8 ms·

I'd like people to remember another quote, this one from Voltaire; > You believe things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have

I'd like people to remember another quote, this one from Voltaire; > You believe things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is injust because we command it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If the God‐ given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God‐ given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well. And from this derives all those crimes which have overrun the world. It's why I genuinely believing in rancid conspiracy theories is dangerous. It's the prelude for what comes next. People start out at conspiracies hating some sub-group. They end up at the "Jewish question," or their cultural equivalent. Reason and reason alone is what protects us from the insanity that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time.

Pyrobyte 3y ago
True, very nice quote. Thanks a lot.
ly3xqhl8g9 3y ago
"Reason and reason alone", it's a bit more complex than that, unfortunately. From Voltaire, Descartes (Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée [1], "Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for everyone is convinced that they are well supplied with it, and even those who are the most difficult to please in everything else are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they have."), and others, Enlightenment has risen. And there is a rather pertinent critique of enlightenment, as in the Dialectic of Enlightenment [2] by Adorno and Horkheimer. For them, the Nazis also think they must purify the race because it's the most rational thing to do, even if they view as the best leader a brown-haired, weakly-mustached, average height methamphetamine abuser. [1] "Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée : car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu, que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose, n'ont point coutume d'en désirer plus qu'ils en ont.", 1637, Descartes, Discours de la Méthode; the French, only their guillotines are sharper than their words. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic_of_Enlightenment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic_of_Enlightenment
pseudo0 3y ago
[flagged]
- foldr 3y ago
  Why do people think that it is somehow a contradiction in terms for a Mexican to be a white supremacist? ‘Mexican’ is a nationality. Mexicans can be white, and Mexico has a long history of color-based racism (which for example you can still see in the casting of Mexican TV shows - white out of all proportion to the population). On top of that, there are innumerable instances of people supporting ideologies that are directly contrary to their interests. People are weird. Someone who commits mass murder is especially unlikely to be a particularly rational and consistent thinker. At this point there’s overwhelming evidence that the individual in question was fixated on Nazi imagery and far right ideology. If that doesn’t fit your priors, then they may be due for update.
  - pseudo0 3y ago
    The individual in question was quite obviously Latino. His photos were plastered all over the news. He very well might have had far-right, extreme and racist views, but it's rather hard to believe that he specifically subscribed to an ideology that hated him. But the media really likes the tagline "white supremacy", so that made it into all the articles regardless of the specific factual accuracy.
    - foldr 3y ago
      Latino isn't a race. You can be white and Latino. This person may have considered themselves white, for all we know. In many countries he would be regarded as white. In any case, if you just want to make a distinction between 'white supremacist' and 'far right, extremist and racist', then are you not splitting hairs somewhat? We know which race the people who liked swastikas favored, and it wasn't the Mayans. But whacky far-right racist beliefs always find a way. Here's an amusing line from the Wikipedia article on a Mexican fascist movement that I linked in another comment: >Rodríguez claimed that blood tests carried out by ethnographers showed that Mexicans and Nordic peoples were racially equal.
peteradio 3y ago
> It's why I genuinely believing in rancid conspiracy theories is dangerous. I can't even parse this sentence.
hn2017 3y ago
Exactly, just see the brainwashed masses who believe in Qanon conspiracy, which Trump and Musk both amplify. It's an alternate reality.

Pyrobyte 3y ago

True, very nice quote. Thanks a lot.

ly3xqhl8g9 3y ago

"Reason and reason alone", it's a bit more complex than that, unfortunately. From Voltaire, Descartes (Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée [1], "Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for everyone is convinced that they are well supplied with it, and even those who are the most difficult to please in everything else are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they have."), and others, Enlightenment has risen. And there is a rather pertinent critique of enlightenment, as in the Dialectic of Enlightenment [2] by Adorno and Horkheimer. For them, the Nazis also think they must purify the race because it's the most rational thing to do, even if they view as the best leader a brown-haired, weakly-mustached, average height methamphetamine abuser. [1] "Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagée : car chacun pense en être si bien pourvu, que ceux même qui sont les plus difficiles à contenter en toute autre chose, n'ont point coutume d'en désirer plus qu'ils en ont.", 1637, Descartes, Discours de la Méthode; the French, only their guillotines are sharper than their words. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic_of_Enlightenment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic_of_Enlightenment

pseudo0 3y ago

[flagged]

foldr 3y ago
Why do people think that it is somehow a contradiction in terms for a Mexican to be a white supremacist? ‘Mexican’ is a nationality. Mexicans can be white, and Mexico has a long history of color-based racism (which for example you can still see in the casting of Mexican TV shows - white out of all proportion to the population). On top of that, there are innumerable instances of people supporting ideologies that are directly contrary to their interests. People are weird. Someone who commits mass murder is especially unlikely to be a particularly rational and consistent thinker. At this point there’s overwhelming evidence that the individual in question was fixated on Nazi imagery and far right ideology. If that doesn’t fit your priors, then they may be due for update.
- pseudo0 3y ago
  The individual in question was quite obviously Latino. His photos were plastered all over the news. He very well might have had far-right, extreme and racist views, but it's rather hard to believe that he specifically subscribed to an ideology that hated him. But the media really likes the tagline "white supremacy", so that made it into all the articles regardless of the specific factual accuracy.
  - foldr 3y ago
    Latino isn't a race. You can be white and Latino. This person may have considered themselves white, for all we know. In many countries he would be regarded as white. In any case, if you just want to make a distinction between 'white supremacist' and 'far right, extremist and racist', then are you not splitting hairs somewhat? We know which race the people who liked swastikas favored, and it wasn't the Mayans. But whacky far-right racist beliefs always find a way. Here's an amusing line from the Wikipedia article on a Mexican fascist movement that I linked in another comment: >Rodríguez claimed that blood tests carried out by ethnographers showed that Mexicans and Nordic peoples were racially equal.

peteradio 3y ago

> It's why I genuinely believing in rancid conspiracy theories is dangerous. I can't even parse this sentence.

hn2017 3y ago

Exactly, just see the brainwashed masses who believe in Qanon conspiracy, which Trump and Musk both amplify. It's an alternate reality.