Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "Intelligence Squared" channel.

  1. Hitchens' final statement was tremendous.
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  2. Zawe Ashton is genius.
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  3.  @frozzytango9927  Elif Shafak certainly does not.
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  4. I've never heard a more selective presentation of basic facts. When did Palestinians have an opportunity for a viable state, for example? (And how is Bari Weiss going to help found a university dedicated to free inquiry? She made her career on canceling pro-Palestinian professors.) Do you seriously believe Russia will lose in Ukraine? Where do you get your news?
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  5. And it was a Soviet, Vasili Arkhipov, who prevented a nuclear exchange.
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  6. ​ @patriciakimball8150 It's increasing . . . now? Are you all right? Are you sure?
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  7. "Learning by rote" is what you need to be trained to do to be able to play Shakespeare. (Children who don't learn it will never appear in a play, or produce a great video for that matter.) P. S. You can keep your "entrepreneurs."
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  8. ​ @myal7532 Do you think Ukraine can win? His analysis of that war is complete nonsense -- but he never says anything that, when proven wrong, could possibly hurt him. That's his paramount skill.
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  9.  Carl Yelland  The Guardian has no far left. It has pro- and anti-Blair Labourites.
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  10. People often show tendencies toward xenophobia and tribalism. Racist? Not generally, unless you dilute the meaning of the word. The concept has a history. It did not, for example, exist in ancient Greece or Rome.
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  11. Not only that, but many, many black people are more beautiful than you or I. Not to mention better musicians.
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  12. Do you think Ukraine can win? His analysis of that war is complete nonsense -- but he never says anything that, when proven wrong, could possibly hurt him. That's his paramount skill. Whatever else anyone may say, and quite apart from any ethical considerations whatsoever, it is simply a fact that America's reputation in the world is now terrible. No one believes anything that America says, because of Gaza. "Humanitarianism" has been exposed as pure opportunism of the most cynical kind. If you are American, it should matter to you, regardless of how you would want that war to turn out. His take on the BRICS+ is whistling in the dark. To mention China's debt and ignore America's is risible.
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  13. Socrates, in the Apology: There are two ways to come out on top. The harder one is to make yourself as excellent as possible. The easier one is to destroy everyone else. Which do we encounter the most? Which do your children encounter? They encounter people who want to trounce them, by undermining them -- not by improving themselves. It is this phenomenon, of pernicious competitiveness, that leads to great concern with self-esteem.
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  14.  @saroyafanniel8932  Visualization is a powerful aid to actual, physical practice in people who have already performed that actual, physical practice.
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  15. ​ @marcusaurelius9123 Start listening to their channels. Just to see what they have to say. Do you think Ukraine can win? His analysis of that war is complete nonsense -- but he never says anything that, when proven wrong, could possibly hurt him. That's his paramount skill.
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  16. Athens is the "West?" I thought it was the Balkan Other.
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  17.  @dylaanowen  ". . . capitalism always wins, man, lol" -- this guy thinks it's like football. 🤣🤣🤣 A great example of the level of education you see under capitalism.
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  18.  @altelf3079  She sounds very intelligent and well-spoken.
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  19.  @chadwickgoddard3090  I have no followed her work, so I don't know. She did not say those things here. (Is she just playing nice, for this crowd? As I admit, I don't know. Her interventions here are excellent.)
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  20. ​ @marcusaurelius9123  Does Australia speech Chinese? No, huh?
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  21. Yeesh, harsh, LOL. But you're right; such ideologies are not widespread.
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  22. Bible mentions no church.
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  23. All that proves is that it is not impossible for a black person to succeed in a Western society. But haven't we known that since at least Pushkin's family line? Um, wait . . . now that I think about it, that wasn't the West. Okay. Anyway. Sir Trevor Philips proves it is not impossible. Point granted.
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  24. ​ @mrharpable This gives you solace? This?
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  25. 1:02:15 Disgraceful gaslighting
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  26. Follow the money. It is so much simpler than sincere people make it out to be.
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  27.  @ajs41  I still have a flip phone. I only upgrade when forced. I've never been on Facebook or Twitter, and only came here during the lockdown. My quality of life has declined, I admit that.
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  28. ​ @JorgeRzezak  Whatever anyone may say, and quite apart from any ethical considerations, America's reputation is now trashed because of the war on Gaza. No one believes anything that America says. "Humanitarianism" has been exposed as an opportunistic lie. I don't understand why any American would fail to recognize this, given that it is in their vital self-interest to recognize it. In the meantime, this guy will do fine.
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  29. Ha, the opposite. Dickens is dated.
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  30. But discourse like NF's becomes even more lucrative. What's not to like?
