It's amazing how current events never fail to confirm what I already believe.
Ireland
Joined March 2012
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Gary Gallagher retweeted
“[You can] think of the Enlightenment of the 18th century […] as a period in which people were told, ‘Look, there isn’t a source of authority, not the kings, not the priests, you’re just gonna have to work it out for yourselves.’
I think of pragmatism as carrying through on the Enlightenment and saying ‘Human beings are alone in the universe, they can’t look outside themselves, either for comfort or for principles, or for inspiration. They’re at their best when they work together.’ [...]
You can think of pragmatism as saying ‘Don’t elevate anything above anything, don’t treat any area of culture as the place where you get the last word from because nobody’s gonna give you any last word.”
—Richard Rorty on Democracy and Philosophy
Gary Gallagher retweeted
Today we remember the victims of the October 7 massacre – the killing of innocent Israeli people, the torture, mutilation, rape and kidnapping, parading of the dead, the wanton cruelty and the depraved celebrations of murder, the gleeful delight in brutality, the degeneracy of its perpetrators and supporters. It is a day that stands out for its unparalleled sadism and nihilism.
The scale of the killing of people of all sorts, all races, Jewish and Arab and others, is unequalled in a single day in modern times.
It was the greatest murder of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Its cruelty and barbarism seem to belong to cruel times long ago – this was a lurch back to the raids and slaughters of the Mongols or the Huns - but it is unique too in its 21stcentury hi-tech modernity: it was filmed live by its perpetrators and other cameras and so unlike any other atrocity in all of human history, its details are beyond question.
It is the most documented butchery and sadism ever perpetrated – and therefore the reactions to it are simply the clearest and most unequalled test of humanity available to us, reactions that will be remembered in the future.
It was also a crime against peace: its effects were utterly destructive for Israelis but also for Palestinians and the innocent people across the whole region who perished in the wars it unleashed.
More than that, it was an atrocity against humanity itself - and the humanist values that mark all decent people, the values of liberal, free, kind societies and communities everywhere.
Its effects were utterly destructive for Israelis but also for the Palestinians and the rest of the region.
Today we remember those who died, those who were wounded, those who were kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed in the tunnels of Gaza, those who lost friends and compatriots.
It was a crime of annihilation to launch the liquidation of an entire people and nation, to kill and torture Israelis and Jews.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Gary Gallagher retweeted
“I think that Darwin’s ideas undo many of the biggest problems in philosophy. So many philosophers keep hammering away trying to find the essence of this or that when Darwin has shown us that nothing of any interest has an essence. It’s gradualism all the way.”
—Daniel Dennett
Gary Gallagher retweeted
Immortal words from Jacob Bronowski:
“It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself.
This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: ‘I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken’.
I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died at Auschwitz, to stand here by the pond as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.“
Gary Gallagher retweeted
Great discussion on the ever-evolving nature of Lebanese identity, with some well-placed corrections to our own national myths, particularly Phoenicianism.
I’ve encountered many of these arguments before through the writings and posts of @PZalloua and @nntaleb, but they were far more engaging in an interactive discussion format.
It also reminded me that identity, at its core, is something like a personal legend. Building a nation should require more than rigid definitions of who we are. Lebanese identity in particular has always existed along an evolving continuum, shaped by layers of history, migration, language, religion, geography, and political experience.
Freezing that identity at one point in time, or confining it to a narrow geography, ultimately shortchanges the national interest.
Nationalism, especially when pushed into hyper-nationalism, can turn identity from a source of cohesion into a mechanism of exclusion. Societies begin closing in on themselves, sometimes with lethal consequences.
There's something in the 'fool's revolution' concept: it looks like liberation, but it ain't. Protestantism is the fool's atheism. American spelling is the fool's Shavian.
сэкономьте себе 4к на уроке со мной и послушайте, как эта роскошная леди за две минутки раскидывает, как так вышло, что у англичан colour, а у американцев color
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Gary Gallagher retweeted
Whoa- this is the most fantastic pedagogical tool I’ve encountered in as long as I can remember (which is a helluva high bar, considering who I live with).
I’m so excited to have my 6yo play with it! And you all should too.
anyhumanever.com/
Gary Gallagher retweeted
Most misbehaviour in most schools originates in normal human motives and desires, not because of a SEN or mental disorder
Gary Gallagher retweeted
What is the causal origin of most of humanity's misdemeanours? Why do people speed; park where they shouldn't; snap at people; mock people they dislike, etc? For the commonest of reasons: work avoidance, impatience, grumpiness; amusement; social status, and on and on. Every petty, miniature vice we can imagine. Because of character, inclination, desire, ambitions. Most of the wrongs we commit either appear good to us as we do them, or seem insignificant because of circumstances.
