If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Policy / Politique
The fee for tournament organizers advertising on ChessTalk is $20/event or $100/yearly unlimited for the year.
Les frais d'inscription des organisateurs de tournoi sur ChessTalk sont de 20 $/événement ou de 100 $/année illimitée.
You can etransfer to Henry Lam at chesstalkforum at gmail dot com
Transfér à Henry Lam à chesstalkforum@gmail.com
Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
General Guidelines
---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
Some Basics
1. Under Board "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) there are 3 sections dealing with General Forum Usage, User Profile Features, and Reading and Posting Messages. These deal with everything from Avatars to Your Notifications. Most general technical questions are covered there. Here is a link to the FAQs. https://forum.chesstalk.com/help
2. Consider using the SEARCH button if you are looking for information. You may find your question has already been answered in a previous thread.
3. If you've looked for an answer to a question, and not found one, then you should consider asking your question in a new thread. For example, there have already been questions and discussion regarding: how to do chess diagrams (FENs); crosstables that line up properly; and the numerous little “glitches” that every new site will have.
4. Read pinned or sticky threads, like this one, if they look important. This applies especially to newcomers.
5. Read the thread you're posting in before you post. There are a variety of ways to look at a thread. These are covered under “Display Modes”.
6. Thread titles: please provide some details in your thread title. This is useful for a number of reasons. It helps ChessTalk members to quickly skim the threads. It prevents duplication of threads. And so on.
7. Unnecessary thread proliferation (e.g., deliberately creating a new thread that duplicates existing discussion) is discouraged. Look to see if a thread on your topic may have already been started and, if so, consider adding your contribution to the pre-existing thread. However, starting new threads to explore side-issues that are not relevant to the original subject is strongly encouraged. A single thread on the Canadian Open, with hundreds of posts on multiple sub-topics, is no better than a dozen threads on the Open covering only a few topics. Use your good judgment when starting a new thread.
8. If and/or when sub-forums are created, please make sure to create threads in the proper place.
Debate
9. Give an opinion and back it up with a reason. Throwaway comments such as "Game X pwnz because my friend and I think so!" could be considered pointless at best, and inflammatory at worst.
10. Try to give your own opinions, not simply those copied and pasted from reviews or opinions of your friends.
Unacceptable behavior and warnings
11. In registering here at ChessTalk please note that the same or similar rules apply here as applied at the previous Boardhost message board. In particular, the following content is not permitted to appear in any messages:
* Racism
* Hatred
* Harassment
* Adult content
* Obscene material
* Nudity or pornography
* Material that infringes intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any party
* Material the posting of which is tortious or violates a contractual or fiduciary obligation you or we owe to another party
* Piracy, hacking, viruses, worms, or warez
* Spam
* Any illegal content
* unapproved Commercial banner advertisements or revenue-generating links
* Any link to or any images from a site containing any material outlined in these restrictions
* Any material deemed offensive or inappropriate by the Board staff
12. Users are welcome to challenge other points of view and opinions, but should do so respectfully. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Posts and threads with unacceptable content can be closed or deleted altogether. Furthermore, a range of sanctions are possible - from a simple warning to a temporary or even a permanent banning from ChessTalk.
Helping to Moderate
13. 'Report' links (an exclamation mark inside a triangle) can be found in many places throughout the board. These links allow users to alert the board staff to anything which is offensive, objectionable or illegal. Please consider using this feature if the need arises.
Advice for free
14. You should exercise the same caution with Private Messages as you would with any public posting.
Very small towns now have the capacity to make substantial local politics decisions ("Everyone's in charge") via "Direct Democracy" (Technology now makes it possible, though the cost may be prohibitive for a small tax base. "Administrative" decisions will be left to the local council/purely an implementation body.
I do not know if any Local Political Unit in the world has tried this.
That is a good one, Bob G. It is a bit unique, in that it includes complexity as one of the adverse factors...which is very very true. Especially in our laws, simplicity is better than complexity, as the video alludes to, though obviously the lawyers and liars would not agree.
As a general rule I find that whenever the public scrutinizes any particular agenda being promoted by governments and globalists their first response is to act indignant, much like a narcissist would do when they are up to no good and they get caught. “How dare you” question their intentions and suggest they might be nefarious. How dare you suggest they are anything other than loving and benevolent. Our “leaders” have only ever wanted the best for us, right? They only want our lives to become safer, more comfortable and more convenient – This is what truly motivates your average elitist, right?
