The leaders of the New Atheist movement are not heroes; they are certainly imperfect. I agree with all of your criticisms, but you say nothing of the bulk of their work.
Hitchens’ God is Not Great will stand the test of time; his Islamophobia will not.
Dawkins’ The God Delusion is still correct, despite his late-in-life transphobia and “cultural Christianity”.
How do you know they will not comply with an order to land? No country has tried, despite their obligation to do so under the Rome Statute.
Right, you don’t “just shoot down” planes. You order them to land, as they are in violation of your sovereign airspace, and in violation of international law.
Russian planes violating European airspace are not shot down, they are ordered to land and they comply. Planes violating “US airspace” in Iraq and Afghanistan were not shot down, because they complied when ordered to land.
And maybe I’m being pedantic, but a leader overseeing an ongoing genocide is an immediate threat of the highest order.
Yes.
Scramble jets, have air traffic control instruct them to land, and if they do not follow instructions then shoot to kill.
This is literally how all restricted airspace works.
You are asking an interesting philosophical question, I feel a little out of my depth trying to answer.
But yes, I believe every meme is an idea, every idea is a meme, and there is a 1:1 relationship. The word “meme” is just an idea that is viewed through the lens of evolution.
Now as for the second question- should a screenshot of Twitter be allowed on this “meme” sub? - I don’t have a strong opinion, but I lean towards no
My apologies, I confused you with the other commenter Sonotsugipaa, and I spelled your name wrong. :(
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Your insist that memes must change or recontextualize at every step, but this is your personal interpretation and is not supported by any definition. This is analogous to saying “genes are only genes when they mutate, otherwise it’s just a bunch of amino acids”.
An exact copy of a gene is a gene. An exact copy of a meme is a meme.
It is not worthless at all. Studying cultural changes through the lens of evolution is very useful and enlightening. That’s why I referenced the books that go into this in depth.
I would argue your narrow definition of “meme” is worthless because we already have a term for what you are describing - they are called “image macros”.
Well the definition is correct, it is Antagonistic’s narrow interpretation of that definition that is incorrect.
The key is evolution. For something to evolve, it must have the ability to be transferred, to be changed/mutated, and to be stored. Both genes and memes have these properties.
Literally any idea is a meme. If you can think it, it’s a meme.
If you break a gene in two, the result is two genes. If you break a meme in two, the result is two memes.
The name “Antagonistic” is a meme. The letter ‘A’ is a meme. The sound you make when you say ‘A’ is a meme. The idea of air vibrating to make sound is a meme.
In one sense this is very true- the wealth of the American worker has been stolen over time by capitalists.
But the truth is that one person supporting a family of five has never been sustainable. It was only possible in an era when the American lifestyle was heavily subsidized by the rest of the world through post-WWII economic domination.
As worker productivity continues to rise, we can hope for a future where 1 person’s work can support 5. But, at least for the near future, the math simply doesn’t work out.
Example 2 is a meme, no doubt about it.
If you go any deeper than the surface-level Google definition (that you are pedantically picking apart), then you will find literally any idea or unit of culture is a meme.
Read the last chapter of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene. Actually please read the whole book, it’s a masterpiece of science popularization. Or read Susan Blackmore’s The Meme Machine, it explains the concept of memes and how they evolve in further detail.
Nazis have perverted the Swastika- once a religious symbol of peace, now it represents violence, injustice, and the worst of humanity.
Zionists have perverted the Star of David- once a religious symbol of peace, now it represents violence, injustice, and the worst of humanity.
Combining the two is perversely beautiful.
Olive trees take up to 6 years to start fruiting, and they reach full production at 12-14 years.
What is destroyed in a day will take a decade to rebuild.
The bottom line is that there is no profitable way to use this gas. You can capture it, pipe it out, then refine it, but you will lose money. You can burn it onsite to generate electricity, but your investment in generators and maintenance will never pay off.
The only way to get oil and gas companies to do the right thing is by government regulation.
Source: my father worked for a startup trying to develop this type of technology in the bakken oilfield. The startup had strong initial investment, but it failed after only a few years.
I think the hottest genre is still “survival/craft”, but there are so many similar looking games, you gotta stand out somehow. Two of the best ways to stand out are combining genres, and having an interesting artsyle.
I would start with the basics of Stardew Valley, people love farming, resources management, upgrading tools and buildings, wooing villagers. But what is lacking in Stardew? I think the battle system and world exploration.
Instead of stardew’s generic 2d Zelda-style battles, I would suggest a card battle system like Slay the Spire. At night players can delve into the card battling cave, looking for new cards, new seeds, farm equipment, etc, always trying to delve deeper for better loot. During the day they work the farm, earning money, crafting new cards and foods that can buff their card battles.
For world exploration, it would depend on your style choices and budget. If you stick with 2d pixel graphics I could see a Zelda style map filled with puzzles and unlocks. If you go bigger with a 3d engine I could see a sprawling Bethesda style map.
As for artsyle, you definitely want to avoid being a Stardew clone. Go a bit darker, both in color and theme, while still creating a game that is suitable for children.
I’ve tried to find opinion data to compare opinions of citizens of 1940s Nazi Germany vs. citizens of modern Zionist Israel, but unfortunately I think there is nothing that comes close to reliable data.
If I had to guess, I would think it’s quite similar. People do not change much. The big difference is that the weapons systems and propaganda systems have advanced considerably.
Zionism is Nazism.
All of the major elements are there:
The one significant difference is that Hitler had totalitarian control, whereas Bibi does not (yet). Netanyahu still has a coalition to appease, and occasionally must make concessions to less-genocidal factions in his government.
I think my post makes it quite clear that I was not referring to people as diseases, I specifically said that religion is the disease. The people are victims to the disease.
And if it isn’t also obvious, I do consider myself an anti-theist. The overall effect of religion on society is negative, and we would be better off without religion. I don’t see what this has to do with “woke mind virus” nonsense.
Worst case scenario is Venusification, where runaway climate change forces make earth literally uninhabitable for all known lifeforms. If we continue on our current path this is a likely outcome.
Your less-apocalyptic scenario is one where our global economy collapses. If this happens, no area of the earth will be safe. Food production will drop by 80-90%, which means that human population will have to drop by 80-90%.
Your assumption that the West will be a safe haven is incorrect. The West’s economic advantage relies on imports, and in a collapse scenario those imports will stop. We can see a small version of this during the current Hormuz crisis- without middle east oil, weatern farmers have limited access to fertilizer, therefore crop yields are down significantly. Without fertilizer imports, the West cannot farm. Without natural gas imports, the West cannot heat its buildings.
In the collapse scenario, the violence won’t be localized in places like the US border. Humans, even in western nations, will be desperate. Your neighbors will be watching their children starve to death. They will be willing to break down your door and beat you to death if you have food.