User talk:Sam Spade/ - archive/November 2005

Current time: Saturday, July 13, 2024, 21:09 (UTC)

File:Brainwashing.jpg

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User talk:Sam Spade/ - archive

Quote

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke

Art

User:Sam Spade/Art and artists

Socialist Apologetics

What is with the swam of socialist apologetics all over the political and economic articles on the wiki... sorry, just need to vent a bit. --Pearlg 4 July 2005 03:57 (UTC)

Your completely right, it has to do w the demographics of who edits the wiki, and their difficulties w NPOV. Think "Ministry of Truth". Fortunately, some of us take intellectual rigour and the M:Foundation issues to heart.

Thank you for being here, ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 4 July 2005 17:58 (UTC)

Primitivism

As requested, the primitivism article has been moved to anarcho-primitivism and a tiny substub created at the former. It would be good if you could take a look and at least partially expand the single line at primitivism. Cheers, violet/riga (t) 4 July 2005 21:08 (UTC)

OK, thanks, I have now done so. I'm not sure if it should be merged w primitive, or what... ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 4 July 2005 21:34 (UTC)

Admin abuse

I understand that you're the go-to guy on these matters. I am suffering from admin abuse. I am in a dispute with SlimVirgin, who is POV warring against me and protecting pages on what he considers the "correct version." Please take a look at Peter Camejo and High Times. Thanks. Cognition 5 July 2005 01:10 (UTC)

Sam, Cognition (talk · contribs) is a LaRouche movement activist or supporter, who arrived on June 29 and has since then made a series of inflammatory or disruptive edits. I'm involved here only as an admin, not an editor, and the pages protected are not pages I've been editing. More details at WP:AN/I#User:Cognition (II). SlimVirgin ^(talk) July 5, 2005 01:38 (UTC)

Yeah, I have been watching since before his note ;) I don't agree w the wiki-policy towards LaRouchites, but this doesn't seem the right situation to challenge it. I think some people have been less than welcoming to Cognition, but I also think his references and edits have been... sub-par. Anyway, I would ask everyone to focus on rigour, and to be nice. If I cared to step into this matter, I would have to side against Cognition on every issue of substance I am aware of. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 5 July 2005 01:45 (UTC)

Bill White

The links may be changing on Overthrow. I posted excerpts from an article there on Talk:Bill White (activist). Could you take a look when you have a chance to see if that adequately establishes White's length of service and compensation? Thanks, -Willmcw July 5, 2005 05:34 (UTC)

Addressing LDS Church items of popular imagination

Please see the intro to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I added content that I think has been sorely missing. A discussion may ensue. Tom Haws July 5, 2005 18:13 (UTC)

Human Nature and Change

Someone here said that Lenin turned around the old Russian anti-Semitism in a few years. While that may have been an official stance, long-held prejudices are hard to just banish or turn around. I doubt very much that the average Russian farmer, say, in 1924, was actually convinced that Jews were OK; anti-Semitism is way too deeply-rooted to just disappear because of official government policy. They just knuckled under, kept their own council, and when Stalin purged the Jews in 1937-8 he had a very willing populace to rely on. They had never come around at all. They just waited until it was OK to hate Jews again.

And the idea that fame was as good as money works only because that fame brings perks. Better apartments, cars, travel, etc. Money wasn't really the issue, what money could buy was. It's always been that way. No one works harder unless he perceives there is reward for it. Capitalism works because it acknowledges this. And it pays according to market: how much is this work worth?, etc. You can't attempt to destroy market forces and expect to succeed. Communist regimes, in order to exist at all, need to become more and more compromised until all that is left of their ideology is its inherent authoritarianism. Hence, modern China.

No people would willingly become communist once they have seen the results. Of course then it's too late. That is the history of this failed system. Conquest, occupation, terrorization, propaganda, enforcement, imprisonment, slave labor, collapse. To say that totalitarianism is not a fair word to use for communist rule exhibits an unwillingness, or a fear, to look at this belief system - which is all it is: a secular religion - with any kind of objectivity.