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  31. Agree wholeheartedly, but the MSM has contributed to the problem. Putting money above all else is at the root of it.
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  32.  @dougwigginton3983  Ultra-rapid, non-discursive pattern recognition, for both cognitive and motor patterns.
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  33. Macron was a disaster, by the way. And it was utterly obvious he would be.
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  34. Why is it that such haters prosper in the Anglo world?
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  35. The ancient Greeks spoke a language which, of all European languages, is closest to Sanskrit and Persian. The Greeks were a bridge between East and West. Read Parmenides and see what it sounds like to you.
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  36. What does that even mean?
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  37.  @gmw3083  LOL 🤣
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  38. Letter to a Young Muslim, by Tariq Ali (excerpt) "The people of Indo-China suffered more than any Muslim country at the hands of the US government. They were bombed for 15 whole years and lost millions of their people. Did they even think of bombing America? Nor did the Cubans or the Chileans or the Brazilians. The last two fought against the US-imposed military regimes at home and finally triumphed."
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  39. 25:46 Pfizer . . . Misleading physicians and the public concerning efficacy . . . This video is from the prior decade.
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  40.  @kiwitrainguy  They vote rationally: for whatever they suppose will bring them more money. When that is all that matters, you have ultimate alienation -- and ultimate instability. Be ready for a wild ride.
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  41. ​@nerd7432 No, he means A leads to B, not All B must be A. Of course there are real illnesses, including psychiatric ones, that are in no way enhancements to one's repertoire of human capacities and experience.
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  42. Mental hoops? They paid her. Would anything else matter to her?
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  43. @Ronald Reagan None of you even know on whose backs you're living. Did you know until a few months ago that the world literally needs Russian raw materials and Russian wheat? Don't bother talking to me, I won't bother. You sound like someone who is one pink slip or bankruptcy away from opioids. You've strung together cliches that someone who impressed you or enticed you has fed to you, and you have no idea how the people who made all the things you've surrounded yourself with must live. When this thing pops, I wonder who you'll blame, and what you'll do to them. I won't be in the US, I'll watch from a safe distance.
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  44. Ockrent? She is a known neoliberal cold warrior, on (what is considered) the right in the French context. Yes, a life-long manipulator.
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  45.  @ajs41  Because he can't write, dance, or play piano!
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  46. Ockrent is a known neoliberal globalist and has never failed to be horrible, on any platform where I've seen her. Elif Shafak is not of the same stripe at all. Don't you listen to women on an individual basis? And here I thought Western Values were all about respecting The Individual!
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  47. The money is great. Any questions?
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  48.  @sayuas4293  And you think that was due to their "racism?" Okay. Never mind.
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  49.  @alioshax7797  Clearly you are unfamiliar with ancient history and literature, or modern European history for that matter. Or, more likely, EVERY distinction sounds like a racial distinction to you.
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  50. How deep is your denial?
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  51. Not at all. People tend to be tribal and xenophobic -- not always, but you see that tendency in all ethnic groups. This is not racism. Racism has a history. It did not always exist, and will not always exist.
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  52. You would.
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  53. I agree the Church is not a force for good in the world, but the result surprised me all the same. The Church needs to deal with its problems, quite simply. There is no reason it should fail to deal with them.
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  54. Money; an ideological, committed, but unhappy marriage; money. Sums it up.
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  55. Cha-ching? Also, he is not happily married is my guess. Ideological marriages may be committed, but rarely happy. Cha-ching becomes even more important.
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  56.  @rogueporpoise5119  Correct. Not impossible.
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  57.  @rogueporpoise5119  Isn't that what everyone hopes for their children -- "not impossible?"
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  58.  @oleggorky906  Given that his great-grandfather married into nobility, in the 1700s, that would not shock me.
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  59.  @oleggorky906  I'm glad I just found this post again! You would know this: I had read that the Russian Czar was embarrassed about Pushkin's great-grandfather's (i.e., Gannibal's) origins as a kidnapped slave, and made up a cover story that he was an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian orphan that he had adopted, which of course made the czar sound noble, and integrated Gannibal more easily into the royal household, given that he was, of course, Orthodox, and from an ancient civilization. Is there any truth to that? Fun fact: there are British nobles who are descended from both Gannibal and Queen Victoria. I think they're distantly related to Philip, or were. Not to the Queen.
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  60.  @oleggorky906  P. S. I knew he was a polyglot, but only recently learned he was an engineer.
