Many places are saying that Hezbollah confirms his death.

I doubt he is going to be very hardcore but I’ll take it…! I’ll count the small w as a small w!

(1) Yes (2) “Sentient” is a better word. Man tends to be selectively compassionate. (3) The suffering is pretty imaginable, as is the torment, and it is all purposeful and thus needful. There is also a lot of pleasure, including very simple pleasures obtained from just looking at the horizon. (4) Life is not purely abuse, and we do not even know what the “cutoff” for heaven is.

Some other points on this:

• On March 10, 2011, Guinness World Records certified Hakamada as the world’s longest-held death row inmate.
• A featherweight, he was ranked as high as sixth in his weight class.[6] He finished his career with a 16–11–2 record, including one win by TKO. All of his losses were on points.[4] After his boxing career, he worked at a Shizuoka-based miso manufacturer.[7]
• Hakamada was interrogated and, in August 1966, he was arrested based on his confession and a tiny amount of blood and gasoline found on a pair of pajamas he owned. According to his lawyers, Hakamada was interrogated a total of 264 hours, for as many as 16 hours a session, over 23 days to obtain the confession. They added that he was denied water or toilet breaks during the interrogation.
• At his trial, Hakamada retracted the confession, saying police had kicked and clubbed him to obtain it, and pleaded not guilty.[7][2]

“I could do nothing but crouch down on the floor trying to keep from defecating,” he later told his sister. “One of the interrogators put my thumb onto an ink pad, drew it to a written confession record and ordered me, ‘Write your name here!’ [while] shouting at me, kicking me and wrenching my arm.”[6]

Hakamada supporters said the case was full of holes, arguing that the alleged murder weapon – a fruit knife with a 12.19-centimetre (4.80 in) blade – could not have withstood the forty stabbings of the victims without sustaining significant damage, and that the pajamas used to justify the arrest had disappeared and been replaced with the bloody clothing.[8] The clothes were too small for Hakamada but the prosecution argued they had shrunk in the miso tank and the label had a “B” or medium size label on it which would have fitted Hakamada. However the B indicated the colour Black not the size.

Bro got indicted for wearing a size Bedium.

Wikipedia–

There are definitely people who made terrible parents and part of that was the fact that they just did not have any real desire to be parents. That is highly problematic, of course, but the article does say that this is not about forcing kids on those who do not want them but rather it is about preventing anti-natalist ideologies to take root.

Of course, I think they will be promoting fertility actively and go further than what is just in the article. If they didn’t, it’d not have much of an impact.

In general, I think that society should encourage fertility and a parental disposition for all people. Not to force it on anyone, but to promote good values and maybe have that positive impact, right…

Like society should promote racial tolerance & actively esteem women. Not because this will actually eliminate racism or gender discrimination, but because it will have some amount of an impact on bringing our society towards where we want it to be.

OK, you can feel that way - I will not stop posting content from Breitbart or RT or anyone that has made an article I read that I believe is worh sharing.

I am aware of the bias, and I don’t particularly care - I am not going to stop consuming BBC or CNN because they are mouthpieces of NATO imperialism and gladly co-sign the genocide of Gaza. But I would like to see you do that since you are on such a high horse - why not make it higher?

We believe that spiritual advancement is impossible without humility, and the greatest reminder of humility is our own mortality. This is why my uncle, an alcoholic, who spent his last year unable to keep food down and vomiting his guts up, who died quite painfully over the course of his last months, was perhaps able to convert. It was able to reduce his life back to the objective perspective of it: a mortal in a weak husk doomed to give up the ghost.

Which is why in Catholic & Orthodox traditions it is thought that a prolonged death is desirable and a sign of divine mercy, while a quick, instantaneous death that does not provide a chance for reflection and penance is considered undesirable.

One of the more important things to understand about this, IMO, is also that non-physical suffering is a great teacher. Even enduring the unjust slander given to you is a sort of penance and opportunity for self-improvement and spiritual awakening.

It is also the case that the suffering of others provides much opportunity for reflection - many people around the world come to a pacifism through observing the results of the Ukraine and Gaza conflcits.

Many people become vegans just by encountering a single suffering animal.

Perhaps that is enough text for now - tell me, what do you think about this idea?

