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Ryder Richards dives into Ward Churchill’s controversial "Pacifism as Pathology." Churchill argues that nonviolent activism, often celebrated as morally superior, is a delusional and ineffective strategy that strengthens oppressive state power. Using historical examples like the Holocaust and the Vietnam War, he critiques pacifism’s failures, labeling it as pathological, racist, and even suicidal. Join us as we unpack these challenging ideas and set the stage for part two, where we’ll explore Churchill’s proposed solutions and connect them to current events. Be sure and subscribe to be notified!

Dive into the final episode of our Richard Rorty series, "Step 88: Rorty’s Solidarity," exploring Part III of Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. We unpack how Rorty uses Nabokov’s “tingles” and Orwell’s O’Brien to show cruelty and build solidarity through narrative, not universal truths. Learn why Rorty’s liberal ironist vision—balancing private self-creation with public hope—is so compelling yet fragile. Our critique reveals how his ideas have been subverted today by mimetic identities and weaponized anti-cruelty. Join Ryder Richards for a thought-provoking look at Rorty’s moral imagination! Subscribe for more philosophy deep dives.

How did the word "good" change from a symbol of nobility and strength to a function of utility and compliance? In this episode, Ryder Richards explores the historical and philosophical shifts behind moral language, diving into: 🔹 Friedrich Nietzsche – How "good" originally meant noble and powerful, but was inverted by the weak into meekness and obedience (slave morality). 🔹 Max Scheler – Ressentiment, The transformation of morality from greatness to usefulness, aligning with capitalism and utilitarianism. 🔹 Alasdair MacIntyre – The loss of a shared moral language, leading to fragmented ethical debates. 🔹 Michael Cuenco & Orwell's 1984 – How modern politics manipulates language, emptying moral terms of meaning through cultural warfare. 🔥 Key Takeaway: Are we still capable of discussing morality in a meaningful way? Or are we just clinging to words without realizing their meanings have changed? 0:00 Intro 1:14 Nietzsche 2:40 Sheler 3:59 MacIntyre 5:03 Orwell 6:15 conclusion

Ryder Richards talks about his exhibition based on Salvador Dali's (1969) illustrations of "Alice in Wonderland." Considering them un-Dali, he asks DALL-E to draw inspiration from John Tenniel, the original illustrator, and re-invent them as a Dali-esque blend. After several "failed" attempts to achieve his goal, Ryder used ChatGPT, NotebookLM, and Claude to rewrite "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" utilizing Dali's surreal symbology. The resultant illustrations became more compelling and odd, and with practice at developing blended consistency, character, and style, Richards offers a re-envisioned version of the tale. Lecture delivered at West Texas A&M, Canyon, Texas, on March 25, 2024 https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/aiices-odyssey-in-dall-e-land/ 0:00 AI-generated art and its applications. 2:36 AI's potential impact on society. 7:55 Cybernetics, control systems, and the future of humanity. 13:11 AI-generated art and its impact on human creativity. 17:36 Art, AI, and creativity. 20:03 Using AI for art generation and creativity. 26:43 Using AI for art generation and consistency. 31:40 AI art, creativity, and ownership. 36:29 Using AI to generate art, limitations and creative choices.

Ryder Richards discusses how Kant bypasses the conundrum of fate vs. determinism, vouching for the transcendent realm. Kant introduced a philosophy that actually does have a square grid, with the influential idea of a priori knowledge in one quadrant. This abstract knowledge exists in Kant’s unknowable "noumenal" realm. This marked a departure from Hobbes and Newton, who emphasized submitting to the laws of reality discovered through science and experimentation to uncover the secrets in this realm. https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-81-kant-and-the-rise-of-subjective-realism/

In this podcast, Ryder Richards uses the analogy of a ping pong game with reality as the net to examine how truth and superficiality can become untethered abstractions that escape reality. He explores how truth-seeking can turn into rigid ideology and superficiality into manipulative propaganda. Richards suggests reality should act as a filter to catch the excesses of these abstractions. He highlights Plato's cave and Disneyland as examples. The podcast offers two potential solutions - Isiah Berlin's "communicative rationality" based on logic and definitions and meditation to become present. Overall, Richards cautions against abstractions divorced from reality and our reactive desires to blindly believe them.

