okay, so idealism. to almost everybody, this means "believing in the possibility of a better world where everybody can have better lives" or some shit. to a few weirdos, it means some other shit like "ideas are the real world of which the world of objects is a mere shadow".
-
-
the Marxist thinks this is woo-woo nonsense and prefers philosophical materialism, specifically economic determinism, holding that people's behavior changes when their material conditions change (later formulated as "get 'em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow")
Show this thread -
the liberal and the Marxist are, of course, both right and both wrong. the Marxist is right that the universe is material, unless they're an eliminative materialist or something which is just being a fucking idiot. the liberal is right that our behavior is produced by software
Show this thread -
the Marxist is right that just twiddling software will not produce results *over the long term*; we all know by now you can hack people's brains to get them to act against their material interests, but uncle Darwin tells us that all that gets us long-term is better brain security
Show this thread -
is the crisis of The Current Year the liberal strategy of changing hearts and minds running out of steam against the stark wall of real world economic contraction and desperately doubling down in hopes that one last big load of gasoline will finally put out the fire? stay tuned!
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.