Posts made by DamnitJim

Also possible: The God Machine is the DemiUrge.

From wikipeida:

"In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge (/ˈdɛmiˌɜrdʒ/) is an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the familiar monotheistic sense, because both the demiurge itself plus the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are considered either uncreated and eternal, or the product of some other being, depending on the system."

The God-Machine is God's Machine. His robotic smarthome management system. Except it's run amok.

The God Machine is the Old God of the 21st century.

Slavery was very different in sugar growing vs. non-sugar growing regions.

Sugar growing regions (Caribbean, Brazil, some parts of Louisiana) have climates that make malaria, yellow fever, and other nasty tropical diseases endemic.
Neither white nor black populations were sustainable in these regions. Death rates exceed birth rates. Whites typically came, worked a few years and made their fortunes, then returned to their home countries if they didn't die. To maintain the slave labor force, continual importation of new slaves was required. Despite the small geographic areas involved, about 85% of slaves were shipped to these areas. The US, having few sugar growing regions, only took in about 10% of overall slave imports.

This is why Afro-Syncretic (voodoo, santeria, candomble) religions are strongest in the areas of former sugar cultivation -- there were always a good amount of newly arrived Africans to keep African traditions alive. Africans generally outnumbered whites by a large margin, making slave revolts feasible.

In non-sugar growing regions, the climate was healthier. Both white and black populations experienced birth rates substantially above death rates. The ratio of whites to blacks in the South was pretty constant at 2 whites per 1 black. Slave revolts were never a feasible liberation strategy. Because most slaves had been separated from Africa for many generations, the links to African religions were much weaker.

The UK had abolished both the slave trade (first, approx 1830 IIRC) and then slavery itself (later, approx 1840?)

The CSA attempted to drag the UK into the war by withholding cotton exports until the UK diplomatically recognized the CSA. The theory was that the UK's cotton industry was so reliant on the CSA's cotton that the UK would be forced to recognize the CSA.

The UK refused to even recognize the CSA, much less intervene.

This shit is not hard, people:

1. All forms of (non-consensual) kidnapping and slavery are gross violations of human rights. The kidnapping of Africans (mainly by Africans) and their enslavement in the New World (mainly by whites) were crimes against humanity. Likewise, ethnic cleansing and physical genocide are gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity.

2. Some portion of some particular US families' inherited wealth is due to the historical exploitation of slaves.

3. It does not therefore follow that a significant fraction of the US or 1st world wealth wouldn't have occurred without slavery. (E.g. see Canada, Australia, New Zealand, which are wealthy now even though slavery was never important in their economies.)

4. The ethnic cleansing and physical genocide of native peoples did support the high level of economic development we see in many countries. E.g. compare/contrast the comparatively high level of economic development in places where most native people were wiped out (US, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand, Siberia) with levels of economic development in neighboring places where native peoples were conquered rather than exterminated (Mexico, Paraguay/Peru, New Guniea/Polynesia, Mongolia.) The ethnic cleansing and physical genocide allowed the seamless replication of the already highly productive European economic model in these land areas.

5. It does not therefore follow that the ethnic cleansing and physical genocide were good things or even historically inevitable. People at those times chose to commit those crimes.

6. It does not therefore follow that the slavery of Africans, the genocide of native peoples, colonialism or imperialism were necessary prerequisites for the Industrial Revolution. (E.g. See Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Taiwan, Singapore, which all either never had colonies or were themselves imperial possessions some empire .... contrast vs. Spain, Portugal, Russia which were early colonizers, imperialists or slavers, but which failed to have early Industrial Revolutions and are all still economic laggards.)

If you want to argue about the preceding and haven't read at least 3 or 4 books and 10 or 20 serious scholarly articles on economic history and development, STFU and go do your homework. You're like people who want to argue about vaccines and moon landings who've never studied biology or taken a physics class.

If you have done your homework, I'd love to talk.

@Three-Eyed-Crow said:

I'm 90% sure that continuing to MUSH actively is the reason I never got into subscription-based multi-player games like WoW.

I could never get emotionally involved in WoW. There really isn't any coherent story arc and the hack-and-slash was a unsatisfying mixture of dry intellectual challenge and pre-training combat combos.

Now, single player RPGs (e.g. Skyrim) ... those do sometimes rival MUing. It may lack the social element, but at least there's a semi-coherent story.

@Cirno Damn. You're no fun. I was hoping you'd exact reparations.

In all seriousness, the book to read on the economics of slavery is "Without Consent or Contract"

The serious philosophical subtexts to all this narcissistic ancestor worship...

1. Do we believe in collective reward/punishment? Or do we believe in individual reward / punishment? I'm firmly opposed to collective rewards/punishments.

It is not moral for Israeli soldiers and policymakers to place a de facto blockade on the Palestinian Territories and thus punish ordinary civilian Palestinians for the misdeeds of some radical Palestinians.

It is not moral for radical Palestinians to engage in violence towards random civilian Israelis in retaliation for the actions of Israeli soldiers and policymakers.

So I reject all responsibility for the bad behavior of other whites, people born in the 1970s, males, Californians, straights, college grads. Those individuals did what they did. I did what I did.

All this becomes vastly more obvious once we consider than from this point onward, people of 'mixed descent' will become the fastest growing segment of the population.

(Nota bene: This emphatically does not rule out having a social safety net. It merely says that a social safety net and other social justice considerations should be historically blind. E.g. class-based, not race-based.)

2. What is the statute of limitations on historical misdeeds? I'm firmly of the belief "Individuals can press for damages that occurred to their immediate ancestors, but no farther back."

It is morally to baseless demand that Russian nationals be granted special immigration or other rights to the territories owned by the Russian Empire in 1848.

