Christians should not be happy because Elon Musk is feeling left out of the left’s liberty party, and that he is giving them a lesson in controlling the center.
As a materialist without a supernatual entity to lean upon for "Truth", I lean on Popper's falsifiability and the scientific method (properly executed), combined with the game theoretic "treat others as you'd be treated" (also preached as Truth in your Bible - Matthew 7:12) as my Truth. I'm curious why you lumped "man-made climate change" into the dialectic bin along with gay marriage and the other cultural and political issues that surround it.
Is it that you think that the measurements supporting the climate change thesis are not sufficiently reliable that we have to rely on charlatans to provide their Meaning? Is the issue that whether it's a valid concern for men to worry about is in the dialectical realm? That by virtue of its scope, the subject is outside the realms of proper scientific speculation (we don't have another Earth to properly test our hypotheses)? Or something else?
It’s because the audience--Christians--tend to focus on these issues to the exclusion of faith. These issues are where the center has moved and are battlegrounds for moving it back. Not all movement is bad but again, if truth is absolute and transcendent, then policy preference is not the result of synthesis.
Where do you believe / what does your faith tell you where the optimal policy lies? I've seen quite a few Christianity-informed environmental positions (from arguing that it's a sin to not use this Earth that was gifted to us to its fullest extent to it's a sin to deface God's creation as we have). Where do you think the absolute Truth lies that culture and political warring is pulling us away from?
I'm almost always stunned when anyone, Elon and you as well Steve, make arguments using clearly faulty assessments on the actual situation. Say what? The Overton Window he posted and the one you grabbed are pure and utter nonsense.
I know, you tried to downplay it but the reality of your/his chart is; the left moved way left, the center moved to the left, and Elon stayed the course. What the hell about the rights move? Shouldn't the line showing the "conservatives" being kicked way further to the right? You certainly aren't trying to tell us what we see from the GOP is them being the same as 20 years back?
Because the simplicity of the Overton Window is shattered if you slide the right side as far away from the center as he has the left. That moves the center closer to where Musk is right now. The argument only works when you present the time line using only one side of the narrative. The one that fits his/your viewpoint.
While that's just my view, the point most disturbing is to let the center fall/fail. It's crap like this that causes me to respond. The far left and the far right are the extremes, they always have been, hopefully they always will be. The center (the normal people in this world) should never fail. I don't care if they are Christian's, Buddhists or atheists, the masses in the middle matter. Suggesting they fail based on a flawed Overton Window diagram seems crazy to me.
And to be clear, the center has moved. Remember when women couldn't vote? Remember when a black person couldn't use a white person's drinking fountain? No question, if you posted an Overton Window using those points in our history, they've moved way left of center these days. Were those moves to the left good or bad? Seems to me many a good Christian was in the camp of clinging to those bad old days. And, many were excited to see equality (dang, there's that mushy middle again).
There's nothing wrong with societal changes. They happen for reasons that generally falls into the camp most of us consider human decency. So for this reader, i don't want the middle to fall or fail. That suggestion seems to me to be short sighted and leaves the extremes to be the winners.
My third sentence: “It’s not true in the sense that in the real world, conservative reactionaries haven’t done the same thing in the other direction, embracing a blood-and-soil nationalist cult.” Apparently you didn’t make it that far. And you missed the point of the article entirely.
LOL that's when I stopped reading your stupid pointless lesson in vanity. You acknowledged in your own words what you were about to say isn't reality. And then you spent a few paragraphs pretending it still matters. Which pretty much encompasses the whole religion.
Actually as much as i wanted to quit reading the nonsense after using Elon's chart, i stayed with it to try and understand where you were coming from; what you were trying to say. When i got to the end, i was still confused by whatever logic you were trying to infuse in your comments. I must have missed it because it was faith based.
In fact there were several parts i was toying with cutting, pasting and responding and then thought, why bother? He'll just claim i read it wrong. You do that frequently. I don't claim to be the smartest guy in the room but you often say things and then expect readers to interpret them differently from what you write.
No problem, it is what is it. One of the first communication classes i took, the instructor told us if the person listening or reading whatever you are trying to say doesn't understand, it falls on the person starting the dialogue. I guess it's my fault you started with a false premise and i didn't buy it.
Damn, does that make you an elitist? I do believe they exist on both the right and the left; don't you?