Obviously history tells us a far different story, and it boggles my mind when anyone tries to argue that things are different today compared to 100 years ago, 300 years ago, or 1000 years ago. There is nothing new under the sun. There will always be tyrants attempting to gain more and more power and those tyrants will always lie to the public, claiming they are good people with our best interests at heart.
When that doesn’t work and the citizenry remains skeptical, the tyrants go on the attack, accusing the public of “conspiracy theory.” This is meant to mock and shame free thinkers into silence – You don’t want to stand out, right? Why risk being ostracized from society? Why risk becoming a meme?
This tactic is rooted in the notion that the corporate media and government officials represent the mainstream, and therefore they represent the majority, and the majority represents reality. None of this is true or relevant, of course. Only facts matter. Sophistry is meaningless. Opinions are meaningless. The truth should be the goal, and if it’s not someone’s goal then they must be a purveyor of lies and should not be taken seriously. There are only two paths to take, there is no in-between.
I will admit there is some value to the “conspiracy theory” accusation because whenever the establishment uses it, it’s a sure sign that you are too close to the target and they are getting nervous. They could simply try to outline any evidence they might have to prove that your position is wrong, but they don’t really do that. Instead of debating your arguments and evidence, they try to undermine you as a valid critic and inoculate the public against your ideas before people ever get a chance to hear them. This is the behavior of villains, not benevolent and caring leaders.
I mention this dynamic because there is one agenda above all others that is aggressively defended by the establishment media, and anyone who remotely questions it is automatically persecuted as a “conspiracy nut” or “denier.” I am of course talking about the climate change agenda.
I have thoroughly debunked the idea of man-made climate change in previous articles and I won’t be spending time on that here. Instead, I want to examine the end goal of climate change policies – The ultimate solution, which is NOT to save the planet, but to dominate the populace.
The names used for the climate change “reset” vary, but it is often referred to by globalists and the UN as Agenda 2030 or Sustainable Development Goals. These programs wear a facade of environmentalism but they are ALL rooted in economics. That is to say, all climate change efforts exist to destroy industry and trade and establish a government/corporate partnership to dominate production. Climate change is a Trojan Horse to introduce authoritarianism.
I believe one of the most important aspects of Agenda 2030 for globalists is something called the “15 Minute City”; a project which involves hundreds of city mayors from across the US, Europe and Asia working closely with groups like the World Economic Forum. Any mention of this idea in a negative light and the media erupts with anger as well as mockery as if it’s not a real issue worthy of debate.
The establishment paints an interesting picture of 15 Minute Cities – A Utopian future in which everything you need is only a short walk away and private transportation is superfluous (or banned). You might even live in mega-complex, much like a giant mall where you also work. You could spend months within one square mile of space, never having to leave for anything.
It’s no mistake that this idea was pushed hard during the pandemic lockdowns. The public was awash in fear propaganda over a virus with a 99.8% survival rate and that fear made the unthinkable idea of staying at home all the time suddenly thinkable. Media pundits continue to call the connection between covid lockdowns and climate lockdowns a conspiracy theory, but the idea is openly admitted in UN and WEF white papers.
Some people argue that most cities are already “15 Minute Cities” with necessities all within walking distance of their homes. These folks don’t understand what a 15 Minute City really is. As numerous establishment descriptions of the project note, it’s not just about convenience or close access, it’s about changing every aspect of our current philosophy of living. It’s not about gaining amenities, it’s about making an array of sacrifices in order to appease the gods of carbon emissions.
The 15 Minute City is more like a recipe, containing every single ingredient of the climate change and covid lockdown agendas in a single comprehensive Orwellian vision. It includes removing motor vehicles, removing private transportation and roads, smart city and AI monitoring of each person’s electricity usage, monitoring of product consumption and “carbon footprint”, biometric surveillance within a compact and stacked urban landscape, the cashless society concept, equity and inclusion cultism, population control, etc.
It is the culmination, the end game; a massive prison with no bars. A place where you are conditioned to grow accustomed to artificial limitations on privacy, no civil liberties, no private property, and no work options or mobility. You are tied to the land and the land is owned by the state (or corporation). If you want a historic comparison, the closest I can find is the feudal system of Medieval Europe.
