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KeeperOfTheGate 3 points ago +3 / -0

Clash of civilizations. Hegelian dialectic--thesis and anti-thesis.

Imagine you are a leftist homosexual in America.

Image you are either--or perceive yourself to be--discriminated against.

Identify the party that you identify as your enemy. (Hint, whites, Christians, and those of traditional morality.)

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

So, who is the enemy of your enemy AND a people who are oppressed? Palestinians.

Being opposed to--or by--those of traditional values is enough.

These people are morally bankrupt and entirely corrupted by an overly simpliied Marxist oppressed / oppressor that rots them to the core. Being "oppressed" is the ultimate virtue, the ultimate achievement, and the ultimate group identity.

4
KeeperOfTheGate 4 points ago +4 / -0

"more anti sexy feminists on twitter"

You repeat youself.

There's a reason why Rush called feminists feminazis and repeatedly said that feminism was created as a way for ugly women to enter the mainstream and gain power in culture.

Because it's true.

And every year there's a new crop coming through.

1
KeeperOfTheGate 1 point ago +1 / -0

Eco's specialty was language, symbolism, literature, and the Medieval. The Name of the Rose combines all of that! It was perfect for me. I've tried to read two other Eco books and couldn't finish them.

Similarly, I admire Noam Chomsky's linguistics work for his originality and his contributions that have advanced even computer science. I do NOT admire--or care--about his political blatherings.

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KeeperOfTheGate 2 points ago +2 / -0

I read about half of the Three Body Problem. I've read a decent amount of non-English literature in translation, and to me, some authors and cultures translate better than others.

Three Body Problem just struck me as very Chinese, for lack of a better term, in a way that I found jarring. Ultimately, I got bored and quit reading.

For an entirely different genre and a VERY different kind of book that I feel very succesfully translates a foreign culture and civilization to English, I would highly recommend "My Name is Red" by the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.

Another one I would highly recommend is "The Name of the Rose" by Italian Umbero Eco. It's dense as hell, but it's a wild ride.

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KeeperOfTheGate 9 points ago +9 / -0

"Oh no, how sad. Anyway..."

I seem to be using this one a lot recently.

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KeeperOfTheGate 4 points ago +4 / -0

Wow, an oldtimer who still knows that! True enough, but in popular parlance, Third World refers to what dekachin calls "the poors". When we talk about First World Infrastructure, we don't mean infrastructure that's stamped "NATO", after all.

Or the new phrase beloved by douchebags everywhere, the "Global South."

For "world" knowledge, I can thank one of my social studies teachers who was a good teacher, a Russophile, and teaching my class during the exact moment that the Soviet Union was collapsing!

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KeeperOfTheGate 3 points ago +3 / -0

Ever read the Kurt Vonnegut short story "Harrison Bergeron" ?

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KeeperOfTheGate 4 points ago +4 / -0

It's just addressing that mention of 'third world' in the title. Irish peasants were even poorer than black slaves according to W.E. Dubois, and they had a life expectancy that was about half. This doesn't make them bad, but it does mean that Ireland was a bit of a third world country.

Actually I guess from a different kind of perspective, Ireland was third world!

That would be the original meaning of the word as Europe/NATO/allies were "first world," Russia/Eastern Europe/Communist nations/allies were the "second world," and everyone else was third world. That would include Ireland. Not a particularly helpful usage of the term though.

And yes, the Appalachian poverty belt, even today, is highly Scots-Irish, from Georgia, really intensifying in North Carolina and Virginia, but stretching through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and NY. I have a diary of a relative who grew up in Apalachia. Their house did not have running water or electricity in the 1950s; she wrote about waking up with a layer of snow on her bed that had blown in through the wooden siding, etc.

Crazy stuff.

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KeeperOfTheGate 10 points ago +10 / -0

While admitting to a certain bias as some of my ancestors were poor Scots and Irish who came to the US at various times, while Ireland did have masses of people who were dirt poor, let's not forget that the Irish produced the Book of Kells, massive castles, and the monastic culture of Ireland helped lead the rest of Europe into re-learning Latin and Greek.

Ireland was so succesful, in short, that its population was very vulnerable to plagues and famines. The combination of being poor (relative to England), a large population, and the various revolts etc that led to the union with England, led to a tumultous century, when most of the Irish emigration to the US occurred.

I don't think it's remotely fair or accurate to compare the waves of Irish immigration with those from sub-Saharan Africa, etc.

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KeeperOfTheGate 2 points ago +2 / -0

Oh nice! Checked Omega Canada, here, Slashdot, etc.

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KeeperOfTheGate 9 points ago +9 / -0

LAAAAANNAAAAAAAAAAA!

I stopped watching a couple of seasons back. First 3-4 seasons are still solid gold.

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KeeperOfTheGate 1 point ago +1 / -0

Haha, at my office at that time these two women (20 somethings, at least) had a Twilight poster that they shared--one week it was in one woman's office, next week it would move to the other's.

It was a bit tongue in cheek, but yeah, they totally wanted to fuck Edward or that werewolf guy.

2
KeeperOfTheGate 2 points ago +2 / -0

The only silver lining is that the jews that see through all the programming swing as hard right as ron paul in response.

That is exactly what happened to one of my best friends. He is Jewish and came from a well-educated, upper middle class, professional family. He was your 100% average leftist.

At some point in his 20s he had an awakening and became one of the most right wing guys I know.

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KeeperOfTheGate 9 points ago +9 / -0

I think this is actually a very telling post. There are many actively malicious people out there driving certain agendas. But, the vast majority of people are just sheep being herded along by emotion.

I've heard similar things from Jewish friends. They truly did feel that given the Jewish experience of persecution, holocaust, etc., that they owed it to the world to protect the downtrodden. There is, I think, a real sense of shock now that (for instance) American blacks are supporting Palestinian?? After Jews fought so hard for civil rights?

This is why leftism is a cancer and intellectually bankrupt.

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KeeperOfTheGate 6 points ago +6 / -0

Halo and Age of Empires? Agree, both good, but they were pretty much just acquisitions, yeah?

Bungie was a great company. Myth was awesome. I think I was one of 17 people who loved Oni. Halo, 'nuff said.

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KeeperOfTheGate 3 points ago +3 / -0

Those were my 2 favorite Windows version (actually XP was good too, after a bumpy launch), but were they "great"?

I've never been a rabid Microsoft hater, but MS has basically never done anything spectacular.

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KeeperOfTheGate 5 points ago +5 / -0

This is true, but it's getting increasingly hard to run Windows 7.

I actually run a couple of Windows 2000 VMs for some legacy software at my office. No Internet, so it's not a big deal.

But for Windows 7, browsers are out of date, encryption is out of date, and many/most programs will no longer install. Quickbooks was the one that forced me to upgrade, ugh.

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KeeperOfTheGate 5 points ago +5 / -0

Right there with you, good stories. I think the most memorable to me is the tattoo one (I'm forgetting the name). A Good Man is Hard to Find also.

Likewise, I don't remember any sex scenes...

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KeeperOfTheGate 6 points ago +6 / -0

If anything ever deserved an "oh no how sad"...

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KeeperOfTheGate 3 points ago +3 / -0

I don't disagree, but IMHO, just roll with it. It's just clicks on a screen. Too many redditor asshats get all worked out about updoots.

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