Good morning, afternoon or evening to you! Thank you for checking out the 2nd edition of This Week In Philosophy, where I compile some of my ramblings over the past week into one sort of coherent post. It is my hope that you find this insightful and entertaining. Enjoy, and have a great week!
Part 1: Defining Retardism
“The weak follow religions they were indoctrinated into, believing they have no master.”
Retardism.
It’s been over a year since I wrote the Veganism As A Religion article. Some people found it eye opening, or at least interesting. Others (you can guess who) absolutely hated it, if they read it at all. Suffice it to say that, at the least, it has held true, if not prophetic: far from just being content not eating actual food and subsisting on what food eats while “doing no harm”, they have an inherent, emotional drive to prosecute the “non-believers”, sinners of their worldview, despite all contrary evidence and while believing they follow no doctrine.
However, it goes deeper than that. Almost inexorably vegans also fall in line with environmentalism, climate change activists, feminism, gun control, body positive, and other varying socialist cult movements, all of which degrade the quality of human life, and to a degree all life, though they believe the opposite to be true. Why is this the case? It is the brain virus I coined the term for about 3 months after writing that article, realizing that veganism was merely a symptom of the problem, not the cause. The cause is Retardism.
Retardism has many roots: genetic, epigenetic, cultural,etc. Ultimately, it is anti-progress, anti-human, anti-life as we know it. It is the equilibrium to sentient & societal accomplishment, the equal and opposing action to the advancement of humanity. It is no mistake that the worst solutions, if they have one at all, are promoted as the best, and the best are demonized as the worst. In the case of veganism, the worst diet (outside of the modern American diet) is portrayed as the healthiest. What’s more: it attaches morality to the movement, giving them license to go after those that don’t subscribe, all the while saying they’re doing the least harm and say that all life is precious.
Again, I go into this in the article, but look at what the Cover Chick is holding aside from your attention. That rose was indeed alive, and likely wanted to continue living, yet was cut for cosmetic reasons. Are cultists like @jeffbellamar going to come after her for that? No, and the reason is because humans cannot sustain themselves on red roses like they can on red meat. They will, however, shame you for enjoying a steak dinner, protest outside of farms that feed “precious lives”, and even celebrate the death of those that dare question them. However, though they may be agents of destruction, they are not the the reason behind the movement. They are merely pawns in the movers hands, NPC’s to the puppetmaster. A head of the Hydra, fueled by the heart of it.
As always, I like to have an actionable solution. What can be done with them? Recognize they are merely a flavor of Retardism, the opposite of the truth, and treat their convictions as such. Even better, should you choose to engage them at all, understand that reason and evidence will be ineffective in changing their minds, given they were never reasoned into their mindset to begin with. Instead, and far more effective, is mockery and ridicule: it still won’t change their minds, but at best it’ll give them pause, and at worse it’ll get under their skin. And since they make the world a worse place to live in, why the hell not?
Part 2: Arguing With Retardists
“Explanations are an Avenue for Attack.”
A while back I wrote an article about dealing with nitpickers, which highlighted different ways that humans that oppose your actions or ideals will try to stop you, and different ways you can deal with them, if you choose to entertain their feedback in the first place. An expansion pack to this will be written, since there are other tactics that aren’t in the first one. The larger point I m making here though, is for the average person not to bother with them in the first place, because they’re merely a waste of your time. Today’s example highlighting my point perfectly is the easily predictable @jeffbellamar, which you can follow along with by swiping to the right.
As you can see, Jef went for the easy target that I laid out in the Veganism Is A Religion article, going after my name and going on about the myth of bacon causing cancer, instead of addressing anything of the points in the post he was tagged in. So already you can tell an intellectual conversation is off the table, though luckily in my case, I have quite the canon of work in the field, so all I had to do to refute this is link to my own article, complete with citations.
Did he address or counter with any facts of his own, or disprove anything in the article? Hell if I know whether he bothered to even skim it, because he went right to another myth in the form of another attack, talking about doctors not recommending bacon because heart attacks. At this point it should be obvious there’s no point really engaging with her anymore, unless they’re willing to put skin in the game, so not only did I tell zer as such, I linked the Combat Martial Arguments article as well, giving him the playbook both of us were using, actually making his job easier.
