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To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.
I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.
I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.
I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.
I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.
Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.
Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.
-SoulRiser
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...is the most beautifully bad book I've had the pleasure to read in years. I've only gotten through a few chapters, but it's damn hard to put down, albeit probably not for the reasons the author intended. Despite strongly disagreeing with him politically, I've always had a soft spot for Card because of Ender's Game, which has got to be one of the greatest modern science fiction novels ever written. I'd heard mixed review of Empire, but the idea of a controversial novel depicting a civil war between the American left and right was too tempting to pass up.
But HO-LY-SHIT this book is awful! And I'm not even talking about the politics here; he has the right to put whatever slant he wants into his own work. I'm talking about the fact that al-Qaeda kills the President by sending scuba divers up the Potomac, where they crawl up onto shore and fire RPGs at the White House. Or how Card claims to be a "neutral moderate examining the dangers of extreme polarization," while filling endless pages with vitriolic rants about evil liberal college intellectuals who hate America and go out of their way to taunt anyone wearing a military uniform.
A more detailed review will follow, once I finish the book, but for now I'll just say that this is turning out to be the literary version of Miracles by ICP. Not just "so bad it's good," but "so bad it's wonderful!" Fucking battlemechs, how do they work?
I think Buenaventura Durruti is a pretty cool guy. eh kills fascists and doesnt afraid of ruins. The quickest way to kill a revolution is to wait for it.
I don't know what you're talking about but that sounds horrible!
Hidden stuff:
TRIGGER WARNING: THIS TRIGGER WARNING CONTAINS TRIGGER WARNINGS!
Dear Tumblrites:Despite your wrongly self-diagnosedPTSD, no line ofscientific evidencesuggests people can be triggered over theinternet. Triggering works through thesenses(i.e. smell, taste, touch, vision, hearing.) but it goes throughreal time; if you're not experiencing it in real life as it'sACTUALLY HAPPENINGin yourACTUALlife, youCANNOTbe triggered. The only exception to this is if you have aseizure, but then again, that's triggered byepilepsy(i.e. rapidly-changing flashing lights)NOT PTSD. Remembering a bad incident is NOT the same thing as having aflashback. When you remember, youthink; when youflashback,youfeel.
#HashTagsAreForIdiots
Max Stirnir Wrote:"In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies -- an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: "I alone am corporeal." And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself."The Ego and Its Own, pg. 15
Charles Manson Wrote:“Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”
HeartofShadows Wrote:"Life is nothing more than a druggie trying to get their quick fix of happiness while dealing with the harsh withdrawal of reality"
Osip Mandelstam Wrote:"I divide all of world literature into authorized and unauthorized works. The former are all trash; the latter--stolen air. I want to spit in the face of every writer who first obtains permission and then writes."The Fourth Prose, 1930.
Lukas Foss Wrote:That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.
TRIGGER WARNING: THIS TRIGGER WARNING CONTAINS TRIGGER WARNINGS!
Dear Tumblrites:Despite your wrongly self-diagnosedPTSD, no line ofscientific evidencesuggests people can be triggered over theinternet. Triggering works through thesenses(i.e. smell, taste, touch, vision, hearing.) but it goes throughreal time; if you're not experiencing it in real life as it'sACTUALLY HAPPENINGin yourACTUALlife, youCANNOTbe triggered. The only exception to this is if you have aseizure, but then again, that's triggered byepilepsy(i.e. rapidly-changing flashing lights)NOT PTSD. Remembering a bad incident is NOT the same thing as having aflashback. When you remember, youthink; when youflashback,youfeel.
#HashTagsAreForIdiots
Max Stirnir Wrote:"In the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head, whose offspring they yet were; they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever-phantasies -- an awful power. The thoughts had become corporeal on their own account, were ghosts, e. g. God, Emperor, Pope, Fatherland, etc. If I destroy their corporeity, then I take them back into mine, and say: "I alone am corporeal." And now I take the world as what it is to me, as mine, as my property; I refer all to myself."The Ego and Its Own, pg. 15
Charles Manson Wrote:“Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”
HeartofShadows Wrote:"Life is nothing more than a druggie trying to get their quick fix of happiness while dealing with the harsh withdrawal of reality"
Osip Mandelstam Wrote:"I divide all of world literature into authorized and unauthorized works. The former are all trash; the latter--stolen air. I want to spit in the face of every writer who first obtains permission and then writes."The Fourth Prose, 1930.
