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Current time: December 26, 2024, 10:54 am

Poll: How rational do you consider yourself?
This poll is closed.
Very rational.
17.65%
6 17.65%
Fairly, but I have my admitted rational shortcomings.
82.35%
28 82.35%
Not very; I'm very emotionally driven.
0%
0 0%
Total 34 vote(s) 100%
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My own denials of rationality.
#1
My own denials of rationality.
Every human being suffers from some deficit of rationality, I've found. We call this emotional response, and it's a hilt-less sword; you can wield it but it cuts you almost as often as it cuts the other guy [you're not allowed to wear gloves in this analogy]. Maybe not as badly but it still cuts.

I myself have found I have a set of these rational failings. In the spirit of openness, allow me to share some with you guys. You can make fun of me at your leisure, I kind of invite it. ;D Let's start with what I irrationally hate!

#1: Vegans and vegetarians. Even the ones who are quiet about it I often find gritting my teeth when I deal with them, or rolling my eyes whenever they mention anything about their 'lifestyle choice.' I've heard a lot of excuses [and that is exactly what they are to me; excuses] about why people choose to be vegetarian. This shit irritates me to no end, and I've never quite pegged down the precise reason why. Partly it's the hoity-twoity holier-than-thou "I'm more compassionate than you" bullshit they always spew over over the place, coating the room in their putrid stench of self-absorption. Partly it's the total denial of not just human nature but just nature in general [humans are omnivores, there's a reason our teeth aren't completely flat, dammit]. Partly it's because I aspire to be a chef some day, partly because I starved a LOT as a child, both of which lead me to choke back a snarl of contempt for people who turn their noses up at a specific type of food not because of taste but literally "just because" or because of some contrived pseudo-moral bullshit. And partly because THEY WON'T STOP THROWING IT IN PEOPLES' FACES. There's this constant push to get veganism "accepted" in modern society and the yuppie crowd just gobbles it up. I TOLERATE vegans at best and at worst if I could forcefeed these people a medium-rare pan-seared-in-olive-oil-and-oven-baked-with-Worcestershire-Sauce rib eye steak I WOULD DO IT SO FUCKING FAST THAT- oh man I crave a steak so badly now...

#2: Japan. I'm not much of a racist. The best way to describe me is that I am racist against racists. I tire of listening to hateful diatribe from idiots who think that the color of your skin tone is something worthy of judging someone else over [protip for anyone lacking the rudimentary knowledge of the human genome: IT FUCKING ISN'T!!!], but when it comes to the Japanese...I chafe a little. Not against INDIVIDUAL Japanese people, however. Rather, the culture. Their culture isn't exactly too different from most. It's got its unique areas, its own ways of practicing things and its own ideas and social norms and aberrations like any other. Why do I hate it, then? Well like most things on this list, I have no idea what EXACTLY is what irritates me about it. I have, however, a few ideas. Firstly, the veneration by Westerners of the culture. Japan is the land of milk and honey for pale-faced fat weeaboos the world over and I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY. Most commonly accepted notion is that it's because of anime. I've watched anime, and as a writer who spent a ton of time reading and studying Shakespeare, Plato, Homer, and dozens if not HUNDREDS of modern writers [a study I try to keep to this day; helps to have a library no less than 150 feet away], I find 99% of anime to be on par with fanfiction written by a twelve year old; this shit is HORRIBLE. And I know I'm treading on some toes by saying this but you're just gonna have to forgive me for not understanding AT ALL what is so damn special about this six-color, 3 FPS crap! This is NOT something worth venerating a culture over! And the Japanese culture itself is outright freakin' HOSTILE. Foreigners are treated like subhumans [ask any Brazilian emigrants to Japan, or people who were born in Japan of Brazilian parents, or any weeaboo moron who actually goes to live/study there]. They are xenophobic to the point that even Texas seems warm and inviting by comparison. Do they have their reasons? Yes, in the same way the black people have reasons to dislike white people in America; shit that happened long ago that doesn't affect them today that they need to get over like 50+ years ago.