Within these cities you are a labor mechanism, nothing more. You will never be allowed to own your own property and thus own your own labor. Everything you have is given to you by the state and can be taken away by the state if you defy them. You might be able to leave the village or community you are tied to for a time, but this will change with increasing restrictions on the public’s movement according to the dictates of climate ideology.
As long as you are productive and submissive you will be give the things you need to survive, but never to thrive. In the case of a technocratic feudal system you would not have any guarantees that the state would need your services. At least in feudal Europe a peasant was seen as valuable resource because of limited population. In a world where many people are considered “population excess”, you could easily be replaced and booted out of the city to starve and die.
In 2016 the World Economic Forum published a document titled ‘Welcome To 2030. I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy, And Life Has Never Been Better.’ The article was meant to promote a concept called the “sharing economy” which was first publicly fielded to the press at Davos. The article describes a “hypothetical” future in which a communistic system has ended all private property in the name of saving the planet from climate change. The benefits? Well, like all communistic systems, the big lie is that you will get to work less and most things will be free. This is how collectivist ideals have been sold to the populace for generations and it NEVER works the way the establishment claims.
The WEF has been promoting the sharing economy for years, but when it went mainstream and was widely criticized as dystopian, the media once again flipped the “conspiracy theory” switch and attacked anyone exposing the implications.
Multiple platforms published the article in 2016 but many have since taken it down (Forbes appears to have erased their published copy, for example). They are pretending as if the agenda never existed, probably because the article contains some revealing admissions, including a hint at the 15 Minute City concept. From the article:
“My biggest concern is all the people who do not live in our city. Those we lost on the way. Those who decided that it became too much, all this technology. Those who felt obsolete and useless when robots and AI took over big parts of our jobs. Those who got upset with the political system and turned against it. They live different kind of lives outside of the city. Some have formed little self-supplying communities. Others just stayed in the empty and abandoned houses in small 19th century villages.
Once in awhile I get annoyed about the fact that I have no real privacy. Nowhere I can go and not be registered. I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me”
In other words, the globalists imagine a future were the malcontent free thinkers and people replaced by AI are outcasts, scratching and scraping out a meaningless existence in the wastelands of the old world. To stay in the bosom of the new world you will be required to give up all freedom, even freedom of thought. Keep in mind, this article is supposed to be a “positive” promotion of the shared economy and 15 Minute-related cities. Yet, this excerpt sounds more like a threat.
It’s important to understand that these compact cities will not be designed for your comfort. They will not be designed so that you can have all the amenities you have today closer to your fingertips while also providing “sustainability.” That’s how the globalists try to sell it, but that’s not what it will be. Rather, these cities will be designed to better CONTROL you, so that you can be forced to make the sacrifices they say are necessary for sustainability to be possible.
They are erroneously billed as “decentralized communities,” but they are the exact opposite – They are utterly centralized, like a hamster cage where you are the pet. The core philosophy behind them is dependency. If you live in a place which is specifically constructed to eliminate your ability to provide for yourself, then you are a slave. Though, to be sure, even slavery can be made to look noble if people are convinced that their chains are necessary for the good of the planet.
In the Libertarian system of circles within circles, which I have described previously, everyone is in charge, and the 'assholes' have very limited influence since the governing 'constitution' is Libertarian...
Dilip, would you mind linking to the post(s) where you briefly described the 'circles within circles' concept? Thanks.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
....
As a general rule I find that whenever the public scrutinizes any particular agenda being promoted by governments and globalists ....
I have great news for ChessTalkers who have thought that they would like to be considered a 'globalist' but who can't be bothered with all of the political BS and conspiracy theories that seem to be a part of acquiring the 'globalist' designation. Now the people at Hyatt Hotels have come up with a way to get the designation while avoiding all of the collateral crap! Here are the qualification criteria:
Nights60
or
Base Points100,000
or
Meetings & Events20
That's right folks! It's really that easy. More details here:
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
Dilip, would you mind linking to the post(s) where you briefly described the 'circles within circles' concept? Thanks.
The smallest circles of about 10 individuals would consist of family and/or friends. One rep from each circle would would form the next level circle with about 9 to 10 other such reps, and so on and so forth, larger circles would get formed. In 10 steps, one could cover the entire population of the world!