Totalitarianism is inherent in Marxism. The creation of a false class, the proletariat - an invention of Marx's to begin with, there never was and never has been a proletariat, it's a myth, a concoction in order to anchor an economic theory - is the first step towards this 'total controlism,' if you will. You create a false class, and then you do whatever you want in their name. It sanctifies everything including mass murder and starvation, slave labor and torture. Marx had never met a proletarian, after all, he just dreamed them up. And the people he imagined to be among this artificial class of people - miners, let's say - were part of a vast, undifferentiated (to Marx) mass. He hated them, he feared them, and he elevated his fear to prominience in his writing.

No one willingly participates. They do so only out of fear. Those block captains and gung ho Red Guards in Maoist China are the same people we see in any industrialized society - thugs, hired guns, strike-breakers, you name it. Hitler had his brownshirts and his blackshirts (cooler, smarter, but even more brutal since they murdered all the brownshirts). In Zimbabwe it's Mugabe's version of brownshirts, the 'war veterans.' Like the enthusiastic party thugs of Maoism, they all do it from a mixture of their own fears and feelings of alienation - common to many humans in industrial societies, a fact which Marx understood well - this painful feeling of alienation is salved by belonging to something bigger, to the greater whole which is how totalitarianism takes root and flourishes - look at any religious cult) and their hatred towards those designated to be their enemies - the kulaks, for instance - can be legitimately channeled and released in the form of brutality and violence upon these enemies of the people. They are what you would expect and then some. Some are educated people with a grudge against what they see as an unfair society which does not prize them highly enough. You also get the prison guards. You get the lowest of the low. These are the ideological enforcers. These are the communist version of Islam's religious police. Nothing was ever accomplished under communism without the threat - and the acidulous carrying out - of brute force. User:69.109.196.57 20:06, 5 July 2005

You hit the nail on the head. People don't do things without incentive, and communism has 2: ideological doublespeak (equality, class struggle, internationalism, etc...), and once that is seen thru... the slave masters whip. They have nothing else, and frankly, abuse and lies are poor incentive. God, truth, meritocracy and happiness... those are sustainable incentives. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 5 July 2005 21:24 (UTC)

We're just a bunch of mindless slaves, kidding ourselves that we aren't, whilst our capitalist masters dangle the carrot and weild the whip. Anyway, Sam, here's an article on what we were disussing a while ago - Vivian Solon. --Silversmith Hewwo 6 July 2005 22:46 (UTC)

I am the master of all I survey, and last I knew... you were self employed... So if your getting whopped by the master, I suggest you lay off the flaggelation! Anyhow, I'm off to read that link ;) ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 6 July 2005 23:43 (UTC)

Organized resistance?

Sam, I am a sockpuppet of a user in good standing, created to express the opinion that rogue admins are out of control. I fear negative consequences if I used my regular account to express this opinion. Is there an organized response to the fact that some admins are openly claiming that there is no need for them to follow policy? Norrath 6 July 2005 16:03 (UTC)

There is User:Sam Spade/Detective agency, but its probably best to discuss such things via email, as I explain there. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 6 July 2005 16:50 (UTC)

smartism

great merge. One minor edit, the other schools of vedanata, vishtisadvaita and dvaita praise Vishnu as the supreme God.

