Husseinisdoingfine

My Grandfather, on the Russian side of my family, actually worked in Syria as an aircraft engineer under the presidency of Hafez Al-Assad. The Soviet Union and Ba’athist Syria were huge allies and so the Soviet Union actually stationed engineers in Syria. He would be devastated by these recent developments. He loved Palmyra (city in Syria), worked in Homs (another city), and had huge respect for the Assad family.

The Truth About Syria.

The identity of the man who killed the CEO has been revealed. Meet University of Pennsylvania graduate, 26 year old Luigi Mangione.

@integration journey I'm not saying Syrians are Salafi-Jihadists, Qutbists, or Wahhabi's. BUT, what I am saying is that most Syrians are of a traditional value system and more align with Spiral Dynamics integral stage blue value system, whereas Assad was much more stage red. Thus, they will have a stage blue system of Government. https://www.actualized.org/articles/spiral-dynamics-stage-blue https://deep-psychology.com/spiral-dynamics-stage-blue-in-a-nutshell/

Don Beck actually pointed this out, that the civil war and refugee situation forced a lot of people into the first tier Beige vMeme, as people had resorted to drinking rainwater to survive. A lot of the vMeme progress was destroyed in the civil war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Israeli_invasion_of_Syria But is this the real reason for the invasion, or is there a more sinister reason?

To answer this question, of what type of Government comes next, I asked this question to ChatGPT: According to Don Edward Beck, what Spiral Dynamics Integral vMeme was Syria under Assad? Here was the answer by ChatGPT: Don Edward Beck, co-creator of the Spiral Dynamics model, did not publicly assign a specific vMeme to Syria under Bashar al-Assad's regime. However, based on the characteristics of the regime, it can be inferred that it aligns with the Red vMeme. The Red vMeme is characterized by authoritarian power structures, dominance, and a focus on control, which are evident in Assad's governance. This vMeme reflects a worldview centered on power and coercion, often leading to oppressive and dictatorial regimes. If the rebels overthrow a Red vMeme Government and replace it with a Blue vMeme Islamist Government, then from a Spiral Dynamics POV, this makes total sense. Too much of Syria is too religious and too conservative, that's how ISIS was able to spread so rapidly, and why Al-Nusra was so popular. Most of the Syrian rebels are Islamists and Salafist Jihadists, not secular democrats. We can try to forcefully impose a Orange vMeme style pluralist liberal democracy, identical to that in Europe, but do the Syrian people want that? Will the Muslims be okay with living under a kafir (disbeliever) satanic liberal democracy that doesn't even talk about God, and has the nerve to not teach God in schools? The value systems of most Syrians is less aligned with Europe, and more aligned with Afghanistan/Taliban, Iran, and Pakistan. Also consider how Syria just overthrew Red, Blue comes after Red, and Blue is desperately need to unify societies and enforce a harsh black and white morality to quell Red's unhinged impulses. Just look at this list below. Most of the forces involved with the Rebels were Islamist groups, not secular democrats. Edit: CNN interview with Al-Julani, where he explicitly mentions wanting Islamic rule at the 5:00 minute mark

What does this mean? Are you in a militia? Leadership position?

@Leo Gura If you’re confused about what comes next, we worked on a thread containing dozens of Wikipedia links about the rebels, what they want and what is their ideology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Mohammad_al-Julani

Exactly my thoughts. Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham used to be part of Al-Qaeda. The rebels are more aligned with Al-Qaeda ideologically.

The axis of resistance is beginning to fall. The HTS is an opponent of Hezbollah. This victory means Iran can’t transport weapons to Lebanon from Syria, who in turn can’t transport weapons to Hamas.

HTS is an explicitly Sunni Islamist organization and the SSG already rules the parts it controls as an Islamic State. I doubt Julani won’t just change his mind or isn’t lying. He was a former Al-Qaeda operator, and overnight just turns into a liberal Democrat? No. At best it will be something like Pakistan, where there will be some democracy, but the official religion will be Islam. And at worse it will become an Islamic emirate like Afghanistan.

We discussed this in another thread, but mostly likely some sort of Islamist government. The Syrian rebels did not consist of Democrats. Their leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani was a former ISIS, Al-Nusra, and Al-Qaeda operator. Assad was resented largely for his secularism. So to answer the question of what comes next, most likely an Islamic society similar to that in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iran.

I can’t believe that vermin such as John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and their vile ilk came out victorious in the geopolitical chess game that was the Syrian Civil War.

On 27 November 2024, a coalition of Syrian Opposition groups called the Military Operations Command led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an offensive against the pro-government Syrian Arab Army (SAA) forces in Aleppo and Idlib Governorates in Syria. The offensive was called Deterrence of Aggression by HTS and launched in retaliation for the increased SAA shelling of civilians in the Western Aleppo countryside. The offensive is the first time opposition forces launched an attack since the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire. Other groups involved include; The Sham Legion, Northern Storm Brigade, Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, led by The Syrian National Army, as well as The Syrian Salvation Government. Green indicates territory controlled by the Rebels. As of now, the rebels have captured five districts in Aleppo city. Aleppo has a total of eight districts and this conflict (as of writing this) is less than twenty-four hours old. Massive Edit & Update: Syrian opposition have captured all of Aleppo. Government forces have fled. Aleppo has fallen.

War Update: Homs has fallen

All politicians are selfish, corrupt, and self-biased to some extent. You will never find a politician who is completely relieved of any self-bias and ego, its a spectrum, to what degree are they corrupt and self-biased. And the degree matters very much. Progressive Social-Democrats are significantly less self-biased and egoic than centrist-liberals, who are in turn less egoic and biased than Conservatives, who are less self-biased and egoic than far-right populist nationalists. But just to become the President of the United States requires immense amount of bias, to America, its culture, its Liberal values and founding philosophy, etc... And to prefer this over other countries and their values.

