Tag: morality ethics
The Israel Attacks: Beyond the Obvious — Efrat Fenigson & Bret Weinstein
This is an excellent discussion, highly recommended. I will only add that I am delighted to learn Bret is a reader of ABN. ABN
The Biden Family Tree: How Investigations are Exposing the Bidens’ Influence-Peddling Dynasty
President Joe Biden once famously told a state official that “no one f—s with a Biden.” It was a statement that made more sense a few years ago than it does today.
These days, it seems like everyone is…well, messing with the Bidens. The president’s son, Hunter Biden, is facing federal charges on gun violations under a law that his father has heralded. He is also looking at possible additional charges on taxes.
Joe Biden’s brother James Biden was just subpoenaed alongside his nephew over millions of dollars sent by foreign figures as part of an influence-peddling operation.
Joe Biden is now formally under investigation for possible impeachment with at least four articles of impeachment under consideration.
Finally, a media that has long shielded the Bidens is now starting to acknowledge that Hunter and others were engaged in corrupt influence peddling.
All of this scrutiny is not simply threatening the Biden sense of invincibility. It is also revealing more about the Bidens behind the scenes in an unvarnished and unflattering light.
Potent illustration of mind-control debasement: No One Is Safe
Buddhist morality and signaling
The five precepts of Buddhism are no killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, or irresponsible use of alcohol.
These moral guidelines are for non-monastics.
I think most of us tend to think of the five precepts as being about the material world. After all, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and getting drunk are all rooted in actions of the material body. Even lying issues forth from the mouth of the body.
But what if we look at the precepts differently? What if we view them as fundamentally signals that issue forth from the mind?
If we look at them that way, then lying, which is often glossed as the least important of the five precepts, becomes the most important.
The reason is that lies send bad signals forth from the mind. And surely killing, stealing, misconduct, and getting drunk are the baddest of bad signals. Each one is a form of lying or deliberately disturbing the mind-stream and karma of self and others.
In a post I put up recently, Ethics, morality, I outlined a simple way to understand morality as that which reduces error and increases efficiency of mental signals, both internal and external (those exchanged with others).
In Buddhism, the great barrier to enlightenment is a confused, deluded mind. Anything that generates delusion or confusion, which lying surely does, is counterproductive. While anything that reduces delusion is good.
Buddhism, of course, recognizes the need for occasional lies—such as sanitizing the truth for children—but we really do not need to lie very often. We do not always have to say everything we think or tell anyone anything they want to know; we can easily and truthfully sidestep issues like that by simply saying we would rather not say.
In a very important way, clear signaling—honest signaling—is the foundation of all morality.
Is morality a fundamental part of nature?
Viewing nature as a signaling network shows its advantage with this question.
Instead of asking where our moral sense comes from, we ask instead what makes for a good signaling network?
The answer is “good organization.”
By “good,” I mean efficient, well-made, good use of resources, easy to maintain, rational, etc.
You are a signaling network.
A well-organized you will probably tend to be morally pretty good and wanting to get better at it, depending on your conditions.
Of course some people view “morality” as whatever is in their best interests. And that is a type of moral thinking. When it is found out, though, most other people, very reasonably, do not like it.
If we view nature as the evolution of signals and signaling networks rather than as the evolution of matter, we will see that changes in signal organization are fundamental to the evolutionary process.
In this sense, it is the most ordinary thing in the world that you, a complex signaling system that is conscious, would consciously seek good organization and/or want to adapt your organizing principles, both objective and subjective, to conditions that impact you.
Conditions that impact you are signals being perceived by the signaling network you think of as yourself.
Your adaptations, both small and large, will encompass many moral considerations and choices.
Morality can be viewed as a kind of organization. The networks that make up your being must organize their relations with the world around them and other sentient beings. We make many moral decisions when we do this. These decisions are an integral part of how we are organized.
Last night I heard a drunk swearing at his friend from the street. “You fucking bastard…” etc. Not well-organized, but still he was yelling a local version of morality and this was fundamental to his networks and behavior.
People Should be Talking About the ADL’s Support for Extremist Racialist Policies in Israel
Finally, the world is talking about the Jewish/Israeli lobbying group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). This is a very good thing.
