#he wasnt a charlatan

[awellboiledicicle]

Am now percolating an au where Astarion, post story, is cured and living with Tav in a nice little house with a cat.

But one day they're out shopping in the city and a random high elven woman takes one look at Astarion and freaks the fuck out. Dropped groceries, loud gasps, his name half sobbed in question.

First thought is: oh no what now.

Second is: why is she approaching us

Twist: After some quick talking by Tav while Astarion backpedaled, it turns out this woman is his mother.

That has been mourning her son for 200 years. Shes been maintaining his grave for 200 years.

And his charlatan background remains from his former life, he just.. cant remember her. Or the father he gets begged to come see. Or the siblings.

He does meet with them, but only in the little courtyard outside his new home because hes not quite... he isnt sure this isnt a trap of some kind. It just feels like something he wasnt allowed to have back, and thus the hesitation.

Meanwhile Tav is doing supportive thumbs up and sitting in the corner while talking happens just in case.

So far I have the mental image of and older sister that's kinda pissed off bc where the fuck has he been. And a younger brother that only really remembers him as a person that lied his way into and out of things easy as breathing.

Also that the Tav for this is an elven monk of some kind that is in the process of helping him work out what he likes to eat with all his tastebuds alive again.

I'm just. Pondering

[lunasmusemenagerie]

name: Jett Richardson

Race: High fae / witch / human hybrid

Type: OC

FC: Jordan Connor

Orientation: Bisexual, slightly male leaning

Background:

on the outside the Richardson family looked like a regular middle class family, however they were anything but that. Jett's mother was a witch, and a prolific one at that. as soon as she learned her son was gifted, she began to teach him. spells, potions, tarot, hexs and encantations....all carried down from her the mothers before her. when he was older he she revealed that she wasnt exactly human, which explained a few things about her in how she moved, how she spoke, even how she healed others in what his father would call a placebo effect. she was High fae from the summer court, left after Oberon's dealings with certain human groups 'reeked of corruption'. she set up shop amongst them, a 'witch store' that also sold potions and tarot readings. she always did tell him it was easier to hide in plain sight.

His father believed his mother's tricks and charms were nothing more than normal charlatan things, well meaning of course, but still. he himself was always busy on business trips, something they didnt find out of the ordinary when it came to his job as he did work pipeline.

Jett never knew how his father found out, but when he was 13, on a solstice, his father broke into his mother's shop blind with rage, barring the door behind him as he screamed at his mother, calling them both heretics and satan spawns. It was then revealed to him that his father was a witch hunter, and had been using his mother's store in order to sort out the false and real witches. one had talked on accident, mentioning the fact the Jett and his mother were one of them. under torture, they both confessed, Jett's mother pleading for her son's life to be spared and Jett begging his father to stop. the man he once respected and loved now turned to a cold, bloodthirsty monster.

Jett watched helplessly as his mother was executed in front of him, bled out before her body was cast aside as if it was nothing but garbage. his father then turned his attention back on his son, ignoring the boy's threats and vows to murder him for what he just did. after trying to 'purify' his son from the sins of his mother and finding it usless, he then bound him and informed him he'd be handed over to the Calloways, a hunting family that exterminated the worst creatures off the earth. and while Jett was still too young to pay in full for what his mother had made him, he could at least be useful to them, to be trained like a dog to hunt others like him. Jett swore to his father that he'd hex him, and make everyone think it was an accident on how he died. that night he broke free, and, after a few days of being on the run and trying to mind himself back together, he did just that.

the coroner called it a heartattack, triggered by the brutal murder of his wife, and kidnapping of his son. though Jett knew differently. the only thing out of place that was found on his dad's body? a tarot card in the inside jacket pocket. Death.

Jett was on his own afterwards, taking what he could get from his mother's place that hadn't been destroyed by his father, carrying her Tarot deck always with him. He met Jax maddox when he was 14, and the two became fast friends, brothers in the Hellriders together as the grew older.

at 15, Jett began getting urges, the fights and the blood wasnt enough, not for people that really deserved it after all, especially once he found out there was a witch hunter sect nearby. Jett made it his personal mission to hunt down and kill every single one, and after every death left a single tarot card by the body. sometimes the cards had meaning, sometimes the bodies or objects were placed around the bodies that tied to the card. The urges didnt happen that often, and he was always careful to cover his tracks. using different decks, always different decks and never the one his mother had used. It didn't stop at the witch hunters, though he tries his best to curb it when he can. The more he bottles it, the more likely he is to lose conplete control over himself.

at 19, he became Jax's lieutenant in their sect of the Hellriders, and had already been accepted in the Maddox family as one of theirs, with only Jax knowing the full extent of who and what Jett was. he can often be found in the Hellrider's headquarters shuffling his deck and reading the cards.

NOTE: Jett is 19-23, depending on verse or timeline.

Jett is also a lynx shifter, coming from his fae lineage.

[relatablemormonmoments]

I feel like a good amount of complaints about Mormon theology and mormon history can be explained away when you remember that in 1830: [this post is particularly about the suggestion that peoples in the Book of Mormon are Native and Indigenous American Ancestors despite being Jewish (Middle Eastern). It is also about the suggestion that Indigenous Peoples came over on boats, which stems from a racist theory purporting that Natives are actually Early europeans who traveled to the Americas on boats. Several antimormons use this to claim that Mormonism is inherently and intentionally racist.]

We didn't know about Tectonic Plates until 1915

We didn't really know about Land Bridges (or the rise and fall of the ocean due to climate change) [there were some very early theorists who were rejected by their contemporaries / didnt have enough "proof" for the bering land bridge until the 1940s and later] [the average person certainly wasn't aware of what academics at the time thought and were exploring. They were more aware of what politicians and theologians taught.]

Father of American Anthropology and really the first white Native American sympathiser, Franz Boas, is not born for another thirty years.

There was a common belief that humanity was only a few thousand years old (and didn't have much longer to live)

Darwin hadn't come up with the theory of evolution yet, and won't publish it for another 30 years.

Andrew Jackson has just started his 8 year reign of terror. Andrew Jackson pedals anti-native propaganda that becomes increasingly popular. "Manifest Destiny" and the White Man's Burden are increasingly common ideas.

Slavery in New York had just been outlawed. (1827). Some communities in New York still held slaves post outlaw [particularly non-English-American communities. If you look into Sojourner Truth's Autobiography you can see that many New York families continued to hold slaves after the law had changed.] Most white americans are still at least moderately racist.

DNA evidence was not a thing. We can't test to see how different groups are related, and a lot of [WASPs] at this time believe that people who don't share their "superior" background aren't even or are barely human.

There are many elements of early mormonism and even mormon theology that are definitely misguided, but the religion itself is not inherently or intentionally racist. It unfortunately falls into the pitfalls of many American Tenets from the same time period, particularly those relating to American Imperialism and the issue of Slavery. [There's also the pitfall that Brigham Young was a horrible person, ethically speaking] So do most other American Religions, including Adventists and Baptists.

That being said, we can't explain away modern mormon racism or how many mormon racists use symbolism in the scriptures to excuse their interpersonal racism. If you are mormon or postmormon, please fight against these ideas! Don't let your community abuse others! Speak up when the Church won't. Speak up especially when Church Leadership spreads harmful ideology. Speak. Up. Fight Now.

[pestopascal]

hi there sorry if this sounds kind of dumb but i was wondering what exactly makes renfri a mutant in the witcher? and why geralt didnt want to kill her? i played witcher 3 and syanna was also born under the eclipse and depending on your choice she could be left alive. why wasnt renfri?

u dont sound dumb dont apologise for asking questions! there’s not a huge amount behind the curse from geralt’s personal interaction with it, which resulted in renfri’s death and him being cast out of blaviken, but essentially...

i get why the show waved over it, esp renfri in that she is technically “mutated” due to being bound in crystal when stregobor actually trapped her one time, but it wasn’t relevant to geralt’s story to actually find out how she was mutated yknow. stregobor left her crystalised body in a mine for i cant remember how long until a prince came along and freed her. stregobor pretty much determines she is magic resistant because of this (as is a trait of magic mutations, like how witchers are more resistant too). stregobor is obsessed with the curse and finding the girls btw, and has convinced many a people over time about it. his... mentor? i think introduced him to it or something.