Raj2004 7 July 2005 01:15 (UTC)

a good essay on smartism-inclusive monotheism and world approach. God the Father, Allah and Vishnu are the same according to smarta view: http://www.dlshq.org/discourse/may2002.htm

presented by divine life swami, follower of sivananda Raj2004 7 July 2005 01:25 (UTC)

Erica Hardwick

I wasn't sure why you reverted the Erica Hardwick. Was it about the third photo of her? I'd deleted it originally because it doesn't show her face and doesn't seem to add anything to the article. However I presume that is why you reverted so I restored it at a smaller size. Please let me know if there are any other problems with the article. Cheers, -Willmcw July 8, 2005 23:48 (UTC)

? Response

Who are you talking to here, and what is your meaning? I honestly have no idea,

¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 8 July 2005 23:29 (UTC)

• I was reacting to:

I said on the description page that if you didn't like it, I would delete it, you asshole. You are a completely absurd person, fuck you. john k 7 July 2005 15:05 (UTC)

I think that an Admin should be more ...well... more. hydnjo talk 9 July 2005 00:20 (UTC)

Ah, yeah, I agree. Its a weird situation. I don't know how on earth things escalated that way, but I am trying to find an answer thats good for the article. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 9 July 2005 00:25 (UTC)

Fine. I just want an Admin to represent this project in a way that ... well you know what I mean. hydnjo talk 9 July 2005 00:30 (UTC)

Yeah, there is the note on Jimbo's talk page, and abother on the mailing list to that affect. Maybe an RfC should be filed, but I'm unconvinced it would help, particularly if I created it. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 9 July 2005 00:35 (UTC)

Well shoot. I sure don't have the standing around here to do much except to complain. On the other hand Sam, your voice is quite respected. So do what you think is appropriate. hydnjo talk 9 July 2005 00:54 (UTC)

You welcome message

Sam Spade, thanks for your efforts to welcome new users (even if sometimes your "welcome, new user" message goes to not so new users :-).

But I want to draw your attention to the fact that the way how you do it (putting a link to your subpage) can cause some confusion. It causes an "edit" link to be created on the user page you tried to welcome. However acting on this "edit" link causes your own subpage to be edited, rather than the page of the user you tried to welcome. Take a look at the history of your welcome page, there are quite a few of unintended edits because of this reason.--Vlad1 9 July 2005 12:12 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up, I've had a look. Cheers, ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 23:32, 9 July 2005 (UTC)

The Duke case

I see you have picked up the thread I started 2 days ago. I haven't been able to follow up due to RL stuff. Thanks for helping out! Inter\^Echo 9 July 2005 12:53 (UTC)

No problem its what I do. Cheers, ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 23:31, 9 July 2005 (UTC)

Not a problem

Not a problem.. im Australian im easy going! :)... Hope to see you around! :) - UnlimitedAccess 15:18, 10 July 2005 (UTC)

Welcoming template

Hi there! I was told you're one of the frequent welcomers of new users. I was wondering - since this is a rather frequently asked question, would you please add a link to Wikipedia:Merge to your welcoming template? Thanks. Radiant_>|< 20:40, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

Ok, see [1]

Straight Acting

Please stop adding a link to paederasty in the Straight Acting article. The topics are unrelated, and persistently readding this link is vandalism. Exploding Boy 20:11, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

Go read Wikipedia:Vandalism, your supposed to be an admin, fer crissakes. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 20:15, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Let me save you the trouble since you must be unfamiliar with it:

Vandalism is any indisputably bad-faith addition, deletion, or change to content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of the encyclopedia.

Repeatedly adding a link to an unrelated article is vandalism, particularly when it is an obvious attempt to mislead, misinform, or malign. Stop it. Exploding Boy 20:22, July 11, 2005 (UTC)

I can't stop what I havn't started. Go read the bible. ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 20:36, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Fin

File:Tortoise-Hatchling02.jpg

A baby marginated tortoise free of its shell

Picture of the day The Death of Marat is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting the artist's friend and murdered French revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat. It was painted when David was the leading French Neoclassical painter, a Montagnard, and a member of the revolutionary Committee of General Security. Created in the months after Marat's death, the painting shows Marat lying dead in his bath after his murder by Charlotte Corday on 13 July 1793. Art historian T. J. Clark called David's painting the first modernist work for "the way it took the stuff of politics as its material, and did not transmute it".Painting credit: Jacques-Louis David To include this picture of the day on a page, add the text {{pic of the day}}.