Lukas Foss Wrote:That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.
Sociopath Wrote:Go read The Wealth of Nations By Adam Smith.
but that one is soooooooooooooooooooo boring... at least Machiavelli and Nietzsche are interesting as hell.
the prince is like the "how to" guide for world domination. In my lecture today, a student asked "so if Machiavelli was alive today, and he was president of the united states, what would he do?"
to which the teacher replied "you have completely mis-cast him, he would be the secretary of staff. and then he would lobby to congress to repeal the 22 amendment, and he would win. and then his candidate would run for 3rd term. and win"
The Desert Fox Wrote:So it's like one of those things that you hate, but you like raging at it so much it's hard to look away?
More like I'm laughing so hard I can't look away.
Also, Jesusaurisrex, there's a lot of evidence suggesting that Machiavelli's The Prince wasn't actually meant as advice for tyrannical rulers, but was actually a Colbert-esque work of satire meant to make fun of tyrannical rulers.
I think Buenaventura Durruti is a pretty cool guy. eh kills fascists and doesnt afraid of ruins. The quickest way to kill a revolution is to wait for it.
Rebelnerd Wrote:Also, Jesusaurisrex, there's a lot of evidence suggesting that Machiavelli's The Prince wasn't actually meant as advice for tyrannical rulers, but was actually a Colbert-esque work of satire meant to make fun of tyrannical rulers.
I could not possibly disagree more... where is this "evidence?" because last time I checked, its just a theory that lets people say "hey, this person supported our current american way of life!"
by calling the prince a satire, we are completely discrediting him as a philosopher, and nothing he says can be taken seriously. nothing makes makes me angrier than when someone just cant even begin to understand the concepts and the brutal reality, they scream out "LOL THIS MUST BE A JOKE!"
No one has read this book yet people quote it so much that people expect it to be a brutal and harsh attack on all our beliefs. Everyone knows quotes like "It's better to be feared than loved" and nobody ever knows the very next line "But one must avoid being hated."
This is a book about power, and how to maintain it. Calling it a "satire" is just about the dumbest thing people can do, yet it seems this is the commonly accepted interpretation in modern society.
But here is the kicker... Machiavelli would want the people he controls to view it as a satire. Think about that for a moment.
I've read empire, and it certainly was disappointing considering Card's other works. I've read them all, and Empire definitely wasn't what I expected. The mechs were ridiculous, it was like he was trying too hard to incorporate science fiction or something.
Oh well, hopefully the book shadow in flight will be good... The series, so far, is my favorite.
Jesusaurisrex Wrote:I could not possibly disagree more... where is this "evidence?" because last time I checked, its just a theory that lets people say "hey, this person supported our current american way of life!"
No, that's not right. The evidence is the vast library of Machiavelli's other work, which is all in support of republican governments and in clear violation of the plan he outlines in The Prince. The Prince was short, hardly even a "book," and the fact that we judge him based on such a tiny fraction of his work is really sad. It would be like if future historians only found that one little clip of Jon Stewart impersonating Glenn Beck and came to the conclusion that Stewart was a rabid conservative pundit.
I think Buenaventura Durruti is a pretty cool guy. eh kills fascists and doesnt afraid of ruins. The quickest way to kill a revolution is to wait for it.
Jesusaurisrex Wrote:I could not possibly disagree more... where is this "evidence?" because last time I checked, its just a theory that lets people say "hey, this person supported our current american way of life!"
No, that's not right. The evidence is the vast library of Machiavelli's other work, which is all in support of republican governments and in clear violation of the plan he outlines in The Prince. The Prince was short, hardly even a "book," and the fact that we judge him based on such a tiny fraction of his work is really sad. It would be like if future historians only found that one little clip of Jon Stewart impersonating Glenn Beck and came to the conclusion that Stewart was a rabid conservative pundit.
Rebelnerd is correct. The only reason the The Prince because big was because it was short and to the point. Machiavelli believed in human rights and advocated individual freedom.
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Empire by Orson Scott Card...
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