“ananas is a student of life as well,“
Thanks for saying that. I’m a biotechnology bachelor by education, which is related to the study of life indeed. My personal study is life is the study of reality. As Matt Dillahunty once said: “I want to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible”. Some people just define truth differently than I do. I reject the notion of "your truth" versus "my truth" when it comes to facts. Something can be true, even if we cannot be absolutely certain of it. Absolute certainty is an unattainable standard for almost everything outside of basic mathematics and logical absolutes. I just follow the method of science, which does not make definitive truth proclamations. Instead, science builds models that represent our best, tentative understanding of reality based on current evidence (wanting to know as many true things and as few false things as possible). If there is a question not answered by sufficient evidence, my reaction is to forgo any conclusion on that question, unless a conclusion is necessary to function in life. If that is the case, I adopt a ‘working hypothesis’, which is not a blind guess; it is the best inference based on whatever limited evidence currently exists. This approach is also commonly referred to as ‘Scientific Skepticism’ or an ‘Evidentialist Epistemology’.
“BUT it is a different life. Totally different.”
Our ideas are different, the way we approach life is different, the way we experience life is different, but the reality of our lives is more similar than you think. Tell me how my life so far has been different from all Americans. I grew up with two parents who loved me. My father worked as a mechanic, and was the main provider. My mother was mostly a stay-at-home mom, except for about 15 years when she worked one day in the week as a pharmacist assistant. My brother and me then went to the neighbors for lunch, in between morning school and afternoon school. We played outside a lot, exploring the neighborhood that was being expanded around us. We had overgrown vacant land to play in, like building huts, playing survivalist, climbing trees and making campfires. This is much different than the current generations, but I don’t think that it is much different than my generation living in the US. Our primary school and secondary school were both Christian schools. They read us all the bible stories, and we took part in all the cultural activities. The stories were presented as fact, just as the basic history, biology, geography and math. They presented the obligatory curriculum of evolution as an alternative theory, very basically, in as few hours as possible, reluctantly. In secondary school, biology was a bit more advanced; they taught how cells work, how cell division and procreation work, and how life can mutate, but the term ‘evolution’ was again a very sensitive topic for them. At least they also didn’t throw in the term ‘creation’. I was only taught more of it, in high school, when I had deliberately picked biologic fields of study.
I cannot attribute my interest in this field of study to my schooling, in any way. It was purely my own inquisitive mind. From before I was able to read, I wanted to know how things work. I liked it to take a seed form an orange or an apple, put it into the ground and see a tree grow. For my birthdays, I often asked for educational children’s books with lots of pictures, teaching engineering, biology and evolution (dinosaurs). And there were TV-programs that I liked, explaining science in a simple and fun way. They didn’t just show what we know, but also HOW we know those things.
Meanwhile, I went to school and teachers told me about God and Jesus. The Genesis story immediately clashed with everything I already knew. I was OK, with the idea of a god, but not with the story of ‘him’ (God was presented as an old man with a big white beard) creating everything in 6 days. I once just told the teacher that it is not true, because it took billions of years and Adam and Eve were not created from dirt, but they evolved from apes. I don’t remember exactly what she said but it was something like “You can believe what you want, but I’m telling you what we believe. Can you just listen?”. I just decided to do that, and make up my own mind if it made sense or not. I think that this was in second grade, when I still believed in Sinterklaas (character of an old clergyman in red attire, with a long white beard, who is the basis for Santa Claus). When that character turned out to be made-up, one or two years later, it clicked for me that the other old man with a long white beard was just a story too. It was told with similar conviction, but there was even less evidence given for God. At least we saw Sinterklaas all over TV, he visited school, and he brought us presents in a big jute sack. God didn’t show any sign of actually existing. There wasn’t just a lack of evidence for God, there was great evidence against everything they told about God. Then I learned that there were lots of people in history, who had believed in different gods, with different creation stories, that now no one still believes in. Later, I was introduced to other religions, who all claim to believe in the ‘One True God’. That made it clear for me that all those stories are just stories. I can’t disprove a creator of the universe, or the existence of an afterlife, but it’s all part of stories that all contradict each other, none of them have good evidence, and they are all in conflict with very good evidence. It might make other people happy to believe in a delusion, but I prefer to find my happiness in reality, with the people around me. I understand that the world can be ugly, but the world will not improve by believing that there is a supernatural plan behind that. I only see human failure and selfishness behind that ugliness, and you don’t FIX that by pretending. Fixing things require an effort. You find the thing that is broken and you replace it with something that works. After my education, this is the skill I have been improving; finding a problem, analyzing the problem to find causes, including the root cause, then finding the optimal solution to eliminate the cause and FIX the problem.