This and your last point are great! I think that’s really what gets missed. It doesn’t help that politicians and media companies seem to communicate in a patronizing way. Like, just tell us what’s the benefit of using slave labor or selling more weapon’s to shady groups. Tell us how much it’ll cost to change and who gets impacted. Let us have an honest transparent discussion. (/crazy, never gonna happen talk)

I now honestly believe that a bunch of them like to believe their own shit, or that they have to convince those among them of their own shit in order to just make the process of rallying support for unsavory characters palatable. Just like how normal people will just go ahead with what the mainstream media tells them, normal billionaires will do the same…

So, the CIA creates the PR lines for the major media mouthpieces around the world and everyone just endorses them.

I bet the funniest conversation we never get to be a part of is when major bankrollers of the Democrats/Republicans (or your local versions) call each other up a day after the political banquet and ask one another if it’s really about the party line for real or about the profiteering & realpolitik.

I recall learning about President Diaz in Mexico (he was a dictator) and how he allowed Americans to basically own everything (natural resources, railroads, large industrial corporations, etc.) while Mexican citizens were left to become a permanent working class with no chance of ever competing. Interestingly, he was praised during his time in office by the most famous American robber barons and considered a great leader that helped make Mexico become “industrialized” and modernized. They said those things out loud and seemingly meant them

I still genuinely do not know if the people praising him were using him and laughing quietly or if they genuinely saw it as a net positive for the average Mexican citizen at the time living as indentured servants forced to shop at company stores and whatnot. Like, if they genuinely believe it benefits the country to have such levels of inequality, it’s almost more worrying

The situation with Latin America has been overwhelmingly depressing since… forever.

Capitalism basically “works” for the developed world because we are at the end of the supply chain.

… When a median income American or a Frenchman or a Japanese person does poorly in school and then spends 3-4 years binge drinking or doing club drugs before joining the workforce, they can go to a trade school and end up with a solid income, a three or four bedroom home, two cars, everyone with a smartphone, cable TV, a gaming addiction, and a tidy little family with upward mobility…

… When a median income Filipino or Nigerian or Indian does absolutely everything right, tries hard and school, and they aren’t one of the most talented 5%, they will break their back and work six days a week to simply maintain their position in a world of shit.

But bowtie professor man at University can explain to you why it’s fair because SUPPLY & DEMAND… You are born in an area where an unskilled laborer gets to be in the service industry making $3,000 a month with a high school degree, and skilled laborers in many other countries making 1/8 that… And this imbalance is a FEATURE, not a BUG, because, if you haven’t noticed… I am sitting in air conditioning and shit posting on the internet and I am not working my fingers to the bone in Bangladesh next to a fan.

There are significant differences between the American & European center left. However, when you zoom out far enough, they are similar enough.

So the answer can be either “yes, they are similar,” or “no, there are significant divergences between the two.”

Not to mention that both of them have very different journalistic reputations. So, even if they are similar enough in biases, one is far more high brow than the other and consistently produces more reliable and in-depth reporting (BBC).

They are the mouthpiece of Jewish finance & neoconservatism designed to advance the cause of Zionism and attempt to redirect prole racism from conventional racism & Nazism towards Islamophobia and a very controllable anti-immigration movement.

They are actually what has been designed to prevent a popular far right movement from taking place minus one that is completely defanged and can simply be used to pour prole energy into forever wars to advance international capital.

It’s pretty conventional stuff.

I don’t know why anyone is so bothered by it - it’s basically just three clicks to the right of CNN.

Yeah, like I am totally a supporter of protectionism because it makes sense to throw a bone to local industry and enable them to compete, especially when that is the de facto position of most societies around the world.

It’s also bizarre to do massive bailouts for certain industries then just become super principled about the free market on another one.

I had heard it said that the reason why the US sometimes tolerates grave trade imbalances and sending jobs abroad is because it gives us a lot of diplomatic clout.

Like I just recently learned that when India is negotiating deals with the USA, the issue of H1B visas is openly discussed. The reason that Indians take up such a massive amount of the H1Bs doesn’t have much to do with collusion within the immigration system - it has to do with promsies we make to unload their skilled workers into the US since they depend on the remittances they send home and being able to give some kind of good deal to their own citizens who have an education. It is a massive pressure relief valve that they can send huge amounts of Indians abroad since it means that they do not have to provide opportunities for them at home (because there are none). Without this, there’d likely be a hell of a lot more unrest in India.

