So did you persuade him that it was your original work?

i sent him that strongly-worded e-mail, and i got a response back saying that if i want to "discuss this matter further", i should arrive at his office next morning, with every single assignment that we did this semester (probably to compare them with my research paper)

thing is, i said all that i needed to say
i'm not really interested in why he thought i copied my work--more that i didn't, period

so i don't know if i'm gonna bother, if there's not gonna be any consequences

I'm Verbatim, and oh wow this is actually rather well designed...

in the introduction thread

i'm talking about the website's design, of course

How would you rate your understanding of economics?
- p. piss poor; i did not retain almost anything from my econ class in high school

Broadly, how do you think people behave?
- irrationally, though i realize that a lot of psychopaths are hired as bankers because they don't have empathy (right?)

On the whole, workers are fairly compensated by broadly free markets for their labour.
- LOL no

Are tariffs necessary for the well-being of a domestic economy?
- i wouldn't say they're unnecessary

Should we have a minimum wage?
- i would have to say no, until i learn exactly what a wage subsidy is or some other alternative

What determines the value of a good or service?
- the labor put in, of course. if the cost of labor exceeds what the average person is willing to spend, it's probably not a product that's worth producing, at least not by humans.

Should the government use fiscal stimulus to counteract recessions?
- i wanted to avoid saying "i dunno" for any of these, but i don't know what a fiscal stimulus is

Should the government use monetary stimulus to counteract recessions?
- ...or a monetary stimulus. what type of stimulus was obama's?

What is the most important driver of economic growth?
- technology

What, primarily, caused the 2008 Recession?
- debt

And second. Let's say the cards land in your favor and you meet somebody who jumps on board with your philosophy. Then what? You two live your lives, then you keel over. Your philosphy lacks something Verb. The ability to create paradigms.

How has any belief grown powerful over the centuries? The bible, for instance. Paradigms, installed into children. The best way to expand any belief into any real sense of power or magnitude, is through kids. Raising them by an example, installing a paradigm into them when they're young makes said belief almost unshakable and unbreakable.

So, as such, your belief, Verb, is what I'll just say is a couch potato philosphy. You can't do anything with it. It can't raise kids with raised values to carry on a silent legacy perpetrated by family lines. It can't convince everybody in the world, unless it turned to brute force, which would render it oppressive. It can't, and will never leave any outstanding mark on the world.

There's always adoption, if I am so inclined one day to raise somebody. There's nothing in anti-natalism that says I can't do that. I don't see the practical difference in teaching a loved one about my philosophy, and teaching a loved one about my philosophy, however. It's these people that will understand me the very most, simply because they're my blood, and if they reject my philosophy on any grounds, it's probably going to be on the grounds that my belief doesn't have any room for God. There's no room for heaven or hell. If my family weren't still duped by the flowers of religion, I'm positive that they'd be closet anti-natalists, at the very least.

What is, arguably, and without a doubt, the reason you're here?

Why are you still here, what's your goal in life, and why do you keep going? What gives you the motivation to get up and do whatever it is that you choose to do?

Short answer:

I'm here because other people are here.

Longer answer:

As someone who believes the sort of things that I do, wanting the human race to stop reproducing and all, a lot of people ask me why I haven't just killed myself yet, if I'm so unhappy with my life. However, as I've went over countless times, that is not the point of anti-natalism. I'm not unhappy with my life. How could I be? I'm white, male, and I was born in the first world. I have a roof over my head and I eat every single day. I have electricity, heat, and clean water. Not to mention, an Internet connection. I'm attending a four year university, and I am very articulate. I don't think there's much room for me to complain about my own life. There are people I dislike, and not everything goes my way on some days, but my anti-natalism is not based on some personal angst that I might have. It's based on the assumption that life itself is fundamentally broken. I'm taking account for all the people who aren't as fortunate as I am. Suicide? What kind of solution is that? That doesn't prevent the world's suffering. That doesn't end world hunger. That doesn't prevent future generations from being born. The only thing it does is relieve me of my own sensations, and that's not good enough. My personal life doesn't make up a seven billionth of all the life on Earth--it would be solipsistic to be under such an impression that the world's suffering revolves around my own.

What motivates me, then, is my ability to communicate with my fellow human beings, heatedly or otherwise. Communication is the most important tool that humans have been given, and I'm trying to take full advantage of it. The Internet has made it possible to spread ideas all over the world. You could say that my goal is to spread the memes (in the Dawkins sense of the term) that I deem are worth spreading. I think anti-natalism is a fundamentally and logically flawless idea, and I've presented the idea everywhere I go so I can discuss it with my fellow human beings. Some agree with me, some see where I'm coming from, and others respond with hatred and vitriol, or otherwise, sheer stupidity. And it's frustrating, but I believe that I'm right, and I feel like I'd be committing an injustice to humanity if I did not advocate for what's right. That's why I continue.

Quote from: Verbatim on April 28, 2015, 11:23:36 PM

Ummm. Exams went well.

do you think you passed?

Yep.

English professor pissed me off, though. Apparently, my final research paper was written so well, my professor thinks I plagiarized it. He marked me off for it. Now I'm pissed. About to give him a piece of my mind through e-mail.





don't worry i'm not gonna cuss him out or anything
i'm just going to prove that i didn't copy off of anyone beyond a reasonable doubt, and... tell him that i take the accusation very offensively

i actually didn't think that

because it's the most telegraphed joke ever

mods are bad

yeah, respecting art is pretty autistic

how dare i

i don't see how you people can't just go further and say that mods are bad in general

(because they are)

because you're infringing on someone else's work
which you all seem to be so against

it only matters to you when money is involved

Its relaxed rules is definitely one factor that keeps me here. I can't think of any forum where I only get a 1-day ban for setting my avatar as meatspin or extremely graphic gore pictures.

jesus christ, the mods are fucking retarded

what happened on the 25th

there was 189 people on that day (there hasn't been that much since the kiyo thing)

I'm sure it's not as terrible as people make it out to be.

Even if it is, I'd still be that guy to say it isn't just to irritate people.
Because it's not a big deal. It's just a shitty interspecies sex simulator anyway.

I mean, just going by my track record of having opinions that tend to be diametrically opposed to the general consensus, I'm sure I'd somehow find a way to enjoy ME3's ending, too. In spite of most likely having hated everything else on the way.

I didn't say it didn't work in those examples. If the electoral college was designed to always reflect the popular vote, it would be unnecessary and redundant.

...Precisely.

In the cases where it doesn't agree with the popular vote, it's because it's serving its purpose of adjusting the weight of certain states. In fact, I'd say the only time the electoral college actually had a purpose is when it disagrees with the popular vote.

Which makes sense on paper, considering that, theoretically, if I had it my way, California, Texas, and Florida, being the most populous states, would technically have "more of a say" when it comes to elections. I think that's bogus, but whatever. The fact of the matter is that the electoral college marginalizes some people's votes, and inflates the value of others, and that's just not something that I can support in a democratic system...

If more people live in California, all that means to me is that, yeah, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the fewer. That's the whole idea behind democracy, right? And if California is made up of a bunch of partisan morons, then that's an issue with public education, not the voting process. And the electoral college ain't gonna solve that problem.

The electoral college has only differed four times, and in your example 49/50 states wanted Reagan. The electoral college works.

You can't cite examples where it didn't work, and then say it works. Just saying.