Again, no reference to anything in it in response, but the fact I charge anything sure got his attention, though at best he misunderstood who I was charging and asked if my 250 followers pay for my “services”, which is also a dig at my low numbers that implies he prefers quantity over quality much like his diet. What’s more: he also throws in an attack at the lovely ladies posted on this page, so we can assume he’s sexist on top of being vegan. It is at this point I give him a quote of $20 to thoroughly answer his questions, which is really below market prices, while also pointing out his tactic of switching topic after being proven wrong.
A slave to form, Jef continues to press on, asking the same question again, this time raising my follower numbers to 260, so clearly he wants to emphasize that point. All I did was raise my price for being a pain in the ass, which he replied about donating to the special Olympics, prompting me to cite an excerpt about Projection and raising my price again. It has since shut him up.
The point I’m making is that this human is but a zombie: all attack against anything not vegan, no intellectual honesty available for comment. The only reason I even engage with humans like this are for sport, and to highlight as examples so you can see how these things operate; there’s a reason Yeff is so predictable to me. As you can see in the other pics, these cultists have no desire to negotiate, or even find humor: they exist only to convert and destroy that which gives actual people happiness, let alone health. The only thing you will do by trying to explain anything to them will only serve to give them something else to attack and defame: in their eyes, unless you fall in line completely, you will always be wrong and evil, and even then they’ll find something else to demonize you for.
There is no reasoning with these beings, so unless you have nothing better to do, don’t bother; they weren’t going to listen anyway, let alone interpret it coherently. And seriously, don’t you have something better to do with your time?
Part 3: Finite Beauty
“Don’t mourn what is no longer; instead, appreciate the time it was.”
Autumn. One of my favorite seasons, my 2nd actually. The first reason it is one of my favorites is because it is the season of change. The colors of plant life starts to change from it’s summer green to brilliant shades of gold, orange, even crimson. The air starts to cool, bringing a crisp coldness that prompts people to cover up a bit more. As I am writing this I sit on a trail in the local mountains, the last beautiful day to break out my hiking shoes for the year, taking in all of the scenery nature has to offer.
The second reason is because it is a reminder of what’s to come. Already some of the foliage is gone, never to be seen again until next year. Few if any cute girls will be found in bikinis, the best you could hope for being a nice set of leggings with a jacket. Gone are the times where everyone could go for a nice swim in the local lake, if it’s nice enough outside for that to be feasible. My hands as I am typing this are cold to the touch, maing it difficult to write, and I usually generate a lot of heat. There is a reason Fall is the alternate name for Autumn: it is a reminder that the good times of summer are not to last, winter being right around the corner to claim those not strong and prepared enough to withstand it. A reminder that beauty does not last forever, whether it is nature, or it is feminine.
About the feminine aspect, since the nature beauty is self explanatory: it is a known fact that looks do not last forever; the best you can hope for is pulling a Jennifer Aniston and keep it into your 50’s. The other, for the guy’s sake, is the woman you may or may not be with. One day she will be with you, gone the next, never to be seen again. I myself have experienced this many times: the 2 most painful being the partner I was to be with for life, the other a lady that I had a mutual interest in. While I could be saddened at the thought of their departure from my life, instead I savored the time they were there, and the memories I am left with: not just as part of my sex life, but the warmth and comfort, their ease on the eyes, the intellectual conversations, the adventures taken, even the ideas that impacted my own mindset. And though I walked this trail alone, whereas the last time I was accompanied by the Hot Russian Ex, and the thought of hikes past came to mind, it was not a lonely walk but an introspective and joyous one, celebrating the past while enjoying the freedom, and the future ahead.
Enjoy the beauty around you while it is there, for the day comes that it won’t be. Don’t mourn the loss of it, rather appreciate that you got to experience it when it was there to behold. It’s easy to be morose about that which is fleeting, but if you can adopt that mindset, you turn on of the negatives of life into a positive. And given you only have one shot at this thing we call life, why wouldn’t you?