Japan still hates us for nuking them and occupying Okinawa. Tough shit; you guys got nuked because you went to war with us cuz you thought you were hot shit. Be glad we didn't decide you were a threat that needed to be annihilated or we could've nuked you bastards right off the face of the fucking planet and NOBODY WOULD HAVE CARED. Then there's the obsession with the samurai. The SAMURAI? REALLY?! You mean those guys who used to go around raping the wives and daughters of the poor farmers and peasantry SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY COULD? Yeah, they had that "code of the warrior" or "way of the warrior" honor bullshit and that's EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS: IT WAS BULLSHIT. You don't get to claim honor when you're a friggin' rapist who serves the upper class in oppressing the lower class, jackasses. You want proof of this, there's a few historical texts on the samurai you can read up on that talk about how things worked in those times. People mistake the samurai for being noble and honorable, "warriors of the people," but in truth, they were not warriors of the people, or for the people. They were the guards and armies of the shogunate, and they were considered in a realm above the peasantry. Yes, so were knights, but knights were sworn to uphold the land AND the people who lived upon it. Chivalry tended to have far more respect for the peasantry than bushido did. Not much, it WAS the middle ages, but still, it had more.

There's a bunch more. I'll rail about it later. Or maybe not, I dunno. I'm probably insulting a bunch of people here already with it, which I gotta apologize for, but like I said; my hate for this stuff is irrational, despite my efforts to rationalize it.

#3: Final Fantasy games. Fuck I hate these games. It's like anime made into a video game. And everyone eats this garbage up. Which ties into my hate for anime. Ugh. Next topic.

#4: Niggas. OK WAIT, DON'T LET THE HATE TRAIN ENTER THE STATION YET, hang on, lemme explain. I DO NOT hate black people. I hate niggas. There is a difference. Black people are just that. They're people. No different from you and me. A "nigga" is a very clear and concise definition of a stereotype that gets filled by said people. These individuals are people who refuse to let go of the past. They're angry about the injustices done to their ancestors. It's a terrible thing, slavery; it was horrible. But the thing is, we aren't hiding that fact. We openly admit what we did. We lay the facts of slavery bare for any and all to read and listen to, so that they might know of the crime of our past. The clearest way to apologize to someone is to NOT HIDE IT, to come out and admit it and to demonize those past actions, and that is what we do. We make NO effort to hide what has happened in the past, we demonize what happened and we uphold it as a lesson of what NOT to do. Niggas, however, aren't satisfied with this most absolute of apologies. They want to guilt trip us, they want to be the victims, they revel in believing that they're being oppressed and prejudiced against because it gives them an excuse to not do a single fucking worthwhile thing with their lives, because they can lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of their "oppressors." Not all black people are like this. Actually, to be honest, only a fraction of them are. But the ones that do are holding their entire culture back. And frankly, I'm sick of them, I'm sick of their whiny bullshit, and they need to grow the fuck up.

Oh man I am so losing everyone's respect... But, why stop now?

#5: Steve Jobs. Rot in fucking pieces you selfish greedy dickhead, nobody will miss you or your shitty neo-glam pop-culture-inducing overpriced plastic made in China crap. Oh wait, no, that shit's still being made. FAAAAAWK!!!

#6: Furries. Even though I'm sort of one. SORT OF. It's the behavior of 99% of furfans that I cannot fucking tolerate. No idea why. They rarely are in my face about it. Just the general existence of their fetishes and personalities and attitudes just pisses me off.

#7: The Playstation 3 and Wii. Maybe I'm a 360 fanboy. Or maybe it's BECAUSE IT'S MADE BY JAPANESE PEOPLE FUUUUUU-

#8: My biggest character flaw is this one. Other peoples' opinions. Most of the time, I like them and tolerate them. But some people say things that outright contradict my opinions. Rather than accepting them like I do most of the time, these certain contradictions of my opinion piss me off to no end. Rather than accepting that as a human nobody is going to have the same idea as me and some will outright think I'm completely wrong, I just want to cram my opinions down their throat until they choke on it and accept my view. Most of the time this happens in politics, and honestly, it might be for the right reasons. People who want to let racism be an openly-acceptable thing in the name of freedom of speech, I want to beat them with a fire extinguisher until they submit or expire. Obviously, I don't do this, but I can't help but think "Wow, it's be so much easier if I could just crush any opposition to my opinion, because I (think I) know I'm right!" I especially feel this way with religious folk. I would LOVE to just destroy all religions, to tear down every church, mosque, shrine, and temple brick by brick. Obviously, I know this is not the way. Obviously, I take a different course openly and follow a different set of ideas. But I won't lie; the DESIRE to do this far more primal, forceful, inhumane method of changing peoples' minds is strong. Still, with some pride I admit...I've never given in to it. And each time I successfully resist, the desire gets a little weaker.