a call out to the curse even was when mousesack tells ciri in cintra that they used to lock girls up in towers. that’s what they did after they realised they couldn’t just work out who were cursed, and were both killing too many girls or examining bodies that were unrelated ! thanks stregobor!!! u absolute freak jkhgfd

so the thing with the curse of the black sun is it can be perceived as a self fulfilling prophecy in that... there’s no actual evidence to support that the sixty girls born during a complete eclipse are actually mutated or evil or anything. that’s just the belief. geralt doesn’t really believe in destiny (as shown many, many times), but it is like his job to also break curses and shit. (like with adda! the striga, yknow. he could’ve just killed the striga. but there was a curse to be broken). renfri being 1) “mutated”, 2) “cursed” 3) intelligent, actually brokers into the whole code of “if it speaks, you don’t need to kill it”. like when he’s attacked by torque (the sylvan), he was sent out to yknow. kill a devil. realised that torque was a free thinking, free speaking person, and his job went from “kill it” to “reason with him if possible, offer other alternatives”. there is also a sense of neutrality needed (which the first game, despite it’s many many flaws, actually has present). renfri wasn’t going to leave, because stregobor was never going to leave her alone. geralt was really pushed into a my life vs hers when she fought him in the streets of blaviken. and also renfri did make herself out, in that moment, the ‘evil’ with how she threatened marilka, which is also something to consider.

geralt actually believes that renfri was the way she is more as a product of how she was treated. and if you look through the other named cursed women (like syanna), who ‘grew immensely powerful’ or like married up and shit... considering they were hunted down, it’s more like. they were just trying to protect themselves and stay alive. renfri was beloved by her father, but her step mother hated her and was convinced there was something wrong (by the way, renfri’s story is a twist on snow white, which is why apples were referenced heavily in the entire show). brought in this wizard with a freaky moral compass to convince the king that renfri would bring the demise of his land. had renfri attacked in her sleep and forced her to flee, and then continued to hunt the girl down for the next few decades of her life. the whole ‘she killed small animals as a child’ has no actual backing, beyond stregobor trying to convince geralt that killing renfri is the lesser evil. geralt didn’t want to kill her. renfri just wanted to live, and the only way she would be able to do that was if stregobor left her in peace.

i like how the show had geralt attached renfri’s brooch to his sword, as a reminder to not get involved. that was a genuinely nice touch. it really emphasised how witchers are supposed to be a neutral party. get in, slay the monster (or if it’s intelligent, reason with it), and move on. they aren’t supposed to get involved in infighting and bickering. geralt gets insanely involved in the personal lives of people to a fault, and he recounts to roach (with renfri overhearing), about how he saved a girl’s life... and she screamed at him. he got involved, renfri died, and stregobor came off the grinning victor.

also, while it’s not huge, the show does move over that stregobor has in fact fucked over geralt in the past. in kovir, geralt killed a beast for the king, and then stregobor convinced the king that geralt was a charlatan or something, and didn’t pay... and also gave geralt barely enough time to flee the place. geralt has genuinely had awful interactions with stregobor, which is why he also didn’t quite give away any belief in renfri ‘being evil’.

[rpgwrites]

From the scrap pile

I was tagged by @scahill42 for this  something you’ve written that will in all probability never make it into a fic.

Tagging: @natsora, @ripley95things, @ljandersen, @wickedwitchofthewilds, @kirkwallgremlin, @nug-juggler, @charlatron, @starsandskies, @briarfox13, @lauraemoriarty, @citadelsushi, @that-wasnt-so-bad, @mrscullensrutherford, @pigeontheoneandonly, @pikapeppa, @schoute, and @fogsblue, with no obligations. Only if you want to do this. 

So I don’t normally have scrap piles. I usually don’t threw away scenes only if I really need to and then I delete them. But I’ve been working on my Benefactor fic and there’s some scenes that needs to be deleted. Luckily I haven’t done it yet mostly because it needs to get sorted. 

I apologized for any errors, this is not edited. 

TW for being captured

They weren’t just worried because she was captured. They feared she would die a slow death with no insulin to come with. Her captures wanted her alive for a reason. But nothing was to stop them to leave Ryder without the thing she needed more than food. 

He was no doctor but he doubted Ryder could live as long without insulin as food. 

His omni-tool ping, pulling him from wherever his mind led him. The call was secure. After there was a spy for the Benefactor on their side they all made sure their communication was as secure as possible.

There was a feeling creeping that it wasn’t as secure as they would like. 

“Keema,” he greeted. Anybody could hear from his voice how tired he truly was. It was another long day for the Charlatan. “What can I do for you?”

“Get on your shuttle. I’ll send the location to you.” Keema’s words forced him to move automatically. 

“What’s going on?”

“An agent believe they spotted Ryder.”

But that meant nothing to him. He got dozens of these. “How sure are you that it's her?”

“I have footage. It’s her.” 

[floaty-pickle]

i havent even seen the new episode, but i gotta say something about this father thomas bullshit:

exorcists or priests performing exorcisms arent good people. they are quacks who are often keeping people in need of REAL help from getting that help.

i HATED the anneliese michel episode, but i havent said anything because, believe it or not, i dont actually like starting shit. i hated that episode because theres so many things wrong with it. anneliese was a few years older than my parents and was born not that far away from where i come from. we ALL know her story here and its COMMON KNOWLEDGE that she died because her epilepsy had severely damaged her brain and she wasnt taking her meds. she underwent two eegs that both confirmed this. but guess why she didnt take her meds? because those charlatans told her she was possessed and no human medicine cold cure her. both the priests, the “medical personell” and her parents were put in front of a court for this. there was nothing spooky about this, it was a tragedy.

it was fairly easy to ignore that episode though as its not exactly popular and i cant really be mad at ryan for being so misinformed, because even the english wikipedia article is severely incomplete.

the obsession with father thomas made me very uncomfortable though. exorcists arent good people, being “vatican certified” doesnt change anything about that. he’s also a huge fucking creep who interprets biblical mythology just as it serves him and ignores other stuff the bible said about demons etc. i didnt like that dude from the start and i didnt like that he was mentioned a few times and even appeared via skype. i hope that stops now. exorcisms arent funny and theres a reason why its illegal in germany to perform exorcisms without sufficient medical personell.

despite all that, theres no way the boys could have known he was that big of a turd, so i hope nobody attacks them for it.

[the-firebird69]

we Rose up the Georgia and it was huge is huge and last minute.  and we needed it we see why.  you now try all means to get here. tons try.  there are caravans forming in Bengldadesh bound for here...to come getyou forreal saw the advertisement and wondered when and ohter things they should and then this a sellout in chargeand continuous selling out...and then he says we have aplan they follow and they have directives adn we reveiw today Thor says he has established  them in the past for our good and the greater good...they are pertinent, and if im kidnpaped and or her etc. and guidelines we do not submit. and we follow themnow.  today.... Thor Zues we see we are screwed always have been and dont do that heheheh lol  and we crush you caa...hahahah lol tommy f you die now.  rapidly here...we assume your idnetity we use your responses that aretypical and planne charlatans to take over.   your lands.  idiots hahahahah lol idiots Zues we see the change that is why. tommy f have a nice time killing your own yesterday gtommy f we kill you now using it ok dummy Zues we see im the dummy and how can we not leave.   tommy f i have installed the last Megalith Pyramid to the north...all countries armies of s see that there are huge emmitters ad your question is nice i thank you Zues we thank you we are in charge here...and i give you a bj if not that is what it means tommy the moron f and i hit you for it tommy f you idiot your amoron and it is due to jim carey ues but who cares your absurd. bja finally. it is sickness.  he is sick.  got hit and never recovers and is s adummy and she is not your wife there are two one and one ok loser carey Zues use it you say i will not my wife a killer and is after me for it adn i see im so dumb i dont purseu her and iwont.  it islove. i love her. jimcarey she is not your race at all idiot Zues you konw what f you.  i amhers  jimcarey no your not you are  amega loser her jaw oopens all the way to her skull a seond mouht tells ou why you fn moron Zues we are stupid and geeze that is dumb.  axeno and you humped her in fornt of us...she was in human form ate up my weife and girls and more and i sat watching as if i was getting you and her.  lovely.  dint know the whole thing but knew i t wasnt her your wife he says. oh. ok and im the fbit and you could care less saw it said you will you said yourd ead. adn it is from notes ok it is a fools errand for fools we continue a charrade that is totally worthless no thy were are helping. that is why no. they say we suck too and did not try...not at all..hopefully too hard likemy life was he says.  probably.  we quit ok and you liek it it was far too difficult for you.  way way way off and kep it up is stupider.  we are dumb ok.  corky didit. he did.  we hit him.  he is so stupid.  and we aree hurt hismom bad.  and youtommy are the faggot who didit wontstopand he has had enough and he knows i mean it....so we hit you now your worse. so and he says no but not used he is weakened bny it and ppl only psh not pull etc. we see jimcarey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdw1uKiTI5c

[teiraymondmccoy78]

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Alongside Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson left Patreon over “free speech” issues to launch their own platform.

In the interim, Peterson is accepting bitcoin, which might hint at the “extra features” their platform will include.

They point to anti-feminist Youtuber, Sargon of Akkad, as the impetus for leaving Patreon—ironic, considering how often Peterson points to identity politics as a problem.

