I see a lot of confession threads pass through here, but not a lot of, what I imagine to be, genuine confessions (although, this isn't a confession thread itself). So, here goes. If you're going to read it, at least read it properly.

I suppose the urge to do this arose from Sandtrap's own cat thread, and a sense of wanting to get it off my chest after some self-reflection and contemplation. But, essentially, I've tortured animals in the past; cats mostly. I won't go into any detail, because I know what a serious issue it is to some, and what a banal issue it is to others. Although, I will, to clarify, mention that I have never used a knife or iron rod or any other such instrument.  And that's the thing, some people hate it and some people don't care. Although, rarely is respect done by such actions.

Empathy, and the expansion of understanding, naturally, leads us to condemn those who torture animals. It seems, intuitively, to be a crime to us. One of the most damnable. I, myself, have pets and wouldn't think of hurting them. I genuinely enjoy the company of my own dog and cat. Animal torture, even to the torturers, isn't completely tolerable.

We all feel a pang, cognitively or emotionally, of reproach when we see such acts. To the more empathetic it's a case of "How could you?", and to the less empathetic it's "Why would you?". I certainly felt disturbed by the video of a girl throwing puppies into a river.

It's difficult to understand the motivations behind such actions unless you, in yourself, feel such urges. I love animals, yet I also enjoy hurting them. I have pets, yet no respect for the pets of others. It's been quite a long time since I last did it, which I find commendable, yet I don't expect or want you to as well.

My reason for this confession, if you like, is a quote I read yesterday from Arthur Schopenhauer: "Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to living creatures cannot be a good man."

While I don't feel a sense of regret, emotionally, for the transgressions I've made against innocent animals, I recognise and accept their undesirability not just socially, but personally too. So, I apologise for them. Schopenhauer is right, the man who tortures animals is of ill character. But I don't want to be that kind of man.

If a mod wants to move this to Serious, please feel free. I'm putting it here simply because this is where other 9/11 threads have been, and I'd like it to reach a relatively larger audience.

So, there seems to be a wide range of people, on here and in real life, who seem inexorably quick to blame the West for the actions of these Islamists. It seems as if we've lost some sort of sense of proportion. Have we committed crimes? Sure, things like torture, the horrors of Abu Ghraib, Clinton's bombing of Sudanese pharmaceutical centres and various actions in Viet Nam can all be counted as criminal. It's a shame that these people haven't, in a lot of cases, been held to account.

In the same box, however, lie the Islamists. I'm sure U.S. foreign policy is destructive and provocative, nobody dare doubt it. However, we're talking about the people who've said they'll never forgive the West for not allowing Indonesia to commit genocide in East Timor, and for helping East Timor - predominantly catholic - become independent.

These are pretty much the same people who, barely even a month ago, tried to commit genocide against the Yazidis and who are currently fighting the Kurdish Peshmerga. Genocide: the destruction of a people. These are also essentially the same people who told Thomas Jefferson that they could kidnap and attack American sailors because the Koran allows it.

I'm not going to argue that their beliefs are the main cause of their behaviour; it isn't. A big part of it is to do with the condition of the Middle East, the community offered by such an extremist group, some psychological factors and the sense of justification from having a holy book behind them. Whether or not America is to blame for the rise of these people is largely irrelevant from a perspective of "What do we do?" They're here, they've been here for a while and these people will not stop until they accomplish their aims.

Be that genocide, the establishment of a caliphate or the destruction of the West. The implication that, had we just been nicer to them, it'd all be okay, is as anodyne as it is banal. Whatever their justifications or their morality, the consequences are the same, and they would limit the freedoms history and progress has brought us. And I will not bend my knee to Fascism hiding behind a holy war.

Fuck the implication that the West should stay out of it, and fuck anybody who blames the West for the actions of these psychopathic crusaders.

What books are you reading at the moment.

I'm on Economics for Dummies, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom.

Or pretty much anyone else for that matter.

omfg

The catch? You can only post their pictures/portraits, and the rest of us have to see if we know who they are. They can be anyone from philosophers to celebrities to statesmen or presidents. They don't have to be necessarily descriptively historic, but they can be people alive today or recently dead who will probably be remembered years down the line.

Mine:

Just while I finish this chapter of a book I'm reading, and leave you with this:


I want you all to leave your honest opinions of me.

You're killing my fucking buzz, dude.

Lock this one too, you cunt.

I fucking dare you.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to call him out or make him look like a douche. I put this in Serious because I think it's an issue which could do with addressing, and I'd like to discuss with him exactly where he thinks the issues lie.

As far as I can tell, I don't see any. I don't know why you insist on putting me in a group of friends, and I don't know why you criticise me for things I haven't done.

Now, honestly, can we keep this civil (everybody) because this is a conversation I want to have.

>be me
>at humanities cluster with mates
>having a decent time, some chatting some laughing while we work
>teacher comes out
>what're you working on he asks
>politics I say
>health and social, one of my mates says
>what're you doing here then, he asks, go to where you should be
>I laugh at my friend's face
>what're you laughing at, he asks
>just her, sir, it isn't you I answer
>no what're you laughing at
>just her
>right, he says to my friend, I'll let you work here if you're quiet
>you, he turns to me,
>yes sir?
>you're going to live with your auntie and uncle in bel air

What do?
I've taken a sleeping tablet, too.

. . .

So for you not-britbong barbarians, the Trade Union Congress is a very descriptively named and irritating institution in our country. They have been complaining, for a long time, that the financialisation of the economy has been bad for Britain, and they're particularly opposed to the wholesale banking of the City.

With that in mind, they recently published a report trying to explain why wage growth is so slow here. Basically, the conclusion they draw is that the financial sector hasn't been growing enough.

They're basically left-wing reactionaries.

All right then.