For me it was these.

“A focused fool can accomplish more than a distracted genius”

“Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter”

These two quotes really helped get my @** in gear.

  • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    “I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops”

    -Stephen Jay Gould

    • TVgog56789@lemy.lolOP
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      8 months ago

      Yeah just imagine if Isaac Newton was born as a sl***e rather than a rich estate owner. We would still be stuck in the dark ages.

      • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        Well not really. That is great man theory bs.

        Newton did not “invent” gravity, it is an immutable law of the universe, no more did Marx “invent” socialism or the labor theory of value.

        In both cases they observed actions and reactions that were testable and quantifiable and in both cases they were not the only ones to reach the same conclusions.

        If anything the Gould quote is saying the opposite. That having so many people confined and coerced into such labors for the sole purpose of maximizing profits for a single individual, we are robbing ourselves of many great minds.

        • sping@lemmy.sdf.org
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          8 months ago

          We’re in the process of declaring some words unsayable in order to massively amplify their power as offensive slurs. It’s going great so far, though sl**e still has some distance to go.

          • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
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            8 months ago

            Sorry, you’re trying to turn slave into an unsayable slur? What the actual fuck, is this some kind of right wing psyop to nullifying discussions of historical and modern slavery, or just USian libshit racism that equates black skin and slavery?

              • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
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                8 months ago

                I hope you’re right, but I’ve seen a bunch of this “slavery is for African Americans” rhetoric recently and I’m not sure if it’s ignorance or maliciousness.

                • sping@lemmy.sdf.org
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                  8 months ago

                  I was absolutely joking, but in hindsight I can see that’s not clear.

                  There are a number of words that are being declared in some quarters to be so offensive they may not even be uttered, like “faggot” which I have been chastised for even uttering in quotation, and informed I must call “the f-slur”.

                  My take on this is it is giving power to these words they would not otherwise have and is deeply regressive. We should follow the example of “queer”, which used to be used in highly offensive ways but in recent years has been adopted and claimed by the queer community and has been stripped of much of its power.

                  I was trying to poke fun at the idiot who is trying to give “slave” new power to offend, but obviously I didn’t do it well.