What's your unpopular opinion?
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As someone who's slightly center-right, a significant number of my opinions are unpopular on this platform. But setting politics and social issues aside, I'd say the nuclear bomb of my unpopular opinions is my belief in determinism - and, by extension, my claim that free will is an illusion.
By that, I mean the idea that you could have done otherwise in a given situation is false. If we had a time machine and could replay a moment exactly as it was, you'd make the same choice every single time. Whatever caused you to make that decision the first time would cause you to do it again - without exception.
A related belief of mine is that the sense of self is also an illusion. To me, these are two sides of the same coin. By “self,” I mean the feeling that there’s a subject behind your face, looking out at the world. But that’s just brain chemistry. There’s no point in the brain where it all comes together - no central “you” making decisions. That’s why there’s no free will either - because there’s nothing making the decisions. They’re simply being made.
The illusion comes from the fact of consciousness. The fact of subjective experience. It feels like something to be you, from the inside. There’s qualia to your existence.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I'm sorry to say, but I find that thinking really scary!
Can't it be used as an excuse everything? It wasn't me it was everything that others did before. Oh, and there's no me. There's no you either! So don't say that I hurt you, as that's impossible!
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I'm sorry to say, but I find that thinking really scary!
Can't it be used as an excuse everything? It wasn't me it was everything that others did before. Oh, and there's no me. There's no you either! So don't say that I hurt you, as that's impossible!
Well, it does remove the justification for blame - there’s no one to blame - but it doesn’t excuse bad behavior. If someone hits another person and says, “I couldn’t help myself, I have no free will,” then while that statement may be factually correct, it still signals how they’re likely to behave in the future. So jailing them is reasonable - not as punishment, but to protect others.
It’s similar to when a bear wanders into a residential area and attacks someone. We don’t shoot the bear because we think it’s evil - it’s just a bear. We do it to protect innocent people.
Laws do work as a deterrent. Knowing that actions have consequences affects how people behave. Retroactively, you could argue it’s not fair to jail someone who couldn’t have acted differently, but if people catch on that there are no real consequences - that we’re just bluffing - then more people will start breaking those laws. That’s why we need to follow through with those “threats,” even if, philosophically, it doesn’t fully make sense.
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Sugar and the industrial farming system are literally poisoning the food supply and driving a epidemic of chronic disease globally
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Well, it does remove the justification for blame - there’s no one to blame - but it doesn’t excuse bad behavior. If someone hits another person and says, “I couldn’t help myself, I have no free will,” then while that statement may be factually correct, it still signals how they’re likely to behave in the future. So jailing them is reasonable - not as punishment, but to protect others.
It’s similar to when a bear wanders into a residential area and attacks someone. We don’t shoot the bear because we think it’s evil - it’s just a bear. We do it to protect innocent people.
Laws do work as a deterrent. Knowing that actions have consequences affects how people behave. Retroactively, you could argue it’s not fair to jail someone who couldn’t have acted differently, but if people catch on that there are no real consequences - that we’re just bluffing - then more people will start breaking those laws. That’s why we need to follow through with those “threats,” even if, philosophically, it doesn’t fully make sense.
Knowing that actions have consequences affects how people behave.
How? People are automatons programmed by laws? How are the laws made?
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Knowing that actions have consequences affects how people behave.
How? People are automatons programmed by laws? How are the laws made?
If you know that driving over a certain speed limit will increase your chance of getting a ticket, then you're less likely to do so.
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If you know that driving over a certain speed limit will increase your chance of getting a ticket, then you're less likely to do so.
You can't because you've no free will. Regardless of the law, the speed you'll drive is the speed you'll drive, no?
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Sugar and the industrial farming system are literally poisoning the food supply and driving a epidemic of chronic disease globally
We have an ongoing decades long war against 'big sugar' here in Florida. They are decimating the land.
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We have an ongoing decades long war against 'big sugar' here in Florida. They are decimating the land.
It really is insidious, the money is everywhere! I wish you the best in that fight.
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This “hydration” crap.
Up until the late 1970’s for approx 300,000 years of humans being around hydrated themselves just fine.
Long as there was water available one would drink when their body signaled them by getting thirsty (don’t care about exceptions to the rule where someone has a medical issue or if water was limited in high school, your a big person now). All of a sudden humans forgot to drink fluids?
Bullshit.
It’s just yet another scam the drink makers have perpetrated to get people to buy the various liquid products they sell.
People have been living longer and longer. If you want the same life span as our ancestors, then follow their diet.