That’s probably something I inherited from my father; he became a mechanic, because he had been fixing and making things from early youth. His skill was very important, because his father died when he was 11, and he was forced to man up and survive poverty together with his mother. That’s why my father taught me some technical abilities, frugality and independence. In his times, there were two pillars in society; you were either a Christian or ‘a red’ (a socialist). That division was very much similar to your current division in the US. In the US you have more division now than in the past, in my country there are so many different persuasions now, that there is much less division. My father was part of the ‘red’ pillar, because his parents didn’t grow up with religion. Then you were ‘red’ by default. It was living in poverty, experiencing oppression from the government and exploitation from employers, that made him an actual socialist. However, during his youth, the ‘reds’ won by majority of the working class unionizing and organizing. He started working for peanuts, but his skills made him a valuable employee. Better income and massive publicly organized infrastructure and housing construction boom made buying a house available to the working class. Most people could rent cheaply, but my father understood that owning a house means independence from the ruling class. So, he first bought a flat for ƒ11,000 (€ 4,992), with a lot of savings and a mortgage at 12% interest. That’s where I was born. When I was 3, they bought quite a large corner house in a residential area, for ƒ60,000 (€ 27,227). It is now worth at least €500,000. He came from poverty, fixed his problems and made a good life for his family. He taught his sons to be independent thinkers, develop their skills and find what made them happy for themselves.
“that is why our way of life makes no sense to him.“
Your life experiences do differ from mine, but for what I know of it, you could have come to very similar points of view. It’s not your life, it’s what you accepted as truth, that makes you believe different things.
“Had America not came to the aid of Europe when Hitler was doing his thing, that place woulda went down the toilet.”
That is very likely true, but why do you think that it would have been permanent? People don’t accept a lack of freedom and respect for life for ever.
Besides, talk to Guess_Who, who thinks that the United states of America, Led by FDR, funded Hitler's 3rd reich; “When he sent the Jews to the gas chamber he knew what was going to happen..”. Maybe you didn’t read it, but I challenged you; “if you stay silent on this, you are showing a complete lack of principle and intellectual courage.”.
“Ananas for example, can't even enjoy a full size car, his country is so designed he is indoctrinated to think a small tiny car is all he "needs".“
Can you spend the same money twice? I spent some of my money on a car that is adequate for my use, which is commuting 3 days per week, going to family and friends and going on vacation as far as France. It’s not tiny, it seats 4 people comfortably. It has a trunk that is usually big enough for our shopping. If I drop the backseat, it can even hold a big flatpack from IKEA. It has a lot of creature comforts like climate control and cruise control. It has navigation, but the maps are a bit out of date, so I use Google Maps now, which is much better too. It has safety features like ABS, traction control and lane assist. In my country, it is an average sized car. Any bigger car makes it more difficult to find a parking spot. Fuel has always been more expensive in my country than in yours, because we have to import most oil. The government taxes fuel a lot too, to pay for all the road infrastructure, which is more expensive in a country that highly populated. In recent years, the government built FOUR very long tunnels that I use regularly. That costs lots of money. And when your president decided to attack Iran, for no good reason, my gas price went from $8.59/gallon to $11.85/gallon today. Do you think that I regret buying a fuel economical car?
“A few water pumps conk out and he is flooded away!“
My house is built on 0 m elevation. Climate change is raising the sea-level, but fortunately the last responsibility that my government is fucking up is our flood barriers. The last time dikes in the Netherlands failed on a large, nationwide scale was during the North Sea Flood of 1 February 1953. About the same number of people died as in your Hurricane Katrina disaster (2005). Since 1953, we had only 2 deaths from floods in Limburg in 2021. That same flood killed 196 people in Germany and 39 in Belgium. That whole area has an average elevation of around 100 meters above sea level.
