My Endorsement for U.S. President: Tulsi Gabbard

Posted on by harpertom888

I consider myself a classical liberal, which in the U.S. is more strongly aligned with libertarians than with Liberals. I voted for the Libertarian candidate in the last two elections, after voting for Obama in 2008 and John Kerry in 2004 (those elections were before my conversion to being more libertarian leaning). That being said, I am prepared to vote Democratic again in this election as long as Tulsi Gabbard is the Democratic candidate. Here is why.

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Hong Kong Protests and Freedom

Posted on by harpertom888

Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) is part of the People’s Republic of China under “One Country, Two Systems” created by the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984 and coming into effect in 1997. “One Country, Two Systems” stopped China’s communist system from taking effect in Hong Kong, leaving Hong Kong with political and economic autonomy for 50 years, until 2047. Here in the U.S. the Hong Kong demonstrations have caused issues with certain organizations loyalty being split between ideology and profit.

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Is the Black Metal Band Marduk NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal)?

Posted on by harpertom888

Marduk is a black metal band that formed in Sweden in 1990, releasing their first album Dark Endless in 1992; their latest album Viktoria is their fourteenth LP to be released. Two years ago, in early 2017, their show in Oakland was cancelled by the venue to prevent a local anti-fascist group from violence after they reportedly threatened the venue staff. This was due to accusations that Marduk promotes racism and fascism. Is this accusation true?

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Fear and Trembling – Reinterpreting Kierkegaard’s Take on Abraham

Posted on by harpertom888

In Fear and Trembling Søren Kierkegaard asks us to look at the story from Genesis of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. Kierkegaard wants us to understand that Abraham is heroic not in an abstract sense, but in that this level of faith is something we should all aspire to. It’s only at this level of faith – where one can expect the impossible – that one can truly love God, which is the definition of true happiness for humankind.

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Trump Impeachment

Posted on by harpertom888

I don’t have a real hot take on the issue of the Trump impeachment, but I thought it important to lay down some of my thoughts. My opinions follow directly from my political cynicism: 1) it’s more political theater than a sincere desire to save the republic, 2) it’s a bad idea, and 3) it’s not going to work.

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Meaning Without a Shared Narrative

Posted on by harpertom888

This Cato Institute 2019 poll has some telling results about the state of people’s feelings toward a meaningful existence. What does it mean to have a meaningful existence? Religion, of course, says that a meaningful existence can only happen through religion. Without religion, people seem to seek meaning through politics. Once politics is seen for what it really is – a soul-shaped cavity overflowing with fetid swamp water where dreams go to die – people are left with nothing but hollow materialistic consumerism. When that fails to satisfy the need for purpose, the meaning-wheel comes full circle and people seek a metaphysics to explain how the world works. The most popular of which currently is identity politics.

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The Mereological Issue With Sports

Posted on by harpertom888

What is it that makes an organization what it is? Is it the sum of the constituent people? An idea? The problem of sports organizations is that they don’t have anything that persists through time – the 1985 Chicago Bears is not the same thing as the 2019 Chicago Bears.

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Identity Politics and the Sexual Revolution

Posted on by harpertom888

Mary Eberstadt has a new book called Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics where she makes the case that the 1960s sexual revolution is what gave rise to identity politics today. I think, while that may have played a part, the identity politics craze can’t be completely laid at the feet of the sexual revolution.

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Poststructuralist Semiotics and Evolutionary Psychology

Posted on by harpertom888

Poststructuralism is a theory of semiotics (language and signs) that, broadly speaking, says that meaning is an effect of language, rather than a cause. In other words, what things mean to us is formed by language as opposed to our language having a 1-to-1 correspondence with reality. This theory, of course, takes the blank slate theory axiomatically. But what if we combine it with evolutionary psychology?

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Music, Video Games, and Murder

Posted on by harpertom888

Any U.S. readers will be aware of this, but for those outside the U.S. who aren’t, there were two independent mass shooting incidents in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio over the weekend. As per usual, both immediately became political. Soon after political blame games, the other usual suspects are trotted out – music and video games.

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