Sidyrr

Man is a social animal, and any conception of man outside of the social order is not meaningful. The rights of the individual only exist in the group as the group is necessary to enforce those rights.

As an aside, I find humor that Neo-**** are what the actual ***** would have considered untermensch.

z31maniac

Says a human that has benefited greatly from collectivism.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I just thought of something...

When someone, in the 21st century, accuses someone else who is clearly not a WWII-era German of Aryan descent, of being a ****, that is...

(wait for it...)

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!

(I really want that to become a meme.)

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

The rights of an individual are only important in the presence of a group because it is the group itself that is the greatest threat to Liberty.

Schroedinger

As to the OP, I ascribe fringe political views to intellectual laziness. It often does correlate to inferior intellegence, but the defining characteristic is the self-assuredness that comes with a lack of curiosity about alternate views or explanations for things that trouble them. I know plenty of decently intelligent people who endorse fringe poitical views out of nothing more than laziness. I also believe that the difference in raw processing power between the smartest human and the dumbest human (handicaps aside) is probably less than we would all like to believe. It's reductive to say "well those people believe that thing because they're not very smart". We all have choices on what to believe or not believe. Even the simplest of the simpletons have the mental aptitude to understand that the tenets of racial supremacy fall apart under the slightest scrutiny, they just choose not to put the effort in.

Also, ***** suck. Especially pretend ones.

Schroedinger

I think it's perfectly good to want things to move in the direction of personal liberties. As long as one understands that the last stop on that train is anarchy.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

After having spent a few months living and working in northern Germany in 2011, I came to understand something about the psyche of most average Germans which had initially eluded me.

Specifically, the self-image of a typical German is that they are an individual who is also a part of a society, and that both matter.

Contrast this with the stereotypical self-image of a typical American (I am an individual, and that's all that matters), or that which the leaders of strongly communist nations think that their subjects have (I am a member of a collective, and only the collective matters.)


A consciousness of the value of individual, but in the context of a recognition of the society as a whole. Might be a contributing factor as to why the per-capita rates of pretty much every identifiable violent crime (murder, rape, talking at the theater, etc) is many times higher in the US than in Germany, even including all those refugees who are supposedly driving a huge increase in crime.

(To be fair, the homicide rate in Germany was somewhat higher, back when the actual ***** were in charge.)

DNMakinson

iTrader: (3)

Paul McCartney says that JoJo was was man that thought she was a woman.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

?

Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner, but he knew it couldn't last. Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona, for some California grass.

Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman, but she was another man. All the girls around her say she's got it coming, but she gets it while she can.

DNMakinson

iTrader: (3)

Well I screwed that little joke up royally. Was I lazy or stupid? I don't know. Maybe I just have a poor memory of song lyrics.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

That depends. How do you feel about the tenets of National Socialism, and the Jews?


(It was a good joke, though. I had to google the lyrics to be sure I wasn't remembering it wrong, and now I've got it stuck in my head, plus I came across a picture of a kitten hatching from an egg in the process. So + for that.)

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Curiosity and an actual desire to understand things around them is a mark of intelligence in cats, children, and adults.

The human brain categorizes things as a way to reduce computational effort to preserve energy for survival. It is the case for visual stimuli, auditory stimuli, tactile stimuli, everything. This is also carried over to concepts and even our perception of others. There is a psychological construct called projection whereby people automatically assume that others see the world the same way they do (until given reason to believe otherwise) because it is easier than trying to comprehend the fullness of each person as an individual.

Schroedinger

Still a good joke, owing to the fact that it is by far the worst song the Beatles ever wrote, and nobody could be expected to remember such asinine lyrics exactly.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

No. They wrote TONS of simpleton garbage. Carl from Slingblade could have written write half of their catalog. Most overrated band in history...
but probably not *****.

DNMakinson

iTrader: (3)

They would mix all kinds of songs on a single album. Their producers created interesting effects with analog tape that are now commonplace or easily accomplished digitally today; but were revolutionary at the time. Quite creative musically.

Truly inane lyrics. Maybe the cocain? Rocky Racoon is stupid, but fun.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Gotta side with DNM here. The Beatles broke a lot of new ground from a technical standpoint. From simple stuff like the fundamental concept of a three-guitar melody, so some really amazing work with multitrack production and electronic effects.

I have heard a story that the lyrics to "Walrus" were written as a kind of joke, after Lenon discovered that college professors were assigning their students to analyze Beatles' songs from a literary standpoint, dissecting the lyrics to interpret their meaning, etc.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Come on...

Schroedinger

Yeah, the first three albums were pretty much all teenybopper crap like that. I think it was just like everything else around that time. I think Help was the first thing they put out that really showed their potential as songwriters. Revolver through Abbey Road changed everything, and most of those songs stand on their own merit. Songs like Eleanor Rigby and A Day in the Life are still unsurpassed IMO. Obla Di Obla Da though... yuck.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

And that's what I find so interesting about the Beatles.

Yeah, they started out as the New Kids on the Block. This was a great move. It got them tons of radio airplay, it got them on Ed Sullivan, it made them a household name and provided the cash and leverage that they would need to change the musical landscape.

If the Beatles had just come right out with I am the Walrus in 1960, they'd have been a flop. People weren't ready for that sound yet. The Beatles needed to become popular first, to get everyone talking about them, and millions of screaming teenage girls are a pretty good way to do that.

Unlike modern-day **** boy bands (Bieber, One Direction, etc), the Beatles grew and evolved dramatically in both their musical style and the methods of their recording. They invented the concept of the music video, the rock-opera film, the stadium-concert, the idea of breaking away from the control of a big studio by creating your own record label, pioneered numerous techniques in recording and post-production, and basically just had more influence on the sound of Rock-n-Roll than anyone else since George Beauchamp bolted an electromagnetic pickup to a metal-stringed guitar in 1931. In terms of their contributions not just to musical composition, but to the technology of Rock music, they are on par with Bob Moog and Les Paul.