The Erosion Of Civil Rights, Including Its Effects On SL And Other Online Venues

[Coffee Pancake]

Just now, Silent Mistwalker said:

Now I agree.

I've read a LOT of Dune and I think it falls too heavily into a monolithic trap, focusing entirely on the actions of those at the very tip of the ruling houses with the citizenry falling neatly into line behind their rulers banner, especially once the series starts to expand on the core antagonist factions. This is also a fault shared by Star Trek.

We're far more fractured and chaotic politically which is something Star  Wars manages to get fairly right, not all humans support the Empire, but everyone in the Empire is human (with minor exceptions) and it's far from the same kind of monolithic power structure as presented in Dune. The EU and Thrawn novels especially are good at adding a lot of depth that we only really glimpse on screen in the prequels. 

 

[Coffee Pancake]

12 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Logged in world the other day and one of the groups --- one for Midnight Mania boards they were talking politics and stuff and talking civil rights. A few were slamming mixed-race couples (which me and my man are) and one shop owner said she would ban non-white avatars.  I simply left the group and moved on.  I thought there was too many things going in the RL world and no reason to bring it in world.

 

What the actual ... 

[Silent Mistwalker]

11 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I've read a LOT of Dune and I think it falls too heavily into a monolithic trap, focusing entirely on the actions of those at the very tip of the ruling houses with the citizenry falling neatly into line behind their rulers banner, especially once the series starts to expand on the core antagonist factions. This is also a fault shared by Star Trek.

We're far more fractured and chaotic politically which is something Star  Wars manages to get fairly right, not all humans support the Empire, but everyone in the Empire is human (with minor exceptions) and it's far from the same kind of monolithic power structure as presented in Dune. The EU and Thrawn novels especially are good at adding a lot of depth that we only really glimpse on screen in the prequels. 

 

I've read all of the books plus 3 of his son's Dune works. Dune is far worse than SW ever thought of being.

[Coffee Pancake]

2 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I've read all of the books plus 3 of his son's Dune works. Dune is far worse than SW ever thought of being.

Yes but SW is messy, Dune isn't.

[Cedric Brown]

4 hours ago, StarlanderGoods said:

This isnt a "both sides" issue, a partisan court is favoring a religious doctrine over the will of the people

Read the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Abortion is not a constitutional right, THUS it is up to the states and their ELECTED representatives to decide how to treat abortion. Now if you wish to amend the Constitution to include abortion that can be accomplished via the states and the "will of the people" thru their ELECTED representatives. The Rule of Law, without we're screwed

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Yes but SW is messy, Dune isn't.

I read the very first SW (beyond the movie) novels when they were out.  I'm sure the first I read was "Splinter of the Mind's Eye".

Unfortunately, I read the Dune novels somewhat backwards. Pretty sure I started with #5, "God Emperor of Dune".  That darn Science Fiction Book Club (auto-sent the book)!

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Cedric Brown said:

Abortion is not a constitutional right, THUS it is up to the states and their ELECTED representatives to decide how to treat abortion.

Yet..nothing prevents the US Congress from passing laws regarding it too. From my understanding.

[Silent Mistwalker]

20 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Yes but SW is messy, Dune isn't.

Messy? If you haven't read all the books how could you possibly know? There is nothing neat or tidy about Dune.

[Jules Catlyn]

Religion should have no place in politics or education. It should be a private thing. Feel free to believe in anything you want but do not impose these beliefs on anyone else or judge their "worth" by those standards. 

Most religions as we know them were engineered to control uneducated masses and strike fear into them so they could be easily controlled. If you find strength and reason in religion good for you, but do not force those beliefs on anyone else. 

As for SL, yes, i see this fake morality slowly gather strength here as well. People are becoming less open minded, more conservative. Judging others seems to be a favorite hobby of many. I see it in groups and on social media. Maybe it is because the user base of Second Life is getting older or it is heavily influenced by the movements in certain parts of the world. People are easily calling for others to be boycotted, even "canceled". We should not have this narrow mindedness in SL. It is not just religion based, but you can almost include any social, political or cultural movement in this.

If you are not with us, you are against us and you need to be "canceled" maybe even destroyed. There is no ability left to look at things from different views, trying to see the other side. No empathy, no compassion.

[Extrude Ragu]

When I think about abortion, I imagine myself as a baby yet to be born in my mothers womb.

As a baby I am helpless and weak, my mum is the only person who is there for me, who will protect me and raise me until I can fend for myself. That is what I want to believe.

To... 'abort' ... me...  feels like betrayal from the person I trust and depend on the most in my weakest moment.