As a materialist without a supernatual entity to lean upon for "Truth", I lean on Popper's falsifiability and the scientific method (properly executed), combined with the game theoretic "treat others as you'd be treated" (also preached as Truth in your Bible - Matthew 7:12) as my Truth. I'm curious why you lumped "man-made climate change" into the dialectic bin along with gay marriage and the other cultural and political issues that surround it.
Is it that you think that the measurements supporting the climate change thesis are not sufficiently reliable that we have to rely on charlatans to provide their Meaning? Is the issue that whether it's a valid concern for men to worry about is in the dialectical realm? That by virtue of its scope, the subject is outside the realms of proper scientific speculation (we don't have another Earth to properly test our hypotheses)? Or something else?
It’s because the audience--Christians--tend to focus on these issues to the exclusion of faith. These issues are where the center has moved and are battlegrounds for moving it back. Not all movement is bad but again, if truth is absolute and transcendent, then policy preference is not the result of synthesis.
Where do you believe / what does your faith tell you where the optimal policy lies? I've seen quite a few Christianity-informed environmental positions (from arguing that it's a sin to not use this Earth that was gifted to us to its fullest extent to it's a sin to deface God's creation as we have). Where do you think the absolute Truth lies that culture and political warring is pulling us away from?
Good thing you are not thin-skinned. If you are comfortable with your beliefs, any movements, right or left, are refinements. Stay the course.
I'm almost always stunned when anyone, Elon and you as well Steve, make arguments using clearly faulty assessments on the actual situation. Say what? The Overton Window he posted and the one you grabbed are pure and utter nonsense.
I know, you tried to downplay it but the reality of your/his chart is; the left moved way left, the center moved to the left, and Elon stayed the course. What the hell about the rights move? Shouldn't the line showing the "conservatives" being kicked way further to the right? You certainly aren't trying to tell us what we see from the GOP is them being the same as 20 years back?
Because the simplicity of the Overton Window is shattered if you slide the right side as far away from the center as he has the left. That moves the center closer to where Musk is right now. The argument only works when you present the time line using only one side of the narrative. The one that fits his/your viewpoint.
While that's just my view, the point most disturbing is to let the center fall/fail. It's crap like this that causes me to respond. The far left and the far right are the extremes, they always have been, hopefully they always will be. The center (the normal people in this world) should never fail. I don't care if they are Christian's, Buddhists or atheists, the masses in the middle matter. Suggesting they fail based on a flawed Overton Window diagram seems crazy to me.
And to be clear, the center has moved. Remember when women couldn't vote? Remember when a black person couldn't use a white person's drinking fountain? No question, if you posted an Overton Window using those points in our history, they've moved way left of center these days. Were those moves to the left good or bad? Seems to me many a good Christian was in the camp of clinging to those bad old days. And, many were excited to see equality (dang, there's that mushy middle again).
There's nothing wrong with societal changes. They happen for reasons that generally falls into the camp most of us consider human decency. So for this reader, i don't want the middle to fall or fail. That suggestion seems to me to be short sighted and leaves the extremes to be the winners.
My third sentence: “It’s not true in the sense that in the real world, conservative reactionaries haven’t done the same thing in the other direction, embracing a blood-and-soil nationalist cult.” Apparently you didn’t make it that far. And you missed the point of the article entirely.
LOL that's when I stopped reading your stupid pointless lesson in vanity. You acknowledged in your own words what you were about to say isn't reality. And then you spent a few paragraphs pretending it still matters. Which pretty much encompasses the whole religion.
Actually as much as i wanted to quit reading the nonsense after using Elon's chart, i stayed with it to try and understand where you were coming from; what you were trying to say. When i got to the end, i was still confused by whatever logic you were trying to infuse in your comments. I must have missed it because it was faith based.
In fact there were several parts i was toying with cutting, pasting and responding and then thought, why bother? He'll just claim i read it wrong. You do that frequently. I don't claim to be the smartest guy in the room but you often say things and then expect readers to interpret them differently from what you write.
No problem, it is what is it. One of the first communication classes i took, the instructor told us if the person listening or reading whatever you are trying to say doesn't understand, it falls on the person starting the dialogue. I guess it's my fault you started with a false premise and i didn't buy it.
Damn, does that make you an elitist? I do believe they exist on both the right and the left; don't you?