Massive Update to the situation: Syrian Rebels have entered Damascus (capital city) The Battle of Damascus has begun. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Damascus_(2024) )

Update: Attempt to impeach president fails after boycott from the ruling party.

⚠️ Disclaimer: link below contains graphic video of shooting ⚠️ https://files.catbox.moe/csc813.mp4

I just asked ChatGPT, What are the epistemic, intellectual, and historical problems of Marxism? The result was too long to post here, but it was really fascinating and raised issues that I have not even considered. I as well asked, 'What are the epistemic, sociological, historical, scientific, and even spiritual/nondual problems of the gender binary', and got more profound answers.

Me: Re-do the first list, but make it about the epistemic problems of Islam ChatGPT: Here’s the same list of epistemic issues, applied specifically to Islam: 1. Reliance on Revelation in Islam Problem: Islam claims that divine revelation, particularly the Qur'an, is a primary and ultimate source of truth. This raises questions about how the authenticity of the Qur'an as a divine message can be verified, especially when revelation is beyond human experience. Challenge: How can Muslims justify belief in the Qur'an as the literal word of God, especially in the face of competing claims of divine revelation in other religions? 2. Subjectivity of Faith Problem: Faith (iman) is central to Islamic belief, but faith varies in strength and interpretation among individuals. Challenge: How can faith in Islamic teachings provide reliable knowledge if it is deeply subjective and influenced by personal and cultural factors? 3. Interpretation of the Qur'an and Hadith Problem: The Qur'an and Hadith are open to multiple interpretations, leading to diverse schools of thought (e.g., Sunni, Shia, Sufi) and jurisprudential differences. Challenge: Who has the authority to provide the definitive interpretation of Islamic texts, and how can interpretations avoid human bias or political influence? 4. Historical Reliability Problem: Islamic claims about Muhammad’s life, the compilation of the Qur'an, and miraculous events rely on historical accounts, often derived from the Hadith and sira (biographies). Challenge: How can one verify the historical accuracy of these sources, especially when they were compiled decades or centuries after the events? 5. Problem of Religious Pluralism Problem: Islam claims exclusivity in truth, describing itself as the final and complete revelation (seal of the prophets). However, this conflicts with other religions that make similar exclusivist claims. Challenge: How can Islam justify its epistemic superiority over other religions that rely on similar arguments for their validity? 6. Circular Reasoning Problem: Many Islamic arguments for the truth of the Qur'an are circular, such as asserting that the Qur'an is true because it says it is from God. Challenge: How can Muslims provide independent justification for the divine origin of the Qur'an without relying on its own claims? 7. The Problem of Non-Belief Problem: If Allah desires that all people know and worship Him, why do many remain unconvinced or unaware of Islam? Challenge: How does Islam address the existence of sincere non-Muslims or those who reject Islam despite their earnest search for truth? 8. Miracles and Supernatural Claims Problem: Islamic claims about miracles (e.g., Muhammad splitting the moon, the inimitability of the Qur'an) are often unverifiable or conflict with empirical standards. Challenge: How can these miracles be evaluated epistemically, especially when they rely on historical testimony rather than observable evidence? 9. Epistemic Exclusivity Problem: Islam asserts that it is the only valid path to truth and salvation, labeling other religions as incomplete or distorted. Challenge: How can Islam epistemically justify such exclusivist claims in the face of competing religious systems that make similar assertions? 10. Epistemic Role of Tradition Problem: Islamic tradition (sunna) plays a major role in shaping beliefs and practices, but traditions are subject to historical and cultural influences. Challenge: How can one differentiate divine truths from human-developed traditions within Islam, particularly when traditions vary across Islamic sects? 11. Testability and Falsifiability Problem: Many Islamic claims, such as the Qur'an being the literal and inimitable word of God, are not easily testable or falsifiable. Challenge: How can Muslims epistemically justify belief in these claims without relying on subjective or non-empirical methods? 12. Problem of Divine Hiddenness Problem: If Allah exists and desires that people follow Islam, why is the evidence for His existence and the truth of Islam not universally clear and undeniable? Challenge: How does Islamic epistemology explain the lack of universal recognition or acceptance of Allah and Islam? 13. Ethical-Epistemic Tensions Problem: Certain ethical teachings in the Qur'an or Hadith may conflict with modern moral intuitions or scientific understanding (e.g., slavery, gender roles, or corporal punishment). Challenge: How should Muslims reconcile apparent conflicts between divine commands and evolving ethical or empirical reasoning? 14. Dependence on Testimony Problem: Much of Islamic knowledge about Muhammad, the Qur'an, and the early Muslim community depends on historical testimony, such as the Hadith collections. Challenge: How reliable is testimony as an epistemic source, especially when Hadith authenticity is contested and subject to rigorous grading systems? 15. The Role of Language Problem: The Qur'an is considered inimitable in its original Arabic, but this poses challenges for non-Arabic speakers and for translations, which may lose nuances or meaning. Challenge: How can the universality of Islam be maintained when access to its core text depends on understanding classical Arabic? 16. Epistemic Exclusivity Problem: Islam’s claim that it is the ultimate truth (and that all non-Muslim paths are misguided) conflicts with the pluralistic experiences of religious believers worldwide. Challenge: How can Islam epistemically justify its exclusivist stance while accounting for the sincerity and validity of other religious experiences? These epistemic issues demonstrate the challenges faced by Islamic theology and philosophy in establishing, justifying, and communicating knowledge claims. They remain active areas of debate among Muslim scholars, philosophers, and critics.