Mastodawn

“I think that one of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”

JD Vance out here quoting Keyser Soze like he's the fucking Pope. I shit you not.

Gulag. This is how people become tankies, I'm convinced of it.

Pappy 1d ago

Who was paraphrasing Baudelaire, "La plus belle des ruses du Diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas!" Of course, Vance is right, just not in the way he thinks he's right. The best trick Vance ever played was convincing anyone that he isn't a morally vacuous, self-aggrandizing piece of shit.

@Pappy @AnarchoNinaWrites Funny how that line from Charles Baudelaire still hits—just not in the way some people think. It’s less about proving anything mystical and more about how easy it is for people to accept a narrative if it’s packaged well enough. As for J. D. Vance, the real issue isn’t whether he’s right or wrong—it’s whether what he says actually holds up when you look past the rhetoric.

Benaresh 1d ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites Im kinda convinced that not putting fascist into ditches is liberalism.

Here in Germany we want to talk the right out of fascism "afd inhaltlich stellen" its called but they get stronger year after year.

So yeah Gulags might be a tempting option.

The Other Brook 1d ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites Not to defend Vance in any way but the line originated with Baudelaire.

Weltzeitgeist 1d ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites '“I think that one of the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”
JD Vance out here quoting Keyser Soze like he's the fucking Pope. I shit you not'

Hahaha, that's hilarious. Very #metamodern moment. This season of 'The Downfall of the US Empire' has some crazy characters. Almost over the top but for some reason they're getting it done. It all feels so real.

Whoops, I keep wanting to _boost_ yer toots and then I realize they're quiet-public.

Seriously... I can't imagine why science is so unconvincing to people who think things can just _happen_ based on a whim. Magical thinking is going to kill us, possibly the whole species.

@401matthall You can boost if you want. They're quiet public because if I didn't put them as unlisted, I would utterly dominate the Jorts.horse feed.

Aaaaahhh... TIL. Very considerate of you.

@401matthall lol, in fairness, a very long time ago a mod suggested I do it. So I mean kinda considerate, maybe - but not "very" considerate :)

lol, ahhh! I see. That... That gave me a genuine chortle. I appreciate you. <3

@401matthall @AnarchoNinaWrites I get the frustration, honestly. It’s wild how evidence can feel optional to some people when belief fills the gap. But I don’t think it’s as simple as people choosing “magic over science”—a lot of it is fear, identity, or just how they were raised.

@dusana2255 "Fuck off" was not ambiguous.

Dataline 1d ago

@dusana2255 @401matthall @AnarchoNinaWrites Genuinely, as someone else who takes both the evidence of the world and also my beliefs quite seriously, to argue in this way especially in a comment section shows insecurity, not faith. It's not psychologically mysterious why people who are angry over their world being destroyed by delusional idiots would display splitting and engage in trivialization of the other, you can't argue with that.

This isn't a general inquiry but a discussion of particular people who are supporting something so evil and dangerous that it's far past the point we can be sensitive. It also stung me emotionally a little to be lumped in with Zionist death cultists, but I'm not going to be brittle or defensive about it. In my country given the megachurches and the extreme corruption, it's like talking shit about white people, and we all know why that's honestly okay. God doesn't need a white knight. Just take care of your family and be kind, you don't have to explain yourself to people.

@dusana2255 @AnarchoNinaWrites

@somebody

Hear, hear. It's not even my book anymore but I still remember it well enough to say, "They'll know you are my disciples by your works."

Somebody needs to tell the nutjobs their works are showing.

Dataline 1d ago

@401matthall @dusana2255 @AnarchoNinaWrites That's why I am personally secure, because for all the bad works I've done, I've tried my best to atone. No particular epistemic framework has a monopoly on reason or on psychosis. I have had a long career in research (specifically neurocomputation) and I have only ever seen one kind of belief consistently interfere in higher reasoning, and it's the kind that appeals entirely to base fear and disgust. It's exactly those valences which can't produce any tautological fixed point or basis for understanding, because they are fundamentally borne of an instinct to violently oppose the other, so anything based on them will never be constructive. I believe that I should tolerate and be kind to my neighbors even if they are strange or insane. The fundamentalists who are trying to end the world are completely off the deep end and have no consistent narrative or interiority outside of their arbitrary cruelty and wanton destruction and it's no longer an option to tolerate them.

Dataline 1d ago

@401matthall @dusana2255 @AnarchoNinaWrites The deity of the fundamentalist is not a unifying principle or paraconsistent logic, but it is an empty idol without contents. It's functionally like a container whose shape the people are programmed to accept anything inside of. Rather than a literate interpretation of writings or teachings, it is like a happy meal box that could just as easily contain an anthrax dusted turd as it could a physical or logical proof. Just so long as it has the big M on it!

@401matthall @AnarchoNinaWrites Science is convincing—it’s just not always comforting. And people tend to cling to what gives them certainty, even if it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

Benaresh 1d ago

@AnarchoNinaWrites The Problem with faith is that you can bend reality like a pretzel to fit your worldview.

Like no shade on good people that believe in god but its the first step to think that right wing bullshit is good policy.

@AnarchoNinaWrites Yeah, I get the frustration with people using religion to justify nonsense or harmful views — that deserves criticism. But I don’t think belief itself automatically makes someone unfit for office. What matters more is whether they can think critically, respect others, and make decisions based on reality and evidence. There are plenty of people of faith who do that — and plenty of non-religious people who don’t.

@dusana2255 I don't care what you think. I'm literally surrounded by people who want to kick off the apocalypse on purpose to bring Jebus back and those people are in charge of fucking everything.

Politely? Fuck off.