It is morally to baseless demand that Mexican nationals be granted special immigration or other rights to territories owned by the Mexican republic in 1848.

OK, now hopefully I've really got Cirno really horngry (horny-angry) and much fun will ensue.

(Edit: minor grammar fixes.)

@Cirno said:

@DamnitJim
In the event of a Race War, or a War Race, I have purchased guns and ammunition, and have logged a decent amount of time at the shooting range.

This here's one darkie the Aryans won't catch unprepared!

You know, this could work for me... I mean, if you want to just wing me and keep me tied to the bed, Misery style, to write you TS blogs and be subject to the occasional...

Wait. Is this the Ethnicity thread or the Sexual Themes in Roleplay thread?

This is an odd thread. But it's gotten this far without devolving into a helter-skelter racewar, so I'm ready to wade in.

I'm 100% Murikan Dirt Farmer going pretty much all the way back to 1800 or so on both sides of my family. So, basically, that means I'm mostly English/Scottish with a bit of Irish, German, and French thrown in.

My mother's family history traces the progressive extermination of American Indians across the North, finally ending in eastern Oregon. My father's family history are Grapes of Wrath Arkie types, most recently from Texarkana, where I can take small pride in them having been too Poor White Trash to probably have ever owned slaves. (Though my maternal grandmother tried to convince my brother and I, aged 12 and 9, that "Life on the plantation was so good, they had to chase the colored folks off after the war." The look on her face as we argued back is a precious memory.)

But then I went and got married to a woman whose mother is Lithuanian Jewish and whose father is from Glasgow Scotland. And my brother married a woman who is half Japanese Imperialist, half Manchurian collaborator. So we've messed up the whole 'unbroken line of nativist whites' thing.

@Cirno said:

I have always said that black women and white males should form a Consortium of some sort; with the goal in mind of Preventing Black Men From Attaching Themselves To White Females.

Isn't there a more obvious coalition: Promoting More White Male / Black Female Hookups.

Also, I suspect there's a parallel dynamic, where some Asian males resent Asian females who date white men.

And this creates another potential coalition: Promoting More Asian Male / White Female Hookups.

In general, there should be a lot more Coalitions for Promoting More Hookups. That's my main message

@thebird said:

When people (on whatever communication platform) type "heh" as their laugh or whatever.
I know it's text, but man ... Sounds passive aggressive and extra asshat-y every time.

If it will get at least one person in the universe to stop using 'lol' I'll stop using 'heh'

My peeve: lol.

Especially when otherwise intelligent people I admire use it..

Get off my lawn.

@crusader said:

@Wizz Because four pages is such a lengthy and comprehensive discussion. It must not have been, if the creator still thinks that apps page is a good idea, or else it's a deliberate move to lessen interest in his game.

Good idea is in the eye of the beholder. I've never even visited this place's Wiki, much less logged in and acquired any kind of sense of attachment to it.

Since this is someone running a game on their own private property in a free society, I'd suggest that someone a strong aversion to social justice themes should respect their property rights.

You need to reread your Locke, Hayek, and Nozick.

@Arkandel Have you checked out Requiem for Kingsmouth's policies on all this? They allow for several different consent 'playstyles'

http://kingsmouth.info/wiki/Playstyle_FAQ

Generally, the Civilian playstyle features high OOC control, but also restricts the character from participating in some kinds of high stakes ICA=ICC scenarios.

@Cobaltasaurus started a discussion on +finger.

Over time, I find myself taking the same attitude towards +watch as I have towards &afinger.

Both functions generate a lot of false positives, where people expect interactions just because you've +fingered them or just because you've logged in.

I'll add another vote to the horde who are annoyed at &afinger.

Compared to the wiki, +finger has the advantage that it can pull real time data from the Mush code itself. So it can pull things like

• alias
• current connection status,
• last connection,
• unread mail,
• location

These, plus some very basic demographic information (sex, fullname, shortdesc) seem like good candidates for including in +finger.

Pretty much everything else? Your favorite quote, theme song, full desc, RP prefs, typical online times? These don't need to be updated in real time, thus should be on the wiki rather than +finger.

@Wizz said:

@crusader said:

In all seriousness, I honestly don't know how anyone can take you (Supremes) seriously, after writing that. You don't care for my opinion, fine. But the ambition of any game should be to lure people in before making them close a browser tab at its sheer stupidity in the first five minutes.

"This thread has been around for a month and has accrued four pages of discussion. I wonder if someone has addressed my concerns? Guess the only way to find out is to skip everything and barge in claws out like a jackass!"

Never change, internet.

Clawed jackasses?

So what's the difference between the information on a wikipage and the information in a +finger?

Is there a good reason, besides technological constraints, why we want:

1. +finger to notify people they're being looked at, but only if it is synchronous
   But...
2. My wikipage doesn't keep track of who has looked at it.

Looking for people from long long ago... I encourage you to laugh at my vague descriptions:

Johnny Cool the Virtual Adept from Texas Twilight.
Serpent Pon (I think) the peaceful transgender Dreamspeaker from Texas Twilight.
The female Hollow One from Texas Twilight.
The crazy Brujah Anarchist woman and her female sidekick from Texas Twilight

Bilestoad the midget Nosferatu from that Mush set in New Orleans (Cajun Nights I think?)
The female coroner (who was a Euthanatos, I think?) from that same Mush set in New Orleans.
That one dude who I first played with on a MUD, and then I convinced him to switch over to MUSHing. And he played some female Wyrm-twisted werecat on the mush set in New Orleans.

The Samedi Sabbat Paladin on that Mush set in Chicago.

Jean-Paul the voodoo Tremere from the Mush set in Pittsburgh.