#9: People who hate coffee. I hate it when someone says that they hate coffee. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING AUUUUGH

#10: Le final one. Pop culture. Often without any real reason I tend to default to cynical hatred for anyone in popular media. They could be the kindest, most humble individual... ok, you know what, that's not true. I like Johnny Depp because he is a really cool guy and very humble. I used to like Natalie Portman because she didn't take herself too seriously. Then she started taking herself way too damn seriously, both in her acting and her worrying about public perception [like when she flipped out about screenshots of her bare ass in that one movie she was in, not Closer, but I can't remember the name of it, being circulated around the internet and how it freaked her out and how she was never doing a nude scene again because of it], and then she started dating only other celebrities [a change from her dating just normal guys who were her friends or people she went to college with, etc] and basically she just turned into yet another self-obsessed celebrity. Dammit, Natalie. You seemed like a really nice girl, and then you let the power and fame go to your head. Shit. Also, Lady Gaga. I hate her more than I hate Justin Bieber. I hate Justin pretty hardcore too, but there's a reason for that: He compared himself with Kurt Cobain. Lady Gaga...I just can't stand her. Maybe it's because she tries to pretend like she's so deep and philosophical and provocative. She just is trying too damn hard and it annoys the hell out of me. She's a Madonna rip off. Wow, congrats, Lady Gaga, your entire personality is a rip-off of someone else. GOOD GOING, nobody else can do THAT...well, ok, they can, but most people respect themselves too much to do so. So, actually, good job, Gaga, you have no respect for yourself. Awesome.

Ok, that's my top ten things I irrationally hate. Also known as my top ten list of really bad character defects. Hope you enjoyed reading them!

Also, this is in philosophy because let's face it; all atheists pride themselves on being rational, and I clearly am not in these regards, and rationality is a deeply philosophical matter.
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#2
RE: My own denials of rationality.
So far,I have never actually met a consistently rational person. I have however,met a LOT of consistently irrational people. Most,but not all have been theists. The ratio seems to be about the same as the general population.(see my signature)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w85t5wxxamk
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#3
RE: My own denials of rationality.
(March 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm)Creed of Heresy Wrote: Every human being suffers from some deficit of rationality, I've found. We call this emotional response, and it's a hilt-less sword; you can wield it but it cuts you almost as often as it cuts the other guy [you're not allowed to wear gloves in this analogy]. Maybe not as badly but it still cuts.

Emotional responses consistently hurt the user the most, I think. I can't speak for anyway else, but when I'm emotional I seem to fall back on to a more simplistic world-view that more readily makes connections between things that, in retrospect, aren't necessarily connected. I can also project my faults onto others, although I often catch myself now and stop it. Emotional responses tend to give us a fast track to actions/responses that might've been beneficial once upon a time, but rarely is now. By the way, that almost sounds like I'm saying emotion is redundant/valueless - I don't mean that.

Some of my irrational behaviours include:
  • Purchasing take-out when I know the extra money I spend on it could go to one of the millions of starving people around the world and feed them.
  • Worrying about what people I've never met (and very likely will never meet again) think of me. It isn't like a crippling phobia or anything, but it's there.
  • Maintaining similar patterns despite being aware of how much change often makes me happy.
Of course behaviours that are 'rational' in one context mightn't be in another. It might be 'rational' to be somewhat profit orientated if your goal is to run a successful company. This is in contrast with my first point about starving people; what makes it irrational is that part my world-view is that when people can help one another they ought to. But yeah, it's not necessarily irrational to be an asshole unless your goal is not to be an asshole, haha.

(March 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm)Creed of Heresy Wrote: Final Fantasy games. Fuck I hate these games.

Just to piss you off, I like them Wink well, not all of them; mainly 6-9. What I liked most was the visuals and the music. The music is wonderful and I still listen to it sometimes. I assume you dislike the amount of fanboy/girl-ism surrounding them?

