Methinks perhaps the International Business Times may value capitalism over quality of life.

I think capitalism tends to be valued over life in general.

leading you to understand things

I don’t understand anything. Therefore I have no ideology.

You have failed to show that it is an ideology. You have explained that you disagree with it, but that’s not the same thing.

It’s an empirical fact that living beings don’t like being hurt. Therefore, it avoiding hurt is good. That’s not an ideology, it’s reasoning based on observable facts. An ideological position would be “we need to hurt living beings to further our interests”. The ideological position involves those interests.

Seeing all living beings as equal (e.g. in terms of prioritising not harming them, just as I would prefer not to be harmed or to harm myself) is about not having an interest, and therefore is clearly not ideological. It’s also objectively true, because in terms of cosmological time, the consequences of all living beings become equal.

Will me being infantile stop humans from hurting each other? If not, why would I be motivated to change?

Will me growing up (to stop being infantile) get in the way of my refraining from hurting others? If yes, why would I be motivated to change?

In my infantile state, I can clearly see that - even in a complex world - harming other living beings is wrong. I don’t like being harmed, so why would they like being harmed?

Maybe you need ideology to simplify the world. But that doesn’t mean that I require it. That’s part of the complex world you assert we live in, yes?

It is an objective fact that a harmful act harms someone. That one observer likes that outcome does not alter the objective moral weight of the act. Harmful acts are objectively wrong, regardless of preference.

From a basic empirical observation of the effects of harm, one can arrive at a moral system based on objective reasoning. In this way, ideology can be avoided.

Two different people can disagree on whether a table is a table: this does not alter objective fact.

The idea that objectivity requires a God figure would seem to me to be Berkeleyan idealism.

There is no inherent objective truth to these value questions.

I disagree. These values are based on objective observations.

I’m autistic.

The dictionary definition.

I’m open to trying a non-Capitalist system, but I’m pretty sure hierarchical bullshit will happen and the majority will end up being exploited.

Whether anyone else is open to it before humans extinguish themselves, I don’t know.

I’m not a fan of ideology.

The root problem is human ideology. I do not know if we can have humans without ideology.

I hate terrorism. Therefore I hate Hamas, who are terrorists. And therefore I hate a state which uses terrorism to clear land, which Israel is doing: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html

Me: I don’t want to see children and civilians dying over this war.

“What about children and civilians in Israel?”

I said ‘children and civilans’. I don’t want to see any such people die. I did not qualify with a nationality.

“Yeah, but you didn’t say ‘Israel’.”

I don’t need to. I don’t care where a person is born, or what’s on their passport. I just don’t want them being killed. I want to stop seeing innocent people killed.

“You think people who support Hamas are innocent?”

There’s no winning, I’m afraid.

Life necessarily involves ageing, sickness, and death. Feel free to enjoy those over and over.

I’ll falsify that by criticising Hamas.

Hamas are terrorists and they suck. They need to fuck off and let Palestinians not get involved in terrifying violence.

If your happiness comes first then it is because you are special. Which means that everybody is special.

Now at that time King Pasenadi of Kosala was upstairs in the royal longhouse together with Queen Mallikā.

Then the king said to the queen, “Mallikā, is there anyone more dear to you than yourself?”

“No, great king, there isn’t. But is there anyone more dear to you than yourself?”

“For me also, Mallikā, there’s no-one.”

Then King Pasenadi of Kosala came downstairs from the stilt longhouse, went to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what had happened.

Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha recited this verse:

“Having explored every quarter with the mind, one finds no-one dearer than oneself. Likewise for others, each holds themselves dear; so one who cares for their own welfare would harm no other.”

https://suttacentral.net/sn3.8/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

Is literally what put us in this fucking land.

I follow the teachings of Lord Buddha. Being born is not the point. The point is to not be born.

Hot take: sex isn’t that important.