You know, it's not to say I don't empathise with women who will give birth to a baby of a bad man or go through financial hardship, but even still mommy is strong and baby is weak. I'd hope that even if my mum could not support me, she would still give me to someone she trusts to raise me, because she loves me and she cares.

Probably the only time I feel like I can accept abortion is when giving birth to the baby would kill the mother, but even that creates  feelings of conflict inside me, my gut and my heart really do not like it. That's just how I feel about it.

[Coffee Pancake]

34 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Messy? If you haven't read all the books how could you possibly know? There is nothing neat or tidy about Dune.

I think the only Dune books I've not read now is a couple of the prequel ones, I own the entire set hardback

[Coffee Pancake]

7 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

Probably the only time I feel like I can accept abortion is when giving birth to the baby would kill the mother, but even that creates  feelings of conflict inside me, my gut and my heart really do not like it. That's just how I feel about it.

See ectopic pregnancy . Everyone dies.

[Silent Mistwalker]

4 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I think the only Dune books I've not read now is a couple of the prequel ones, I own the entire set hardback

Read the prequels. The ones written by Brian.

[Quistess Alpha]

6 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

See ectopic pregnancy . Everyone dies.

I searched it. . . Yikes. and Yikes for what will happen to people who have their medical care fiddled with by people who don't know what the hell they're talking about. (Dumb elected officials rather than medical professionals)

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-24/after-2-ectopic-pregnancies-i-fear-what-might-happen-without-roe-v-wade

[Rolig Loon]

21 minutes ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Judging others seems to be a favorite hobby of many. I see it in groups and on social media. Maybe it is because the user base of Second Life is getting older or it is heavily influenced by the movements in certain parts of the world.

Just please don't paint all of us old farts with the same brush. Many of us lived through the troubled years of the 1960s, which had more than their own share of political and social issues in many corners of the world.  We came through them more or less intact but forever alert to what excesses on either the right wing or the left wing of society can do to all of us. You cannot realistically expect to be a bystander in times like these, and you shouldn't be. The best you can do is remember that we are all in this together. 

[Love Zhaoying]

34 minutes ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Religion should have no place in politics or education.

..and vice-versa, fair?

[Love Zhaoying]

25 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

When I think about abortion, I imagine myself as a baby yet to be born in my mothers womb.

Quote: "Generally, it's called an embryo from conception until the eighth week of development. After the eighth week, it's called a fetus until it’s born"

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7247-fetal-development-stages-of-growth

There is a history of people referring to a "fetus" as a "baby", for political reasons and to sway public opinion on..abortion.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Cedric Brown said:

Read the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Abortion is not a constitutional right

Apparently, neither is "Privacy".

[Extrude Ragu]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

There is a history of people referring to a "fetus" as a "baby", for political reasons and to sway public opinion on..abortion.

I'm sorry but that's just how I feel, it doesn't really matter to me that science boffins say they're not a living being, to me it is a baby. It's got nothing to do with politics, I am honestly being sincere, this is genuinely just how I feel.

[Jules Catlyn]

36 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Just please don't paint all of us old farts with the same brush

I don't believe i did. I merely mentioned it as a possibility.

[Jules Catlyn]

33 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

..and vice-versa, fair?

Please explain? 

[Rolig Loon]

40 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

I'm sorry but that's just how I feel, it doesn't really matter to me that science boffins say they're not a living being, to me it is a baby. It's got nothing to do with politics, I am honestly being sincere, this is genuinely just how I feel.

That's fine. If there were an easy way to reconcile all of our conflicting emotions, it would have been done ages ago. I doubt that it will be possible to find a political middle ground that will satisfy our strong personal moral differences, and yet I think we mostly agree that we want to avoid as much pain and hardship for each other as we can, born and unborn alike. Personally, I am optimistic but the light I see at the end of the tunnel is too far away to reach within my lifetime.

Edited June 27, 2022 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[Love Zhaoying]

7 minutes ago, Jules Catlyn said:

Please explain? 

 

41 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Religion should have no place in politics or education.

Sure! "Vice-versa" in this case means: "And politics should have no place in religion."

For education, that's trickier.  

[Love Zhaoying]

28 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

I'm sorry but that's just how I feel, it doesn't really matter to me that science boffins say they're not a living being, to me it is a baby. It's got nothing to do with politics, I am honestly being sincere, this is genuinely just how I feel.

I didn't say any of that, I was just giving the technical term for the "unborn baby".

[Rolig Loon]

10 minutes ago, Jules Catlyn said:

I don't believe i did. I merely mentioned it as a possibility.

Thank you.  I know you didn't. I just thought I ought to say something because I wasn't sure how many other people might be looking for a boomer or two to toss a rock at, and I'm too tired to run fast.  😉