Meme Thread for Both Posting and Discussing Memes

[Zyobot]

 

[Scottty]

For though we had plenty of money, there was nought that our money could buy.
And the Gods Of The Copybook Headings said: If you don't work you'll die.

 

[mrttao]

> Teenagers
Also every adult liberal, communist, and/or socialist
... and a surprising amount of republican polyticks.
Maybe 10% of USA congress do not think that.

 

[Scottty]

 

[Aldarion]

And it was designed by a private person...

 

[Typhonis]

And it was designed by a private person...

Brings up a fun thought. What happens when they trace the serial number of a rifle and discover it was last located in an Army armory? A place it had sat unused for several years.

 

[Scottty]

 

[Scottty]

 

[Scottty]

 

[PsihoKekec]

Brings up a fun thought. What happens when they trace the serial number of a rifle and discover it was last located in an Army armory? A place it had sat unused for several years.

Tracing is done by the same guys who handle the shooters in the first place. Yeah, the guy bought the guns couple of days before shooting, paying a lot more than he had.

 

[Zyobot]

 

[Abhorsen]

Who is this?

 

[Zyobot]

Who is this?

This unreal motherfucker right here.

Basically, a crazy Russian WWI veteran who became a general and independent warlord who sided with the Whites in the Russian Civil War.

Had all sorts of mad designs, though he was most infamous for his sheer brutality towards Bolsheviks and Jews (to the point where he was bynamed the "Bloody Baron"), as well as his weird brand of "ultra-reactionary" Buddhist mysticism that could very well rival Himmler's occult delusions (complete with fortune-telling and opium-smoking).

Ruled Mongolia with legendary sadism and rubbed shoulders with Bogd Khan for a bit, before the Soviets overthrew his regime, captured him, and executed Sternberg by firing squad shortly thereafter.

 

[PsihoKekec]

 

[Zyobot]

 

[Morphic Tide]

Are you a moral relativist?

Partly as a result of looking at ethics as an unsolved problem, partly as a result of "not my problem", partly as a result of my indescribable hatred of the Papacy. Differing partial solutions are expected, aligning them in an outside group is a massive pain in the ass liable to cause severe societal damage, and strict moral objectivism makes correcting for corruption a nightmare.

The idea that rulers were held accountable to morality is hardly unique to Christianity. You find obvious precedent for that in Judaism, who's kings were constantly held to the same moral standards as the people by the Prophets and God. But then, this is logical considering Christian moral thought is directly descended from Jewish moral thought.

The Judaic tradition that resulted in the "Happy Merchants" from their morality being very literally contractual and thus one of the very strongest pre-modern cases of relativism?

Further Judeo-Christian thought was hardly the only place the idea that rulers had to be beholden to common morality appeared, you saw that same idea crop up in both Greek and Roman political philosophy, and China especially has a long philosophical tradition discussing the moral standard rulers are held to.

My emphasis here is on "common" morality and "elite" morality being formally separated categories, in terms of what's "bad" to do. The Christian "Divine Right of Kings" was not permission to ignore any moral behaviors the general population was held to. In comparison, a lot of previous systems had no pretenses about right to rule being owed to a priviledged moral position with extensive legal double standards that make the shit Magna Carta stopped look like nothing.

It's a major dialogue within Confucianism, with both Confucius and Mencius writing about how rulers are held to moral standards and are not above morality, as well as the Taoists. Granted, they also had a philosophical school that basically DID grant allowance to the rulers to do anything, but Legalism is kinda a notable EXCEPTION in that regard.

The ossified clusterfuck that pardoned most of the shit a pirate queen got up to as an automatic function of giving her a noble title held the ruler to the same moral standards as the common laborer? Are you sure about that?

 

[Yinko]

The ossified clusterfuck that pardoned most of the shit a pirate queen got up to as an automatic function of giving her a noble title held the ruler to the same moral standards as the common laborer? Are you sure about that?

It may be the case that Confucius himself, and some of the earlier thinkers of what emerged from the wreckage the Qin Dynasty as Confucianism did say something to that effect, but if so then it certainly didn't carry down. Chinese law has always been a method for the rulers to control the country.

It's relevant to know that Confucius believed in a kind of ritual sacredness of kingship that would bestow virtue and goodness, and that men would follow a virtuous king due to the divine blessing. So he probably would have said that the virtuous king would not abuse his power. His concern was in creating virtue, and in preventing non-virtue, not in dealing with non-virtue once it had been entrenched. That's why he kept getting kicked out of kingdoms.

 

[Scottty]

I've just realized the answer to the riddle... they hate it because it works!

 

[Scottty]

Partly as a result of looking at ethics as an unsolved problem, partly as a result of "not my problem", partly as a result of my indescribable hatred of the Papacy. Differing partial solutions are expected, aligning them in an outside group is a massive pain in the ass liable to cause severe societal damage, and strict moral objectivism makes correcting for corruption a nightmare.

If you don't mind my asking, what religious background do you come from?

 

[Zyobot]