Alchemy
I’m skipping right over the akashic record in the skeptic’s online dictionary and getting right to alchemy. The akashic record was part of the theosophical movement, a mystical gnostic thing from the 19th century. It’s a bit of spiritual mumbo jumbo about how all human experience and knowledge is contained in some sort of spiritual realm. It’s not really different from other spiritual or supernatural nonsense, except in that it honestly looks a lot like a celestial filing system.
Seriously. They … they talk about it like it’s an actual set of records. Tablets, or microfilm… Obviously they mean it metaphorically, but come on. Anyway, I haven’t seen references to the akashic records around, though maybe that’s just me, and it really fits in with any other kind of supernatural otherworldly stuff or gaining access to special knowledge through mystical means. Basically, just plain false.
So, alchemy! The popular conception of alchemy is of the attempt to turn lead into gold (and other “base” metals into other “precious” metals, but lead into gold is the popular one), and the skeptic’s dictionary falls for this one hard. They open with the mysticism, and eventually get around to mentioning an alchemist who contributed something to real knowledge (Paracelsus, in the 16th century).
Alchemy is a pseudoscience. It is a bunch of mystical nonsense about the transformation of one material into another and creating magical potions to do wondrous, impossible things. But that’s not what it was.
It’s really easy to see the connection between alchemy and chemistry. Alchemist. Chemist. Alchemy was the ancient world’s fumbling, hesitant steps toward a genuine understanding of physical materials and their chemical properties. Yes, it came bundled with a lot of nonsense; that’s what you expect. It was hampered by the fact that storing, transmitting, sharing knowledge was difficult and incredibly expensive. There were individuals scattered all over the place, working entirely alone, pursuing false leads, making discoveries, all in almost complete ignorance of what everyone else was doing.
Like everything else, the discovery of cheap paper and the development of the printing press revolutionized alchemy. It took a few hundred years, but the mystical and religious horseshit was pared away and we were left with chemistry, a solid foundation of genuine knowledge about materials and their interactions. The elixir of life, the philosopher’s stone, the four elements (and the elusive quintessence), those all stuck around in alchemy while chemistry joined the rest of the world in the light of day, doing things that actually worked.
I think it’s helpful to remember that ancient people weren’t stupid and the things they were doing … in some ways what they were doing then is exactly what we’re doing now. The ancient alchemists were early scientists, struggling, alone, in the dark. They were also early mystical dipshits doing stupid, dangerous things and fooling themselves into believing nonsense. The people haven’t really changed; some are better at deluding themselves and others have a better knack for honesty.
What’s really changed is the method, the way we talk to one another and cooperate. We all record information and share it, we talk and argue, we work together. Mysticism, religion, faith, for all it looks like a community, always boils down to solitary individuals, talking only to themselves, thinking they’re talking to something else. A scientist in the lab, no matter how lonely they look, truly is part of a global community, is never working alone.
Alchemy today is nothing but magical potions, supernatural elements, impossible dreams, and the denial of science and medicine. Once upon a time, alchemy was a difficult, mostly blind, sometimes dangerously misguided, but ultimately noble quest for greater understanding.
Offense
It’s not about offense. It was never about offense.
Riley Dennis, a phenomenal youtuber, recently had a video about people being offended, how the term is used in defense and … offense on both the right and the left. Riley speaks mostly about her personal experience being attacked by people claiming she’s a snowflake and how she tries to use different terms to better communicate what she’s really trying to say. I really recommend the video in particular and her whole channel. She’s pretty goddamn awesome.
That video inspired me to talk about this in my own way. This has been rolling around in my head for a while. I read an article, years ago, which I’ve never since been able to find. I wish I could, because it had a really great line in it that, obviously, I have to paraphrase because I can’t find the damn article. “Offense was the greatest own goal the left ever scored.” And the author was really correct there. Unfortunately, I don’t think we could do anything else. It was the only way to move the conversation forward.
Take a look at what SJWs get “offended” about vs what fundagelicals and trolls get “offended” about. I don’t know if you can hear it, but I’m putting quotes around “offended” up there, because I want to indicate that “offended” probably isn’t the right word. I also put quotes around it in that last sentence, but that’s because I was talking about my use of the word rather than actually using the word. Ah, philosophy. USE MENTION ERROR.