It’s been over a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto published his/her/their famous white paper that first described a currency that solved the double-spending problem associated with digital assets. A few months later he released the first software that would launch the network that services bitcoin.

No longer would we need to rely on a trusted third party, many of which mine data and information while making our identity vulnerable to hacking. By incentivizing miners (or, as it has evolved, validators), a global, decentralized solution was presented. So long as no individual miner controls the bulk of computing power, a fair and equitable system of transacting is now possible.

The idea for a decentralized currency had been floating around for over a decade when Nakamoto published their paper. Since Nick Szabo wrote a treatise on “bit gold” in 1998, a few suspected him as the man behind the pseudonym; Szabo also devised the concept of “smart contracts,” one of the foundational mechanisms making blockchain so important. Szabo claims he’s not Nakamoto, however. Others claim they are, unsurprising since charlatans infect every industry.

The mythology of Satoshi transcends the individual. This is an essential part of the mythos driving cryptocurrency. The centralization of power and money has aided the world’s greatest problems—climate change, systemic racism, gender inequality, terrible design decisions. Eight people holding as much wealth as over 3.75 billion is not a feature of the species. It’s a bug, and bugs have consequences.

Cryptocurrency, at its best, is an imaginative response to a serious problem. Nothing new here: an exploitation of a powerful system followed by a social response. The history of humans again rhymes itself.

At its worst, the community cryptocurrency has spawned is little different than the forces it was designed to rail against: a seething enmity toward anything “other” in order to defend the precious self. Suffice to say, at the moment crypto is dominated by men, and as with other tech sectors, biases are rampant.

As with any prospective industry, especially one ripe with potential capital, this next phase of human transacting will require civility. Sure, we’re biologically programmed to blah blah blah; understanding our point of origin is important. But as with broken hearts, the past becomes a prison and an excuse for not striving to be better.

We Are Leaving Patreon: Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson Announcement

Which is what Jordan Peterson, following in the footsteps of Sam Harris, did when leaving Patreon. It wasn’t specifically Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, that caused the Canadian professor to join forces with Dave Rubin to risk over half of his income in an attempt to create a new “freer speech” platform. It was, however, the final proverbial nail.

Peterson’s platform hasn’t panned out, yet, which is likely why he is utilizing all means necessary, including bitcoin. While he says the new platform will be similar to Patreon’s subscription model, he added that “it will have a bunch of additional features.” Perhaps this move into cryptocurrency might signal one of those features.

Peterson announced his departure on January 1 in a video alongside Rubin. Concern over Patreon’s relationship with MasterCard, something cited by Robert Spencer when he was kicked off the platform for also violating its hate speech policies, is the driving factor behind the move. Sargon just happened to be in the right place at the right time to motivate the two to leave.

Cut and dry: Patreon has a policy against hate speech. Benjamin was making money on Patreon, which was funding his discriminatory rants on Youtube. Patreon banned him.

What defines hate speech? That’s a big question no singular person is equipped to answer. We can get caught in the weeds on this—and should; language is the main vehicle by which we communicate and shouldn’t be glossed over—but like a foul odor, it’s obvious when hatred and discrimination assaults your senses.

For example, take Robert Spencer’s Twitter feed, dominated at the moment by retweets from the 2019 State of the Union. Among the things I learned: Twitter has a liberal bias because both Nancy and Pelosi can trend on the platform, not just her full name; Democrats hate seeing America do well because they want to see Americans suffer; a journalist pointing out that Jews don’t believe in heaven is a reason to hate journalists; Democratic women, dressed in white to represent the suffrage movement, are actually the new KKK; AOC. Boy, does she get under their skin.

Bitcoin or gold, what is the better crisis currency? The picture shows a Bitcoin (physically) and gold nuggets. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

Fueled by these inspired rants, I turn to one of Sargon’s videos. He’s upset about a female-only screening of “Wonder Woman.” The “supremacist” inclination of these women, the illegality of it all. He’s clearly befuddled by the “specially-privileged women-only thing.” A moment of self-reflection occurs when he realizes it is a “petty thing to be bothered about,” at which point he goes on for another four-plus minutes about why he’s bothered about it.

I hope he never wants to exercise at Curves.

Here’s the brilliant thing about Curves, though. The successful women-only gym saved on costs by launching in suburban areas, where rents are lower; the machines are arranged in a circle around the main floor, promoting social interaction; perhaps most importantly, women don’t have to deal with being gawked at by men.

And for that, men—in many instances in such conversations, white men—feel victimized. Instead of attempting empathy, they lash out, somehow feeling taken advantage of, unfairly mistreated, and potentially the most scandalous sensation of all: vulnerable. That’s what I assessed watching a handful of Sargon videos: it all comes back to him.

Which makes Peterson’s decision to hang his hat on this totem telling. In his books and videos, Peterson offers many big-picture ideas that make a lot of sense in terms of how society operates. Yet, like Sargon, a lot of his rhetoric invokes self-victimization. Instead of opening a dialogue, he engages in constant oneupmanship, like the time he tried to teach Alex Wagner what parenting entails. As someone who rails against identity politics so often, he often gets bogged down in his own identity.

Bringing us to an intriguing paradox: the usage of a decentralized digital currency created to disassemble power structures being utilized by those interested in keeping those power structures in place. Again, unsurprising: Bank of America has filed more blockchain patents than anyone.

The difference with Peterson and others might seem more social and gender-based than economic, but those too are intertwined. The last few centuries have been about the accumulation of power and wealth by a particular race and gender. Now that they’re being asked to display empathy as the power balance shifts, they don’t like it.

We should applaud thinkers that “reach across the aisle” to ensure similar rights for those who think differently. Of this Patreon backlash, Sam Harris’s reasoning on this topic is the most clear-headed to date.

Utilizing digital currency to support the dissemination of ideas also makes sense. As thinkers that pontificate on the nature of society, they’re at the head of a long curve in which cryptocurrency (or some form of digital currency) will eventually replace fiat. How that happens remains to be seen, but this one isn’t getting stuffed back into the box.

But to pound your stake in the ground by defending men who are butt-hurt that women want to congregate without men is just silly. We shouldn’t ban speech, but we also shouldn’t eliminate common sense from the discourse. Otherwise, we’re just writing the same story over and over, one smacking of privilege with no sense of grace or compassion about the lives of others, regardless of the technological innovations involved.

Biology might point to destiny, but it’s not the total summation of it. For that, we need the thinkers we champion to make better use of their imagination.

—

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Articles Around the Web

Source link http://bit.ly/2HYMoEo

[bobbynolanios88]

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Alongside Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson left Patreon over “free speech” issues to launch their own platform.

In the interim, Peterson is accepting bitcoin, which might hint at the “extra features” their platform will include.

They point to anti-feminist Youtuber, Sargon of Akkad, as the impetus for leaving Patreon—ironic, considering how often Peterson points to identity politics as a problem.

It’s been over a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto published his/her/their famous white paper that first described a currency that solved the double-spending problem associated with digital assets. A few months later he released the first software that would launch the network that services bitcoin.

No longer would we need to rely on a trusted third party, many of which mine data and information while making our identity vulnerable to hacking. By incentivizing miners (or, as it has evolved, validators), a global, decentralized solution was presented. So long as no individual miner controls the bulk of computing power, a fair and equitable system of transacting is now possible.

The idea for a decentralized currency had been floating around for over a decade when Nakamoto published their paper. Since Nick Szabo wrote a treatise on “bit gold” in 1998, a few suspected him as the man behind the pseudonym; Szabo also devised the concept of “smart contracts,” one of the foundational mechanisms making blockchain so important. Szabo claims he’s not Nakamoto, however. Others claim they are, unsurprising since charlatans infect every industry.

The mythology of Satoshi transcends the individual. This is an essential part of the mythos driving cryptocurrency. The centralization of power and money has aided the world’s greatest problems—climate change, systemic racism, gender inequality, terrible design decisions. Eight people holding as much wealth as over 3.75 billion is not a feature of the species. It’s a bug, and bugs have consequences.

Cryptocurrency, at its best, is an imaginative response to a serious problem. Nothing new here: an exploitation of a powerful system followed by a social response. The history of humans again rhymes itself.

At its worst, the community cryptocurrency has spawned is little different than the forces it was designed to rail against: a seething enmity toward anything “other” in order to defend the precious self. Suffice to say, at the moment crypto is dominated by men, and as with other tech sectors, biases are rampant.

As with any prospective industry, especially one ripe with potential capital, this next phase of human transacting will require civility. Sure, we’re biologically programmed to blah blah blah; understanding our point of origin is important. But as with broken hearts, the past becomes a prison and an excuse for not striving to be better.

