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Joined 28 days ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2025

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  • Disagree strongly. Some cultures value sustainability more than others, especially more than Western cultures.

    I’ve seen the noble savage trope used too often by pro-colonists seeking to support their materialism, resource hoarding and genocidal behavior with the same argument you’re using ie. All people are essentially the same across time and cultures and you all would have done the same with what we had if it were you.

    No. Western culture has set us on a path to extinction via climate change the likes of which we have never seen before. Western culture financializes and monetizes everything (even that which sacred, spiritually meaningful or has mostly artistic value) by worshipping at the altar of open markets and free trade. Its why so many people in the West have disproportionate wealth but aren’t really happy. Its why chronic illness has exploded in the past decade. Its a culture that often takes the life out of living and tries to fill the void with hedonistic consumerism and materialism. Its a culture that does not penalize or discincentivize waste and celebrates / promotes excess consumption.

    Not to be too antagonistic, there are many positives it has brought about also.

    But there is no question our ancestors did one thing much better than we do ie. sustainability. Climate change is all the proof you need for this.



  • shawn1122@sh.itjust.workstoToday I Learned@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    7 days ago

    Western nations really need to teach their kids about colonialism. There needs to be an honest appraisal of the harm that went into creating the global imbalance we see today. Without it, the average person ends up cognitively deficient in discussions of global geopolitics (there are far too many that fit this bill).

    I still meet too many people that hold onto a colonialism happened because we’re awesome attitude with a profound knowledge deficit on the number of genocides that went into the process.

    They argue on a Western technological advantage which can be a reasonable assertion but also Western moral superiority which is so laughably misinformed they might as well have not gone to grade school.



  • shawn1122@sh.itjust.workstomemes@lemmy.worldGood story
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    8 days ago

    Collective hedonism is an abstract ideal that has not quite had any real world application. I have met quite a few hedonistic individuals but have yet to see a successfully and consistently hedonistic group. It’s hard to get a large group to agree on what is meaningfully pleasurable. For the purposes of this discussion it’s too abstract to be relevant and even if it was I’m still not quite sure why it would be ‘badass’ as doing the pleasurable thing often does not coincide with doing the right thing.

    Collective pleasure does not exist with any degree of permanence but collective prevention of harm absolutely does, and often requires sacrifice / hardship, which is what I would define as “badass”


  • shawn1122@sh.itjust.workstomemes@lemmy.worldGood story
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    9 days ago

    The reason why it isn’t badass is it prioritizies self over others. Under a hedonistic worldview, your own pleasure matters more than another living beings pain.

    It aligns well with capitalism and its inventivization of personal enrichment even if at an expense to others.

    In my view being “badass” is taking care of each other, even the supposed “least” amongst us (if we are to believe in such hierarchies), as our superheros and religious figures are written.

    There’s a reason we have immortalized such figures and I would describe exactly none of them as hedonistic. Rather they often take on incredible personal pain to bring safety and security to others. That is what I would call badass.


  • shawn1122@sh.itjust.workstomemes@lemmy.worldGood story
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    9 days ago

    A lot of what we define as pleasurable in this part of the world is driven by consumerism or other environmentally unsustainably/harmful activity. If your pleasurable activities account for your impact on all living things then by all means knock yourself out. Most hedonists I’ve known do not demonstrate this degree of introspection and often are looking for fleeting pleasures to mask trauma or other mental health challenges.