- The illusion that we are "rational" has done more damage than good, and if we were to just embrace that emotions are not just real, but a stronger influence on people's behaviour (and therefore reality) than any facts, we might start getting somewhere as a species.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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But understanding, predicting, and reacting differently on emotions are all learnable, and very rational.
For example: don't punch the TV when you are angry about loosing a game. Instead realise where the anger is coming from. Probably frustration, but why are you so frustrated when you loose? Some frustration is understandable, but what causes so much frustration that it turned into violent anger? And can you predict what actions or circumsfamces may result in that frustration or and anger (e.g. alcohol consumption)?
The most rational fictional species I know, Vulcans, do not lack emotion. Quite the opposite. But they have learned to control their emotions.
Rationale is just as often, if not more so, as emotions to commit atrocities. It takes a great deal of rationale and emotional disregard to dehumanize people, and the "high horse of rationality" and "predicting models" is often required to cause things like the holocaust or to rationalize the genocide in Gaza ("Killing children is wrong, BUT....") No emotion required, in fact, rationalizing against emotion is the requirement.
I feel like most people do get this, but aren't very good at defining how exactly rationality breaks down and where.
On the same note we should acknowledge that we have a intellectual limit and that we should all aim to understand where the limit lies.
this is true on the neurons' level in your brain. I also only agree that it's rational because my emotions allow me to accept such rationality
I was going to say "Copyright is theft" but I see that's basically OPs take, so I'll settle for 'same'.
I wish there was a third option to knock down things that aren't actually controversial. In threads like this an upvote and a downvote are both an upvote.
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Broadly speaking, I'm a Pacifist and believe any kind of military confrontation or military aid is bad public policy. The idea of collateral damage - civilian casualties taken in pursuit of military objectives - is fully immoral and should be broadly rejected. Military resources should be tasked first and foremost as disaster relief and recovery with the primary mission being the preservation of human life, rather than offensive missions to defeat or deter an opposition military.
Military reprisals (starting with the MAD policy and going down to retributive strikes in border disputes) are monstrous and should be ended. Military prisons should be closed and POWs immediately repatriated. Embargos, particularly those aimed at economically vulnerable nations like Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and North Korea, serve no useful purpose and should be lifted immediately. And the only offensive military action should be reserved for securing evacuation routes for refugees, with the bulk of resources dedicated to extending shelter and both immediate and long term relief to the refugees we accrue through these policies.
So, I'm genuinely curious - what do you think the US should have done during WW2?
I can tell you what we shouldn't have done. We shouldn't have turned away the 937 passengers of the St. Louis. It shouldn't have done the mass arrest and internment of Japanese American civilians. We shouldn't have sent Germany military aid in the form of IBM computers and Standard Oil. Hell, there was a laundry list of American government-backed big industry supporting German and Italian Fascists even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
What the US should have been doing was enforcing the accords struck after WW1, implementing a Marshall Plan in Europe and North Africa and East Asia 30 years earlier, and providing immediate unconditional refuge to anyone threatened by a fascist government, rather than hot-housing them in fascist states until they either fled to the Middle East, Latin America, or Soviet Russia or got shoved into the ovens and gas chambers.
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The state must be abolished. In fact, all forms of hierarchy must be abolished.
Yeah, it would be great to have to arm myself just to drive down the street because the dude at the corner decided to implement a toll to drive in front of his house. Lawlessness! The only law of the land under anarchy is might. The concept of "right" goes out the window.
Buy local goods, even is it cost more... most people will go for cheapest price, even if you're handing your money to warlords and human trafficking.. same argument every time "There will always be ".
It
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