We Are Leaving Patreon: Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson Announcement

Which is what Jordan Peterson, following in the footsteps of Sam Harris, did when leaving Patreon. It wasn’t specifically Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, that caused the Canadian professor to join forces with Dave Rubin to risk over half of his income in an attempt to create a new “freer speech” platform. It was, however, the final proverbial nail.

Peterson’s platform hasn’t panned out, yet, which is likely why he is utilizing all means necessary, including bitcoin. While he says the new platform will be similar to Patreon’s subscription model, he added that “it will have a bunch of additional features.” Perhaps this move into cryptocurrency might signal one of those features.

Peterson announced his departure on January 1 in a video alongside Rubin. Concern over Patreon’s relationship with MasterCard, something cited by Robert Spencer when he was kicked off the platform for also violating its hate speech policies, is the driving factor behind the move. Sargon just happened to be in the right place at the right time to motivate the two to leave.

Cut and dry: Patreon has a policy against hate speech. Benjamin was making money on Patreon, which was funding his discriminatory rants on Youtube. Patreon banned him.

What defines hate speech? That’s a big question no singular person is equipped to answer. We can get caught in the weeds on this—and should; language is the main vehicle by which we communicate and shouldn’t be glossed over—but like a foul odor, it’s obvious when hatred and discrimination assaults your senses.

For example, take Robert Spencer’s Twitter feed, dominated at the moment by retweets from the 2019 State of the Union. Among the things I learned: Twitter has a liberal bias because both Nancy and Pelosi can trend on the platform, not just her full name; Democrats hate seeing America do well because they want to see Americans suffer; a journalist pointing out that Jews don’t believe in heaven is a reason to hate journalists; Democratic women, dressed in white to represent the suffrage movement, are actually the new KKK; AOC. Boy, does she get under their skin.

Bitcoin or gold, what is the better crisis currency? The picture shows a Bitcoin (physically) and gold nuggets. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

Fueled by these inspired rants, I turn to one of Sargon’s videos. He’s upset about a female-only screening of “Wonder Woman.” The “supremacist” inclination of these women, the illegality of it all. He’s clearly befuddled by the “specially-privileged women-only thing.” A moment of self-reflection occurs when he realizes it is a “petty thing to be bothered about,” at which point he goes on for another four-plus minutes about why he’s bothered about it.

I hope he never wants to exercise at Curves.

Here’s the brilliant thing about Curves, though. The successful women-only gym saved on costs by launching in suburban areas, where rents are lower; the machines are arranged in a circle around the main floor, promoting social interaction; perhaps most importantly, women don’t have to deal with being gawked at by men.

And for that, men—in many instances in such conversations, white men—feel victimized. Instead of attempting empathy, they lash out, somehow feeling taken advantage of, unfairly mistreated, and potentially the most scandalous sensation of all: vulnerable. That’s what I assessed watching a handful of Sargon videos: it all comes back to him.

Which makes Peterson’s decision to hang his hat on this totem telling. In his books and videos, Peterson offers many big-picture ideas that make a lot of sense in terms of how society operates. Yet, like Sargon, a lot of his rhetoric invokes self-victimization. Instead of opening a dialogue, he engages in constant oneupmanship, like the time he tried to teach Alex Wagner what parenting entails. As someone who rails against identity politics so often, he often gets bogged down in his own identity.

Bringing us to an intriguing paradox: the usage of a decentralized digital currency created to disassemble power structures being utilized by those interested in keeping those power structures in place. Again, unsurprising: Bank of America has filed more blockchain patents than anyone.

The difference with Peterson and others might seem more social and gender-based than economic, but those too are intertwined. The last few centuries have been about the accumulation of power and wealth by a particular race and gender. Now that they’re being asked to display empathy as the power balance shifts, they don’t like it.

We should applaud thinkers that “reach across the aisle” to ensure similar rights for those who think differently. Of this Patreon backlash, Sam Harris’s reasoning on this topic is the most clear-headed to date.

Utilizing digital currency to support the dissemination of ideas also makes sense. As thinkers that pontificate on the nature of society, they’re at the head of a long curve in which cryptocurrency (or some form of digital currency) will eventually replace fiat. How that happens remains to be seen, but this one isn’t getting stuffed back into the box.

But to pound your stake in the ground by defending men who are butt-hurt that women want to congregate without men is just silly. We shouldn’t ban speech, but we also shouldn’t eliminate common sense from the discourse. Otherwise, we’re just writing the same story over and over, one smacking of privilege with no sense of grace or compassion about the lives of others, regardless of the technological innovations involved.

Biology might point to destiny, but it’s not the total summation of it. For that, we need the thinkers we champion to make better use of their imagination.

—

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Articles Around the Web

Source link http://bit.ly/2HYMoEo

[mccartneynathxzw83]

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Alongside Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson left Patreon over “free speech” issues to launch their own platform.

In the interim, Peterson is accepting bitcoin, which might hint at the “extra features” their platform will include.

They point to anti-feminist Youtuber, Sargon of Akkad, as the impetus for leaving Patreon—ironic, considering how often Peterson points to identity politics as a problem.

It’s been over a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto published his/her/their famous white paper that first described a currency that solved the double-spending problem associated with digital assets. A few months later he released the first software that would launch the network that services bitcoin.

No longer would we need to rely on a trusted third party, many of which mine data and information while making our identity vulnerable to hacking. By incentivizing miners (or, as it has evolved, validators), a global, decentralized solution was presented. So long as no individual miner controls the bulk of computing power, a fair and equitable system of transacting is now possible.

The idea for a decentralized currency had been floating around for over a decade when Nakamoto published their paper. Since Nick Szabo wrote a treatise on “bit gold” in 1998, a few suspected him as the man behind the pseudonym; Szabo also devised the concept of “smart contracts,” one of the foundational mechanisms making blockchain so important. Szabo claims he’s not Nakamoto, however. Others claim they are, unsurprising since charlatans infect every industry.

The mythology of Satoshi transcends the individual. This is an essential part of the mythos driving cryptocurrency. The centralization of power and money has aided the world’s greatest problems—climate change, systemic racism, gender inequality, terrible design decisions. Eight people holding as much wealth as over 3.75 billion is not a feature of the species. It’s a bug, and bugs have consequences.

Cryptocurrency, at its best, is an imaginative response to a serious problem. Nothing new here: an exploitation of a powerful system followed by a social response. The history of humans again rhymes itself.

At its worst, the community cryptocurrency has spawned is little different than the forces it was designed to rail against: a seething enmity toward anything “other” in order to defend the precious self. Suffice to say, at the moment crypto is dominated by men, and as with other tech sectors, biases are rampant.

As with any prospective industry, especially one ripe with potential capital, this next phase of human transacting will require civility. Sure, we’re biologically programmed to blah blah blah; understanding our point of origin is important. But as with broken hearts, the past becomes a prison and an excuse for not striving to be better.

We Are Leaving Patreon: Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson Announcement

Which is what Jordan Peterson, following in the footsteps of Sam Harris, did when leaving Patreon. It wasn’t specifically Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, that caused the Canadian professor to join forces with Dave Rubin to risk over half of his income in an attempt to create a new “freer speech” platform. It was, however, the final proverbial nail.

Peterson’s platform hasn’t panned out, yet, which is likely why he is utilizing all means necessary, including bitcoin. While he says the new platform will be similar to Patreon’s subscription model, he added that “it will have a bunch of additional features.” Perhaps this move into cryptocurrency might signal one of those features.

Peterson announced his departure on January 1 in a video alongside Rubin. Concern over Patreon’s relationship with MasterCard, something cited by Robert Spencer when he was kicked off the platform for also violating its hate speech policies, is the driving factor behind the move. Sargon just happened to be in the right place at the right time to motivate the two to leave.

Cut and dry: Patreon has a policy against hate speech. Benjamin was making money on Patreon, which was funding his discriminatory rants on Youtube. Patreon banned him.

What defines hate speech? That’s a big question no singular person is equipped to answer. We can get caught in the weeds on this—and should; language is the main vehicle by which we communicate and shouldn’t be glossed over—but like a foul odor, it’s obvious when hatred and discrimination assaults your senses.

For example, take Robert Spencer’s Twitter feed, dominated at the moment by retweets from the 2019 State of the Union. Among the things I learned: Twitter has a liberal bias because both Nancy and Pelosi can trend on the platform, not just her full name; Democrats hate seeing America do well because they want to see Americans suffer; a journalist pointing out that Jews don’t believe in heaven is a reason to hate journalists; Democratic women, dressed in white to represent the suffrage movement, are actually the new KKK; AOC. Boy, does she get under their skin.

Bitcoin or gold, what is the better crisis currency? The picture shows a Bitcoin (physically) and gold nuggets. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

Fueled by these inspired rants, I turn to one of Sargon’s videos. He’s upset about a female-only screening of “Wonder Woman.” The “supremacist” inclination of these women, the illegality of it all. He’s clearly befuddled by the “specially-privileged women-only thing.” A moment of self-reflection occurs when he realizes it is a “petty thing to be bothered about,” at which point he goes on for another four-plus minutes about why he’s bothered about it.