Part 4: Fighting over-analysis
“The wrong fighter in the air is better than the right one on the ground.”
Indecision. I’ve wondered just how much finite time has been lost to it, let alone the consequenses and opportunity costs of doing so. All of us know someone that struggles with indecision, if not yourself: from trivial choices like which laundry detergent should I pick, to major ones like whether you should major in computer science or english. Small example: while making dinner last night I was trying to figure out whether I should have the lemon capellini or the chicken samosas as the side dish for the chicken breast baking in the oven. The problem, though this was a scheduled cheat day for the diet I’m testing, was trying to figure out which was worse for the short term, given that I have a week to go and want the best results. According to the note on my bathroom door that says “just eat the fucking samosas dammit”, I snapped out of it and made a rather quick decision.
How did I make such a rapid decision and, given samosas fair better baking in a cast iron skillet than noodles would, arguably the right one? With the same frame of mind that dictates what to do if Cover Chick @happyisashley is sitting in your kitchen like this. Speaking of which, if you don’t follow @masculinegeek stop reading this and sign up for their newsletter ASAP. All signed up? Good. Couldn’t decide whether to or not? Then you missed @robsays’s segment on, ironically, how to use action to fight indecision. Luckily you follow me, so read on below.
As referenced above, in Rob’s essay the point was that action is always better than inaction, taking a chance being better than wondering what could have been. There are many systems and books out there that explain how to do so, but the one that came to mind is one that 1. I mastered long before I even knew the term, and 2. I should’ve heard about long ago given I’m a huge fighter plane nerd and this comes from an air force pilot named John Boyd:
The OODA loop.
Observe. Orient. Decide. Attack.
You can look it up for a more thorough explanation, but I’ll include excerpts that serves the point being made. Essentially, it’s a system of thought that, unsurprisingly, was born out of combat, specifically air to air combat. The ideal behind this is to cycle through this system faster than your opponent, outmaneuvering him faster than he can react, gaining the upper hand. Or, as explained below:
“The key is to obscure your intentions and make them unpredictable to your opponent while you simultaneously clarify his intentions. That is, operate at a faster tempo to generate rapidly changing conditions that inhibit your opponent from adapting or reacting to those changes and that suppress or destroy his awareness. Thus, a hodgepodge of confusion and disorder occur to cause him to over- or under-react to conditions or activities that appear to be uncertain, ambiguous, or incomprehensible.”
If any of that sounds familiar, you likely read the Certainty post I wrote a while back, or my Combat Martial Arts article on how to deal with nitpickers, specifically the Short Circuiting section designed to throw your adversaries for a loop. Funny enough, though unrelated, there’s even reference made to the tactic: “Getting “inside” the cycle, short-circuiting the opponent’s thinking processes, produces opportunities for the opponent to react inappropriately.” But the OODA loop system does have a civilian application outside of it’s military usage, a personal way that doesn’t require a physical adversary. Often, in our day to day lives, the adversary is our own indecision, be it the folly of too many options, or fearing the consequences of making the wrong one. The problem, of course, is that the longer you take, the more time you lose that could’ve been applied elsewhere and, quite possibly, the opportunity you could’ve granted yourself may be lost, leaving you with no choice.
Whether it’s choosing what fast food to eat, or dealing with enemy action, it’s absolutely important to maximize the use of our time, for it is the one resource you cannot replenish. Therefore it is vital to learn to make fast, accurate and effective decisions, as well as not to be paralyzed by them. The OODA loop is one such way to bypass indecision and free you to deal with other issues. You might not make the best decisions, as dictated by the rule of hindsight being 20/20. But in the fog of war and the future, indecisiveness is certain death. In any manner you apply this, wouldn’t you rather live?
To answer the question about finding a hot chick spread eagled in your kitchen? Grab a gun: it’s a set up.
Part 5: Female Beauty, Part 1
“All of the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the brightness of a single candle.” -St. Francis of Assisi
Today’s Cover Chick is @ydii._. Why her, why post pictures of pretty and sexy women at all, and what do they have to do with anything else I may post or write about? @two_penny_prince recently asked this, and rightfully so. The most obvious of which is it makes for good advertising, but the darker side of that coin I’ll explain here.