Holy shit, it’s a human interest story about a kidnapping that I happened to come across there.

Where are the lies…? Do you think someone over at Breitbart was like I gotta make a fake human interest story about a kidnapping that ends well - it also has to be FAKE, I can’t just lift it from other journalistic sources… I have to be true to the Breitbart motto of EVERYTHING MUST BE FAKE CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA, even when not explicitly conservative…

OK, that’s interesting, I see…!

You could say, though, that Michael Jackson is very undeniably a historic black American who suffered through living in poverty in a poor area and partly lived through the civil rights movement, though he was quite young… He was an ambassador for black Americans even if he did not want to be.

This is a radically different experience than what Kamala had, and who am I to judge black Americans who feel that being a black American person requires some connection to that world…?

My grandfather did not learn that he was adopted until he was at his own mother’s funeral (his father had already died). Someone there believed that he knew, and had brought it up casually. He turned as white as a ghost and proceeded to not discuss it for ten years.

My father was there, and he has always had interest in discovering the truth.

30 years later, with my grandfather in his 90s, he has no desire to know his biological parents, and when he learned he is completely a different ethnicity than both of his parents, he shrugged it off and said it was irrelevant because his cultural identity from his parents is the only relevant factor. Perhaps there is some internal discord over it, but I truly think that he remains psychologically unbothered. This has postiively impacted my own relationship with “blood” and “family,” seeing them as irrelevant, yet also understanding my father’s own desire to know their identities and trace the roots… He views it as an opportunity to have more family and more layers of identity, not as a biological identity canceling out another identity.

Of course, knowing that there was no foul play makes it a lot easier.

I did not know that about Pres. Wilson, thank you.

I also appreciate what you are saying here. I am not some extremist who thinks we need to remove Biden when his team is capable of navigating the last days of his Presidency but it would be strange to pretend those who disagree with me are goons for thinking as much.

Think of it as being a little more profound.

… To be completely fair… She had no say over her brother’s situation, and I have even heard it said that Michael was suffering from vitiligo, which spurred his skin bleaching because it was producing a very mottled effect… But yeah, IDK, I do not follow Janet closely or anything.

I just do not see her as responsible for what her brother did, and do not think I can really have an opinion on what her brother did because the motive may have been completely benign. There is even something to be said about Michael Jackson eventually coming to terms with his own relationship with his race and what that may have meant for him.

A mega-rich popstar not even being satisfied with being black and later understanding his internalized racism is quite a story, if true.

All suffering on earth is a means for us to repent and improve ourselves, since we are actually created imperfect.

My position would actually be that Janet Jackson has a right to say this, and I think her position, and the position of other people who have a take on culture, race, its expression, etc., are also interesting.

I assume you have a similar enough position - let Janet talk, and let her be wrong (if you think she is wrong), and I suppose it’s just fun for me to discuss it.

Janet is a pretty liberal black woman - made her appearance back on RuPaul’s drag race back in like Season 3 or something, which I believe was before The Straights were head over heels into it.

I think she’s actually voicing something that elements of the black community have felt for a long time: there are people getting credit for blackness without being authentically black, which is why wealthy African transplants to the US without real authentic African American roots are sometimes also treated like a sort of outsider (and vice versa).

I do not think it’s so different from working class white people criticizing weatlhy white people who pose as working class…

It’s actually quite in line with a lot of Critical Theory: race is a social construct, and thus things like Whiteness and Blackness are defined by the lived realities and the perceptions of all manner of people.

If this was the year 2009 and we were talking about a half-Jamaican, half-Indian district attorney in San Francisco whose father and mother were both academics and who grew up in Canada attending a private school and black people were criticizing her for capitalizing off of her bloodline but not being authentically black, there would be zero controversy here.

The problem is that a black woman is criticizing a candidate who is half black by blood and needs the black vote for the liberal party in a Presidential election… But if she was for the Conservative party? This observation about her would be all anyone talkeda bout on the left.