I hope he never wants to exercise at Curves.

Here’s the brilliant thing about Curves, though. The successful women-only gym saved on costs by launching in suburban areas, where rents are lower; the machines are arranged in a circle around the main floor, promoting social interaction; perhaps most importantly, women don’t have to deal with being gawked at by men.

And for that, men—in many instances in such conversations, white men—feel victimized. Instead of attempting empathy, they lash out, somehow feeling taken advantage of, unfairly mistreated, and potentially the most scandalous sensation of all: vulnerable. That’s what I assessed watching a handful of Sargon videos: it all comes back to him.

Which makes Peterson’s decision to hang his hat on this totem telling. In his books and videos, Peterson offers many big-picture ideas that make a lot of sense in terms of how society operates. Yet, like Sargon, a lot of his rhetoric invokes self-victimization. Instead of opening a dialogue, he engages in constant oneupmanship, like the time he tried to teach Alex Wagner what parenting entails. As someone who rails against identity politics so often, he often gets bogged down in his own identity.

Bringing us to an intriguing paradox: the usage of a decentralized digital currency created to disassemble power structures being utilized by those interested in keeping those power structures in place. Again, unsurprising: Bank of America has filed more blockchain patents than anyone.

The difference with Peterson and others might seem more social and gender-based than economic, but those too are intertwined. The last few centuries have been about the accumulation of power and wealth by a particular race and gender. Now that they’re being asked to display empathy as the power balance shifts, they don’t like it.

We should applaud thinkers that “reach across the aisle” to ensure similar rights for those who think differently. Of this Patreon backlash, Sam Harris’s reasoning on this topic is the most clear-headed to date.

Utilizing digital currency to support the dissemination of ideas also makes sense. As thinkers that pontificate on the nature of society, they’re at the head of a long curve in which cryptocurrency (or some form of digital currency) will eventually replace fiat. How that happens remains to be seen, but this one isn’t getting stuffed back into the box.

But to pound your stake in the ground by defending men who are butt-hurt that women want to congregate without men is just silly. We shouldn’t ban speech, but we also shouldn’t eliminate common sense from the discourse. Otherwise, we’re just writing the same story over and over, one smacking of privilege with no sense of grace or compassion about the lives of others, regardless of the technological innovations involved.

Biology might point to destiny, but it’s not the total summation of it. For that, we need the thinkers we champion to make better use of their imagination.

—

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Articles Around the Web

Source link http://bit.ly/2HYMoEo

[vanessawestwcrtr5]

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Alongside Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson left Patreon over “free speech” issues to launch their own platform.

In the interim, Peterson is accepting bitcoin, which might hint at the “extra features” their platform will include.

They point to anti-feminist Youtuber, Sargon of Akkad, as the impetus for leaving Patreon—ironic, considering how often Peterson points to identity politics as a problem.

It’s been over a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto published his/her/their famous white paper that first described a currency that solved the double-spending problem associated with digital assets. A few months later he released the first software that would launch the network that services bitcoin.

No longer would we need to rely on a trusted third party, many of which mine data and information while making our identity vulnerable to hacking. By incentivizing miners (or, as it has evolved, validators), a global, decentralized solution was presented. So long as no individual miner controls the bulk of computing power, a fair and equitable system of transacting is now possible.

The idea for a decentralized currency had been floating around for over a decade when Nakamoto published their paper. Since Nick Szabo wrote a treatise on “bit gold” in 1998, a few suspected him as the man behind the pseudonym; Szabo also devised the concept of “smart contracts,” one of the foundational mechanisms making blockchain so important. Szabo claims he’s not Nakamoto, however. Others claim they are, unsurprising since charlatans infect every industry.

The mythology of Satoshi transcends the individual. This is an essential part of the mythos driving cryptocurrency. The centralization of power and money has aided the world’s greatest problems—climate change, systemic racism, gender inequality, terrible design decisions. Eight people holding as much wealth as over 3.75 billion is not a feature of the species. It’s a bug, and bugs have consequences.

Cryptocurrency, at its best, is an imaginative response to a serious problem. Nothing new here: an exploitation of a powerful system followed by a social response. The history of humans again rhymes itself.

At its worst, the community cryptocurrency has spawned is little different than the forces it was designed to rail against: a seething enmity toward anything “other” in order to defend the precious self. Suffice to say, at the moment crypto is dominated by men, and as with other tech sectors, biases are rampant.

As with any prospective industry, especially one ripe with potential capital, this next phase of human transacting will require civility. Sure, we’re biologically programmed to blah blah blah; understanding our point of origin is important. But as with broken hearts, the past becomes a prison and an excuse for not striving to be better.

We Are Leaving Patreon: Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson Announcement

Which is what Jordan Peterson, following in the footsteps of Sam Harris, did when leaving Patreon. It wasn’t specifically Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, that caused the Canadian professor to join forces with Dave Rubin to risk over half of his income in an attempt to create a new “freer speech” platform. It was, however, the final proverbial nail.

Peterson’s platform hasn’t panned out, yet, which is likely why he is utilizing all means necessary, including bitcoin. While he says the new platform will be similar to Patreon’s subscription model, he added that “it will have a bunch of additional features.” Perhaps this move into cryptocurrency might signal one of those features.

Peterson announced his departure on January 1 in a video alongside Rubin. Concern over Patreon’s relationship with MasterCard, something cited by Robert Spencer when he was kicked off the platform for also violating its hate speech policies, is the driving factor behind the move. Sargon just happened to be in the right place at the right time to motivate the two to leave.

Cut and dry: Patreon has a policy against hate speech. Benjamin was making money on Patreon, which was funding his discriminatory rants on Youtube. Patreon banned him.

What defines hate speech? That’s a big question no singular person is equipped to answer. We can get caught in the weeds on this—and should; language is the main vehicle by which we communicate and shouldn’t be glossed over—but like a foul odor, it’s obvious when hatred and discrimination assaults your senses.

For example, take Robert Spencer’s Twitter feed, dominated at the moment by retweets from the 2019 State of the Union. Among the things I learned: Twitter has a liberal bias because both Nancy and Pelosi can trend on the platform, not just her full name; Democrats hate seeing America do well because they want to see Americans suffer; a journalist pointing out that Jews don’t believe in heaven is a reason to hate journalists; Democratic women, dressed in white to represent the suffrage movement, are actually the new KKK; AOC. Boy, does she get under their skin.

Bitcoin or gold, what is the better crisis currency? The picture shows a Bitcoin (physically) and gold nuggets. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

Fueled by these inspired rants, I turn to one of Sargon’s videos. He’s upset about a female-only screening of “Wonder Woman.” The “supremacist” inclination of these women, the illegality of it all. He’s clearly befuddled by the “specially-privileged women-only thing.” A moment of self-reflection occurs when he realizes it is a “petty thing to be bothered about,” at which point he goes on for another four-plus minutes about why he’s bothered about it.

I hope he never wants to exercise at Curves.

Here’s the brilliant thing about Curves, though. The successful women-only gym saved on costs by launching in suburban areas, where rents are lower; the machines are arranged in a circle around the main floor, promoting social interaction; perhaps most importantly, women don’t have to deal with being gawked at by men.

And for that, men—in many instances in such conversations, white men—feel victimized. Instead of attempting empathy, they lash out, somehow feeling taken advantage of, unfairly mistreated, and potentially the most scandalous sensation of all: vulnerable. That’s what I assessed watching a handful of Sargon videos: it all comes back to him.

Which makes Peterson’s decision to hang his hat on this totem telling. In his books and videos, Peterson offers many big-picture ideas that make a lot of sense in terms of how society operates. Yet, like Sargon, a lot of his rhetoric invokes self-victimization. Instead of opening a dialogue, he engages in constant oneupmanship, like the time he tried to teach Alex Wagner what parenting entails. As someone who rails against identity politics so often, he often gets bogged down in his own identity.

Bringing us to an intriguing paradox: the usage of a decentralized digital currency created to disassemble power structures being utilized by those interested in keeping those power structures in place. Again, unsurprising: Bank of America has filed more blockchain patents than anyone.

The difference with Peterson and others might seem more social and gender-based than economic, but those too are intertwined. The last few centuries have been about the accumulation of power and wealth by a particular race and gender. Now that they’re being asked to display empathy as the power balance shifts, they don’t like it.

We should applaud thinkers that “reach across the aisle” to ensure similar rights for those who think differently. Of this Patreon backlash, Sam Harris’s reasoning on this topic is the most clear-headed to date.

