Castin's avatar

Castin

A member since

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Total posts: 2,627

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NFL is a poor choice in sport
I think a lot of players and fans just aren't super informed about it. They're aware of it, they know it's a danger people are talking about, maybe they read one article or something, but they don't truly understand the risk or what it does. Certainly they haven't listened to Ann McKee talk about it or looked at pictures of CTE affected brains. I almost wish I hadn't, they're gruesome.
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Who's who? New usernames, old users.
Full disclosure, my username on DDO was Casten. I know this will be shocking for many and I apologize for the deception.
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Alone
Okay EV, I'm gonna start watching Alone on your recommendation. Any advice about which season to start with? Looks like there are five.

Recap for anyone else: Me and EtrnlVw are survival TV junkies and this is apparently a show about people who have to survive in complete isolation with limited survival equipment.

Isolation definitely does things to the mind. Humans are social animals, for the most part. Too long alone and you start withdrawing into yourself.
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
Well help me out a little here. Were you saying the Nazis exterminated Jews because they were wealthy, not because they were Jewish?
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
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@Buddamoose
Not at all. Your posts just made me unclear on where you personally stand, and I was curious. I certainly didn't expect you to say they're evil.
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
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@XLAV
Propaganda by painting their enemies as evil or a threat. If you've convinced them well enough they'll be glad in doing it and ironically its the one who's doing the convincing.
I'm not sure I understand that last sentence.
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
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@secularmerlin
Do you have any thoughts in response to the OP?
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
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@ethang5
@Buddamoose
How do you personally feel about Jews?
I'm kind of interested in the answer to this question as well, moose.
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Is RM banned already?
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@RationalMadman
Yeah not bad, I must say.
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Is RM banned already?
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@RationalMadman
Okay I laughed pretty hard.
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Is RM banned already?
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@vagabond
He was only temp banned.
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Is RM banned already?
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@ethang5
No. *sigh* Oh well.
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Platform development
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@DebateArt.com
1) Bumped the debate vote reason size from 3k to 5k chars.

2) Forum posts activities now should take you right to the posts when clicked on the topics (only the new ones)

3) Relaxed copy pasting into the editor, now it should be easier to do. It also comes with some drawbacks so we'll see if that's a good idea.
Yay! So much more convenient with the mention notices, and now when I copy and paste something it doesn't delete the spaces between paragraphs so I end up with a big old block of text.
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A liberal's rant about liberals
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@Stephen
That video seems to not be available in the U.S. What was the joke?
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A liberal's rant about liberals
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@Greyparrot
My dream would be a total breakup of the two party system, with power divided among at least half a dozen different parties that appeal to more nuance in public opinion. Also, no more electoral college. 
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Death to the Republic
The human race has to stop falling for, "Give me complete power and I'll quickly solve all your problems." We keep going for the miracle product. We keep buying the ShamWow.

You're never gonna sell me on a system where dissenting opinions are not tolerated. Does your definition of fascism include totalitarian power where dissenting speech is suppressed?
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Finding DDO members
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@RationalMadman
Can I get a link.
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A liberal's rant about liberals
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@TheDredPriateRoberts
I don't think any of us like labels or fit neatly into them, but we use them to give strangers a brief ballpark idea of where we stand.

But okay, if I'm not a progressive then what am I. I believe in progress. And that means letting progress in science, morality, and philosophy inform and influence our politics. I'm big on NASA and scientific research and achievement. A cornerstone of my worldview comes from this Sagan quote, which should be familiar to many.

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”


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Religious Liberty Task Force
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@ethang5
I wish I was one of those atheists who is passionate enough to rail away that God should not be on our money and our presidents should not swear on the Bible, but I just don't give a shit about those things. Do I think they are out of line with separation of church and state, yes. Are they threatening my liberties or affecting my life, no.

I will say that those examples, and in general the argument that America has always been a Christian nation, seem to demonstrate how unnecessary this task force is, and how questionable it is to assert that religion is a special victim of oppression in America.

I'm not surprised by what Sessions did, btw. But imagine that he had defended U.S. policy by quoting a different religion's holy text. Better yet, imagine it was a democratic Attorney General who had quoted a different religion's holy text.
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is trump a racist, or just have racist views?
I think he's just an idiot.

