[From xorcist offlist] Cloudflare & NoDAPL again w/ a ROTF

[Tom]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 11:40:09PM -0000, xorcist at sigaint.org wrote:
> But for real life, when you get beaten as a slave all day, it AFFECTS YOUR
> THOUGHTS.
> 
> When you work a dreary ass job, barely get enough sleep, having your very
> dreams filled up with visions of monotonous days at work.. it AFFECTS YOUR
> MIND.
> 
> And when life and death are on the line, when hormones and adrenaline
> dump, YOU DON'T FUCKING THINK.

Now, here's your fallacy. Because we humans are of course acting
rationally under pressure. Take Juan's give-me-your-money example: in
order to actually hand out your money you need to understand my
intentions, you need to know that I know what you might know etc, and
then act accordingly.

This is rationality at work. It works fast, so fast that we don't notice
it. In fact, what most people (and I suspect yourself as well) think is
THINKING when they decide something is wrong. A human being always
decides all things almost instantly. What follows, and what we
misinterpret as "thinking", is that we a) try to understand our decision
or b) try to find arguments why we decided as we did.

At this point you might counter that other mammals brains work similar,
like lions or dogs or whatever. Yes. But there's a difference: we humans
are able to revise that decision. That is, we decide on something (e.g.
kill that slow grandma on the lane in front of me), then reason about
this decision and come to the conclusion that we won't do it.

THAT is free will.


Tom

PS: and forgive me my bad english, I hope it was understandable.