Phi for All

Why did Amazon ignore you when you asked THEM this question? Is the customer service as bad as they say?

Give me a break! EVERYONE here arguing for reparation has given the reasons for it, and nobody ever implied that it would be based on anything other than discrimination. It just so happens that the folks discriminated against also have black skin, so your argument here is obfuscation by semantics.

And Noah famously turned away the pair of sasquatch who showed up at the ark riding unicorns, so they never survived the flood.

! Moderator Note This approach to your subject isn't working. Our Speculations section is for listening to your explanation of your idea, and you reject too much of mainstream physics for any discussion about this to be meaningful. You can't explain it in a way that anyone else can understand, and you reject the explanations others have studied and find very useful. We're on page 6 now, so either come up with something that helps us understand your concepts or I'll have to close the thread, and you won't be able to mention it again, since you couldn't support it. More rigor, please.

What state do you live in?

They serve as crucial habitats for specific species of birds, insects, or other wildlife.

No matter how you respond, I take the words you've given me and apply them to the arguments the thread is based on. I'm twisting NOTHING, since your words are there for all to see, untouched in any way by me. If I've misinterpreted them, please correct me but don't accuse me of subterfuge or insincerity or manipulation. I'm trying to PERSUADE you with an alternative argument that I had hoped would resonate. I've held most of the stances I've seen you espouse here. I thought not recognizing color was a fine response to racism. Then I heard other arguments, and realized not only how impossible that would be, but it's also insulting to many POC who finally have a chance to proclaim some pride regarding their heritage, which includes the color of their skin. So we probably can't or shouldn't ignore our differences. Perhaps we can figure out a way to celebrate them with each other? Instead of pretending they don't exist, maybe we can acknowledge that they don't matter? I'm really sorry you feel so antagonized over this. Not the intention.

I agree, and Happy Juneteenth. Color blindness wrt race is supposed to be free of bad intent, I get that part, but how is it interpreted by people who are finally getting a voice about the color of their skin? White people used skin color against them in the past, so POC learned to keep quiet about it. Now they want to be proud of their heritage and ethnicity, but the white people who say they support that want to pretend they can't see it?! "I'm your ally and I want what's best for you, but since skin is all one color then there is no problem." This is what I hear when I hear someone claim to be color-blind to race.

I said, "They... fail to understand just how big their state government would have to be to keep their heads above water". Many of the red states in the US that are shouting about secession or cutting ties with the Federal government are dependent on the Federal government, receiving more federal aid than the state takes in with taxes: https://smartadvisormatch.com/data/states-most-dependent-on-the-federal-government-2019-edition As a globalist, I don't share this view. If you fix this problem we've always had between people with resources and people with the skills to turn resources into work, then higher numbers actually favor us. We're a fraction of the size of some countries that have a LOT more national identity, so I'd blame our culture rather than our size. We're trying to get to total capitalism, thinking that must be better than total communism or total socialism. Give us a better mix of economics, give us ranked-choice voting, give us more representation than two mega-parties, and figure out a way to better inform and educate The People so they can feel their efforts at being a citizen are worthwwhile.

I wasn't trying to mark a difference. I don't see your point. Name another big country that split up into 50 smaller countries. You're going to have to explain the correlation to the topic for me, sorry. I can agree with the "poor example" part, but I don't think the size has as much to do with it as the systems that oppress the majority of citizens. A LOT of money has been spent keeping people from forming communities, in the sense of common people coming together for a cause. "The Right" in the USA is hardly a cohesive unit. Like "the Left", it's difficult to put every American in one of only two boxes. I honestly think the "Ignorant Right" is the group that thinks we should be separate states.

I think a big part of the right wants exactly that, including the MAGA crowd. They rail against big federal government, and fail to understand just how big their state government would have to be to keep their heads above water. And part of the uber-wealthy strategy seems to be to divide us into the smallest possible units so we have no power and have to buy everything separately. Imagine the cost if every state has to become its own country?

He definitely has fascist tendencies, which is true of many Republicans right now. It raised a big red flag for me when he revived the Florida State Guard and then funded them big time: https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-100m-private-florida-army-raises-questions-1786877

What's the goal here? Is there something wrong with this account?

Um, it's pronounced reparation, but this shows that you think fixing past wrongs is somehow punishing you personally. Skin color is USED by racists to denigrate and demean, but it's NOT an "attributing factor". This is uncomfortably close to blaming the woman in a rape case because she was beautiful. Please explain this one to me. An example of positive discrimination please, and how it's caused problems further down the line. And I see that you've stopped using "fighting fire with fire". ALL of the POC I know are very proud of their heritage, and they LOVE the color of their skin. I want to be an ally in their fight for equitable treatment, so I recognize them as people, and these people have differently melanated skin than I do. It's obvious, it's apparent, and it's beautiful. It costs me nothing to acknowledge the differences that make people unique.

