Deep Dump 2



Passports exist to restrict travel.


All entertainment is also propaganda.


A sociopath is not one to be feared because they manipulate. It's one who's to be feared because they're hard to manipulate.


The great pretence of dance music is that when people dance to it they don't also listen to it.


The pretence of comedy is that when people are laughing they're not also thinking.


The least interesting thing about a belief is its content.


Offence is never without a purpose.


The better you have to dress to do your job, the less important your job is.


You can't be deeply religious if you're not deep. Though you might be highly religious if you're high.


Polite society is where people are incredibly rude about each other in subtle ways.


Syncretism entails disharmonisation. The price of assimilation is incoherence.


If you want your child to grow into a stupid adult, treat them as one.


To harmonise the gospels is exactly like splicing the four stories of Rashomon into a fifth.


All stories are parables, including true ones, and all parables function by audience interpretation.


Middle age is when nothing is new anymore, so everything is boring.


Pleasure is an emotion, not a sensation.

Facts are distinct from values in the same way that grammar is distinct from semantics. We never find one without the other, and each is impossible without the other, but neither would be possible if they were not distinct.


Scripture is written as revelation, but can only be understood - as opposed to believed - as literature. Literature is written as entertainment, but can only be understood - as opposed to enjoyed - as philosophy.


An action must be performed more than once to become a ritual, but any repeated action can do this.

Repetition is the heart of significance, which is easily confused with signification. Thus ritual has meaning, but can in principle be meaningless. However, in practice all ritual has a purpose. Even when the purpose is outdated, the outdatedness is part of the purpose.


Deconstruction is political close reading.


Every opposed pair is a hierarchy.


A good horror movie offers you something even if you're not scared by it - plot, characters, effects etc. A good pop video can be fun to watch, even if you don't like the music. Could the same in principle be said about a good porn movie?


The truth is often hard to find, and often hard to grasp, but usually simple. Complexity can be obscurantism.


The viewpoint of the moralist is that of the victim. But the notion of "Victim" presupposes moralism.


When you're bored, everything is boring.


The notion of responsibility rests on the notion of blame, which rests on guilt, which rests on revenge. Which is a childish metaphysical notion that hurting the hurter undoes the hurt by somehow counterbalancing.

Revenge doesn't even work on the level of making people feel better.


Depression is when pleasure doesn't make you happy.


It's impossible to be a snob without being oblivious to it.


Some people don't like jokes. They tend to be the same people who don't enjoy having new experiences or learning new ideas.


Men think they want a wife, when what they really want is a family.


When people stop believing the doctrines of a cult, it's usually not because they discover them to by counter-empirical, vaccuous or incoherent. They stop believing the doctrines because they stop believing in the leadership.

Loyalty to leaders generates credence to their preachings. When leaders violate the morals of members, followers stop following, and disbelief - discrediting - is a result.

Faith is trust. Trust is personal.


There are few sights more pitiful than a sycophant immitating a fraud.


People use more brainpower in justifying stupidity than they ever use in being smart.


Spirituality comes from ritual and community. Theology comes from belief and rationalisation. People need spirituality, but get stuck with theology.


When meeting a person, ask yourself "Can I be honest with this person without offending them?". If the answer is no, don't waste your time with them.


The reasons why people join a movement predict what they will do when they leave it.


The motivation for most violence is revenge. This includes muder, and violence against inanimate objects. Justice is a euphemism.

The metaphysics of revenge are "two wrongs make a right" - a rebalancing image. But this presupposes that violence is considered a wrong.

Revenge may be motivated by one of three delusions:
1) It will make me feel better
2) It will rebalance the world
3) It will succeed in stopping the bad thing


A few love to lie, but many love to be lied to.


A nuanced theory is simply one packaged with its own belt of auxiliary handwaving. There is no nuance in F=MA.

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