[ExI] A 'libertarian' solution to political bullshit on this list?

[John Clark]

On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 3:17 PM Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>
wrote:

*>The list will be DESTROYED by bullshit*. *
>

Well it certainly seems to be heading in that direction.

*>1) Dedicated posting of a new thread relating to transhumanism every day
> or every few days, with [H+] at the beginning of the subject line.  Then
> people can know what threads to stay away from.*
> *2) Putting [POLITICS] at the beginning of the subject line of political
> threads.  Again, a way to stay away from toxic threads.*
>

So a subject that has anything to do with economics or immortality, or the
future geology or geography of the Earth or the engineering of the galaxy
or the Fermi Paradox must contain both a [+H] and a [POLITICS] tag. And the
point of this entire Kabuki dance is to ensure that the Extropian list is a
safe place for snowflake libertarians where they can be protected from
inadvertently reading something that might challenge their beliefs, in
particular their belief in Donald Trump. And don't tell me this isn't about
Trump, I was on the list when Bill Clinton was presadent and although we
argued vigorously and sometimes impolitely about which of his policies was
most wrong nobody suggested such discussions were not relevant to the
Extropian list or said it was wrong to trash the resident of the White
House.

*>Do you think there will be positive results from this eventually? *
>

I don't know. Do you think there will ever be any positive results from
anything anybody says on this list on ANY topic?


> > Seriously, is there *ANYTHING* that will make you stop?
>

Yes, prove to me that current politics will not have a huge effect on the
long term structure of the galaxy and possibly the entire universe. Prove
to me that just one ignorant fool with contempt for factual reality could
not destroy human civilization in the next 20 minutes.

> *And, to Spike: what is the maximum amount of control you would be
> comfortable exerting over the list, and have you considered effecting said
> control?*


So you want Spike to become the list censor to make sure everybody is
comfortable and nobody reading the list will ever be offended by anything.
I say toughen up, nobody ever died from being offended.

> *Where are the Jupiter Brains?  The cryogenics?  The nanotech?  The AI? *
>

Those topics should be explored and I've sent quite a few posts about them
myself, I've certainly written more about them than you have, but never
forget every one of those ideas  could be rendered entirely moot before
lunchtime by a reality TV show host who doesn't believe in objective facts
and hasn't read a book in half a century, not even the one he claims to
have written.


> > *Even Searle's fucking Chinese Room, for chrissakes.*
>

Good God! Do you really think that is more relevant to thans-humanism than
current politics?  Searle's Chinese Room may be almost as stupid as Donald
Trump but at least it can't kill us all before the toadies on Fox And
Friends can finish their show.

*>Note that being against our insane president is NOT bullshit, *


I'm glad to hear you say that. But, although I'm not certain what
constitutes "void-pissing", you seem to contradict yourself in your very
next breath:

*"but constant petulant void-pissing with no results (except to drive away
our best and brightest) is SEVERE bullshit."*

*> Where is Anders?  Damien?  Stefano?  Samantha?  Eugen?  Jeff?  Stathis?
> Adrian?  Where is Max?  *
>

I doubt they left because they thought the day to day mental health of the
Commander In Chief of the armed forces of the USA had no effect on the long
term fulfilment of Extropian ideas, but if they did then they were not our
best and brightest.

John K Clark
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