But that's just me.
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Religious Liberty Task Force
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@ethang5
Yeah, you did.
Lol, granted. But I can understand why others might jump the gun. Sessions is the guy who tried to defend U.S. policy by reading from the Bible. During a public address where he was speaking as the Attorney General of the United States, not in private among friends or colleagues.
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Who's who? New usernames, old users.
Can anyone help me out with a list of who on this site went by a different username on DDO, just so I can keep it all straight.
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Religious Liberty Task Force
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@ethang5
Yeah. Was the task force to defend Islamic freedom, you would be all for it.
The reception would definitely have been very different across demographics if the religious rights of Muslims had been specified. But I took protecting "people of faith" to include people of all religions.

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Religious Liberty Task Force
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@Beelzedad
Would that be surprising from a member of the Trump administration?
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Debate Voting Thread (FORMER)
Jesus, the number of debates this guy is opening.
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Serial Killers
Why is Jack the Ripper so much more famous and iconic than any other serial killer. He killed like five people. I know, I know, you're gonna say the Dear Boss letters, plus Jack was never caught, yellow journalism, sensationalism, blah blah. I still think his grip on the human imagination is out of proportion. I remember an episode of the original Star Trek where he turned out to be an immortal interplanetary malicious energy.

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Who will be the one to take me down?
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@RationalMadman
Oh really? I didn't know Lunatic was TUF.

Well at least you've got the self-esteem thing down pat.
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Raped Dutch Politician Commits Suicide.
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@keithprosser
Ah, missed that. Unfortunate. That evidence would've talked.
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Debate Voting Thread (FORMER)
FYI, if any of you want my vote for anything you'll put a working link to the debate in your post. None of this copying and pasting the url as text shit. Accommodate my laziness. All you have to do is hit the space bar after you paste the url, it'll automatically turn it into a link.
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DDO refugees
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@philochristos
In case no one has told you yet, accounts were banned en masse because of an oopsy by Juggle, who continue to earn customer trust and respect. You can go to this thread and request that airmax reopen your account. http://www.debate.org/forums/debate.org/topic/4135066/
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A liberal's rant about liberals
I'm a progressive. I saw a Bill Maher piece recently that perfectly sums up my feelings about political correctness. Thought I'd post it here in case anyone wanted a laugh.

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Why Trump is really Hitler.
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@Greyparrot
Can't say I never heard right-wingers comparing Obama to Hitler from 2008 to 2016. In my experience one side is bound to knee-jerk go for this when the other side is in office.
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Serial Killers
Are there any serial killers or cases that have caught your particular interest or notice? They've certainly left their footprint on pop culture.
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Finding DDO members
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@SamStevens
Him and RationalMadman would've probably hit it off. Or else butted heads explosively.
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
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@Buddamoose
I understand economics has historically played a role in antisemitism, but the wealthy only make up a tiny percentage of Jews. The Nazis knew that.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Selection_Birkenau_ramp.jpg Most of the people in this picture were sent to the gas chamber. They were not rich. They held no power. It would have been absurd to say they're on the "bourgeois" side. They were killed just for being Jewish.
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You Know who you are...
This post... is for one person only... you know who you are... YOU know who you are... I do not, however... repeat YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE... please tell me so I know who I am referring to...
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Who will be the one to take me down?
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@RationalMadman
The Madman has begun his reign and his rationality leaves him supreme over the other 'lunatic' types!
I assume you're referring to your other personalities.
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Platform development
I'm most eagerly awaiting a proper quote system, mention links that take me directly to the mention rather than the first thread page, and a notification dropdown list. But I know all that has already been talked over and is on the bulletin board.

On the topic of signatures, big sigs annoy me to. Just put a font size limit on it. And don't allow images in signatures, if you ever at some point implement image posting.
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Moderators rights
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@1harderthanyouthink
All right, then somebody notify me if he gives some sign he's leaning that way so I know when to flail about in proper panic. Flailing is exhausting and I don't want any false alarms.
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Raped Dutch Politician Commits Suicide.
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@Stephen
Yeah her hesitation would be in line with common post rape behavior. I wonder if they'll be doing an autopsy with a rape kit. Although if she was not raped relatively recently there wouldn't be much evidence to be had.
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Raped Dutch Politician Commits Suicide.
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@Polytheist-Witch
Well she said she was scared for herself and her family, which might make her hesitate. But she also made it sound like the proper authorities had neglected her appeal for help, while that article says the police followed up with her and asked if they could help but she didn't take it further.