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  61.  @oleggorky906  Lenin's parents were considered to be a "fine Russian family" -- despite having no, or almost no, Russian ancestry. His parents' marriage might have been illegal in a few states here at that time. It wasn't evident whether or not it was interracial! LOL Drawing racial lines is perforce racist, every time. But directly experiencing the fact that the lines are drawn in different places by different peoples destroys the whole idea that it could be "objective" in any sense, rather than arbitrary and wholly socially constructed and imposed. After living in France long enough, the American lines got blurred for me. For a while I wasn't always sure who was considered black. I think I know now. My parents never did catch on completely. Anyway, a long story in order to justify the observation that saying someone is Ethiopian and Orthodox when they are West African might not be so innocent. It might not just be based on a proper sense of shame for accepting a slave as a gift (gawd, even saying that makes a person nauseous, doesn't it?). A lot of non-Western Europeans would never consider Ethiopians, Sudanese of the upper Nile ("Nubians"), etc., "black." They do draw a line (with "better" on "their" side, as usual), just not in the same place. But maybe I'm being a little too cynical. I don't know. Just something to think about.
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  62. Do you also revel in The Secret?
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  63. Whatever anyone may say, and quite apart from any ethical considerations, America's reputation is now terrible. No one believes anything that America says. "Humanitarianism" has been exposed as pure opportunism. If you are an American, you should care, out of pure self-interest. The BRICS expanded during the Russian escalation of the conflict in the Donbas, which fundamentally changed its character and turned it into a war. I didn't think that could happen before peace was concluded. But it did. Draw a lesson there? Maybe?
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  64. 52:39 Nouriel Roubini has stated that Marx's general description of how capitalism evolves and generates crises is correct, but that Marx's prescriptions are all wrong. She has Roubini wrong and she knows it.
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  65. @zorrodm  Are you serious? In a sense, yes -- as has Israel in Gaza. Both belligerants always do. The BRICS just expanded. I did not expect that to be possible before peace was concluded. And it's not a good thing, either. At first I was shocked. Then I figured out the lay of the land. Have Russian operations in Ukraine been flagged as possible genocide by the ICJ? Mearsheimer; Jeffrey Sachs; Amy Goodman -- and Bernie Sanders -- for that matter. Wake up.
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  66.  @zorrodm  Well, they might let you see my reply if you sort under Newest. This is a designated free speech forum, after all. 🤣🤣🤣
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  67. ​@zorrodm Yes, visible under Newest tab, not otherwise. That's the new de-emphasis; no one dare call it sense or sheep. 😊
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  68. ​I've never heard a more selective presentation of basic facts, sprinkled with some sort of delusion of entitlement on the part of US/UK to rule the world. WHAT "rehearsal for a second Holocaust?" An astute historian would ask exactly why the terrorist attack was launched in the first place -- and by whom, exactly? (You imagine we know? You imagine that Holocaust comment is analysis?) Do you think Ukraine can win? His analysis of that war is complete nonsense -- but he never says anything that, when proven wrong, could possibly hurt him. That's his paramount skill.
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  69. Whatever anyone may say, and quite apart from any ethical considerations, America's reputation is now terrible. No one believes anything that America says, because of Gaza. "Humanitarianism" has been exposed as pure opportunism. This should concern you.
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  70.  @serpentines6356  Please prove to me that anyone thinks 2 + 2 = 4 is white supremacy. There is a vile Numberphile video that confuses the issue of infinite series, but those are some British-sounding guys asserting their supremacy to impose wrong answers on the rest of us Because They Are So Smart. Mathologer debunked that. Other than that, I've never seen what you're talking about, and I have searched for it.
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  71. Ha. Evidence?
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  72. So . . . Why are they misprescribed to tens of millions, to be used for years?
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  73. He's bragging. He's on the side of the New Rentier Class. Even Adam Smith didn't fall for that.
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  74. ​@rphilipsgeekery4589 You should know by now that you can get anyONE to agree with anyTHING.
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  75.  @vintageglee6406  Good luck with that. Not that anyone else will do worse. That much is obvious.
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  76. ​@alexaiz7521 Do you think Ukraine can win? His analysis of that war is complete nonsense -- but he never says anything that, when proven wrong, could possibly hurt him. That's his paramount skill. Whatever else anyone may say, and quite apart from any ethical considerations whatsoever, it is simply a fact that America's reputation in the world is now terrible. No one believes anything that America says, because of Gaza. "Humanitarianism" has been exposed as pure opportunism of the most cynical kind. If you are American, it should matter to you, regardless of how you would want that war to turn out. His take on the BRICS+ is whistling in the dark. To mention China's debt and ignore America's is risible.
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  77. HA
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  78. So, everyone is crazied now? HE was polite, she, hysterical?
