Only because it’s still a bit too soon to push for legislation to prosecute women for backtalking.

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…reality isn’t something that can be bound to any one idea or perspective. Reality for, say, a cow is going to be a hell of a lot different from reality for any human being, and neither perspective is any more or less valid than the other

I’m reminded of the anecdote of Samuel Johnson’s reaction to the assertion that idealism could not be refuted - he kicked a large rock and said, “I refute it thus.”

When I said that reality has a left-wing bias, I meant reality. Not the beliefs or subjective experiences that all too many erroneously promote to the position of nominal facts, but actual, demonstrable facts.

Like, for instance, vaccination prevents disease. Climate change is real. Doctors are not part of some international conspiracy to fool you into wasting your money while keeping you away from the miracle cure Ivermectin. Trump lost in 2020. Transgender people are going to continue to exist no matter what your personal opinion of the matter might be. Society is healthier, stronger and more stable when the gap between rich and poor is narrow and everyone is guaranteed food, shelter and medical care. And so on.

In all of those cases and many more, the left wing position corresponds with the actual, demonstrable facts, while the right-wing position does not.

That’s exactly what I meant, and all that I meant.

I get what you’re saying, but I think “reality” actually works better.

Granted that reality is not a conscious agent and thus cannot itself be biased, the simple fact of the matter is that reality corresponds much more with left-wing pronciples and viewpoints than it does right-wing principles and viewpoints.

And yes - it can just as accurately be said that left-wing principles and viewpoints are more rational than right-wing, as demonstrated by the fact that they better accord with reality.

But that puts the focus on the person holding the view, and their rationality or lack thereof, and people (especially right-wingers) tend to dig their heels in when it’s suggested that they’re irrational, and their immediate tendency is to simply attack whoever makes that suggestion rather than actually considering the possibility.

By shifting the focus to reality itself, one is effectively saying, “Hey - don’t look at me. If you have a problem with it, go take it up with reality.”

Reality has a left-wing bias.

Of course it is. When was the last time clean air slipped Trump a big fat bribe?

Just the most recent reminder that the President of the United States is deranged.

I don’t have an “end goal” as far as “AI” is concerned.

I do have a short-term goal of contributing to the establishment of a humanity that’s at least smart enough to grasp the fundamental and unresolvable differences between language modeling and reasoning, but I have no particular hope even of that.

Or in other words, sanity.

And with that, it’s complete. The United States is not dying - it’s dead. The government is under the control of open fascists, the rule of law is a thing of the past, democracy is dead and the Constitution has been wadded up and thrown away.

They’ll be bulldozing corpses into mass graves before long.

Oh definitely.

I didn’t shift to the “breeze in and get another Nobel medal” theory because I changed my mind about Israel likely having plenty of material with which to blackmail the rapist-in-chief - I have no doubt that they do. I just think that appealing to his ego and his childlike desire for recognition would’ve been seen to be a better approach, and having a Nobel winner in prison in Iran was just too perfect an opportunity to miss.

And yes to the blowback, but I’d go much further. I think that if he thought he was cornered and his ego was at risk, he wouldn’t even hesitate to start a nuclear war if nothing else seemed likely to save him from exposure.

I wish I was kidding.

On reflection, I think you’re right. I didn’t think of it as affectionate by any means, but I can see how it could appear that way, and at this point, appearances are far too important.

I thought at first that he was likely being blackmailed by Israel - it’s near certain that the Israeli government has at least as much evidence of his serial child rape as the US government does.

Mostly based on the way the whole war played out though, I tend more toward a different theory now.

I think Bibi convinced him that overthrowing Iran would be a cake walk - that just like Venezuela, they could go in fast and bomb the shit out of things and get rid of the Ayatollah and take over, and then Trump could get Narges Mohammadi out of prison and she’d be so thankful that she’d give him her Nobel medal, and then he’d be the bestest President ever in the history of ever because he’d have two Nobels (well - technically, he’d only have two Nobel medals, and claiming that he has a Nobel because he has a medal is sort of like claiming he’s a Super Bowl champion because he has a ring, but he’s too stupid to realize that).

And everything played out just as intended, right up to the point that Iran didn’t collapse and instead just calmly set about replacing the Ayatollah and systematically bombing American bases and property all around the Middle East while closing down the Strait of Hormuz. And he’s been desperately flailing around and throwing tantrums ever since, because that wasn’t what Bibi promised.

Nobody should ever forget that by leading the DNC efforts to fraudulently nominate Hillary Clinton in 2016, Wasserman Schultz arguably bears more responsibility for the election of Donald Trump than any other person outside of his campaign.

I propose that the acronym DOJ and the names “Department of Justice” and “Justice Department” be entirely eliminated from any and all discussion of the US government.

The entity formerly known as the Department of Justice DOES NOT EXIST. It is wholly and completely gone, and has been replaced by an entirely different entity with an entirely different purpose. That entirely different entity needs an entirely different name - one that better reflects its entirely different purpose.

Maybe Department of Authority Abuse?

Department of Corruption and Malfeasance?

Department of Trump’s Vengeance?

Department of Stop Talking About Epstein?

Department of Assholes?

So… they’re supposed to just sit there passively and let Israel invade their country and murder their people?

I’m honestly sort of surprised he didn’t try to stick his hand down her pants.

Doing his bit to serve his real constituency.

And it illustrates the advantages of dealing with a delusional narcissist - once you set aside your tendency toward truth about reality and instead just tell them whatever ridiculous fantasy they want to hear, they’ll go along with anything you say.

I don’t doubt this for even a second.