brazenautomaton:

nostalgebraist:

Social justice warriors (SJWs) are like the weather.

…Okay, your #quotes tag may be getting out of hand. This one is so abrupt and so short of context I can’t even tell what position it is supposed to be humiliating toward, or why. There are dozens of ways you could complete that thought, some of which are something you would want to shame, some of which are entirely reasonable. Depending on how you completed it, it could be advocating completely different viewpoints (for you to mock).

It’s like quoting “I like my women like I like my coffee.” and ending it there.

I think you’re reading my tag as having a more specific purpose than it does.  The only unifying feature is “I thought it would be fun to post this with no context.”

Sometimes that’s because it’s a self-evidently absurd statement and I want people to wonder why anyone might possibly say it, but in other cases it’s because the quote is just pretty, or enigmatic, or one of a bunch of other things.  Or elsewhere – which is what’s going on here – the “no context” part is doing most of the work: the quote has context that makes it clear what is meant, but without that clarification, it lends itself to various strange interpretations.  What you’re seeing as a bug is, in this case, the whole point of the exercise.

(via brazenautomaton)

where did you *find* this thing

The book that quote is from is by an author I started reading after I saw him mentioned in a book by Alfred Jay Nock, which I read after I saw Nock mentioned in a Moldbug post

So blame Moldbug, I guess

Is this from Worm? (I can’t remember a specific quote, but I think the question of whether the main character can control crustaceans came up, and it’s also told in first person)

Yes.  (I am reading Worm, technically, but I read so slowly that I don’t know if I’ll get anywhere in something so long, so saying “I am reading Worm” without clarification would be misleading)

For some reason I think this is Phillip K Dick. Which book is it?

Yeah, it’s from A Scanner Darkly.

nostalgebraist:

I don’t know what she thinks the odds actually are, but I would give above an 80% chance of chicken consciousness and above, say, 85% for pig consciousness (compared against maybe 95% that you’re conscious).

Only 95%!?

(The “Only 95%!?” above was uncrediblehallq‘s response – tumblr doesn’t want to seem to reblog it in the usual way)

In the original text, “95%” was a link to the Wikipedia page for “Solipsism.”  The idea seems to be that determining that you are conscious (answer: duh) is a different problem from determining if anyone else is, and so the person being described (Marian Stamp Dawkins) can’t be as sure of your consciousness as of her own.  5% chance of “solipsism is true” does seem really high, but I guess it might be a reflection of the fact that there’s no single generally accepted resolution to the problem of other minds and so one has to leave some room for the possibility that there is no resolution.  (Still seems weird to me, though.)

(via uncrediblehallq)

turboshitnerd replied to your post: A man who says that Bronyism is the greatest foe,…

[vomiting gestures]

The terrible manosphere blog post I got that from is just, like, a goldmine

Another sample quote:

There is a problem that we face, that ‘civilized’ man has neither civilization or the need to be. What then, is authenticity? Is it Homestuckian irony?

zymedness:

nostalgebraist:

The kitten playing Antigone, Ophelia, or such like distressed heroines, in awful, grim earnest is not a conception that readily occurs even to the most affectionate and imaginative of kitten owners.

I must know the context for this o.o

It’s from Septimus by William John Locke:

As Emmy’s professional disappointments had been many, and as Zora in her heart of hearts did not entirely approve of her sister’s musical-comedy career, she tempered her sympathy with philosophic reflections. She had never taken Emmy seriously. All her life long Emmy had been the kitten sister, with a kitten’s pretty but unimportant likes, dislikes, habits, occupations, and aspirations. To regard her as being under the shadow of a woman’s tragedy had never entered her head. The kitten playing Antigone, Ophelia, or such like distressed heroines, in awful, grim earnest is not a conception that readily occurs even to the most affectionate and imaginative of kitten owners.

(via alstroemeria313)

rageofthedogstar:

nostalgebraist:

Combatants routinely styled themselves after heroes in violent American action movies like Rambo, Terminator, and Jungle Killer, and many went under such fanciful noms de guerre as Colonel Action, Captain Mission Impossible, General Murder, Young Colonel Killer, General Jungle King, Colonel Evil Killer, General War Boss III, General Jesus, Major Trouble, General Butt Naked, and, of course, General Rambo.

A quote I recognize! The dictators handbook, right? What do you think of it?

The quote was actually from The Remnants of War, as quoted in The Better Angels of Our Nature.  Speaking of which, you reblogging this reminded me that you made a post a little while back collecting critiques of Better Angels, which I should reblog for future reference … 

(via rageofthedogstar-blog)

i am willing to bet that whatever this is its about kinfolk

a winner is you

Your quotes tag is really on fire tonight.

Thanks.  It was the cumulative harvest of a 5.5-hour plane flight w/ Kindle