Aristoles’ Nicomachian Ethics (2300 years ago) basically argues that what makes a person “good” is that they are in the habit of doing the right thing. A villain might do a random act of kindness, and a saint may give in to temptation. If you want to be “good” you need to practice being good all the time so that it becomes second nature, or, one might say, a habit.

It’s that carefully developed habit of doing the right thing that let’s others know they can trust you to act rightly, and gives you confidence that even in a difficult situation you won’t be a coward or a liar or whatever. Because you’ve built that habit over countless smaller situations, and it’s a reliable part of who you are.

Because that’s the logical fallacy of Denying the Antecedent . If “it’s raining” then “the sidewalk is wet”. Knowing that it’s raining tells us something about the sidewalk, it’s not dry, it’s wet. And knowing the sidewalk is dry tells us something, it can’t be raining (because if it was, the sidewalk would be wet).

But knowing “it is not raining” doesn’t tell us about the sidewalk (it could be dry, it could be wet, maybe it rained earlier, maybe a dog peed on it). And similarly knowing the sidewalk is wet doesn’t tell us anything about the rain.

So even if “mo money causes mo problems” all that tells us is that someone with mo money will not be problem free. People with no money might also have mo problems, the syllogism doesn’t tell us about that.

I don’t know, I actually like the whole flawed idea of vulcan logic. Throughout the different shows we come to understand that ‘vulcan logic’ isn’t some weird alien “their brains work differently” thing. They used to be violent and emotional, and they came up with a social system that helped solve that, and ushered in an age if peace and progress.

But “logic” isn’t a meaningful method to live a life, it’s a very specific tool for certain types of problems. Even our primitive earth philopshers have identified many problems with thinking that we could live life purely logically, as Hume puts it "Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”.

So we’re not seeing a bunch of transcendent android minds, we’re seeing the equivalent of a bunch of recovering alcoholics clinging desperately to a worldview that they cannot question, but that is itself “illogical”. So their disdain for other races is partly a consequence of their general directness and not holding back criticism, but also an anxious defence mechanism of people who know that even their indoctrinating school system and constant peer pressure might not be enough if Vulcans feel like it’s okay to like humans or whomever, because that’s only one step away from “well, if they’re doing okay why can’t I fall in love and cry and laugh!” and that way lies bloody civil war and a return to barbarism.

Is there a movie of that? Is it a sequel or prequel?

If this is a genuine question, and not a halfhearted attempt at trolling, you need to be more specific about what you’re asking:

Are you looking for biological / evolutionary theories about why maaaaany animals show same sex sexual activity?

Are you looking for an anthropology/historical analysis of how human sexuality has been expressed in different ways and had very different norms and taboos than our current blend?

Or are you asking individuals to talk about their own experience and what lead them to identify as whatever?

Zoloft been in use since 1991, and “Is that your phone?” was a perfectly cromulent thing to say in the 90s, meaning “do I hear your land-line ringing?” not “is that your pocket computer on the table there?”

I was into it for a bit and managed it a few times. It is totally amazing. If I lived the kinda life that could involved naps again I’d be tempted to retrain, but it might have to wait for retirement…

Can I ask what issues? I’m using Firefox but open to changing if there’s better options!

Absolutely this. I can only speak for myself, and I know that some folks are so starved for representation that they are happy with anything and that’s fine, but for me poor representation is just as bad as none at all.

I’m a guy married to a guy, and I do like to see queer characters and same sex romance options. But playing DA: Origin and crushing on Alastair, only to have the option of Zevran… It kinda feels like the games is telling me “gay men are campy and promiscuous, a sensitive and strong guy like Alistair is clearly heterosexual”. It didn’t make me feel included or represented, quite the opposite.

Obviously, times change, and sometimes these clumsy first steps are how we get to somewhere better. But as well as disappointing me, I understand why awkward ‘woke’ representation rubs people the wrong way. If I as a queer man find the gay character tokenistic, underdeveloped and kinda annoying then it doesn’t surprise me that other folks would too. And being willing to say “this is good representation, but that is shallow box ticking” would help us all get to better place.

Nah, an English muffin is basically a bread product - you shape them and leave to rise, but a crumpet is more like a fancy pancake - it’s a batter poured into a ring on a hot pan, and has baking powder as well yeast (which gives it the trademark holes). But maybe that’s just in Britain? Maybe you chaps have different crumpets?

