DocWatts

Fallout New Vegas also comes to mind for being as Gold standard when it comes to in depth writing, a well realized world, nuanced and believable characters, and player choice.

Please tell me you've played Planescape Torment, this game's spiritual predecessor

Another excellent video from Second Thought. I know the whitewashing of controversial historical figures isn't unique to America, but from a firsthand perspective this is highly pervasive in the United States, to the point where I've seen incredibly ignorant Conservatives use out of context MLK or Malcolm X quotes to try and somehow 'debunk' social justice movements like BlackLivesMatter. She wasn't mentioned in the video, but Helen Keller is another example that comes to mind. Most American school children only learn how she overcame blindness and deafness to communicate with the outside world and lead a productive life, while completely overlooking what she spent the rest of her life fighting for; namely social and economic justice for poor and disabled people through her advocacy of Socialist ideals and reforms.

I'll caveat this by admitting that I haven't made my way through the entire series yet (a lot of ideas to consider and unpack, and not the sort of thing I can just put on in the background and listen to while writing code for my day job), but wouldn't a more accurate name for this series be Deconstructing the Myth of Materialist Reductionism? Not sure if this was intentional or not, but your mention in part one of trying to study a frog by putting it through a blender and then looking at its cells under a microscope brings to mind a famous essay by the philosopher Thomas Nagel called What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, which raises many of the same points you do about the limitations of Materialist Reductionism. In Part One, I do wonder if maybe you're conflating fields of knowledge which are Scientifically Informed from the process of Scientific Discovery. Hell, even the Catholic Church has updated its worldview in response to scientific discoveries. I also wonder whether trying to come up with clear boundaries for what is or is not Science ultimately becomes a questions of semantics at some point, rather than being helpful for the purposes of clarity. Great series so far by the way. I think your videos are fantastic at bringing up questions of epistemology for things that go unquestioned in the broader culture, even if I end up disagreeing with some of the points you make.

Well said.

@Keyhole Using punitive measures like Fines is about all that we have left to fall back on, unfortunate though that may be. It wouldn't have to even be that expensive of a fine, it could be as low as $30 or $40 as long as it was strictly enforced. Psychological research supports this, as punitive measure that tend to work tend to be ones that impose minor to moderate penalties but are strictly enforced.

Yeah an ego backlash is the most likely result from this. Since America has somehow politicized a Virus, and not wearing a mask has somehow morphed into a low-iq political statement, I don't see another way to deal with this other than denying people not wearing a mask entry to public spaces, and by fining people who violate mask orders.

If education pushes people away from Conservatism, if anything that's more indicative of Conservativism being an outdated ideology that people tend to move beyond as they learn more about the world, rather than an imagined plot in the minds of Conservatives to push a Left Wing agenda. Also the point I was making is that k-12 education can tend to skew Conservative in Conservative regions of the country (and more Liberal in Liberal regions of the Country). Simple reason for this is that school curriculums are set more by local and state education boards than they are by the Federal government. Academics in Higher Education do tend to be more Left leaning, but is that really any more of a surprise (or cause for alarm) than the prevalence of Conservatism in the Military or Police? Academia tends to promotes open mindedness and skepticism, while the military promotes honor, duty, and obedience to authority; no great mystery why those on the Left gravitate more towards the former, and those on the Right gravitate more towards the latter. Not even necessarily a bad thing.

The current Secretary of Education, Betsey Devos, is a right wing Corporate shill with a huge conflict of interest due to her financial ties to privatized educational institutions. The people who approve education curriculums for k-12 schools, where the aforementioned white washing is inculcated into people at a young age, are often very Conservative in many parts of the country. The 'Cultural Marxism' idea that's being alluded to is little more than a Conspiracy Theory and scare tactic used in Bad Faith arguments to undermine progressive ideas and movements, basically McCarthyism 2.0. The idea was first brought to prominence by fascist ideologues as part of a belief in a world wide Jewish Conspiracy, and today the term is often used as a dog whistle for anti-Semitism and white nationalism.

I wholeheartedly agree with Blade Runner 2049 being an improvement on the original. As for David Lynch, I can absolutely see the glimpses of the brilliance that goes in to his films, thing is though they're just kind of unpleasant to watch. Never felt more uncomfortable watching a movie than I did for Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. And the less said about his Dune adaptation, the better (seems like a really odd choice for that particular movie). Won't begrudge anyone who doesn't have that hangup and loves his films though, and I suppose it's possible that those two examples aren't necessarily representative of his whole filmography.

Well that's a Bold Statement. Sorry nothing in the movie resonated with you at all, aside from maybe the visuals. I think you'll find a lot of people disagree with you on that, and find the film to be both incredibly well made and emotionally moving. I guess maybe I get it though, I suppose I could probably think of an example or two of a film that's very highly regarded that just didn't click with me on a subjective level. David Lynch's films come to mind...

