Sports writer kills himself, leaves behind website describing how and why

Famm_sl said:

I fundamentally agree with you but....well I guess I can't expect you do state your case and move on when you are dealing with someone you actively describe as a zealot. You are the guy who has been known to argue incessantly for pages and pages withLumieFFS.

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Well, I think the issue that set me off here is Dumar's continued hand waving away of all modern research in favor of the one or two people he's read who fit his preconceived notions and so which he's accepted as 100% fact without even beginning to intellectually question the end results of their assertions.

If he's going to just ignore people like Boaz, Levi-Strausse, Mead and the litany of other, often marxist or socialist inspired, researchers in the field directly related to the topics he's interested in and discussing, then I'll be damned if I'm not going to demand he pony up some hard evidence to support his conclusions.

And I'm damn sure going to press the issue when his response is "Well its obvious on its face". No, its not, that's why we conductresearchinto human interactions and culture, called ethnography, but Dumar wants to pretend all those people conducting that research aren't valid at all, while dead radical socialists are the ONLY valid writings he accepts.

Well he could maybe find some research paper that shows a correlation between wealth/status and happiness levels that supports his conclusion. I'm sure it exists.

The point is that he hasn't looked. If it wasn't written by a dead radical socialist, then he doesn't care. Its not evidence. Its not facts. Because it doesn't comport to his preconceived notions.

Theres 80,000 hits for "correlation between wealth/status and happiness"

Heres the first one

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...h-relationship

And another from Stanford

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/a...ion=topstories

Here's a nice textbook style link on the subject complete with citations to...peer reviewed research on the topic of wealth and its correlation with happiness, if any such correlation exists

https://www.boundless.com/psychology...and-happiness/

The fact is that the issue is far more complex than "Commodities in" -> "Robot Zombie People out", and that the modern research has far outstripped even Fromm's capacity for explanation and understanding from 50 years ago. Findings are that its how and why you acquire material goods that influence how happy you are as a result, for instance, if you are pursuing wealth because you are greedy, or trying to prove to others you're better than them, you end up more unhappy than those without wealth. But if you pursue wealth as a means to an end, supporting your family, contributing to charitable causes, or because you love your work, then you end up more happy.

Dumar's argument, of course, is that by working hard and earning money and buying commodities, you are being stripped of your humanity because Fromm said so. But modern research shows that this is not the case, that the purpose behind your exertions leads to differing end results, even when engaging in similar activities, such as wealth acquisition.

Dumar wants to sit on Mount Socialist and decry the rest of the world is superficial robots stripped of their humanity for engaging with one another in a society which exchanges goods for profit, and that what he's saying is just "2deep4u" for everyone else to understand. But the reality is that the modern research is too deep for Dumar, hence why he avoids it, discounts it out of hand, and ignores it outright when it doesn't fit his preconceived notions.

Bone biology is about as hard a science as you can get, its pretty awesome.

I did with Lumie for days bro. Remember?

The entire debate revolved around biology and chemistry.

Tuco_sl said:

I said a fight, not a one-sided ass whoopin against a disabled person.

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Okay I lol'd at that one

Tuco_sl said:

In fact everytime I see you make a biology post it's like, "Oh good it's the lithose of biology up in here, I sure hope someone picks a fight with him about whatever he just said."

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So you're saying you don't like Lithose's posts?

I'm sure you guys would find an in depth argument as to the direction a force was moving when it struck a bone, thus causing the bone to break in a particular pattern, fascinating. I mean I can't think of anything more exciting than two old bone biologists ranting about long bone fractures for pages on end.

Its too early for me to brain properly. I read that sentence

"Oh good it's the lithose of biology up in here, I sure hope someone picks a fight with him about whatever he just said."

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as sarcasm.

CSI and Bones are so full of shit it just makes forensic scientists and bioarchaeologists and the like all angsty if you mention it to them.

I've never watched an episode of either show, but apparently they get everything wrong as a rule.

Too technical = boring. Gotta sex it up. Suspension of disbelief and the like.

But there are definitely professors who watch the shows so they can write angry letters with corrections to the producers.

You move in with that black family yet Tanoomba? No?