Why humanity destroyed itself

No such animal. Remember, kids, if dumber/smaller/weaker/cruder/uglier/sicklier/meaner/smellier turns out to be what helps your offspring survive the next curveball the universe throws at your species, the first thing your ugly crude dumb stinky little weakling disease-ridden asshole descendants will lose is any sense that they’re not on the glide path to perfection.

(I know you probably get that; I’ve just developed an allergy to the word from teaching natural selection. I’m planning on passing it on to my kids, Lamarck-style.)

Amusingly Heston’s ‘God Damned You all to Hell’ line made it past the censors because it was argued he wasn’t cursing so much as genuinely calling for God’s Wrath.

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This is why I believe in Roddenberry’s vision.

Shut up. I’m serious.

In his vision of the future, mankind still had the instinct to conquer and dominate- But we turned it towards science and exploration. Not content to kill and seize mere resources- No, we would challenge the laws of physics and make the universe itself our bitch.

We were still tribal and cared for our own above all others- But we grew that tribe to encompass our entire species- and then made it a generations-long mission to bring as many worlds into the tribe as possible.

He saw us not suppressing our instincts like the Vulcans, but learning to use them for the greater good.

And yes, I do actually believe in that vision.

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Yes, we are miracles of glitchery…

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I blame the concept of “free speech at any cost” for the destruction of the US.

Free speech should NOT include commercial, political, or racial speech, but because the US fetishizes a 250 year old document, we get bullshit like Citizens United and the NRA.

Because we all subscribe to liberal free-thinking principles dreamed up before humans even knew of things like germs or electricity, shit speech that shouldn’t be aired in a public setting is given legitimacy. Imagine how much different our political culture would be if politicians had to have their ads vetted for truth before airing and were limited in time they could advertise versus campaigning, or if the neo-nazis in power now had their hateful bullshit muted and deleted automatically when they called for race riots instead of being able to reach impressionable minds with their garbage.

Hell, imagine our healthcare system if every other ad wasn’t for some new miracle pill that costs insurance companies thousands but Joe Schmo is convinced will fix his lumbago because he’s seen 40 ads for it on TV this week and demands it of his doctor.

Just note, I don’t think people should be put in jail for speech (most of the time - Nazis deserve the same treatment Manning got), but I firmly believe our country is far worse off with these antiquated bills of rights and those justices who believe it’s second only to the Bible in primacy.

Oh, and the Internet for allowing people to permanently shut off their critical thinking lobe.

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0_o you could make an argument for the first and third one, but the the second one, political, is the REASON for the 1st amendment in the first place.

Sorry you think freedom is bullshit.

That has been a problem since man first learned to reason. Before the internet it was TV, newspapers, a holy book/man, or what ever the leader, Gary, says.

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The snark is strong in this one.

You and me both.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get there. It may not be in my lifetime. But wouldn’t it be nice if humankind achieved that dream?

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Sam Harris had already eloquently noted a leading set of candidate circumstances:

It is imperative that we begin speaking plainly about the absurdity of most of our religious beliefs…I pray that we may one day think clearly enough about these matters to render our children incapable of killing themselves over their books. If not our children, then I suspect it could well be too late for us because while it has never been difficult to meet your maker, in fifty years is will be simply be too easy to drag everyone else along to meet him with you.

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