Utilizing digital currency to support the dissemination of ideas also makes sense. As thinkers that pontificate on the nature of society, they’re at the head of a long curve in which cryptocurrency (or some form of digital currency) will eventually replace fiat. How that happens remains to be seen, but this one isn’t getting stuffed back into the box.

But to pound your stake in the ground by defending men who are butt-hurt that women want to congregate without men is just silly. We shouldn’t ban speech, but we also shouldn’t eliminate common sense from the discourse. Otherwise, we’re just writing the same story over and over, one smacking of privilege with no sense of grace or compassion about the lives of others, regardless of the technological innovations involved.

Biology might point to destiny, but it’s not the total summation of it. For that, we need the thinkers we champion to make better use of their imagination.

—

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Articles Around the Web

Source link http://bit.ly/2HYMoEo

[courtneyvbrooks87]

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Jordan Peterson accepts bitcoin in wake of leaving Patreon

Alongside Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson left Patreon over “free speech” issues to launch their own platform.

In the interim, Peterson is accepting bitcoin, which might hint at the “extra features” their platform will include.

They point to anti-feminist Youtuber, Sargon of Akkad, as the impetus for leaving Patreon—ironic, considering how often Peterson points to identity politics as a problem.

It’s been over a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto published his/her/their famous white paper that first described a currency that solved the double-spending problem associated with digital assets. A few months later he released the first software that would launch the network that services bitcoin.

No longer would we need to rely on a trusted third party, many of which mine data and information while making our identity vulnerable to hacking. By incentivizing miners (or, as it has evolved, validators), a global, decentralized solution was presented. So long as no individual miner controls the bulk of computing power, a fair and equitable system of transacting is now possible.

The idea for a decentralized currency had been floating around for over a decade when Nakamoto published their paper. Since Nick Szabo wrote a treatise on “bit gold” in 1998, a few suspected him as the man behind the pseudonym; Szabo also devised the concept of “smart contracts,” one of the foundational mechanisms making blockchain so important. Szabo claims he’s not Nakamoto, however. Others claim they are, unsurprising since charlatans infect every industry.

The mythology of Satoshi transcends the individual. This is an essential part of the mythos driving cryptocurrency. The centralization of power and money has aided the world’s greatest problems—climate change, systemic racism, gender inequality, terrible design decisions. Eight people holding as much wealth as over 3.75 billion is not a feature of the species. It’s a bug, and bugs have consequences.

Cryptocurrency, at its best, is an imaginative response to a serious problem. Nothing new here: an exploitation of a powerful system followed by a social response. The history of humans again rhymes itself.

At its worst, the community cryptocurrency has spawned is little different than the forces it was designed to rail against: a seething enmity toward anything “other” in order to defend the precious self. Suffice to say, at the moment crypto is dominated by men, and as with other tech sectors, biases are rampant.

As with any prospective industry, especially one ripe with potential capital, this next phase of human transacting will require civility. Sure, we’re biologically programmed to blah blah blah; understanding our point of origin is important. But as with broken hearts, the past becomes a prison and an excuse for not striving to be better.

We Are Leaving Patreon: Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson Announcement

Which is what Jordan Peterson, following in the footsteps of Sam Harris, did when leaving Patreon. It wasn’t specifically Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, that caused the Canadian professor to join forces with Dave Rubin to risk over half of his income in an attempt to create a new “freer speech” platform. It was, however, the final proverbial nail.

Peterson’s platform hasn’t panned out, yet, which is likely why he is utilizing all means necessary, including bitcoin. While he says the new platform will be similar to Patreon’s subscription model, he added that “it will have a bunch of additional features.” Perhaps this move into cryptocurrency might signal one of those features.

Peterson announced his departure on January 1 in a video alongside Rubin. Concern over Patreon’s relationship with MasterCard, something cited by Robert Spencer when he was kicked off the platform for also violating its hate speech policies, is the driving factor behind the move. Sargon just happened to be in the right place at the right time to motivate the two to leave.

Cut and dry: Patreon has a policy against hate speech. Benjamin was making money on Patreon, which was funding his discriminatory rants on Youtube. Patreon banned him.

What defines hate speech? That’s a big question no singular person is equipped to answer. We can get caught in the weeds on this—and should; language is the main vehicle by which we communicate and shouldn’t be glossed over—but like a foul odor, it’s obvious when hatred and discrimination assaults your senses.

For example, take Robert Spencer’s Twitter feed, dominated at the moment by retweets from the 2019 State of the Union. Among the things I learned: Twitter has a liberal bias because both Nancy and Pelosi can trend on the platform, not just her full name; Democrats hate seeing America do well because they want to see Americans suffer; a journalist pointing out that Jews don’t believe in heaven is a reason to hate journalists; Democratic women, dressed in white to represent the suffrage movement, are actually the new KKK; AOC. Boy, does she get under their skin.

Bitcoin or gold, what is the better crisis currency? The picture shows a Bitcoin (physically) and gold nuggets. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

Fueled by these inspired rants, I turn to one of Sargon’s videos. He’s upset about a female-only screening of “Wonder Woman.” The “supremacist” inclination of these women, the illegality of it all. He’s clearly befuddled by the “specially-privileged women-only thing.” A moment of self-reflection occurs when he realizes it is a “petty thing to be bothered about,” at which point he goes on for another four-plus minutes about why he’s bothered about it.

I hope he never wants to exercise at Curves.

Here’s the brilliant thing about Curves, though. The successful women-only gym saved on costs by launching in suburban areas, where rents are lower; the machines are arranged in a circle around the main floor, promoting social interaction; perhaps most importantly, women don’t have to deal with being gawked at by men.

And for that, men—in many instances in such conversations, white men—feel victimized. Instead of attempting empathy, they lash out, somehow feeling taken advantage of, unfairly mistreated, and potentially the most scandalous sensation of all: vulnerable. That’s what I assessed watching a handful of Sargon videos: it all comes back to him.

Which makes Peterson’s decision to hang his hat on this totem telling. In his books and videos, Peterson offers many big-picture ideas that make a lot of sense in terms of how society operates. Yet, like Sargon, a lot of his rhetoric invokes self-victimization. Instead of opening a dialogue, he engages in constant oneupmanship, like the time he tried to teach Alex Wagner what parenting entails. As someone who rails against identity politics so often, he often gets bogged down in his own identity.

Bringing us to an intriguing paradox: the usage of a decentralized digital currency created to disassemble power structures being utilized by those interested in keeping those power structures in place. Again, unsurprising: Bank of America has filed more blockchain patents than anyone.

The difference with Peterson and others might seem more social and gender-based than economic, but those too are intertwined. The last few centuries have been about the accumulation of power and wealth by a particular race and gender. Now that they’re being asked to display empathy as the power balance shifts, they don’t like it.

We should applaud thinkers that “reach across the aisle” to ensure similar rights for those who think differently. Of this Patreon backlash, Sam Harris’s reasoning on this topic is the most clear-headed to date.

Utilizing digital currency to support the dissemination of ideas also makes sense. As thinkers that pontificate on the nature of society, they’re at the head of a long curve in which cryptocurrency (or some form of digital currency) will eventually replace fiat. How that happens remains to be seen, but this one isn’t getting stuffed back into the box.

But to pound your stake in the ground by defending men who are butt-hurt that women want to congregate without men is just silly. We shouldn’t ban speech, but we also shouldn’t eliminate common sense from the discourse. Otherwise, we’re just writing the same story over and over, one smacking of privilege with no sense of grace or compassion about the lives of others, regardless of the technological innovations involved.

Biology might point to destiny, but it’s not the total summation of it. For that, we need the thinkers we champion to make better use of their imagination.

—

Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Articles Around the Web

Source link http://bit.ly/2HYMoEo

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The Problem Isnt Just Trump. Its Our Ignorant Electorate.

For many of us, mornings have taken on a certain nauseating sameness. We roll out from beneath the blankets and, before the scent of coffee has reached our nostrils, we are checking the news feeds for the latest semi-literate tweet coughed up by the ranting, traitorous squatter occupying the Oval Office.

The rest of the day is spent in a kind of horrified suspension, holding our breath, waiting for whatever outrage will inevitably belch forth from the White Houseonce a bastion of seriousness and decorum, now ground zero for the demise of western democracy. How many lies will Trump spew today? Which dictators will he suck up to? Will he smear a Gold Star family? Attack a woman who dares to call out his smarmy predations? Unveil a puerile, racist nickname for a Senator or member of his own cabinet?

As much as we loathe it, however sickening it might have become, every day seems all about him, a former game show host and real estate failure, a hawker of rot-gut vodka and bullshit degrees from a fraudulent University who once styled himself as the Donald. The cable news shows lead with his most recent flatulence, the op-ed pages brim with intimations of doom, late night comedians are having a field day.

He is the president and, thus, bears watching. But we would be mistaken to think that he is truly the center of our universe, a man with a plan, commanding the heights, directing the action.