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If God exists he/she/it doesn't in anyway you've been taught, regardless of belief or religion.
Most people can't accurately describe how an old school lightbulb works, yet somehow ancient mankind understood the mind of God.
Horse shit.
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Pick your cutoff age but it should be illegal to groom children into an organized religion. Frankly, since human brains are still developing until age 24-25 that would be my choice but 21 would be acceptable. "Let go and let god" is literally advocating for a trained lack of critical thinking skills.
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This “hydration” crap.
Up until the late 1970’s for approx 300,000 years of humans being around hydrated themselves just fine.
Long as there was water available one would drink when their body signaled them by getting thirsty (don’t care about exceptions to the rule where someone has a medical issue or if water was limited in high school, your a big person now). All of a sudden humans forgot to drink fluids?
Bullshit.
It’s just yet another scam the drink makers have perpetrated to get people to buy the various liquid products they sell.
I'm sorry, what?
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Pick your cutoff age but it should be illegal to groom children into an organized religion. Frankly, since human brains are still developing until age 24-25 that would be my choice but 21 would be acceptable. "Let go and let god" is literally advocating for a trained lack of critical thinking skills.
Grooming is so gross, but it's not like Christians are out there targeting children, right? That would be insane wouldn't it, everyone?
https://www.cefonline.com/articles/teach-kids-articles/the-4-14-window/
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This “hydration” crap.
Up until the late 1970’s for approx 300,000 years of humans being around hydrated themselves just fine.
Long as there was water available one would drink when their body signaled them by getting thirsty (don’t care about exceptions to the rule where someone has a medical issue or if water was limited in high school, your a big person now). All of a sudden humans forgot to drink fluids?
Bullshit.
It’s just yet another scam the drink makers have perpetrated to get people to buy the various liquid products they sell.
Same, but skin hydration / moisturizing. That's 300,000 years of human history without Aveeno. The skincare industry is a scam to sell product, and our skin works fine if you mostly leave it alone.
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You can't because you've no free will. Regardless of the law, the speed you'll drive is the speed you'll drive, no?
The speed you'll drive is the product of innumerable in-born and external influences (which include past experience). Laws would be useless if people had free will, actually. They work because of a deterrent effect; getting pulled over paying fines, and maybe going to jail feels bad. It's the threat of feeling bad that makes laws an effective incentive, and we can't change that emotional response.
If humans had free will, though, we could decide how we emotionally react to anything. We could decide to flip a switch in our minds so that jail is emotionally fulfilling and preferable to freedom. Then there'd be no way to punish anybody, and thus we could have no laws.
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The speed you'll drive is the product of innumerable in-born and external influences (which include past experience). Laws would be useless if people had free will, actually. They work because of a deterrent effect; getting pulled over paying fines, and maybe going to jail feels bad. It's the threat of feeling bad that makes laws an effective incentive, and we can't change that emotional response.
If humans had free will, though, we could decide how we emotionally react to anything. We could decide to flip a switch in our minds so that jail is emotionally fulfilling and preferable to freedom. Then there'd be no way to punish anybody, and thus we could have no laws.
wrote last edited by [email protected]If humans had free will, though, we could decide how we emotionally react to anything. We could decide to flip a switch in our minds
Exactly!
️ That's the trap that sadly keeps a person locked in his mind. The slave's curse. And I'm sorry it's happening to you. I've been there before, as well.Know that you are more than the sum of your environment and history, good or bad. You can decide to do something, just because you like doing it. You might not even remember what you like doing. It can take a while to find out, but you'll find it. And from there it will grow.
You're not trapped, just hurt.
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Same, but skin hydration / moisturizing. That's 300,000 years of human history without Aveeno. The skincare industry is a scam to sell product, and our skin works fine if you mostly leave it alone.
Your correct most beauty and skin care products are a scam. One of my favs is drown your hair in goop which is dead by the time it leaves the folicle.
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I'm sorry, what?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Can you expound please. Your input not clear.
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You can't because you've no free will. Regardless of the law, the speed you'll drive is the speed you'll drive, no?
You're thinking of a fatalistic universe, where the future is predetermined, rather than a deterministic one, where every action follows from a prior cause. It’s not that you choose to follow the speed limit out of free will - you simply don’t want to get into trouble, so you’re compelled to obey it. But even that want isn’t something you chose.
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People have been living longer and longer. If you want the same life span as our ancestors, then follow their diet.
One would think that all the medical breakthroughs would be what lengthens life. But that’s just me.
Water is all dependent on whether it’s there or not. If it is, we will drink.
