China has it's own superstitions.

[Brian37]

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...7292_n.jpg

[Minimalist]

That's illegal?

[max-greece]

Exorcising a haunted vagina is still an improvement on exercising a choir boy's arse in my book.

[Brian37]

The point of making this post is to put the "godless commie" argument where it belongs, in the fucking trash heap.

China's population does not lack delusional people with superstitions. China's government actually has more in common with the God character, than the secular west. Instead of worshiping a god you worship the state. But both are appeals to authority and based on absolute authority.

[Anomalocaris]

Actually, you bullshit. While you are bullshitting you are also confusing two issues: 1. The chinese perception of the state and the deep reality of society in the long run, and 2. the susceptibility of the chinese to superstition

Regarding chinese perception of the state, the predominant attitude towards the state is not one of worship, not even in a way that might be analogous to how people might worship the "constitution" in the US. They respect the state as a formidable present reality which may be seen as good, neutural, or in only a minority of cases, evil. But that does not mean the state is seen as an absolute authority or is worshiped. At its core, the Chinese way of thinking does not even acknowledge any abstract authority other than what might be termed "fate". To Chinese any other form of "authority" is merely a term to reflect a reality: that an agent has the power to impose its will, and the ability to use the power to confer benefits in order to mute objections to its will. Reality can change, whether by fate, or through agitation of other parties in the world. Therefore all authority other than fate, including those of the state, is fundamentally temporary, conditional, and contractual, and is never absolute.

[Doubting Thomas]

I gotta find me some haunted vaginas to chase demons out of.

[Brian37]

Actually, you bullshit. While you are bullshitting you are also confusing two issues: 1. The chinese perception of the state and the deep reality of society in the long run, and 2. the susceptibility of the chinese to superstition

Regarding chinese perception of the state, the predominant attitude towards the state is not one of worship, not even in a way that might be analogous to how people might worship the "constitution" in the US. They respect the state as a formidable present reality which may be seen as good, neutural, or in only a minority of cases, evil. But that does not mean the state is seen as an absolute authority or is worshiped. At its core, the Chinese way of thinking does not even acknowledge any abstract authority other than what might be termed "fate". To Chinese any other form of "authority" is merely a term to reflect a reality: that an agent has the power to impose its will, and the ability to use the power to confer benefits in order to mute objections to its will. Reality can change, whether by fate, or through agitation of other parties in the world. Therefore all authority other than fate, including those of the state, is fundamentally temporary, conditional, and contractual, and is never absolute.

Um what?

Sorry, but China's communist party IS absolute authority in attitude, not evolutionary history. No one is talking about long changes over history.

All human endeavors in our species history are always temporary because all life is finite, so there is no government or religion or business devised by humans that will not change over time.

There are only two things in life that are certain, death and taxes.

[Doubting Thomas]

Oh and I'm claiming "Haunted Vagina" as the name of my rock band.

[Brian37]

Oh and I'm claiming "Haunted Vagina" as the name of my rock band.

Good luck getting that past the censors.

I once pathetically attempted to form a band (not that I was any good), and wanted to name it "Psychedelicly Insatiable Sex Slaves" that way I could have albums named "Piss'd Off" or "Piss On You" or "Piss Up A Rope".

But being that I sucked, that never came about.

[Anomalocaris]

Sorry, but China's communist party IS absolute authority in attitude, not evolutionary history. No one is talking about long changes over history.

All human endeavors in our species history are always temporary because all life is finite, so there is no government or religion or business devised by humans that will not change over time.

There are only two things in life that are certain, death and taxes.

Uh, no. Get some real perspective. In real life there is always a heirchy of aiuhorities. There may be one nominally supreme authority, but the actual power of each level of hierchy never derives solely from the supreme nominal authority, even in the most religious or totalitarian of states. So there is no such thing as absolute authority, there can't be such a thing even if some authorities tries hard to pretend to be such a thing.

Making the most sincere pretense at being the absolute authority on everything, and striving to become the most important of the sources from which all level in the heirchy derive their power is a trait of really serious totalitarianis, such as those seen in North Korea. But China is far from a totalitarin state today, when measured against other highly authoritarian states, on both the left and right, over the last century. The CCP don't even claim to be the absolute authority, only the highest authority. They don't even claim to be the sole source of all authority in the heirchy, only the source of political authority. The CCP today is a far cry from being a really serious pretender to the sort of cartoonish absolutisim you imagine.