Regardless of my feelings on Elon Musk, I’m thankful he’s promoting this awareness campaign.
After Elon tweeted against the ADL, the group has been trending.
However, most of the discussion we’re seeing is around the idea that this is a “left-wing” advocacy group. This is untrue.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, supports really hardcore right-wing policies in Israel.
Because the ADL is not a “left-wing” group. It is more accurate to call it a “Democrat” group, but it’s most accurate to call it a “Jewish” group. They support Jewish interests, and in America, Jewish interests primarily involve silencing freedom of speech as well as promoting mass immigration and child trannies.
The ADL says they want a racially pure Jewish state in Palestine.
Maine Hospital That Fired Unvaccinated Nurses Over Mills’ Mandate Is Begging Them to Return Two Years Later
Nurses and other health care workers at MaineGeneral Health, one of Maine’s largest healthcare providers, were unceremoniously fired two years ago if they refused to take the experimental mRNA injections touted as COVID-19 preventatives.
Some of those workers were even slapped with misconduct charges for refusing to comply with the mandate, many were later denied unemployment benefits, and no requests for religious exemptions were honored.
Now, one of the nonprofit hospitals that left some employees jobless and without recourse to Maine’s unemployment insurance benefits is sending text messages to the same employees it cast aside practically begging them to come back to work.
“You were once a proud member of the MaineGeneral team. Would you consider rejoining us? We would be pleased to discuss options with you,” the MaineGeneral Health Recruitment team said in a text message to former registered nurse Terry Poland.
“As you know, nearly 2 years ago MaineGeneral had to comply with a state mandate for COVID-19 vaccination. We lost a number of great employees as a result, including you,” MaineGeneral said.
Worcester’s diocese announces restrictive LGBTQ+ policy in Catholic schools
A new policy at Catholic schools in Worcester, Massachusetts, will prohibit LGBTQ+ students from expressing themselves.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester’s new policy goes into effect at the start of the new school year.
The policy requires students “to conduct themselves at school in a manner consistent with their biological sex.” Students also “may not advocate, celebrate, or express same-sex attraction in such a way as to cause confusion or distraction in the context of Catholic school classes, activities, or events.”
Bishop Robert McManus approved the policy, called “Catholic Education and the Human Person,” in late June, but it was not announced until this week. It affects students at 21 schools.
“They issued a policy from the diocese to all of the schools to be able to have some consistency,” said Raymond Delisle, chancellor and director of communications for the diocese.
The policy cites canon law of the Catholic Church and points made by Pope Francis.
“It’s not citing specific feelings or issues by an individual bishop or an individual person, but really citing and basing it all on what the church has been teaching all along,” Delisle said.
Newest NATO Country Escalates Prosecution Of Christians For Quoting The Bible
In an appeals court Thursday, Helsinki’s top prosecutor said publicly quoting the Bible and publishing a booklet about Christian sexual ethics violates Finland’s “hate speech” law. The appeal escalates this U.S. ally’s prosecution of dissidents from leftist politics, a marker of repressive regimes.
The prosecutor has charged Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola for writing and publishing, respectively, a booklet supporting natural marriage.
“This [case] is a God-given wake up call for Christians and others worried about the direction our society is going,” Pohjola said in a post-court press conference Friday morning U.S. time. He noted convicting a religious leader for publishing theological documents would in effect criminalize Christianity in Finland and encourage similar oppression worldwide.
Rasanen is also criminally charged with posting a Bible verse to X (formerly Twitter) and stating Christian theology in a radio interview. The prosecutor wants all recordings of the radio interview taken down and the booklet to be unavailable online, and fines levied against both Christians.
Good example of why hate speech laws are a disaster for free speech. Hate itself is not illegal. The idea of making an emotion illegal is absurd. When a state defines some kinds of hate as being illegal and some kinds of speech as hate speech, you get the Finnish nonsense above. You can be sure that anyone who supports hate speech laws is either stupid or a totalitarian. ABN
Oprah owned
some of the other owners of mansions near Lahaina, mansions that did not burn
The White House chimes in
Jaiden, age 12, standing behind the car of the teacher who kicked him out of class for having a Gadsden Flag on his backpack
More here. The Gadsden Flag is and was an important symbol of the American Revolution. ABN
American Buddhist Net 
