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[silverspawn]

Wait the talk at google came later? Now I'm just very confused.

[silverspawn]

Not trying to do status signaling here, but the affection that fruit flies have for me and my apartment is completely one-sided.

[silverspawn]

Iron Sky predates Trump by some years and has a Trump-like president (modeled after Sarah Palin).
Idiocracy, for all its faults, presents the president as equally stupid as the general population.
I think there was also a Simpsons episode that predicted Trump being president but I haven't seen it.

So none of these seems impressive. Iron Sky for what I alread said

Idiocracy seems to be about how people are stupid in the future, so having a stupid president isn't special

And I just watched the simpsons episode; the bit about Trump consists of a setup piece; Lisa is president and has financial trouble because the previous administration (by  Trump) was incompetent

[silverspawn]

Talking about privilege is extremely fundamentally bogus.

At step one you can talk about racial privilege

At step two you can realize that wealth privilege and beauty privilege also matters and for some reason isn't talked about much

At step three you can realize that personality traits are also privilege, like IQ and conscientiousness and hedonic setpoint and whatnot

At step four you can realize that in the presence of determinism, it's turtles privilege all the way down

At step five you can accept how it is deeply unfair that you are not someone else and that there's nothing to be done about this

And at step six you can realize that you are, in fact, everyone else so even that doesn't work

[silverspawn]

The only coherent way to talk about privilege is the consequentialist way; what will make lives better given the totally nonsensical views that we in fact have and which in fact matter in real life. If people are particularly bothered by racial inequalities than reparations make sense, but this does not fundamentally solve privilege

[faust]

Talking about privilege is extremely fundamentally bogus.

At step one you can talk about racial privilege

At step two you can realize that wealth privilege and beauty privilege also matters and for some reason isn't talked about much

At step three you can realize that personality traits are also privilege, like IQ and conscientiousness and hedonic setpoint and whatnot

At step four you can realize that in the presence of determinism, it's turtles privilege all the way down

At step five you can accept how it is deeply unfair that you are not someone else and that there's nothing to be done about this

And at step six you can realize that you are, in fact, everyone else so even that doesn't work

I think you are missing the point.

When people talk about privilege, this refers to an institutionalized preference towards certain groups of people. The clearest examples being laws that explicitly target or exclude certain groups, as have existed in the past on grounds of race, gender and sexuality.

These days most of this institutional discrimination is more implicit, but still exists. Also a lot of current-day privilege can be traced back to those explicit laws that have set up the current society, especially so in the case of race.

Wealth privilege (though I would say class privilege) certainly exists. In my personal bubble this is talked about quite frequently but I see how that might not be the case in the general public. Beauty privilege I would argue is weaker than race or class, but it is the case that you will be unable to take certain jobs if you don't fall into a beauty standard, so yes it is a thing. Of course it is also influenced by other privileges; you do have a significant amount of influence of your personal appearance after all if you have the resources for it. This leads into intersectionality, wher you consider how the various forms of privilege may impact one another.

I think you have a hard time arguing that discrimination based on traits like IQ is institutionalized in the same way as these other factors. I can imagine a world where it is, and in that world it would make sense to talk about IQ privilege, but it is not the world we live in.

[silverspawn]

I was certainly missing that point. Why does it matter if it's institutionalized?

[faust]

I was certainly missing that point. Why does it matter if it's institutionalized?

It matters insofar as institutional forms of discrimination can be fought through legislation and the executive branch, whereas other forms of discrimination would need to be addressed via the judicial system (broadly speaking). Thus is makes sense for a political movement to make that distinction.

[silverspawn]

i mean, my whole point was that there is no way to look at this other than at the practical level, so I have no disagreements with that

[Awaclus]

In most cases, it would be more appropriate to talk about oppression than privilege. Rights are rights, not privileges — being denied them is oppression.

[silverspawn]

Right to be attactive?

[Awaclus]

Right to be attactive?

Sure. In some Islamic theocracies, women are denied the right to be attractive, and that's oppression.

[silverspawn]

But what about people who are naturally unattractive

[Awaclus]

But what about people who are naturally unattractive

It isn't illegal for people who are naturally unattractive to become attractive, nor has society been rigged in any other way to make it more difficult for naturally unattractive people to be attractive. It's a negative right.

[silverspawn]

insects really are the worst

[Awaclus]

insects really are the worst

I agree.

[silverspawn]

Universal Love, said the Cactus Person

[silverspawn]

Just gonna repost this apropos of nothing

[silverspawn]

Let's do another one of those netflix runs

1/n Vivarium

[silverspawn]

yes birds sure are disgusting if you look closely enough

[silverspawn]

Something I do not get is missing subtitles on Netflix. Providing those has got to be cheap enough to be worth it. This movie doesn't have English subtitles even though English is the original language. I know most people in German have terrible enough taste to prefer German subtitles over the ones in original language, but my preference isn't that rare.

[silverspawn]

Then if I turn on a proxy, the movie disappears. This usually happens. I don't get it; why are English movies only available in Germany? Or is Netflix just smart enough to see that I'm using the proxy?

Guess I'll watch it without subtitles.

[silverspawn]

7yo: why is the bird dead?
adult: maybe a cuckoo killed it
7yo: why would it do that?
adult: it needed a nest?
7yo: why can't it just built its own nest?
adult: that's just the way things are. it's nature
7yo: I don't like the way things are. It's horrible.

This is bloody spot on. Some quote like "only children and rationalists know what the world would be like if god existed" is relevant here.

[Awaclus]

Something I do not get is missing subtitles on Netflix. Providing those has got to be cheap enough to be worth it. This movie doesn't have English subtitles even though English is the original language. I know most people in German have terrible enough taste to prefer German subtitles over the ones in original language, but my preference isn't that rare.

And the English subtitles probably literally exist, they're just choosing not to deploy them. At worst, they'd have to rip the subs from a pirate release and have someone watch it on like 2x speed to make sure they aren't getting trolled, because unlike fan translations, I don't think a simple transcription has any of the pirates' copyrightable creative work in it.

[silverspawn]

Looks like an immediate hit. That's a first.