I don't mind some anime; I enjoyed the Ghost in the Shell movies for example.
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#4
RE: My own denials of rationality.
(March 7, 2012 at 9:07 pm)Tempus Wrote:
(March 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm)Creed of Heresy Wrote: Every human being suffers from some deficit of rationality, I've found. We call this emotional response, and it's a hilt-less sword; you can wield it but it cuts you almost as often as it cuts the other guy [you're not allowed to wear gloves in this analogy]. Maybe not as badly but it still cuts.

Emotional responses consistently hurt the user the most, I think. I can't speak for anyway else, but when I'm emotional I seem to fall back on to a more simplistic world-view that more readily makes connections between things that, in retrospect, aren't necessarily connected. I can also project my faults onto others, although I often catch myself now and stop it. Emotional responses tend to give us a fast track to actions/responses that might've been beneficial once upon a time, but rarely is now. By the way, that almost sounds like I'm saying emotion is redundant/valueless - I don't mean that.

Some of my irrational behaviours include:
  • Purchasing take-out when I know the extra money I spend on it could go to one of the millions of starving people around the world and feed them.
  • Worrying about what people I've never met (and very likely will never meet again) think of me. It isn't like a crippling phobia or anything, but it's there.
  • Maintaining similar patterns despite being aware of how much change often makes me happy.
Of course behaviours that are 'rational' in one context mightn't be in another. It might be 'rational' to be somewhat profit orientated if your goal is to run a successful company. This is in contrast with my first point about starving people; what makes it irrational is that part my world-view is that when people can help one another they ought to. But yeah, it's not necessarily irrational to be an asshole unless your goal is not to be an asshole, haha.

(March 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm)Creed of Heresy Wrote: Final Fantasy games. Fuck I hate these games.

Just to piss you off, I like them Wink well, not all of them; mainly 6-9. What I liked most was the visuals and the music. The music is wonderful and I still listen to it sometimes. I assume you dislike the amount of fanboy/girl-ism surrounding them?

I don't mind some anime; I enjoyed the Ghost in the Shell movies for example.

Well in true fashion of displaying the lack of logic in my statements, I will also go back and say this: I don't hate all anime. Some of the better ones, I like. Cowboy Bebop, for example; it was artistically beautifully, amazingly well-written, and very VERY well-animated, to the point that even to this day it's rarely ever matched. GitS...eeehhh...it LOOKS good, but its storyline is just your typical cyberpunky thing with the Japanese government being portrayed as these infallible geniuses. The premise for its deus ex machina in the form of the "Japanese Miracle" is the most laughable one EVER. Radiation scrubbers? THAT'S what they think is the most devastating thing about a nuke, is the lingering radiation?? Try the neutrino burst; you know, the thing that sears your body into less than ash? And the Japanese are the most powerful nation because they did nothing? Fucking LOL. If nuclear war broke out the first thing China would do would be to invade Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Cambodia. And Japan would last all of twenty minutes with US assistance against China. It was more jingoistic crap that just overshadowed what was otherwise a story with GREAT potential. And Motoko Kusanagi was one hell of a fine ass robot, too.

Final Fantasy didn't bother me TOO much until 10. Prior to that, the storylines had only been "meh" at best. The characters were all boring as fuck and even outright annoying, except in a few rare cases like Sephiroth [the only legitimate bad guy in the entire series and it has nothing to do with him shanking that annoying hippy bitch]. That little faggoty bitch, Squall? I wanted to end him so fucking hard. I wanted to nuke his whining emo ass from orbit. Lol

But then came 10. And Tidus.

*deeeep breath*

I don't particularly care for him -.o
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#5
RE: My own denials of rationality.
How DARE you hate on animes and Final Fantasy?
Errr...
Animes?!
Also, I share a very similar hatred of "niggas". My and a debate colleague of mine (he's black, btw) discussed race and I told him that I just couldn't stand niggas. Before he could kill me, I explained, and he shared a similar attitude.
You come damn close to 50/50ing me, as in I hold to half of your ideas and think the rest are just garbage.
For example, I love Japan and have recently taken a liking to FF games, but was never a hardcire fan.
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true.
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
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#6
RE: My own denials of rationality.
(March 8, 2012 at 12:01 am)Skepsis Wrote: How DARE you hate on animes and Final Fantasy?
Errr...
Animes?!
Also, I share a very similar hatred of "niggas". My and a debate colleague of mine (he's black, btw) discussed race and I told him that I just couldn't stand niggas. Before he could kill me, I explained, and he shared a similar attitude.
You come damn close to 50/50ing me, as in I hold to half of your ideas and think the rest are just garbage.
For example, I love Japan and have recently taken a liking to FF games, but was never a hardcire fan.

