[extropy-chat] so is America fascist yet?

[J. Andrew Rogers]

Hubert Mania wrote:
> Eric Starck said:
> > I hardly think the other party would be more suited for the
transhumanist
> agenda.
> 
> I was not refering to the Democratic Party but to transhumanists on this
> list who explicitely support the politics of GWBush.


So what are we supposed to take away from your comments?  You are
consistently inconsistent and muddled in your reasoning.  

If the Democrats are no better than the Republicans for transhumanism,
then supporting the politics of the Republicans cannot be any worse than
supporting the politics of the Democrats from a transhumanist viewpoint.
 A more reasonable assessment would be that transhumanism is pretty
orthogonal to the US political process because it doesn't drive anything
and neither major party really gives a crap about what transhumanists
want.  Most beneficial outcomes are side-effects of other political battles.

Ad hominems are no more valid when applied to Bush than anyone else. 
Some of the political ideas of his administration are pretty good by any
reasonable measure, and in many cases, some of his bad ideas are still
better than the worse ideas offered by the Democrats.  Bush is not all
evil all the time, and sometimes he is even mostly correct.  I'm more
interested in issues than party affiliations or ideological flavors.

Those that think Bush is some kind of extremist outlier in the history
of the US are myopic and apparently quite ignorant of US history.  Get a
grip and an education.

Transhumanism endorses ideas, not political parties, and therefore it is
not really possible to leave the political party reservation of
transhumanism because it doesn't have one, despite the occasional
kneejerk assertion to the contrary.  Making assertions to the effect of
"We should all like fuzzy bunnies, and I hate cabbage.  Therefore,
anybody who likes cabbage must hate fuzzy bunnies." just makes you look
like a jackass incapable of basic reasoning.  You didn't just drink the
propaganda Kool-Aid, you are drowning in it and the lack of oxygen is
affecting your thinking.


I know it is a weakness of human nature to become emotionally invested
in inconsequential tribal spats, but people who want to be
transhumanists need to be able to get past that almost as a
prerequisite.  In fact, a good portion of the transhumanist ideals are
all about shedding this behavior.

cheers,

j. andrew rogers