Wikileaks says Wednesday is the End for Hillary.

[xorcist at sigaint.org]

> It's worse than that :( In that I agree with much of what he says. Or at
> least, I get his perspective, as part of a working understanding. But
> he's clearly not interested in that :( So it goes.

Yeah. It's like I told a friend of mine once during a discussion.

"That is a lucid, cogent, well thought-out opinion." <pause for effect>
"But I disagree."

I have a working theory related to Christianity in this regard. I find
that in cultures not rooted in Christianity, people seem to be more
accepting of disagreements, and understand that disagreements are quite
natural and are to be respectfully explored, but that this should
represent no difficulty towards understanding.

Whereas, those from Christian cultures used to all the preaching and such
tend to develop the idea that there is only one way to think, and if you
think differently then, well YOU MUST BE CONVERTED!

This seems to break down somewhat, however, in regards to Russians; whom
while Orthodoxy is a deep cultural influence, also have very nuanced
linguistic forms like 'Da nyet' (yes no). It's use to express a somewhat
undecided negative answer in some contexts, or to contradict someone. Or
'da nyet navernoe' (yes no maybe) to express a negative answer, but which
is decidedly undecided. But the important point is the 'da nyet', while
usable to contradict someone, has no personal pronouns involved.

So, while in English one must say 'You are wrong.' or 'I disagree' .. in
Russian, and other languages too, the subtext becomes more "There is
disagreement" with the personal side taken out.

I suspect this is why, in English speaking countries, talking politics or
religion carries a certain social taboo in many situations, while in
Russia there seems to be a much greater expectation to talk about such
things with new people, in order to get to know them.

Just a little applied Chomskyism today, I suppose.

>
>> Alas, I have difficulty accepting the heat death of the universe as
>> well;
>> I suppose that's 'on me' as they say.
>
> I'm rooting for a big crunch :)
>

Me too! I'm too big of a fan of symmetry to think otherwise.