Remember folks: being willing and able to admit when you are wrong is much more important and powerful than simply being right

True, but in those cases you don’t want them to stop, unless of course, you are getting distracted by them and would like to stop in which case: suffering. Context is more important than raw qualia.

I’ve come to the conclusion that suffering is really just anything that invades your focus without your desire for it to happen.

Thinking about anything you would rather not think about is suffering. You get cut and your brain constantly reminds you of it because evolution is a bitch. Hatred, envy, anger, intrusive thoughts, headaches, itchy clothes, annoying noises in your environment, etc. Anything that steals your attention without your consent is suffering.

So if you’re so focused on avoiding suffering you aren’t able to focus on doing what you want then yep, suffering.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by “always like this” because, from my understanding, the rich exploiting the poor and fucking up the world in the process has always been.

In the past, the “most successful states from the perspective of a peasant” were successful because of their conquest of others.

Furthermore, this success is measured only relative to other capitalist states doing similar fucked up things, so I wouldn’t exactly say that’s evidence

The perceived “end” after 2008 you feel is not because capitalism or the mechanisms holding it in place changed, it’s because the internet made it easier for exploitation to occur and to be witnessed by you.

The state didn’t change its goals. It still doesn’t care about its citizens just like it didn’t care in previous centuries. Capitalism didn’t change either, the definition you listed is still the same.

What changed was the new methods available for the state to pacify the masses and the new sources of exploitation capitalism could acquire.

Sure it is getting worse and states that had socialized programs were better off because of it. But that doesn’t mean more socialized economies wouldn’t have been better. In fact it would imply the opposite. Especially since the erosion you mention is a direct effect of the capitalist parts

…will act in bad faith if the state doesn’t check them

The very purpose of the state is to not check them.

If you’re curious, you should read State and Revolution. Short version is that daddy Engels outlines that the purpose of the state is to protect the bourgeoisie and their interests.

…what do you think capitalism is?

Capitalism forces businesses to enshittify as they grow

Apart from “being summoned” yeah. No desire or consciousness just a thing that modifies everything around it by nature. It doesn’t care that it drives animals insane or turns them into monsters, because it’s probably not aware of what an animal is to begin with.

Also kinda coincidental that Color Out of Space makes plants bigger. Before we had better gene editing methods, scientists used radiation to trigger mutations plants attempting to find some mutations that, among other things, made the fruit bigger lol

My earliest memory (that I have a solid time estimate for) is from 2yo. It’s not a memory of questions though, I was a curious kid; it’s a memory of me and my older siblings coming up with stupid names for our soon to be born younger sibling.

So, my guess is that it’s more about trying to come up with your own thoughts and ideas and answers than it is about asking questions specifically.

I know one shouldn’t feed trolls, but I’m bored, so here we go.

Your first statement is kind of just nuts. “Ah yes people are leaving Mexico to come to America just because America is better at soccer” lol

Your second statement immediately jumps to racism. You didn’t refer to Mexicans at all. You referred to cartel members on cocaine…

As for “America Bad” I should let you know that when people say our government is fascist or committing atrocities, it’s different than saying America isn’t a rich nation that can afford better quality of life for some of its populace.

I’m a straight white university student. My quality of life is pretty good, and I’ll be largely unaffected by our government’s actions (until I get shot by a cop at a protest of course). America isn’t bad because it’s a horrible place to live, it’s bad because it’s run by fascist unfeeling idiots and full of racist unfeeling idiots (such as yourself) who support the fascist ones and ignore/delight in the pain of others.

The word for established assumptions is “axioms”

Definitions are kind of the most fundamental axioms. Abstracting things helps us build with them and they’re true because you say they are.

We use axioms in models to derive new theorems/information. But that is often what makes us resist changing them. If you build your other assumptions on an axiom, you have to rethink all those assumptions or even throw them out when it gets proven wrong.

However, attachment to a belief, holding to an assumption even when it’s been proven wrong, is called “delusion” and yeah those beliefs tend to be the most destructive

I think by cornerstone, they are referencing that beliefs are assumptions that form one’s model of the world.

You think by logically building on assumptions. “I remember putting leftovers in the fridge last night, so I don’t need to make dinner tonight” You assume your memories are accurate (or accurate enough) and then build on other things you “know” to construct every thought.

Sights, sounds, and vibes are a different story. They are called qualia and the raw experience of them cannot be described.

Think of qualia like the raw data you collect from an experiment. Your worldview is the scientific model you’ve built to describe this data and it rests on both fundamental logic and the beliefs/theories you currently believe in.

Unfortunately people don’t like having to change their worldview. And when you’ve held a belief for long enough, it becomes foundational to many of your other assumptions. Some people would rather say reality is wrong than change their beliefs.

The word for a belief that cannot be changed via evidence is called a “delusion” in case you ever want to piss off a religious person who says “nothing can shake my faith” like it’s a good thing.

if a belief is a model/theory/assumption that a person will not change regardless of evidence against it, it is by definition a delusion.

If a belief is an opinion, it is a personal statement. Statements like “Vim is the best IDE” are really conveying the information “I prefer Vim over all others IDEs” which is a true statement.

If a belief is a hypothesis then the person holding it will accept if it ends up being wrong.

Only in the first and second cases do people usually place importance on their beliefs, and typically, only the first case leads people to harm others or themselves with no way to convince them to stop.

Fun fact, my grandfather worked on the Saturn V and, according to my father, got in an argument with Von Braun at least once

I mean not fun because of working with Nazis, but fun because it’s interesting history

I originally used linux because I could only get my hands on ancient or broken tech.

Then I switched to Windows again because I was able to buy a modern laptop and started university which more or less required Microsoft services.

Two years ago I started using Linux on my dual booted machines more frequently. Last year I realized I mostly didn’t need Windows so I decided to find a daily driver distro.

I forgot how easy it is to get caught up in distro hopping lol. I started with Debian because I remembered apps with Linux support typically only provide .deb packages.

Then the new KDE came out and I couldn’t wait to use it so I moved to fedora. Then, in looking into visual aesthetics, I decided I wanted to give hyprland a try and honestly just try Arch and make everything my own.

That was a mistake. Too many options to the point I was only using my computer for messing with the visuals.

I moved to fedora because it would just work, used it for a semester, and then moved back to arch (w/ xfce) and have been using it ever since.

I’d say around the switch from Arch to Fedora was when I became a Linux nerd because I realized that there isn’t really a best distro for every circumstance. My nerdiness has reached enlightenment lol

“I ate sigma pie and it was delicious!” Sounds like something that’d show up on my university’s YikYak, alluding to eating out a sorority chick from Sigma Pi lol

Idk if that’s a legitimate sorority, but I know that regardless of the sorority mentioned someone would reply something like “wait till you try a pi phi 😜” and/or someone would say you’re going to get an STD from that particular sorority

Lloyd Braun, I just wanted serenity

But you had to go testin’ me, gave me suicide tendencies

Cyberpunk 2077 enters the chat

Feel like the steps typically go the other way

1. Firefox
2. Linux
3. Blåhaj