Capitalism Cures Poverty

[DBTrek]

Can humans be social animals without a society?

[Speaker to Animals]

Can humans be social animals without a society?

Can humans breathe without air?

[Smitty-48]

Can humans be social animals without a society?

Don't know 'bout you, but I personally do not report to "the humans".

Even chimpanzees have borders, and if you cross them, they'll kill you and eat you.

They may not have a formal Treaty of Westphalia, but they get the concept just fine, instinctively.

[DBTrek]

I’m all for challenging conventional thinking. StA made a run at challenging 1st through 3rd wave feminism yesterday, and though I gave him shit it’s a discussion worth having. Many of our conceptual models governing politics, economics, history, and culture are simply that - conceptual models. They aren’t divinely mandated.

So ... maybe society is a fiction. Maybe it’s an imperfect model for describing human organization. But if it is, we have to dump related conceptual models like “social animals”, etc.

That's why I ask.

[Smitty-48]

I’m all for challenging conventional thinking. StA made a run at challenging 1st through 3rd wave feminism yesterday, and though I gave him shit it’s a discussion worth having. Many of our conceptual models governing politics, economics, history, and culture are simply that - conceptual models. They aren’t divinely mandated.

So ... maybe society is a fiction. Maybe it’s an imperfect model for describing human organization. But if it is, we have to dump related conceptual models like “social animals”, etc.

That's why I ask.

Depends what conceptual model you're talking about, I take each conceptual model on the merits, I have no issue with the conceptual model of quantum mechanics, but of course, it's not bothering me.

But the conceptual model of a nebulous and ill defined "society" which is whatever the collectivists say it is at any given moment as it suits them? Bother.

[BjornP]

For what? A false construct that does not actually exist? I don't need a word to describe something which isn't a thing.

"It exists, therefore it is." - Descartes paraphrased

But a "society" doesn't exist, it's a fabricated rubric used to forcibly subjugate complexity into a collective for the purposes of restricting your liberty and autonomy from, the stock and trade of totalitarian leftists, trust me, I am Canadian, and "society" is the cudgel with which I am beaten about the head on a daily basis.

Nope. Just...nope.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/society

In this context, even non-leftist individuals would be talking about this definition of society:

a : an enduring and cooperating social group whose members have developed organized patterns of relationships through interaction with one another
b : a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests

Meaning, Hash was/is using the word entirely correctly. Your idea that the word "society" refers to a totalitarian leftist desire to "tear down borders"? Total bonkers nonsense. Most absurd thing you've ever written. Nobody associates tearing down borders and internationalist kumbaya with the word society. I seriously don't even get how you can think that's a thing.

Of course, society also agreed upon those definitions of society.

[Smitty-48]

I didn't agree to anything, and I don't report to a "society", there's no mention anywhere of a "society" in the British North America Act.

[DBTrek]

Well, he says Canadians use “society” like a cudgel, so maybe it’s their version of “white privilege” or “equality”.
In the USA many a dastardly deed has been performed in the name of “equality” (which serves as a great cover for the unsuccessful to usurp and take the power, fortune, or fame of the successful).

[Smitty-48]

Well, he says Canadians use “society” like a cudgel, so maybe it’s their version of “white privilege” or “equality”.
In the USA many a dastardly deed has been performed in the name of “equality” (which serves as a great cover for the unsuccessful to usurp and take the power, fortune, or fame of the successful).

The Leftists use it as a cudgel in America too, mate, and the only thing standing between you and that is your constitution which defends the liberty and autonomy of the individual above all against such balderdash, the whole point of the constitution in fact.

[Smitty-48]

Honestly, find me anything in American lore which ever mentions a "society"? The whole concept is fundamentally un-American.

The Society of the United States of America? Never was it written, anywhere, ever, in the history of the republic.