks of calls he just gave up trying to get his stuff back.

Fuck OneDrive.

A few years ago I replaced our electric furnace with a heat pump which also gave us AC. Overall the yearly bill went up because we now had AC, but winter months usage is almost half of what it was before. Only matching on the extra cold days where the backup heat kicks in.

But something must have triggered the big bang.

That’s a separate claim you’d have to prove. We have no evidence of something triggering it, we don’t even know that it would need to be triggered. All of our observations occur inside this universe, therefore we have no idea at all if cause-and-effect even applies to the universe as a whole. The short answer is: we don’t know and have no reason to posit the need for something else.

What does it mean for something to be “beyond” everywhere or before time?

It’s the Principal Skinner meme response.

“Could I be wrong about the way men behave in society that makes women feel so uncomfortable? No, it’s the women who are wrong.”

It still shows up for me, I’ll post it below for reference.

The meme is about a controversial topic which has lead to numerous debates lately where “both sides” are extremely sexist to the other. I made an statement, it wasn’t subject of debate (unlike the meme).

there is no rule that the memes can’t be attached to debates

Never said that, I actually enjoy a lot of debates born from memes, so that’s not the problem. I clearly said I didn’t see this specific topic appropriate because of the sexist (and sometimes political) nature of it. Debates are only cool when they aren’t meant to divide and create conflict-

Were you guys outspoken then?

-which you seem to try to encourage. Nice try, but I’m not changing my mind here, this post doesn’t seem appropriate to me in the slightest. People here expect “haHa [insert funny akward quote]”, not “let’s compare ewoks to fucking rapists”.

Debates are only cool when they aren’t meant to divide and create conflict-

Do you know what debates are? What they are for? How they operate? A debate is always two opposing ideas, they are literally designed to divide and revolve around conflict. If you only like debates that unite and cause harmony then you don’t actually like debates, you like discussions.

I clearly said I didn’t see this specific topic appropriate because of the sexist (and sometimes political) nature of it.

A) Yes it’s a debate about sexism and rape culture, of course it’s going to involve sexism.

B) Everything is politics. People who complain about things “getting too political” just don’t like the politics on display.

We are literally in a meme community revolving around an allegory for the Vietnam war where the good guys are analogous to the Vietcong. If you think Star Wars is not a place for politics then you don’t understand Star Wars.

Balatro is super good if you haven’t played it yet. It’s the passion project of one guy that feels more cohesive than some AAA games I’ve played

It reminds me a bit of the US intelligence saying that Russia was going to invade Ukraine and attempt to make it all the way to Kiev while Russia was adamant that it would never happen.

The other thing to note is that all countries have an “obligation to report” which requires them to report evidence of terror attacks to any county that would be the victim, even if they are a hostile nation. As much as “US bad” is true, it’s frankly refreshing to see us do the right thing so publicly, even if it was only as a way to make Putin look bad.

No. It went over your head again. The victim is not at fault, even partially. The guy who left his keys in the car is not even partially at fault, as stated in their comment, the only one responsible is the person who stole the car. Full stop. Are there things you can do to lower the risk of being a victim? Sure. Are you partially responsible if you don’t? NO.

Of course people are more upset about rape than many other crimes because not all crimes are of equal harm to society and others. Murder and speeding are both crimes, are you gonna complain about people focusing on murder over speeding? Is it wrong for the news to cover a murder but not a speeding ticket? Is it that hard to imagine why rape might be seen as a more serious offense?

Is it “hypocrisy” to call out victim-blaming for rape? It’s wrong in all cases, but especially heinous in the context of rape, not just because the majority of the victims are women, but because you are acting like rape is a force of nature that can’t be stopped, controlled, or lessened. Rape doesn’t happen because of the way she dressed or the lack of a man with her, it happened because someone decided to treat her as a sex object and use violence to carry that out.