eccentriclogic.bsky.social

Trump once again reveals the MAGA epistemology: If it's the will of the leader, it must be true. Who needs evidence and logic to "know" things, when you can just say what you're told to say? Critical thinking and facts are for those "political" people, like scientists and intellectuals.

Young people try to escape from the fear of death using perceived novelty that makes them feel like they have a different future than the old and dying, while the old try to escape into their own pasts and run away from the ever-encroaching death the future holds for them with nostalgia.

"Not compassionate, only polite — we well trained Our sincerity's rehearsed on stage, it's just a game Not good, but well behaved, 'cause the cameras survey Most of the things that we think, do or say" -Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Thieves in the Night, Blackstar, 1998

A lesson from the past for the billionaires of today: "He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough." Laozi, Tao Te Ching, ~300 BCE

"Being against evil doesn't make you good." -Ernest Hemingway, Islands in the Stream, 1970

If you find the only way to defend your political views is to pretend there's a rule stating no one is allowed to apply rational judgment to you and your politics, then your views are the problem, not the judgments. Critical thinking is not victimization just because you don't like to be wrong.

During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream... yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers -Zhuangzi 300BC

propaganda discovered that its audience was ready...to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not...object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie...instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would...admire the leaders for their...tactical cleverness

"The wise man who has charge of governing the empire should know the cause of disorder before he can put it in order. Unless he knows its cause, he cannot regulate it. [...] Suppose we try to locate the cause of disorder, we shall find it lies in the want of mutual love." -Mozi (c.470 – 391 BCE)

"less civil, but at the same time less quarrelsome. There are many little attentions which an American does not care about; he thinks they are not due to him [...] does not perceive a rudeness or he forgives it; his manners become less courteous, and his character more plain" (A. Tocqueville, 1835)

"Actual practices in the advanced democratic countries are, then, far too diverse and complex to be captured by ideologies." Robert A. Dahl ("After the Revolution?", 1970)

"The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've got the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?" -Zhuangzi (c.369-286 BCE)

"Never believe that [MAGA] are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words." -Sartre [modernized]