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[Orange Wizard]

If no-one has any value, then everyone has equal value. It's like communism.

[Yoink]

NRDL and The Moonlit Shadow confirmed for dirty commies.

[NRDL]

NRDL and The Moonlit Shadow confirmed for dirty commies.

Down with the existential upper class 

But it's genuinely what I believe, even if it's just out of a desperate desire to believe I'm not less than anybody else ( something I'm assuming we all share ).  If you were to achieve all of your life's ambitions, become by any sort of measurement successful, be confident and smart and act correctly all the time, could you really say that at your core, you're better than that random Dick or Tracy on the street?  If one does, said person would probably believe in their superiority anyway regardless of their actual situation, or achievements. 

Having and being more or less than everybody else doesn't determine your value. 

[TD1]

Humans have no intrinsic value, only that which is ascribed to them by others.

Ergo, if others value someone to the exclusion of others, that person must have more value.

[hops]

Actually value is ascribed by a magic formless brain floating in space.

[TD1]

But we only give that brain the power to evaluate because we respect the values it ascribes. Ergo it, too, is subject to the whims of the people.

[ChairmanPoo]

But we only give that brain the power to evaluate because we respect the values it ascribes. Ergo it, too, is subject to the whims of the people.

*sigh*
You're so wrong I don't even know where to start... but I'm gonna try nonetheless...


It is a conceptual truth (or, so to speak, true by definition) that a magic formless brain floating in space is a being than which none floatier can be imagined (that is, the floatiest possible being that can be imagined). A magic formless brain floating in space floats as an idea in the mind. A being that floats as an idea in the mind and in reality is, other things being equal, floatier than a being that floats only as an idea in the mind.
Thus, if a magic formless brain floating in space floats only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something that is floatier than a magic formless brain floating in space (that is, a floatiest possible being that does float).
But we cannot imagine something that is floatier than a magic formless brain floating in space (for it is a contradiction to suppose that we can imagine a being floatier than the floatiest possible being that can be imagined.)
Therefore, a magic formless brain floating in space has value ascribing power inherent to itself by virtue of it's own floatness

QED

[TD1]

Did you just....apply the ontological argument to a floating magical brain?

[MagmaMcFry]

Pretty sure there's an ontological argument generator somewhere on the Internet.

[Eric Blank]

There's millions of them. They're all around you.

[BlackHeartKabal]

@BHK:People like you.  That's a thing.

Is there necessarily a reason why beyond courtesy?

Because being around/talking to you makes people happy? Kind of the same reason people socialise in the first place.

I'm assuming you mean me in particular, doesn't being around mostly anyone make people happy?

[Shook]

I'm assuming you mean me in particular, doesn't being around mostly anyone make people happy?

Nnnnnnnnnnope, i am fairly uncomfortable around strangers, people i don't know very well and the scant few people that i know yet am not on wavelength with. I mean yes, if i were to meet you in person the first time, i'd likely be a bit uncomfortable as well (social anxiety and introverted tendencies, hooray), but not as much as with Mr(s). Random Person On The Street #457, since i'm at least pretty sure that you wouldn't be an asshole to me out of nowhere (which, in simple terms, is what i fear from strangers). I do like being with friends, but it's a bit like riding a rollercoaster for me; fun and exhilerating, but at some point it becomes too much, after which i'd prefer some solitude. Thankfully, most of my friends either understand or have the same tendencies. :v

But dude, let me tell you, awful people are rarely the ones who think they're awful in a disheartened manner. Awful people are the ones who race around on their scooters on every available surface in the neighborhood, breaking every single law of traffic, recklessly disregarding the safety of everyone around them, and making you silently wish that they crash painfully so the asphalt can knock some sense into their unprotected heads. Awful people are also the thankfully few fugitives/immigrants who are granted asylum and then proceed to steal from nearby stores, harrass the locals and attempt to rape young girls (spoiler warning: this has happened). In other words, awful people are most often the ones who are painfully unaware of how awful they are, and the occasional shameless asshole who revels in being a shithead. From what i know, you're not any of those. I'm reluctant to even discuss the word "hopeless", because oh man people can change for the better (exhibit A: Danny Trejo. Criminal junkie in his youth, now a professional actor and by all accounts an exceedingly nice man).

Long story short, you're really selling yourself short here. :v

[Eric Blank]

He's right; there's nothing awful about you at all. We like you.

[BlackHeartKabal]

He's right; there's nothing awful about you at all. We like you.

I really just don't understand why you would.

I'm assuming you mean me in particular, doesn't being around mostly anyone make people happy?

oh man people can change for the better

Hardly, and on very few occasions.

[BlackHeartKabal]

There's no need to be so cynical. People do change, they do it subtly and slowly though with a few exceptions, so you'll likely not notice it.

Nobody is going to accept a person who's done wrong trying to improve. No matter how much goodwill and penance they undergo, they'll always be nothing but what they've visibly shown as the lowest to the public at large, and they'll be treated as such. No mistake will ever be forgiven, only another reminder of why someone will always be irredeemably awful when speaking to them, and it'll always be acceptable to do so because "they're evil, and we aren't, so this is right." Redemption is too idealistic to feasibly achieve. I'm not being cynical, I'm being realistic from personal observation related to it.

And trying to define why you like someone can be difficult, honestly. And I mean that completely because I'm stumped with regards to my friends, I just like them. Suppose you need a degree of compatibility, but beyond that... nope. No bloody clue.

I suppose.