Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pm
iambiguous wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 7:30 pmArguments pro and arguments con. And the fiercely fanatical moral objectivists among us who simply refuse to acknowledge that those who are "one of them" can possibly contribute anything rational to the discussion.
Well, I say that moral objectivism is the needed object because the opposite, when taken to its extreme, is obviously not, because it renders one, as you say, drawn & quartered. And though I do not assert that I have an objectivist's answer for all moral and ethical problems, I think we know enough about sexual deviancy in periods of cultural exhaustion and decadence, to see the recent fluorescence of sexual- and gender-dysphoria
symptomatically and to recognize it as part of a general malady. In any case not as a sign of social health and well-being.
Again, existentially, you have acquired this particular political prejudice. And those on the other end of the political spectrum have acquired their own conflicting set of assumptions. Then the "scholars" weigh in:
https://www.genderhq.org/trans-youth-ri ... desistance
Then my own take on how individuals acquire value judgments of this sort given the assumptions I make in my signature threads above.
Then around and around we go.
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmBut I do agree with you that to take this stance does imply something
objectivist in my outlook. I prefer to seek ways to
strengthen that stance rather than to undermine and weaken it.
Right, like those on the other side aren't making much the same claim.
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmI recognize that sexual deviancy has been linked to civilizational decline (as the standard narrative about Roman civilization runs) and that this may be less true than supposed, but today there are really bizarre things going on. And then the collusion of capital interests (Big Pharma) that sees opportunities to produce the needed drugs for gender switches and can then influence social policy much as other power-centers influence the military-industrial sector. Social manipulation and social engineering also enter into the picture. It is a large topic and not easy to work one's way through.
Oh, I agree that capitalism is always going to be there to make a buck in regards to human sexuality. But then what to do with those "deviants", right? As with the Jews, and the racially inferior black folks, maybe the Nazis had the right idea in regard to them?
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmIf you wish to place these concerns in the convenient category of "fiercely fanatical moral objectivists" I cannot stop you. But your own assertion is based in an objectivist's stance, though you don't seem to see that.
No, I don't see that at all. I still recognize that given particular contexts I am no less yanked in conflicting directions.
Then whatever this...
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmWhat I
can say, because this is the area I work in, is that there is a developing movement that seeks to stop the advance of what I term
deviancy on many different fronts, but I am aware that the opposing faction lacks concrete arguments. It must mobilize itself, but it struggles to find footing.
...means in regard to the behaviors that you choose pertaining to your own personal experiences with these alleged "deviants".
Just out of curiosity, "for all practical purposes", how far should they steer clear of you?
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmOpposition to your *ambiguous* and *ambivalent* stances is simply my way of taking advantage of the opportunity you present me with. I see you as stuck but it is not that I do not see why. And your
stuckness is a general condition. You cannot find your way through the maze.
Indeed you
yourself are that maze!
Again, my frame of mind is derived from the assumptions that "here and now" I make in my signature threads above. Always acknowledging that given new experiences, relationships and access to information and knowledge, I might well change my mind. As I had done so many times in the past.
How about you? Has your mind changed over the years regarding human sexuality and gender roles and blacks and Jews? Because if it has been, you are acknowledging that you once thought that you were wrong about them. You changed your mind. And once you acknowledge that you recognize that you may well be wrong now as well. You'll change your mind again.
Me, I note that both sides, in starting from different sets of assumptions regarding the "human condition", make reasonable arguments and I find myself drawn and quartered...tugged ambivalently in opposite directions.
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmExcept that you operate from a moral nihilism position, which will, time and again, suck you into its swirling and absurd vortex in which you will not be able to make
any decisions -- because moral nihilism is a no-base, a non-base. How could one possibly
anchor oneself there? And how would you go about teaching moral nihilism to children?
Yes, that is certainly "for all practical purposes" a consequence of becoming a moral nihilist. And, as well, I construe those who own and operate the "show me the money" amoral global economy to be moral nihilists. Not to mention any number of sociopaths.
Once you conclude that there is No God and that human moral values are rooted historically, culturally and experientially in dasein -- and thus beyond the reach objectively of scientists and philosophers and ethicists -- then, yeah you're confronted with this: that
all behaviors
can be rationalized.
Which is why objectivists of your ilk are everywhere:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_r ... traditions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... ideologies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_s ... philosophy
Really, it almost doesn't even matter what you believe as long as you do believe in something that you are able to anchor your Self to. That's the part that comforts and consoles you. It's being able to think that how you differentiate "normal people" from the "deviants" here truly is the most rational and virtuous frame of mind.
You actually convince yourself that this...
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmYou've made absurd choices but wish to present them as reasoned and reasonable. They aren't and they fall apart with even a superficial examination.
...is, if not the "God's honest truth", as close to it as a "serious philosopher" can come. You're like a caricature of Plato and Kant and Hitler combined.
Well, if I do say so myself.
Mr. Wonk, on the other hand, is not. He may not go ape-shit as vegetariantaxidermy is wont to do here when confronting arguments opposed to her own, but he certainly seems [to me] no less adamant that his own rooted existentially in dasein moral and political prejudices regarding sexuality and gender and race and Jews are by default the starting point in any "discussion" here.
Alexis Jacobi wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:32 pmIf I am adamant about anything is that we have at our disposal the capacity to reason and to work our way through ethical and moral questions. I am also adamant (I suppose I would say) that when we reason responsibly we generally speaking arrive at similar answers.
In other words, others here have the capacity to reason and to work their way through ethical and moral questions by simply embracing your own.
As with most "arrogant, autocratic and authoritarian", "my way or the highway" bigots, the "psychology of objectivism" is something that you dare not explore. With you not even up in the clouds.