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Modern Sex Cults

Let's sum up that thought process: "You mean to say that an eight-pound human being tore itself out of my body in a tsunami of blood, screams and faeces? Shit, I have to start writing this stuff down...” Tattoos maximus otter
:rofl2: SAVAGE!

I would have been a tiny bit more charitable and said: "I just spent 37 hours in intense agony giving birth to a child. I know! I'll mark the occasion forever by subjecting myself to another torture session involving needles and ink, to make a permanent mark on my body, because the stretch marks just aren't enough. Masochism FTW!"

I seriously don't get people's fascination with tattoos either. I think some people think tattoos make them look more dangerous, so they are less likely to get beaten up. Of course they're wrong... prison tattoos make you look more dangerous, but who wants to cover themselves with prison tattoos except for some vory from a gulag? (For those who don't know what a vory is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law)
 
It's THEIR bodies!

Absolutely! I would strongly defend their right to mutilate themselves in any way they see fit; mental competency tests be damned! I just personally don't understand the appeal. I have personally never seen the need to graffiti myself with more than a shopping list on my hand when I have no paper. I also don't find tattoos attractive, and most of the designs are pretty ugly imo. It is purely a matter of personal opinion, and I wouldn't remotely presume to enforce my tastes on other people.
 
Oh yeah, but being judgmental isn't cool.

Guess how many tattoos I have, and how prominent they are.

I'm not being judgemental, I just think you're a bad example to the youth of today.

Like those OAPs in seaside resorts where there are no bookshops but plenty of tattoo parlours.
 
I'm not being judgemental, I just think you're a bad example to the youth of today.

Like those OAPs in seaside resorts where there are no bookshops but plenty of tattoo parlours.

How do you know I'm a bad example? Because I have tattoos? You don't know anything at all about my tattoos but you still think I'm a bad example? I'm surprised at you.
 
Oh yeah, but being judgmental isn't cool. Guess how many tattoos I have, and how prominent they are.

Forming judgements is a reflex action in human beings. We literally can't stop ourselves from doing so. Psych tests have proven the fact. For example, most people are unaware that babies are racist.
 
Forming judgements is a reflex action in human beings. We literally can't stop ourselves from doing so. Psych tests have proven the fact. For example, most people are unaware that babies are racist.

That depends on what you mean by "racist" — and it is more than a semantic distinction.

It is normal animal behaviour — and that includes humans of all ages — to make initial judgements of what is likely to be friendly or potentially dangerous on the basis of experience and of appearance. It is a survival trait, and it is utilised by some species which mimic others, for example the black and yellow striped hover fly that looks enough like a bee or wasp to discourage predators.

A baby has very little experience, and can only interpret those parts of someone else's appearance that it can recognise and categorise. For example, a baby can see if someone is black or white, and can compare this to their own skin colour or their mother's skin colour. However, they cannot tell whether someone is wearing designer glasses or cheap ones. They might react if someone is dirty enough to have an unpleasant smell, but they won't react to whether that person's shirt is ironed or not.

Therefore, it is well within the bounds of normal rational behaviour for a baby to react differently to people of different skin colour. No moral or political judgement is involved, and it is not "racist" in any meaningful sense.

At the other end of a spectrum of behaviour that involves making judgements about people based on their colour (or other visible characteristics) is something that we would all certainly call "racism" and which (I hope) we would all condemn. That is making a negative judgement about another person based solely on their ethnic characteristics, sticking to that judgement despite clear evidence that contradicts it, and treating that person unfavourably because of it.
 
That depends on what you mean by "racist" — and it is more than a semantic distinction.

It is normal animal behaviour — and that includes humans of all ages — to make initial judgements of what is likely to be friendly or potentially dangerous on the basis of experience and of appearance. It is a survival trait, and it is utilised by some species which mimic others, for example the black and yellow striped hover fly that looks enough like a bee or wasp to discourage predators.

A baby has very little experience, and can only interpret those parts of someone else's appearance that it can recognise and categorise. For example, a baby can see if someone is black or white, and can compare this to their own skin colour or their mother's skin colour. However, they cannot tell whether someone is wearing designer glasses or cheap ones. They might react if someone is dirty enough to have an unpleasant smell, but they won't react to whether that person's shirt is ironed or not.

Therefore, it is well within the bounds of normal rational behaviour for a baby to react differently to people of different skin colour. No moral or political judgement is involved, and it is not "racist" in any meaningful sense.

At the other end of a spectrum of behaviour that involves making judgements about people based on their colour (or other visible characteristics) is something that we would all certainly call "racism" and which (I hope) we would all condemn. That is making a negative judgement about another person based solely on their ethnic characteristics, sticking to that judgement despite clear evidence that contradicts it, and treating that person unfavourably because of it.