“Ananas can't fathom having a gun,he thinks he is safe because the government tells him he is.”
My risk of getting killed in traffic far exceeds my risk of getting killed by a gun. Having a gun in your house is a risk. Even in the US, you are more likely to kill yourself by accident or on impulse, than you are getting killed by someone else with a gun. Then you have the risk of getting angry, shooting someone and going to prison for it. I AM safer without a gun, but mostly I am safer in my country that doesn’t let as many people have guns as your country. Is it freedom to own a gun or are you more free if you don’t need a gun?
“He can not even legally use self defense as a reason to own a firearm.”
Your constitution doesn’t allow for self defense as a reason to own a gun either. It was intended to defend yourself from a tyrannical government. Now you are trying to create one.
If I wanted to own a gun for sports or hunting, I would be able to get a permit, because I have no criminal record. You can ask any AI what regulations are attached to it.
“Imagine living in a country that won't allow you to defend yourself and your family?”
Of course, I am allowed to defend myself. I just cannot own a gun for that purpose. I have a big survival knife and a machete in my home office. I didn’t buy them for defense, but they are there if I need them. I also own some throwing knives, but I cannot find them anymore. If there is a burglar in the house, I will go downstairs with that survival knife (because it looks impressive), to ask him to leave. In the Netherlands, criminals face substantial additional criminal liability for possessing an illegal firearm, and using or threatening someone with a firearm can further increase the sentence. That creates a strong disincentive for burglars to carry guns. It is incredibly unlikely that someone who owns a gun has a reason to come to my house to murder me or my girlfriend, because I’m not a multi-millionaire, criminal, lawyer or a crime journalist. Sometimes people get killed by mistake, but that happens on the street, in seconds. There is no defense against that, even if you did carry a gun. In mass shootings, cops with body armor and training know that they have little chance to actually defend themselves. They cower outside, while children are getting mass murdered. People like you, who think that they are Rambo, might think they stand a chance, but you will just end up killing innocent children and teachers. The fraction of a second that it takes to decide if a person is a killer or an innocent, is the difference that the actual killer uses to kill you. That’s why your idea is nonsense. You cannot defend yourself with a gun against someone who is killing random people. That leaves someone who wants to kill YOU personally. If you feel that you need a gun to protect yourself against that, that’s either a sign about you or your paranoia.
“I could go on, But Ananas is a student of life , just a way different life. A life I question I could even bring myself to live.”
That’s a choice. If your beliefs are based on a philosophy that you feel attached to, it is indeed impossible for me to change your mind. How many people in your country are living a life that they consider meaningful? Are they in fact having a meaningful life or is it dependent on a supernatural connection or assumed rewards in the next life? Are your countrymen feeling happy, healthy, respected, autonomous (in decisions), connected (with friends and family), hopeful and secure? I know that you want to people to be useful, but useful to who? Are they useful if they transport crap products from AliExpress to customers, produce cigarettes or snacks that are designed to be addictive with sugar, salt and fat and maximum profitable by using highly processed ingredients? It’s keeping the economy going, but at what cost? These things are not what made humanity great, it’s our past investments into housing, education, healthcare, social security and introduction of human rights that made humanity great. Did cars make us great, or did it just give employers the ability to make their employees compete with people living 100 miles away, making everyone stuck in traffic for a big part of their lives? Did computers make us great, or did they mostly make people sit behind a screen, growing fatter, instead of going walking in nature, like me? Computers definitely provided me with a tool to use my creativity, have an easier job, and learn about the world, but they also created social media addicted children, consume incredible amounts of the Earth’s resources, and they are likely to put billions of people unemployed with no plans to keep them fed and housed, and maybe they turn into Skynet and nuke everyone. Are we not living a life that leads to huge problems, utter disaster or complete annihilation? To prevent that, do we need scapegoats and division or do we need global cooperation? Are you supporting humanity living that, or do you promote a culture of selfishness for the few and obedience for everyone else? When some people are free to exploit others, what does that do to the others? What is freedom to you? Are you free, if you are fighting to survive or are you free if you have a worthwhile job that covers all your needs and leaves you time and energy to do other things? This is what all Americans who move to my country say they learned; “I have time to enjoy living and spend less time worrying and stressing.”. I think that you could bring yourself to live that life.
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