Virulent as he may be, Donald J. Trump is a symptom not the disease. Without us, he would amount to nothing more than what he had always been before the bizzaro presidential election of 2016: a foppish narcissist desperate for any measure of affirmation; a joke; a nothing. He did not create his voters. They have been there all along, seething with sometimes justifiable anger and suffering their various insecurities. They created and enabled Trump. And make no mistake, in all their vulnerable humanity, they are us: Gullible, compliant, distracted, marinating in irony.

At root, we the people are the problem.

We are understandably reluctant to impugn the intelligence and integrity of our fellow citizens. It is arrogant, uncivil, bad form. Who are we, any of us, to hold ourselves superior? When Hillary Clinton referred to some Trump supporters as deplorables, she was roundly castigated on all sides. How dare she? Yet it is an uncomfortable reality that anywhere from a fifth to a third of our electorate can be fairly (if gently) described as low-information voters. If the results of numerous polls and questionnaires are to be trusted, they know very little about the world they inhabit and what they do know is often woefully incorrect.

Surveys conducted every two years by the National Science Foundation consistently demonstrate that slightly more than half of Americans reject the settled science concerning human evolution. They are not unaware that virtually all credible scientists accept the overwhelming evidence that we evolved from earlier species. They simply choose not to accept that consensus because it doesnt comport with their deeply held beliefs. Many also embrace the absurd notion that the earth is only six thousand years old. Astonishingly, in the early 21st century, around a quarter of our citizenry seems unaware that said earth revolves around the sun.

It is a mistake to regard concern about such ignorance as effete snobbery or elitist condescension. While misapprehensions about basic astronomy, earth science and biology may have little impact on these folks daily lives, does anyone actually believe that similarly uninformed views arent likely to affect their grasp of policies regarding, say, climate change? Income inequality? Gun violence? Immigration?

Profound knowledge gaps like the aforementioned reveal an inability to think critically and leave a person vulnerable to all manner of chicanery. We are all ignorant about many things. Dont get me started on my dismal grasp of mathematics! But the hallmark of a sound education is not glorying in what you think you know, but, instead, appreciating the vastness of what you dont know.

If ignorance is the key that opens the door for charlatans like Trump, improved education, whether in school or in the public square, would seem to provide an obvious solution. But here we confront the perverse Dunning-Kruger Effect identified by psychologistsessentially, the less we know, the more certain we become of our superior knowledge. We have also discovered that exposure to facts and evidence does not always have the expected impact. Many people, when confronted by irrefutable proof that some core belief is incorrect, dont change their minds but dig in their heels. What feels right to them must be right and no amount logic and reasoning will dissuade them. Emotion trumps evidence.

Not too long ago, I fell into conversation with a woman aboard an airplane. Our chat somehow turned to health care. She offered the opinion that people who couldnt afford health insurance didnt deserve medical services. Why should she pay for someones care when they were obviously too lazy to earn their own money?

Because Im my own kind of fool, I rose to the bait. Did that mean they should be allowed to die in the street? I wondered. Well, no, she said. That would be inhumane. They could always go to an emergency room. So she was willing to pay for their care, I observed, but only in the least efficient, most expensive manner. This gave her momentary pause, but she quickly regrouped, simply repeating her prior assertion: Why should she pay? I didnt ask who she planned to vote for in the then-upcoming presidential election, but given that she had also voiced the opinion that women were, by virtue of their gender, unqualified to be news anchors, Im guessing it wasnt Hillary Clinton or Jill Stein.

She is hardly the worst example of an unthinking voter. Bill Maher once invited onto his show former GM Executive Bob Lutz. One supposes that such a fellow has benefited from an adequate education and that hes open to reason. Yet, when the subject of climate change arose, Lutz denied it was happening. A bunch of nonsense as far as he was concerned.

As it happened, Maher had also invited Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, educator and Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Tyson patiently explained why Lutz was misinformed. The planet was warming. Humans were largely to blame. This is how we know.

You might expect an educated person to respond by at least engaging on the topic. Tyson was, after all, vastly more knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Had their roles been reversed, with the topic being cars, I have no doubt he would have deferred to the automaker, asking questions, trying to improve the state of his own knowledge. Not Lutz. You could see him shutting down before Tyson had even warmed to the topic (no pun intended). As Upton Sinclair famously put it, Its hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.

Anyone who has watched the focus groups of Trump voters has seen this sorry dynamic played out again and again. Everything, no matter how tawdry or malicious, is excused or minimized. You get the feeling these folks would accept the sexual molestation of teenage girls as a trade-off for Neil Gorsuch. In fact, many did in supporting Roy Moore.

Welcome to the Post-Truth Era.

Much has been written about the impact social media and the internet in general have had on how people receive and absorb information. By now, we are all familiar with bots, trolls, phony scandals and the tendency of folks to hunker down in their own info-silos. The old adage that a lie is halfway round the world before the truth gets its socks on has never been more salient.

Consider the recent attacks on one of the young Parkland shooting survivors. A teenager who had just witnessed classmates being gunned down at his own school quickly discovered that speaking up for common-sense gun regulation resulted in vicious trolling and the viral lie that he was a paid crisis actor. This was similar to what befell the grieving families of the small children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Imagine waking one morning in a state of searing grief over the violent death of your baby to discover that some odious prankster like Alex Jones is telling his gullible audience that the whole tragic incident was staged, that your child was actually a paid performer doused in artificial gore and posed in a gruesome tableaux of death.

That Jones and his ilk have not been thoroughly shamed and driven from the public sphere says a lot about our growing tolerance for vile nonsense.

Trump did not invent Fake News. The Big Lie has been the stock in trade of con men and tyrants since time immemorial. But he understands its value. Alternative facts as his lickspittle factotum, Kellyanne Conway infamously put it, has long been his metier. Hes a bullshitter, a phony and now hes our president.

This shouldnt have happened. But we let it happen, though Trump did have plenty of help

Unsurprisingly, the Fox propaganda machine and any number of right-wing radio ranters enthusiastically clambered aboard the Trump Train. They were abetted by many in the mainstream media who, mindful that Trump lured eyeballs to advertisers and too timid to call him out as the carnival barker he so obviously was, went along for the ride. A number of Republicans in Congress dismissed him at first. But when it became clear he had a shot at winning and that his devotees comprised at least half of their party, they scurried to adopt him as their useful idiot.

Its true that we are not all equally culpable. Roughly three million more people voted for Trumps chief opponent. But the right-minded among us didnt do enough to forestall the plainly looming disaster. The proof of that is the Trump presidency itself.

So, if we in our various incarnations are the problem, then what is the solution? Is there any way out? Wed better hope so. Whats certain is that its on us. We made a wreck of our government and its up to us to fix it.

There are positive signs:

A once compliant media has begun to take the gloves off. Genuine conservatives, outraged that their movement has been hijacked by philistines, are sounding the alarm. People are rising up and calling BS. For every Sean Hannity there is a Rachel Maddow, Jake Tapper or even Shepard Smith (at Fox News, no less!). For every Paul Ryan, there is a David Frum or Max Boot. Frothing crowds at CPAC are countered by the #MeToo movement and impressively eloquent teenagers fed up with politicians of any stripe who cower before the gun industry. On a good day, a John McCain or Jeff Flake will stand up to the cringing accommodationists in their own party. And, of course, Donald Trump himself, along with his corrupt lackeys, face a formidable foe in the person of Robert Mueller.

NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers recent testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee should mark a turning point, though he merely confirmed what has been apparent for some time: that even as our nation is under attack from a Russia determined to subvert our democracy, the president has not directed any relevant agencies to defend the country. This is a violation of the oath Trump swore on inauguration day and smacks of treason. We have entered uncharted waters.

Whats clear is that we need to use all non-violent resources at our disposal to rid ourselves and our country of the dangerous infection spreading from the White House into our body politic. These are not normal times and our usual reflexes will no longer suffice.

Trump is a problem of our own creation. We must become the solution.