1. The “Weekly Overview” of the topic is posted for the benefit of new members who may have come in between the “Weekly Overviews”.
2. The Stats of participation are important to allow all to determine the extent of continuing interest, and whether, at some point, the interest no longer warrants the labour.
A. Statistics
Week # 2 (23/11/6 – 11/12, 2023 [7 days])
(Sometimes Adjusted for no. of days)
Weekly Stats:
.....................................................2023 Average..........................................................2023 Average
Last Week's......Prior Week's........Views/Day..........Last Week's.....Prior Week's......Responses/Day Views/Day........Views/Day.............(1 wk.)............Responses/Day....Resp./Day.......(1 wk.).
Last week's stats are running well ahead of those of the prior week, and the 2023 year to date.
Civilizations do not collapse overnight........there is a long, steady, continuous deterioration before hand. Then, all of a sudden, the tipping point has been reached, and we get metamorphosis (Like caterpillar to butterfly, only in reverse!). Either Dystopia, or a new empire rising like the Sphinx from the ashes, sometimes worse than the one it replaces.
Do we care who is going to be in control, as humans battle to survive in an environment more and more hostile to their continued existence (Negative Climate Change; Possible Nuclear War; Pandemics; etc.)?
B. Indicia of a Collapsing Civilization
Comment below on what the current evidence is that our world's civilization is beginning to collapse......we'll add your ideas here!
Additional Notes:
1. The goal of this thread is not to woodshed an opposing view into submission. Every position is entitled to post as it sees fit, regardless of the kind of, and amount of, postings by other positions. What is wanted is serious consideration of all posts........then you decide.
2. I personally, as the thread originator, am trying to post a new response at least twice per week, but admit my busy schedule means I am sometimes falling short on this. So it is going to be necessary that a number of other CT'ers are posting responses here somewhat regularly.
. . .
As a general rule I find that whenever the public scrutinizes any particular agenda being promoted by governments and globalists their first response is to act indignant, much like a narcissist would do when they are up to no good and they get caught. “How dare you” question their intentions and suggest they might be nefarious. How dare you suggest they are anything other than loving and benevolent. Our “leaders” have only ever wanted the best for us, right? They only want our lives to become safer, more comfortable and more convenient – This is what truly motivates your average elitist, right?
Obviously history tells us a far different story, and it boggles my mind when anyone tries to argue that things are different today compared to 100 years ago, 300 years ago, or 1000 years ago. There is nothing new under the sun. There will always be tyrants attempting to gain more and more power and those tyrants will always lie to the public, claiming they are good people with our best interests at heart.
. . .
I will admit there is some value to the “conspiracy theory” accusation because whenever the establishment uses it, it’s a sure sign that you are too close to the target and they are getting nervous. They could simply try to outline any evidence they might have to prove that your position is wrong, but they don’t really do that. Instead of debating your arguments and evidence, they try to undermine you as a valid critic and inoculate the public against your ideas before people ever get a chance to hear them. This is the behavior of villains, not benevolent and caring leaders.
. . .
This PERFECTLY outlines Dilip Panjwani's response to my posts against his Libertarianism. He simple calls me a "nasty troll" without any attempt to argue against my points.
So Sid I have to ask .... why aren't you taking Dilip Panjwani in the same vein as the "elitists" you rage against? Don't you see that he is an elitist too, albeit in sheep's clothing? He too says his Libertarianism only seeks to make everything better for the common man, for all our lives to be as you write "safer, more comfortable and more convenient".
But he won't (i.e. can't) argue against my points. First he says we have to eliminate all lawyers and judges because they are corrupt and lying ... then he comes back later and says lawyers and judges will interpret Natural Law. Like, hello, if you allow lawyers and judges to interpret Natural Law, they are only going to produce all the laws and amendments we already have, and grow their numbers exponentially such as we have now.
So basically Dilip is pissing in the wind. What he writes here comes back to cover him in shame.
When you can put Dilip Panjwani and Libertarians in the same category as these other elitists, THEN AND ONLY THEN will I respect these points you raise against the current elites.
Do your due diligence on Dilip Panjwani and Libertarianism. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
The smallest circles of about 10 individuals would consist of family and/or friends. One rep from each circle would would form the next level circle with about 9 to 10 other such reps, and so on and so forth, larger circles would get formed. In 10 steps, one could cover the entire population of the world!
