The Lief Reservoir of Simple Truths and Smart One-Liners

[Gustaf]

Not exactly a one-liner, but here we go:

As a social sciences student, I have realized how much the cancer of economic thinking has spread throughout this field of study. What I hate, more than the ideological framework in itself (which is an interesting perspective in itself), is the smug, self-satisfied and downright authoritarian belief held by its proponents that their economic rationality is the only rationality, that they got it all figured out, and that everybody else is just unable to see the truth because their judgment is clouded by silly things like norms and values. It never occurs to their minds that norms and values are also part of the human experience and play an essential role in any well-functioning society, or that no sane human being has no other goal than to maximize its material interests. It's this delusion of grandeur that makes homo economicus theory one of the most dangerous ideas of the 21st century.

Also not exactly true, as was pointed out in multiple responses in the thread. But I guess engaging in actual debate is too much work for a fair share of Atlas posters.

[Gustaf]

Boobs are just so great. Butts are all pretty much the same, and there's nothing to be done with them. There's a lot to be done with boobs.

This is more of a simple lie than a simple truth.

[Gustaf]

I agree with Gustaf about a sex-related topic (!!!!!!!).

Literally everything you can do with boobs you can do with butts.

I would never ever ever suck on a butt.

prude!

(recognizing this post for its simple truthiness)

I actually would think sex-related topics might be the one area where we would tend to agree. On what would we disagree?

 

[Gustaf]

DISCLAIMER: I'm making this post more as an apologetic for certain members of my extended family than anything else.

It's possible, probable even, that at some point in the relatively near future the principle that couples should have access to civil marriage regardless of the combination of their sexes will be widely understood to be grounded on first principles in such a way that nobody can argue otherwise in good faith. At that point we'll indeed be able to say that people who oppose same-sex marriage are a distasteful fringe and can't possibly hold their position for well-intentioned reasons. I don't think we've yet reached the point where that grounding on first principles is self-evident or self-explanatory. I kind of hope we do (mostly because I think that if opposition to same-sex marriage becomes completely socially unacceptable then there are people whose opinions and morals I otherwise respect who will feel obliged to come around on it), but I don't think we have. It's still possible for somebody to oppose same-sex marriage and not be a generally bad person.

This is hardly a "one-liner"

[Gustaf]

Guys, CrabCake is right on this issue. Like he said, "fiscally conservative and socially liberal" could describe anybody from Gary Johnson to Michael Bloomberg. If that doesn't convince you the term is meaningless bullsh**t, I don't know what will...

I mean, on one end of that phrase, you have WalterMitty, who said he'd support Rick Santorum in the 2006 senate race for God's sake. On the other end, pre-socialism Mechaman. Pretty wide range.

It's a good thing that terms like liberal and conservative identify a narrow range of views with surgical precision.

[Gustaf]

Yes.  The lumping together of the two movements has helped encourage unfortunate stereotypes about gays and lesbians.

Oh for f**k's sake dude. Please tell me you meant to post it in the deluge...

I'm not saying it's a good thing, but good or bad, what Green Line posted is definitely true.  Most straight people feel far more animosity towards transgender people than LGBs (if they even feel any real animosity toward LGBs at all).  This is a pretty undeniable fact, no sense pretending it isn't true.

So persecution of trans people is a good argument for telling them to fck off? This sounds a bit like when Gandhi fought for South African Indians to be considered better than the black people.