On the contrary, babies are racist little scumbags who cry when people of different ethnicity come near them. They crave familiarity, conformity, and homogeneity, and loathe that which is diverse and distinct. Saying that babies can't make moral or political judgements implies that their parents are also racist. We should ban babies.
 
I can't tell whether you are being serious.
 
I can't tell whether you are being serious.

That was the intention. I am actually very fond of the racist, polymorphously perverse, narcissistic little self-shitters. You can't re-educate them if they've never been educated, can you? Of course I am sure I will eventually see someone who is actually pushing this line of reasoning, as it is a mad and toxic time we are living in.
 
That was the intention. I am actually very fond of the racist, polymorphously perverse, narcissistic little self-shitters. You can't re-educate them if they've never been educated, can you? Of course I am sure I will eventually see someone who is actually pushing this line of reasoning, as it is a mad and toxic time we are living in.

That's a rather silly game to play.
 
As humans, we have created the world in which we live far more than any other species. Birds have nests, but we have cities, farms, the internet. However, for the vast majority of our evolutionary history, we had savannahs, apex predators and the odd tree. This is also the time when we picked up most of our hard-wired behaviour. If racist behaviour is 'natural' in children (and I'm not convinced – anecdotally, I find children much less racist than adults), it does not equate that there is anything significant or useful in it. You know what else is natural? People's desire to kill each other. Shitting on the floor. Driving other species to extinction. Do these things help us in this self-made edifice we call civilization? Big no.

As all the religions (and quite a few serious yet non-religiously affiliated people) tell us, we need to rise above our animal instincts in order for society to function.
 
People's desire to kill each other. Shitting on the floor. Driving other species to extinction. Do these things help us in this self-made edifice we call civilization? Big no.
Exactly. Civilised behaviour is all about NOT responding to knee-jerk urges.
 
And the latest on NXIVM.

The leader of an alleged “sex cult” in Upstate New York has been denied bail a third time as his case moves forward.

Keith Raniere, founder of NXIVM (pronounced “nexium”) in the Albany suburb of Colonie, appeared in federal court Wednesday along with several other members of the group, including former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack and wealthy Seagram’s liquor heiress Clare Bronfman. WNYT reports the defense asked for certain documents to be redacted; the judge agreed.

The Daily Mail reports Raniere and the other defendants -- Mack, Bronfman, Lauren Salzman, Nancy Salzman, and Kathy Russell -- ignored each other in the courtroom. Bronfman reportedly said she would no longer be paying for the legal fees of her co-defendants last week; a judge said the group’s legal fund, estimated between $5 and $10 million, had nearly been spent already.

The icy court appearance came a day after Raniere was denied bail a third time. The New York Post reports Judge Nicholas Garaufis agreed with prosecutors Tuesday that Raniere is a flight risk; Raniere had sought to be freed on $1 million bond after a power outage at the Metropolitan Detention Center left him and his fellow inmates without heat during record cold last week.

https://www.newyorkupstate.com/capi...enied-bail-nxivm-members-appear-in-court.html
 
Update - a guilty plea.

The co-founder of a suspected US sex cult has pleaded guilty to committing racketeering offences.

Nancy Salzman, 65, told a court in New York she had stolen email addresses of critics of Nxivm group and tampered with video evidence. Ms Salzman, known as Prefect in the group, is due to be sentenced in July. Female recruits of Nxivm were allegedly branded with the initials of the group's spiritual leader Keith Raniere and coerced into having sex with him. Investigators say the organisation is a sex-trafficking operation disguised as a mentoring group.

Keith Raniere himself was arrested by the FBI in Mexico last year. His defence team says the alleged sexual relationships were consensual. In all, six people - including a liquor heiress and an actress - are facing criminal charges as part of an ongoing inquiry.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47563045?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
People will join all sorts of weird cults and undergo humiliating indignities.

Braybrooke-Morris-9.jpg


maximus otter
 
And now Mack pleads guilty.

Former “Smallville” cast member Allison Mack has pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in connection with cult-like group NXIVM based in upstate New York.

On Monday, the 36-year-old Mack pleaded guilty to two federal counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy just hours before jury selection was set to begin in the NXIVM case.

“I must take full responsibility for my conduct. I am very sorry for my role in this case,” she told the court. I am very sorry to my family and to the good people I hurt through my misguided adherence to [NXIVM leader] Keith Raniere’s teachings.” Mack confessed that she was a part of a secret master-slave group within the group called DOS, and that she kept a slave for herself and had women members “perform services for me,” according to Page Six. Mack said the system was designed to make the female members fear that embarrassing information or photos would be revealed if they didn’t comply.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alli...ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail_040919
 
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