JamesConeZone [they/them]

  • 106 Posts
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Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: August 6th, 2020

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  • Essentially, just push against individualism and keep reminding them that context (social, economic, etc) going back decades will determine much of life. It's also helpful to try to remove binary good/bad morality from politics and explain the historical context of something, eg Russia/Ukraine, North Korea. That's laying a foundation for more complex moves later.

    Just remember that you're not just explaining materialism, you are helping them unlearn brain worms. And that can take a long time with a lot of conversations


  • Only a summary so far which seems to say in so many words that utilitarians are only thus because they never put themselves in the "innocent's to be sacrificed" category, so we should put utilitarians in that category first should the situation call for it, or else the belief is morally incongruent with reality

    edit: here's the abstract

    It is commonly thought that morality applies universally to all human beings as moral targets, and our general moral obligations to people will not, as a rule, be affected by their views. I propose and explore a radical, alternative normative moral theory, ‘Designer Ethics’, according to which our views are pro tanto crucial determinants of how, morally, we ought to be treated. For example, since utilitarians are more sympathetic to the idea that human beings may be sacrificed for the greater good, perhaps it is permissible (or, even under certain conditions, obligatory) to give them ‘priority’ as potential victims. This odd idea has manifold drawbacks but I claim that it also has substantial advantages, that it has some affinities to more commonly accepted moral positions, and that it should be given a significant role in our ethical thinking.












  • I think we're saying the same thing. Like you said, prehistoric humans are between 75-80% vegetation (tubers,bark,roots,etc like you said) and 20% meat, which increases a little after fire/cooking/preservation is discovered and is more than apes etc. What I was saying is that the majority of people did not and have not eaten meat every single day in the amounts that the industrial revolution provided, because it was too expensive and could threaten your livelihood (killing cattle for meat now vs milk and more cows later). That doesn't mean they didn't ever eat meat, but that the amounts and frequency were much smaller than today. I don't understand how that is anti-materialist unless I wasn't clear enough in my first comment







  • Agree with other people here. Stopping cold turkey can be incredibly dangerous, so rehab is very helpful if that's an option. If it's not, AA is a helpful starting point to build community. I don't like all the God stuff, but the community aspect of AA can be helpful. You will need to also address various bits of trauma or mental health to get at the root of why you are drinking and build healthier coping mechanisms. A psychiatrist would be a good start here as others said.