Anywho, what SJWs are “offended” by, in no particular order:
- people using racist dog-whistles
- people using racist slurs
- people committing racist hate crimes
- people using sexist dog-whistles
- people using sexist slurs
- people committing sexist hate crimes
- people using homophobic dog-whistles
- people using homophobic slurs
- people committing homophobic hate crimes
- people using transphobic dog-whistles
- people using transphobic slurs
- people committing transphobic hate crimes
- people using dog-whistles against religious minorities
- people using slurs against religious minorities
- people committing hate crimes against religious minorities
- people harassing, stalking, doxxing, abusing, attacking, raping, or murdering other people
Things right-wingers get “offended” by, in no particular order:
- people not saying merry christmas
- coffee cups not having merry christmas on them
- not being allowed to use the government to promote their religion
- not being allowed to use the government to stop other people practicing their religion
- being called racist
- being called homophobic
- being called transphobic
- being called anti-semitic
- being called islamophobic
- being called xenophobic
- being called sexist
- being called a harasser, abuser, doxxer, rapist
- being called jerks
- being asked to be kind
- being asked to be polite
- being asked to leave other people the fuck alone
Amanda Marcotte had an article recently and she’s written a book about how the right has gone into full-on troll mode. They don’t care about facts or truth, or even about doing the right thing or making the world a better place, even for themselves. All they care about is winning, about “owning the libs”. They’re driven by hatred and anger, by self-righteousness and fear.
They’re offended. They’re offended all the damn time. They’re offended and upset that they’re losing their power and privilege. They’re incredibly upset that they’re no longer able to get away with the things they used to get away with. Like putting their religion in a special place and using the power of government to protect it. Like not having to think, ever, about the fact that they’re white and not everyone in the world is white. Like not having to think about the fact that they’re men and not everyone is a man. They’re used to just being in the center of everything and having the world set up for them, for their assumptions, and never having to think about anything or work to fit their desires into the way the world functions.
The left isn’t offended. The left has never been offended. It’s never been about offense. It’s about oppression. On the left you have people who have had to fight for their damn lives. Queer folk, trans folk, people of color, women, the disabled, immigrants, native americans, jews and muslims and hindus and every other religious group… Every single group of people who aren’t rich, straight, cis, white, christian men. They’re not crying because you were mean, they’re fighting to get equal pay for equal work, they’re fighting for the right to stability, to not get fired or evicted by a bigot, they’re fighting so they don’t have to fear violence in the street, they’re fighting for all the things middle class white folks take for granted every day.
They’re not upset that you hurt their feelings, they’re worried you’re going to kill them.
Take a look at those lists. The left are “offended” by attacks on the basic humanity of people who don’t have power. The right are *offended* by attacks on their privilege.
It’s not about offense. It’s never been about offense. Offense is for people with privilege. Offense is for when you have a toy and you’re worried someone’s going to take it away. This is about oppression. Oppression is when you’re one step away from starvation and you’re worried someone’s going to take your food away.
In a way, talking about offense was an own goal. It let the right latch onto this narrative and call the left a bunch of spoiled children while acting like the worst brats in existence. But… it was necessary. We had to talk about offense, because it’s the only thing the privileged could understand. White people don’t get followed around in stores by suspicious clerks, straight people don’t get harassed or attacked on the street, cis people don’t live every damn day with the pain of a body that isn’t right, christians don’t have to worry about an asshole in a MAGA kicking down the door and hosing their temple down with bullets.
The privileged don’t understand oppression. Sometimes it’s possible to explain it to them, to get them to take the tiny step from “people treat you differently because you’re poor and that’s wrong” to “people treat you differently because you’re black/gay/a woman and that’s wrong”. That’s often difficult because they’ve been fed lies for so damn long about how minorities aren’t being treated worse, but actually have more privilege than WASPs. They honestly believe that black people don’t have to pay for college, that women get jobs more easily, that being Jewish means you’re rich.
White people also used to think that black schools were better than white schools in segregation, and they were upset about that. Different era, same lies, same racism. Same hatred all around.
Talking about offense is a good first step, but we need to keep going. We need to talk about oppression and why people on the left aren’t upset about being insulted, they’re afraid because bigots are attacking their humanity. And attacking someone’s humanity is followed, as we’ve been seeing more and more in Trump’s America, by attacking them with guns, knives, fists, cars. Dog-whistles and slurs lead to murder and genocide. That’s what people on the left are fighting against.
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