That doesn't prove anything either way.
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Car Chases Are Stupid
They're super boring 90% of the time because they're just so typical. I'm always like, "What made you think you could go so long without anything interesting happening?"

But if they're doing it believably, the fleeing car is weaving in and out of traffic and obstacles a lot (responsible) to keep the chasing car from line-of-sighting them. If the chasing car is equipped with pistols or semiautomatic firearms of a comparable rate of fire, it should be hard to hit objects as small as tires on a moving target while yourself firing from a moving car, adding that the constant weaving of the fleeing car gives you ridiculously narrow windows of time to get in even the most perfectly accurate shot. If the attackers have automatic weapons, it should be a spray-and-shred where every part of the fleeing car could easily get hit. In which case if a tire pops the chase could still continue with the fleeing car grinding on a rim.

The chasing car must think it would have a significant advantage in a fight once the cars stop, otherwise there should not be a chase. This advantage could be superior numbers, superior firepower, superior physical strength, or psychological dominance.
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How can normal people exterminate human beings without feeling?
Uh, "without feeling" is modifying exterminate, not human beings.

Every now and then I am reminded of the horrifying reality of the Holocaust, rather than holding it as a historical fact in my mind, and it kind of smacks me in the face all over again. I read the transcripts where the Nazis were first meeting to discuss the Final Solution as clinically as a business matter. I think about the many Nazis who had to be part of the genocide machine, who otherwise would've been normal individuals. I think of the people who had to look men, women, and children in the face and then pull the figurative lever that gassed them. And then went home and had dinner with their families.

How is it thinkable? How do so many people from what we might have called a civilized society come to behave like psychopaths?

Interested in your answers. Mine usually include mob mentality and dehumanizing the victim. Basically I think the Nazis are a cautionary tale about what can happen anywhere we let hate have complete power.
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Raped Dutch Politician Commits Suicide.
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@RationalMadman
Unfortunately that also gives me no information about this case.
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Raped Dutch Politician Commits Suicide.
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@RationalMadman
Unfortunately that gives me no information about this case.
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Art as Proof
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@vagabond
What do I have to do to get you to change your profile picture. His stare is creeping me out.
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Raped Dutch Politician Commits Suicide.
Honestly, that video made me sick to my stomach. If all that's true, that is horrible.

According to Wikipedia, she was a far-right politician who in 2016 said on her Facebook page that all Muslims should be exterminated with a nuclear bomb. If her claims are true, I imagine the harassment may have started then. In which case those men would belong to a group of Muslims in the European and Middle Eastern world who do not seem to grasp what freedom of speech means. Although as an active politician the line between her official and private life was in danger of being blurry to the public.

The problem is there is no evidence as of yet. She even deleted that teary video and told the press it was a rash decision. I can't jump straight to outrage over an offense that doesn't have at least one small nugget of evidence to point in that direction. Right now the most compelling thing for me is just that she committed suicide. Whatever her reasons, they had to be greater than her basic self-preservation instinct.
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Art as Proof
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@ethang5
I think it's everyone's go-to famous artwork in conversations like this. And I too was sold that business about her enigmatic smile being what captivates the world. I do find it has an interesting quality about it, but not enough to be so much more famous than any other paintings with interesting qualities. That took getting stolen. Pro tip to other paintings: get stolen. Great for your career.

Where are her eyebrows? Did the paint erode? Did a bird carry them away? Did the thief who stole the painting just never give them back?
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New beginning?
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@ethang5
We may have served as a way of building clique identity via communal mockery of an outside group. But in the spirit of "new beginnings", who among us can say we've never indulged in something along those lines at some point. Although I wouldn't say I consider them among my proudest moments.

But if they want to talk about the obliviousness, in my case I can clear that up right now.

If you were there for the forums, it just seemed like nowhere else had a steady pulse. I could go into other forums, create a thread, and have it die without one response. Amid a graveyard of other threads that died without one response. I could post in non-religious forum threads and have it take so long to get a reply that when I saw it in my notifications I would no longer recognize the thread title. Even the more active forums could take hours to update, while the religion forum updated by the minute. Nothing else could compete with that kind of fast pace entertainment and of course it conditioned me to center my attention on the place of highest action. People even posted topics there that really had nothing to do with religion, because they wanted the thread to get instant high traffic. Now I haven't been on DDO since the beginning and I'm sure the activity has fluctuated, but this was just my experience.
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Moderators rights
Why are we discussing democratic moderating? Has Mike given some sign he's considering this?
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