I’m British, and if you offered most British people “a muffin” they would assume you meant the American style sugar and oil affair. Some people do enjoy an “English muffin” but they’re not very popular, much less loved than crumpets, which themselves are probably below scones. The main use I see of them is as the base of Eggs Benedict, which works because they are basic and go well with butter. A white chocolate & blueberry muffin is a much more controversial paring for poached eggs and hollandaise.

As the other commentors have said, this isn’t a problem with email services, it’s a problem with email users. If you put all the addresses in the “To:” or “CC:” boxes, its because you want someone to Reply All. If you want to prevent that, put all the recipients in the BCC box.

Its a good idea, but fortunately someone already solved it a good while back. Now we just need a PSA to teach people to stop cramming everyone in the wrong box.

I’m mot sure I understand what kind of answer you are looking for. What did the Whig historiography achieve? Or the Great Man theory? Isn’t Critical Theory an academic approach that allows people in the humanities a different theoretical framework to approach the problems of culture, history, literature, etc? It’s been pretty successful in that, and while I believe that academic scholarship has some influence on world affairs, it’s generally the political zetgeist exerts more pressure on academic thinking than the other way around…

I get the sense from your wording that you might be in the younger end of the spectrum. Although the world can feel pretty shitty and messed up, it’s often worth remembering “this too shall pass”. Obviously no one wants the world to be awful, and living through hard times isn’t desirable, but just like the good stuff never lasts, the bad stuff changes too. The Great Depression lasted a decade, the Nazis ran Germany for just a bit longer.

Those were presumably fucking dreadful times to live through. But the decades that followed were comparatively prosperous for the countries. What’s happening in the US is depressing as all hell, but it’ll change, and all you can do is the best you can to make it less dreadful, for yourself and the people around you.

I’ve used (and loved) Sleep as Android for yeeears. It’s a great app and the developer is always adding extra things, new wearable integration and stuff. So, I really don’t mean to bitch because I think it’s a solid app with solid support. But I recommended it to a friend the other day and they pointed out the unlock is now €69.99!! I~~ think it was a fiver when ~~just checked my email, it was €1.99 in 2013 when I unlocked it.

Defintely recommend, and I think the free version is still pretty amazing. But wow, even with extra features, that’s some inflation.

Thia is exactly the video I was thinking of. I only came across his channel recently, and it is an absolute pleasure.

Totally agree. Seeing how “Internet like” communication existed before the Internet is always fascinating to me. Whether it’s fanclubs, wargaming zines or Enlightened era correspondence, people have had written interactions with effective strangers for centuries. But it was incredibly different before.

The very act of sitting down to write, paying some money and effort to literally post it probably had a huge calming effect on idle bad faith takes. And I imagine that getting a letter with someone telling me names for thinking McCoy is better than Spock would probably make me feel derisively sorry for the poor nerd who went to the effort.

My take is that written communication is hard, unless a) you know each other really well, e.g. messaging friends, or b) you write carefully and with enough detail to help the other person understand fully your position, and they bother reading with the same care.

When you read an essay or article it of often begins by setting out the problem, giving some context and even defining their priorities and approach, before they make a claim or argument. They spend time addressing the obvious criticisms of their argument, and ideally admiting weak spots, and maybe even empathising with why someone might reject their position. This means that when you read an article like that, even if argues against something important to you, you don’t feel attacked. It’s calm, general reasoning, and obviously not a personal a attack on you as an individual.

But if you post an picture of the secondhand car you’ve saved for two years to afford, and the first comment is “fuck cars, they’re killing the planet” it’s easy to feel like it’s a personal and it’s aggressive. Or if you write a pretty reasonable but contraversial opinion, people might not have the time or will to break it down and explain why it’s wrong, but they don’t want other people to read it and think it’s okay, so they down vote and comment a quick “what is this shit ?”

Morris is defintely a first name in Britain. I went to school with a Morris Morrison.

That’s interesting. I’m not a film guy at all, and it certainly never occurred to me that it pioneered some of the key stuff in modern movies (although that totally makes sense). But I remember enjoying it! The pacing felt quite good, there were some mysteries and character drama. Not a top movie for me personally, but pretty watchable for a B&W movie.