Coding

I’m using filebrowser to share my personal library with friends. It works well and doesn’t have any obvious bugs, but I’d like to add a QR code to the share screen.

I’ve never use Vue before and only have played with npm/nodejs for a couple hours total, so it feels like I’m programming in Korean. It’s pretty easy to find where to add this code and fool around with adding a qr code component, but the entire npm/vue tooling ecosystem is the difficult part.

There’s a merge request now for this functionality. No testing was put into this, but net time would be better spent if someone that knew what they were doing with Vue could properly integrate the component into the project.

Introduction to Chinese Philosophy

Chapter 3: Kongzi and Virtue Ethics

This chapter finally dives into the weeds with a machete, directly applying some Confucian concepts to western vocabulary terms.

Virtue ethics is about what a person should be, opposed to consequentialism and deontology which emphasize what a person should do. Good character vs right action.

Questions:

How does consequentialism differ from deontology?

• Consequentialism is where a right actions are actions which created the most happiness for the most people, or most “net happiness.” Deontology disagrees with this.

How is rule-consequentialism different from act-consequentialism?

• Rule-consequentialists think acting according to certain rules creates the most net good
• Act-consequentialists think that one should judge each action based on how much good it creates

How is rule-deontology different from act-deontology?

• Rule-dentologists think you can do anything as long as you do not break certain moral imperatives like “Don’t hurt” or “don’t steal”
• Act-dentologists think these rules are good guides but that there are always exceptions

Explain the generalism-particularism spectrum.

• The side of generalism is that there is one rule captures all moral evaluations, where particularism is that there are no particular rules and every moral evaluation depends on context.

What are the four questions virtue ethics addresses?

• What is it to live well?
• What virtues does one need to live well?
• What is human nature like such that one can live well and fulfill virtues?
• How can one cultivate the virtues, given human nature?

What is the difference between moderate and radical virtue ethics?

• Moderate virtue ethics claims that what a person should be is dependant on what someone should do. Virtue theory provides an account of moral motivation and will compliment right action.
• Radical virtue ethics claims that virtue ethics can provide principled guidance on what to do and can function as a theory of right action. “Being” is more important than “doing.” Virtue ethics is complete in itself and doesn’t require right action, this comes naturally.

What are the different aspects of wisdom for Kongzi?

• To “Know others,” and recognize who is upright and who is corrupt. It could be considered a metavirtue as it requires commitment and knowledge of other virtues.

Explain the four other major virtues that Kongzi discusses.

• Goodness or 仁: Caring for others
• Dutifulness: A devotion to loyalty
• Trustworthiness (信)
• Courage:

How does Kongzi’s implicit view of human nature seem to require him to emphasize learning to a somewhat greater extent than thinking?

• Kongzi isn’t explicit of how he views human nature, as naturally good, bad, or neutral, which emphasizes that learning shapes humans.

White Nationalism Corner

I hope nobody gets the impression I’m taking a turn towards the far-right due to my fascination with white nationalism, but it’s a growing part of American politics that is generally not understood besides being outright hated. People online always recommend not to read their resources and manifestos, thinking they might infect you and make you think like them, but the only way to understand something is to get in their head for a bit. The far-right uses coded messages and messaging to avoid the public from knowing their more controversial and hateful views, and knowing how they train new members to stay hidden and out of public ridicule.

Today I watched a video in which an “identitarian” gives a lecture to a “identitarian” (alt-right anti-semetic white-supremacist) group Identity Evropa (now American Identity Movement) about messaging. They’re a group that discusses the Jewish Question (which they talk about enough to be shortened to “JQ”), wants to secure a homeland for whites, and would not allow a jewish person or white muslim to join the ranks.

The video describes their messaging, aka how not to be called nazis. You can see some of these tactics at work for example in interviews with their leadership, for example when the interview asks Nathan Damigo about the Holocaust. For example in the video, Alex Witoslawski states on a slide: “Answer the question you wish you were asked; deflect, bridge, and transition away from a hostile question.”

And in an interview, the former leader Nathan Damigo says regarding holocaust denial:

Some people in the alt-right deny the Holocaust ever happened. Where do you stand on that? I’m just not really interested in history or any of this stuff. We’re focused on the here and now and the issues that we’re facing. Other than that, I believe in free speech, I believe in the First Amendment, I think people have a right so say whatever they want, question whatever they want. With things like that, I’m neither here nor there. I’m not a history buff. What I’m really focused on is what’s happened here and now.

So a lot of people on the alt-right say the Holocaust never happened. Would you see yourself on the same page? We’re an identitarian organization. We’re not interested in historical revisionism or anything like that. We’re concerned with identity and race and how it affects us as people of European heritage. We’re neither here nor there on it, other than people can investigate whatever they want historically, question things. Those who oppose our ability to do that as a people are fundamentally anti-white. Freedom of speech is only done by a free people. You are not free if you are being arrested for thoughtcrimes. That is Orwellian.

You can see how he deflects, bridges, and transitions. Also, the fact that he wouldn’t say the holocaust happened shows what he tries to signal to his base.

In this video you can also see how they view themselves: “Funny, clever, smart, intellegent, strong, tough, successful, “normal”, sensible, honest, nationalist, ethnocentrist, identitarian, patriotic, traditional, cohesive, unified, pro-white.”

Overall, it’s just important to understand that what the media may paint as Breitbart-adjacent, fox-news engaged nazi drones that post on 8chan in their parents basement can actually be idealistic, informed, clever, jacked wannabe politicians that spend a lot of time understanding politics and rhetorical devices. This doesn’t make their baseline views of anti-Semitism and white supremacy justified, but makes them more capable and dangerous.

Misc

I’m sitting in a Starbucks on the campus of Marquette, in the back of the store where the “regulars” are sitting. At first I was going to move because they can be loud and smelly. But since there’s nowhere else to go, I’m here overhearing their conversations about everyday homeless stuff. They’re happy to be here because there’s a bathroom and free wifi, and the workers let them chill here without buying much. One guy is talking about how he’s depressed when he’s not working, and how happy he was once to get a room to himself – the first thing he did was lock the door and lay down in silence. In terms of finances, he was saying that he paid $130/mo for rent and more than a thousand for his savings thanks to the low rent of a guesthouse he was at.