JAPANIMATIONS. XD

The FF games, to me, are absolute crap. An RPG is more than the gameplay, it's the story, and their stories are never anything very unique, interesting, or provocative in any way. Lots of it is just bubbleheaded bipolar nonsense. FF7 was fun, but I wouldn't even rank it in my Top 10 Games of All Time, or anywhere near it; it's GOOD. But it's NOT worth the adulation it receives. Now, anime...different story. It's a dime a dozen and most of the time the entire dozen will be absolute crap. There's little effort put into it, the voice acting sucks regardless of the language and the characters always make me want to slap them with a baseball bat. Japan...trust me, you may THINK it's awesome...which leads me to believe you haven't gone there for an extended period of time. *lol* I went there for two weeks with high expectations, but I didn't stick to the tourist traps, Immersed myself into the culture as much as I possibly could. And I did not like what I saw. It was like going to Las Vegas, and instead ending up in Topeka, Kansas. If you are not Japanese, you are "gaijin;" alien, foreigner, and the word isn't spoken so much as spat at you. Japan MAY be a nice place to visit as a tourist...but if I'm going for the tourism...why wouldn't I just stop in, say, Hawaii? At least the natives there are pretty cool, laid back, and welcoming, the beaches are GORGEOUS, and the islands are beautiful.

And the hula dancers are something to drool all over, too.
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#7
RE: My own denials of rationality.
Before this discussion becomes centered around the best vacation spots and discussions on FF games... I forgot where I was going with that.

Anyway, I have never been to Japan. I have never been out of country. I have hardly been out of state, and being a denizen of the South that it harsh. I am sure you can relate, even if you aren't subjected on the daily to stupid, mindless religious BS. The culture is what I am most interested in, but the little tidbit on being a foreigner kinda got me- I had never heard that before. The way I wrote my original comment implied I didn't know what an anime was. I do, I just wanted to se your responce. Anyway, I lold.
I really do enjoy animes, but I have many experiences ruined by one or two bad characters or an empty plotline with a suprise ending.
I really need to get a passport. How old do you have to be to get one?
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true.
Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.
-Bertrand Russell
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#8
RE: My own denials of rationality.
(March 8, 2012 at 1:23 am)Skepsis Wrote: I have hardly been out of state, and being a denizen of the South that it harsh. I am sure you can relate, even if you aren't subjected on the daily to stupid, mindless religious BS.

All too well, my friend. All too well. D:

Spent some time living in Georgia and South Carolina. Georgia was plagued with heavily-devout baptists in particular who just couldn't leave god out of anything. They prayed for rain, for sun, for their job to be easy that day, for their car to not stall, to not get in an accident, for having good sex, for this cigarette to be a good smoke. They prayed for EVERYTHING; holy SHIT it drove me nuts. They weren't even trying to convert me most of the time; they just kept saying "god god god god god god god god" for everything. Best way to erode my already marginal grasp on sanity? THAT.

But yeah, like I said, I don't hate ALL anime...just...most of it. XD Some of the more popular ones drive me insane, where most of the lesser known ones are actually fairly enjoyable. Case in point; I hate Bleach. I love Ergo Proxy. Ergo Proxy was dark, it had a lot of background in philosophy and while it had some silly elements to it, for the most part, it was a really good story. I mean, shit, it's a story about humans creating demigods with science for the sake of overthrowing god himself, made irrelevant only by the creation of said demigods themselves causing an environmental disaster that forces most of the population of earth into an exodus to flee for a new home, leaving the fewest numbers and the demigods themselves behind.
But yeah to get a passport...you know, I'm not sure of the age requirement. I'm not sure there actually is one, to be entirely honest.
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#9
RE: My own denials of rationality.
You know, the Xbox 360 was collaboration between a san francisco company and a JAPANESE company.

Just sayin' Tongue
Self-authenticating private evidence is useless, because it is indistinguishable from the illusion of it. ― Kel, Kelosophy Blog

If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic.
― Tim Minchin, Storm
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#10
RE: My own denials of rationality.
(March 7, 2012 at 1:18 pm)Creed of Heresy Wrote: Every human being suffers from some deficit of rationality, I've found.

Suffers? It's called being human.
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