Ron Reagan is an author and political commentator who lives in Seattle and Arezzo, Tuscany.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-problem-isnt-just-trump-its-our-ignorant-electorate

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How Blockchain Revol

How Blockchain Revolution is Going to Make Global Economy More Fair: Federico Pistono Interview Federico Pistono is a charismatic writer entrepreneur researcher angel investor TV presenter and public speaker who routinely tours around the world lecturing on exponential technologies and their economic impact on society. In 2012 Pistono wrote the book "Robots Will Steal Your Job But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and be Happy" which became an international success. Recently he published another book Startup Zero to help his compatriots Italians get a better understanding of the startup culture. In addition Federico has more than a decade of professional experience in different fields that vary from IT Management and human machine interaction to screenwriting and directing. We speak with Federico Pistono about his views on how Blockchain could really change the current global economic model that is unfair how close we came to the AI ruling the world and how could we find our place in the emerging paradigm. CG: How did you get involved in the fintech industry? FP: Computers always fascinated me and systems in general and just learning new things.I have a background in mathematics and computer science so that was double spending and operating research data structures algorithms. Those were things that really interested me at the mathematical level. To then think that those principles could be applied for social change it was kind of a love at first sight of blending these things together. I started programming when I was 12 or 13 and got into Blockchain around 2011 when I read the Bitcoin whitepaper written by Satoshi. At the time I was very interested in the Byzantine generals problem. Then I was one of the first people to get into Ethereum and from then on it just grew more and more. Now I am leading the Blockchain theme at Hyperloop Transportation Technologies which is this new tech thats essentially a supersonic speed travel on a train. So you have an evacuated tube you got a tube you suck out the air you put a capsule inside with about 30 people and then you have got magnetic levitation-passive magnetic levitation its called Indutrack. And you can just move this thing at super high speed- supersonic so more than 1200 km/h. CG: What would you say about the relationship between AI and Blockchain? FP: Regarding AI and Blockchain I would say one of the biggest issues probably is how we decide to structure the algorithm and the incentive mechanisms that we put into the system because in the end you get your reward. AIs today and probably for the foreseeable future are not really intelligent in any sort. They perform narrow tasks and they optimize for specific things that we tell them to do and so we dont know really know how to give them the right constraints. If we just say hey make profit and do this they may find all sorts of ways around to perform that task very well to optimize for that factor. Now we have a system where there is a huge centralization of power centralization of capital centralization of risk and in particular the big players are de-risking everything by hedging the risk on the small guys particularly in developing countries. I think every time that you have a shift in technology or dramatic shift you have the ability to change things by creating a new incentive structure by changing the rules of the game. Right now that is that moment that seismic event that can change the incentive structure and the mechanisms underneath. The Blockchain is a way to do it distributively securely and I think we can do great things but they dont come by themselves we have to actively pursue a specific goal and to agree on how to design these new systems. CG: Are we ready for above-mentioned inventions or do we have to evolve further? FP: I think currently we are not ready for this change. Well first of all the technology isnt ready. We havent figured out still so many things about Blockchain systems. We are still in the very very early stage of the protocols and of the mechanisms that we are building. I mean we dont know how to scale we dont know how to do it securely we dont know how to do it fast enough. We really dont have the game theory behind it; we dont know how all these things are going to be put together. We dont have the social infrastructure and the technological infrastructure. But its a feedback loop its a system of systems so by interacting with the system by allowing ourselves to make mistakes and to do it faster and faster we create resilience in the network. Where a single entity might die or go bust the overall network captures some of that value and then you can increase the value again again and again. Hopefully we can find something thats not just resilient but its anti-fragile so that by stressing the system it becomes stronger- something like your body. When you go to the gym and you do exercise you actually stress your muscles and you break them apart and because you break them apart they become stronger afterwards so thats an anti-fragile system. We should do that for the economic system and also for decision-making and everything. Since we know that we are going to make mistakes- we should design a system that gets better as we make more mistakes because we learn from them instead of just repeating the same shit over and over and not learning from it which is mostly what has been happening recently. CG: Tell us about your books FP: I wrote a few books. First one is called Robots Will Steal Your Job But Thats OK. I wrote it six years ago. Kind of unsuspected time I was told I was a charlatan I didnt have a PhD in economics I wasnt a professor from MIT or Oxford I should just stick to my computer science and not talk about these things how little do you know. Then two to three years later professors from MIT and Oxford have written the papers that say exactly the same things with exactly the same numbers but using different methodologies so they were kind of validating everything that I was saying. Thus I went from a charlatan to an oracle. It was kind of weird but you know same stuff just has caused different reactions from people. Then I wrote another book a fiction book this time called Tale of Two Futures. Its a short sci-fi. It shows two different paths we can take. One where things have taken the decentralized open source model and a more sensible approach on how to use technology to better society and the other is this hyper-capitalistic narrowly focused mindless repetitive work that leads to a dystopian society. The third book I wrote was a book for Italians about how to build startups because in Italy no one knows how to build startups. Very few people know and the few people who do they leave the country and go elsewhere and they never tell anyone back in town. Now they call startups everything like if a pizzeria were a startup. No thats not a startup- a startup is something else! So I wrote this most recent book thats called Startup Zero.0. To kind of give the idea that we are not even step one we are at step zero we should get the basics first and understand them. So I have been doing that a lot of that. I also have a TV show in Italy on national TV its called Codice La vita è digitale it means Code Life is Digital. We have had about two or three mln people watching it every week. First it was just about Blockchain and Bitcoin. We went to BitFury China Japan we interviewed Roger Ver; we had a bunch of people there. I think it was very well done the episode on Blockchain. We did one on IoT smart cities the cognitive revolution artificial intelligence robotics synthetic biology genetic engineering. We are bringing these emerging technologies to the wider audience. Also I am an angel investor. I invest in about 20 companies so far- mostly in Blockchain but also I am moving to the medical sector things that I think will help humanity in one way or another. I try to give my contribution in some way. Now I am spending most of my time doing Hyperloop. CG: What does that mean Blockchain Revolution? How will it change the globe? FP: I think one of the biggest opportunities we have is to use autonomous agents to automate all things that should be automated particularly in bureaucracy and in how systems interoperate. There is no reason why I should go ask a person to verify my identity or to stamp something and wait for months for a paper to come back or fax it somewhere I mean some places still need a fax machine. A lot of this stuff is because you dont trust the computer to verify that transaction or that information that is being conveyed. Now the Blockchain can solve that. Not only can it solve it but it can solve it systematically securely and for anybody. Also its censorship resistant not just the government censoring information but also a company not releasing some of the data that maybe you should own. For example from all the social networks the only one that gives you the contacts is LinkedIn. Everyone else doesnt allow you to export the contacts. They are your contacts! Why shouldnt you be allowed to have your own contacts and information about them? Its crazy but this happens! Think about all the corruption that happens throughout the world- trillions of dollar worth of value and hundreds of millions of people in distress who can be forced into doing things because they have no legal recourse. The Blockchain can help all these people. Before it helps the First World it can help the long tail of the supply chain thats now being held hostage by the owners of capital who have an unfair advantage in that game. They can be less efficient than them but still win just because they have access to cheap capital. That is really unfair. All the risk is on these people who have no power no legal recourse and their lives are miserable because the game is tilted. The game is unfair. Blockchain can allow for that to change but we need to actively pursue that goal because it will not come automatically by itself. I think thats a moral responsibility that we have. I think we have to step up and take that responsibility. Follow us on Facebook

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Remember when I knew nothing of Reyes Vidal and he was just a name. Also that he was rumoured to be romanceable, by which Ryder? Idk. Also I was still reeling in from the confirmation that his straight Liam Kosta, and the possibility that there might be only ONE male LI for mRyder. (Rumours were coming out that Jaal is straight). Then the leaked romance lines for both Reyes and Gil came out. I heard most of Gil's lines and I was deadset on romancing him with Jean. (Space engineers WITH babies??? Aaaaaa). I listenes to Reyes' lines and I was like "wtf, what are they doing? Is he really telling this to Ryder infront of an audience? Yeah, so Jean might not be into this." (This was the storage room talk at the end). I wasnt into pretend dating either so I was initially turned off Reyes' romance. What I think got me into the romance was how beautifully animated his romance scene on top of the rooftops. When I first saw it, I was mindblown: the shot of Reyes and Ryder back to back after Reyes confesses he wanted to be someone, the panning shot at the end when Reyes and Ryder kiss. That was just amazing. Then I read more about Reyes, that's when I learned he was a smuggler. I was interested in the story of an Alliance poster boy (Jean) falling in love with a smuggler (Reyes), and the potential conflict they will have. Jean still seeks for his father's approval long after he's dead, and he knows Alec will never approve of their relationship. This was long before I found out Reyes was the Charlatan, which added another layer of conflict between the two. I was still into space engineers with babies but this was too good of a story to pass up. At this point, I learned more about Gil's romance and how much of it is Jill. The first "Complete Gil Brodie Romance" video posted was 8 mins long and I was just disappointed. I was sad cause Gil's romance scene was beautifully animated, the kiss and the hands. However, I wasn't up to throwing Jean into a romance where his LI's best friend tells him that he's a waste of resource if he can't have babies since he's gay. Don't get me wrong, I still love Gil and I will do his romance with another Ryder at some point. I just can't do it with Jean. That and the potential story Jean and Reyes could have is why I made Reyes, Jean's LI. By this point, someone also posted the full Reyes romance video, and Reyes asking Ryder for a dance and "Consider me hacked ;)" sealed the romance for Jean. So i mean that's my story of "I was gonna romance X but then Reyes Vidal happened."