Again, putting things in simplistic terms that can be shredded so easily....
How does each family / friends circle decide on their rep?
How does each next level circle decide on THEIR rep?
What goes into these decisions?
You know what it will be! You know it will be GREED!
Each family / friends circle will elect the rep that BEST REPRESENTS THEIR INTERESTS. And so on and so on up the chain of circles ... exactly what we have now.
Your ignorance amazes me, and it amazes me that anyone can hold you and Libertarianism to be credible.
But you know what? Everything COULD work out, even in this "circles within circles" arrangement, IF AND ONLY IF altruism ruled the day.
I've mentioned this before I think ... I have heard that some native American tribes in the past had their chiefs, but whenever any decision came up about the future of the tribe, the chiefs would gather all the grandmothers of the tribe and ask for their opinions ... and the grandmothers would decide for the tribe. In other words, the chiefs would give up their authority for these big decisions, such as whether to leave the area of their encampment and find another area for themselves, to the only members of their tribe that had TRUE ALTRUISM .... the grandmothers.
Exactly how true that is I cannot say ... but if true for even a handful of tribes, I imagine those tribes did better than the rest. And we could too if we imprisoned our current politicians and stripped them of all their possessions and vast undeserved wealth and created a new politics consisting of only the most ALTRUISTIC members of society.
It's not gonna happen, which means all these threads are meaningless and we are doomed, as Brad Thomson has posted many times here (but not recently, he seems to have gone silent).
This PERFECTLY outlines Dilip Panjwani's response to my posts against his Libertarianism. He simple calls me a "nasty troll" without any attempt to argue against my points.
So Sid I have to ask .... why aren't you taking Dilip Panjwani in the same vein as the "elitists" you rage against? Don't you see that he is an elitist too, albeit in sheep's clothing? He too says his Libertarianism only seeks to make everything better for the common man, for all our lives to be as you write "safer, more comfortable and more convenient".
But he won't (i.e. can't) argue against my points. First he says we have to eliminate all lawyers and judges because they are corrupt and lying ... then he comes back later and says lawyers and judges will interpret Natural Law. Like, hello, if you allow lawyers and judges to interpret Natural Law, they are only going to produce all the laws and amendments we already have, and grow their numbers exponentially such as we have now.
So basically Dilip is pissing in the wind. What he writes here comes back to cover him in shame.
When you can put Dilip Panjwani and Libertarians in the same category as these other elitists, THEN AND ONLY THEN will I respect these points you raise against the current elites.
Do your due diligence on Dilip Panjwani and Libertarianism. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
The nasty troll does not want to understand that while it may not be possible to make everyone altruistic, it is possible to have a Libertarian system which prevents greed from harming others!
Again, putting things in simplistic terms that can be shredded so easily....
How does each family / friends circle decide on their rep?
How does each next level circle decide on THEIR rep?
What goes into these decisions?
You know what it will be! You know it will be GREED!
Each family / friends circle will elect the rep that BEST REPRESENTS THEIR INTERESTS. And so on and so on up the chain of circles ... exactly what we have now.
Your ignorance amazes me, and it amazes me that anyone can hold you and Libertarianism to be credible.
But you know what? Everything COULD work out, even in this "circles within circles" arrangement, IF AND ONLY IF altruism ruled the day.
I've mentioned this before I think ... I have heard that some native American tribes in the past had their chiefs, but whenever any decision came up about the future of the tribe, the chiefs would gather all the grandmothers of the tribe and ask for their opinions ... and the grandmothers would decide for the tribe. In other words, the chiefs would give up their authority for these big decisions, such as whether to leave the area of their encampment and find another area for themselves, to the only members of their tribe that had TRUE ALTRUISM .... the grandmothers.
Exactly how true that is I cannot say ... but if true for even a handful of tribes, I imagine those tribes did better than the rest. And we could too if we imprisoned our current politicians and stripped them of all their possessions and vast undeserved wealth and created a new politics consisting of only the most ALTRUISTIC members of society.
It's not gonna happen, which means all these threads are meaningless and we are doomed, as Brad Thomson has posted many times here (but not recently, he seems to have gone silent).
As I said earlier, while it may not be possible to make everyone altruistic, it is possible to have a Libertarian system which prevents greed from harming others!
Comment