This seems like it ought to be a well-known principle, but I can't find it set down anywhere, so I am claiming it for myself.
Rev's Law: Given sufficient inferential distance, wrong and confident is more convincing than correct and hedged.

I was accosted on the street one evening, many years ago, by some flavor of Christian youth cult recruiter. I politely informed him that I was a Satanist, and kept walking.

A few minutes later, my companion--a Christian himself--asked me, "You didn't really mean that, did you?"

I told him, "Whatever side that guy's on, I'm on the other."

Other people have a right to their own values and priorities, no matter how stupid they are.

You may disagree. That's OK too.

From Playing D&D With Porn Stars, which is about as SFW as you'd expect, also brilliant and essential. This goes out to all the haters, with love. CLICK TO ENLARGE. DO IT.


( Read more... )

"If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."--Tom Lehrer

Credo I, II, III, IV, V, VI.

I'm an anarchist but if I had the power to overthrow the government, I wouldn't. Other people seem to like having a government around, and I don't think I have the right to dictate stuff like that to others.

Because, hey, anarchist.

Nothing ever happens for only one reason.

Nothing ever happens for only finitely many reasons. All explanations are incomplete.

This does not mean all explanations are false, or meaningless. This is not an excuse for nihilism.

I am anarchist in kind of the same sense I am immortalist. I don't think anyone should rule, in the same way that I don't think that anyone should ever have to die. I don't have any good ideas on achieving either goal, not in any kind of final sense. But we can learn ways to live longer, and I think we can learn ways to be more free, too.

Edit: " ( Read more... )

"There are two great powers and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger ( Read more... )

I LIKE CATS.