Ryder Richards discusses different methods of reframing one’s perspective in life, such as psychology, meditation, and religion. First, he discusses the cultural background of deconstructionism and Hegel’s idea of “negation” to frame the moment. He then talks about how methods (such as therapy, Buddhism, or Christianity) can help shift one’s perspective to alleviate anxiety and despair, though they may not fully solve the underlying issues. He uses this as an introduction to discuss Zizek’s concept of the parallax view, arguing that one’s focal point shifts as the perspective changes. https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-77-perspective-framing/

Christianity operates through a lack: we cannot know God, so a “gap” must be filled between God and Humans. Christ is God splitting from 1 into 2, allowing us to identify and get closer to the mystery of God, but in so doing, Christ was subjected to the filth of this world. (Zizek) The reversal of the one God splitting into two (only to mysteriously re-unify us) is the process of poop: taking all values and reducing them into one homogenous, non-mysterious pile. (Bataille) Growth can occur from this filth (otherwise known as manure), producing roses. Beauty from secular waste, rather than an excessive effort towards mysteries that only slip away as you approach them. (Hegel) {{This is a continuation of Step 74: Symbolic Victory}} https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-75-holy-to-holy-s/

Becoming ubiquitous and dispersed is another means to hide, but it breaks trust. 1) True authority (the blunt master) has been replaced with the servant's appearance as a representative leader and martyr. However, this kindly camouflage is more repressive. 2) Sex is similarly dispersed: a mediated version of "what you want" becomes a larger-than-life context, a landscape of desire, which detaches libido from the person and into oddly distributed cravings. 3) Unfortunately, when our entire society (context in which we derive meaning) becomes a series of camouflage tactics, but there is no stable reality (backdrop) on which to rely, camouflage ceases to work: we cease to believe the image. Artificial Intelligence further erodes trust, and perhaps our only tactic is to create a "minimal distance" through a camouflaging tactic to reshape our mediated desires. https://letusthinkaboutit.com/step-73-camouflage-sex-and-trust/

From fantasy into reality, the image has defenses and a prophetic will. Benjamin Bratton expands on this with the idea of "inscribed violence" in the image-form. We imagine, then simulate our fantasies with defenses in place, which tend to provoke offensive reactions when we de-simulate them into reality. We are left to consider the prophetic, aesthetic reality of imagining a machinic state or architecture that does not need humans.

https://www.letusthinkaboutit.com/step-69-memetic-desire/ 0:00 Intro1:22 What is mimetic rivalry? memtic desire.2:48 Mimicry as an internal set of neurosis.5:05 What we want is the attention and control that someone else wanted first.7:14 If somebody else wants something, our survival depends on us getting to it first.9:47 Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.11:28 Accelerationism is a means to break out of the deadlock of capitalism.12:56 All of our focus is now embodied in winning the object.14:46 If the system is good enough, it will disperse the energies.16:37 How capitalism fits into all of this.

A convoluted romp from 1909 to 2008: the Italian futurism war machine and speed worship into the Accelerationists cyber-dream of progress through technology beyond the limits of capital. One pesky problem: humanity, with its slow flesh and bothersome morals, is slowing us down.

Opposites travel different paths, that is the shape of their antagonism. While the two opposites can become one by circling around to meet, other paths (such as the Mobius strip) never allow contact, yet the opposition reverses polarity. Right to Left. Looking at Peaky Blinders, Hegel, Slavoj Zizek, Graeme Wood, and a few others we chart how the contradictory failure to sublimate (ascend) is inscribed within us: our failure is our path to transcendence. 0:00 intro 3:37 part 1: the path for the 2 to become 1 (the 2 is 1, linked through exclusion) 6:55 part 2: the circle into the Mobius strip (3 antagonistic motions: convergence, rotation, flipping sides) 14:52 part 3: going down to get through (mining the ground, going through, donuts) 18:54 part 4: the knot (tying it up, the 2 is not 2, your failure is your path) 22:10 outro