Mister Mister

The definition of evil is the universal. "Brian is evil" is a specific instance of that concept. "Evil people can change to not being evil", is a hypothesis, which if true, would also be a universal, which could then be applied to this specific instance.

lol Rod Paul. Freudian slip?

sorry for the troubles. I have a suspicion that these kind of "difficult" kids really just have strong genes of assertiveness, will, probably intelligence to some degree. So it may seem difficult now, but if you do right by him, he will be a confident, independent teenager and things will be much easier. the difference in parenting sounds like it could definitely be the problem. sometimes when kids feel like they don't have choices, they have to test the boundaries. he doesn't actually want to turn right, is just frustrated with being told what to do all the time, which like I said, is not really a problem, it's very healthy. so the challenge for you is to deal with the difference in parenting philosophy with your wife, rather than "take it out" on the kid, treating him as the problem. bring her as much information and reasoning as possible. Don't make it about her or you, make it about what is best for the child, and what will make you all the happiest and least stressed out in the long run. Is she going to forcefully dress him when he is 8? 13? 17? Help her see that what she is doing isn't going to work forever, and will get harder and worse and time goes on. Appeal to her self-interest. That's just my amateur opinions/advice as a childless young man. Good luck. I don't quite understand the arrangement with your ex...you are separated, but you live together, and she stays at home with the kid. So basically you pay for everything, but you don't have sex? Does she date other men? Sounds like a shitty deal to me.

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/06/the-unrelenting-pundit-led-effort-to-delegitimize-all-negative-reporting-about-hillary-clinton/

Yes I agree Tyler, trying to criticize a "tactic" out of the context of what situation in which you might use that tactic, seems very manipulative. It's like saying "shooting people is violent" (and therefore bad), ignores the times when someone is pumped up on crystal meth and charging at you with double chainsaws while Judas Priest's "Painkiller" blasts in the background.

haha awesome, do you know where this is?

hello and welcome. How long have you been watching? What kind of issues drew you in to watching Stef? Are there things that you have found particularly challenging/enlightening/confusing?

what are the effects on your immune system of constantly being called a racist and sexist who unconsciously contributes to and benefits from colonialism and rape culture?

that jean jacket half-Arab with the trimmed beard is a hottie tho...

don't know what "should" means in this context. Should be a private property issue. Have to balance safety and comfort of customers, wanting to avoid an "incident", cost/logistics of solo bathrooms vs. large group bathrooms, etc. Your or my opinion on the matter isn't really very relevant. I would say though, that given how small a percentage of the population trans people are, I'm not sure how far the market would go towards accommodating them. Certainly not as much as they are now, as a politically protected class of the left.

Love this visualization! Always thought this was one of the best solo pieces for any instrument, hands down.

The Young Turks issued a "debunking" of libertarianism. As you can imagine, it's a very slick, stylized millennial production, with very little substance or arguments to speak of. But it has 3 million views on Youtube and is making the rounds on social media, so maybe Stef or someone else wants to do a rebuttal...

I agree with this 100%. I've been into basketball for years, which is great cardio, but I keep spraining my ankles, and as I get older it doesn't heal like it used to, so I'm looking for something less intense. I also think there is great benefit to some of the Asian disciplines such as yoga and tai chi, really fine tunes the mind-body relations.

suppose it depends on what you mean by religion. My feeling is that there are always some assumptions at play in one's thought process, even the Aristotelian First Principles, though I think some assumptions are far more reasonable than others. I also think that people need a cultural narrative to bind them (this being the real meaning of the word re-ligion, a story which binds together), though that doesn't necessarily need to be a complete fairy tale, it could be something like, "after thousands of years of darkness and ignorance and violence, we emerged from the shadows of history to develop reason, peace, and prosperity, and it is our duty to maintain those ideals for the future."

Yea that's fucking awful, I'm sorry. This brings into focus the issue of, what are you trying to achieve by intervening? Are you trying to change the parent's mind in the moment or in the future? Or are you indirectly sending a message to the child that there is opposition to the parents' behavior somewhere out there in society, as well as sympathy for their pain. Not that it has to be one or the other, but I think the latter is a far more likely result, so it's something to keep in mind. Appreciate your story Stan, it's very helpful and encouraging in a certain way.