(((@clareyaaron))) recently suggested the exercise of, when in a walmart or are otherwise in public, training your eyes to not just look at what is the most attractive, but everything in your environment. While this is good practice for spatial & situational awareness, he’s referring to people, particularly women. The reason is because your eyes naturally gravitate to that which is pretty, in this case a young in shape woman wearing appealing clothing, you may miss the rest of humanity, which is becoming fatter, uglier, and more hostile to those who dare to be beautiful.
While in shaped jacked dudes serve their place in advertisement, it is no secret that the most prized commodity in the world is, in fact, female beauty. Not only is it fleeting, it is also becoming rarer in society at the time of this writing. These posts, like pictures of nature and Marilyn Monroe, are snapshots in time, freeze framing what which was, preserving it for all time. In a world of increasing darkness, it is important to stop and appreciate those who choose to preserve the light. Even more so, it is an inspiration for you to stoke and shine your own.
Embrace the darkness. But never let it extinguish your light. Happy Halloween.
Part 6: Finality
“This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.” – Winston Churchill
All things come to an end.
It is the eve of many things at the time of this writing. For one, today is the Saturday before Daylight Savings Time, the last day I’ll be making posts from the this point of view; how fitting it is that this is also the nicest weather I’ve ridden through this year. It is also the holiday known as Dia De Los Muertos: the Day Of The Dead, though for some inexplicable reason everyone celebrated it yesterday. Also, how fitting a holiday, a reminder that all will come to pass, and to celebrate and pay homage to what has been, and what will. It never was a holiday I paid much attention to, though given the recent events, it likely will, at least as a replacement for Halloween.
Recently I’ve come to the conclusion that Halloween is a holiday I will no longer celebrate, barring it actually being on a weekend. I only half did anyway, dressed only as the most terrifying thing you’d ever want to face of as: myself, The Goddamn Bacon. But the last few years have been empty as far as the holiday itself goes: little if any work, and hardly anyone out to socialize with, most places closing early.
This Thursday, the last Halloween, I decided to skip work entirely, taking the day off to visit several local breweries, all of which make fantastic beers, the last one having a restaurant section I planned to have dinner in. However, though the night was young, the diner was empty, closing all but the taps. Having decided just to have a beer before moving on to an actual bar, who should walk through the door but the Hot Russian Ex, dressed in full costume as the girlfriend to her now new boyfriend. It should be noted that she happened to pick another Russian as my replacement: perhaps I have to eat crow and accept perhaps Adam Pigott was on to something in saying to date within your own race, or at least culture. In either respect, though things had ended over 18 months prior, both of us going our separate ways, it was that encounter that really sank it home: it, the 6 year relationship with the last love of my life, was over, replaced by a new one. Along with this, though unintentional, went with it the last piece of humanity I wasn’t even aware I had left: a curse perhaps in it’s own right, but a gift to me as well. Gone, is the person she knew and, for a while at least, loved, the monster she called all those years ago taking his place.
All, will come to an end. Sobering as that may be, not to mention saddening, that does not mean all is over, given you are alive and able. That quote isn’t a random one I picked out of a hat: the war was not over when Britain defeated Germany in it’s own airspace; the battle had yet to begin. In the same vein, the last partnership I had that has since gone away, along with any hope of obtaining another, only opens up other opportunities in it’s place. The good kind person I was has died, a darker, more ruthless personality better suited for the future in his place. Dark times, quite literally here in the northern hemisphere, and societal wise, are upon us: going away, is the time of light. All, is subject to the immutable law of Finality: nothing lasts forever. However, those that accept this not only survive, but will find and create even better things, replacing and upgrading that which is lost.
There’s a reason Fall and Winter are the holiday seasons: come spring, many didn’t survive the winter. Today is a reminder of that fact , for me at least. The last ride of the year, the last sunny Saturday, the last encounter, the last weekend before my diet is over and I can start writing about it. Rather than mourning it, I face it with the question of what’s next. Will you?