Yeah the original cut is one of the most infamous cases in all of cinema of executive meddling being detrimental to an otherwise great film. I'm just glad that a cut closer to the original vision was eventually released. Also the stylistic aspects that Leo mentioned aren't there just to be eye catching or cool, they're deliberately used for a number of symbolic and thematic purposes that tie directly in to the ideas the movie is trying to convey.

Same! I can understand not liking Blade Runner, similar to how one might have good reasons for not liking Citizen Kane, but to argue that either movie is devoid of depth comes across as not really being well versed in films as an artform.

If you're alluding to monopolistic tech giants like Apple or Google, then no. Despite promoting some Green social attitudes as part of thier company Culture, thier structure and business practices are still solidly Orange. Green businesses do of course exist, but the sort of ruthlessness needed to become a 'filthy rich' monopoly aren't congruent with stage Green values. A stage Green business structure would be more along the lines of something like a worker-owned cooperative, which do exist, but are nowhere near the size of the largest traditionally run corporations. Not pure Green, but I can think of a few large Companies that are more of a blend of Orange and Green. Costco comes to mind for paying its workers a living wage in an industry that's infamous for starvation pay, and for ita business model of buying and selling in bulk being less ecologically wasteful than its competitors. Perhaps Valve as well, for its relatively pro-consumer practices for its digital content distribution platform, Steam.

If you haven't played it already, I'd also recommend 2011 Deus Ex Human Revolution as a very good modernization that stays true to the spirit of the original.

Heresy! I think I might disagree more passionately when it comes to subjective tastes in Cinema than for epistemology or politics Though I'll concede that Blade Runner 2049 built upon the foundation that the Blade Runner built, and used that to make an arguably better movie. Getting back to Cyberpunk, a normal game development cycle for a AAA game is 3 - 4 years. No game spends 8 years in development without having major issues. Glad the CDPR devs aren't getting completely screwed out of thier Bonuses at least, I can't imagine anyone who's poured years of thier lives into the game is happy about the state the game launched at, due to rushing to meet a deadline and an ill advised attempt to squeeze the game onto 7 year old console hardware.

Hey we can have that too in another few decades due to Demographic changes and the Boomers dying off, leaving the GOP without a solid block of Voters that they can rely upon to obstruct Social Reforms that are badly needed.

Speaking of Cartoon Network, how about Adventure Time and the way it explores concepts such as Social Constructs

Considering the fact that a large portion of the country won't put on face masks while in public to prevent the spread of a deadly disease at the government's insistence, any health advocacy information from the government is likely to be greeted with suspicion, and even the most benign information is likely to be politicized and turned into Conspiracy Theories. I don't envy anyone the task, because America is growing more ungovernable by the day with Social Media serving as a platform to spread misinformation and Conspiracy Theories, and with plenty of politicians eager to capitalize on these trends for purely self serving reasons.

Immanuel Kant, one of the central figures of the Enlightenment, is a great example of highly principled Moral Philosopher that serves as a sort of bridge between Blue and Orange. Was groundbreaking for his work in both ethics and metaphysics, and created a system of Universal moral principles (Blue), based upon on a secular, humanistic framework (Orange). Embodied the best aspects of both value systems.

An interesting examination of the philosophy of the Sith from Star Wars, and the way that it draws upon Friedrich Nietzsche's Will to Power as an influence. Almost a perfect encapsulation of Red values in a well known fictional setting.

Portugal basically took this approach to great success, but I fear that a lot of Americans are still too stuck in a retributive mindset to accept something so radically compassionate and open minded.

I don't really disagree with any of this. Yes we want to address the Root Cause, but at the same time that doesn't mean disregarding treatment for the Symptoms, as you recognize. I think a multi-faceted approach is probably the right one to take. I do think that education and media literacy can inculcate people to Conspiratorial thinking, and that there's no reason this can't be combined with the approach you mention.

Agreed. I think education (specifically media literacy, scientific literacy, and knowledge of basic epistemology) as well as the unmet deficiency needs in one's life are primary factors in how suspectable a person is to Conspiratorial Thinking. Most people who have researched the subject are well aware that feelings of disempowerment and a lack of control are shared psychological traits of people who fall into a Conspiratorial mindset. I also think learned people vastly overestimate the amount of deliberate thought and reflection that most people really put into thier worldview. I don't think we really disagree on there being a deeper cause for why people fall into Conspiratorial Thinking, but I would say that people buy in at different levels for different reasons, and that the deeper metaphysical reasons that you outline aren't always the most appropriate way of addressing the issue for all people. Addressing the deeper concerns you mention is also a much bigger task than educating people on how to consume media in a more conscious and reflective way.