If you have a mathematical model to accompany your explanations it would help a great deal. Any ToE discussion thread needs to start in the Speculations section. Do you mean you don't use mainstream physics? And how can you remain objective when measuring "reality"?

Many Republicans who still like living in a democracy will not be voting for someone who stole classified documents, manipulated election officials, and led an insurrection against the US. TFG's base isn't interested in the GOP or democracy. The Fascist Floridian made a YUGE mistake, imo, by his extreme stance on abortion, complete with draconian laws: https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-just-made-himself-unelectable-president-opinion-1790939 And let's not forget that COVID-19 disproportionately affected Republican voters because TFG told them they didn't need to vaccinate or wear masks: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30512/w30512.pdf Considering that TFG lost the popular vote in 2020 by 7M, is there any way, short of another electoral college upset, that the GOP wins the presidency in 2024?

It's traditionally been difficult to talk numbers with people who dismiss reparations out of hand as being discriminatory. Making amends for something done wrong is hardly vague, and in some of these situations (redlining for example), the meat and bones are right there to calculate, so I don't understand why you think it's vague (probably just because I haven't bothered to name numbers). Is it relevant? Is there a number where you would say "That sounds reasonable", and another number where you would say "No way, they don't deserve that much"? Why haven't you provided those numbers? Btw, woke isn't vague at all, but like many things, I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. Americans are waking up to a great many things about ourselves lately. Are you kidding me? Wiping it up is the ONLY thing you can think of? If one kid spills the other's milk on purpose, I can take his milk away and give it to the other kid, or I can give half a glass to each. I can also pour another glass of milk, and spend some time figuring out how to keep people from maliciously spilling milk, which seems the smartest to me. I don't know what more to say. Your arguments seem to favor many negative elements of our society, and I'm sure many criminals would prefer not to be punished for misdeeds. This has nothing to do with your brothers and being responsible for their actions. This has to do with public responsibility in a democracy for the People. We the People are responsible for what our government does wrong.

I think this is attributable to willful bad arithmetic. Folks that feel this way see reparation/AA as the proverbial two wrongs trying to make a right, rather than a wrong and a right trying to make things even again. They can't tell you why reparations are wrong except through circular arguments about them being racist.

One thing that doesn't help is enforcing some kind of moral superiority by virtue of being "colorblind". Thinking that we can ignore color is a specious stance, one that sounds noble and virtuous, but is not only impossible but also detrimental to society as a whole. Skin color isn't something to be ignored, it's something to be accepted as normal rather than different or dangerous.

! Moderator Note Don't promote your YT channels here, Michael. It's against our rules. Put a link in your signature, but don't make threads advertising them.

It sounded unreasonable before. Spending 10 years trying to rewrite mainstream physics instead of just studying it, that sounds crazy. I notice some of your assertions require a human observer. What did the universe do before we were here?

! Moderator Note OK, you're trying to use non-mainstream physics to explain this non-mainstream concept you have. You can't do that in this section. This section is for established Astronomy & Cosmology. I'm moving this to Speculations. You need to support this concept with evidence. It's clear you don't understand spacetime, and you want to introduce new fundamentals into your explanation, so you need to support those as well. I'm unclear on how your idea works better than the science that lets us calculate how to land on an asteroid 170 meters across from hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

! Moderator Note OK, but this is a science discussion forum, and this is the Evolution section. You "beliefs" are worthless against all the mountains of evidence we have for the process. Evolution is a fact, and the theory describes the observations we've made over centuries. I don't think you understand how strong "theory" is in science. It's not just a guess. If you think you have ANY evidence in support of your beliefs, you can present it in a separate thread IN THE SPECULATIONS SECTION. Be prepared to explain, using evidence, why your ideas should be considered. I'm closing this, since you went beyond asking a question, and actively reject the mainstream explanations. We are interested in what you have to say, but only if you can support it with more than "those are my beliefs".

! Moderator Note Moved to Science News. joshwallerr, calling attention to science stories in the news is what our Science News section is for, but ultimately this is a science DISCUSSION forum. If your goal is only to promote your website, you're in violation of our rules. We want to have a conversation about your topics, with you involved in it, otherwise you're just selling something. Thanks for understanding.

Discrimination or prejudice against a group BASED ON RACE happens to groups by definition. You don't get to reinvent new definitions just to make your arguments look better. This is part of what makes it difficult to discuss the subject with you. This is pretty ironic. Accuse someone of strawmanning, then turn right around and do the same thing. Yuk. Sorry I got dragged back in on this, but your discussion style guarantees a LOT of wasted time.