I didn't answer your poll because you didn't provide definitions of Faith or Worship which I considered necessary. I've been thinking about this subject, and I think there are different senses in which people can be religious, some more primitive and some more cultivated. In a primitive sense, Faith means belief in something you cannot see. In a more cultivated sense, faith means conviction in the validity of a principle, without knowing for sure how things will work out. The classic Christian story with the "doubting" apostle Thomas, who doubts the resurrection of Christ until he sees it for himself, then is lectured "You believe because you have seen. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe". This could be interpreted both ways. Belief that a man rose from the dead without evidence IMO is very primitive, but belief in a moral principle is very sophisticated. I've noticed that a lot of petty nitpickers will argue against libertarians by saying things like "mythical free market", because there has never been a completely free market. They view us like religious people, who cling to an idea despite never having seen it in real life, and in some ways they are right. Statists don't really have a core moral principle, and try to base their ethics on pure pragmatic empiricism. They compare one state policy to another, and decide which one "works better" i.e. satisfies their unconscious emotional prejudice. In this sense, having "faith" in one's values or principles is actually a good thing. Worship in a primitive sense means obedience and unquestioning praise. Those who conceive of a narcissistic authoritarian God as described in the Old Testament and other religions often practice this kind of worship. But a more cultured version of worship I think has to do with admiration and wonder and gratitude. I find myself often in awe of both the beauty of nature and the ingenuity of humankind. Not primitive rituals of feeding an ego, but living with respect for the majesty of the world, acknowledging your fortune and the generosity and courage of others, is a kind of worship that I think is consistent with rational thought. I was recently hosted by some Christians, for a house concert, and before we had dinner, she asked us to pray with her. Years ago I would have rolled my eyes and felt uncomfortable with it, but in listening to her prayer I realized it didn't really matter if God was listening, it was a way for all of us to connect with the occasion, and show gratitude to one another for being there and contributing to the event. I wish that secular people would have more purposeful "rituals" like this, as it really brings people together. I've also seen in Japan, parents writing "prayers" asking for their kids to get good test scores, and rubbing a Buddha statues belly for good luck. By comparison, this kind of prayer or worship is a silly superstition which a modern society really should have outgrown.

he's talked about it in at least one call-in show, earlier this year. try doing a search in fdrpodcasts.com

I'm not sure what you're getting at

privatize the border

Government is a concept, I think that's what you're getting at. Other concepts are love, marriage, justice, property, trade money, assault, theft, rape, murder, and so on. These don't "exist" in the sense that material objects exist, but instead describe a relationship between objects, which we use to understand the world, to form general categories from individual instances. Concepts can be useful, but they can also be misleading, when people forget they are just cognitive tools and think they exist in reality. The fascinating thing about government is, everyone recognizes it as really important to how human society is ordered today, and about which everyone has lots of strong opinions about what government should and shouldn't be or do, but if you ask them to define it, these same people, on average do not have a clear idea of what government actually IS. Nevertheless, they are certain about what kind of government is objectively good.

You can engage with people better

family courts shouldn't exist. something as delicate as divorce shouldn't be left in the hands of the violent power of the State. I thought we were talking about sentencing tho

You are a horrible communicator in general and terrible at giving advice, which was unsolicited in this case.

thanks for another great vid. What boggles my mind in this election in particular, is this implication that we have this totally functional, reasonable system that works great for everyone, and Trump and his idiot racist followers have come along and will potentially ruin everything. - He talks about torture and everyone freaks as if they're not already doing this. - He talks about "taking out their families" of terrorists, and people clutch their pearls, as if they're not already doing this - They say he can't be trusted with nuclear codes, when Hillary has already leaked tons of classified info - They say he's fiscally irresponsible for talking about negotiating a debt default, as if we are totally solvent and our budget is fine - They say he's racist toward Muslims, when he has opposed the insane war crimes the last 15 years that have killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims and displaced millions more. (Words and tones can break my bones but bullets and bombs can never hurt me...if I don't think see them on TV) - They say he's xenophobic for enforcing immigration laws on the books, which are still fairly modest in historical terms and compared with non-white countries Most of Sam's criticisms are the same as the rest of the morons, it's all about his "tone", his "rhetoric", nothing about facts or policies. It's just that Sam uses more sophisticated words. As you pointed out in one of your other videos, if you start from the wrong epistemological assumptions, even a very intelligent and otherwise rational person, can end up with very wrong conclusions. He says Trump doesn't understand economics, then goes on to say that Hillary taking money from the Saudis won't affect her "judgement". Why the fuck do you think they give her money if not to affect her decision-making? He's got to be one of the most intelligent idiots ever... BTW that clip from American Psycho had me laughing hysterically, good find

Yes this really shocked me, along with the clip of the sister and the way CNN edited it. I know I shouldn't be shocked but I was. I do really appreciate the quote. It makes sense, even if you believe that cops are targeting blacks, there's a lot of changes in their behavior they could make. If I was living in N Korea, and the police stopped me, I wouldn't say "why are you stopping me? get your fucking hands off me?", disobey, resist, run, etc. This is just common sense.