Nilsi

That was kinda wholesome, not gonna lie.

lol That’s how you actually undermine tyrannical power, if you ask me. Not by dehumanizing - that just makes you part of the same mess. You go for creative trolling, smart subversion, and hitting where it actually stings. Whoever made this painting is my personal hero.

https://smjegupr.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Jacques-Lacan-Seminar-on-the-Purloined-Letter.pdf You could also take a look at Lacan’s seminar on The Purloined Letter - it’s a brilliant, albeit challenging, read that reveals the deeper metaphysical structure behind the impotence of power.

By the way, don’t you want to respond to my point about psychoanalysis in your thread on your scientific work? I could really use your perspective to make some progress there.

I honestly think Slavoj Žižek is one of the most profound religious and spiritual thinkers out there, and this is a really clear, straightforward expression of his ideas. I’m tired of people writing him off as just some crazy, confused old man. Sure, a lot of his talks are challenging - that’s the whole point - but this one is actually super accessible and genuinely relevant to anyone in this space.

I get it. But still, in my experience, when you speak to people with real empathy - and in a language they can actually relate to - you can walk them through all of this, and you’ll usually find total common ground in the Absolute. That’s my point. And I actually think it’s a pretty important ontological one.

Again, I don’t see what your example has to do with the Absolute. You’re making an ethical argument - which, as I already said in the comment you quoted, is exactly where disagreements happen. When it comes to the Absolute as such, I’ve honestly never had a real argument with anyone. It’s just true - the only challenge is translating it into a language the other person understands. When I’m talking to my Muslim friends, I’ll say Allah is all-powerful, omniscient, etc. When I’m talking to secular friends, I’ll say the universe is infinite, unknowable, beyond comprehension, etc. etc. There’s no real conflict on that level. The fights only start when people start turning that shared sense of the Absolute into ideology - that’s when people go for each other’s throats.

I’ve never in my entire life heard anyone claim that rape or beheading a child has anything to do with absolute truth. So honestly, I don’t see your point.

This, to me, is what Jesus really meant when he said “love thy neighbor.” A neighbor isn’t some idealized figure. A neighbor is the guy who plays loud music at night, has politics you can’t stand, maybe smells a little weird. And still - there’s this quiet recognition that somehow, in all our chaos and contradiction, we’re participating in the same mystery. My Muslim friends and I roast each other all the time. I’ll joke about how wild it is to believe a book is the literal truth, they’ll tell me I’m going to burn in hell forever, claim they’re more manly, I’ll fire back that we Europeans are more refined, whatever. It’s all love. They still invite me to iftar, feed me, look out for me. That’s the formula right there. Real love isn’t about pretending we’re all the same, or smoothing over the differences with fake admiration. It’s being able to laugh at those differences, name them, and still choose each other. That’s why, when Jesus is asked before the crucifixion, “How will we know you’re with us?” - he doesn’t say “when you’re pure” or “when you follow the rules.” He says, “When there is love between you, I will be there.” And honestly, you don’t even have to keep the Christian frame. Just treat people like people. It’s not rocket science.

I don’t think people actually disagree all that much about the Absolute. I can sit down with my Muslim friends, with Leo, with a bunch of European philosophers, and we’ll all more or less vibe on the same core thing - maybe even agree on some fundamental properties. But the second we start talking about what that means for how we should live - who gets to speak for it, who gets to lead, what counts as alignment - suddenly it’s war. That to me is the real issue

I do think there’s a legitimate materialist critique to be made about the porn industry - especially how it can exploit young women. That said, if you’re really concerned, just watch amateur content where people actually seem to be enjoying themselves and making a bit of money on the side. Problem more or less solved.

Fair enough.

I see it a bit differently, though I know we disagree on this. I don’t see it as many people contributing to one shared cutting-edge, but rather as many people working on their own cutting-edge - often in ways that are completely opposed, yet still genuinely doing advanced philosophical (or however you want to define it) work. So honestly, I’d give you more credit than you seem to give yourself. What you’re doing is unique - not just another interchangeable iteration of “doing the work,” but something distinct and beautiful in its own right.

I appreciate you - I just find the way you’re advertising yourself off-putting. The same goes for Nietzsche - and yet I have a quote of his in my signature. So don’t take it the wrong way.

My god - if it weren’t for your disgusting rhetoric, I might even agree with you.

Fair enough, you guys - just wanted to make sure the fun was explicit.

I’m convinced everyone has that one uncle who brings back this kind of crap from his holiday in Istanbul.

At 21, you’re still a child. Sure, you need guidance, structure, and higher values to aim toward - but at that age, you should be just as concerned with making friends, dating, partying, exploring, messing up, and learning from all of it. The list of people who skipped that part of life and ended up deeply stunted, perverse, or unhinged later on is virtually endless: Osho, Marc Gafni, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Bankman-Fried, Mark Zuckerberg, Adam Neumann, Elizabeth Holmes, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Tate, Donald Trump, Kanye West, Jared Leto, Shia LaBeouf, Marilyn Manson, Jim Carrey, James Franco, Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Howard Hughes, etc. People who repressed their youth, only to have it erupt later in strange power fantasies, sexual confusion, or spiritual delusion. Even I see traces of this in myself - though I only skipped a few years of social life between 19 and 22. I can’t imagine who I’d be if I hadn’t had a stretch of fun before that, and now again in the past couple years. Fun is not optional - it’s integral to development.

Is that an allusion to Lacan? lol

It’s wild what some of you infer just from me pointing out that even Trump is human and can show a flicker of genuine sympathy. At no point did I use that to justify Republican politics or redeem him as a person. I just thought it was a small, oddly human moment - worth noting, nothing more. But somehow, you twist that into me being complicit with everything he says or does. As if I’m not perfectly aware that he’s a con man. He is. That’s not the point. The point is: he’s still human. And I find it genuinely disturbing that even acknowledging that is too much for some of you.

If you can’t see that I’m nonetheless critical of Trump - and that I find his entire political project absolutely disgusting - I honestly don’t know what to tell you.

Fuck off with your ideological nonsense. I’m done letting you people gaslight me. How far gone do you have to be to believe that everything someone does is pure fabrication, completely devoid of any genuine sentiment? That kind of cartoonish take on deception is the real delusion. Deception works precisely by blurring the line between the authentic and the performed - a basic principle in acting, sales, marketing, and every adjacent field that professionals understand instinctively. But of course, through the lens of your bourgeois rationalism, all of this is conveniently dismissed as nothing more than petty human noise - too messy, too emotional, too real for your sterile frameworks to handle. So yeah - don’t @ me with that nonsense again.