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  79. Of course he starts with a slur against those over 60, disguised as a self-deprecating joke. What a truly unattractive man. Now let's go after China. Throw in some more Axis of Evil while you're at it.
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  80. 25:37 I don't need a "we," or an "us."
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  81. Strategist? You think Ukraine can win? His analysis is complete nonsense -- but he never says anything that, when proven wrong, could possibly hurt him.
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  82. ​ @zorrodm And you still don't get it, huh? 😂
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  83. @Boababa-fn3mr Well, he can talk. That's different.
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  84. @Boababa-fn3mr Good gawd. We have no floor, do we? None whatsoever.
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  85. Net migration from Mexico to the US is negative.
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  86. After Trump proved alternative facts can be used to get ahead, everyone else adopted them with gusto, and tried to up the ante. Why wouldn't they? Plato already described this phenomenon. See for example Gorgias.
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  87. Oh brother. The pandemic was devastating to everyone but the very affluent. This tells me how wide the gap.
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  88. ​ @cheeseofultimatedoom  You sound like you think geopolitics is a high school lunchroom.
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  89. EXACTLY. Write a solid critique that lands, and there is no chance it will appear.
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  90. 💯
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  91. @Boababa-fn3mr  You've just zeroed in on the problem: how do we know? Is this always the case, or is it sometimes the channel? People have posted the very same thing on different channels, with different results. Could some of this be random? Random would fuel more engagement; it's a way to make apps "sticky" (i.e., behavioral addiction).
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  92. @Boababa-fn3mr False. But do keep it up.
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  93. @Boababa-fn3mr  What??? Who said HUMANS were involved in individual decisions? The same algorithm is not operating the same way at all times. You don't know about intermittent reinforcement, do you? 🤣🤣🤣
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  94. @Boababa-fn3mr That there is a single algorithm and that it never operates randomly.
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  95. @Boababa-fn3mr Blocked for wasting my time. You literally know nothing. Or, maybe some of my posts are not visible. In_ter mitt__ent re_in_force_ment is not exactly a favored topic, lol.
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  96. NO, Japan is NOT "part of the West." No Western country has been bombed with nuclear warheads.
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  97. D'Sousa? Thank you for letting us know where these idiot talking points came from. He pled guilty to breaking campaign contribution laws, which has got to be the stupidest move possible. Of course he was pardoned by that other stable genius, Donald J. Trump. No, Fascists and Nazis are not "leftists." But keep it up. Let everyone know the extent of your knowledge base straight away.
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  98. Read Tariq Ali's Letter to a Young Muslim, then tell me what Ali is.
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  99.  @pauldawson6138  Read ANY of Plato's early dialogues, but especially the Gorgias, and wake . . . um. Never mind. This isn't going to happen. I'll just move where people do read it. There is no other answer.
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  100. Could not be more wrong, of course.
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  101.  @Dimera09  I suggest you read about what happened in that incident, and who provoked it and how. You might start with the article in The Guardian for a quick synopsis.
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  102. Yes, but now I like Dickens. I didn't. Tolstoy sounds contemporary. In this particular presentation, that wss the difference.
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  103. I've never seen or heard a more repugnant man. He makes Netanyahu look good. At least Netanyahu's motivation and personal concern is comprehensible.
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  104. If I were her, I would have walked off the stage. I see Ferguson is part of the New Rudeness. I wouldn't permit anyone to speak to me as if I were a budding juvenile delinquent. I'm not so enthralled with 💰.
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  105. ​@alexlazar4738 Exactly. I simply do not understand how these haters prosper in the Anglosphere in particular. It's really a mystery. That culture has spawned some bizarre and repugnant people and movements, as well as an excess of hysterias and moral panics.
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  106. ​ @myal7532 Ferguson begins by assuming that US/UK have some sort of divine right to dominate the world, when they've made an ugly mess of it. If you don't realize that his supposed analysis of the current war on Gaza is based on fake facts and emotionalism ("rehearsal for a second Holocaust"), for example, then perhaps you don't have much perspicuity. To talk about China having crippling debt is flat-out funny. Re: University of Austin . . . Bari Weiss made her career on cancelation and is not particularly competent. Utter hypocrisy. In the meantime, we shall not mention the name Julian Assange.
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  107. It was the Red Army that inflicted nearly 80% of the casualties on the Nazis' fighting force, the Wehrmacht. The Red Army was non-Western. "Values" don't defeat Nazis. If they did, there would have been no Holocaust, nor would Sophie Scholl and her brother have been hanged.
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  108. @Thor The Wolf  I said no such thing. You need to explore why you need to put words in other people's (stranger's) mouths. It's weird.
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