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podcast friday
This week's dubious winner is Conspirituality's "Kings of Pain," which the runner-up to last week's. (IDSG won because it's more directly relevant to my interests and because their schedule has been so irregular lately that any new episode is worth noting.)
This episode is about purity, and specifically the convergence of woo-woo health purity with political purity. I first noticed this when Mike Harris's regime in Ontario back in the 90s started talking about putting the population on a "diet," "trimming," and so on. By which they meant murdering people like single mother Kimberly Rogers. It disgusted me then, as a child, and it disgusts me now, as the Mad King and his minions starve their own subjects, both at home and in countries under their imperial rule, using the language of "detox."
The idea that suffering will make you pure, that it's fine to swallow litres of snake oil but not to vaccinate your people or your chickens, that anyone who falls short of an Aryan ubermensch must be purged from the body politic, is one with deep roots that of course include every fascist movement ever. The episode draws really excellent connections and insights into what I think is still underexamined.
I'm in Canada; I don't know a lot of people who would have voted Trump if they'd had the option. I do know a lot of people who didn't vaccinate their kids, or who had doubts about it, or who have a distrust of science in general. Obsession with micromanaging health and bodies is an underexamined pipeline to fascism (Maintenance Phase covers it well but doesn't post as often) so I really appreciate this episode.
This episode is about purity, and specifically the convergence of woo-woo health purity with political purity. I first noticed this when Mike Harris's regime in Ontario back in the 90s started talking about putting the population on a "diet," "trimming," and so on. By which they meant murdering people like single mother Kimberly Rogers. It disgusted me then, as a child, and it disgusts me now, as the Mad King and his minions starve their own subjects, both at home and in countries under their imperial rule, using the language of "detox."
The idea that suffering will make you pure, that it's fine to swallow litres of snake oil but not to vaccinate your people or your chickens, that anyone who falls short of an Aryan ubermensch must be purged from the body politic, is one with deep roots that of course include every fascist movement ever. The episode draws really excellent connections and insights into what I think is still underexamined.
I'm in Canada; I don't know a lot of people who would have voted Trump if they'd had the option. I do know a lot of people who didn't vaccinate their kids, or who had doubts about it, or who have a distrust of science in general. Obsession with micromanaging health and bodies is an underexamined pipeline to fascism (Maintenance Phase covers it well but doesn't post as often) so I really appreciate this episode.
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https://www.ctvnews.ca/northern-ontario/article/nipissing-university-students-demanding-school-rename-harris-learning-library/
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1. It is possible to suffer needlessly. Not all suffering has virtue or brings a benefit. Suffering is, at best, what the stoics would call a dispreferred indifferent. (Neither vicious nor virtuous and also not much fun)
2. The suffering of others does not inherently benefit you. I really do sense a common mentality that someone else losing means you must be winning, which feeds into how people view the sick and disabled.
(The secret 3rd thing is that a better world is possible, with less suffering for everyone)
Also, I wish someone would take my pitch on pro-ana culture & modern politics. :(
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But yeah, those things really run counter to messaging and are so important.
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Or maybe I should focus on helping other atheists be less intellectually and morally lazy? I just think there aren't enough of us for it to matter...
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??
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Obsession with micromanaging health and bodies is an underexamined pipeline to fascism
There has been a lot of talk about the 'Wellness to fascism' pipeline lately. I guess this is part of it.
I was behind a right cooker car yesterday. Lots of stickers on the back windscreen. I recall three: a vote no (I guessed on Aboriginal recognition but it was faded), one about protecting whales from offshore wind farms, and one promoting a site with "locked out" in the name.
No to offshore wind is a big astroturf movement here, not sure about Canada.
The website had music. It was terrible country music, including one song that riffed on "you can't welcome me to my country *boot-scooting*".
Apparently Fox has removed its stock ticker for reasons, and hospitals in Texas are getting kids with vitamin A toxicity and measles.
They really have started to reject reality and replace it with their own, and there more it happens the more it will spread.
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I wish the stupidity around health and regulations only hurt them, but alas they're killing their own kids, and everyone else's.
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You do?
But, offshore wind works because you can scale it up. A lot. Don't ask for the maths, but all the arguments about wind are (AFAIK), bullshit.
I am pretty sure we can recycle the blades if needed.
I've been thinking about this.
Canada has pretty minimal coasts.
The argument about offshore wind is... the blades. Or birds. Or whales!
Offshore wind needs foundations, concrete!
Fine. They may be large, but are they large than offshore rigs or platforms?
Nope.
Birds will figure it out. Marine animates might be upside by the vibrations, but is it worse than seismic testing? Drilling?
The risk of a spill?
I wish the stupidity around health and regulations only hurt them
I got me a scrip for a measles shot. It's gonna suck, but... stupid is as stupid does.
And the kids suffer.