Most, not all. Because some behaviour is a result of distress, and special needs, and chaos at home, and an expression of turmoil that we need to be aware of, and support with.
But it does no good to assume children are helpless, or that their behaviour must stem from a mental health disorder. Because where does that leave us?
Gary Gallagher retweeted
Much of the vilification of Israel acting in self-defense is unjust, but the terrorism against Arab villages in the West Bank by settler thugs, tolerated by the Netanyahu government, is horrific. It deserves harsh criticism pressure to stop it. quillette.com/2026/08/18/cre…
AI reminds me of dial-up internet. It's *almost* entirely amazing, but it carries a bag of frustrations.
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Is it OK to not like eclipses? Weird. Gross. Don't remind me of the moving parts. Like hearing my own heartbeat. Mingin'.
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Gary Gallagher retweeted
By age 40, you should have:
• Studied with at least 1 world-famous philosopher
• Inherited at least 1 vast fortune
• Served in at least 1 World War
• Revolutionized at least 1 academic field
• Built at least 1 house
Watching Irish nationalist trip over themselves trying to paint the Falklands issue as an extension of their simplest narrative is embarrassing.
The people who live there want to be British. It's been that way for generations. There is no countervailing democratic interest.
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Evolutionary psychologists will go to great lengths to publicly stress "we just report on why our natures are what they are, we do not try to derive an ought from an is."
However, the naturalistic fallacy is never far.
Ideologies as substitute children, like C21 changelings??
🔴Es bringt einen zum Nachdenken.
Bret Weinstein:
Zum ersten Mal in 300.000 Jahren menschlicher Evolution haben wir die Kosten von der größten Belohnung entfernt, die die Natur je erfunden hat: Sex und Paarbindung.
Zuverlässige Verhütung und Abtreibung ermöglichen es dir, den evolutionären Lottoschein einzulösen, ohne die 20-jährige Hypothek von Schwangerschaft, Windeln, schlaflosen Nächten und College-Fonds zu tragen.
Ergebnis? Eine ganze Generation von 18- bis 35-Jährigen läuft mit der Energie, der Libido, den Hormonen und den Schutzinstinkten herum, die die Evolution über Millionen von Jahre hinweg dafür kalibriert hat, Kinder großzuziehen … aber mit null echten Kindern. Diese Energie ist nicht verschwunden. Sie wurde umgeleitet.
Heather Heyings Beobachtung ist brutal: Insbesondere junge Frauen haben begonnen, Ideologien genauso zu behandeln, wie die Evolution sie verdrahtet hat, Babys zu behandeln. Klimawandel, soziale Gerechtigkeit oder was auch immer der Anlass des Monats ist – es wird mit wörtlicher Mama-Bär-Wut verteidigt. Dieselbe Neurochemie, die einst ein Kleinkind vor Raubtieren schützte, bewacht jetzt eine abstrakte Idee vor falschem Denken.
Und jetzt verspricht Elon Musk, dass der zweite Schuh gleich fallen wird. KI-gesteuerte Fülle wird Geld so „kostenlos“ machen wie Sex in den 1970er Jahren. Beide primären „Karotten” der Evolution – Paarung und Ressourcenerwerb – kosten plötzlich fast nichts mehr.
Weinsteins eiskalte Frage lautet: Wenn das Produzieren und Schützen echter Kinder nicht mehr das zentrale organisierende Prinzip des Erwachsenenlebens ist und wenn das Schaffen von Wohlstand nicht mehr für Status, Sicherheit oder das Anziehen eines Partners erforderlich ist, was bleibt dann übrig, um einem menschlichen Leben Richtung, Sinn und Struktur zu geben?
Werden wir zu einer Spezies, die immer größere Drachen erfindet, um sie zu töten, nur um sich lebendig zu fühlen? Oder treiben wir in totale Lustlosigkeit ab?
Dieser Clip macht wirklich nachdenklich
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Interesting example of Americans and English-speaking Europeans talking past each other.
For the latter 'athletic' means primarily possessing strength, speed, or power.
In the US 'athletic' can mean simply having good coordination, balance, physical skill.
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Should the taxpayer fund health & fitness-improving, belonging-cultivating, character-forming, all-upside no-downside, proven-track-record, grassroots initiatives for kids to access a sport loved by billions (which could also win us stuff)?
LOL no, try running for office on that
