You're not fooling anybody. The more hours you log on your poker tables the more you show me you don't truly care about what happens to the people you take money from.
Sure you're not sure who is a degenerate and who isn't. But fact is, you've taken a great load of money from many desperate degenerates whether you know it or not.
Saying you wouldn't if you knew they were degenerate does nothing to disprove the fact that you are in it for your own selfish / greedy persuits.
And Baal.
If you won the WSOP, put all the money into the bank, live off the interest and pursue your own interests. What does that make you? A saint? Someone that cares?
Or someone that merely pursues his own individual interests just like the rest of the people in 1st world countries, or the world for that matter.
Give up the arrogant tone already. I have barely logged in any hands this year, and I mean less than 20,000 hands. That should tell you something already. I don't wish to be a poker player all my life, this has been my only way of surviving, unless you consider survival needs and greed to be one and the same? Taking money from degenerates is a part of this job, it has nothing to do with anything else, and it's in no way a way to give yourself permission to make choices based on your own interests alone while completely disregarding anybody else in the process. There's a major difference between taking the money of a degenerate, who pretty much every single time could afford to lose the money he played, as in it hasn't been life threatening to him to lose it, and someone selling all his possessions to play against me. That's a whole other kind of degenerate and considering the stakes I play I wouldn't be surprised if I had never sat at the same table as such a person in the 500,000 or so hands of poker I have played. Either way, that's not something in my control, but there's plenty that's in my control. Educating myself is one such thing.
If you really want to get there, if you insist sooooooooooo badly on trying to expose me as an hypocrite who's leading the same selfish lifestyle as you are, then I'll have to tell you a bit about myself. You see, it's quite inconvenient on such a forum to have these types of discussions. In real life, it's very easy to see who walks his talk and who doesn't. It's very easy to see what one stands for. Show me what you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the books you read and I'll have a pretty good idea. But on these forums, we don't have much to work with so we have these kinds of "misunderstandings" about one's identity. I have a pretty decent idea already because you've expressed that you're a strong selfish hedonist, like a lot of people. But I am not. I stand out from that, and I'm not the only one who strives to live for what he believes in. If we knew each others I wouldn't have to state the obvious. I live in very minimalistic conditions. I don't pursue monetary gains, beyond living in good conditions and being able to pursue my studies, I am not interested in having money for much else. I've loaned a friend of mine $3500 because he was in debt. He didn't have a job, and still doesn't, and I'm not being pushy about the money, even though he has failed to pay me on several occasions. I give money to my brother every month and have been doing so for the past two years. He is 4 years older than me and he's back in school and has difficulties paying his rent. My family and friends owe me money. How much have you lent your friends and family for extended periods of time? A few other things: I swore never to wear brands again unless they are minimalistic, and even then I won't buy those anymore. I don't like being a walking advertiser for a company to earn them even more revenue. My hobbies are centered around arts and philosophy and the occasional outdoor activity.
I'm also very conscientious about my diet. The people from this site who know me well very well know this. It goes beyond just nutrition though; I understand that the food that I eat and where it comes from has a direct impact on the environment and the people/animals around the world. I do not support modern farming/agricultural practices, I avoid them as much as possible. I've gone out of my way countless times to eat more local (and wild out of my own local environment), and avoid encouraging the big companies that are destroying the planet. I'm aware that this just sounds like your average "hippie bs" but stay with me...
The biggest, most important thing a person like you and me can do in our living situations is educate ourselves about our diets, and avoid encouraging the big companies that involve the “out-sourcing” of food production to Third World countries, taking advantage of cheap land and cheap labor. To a large extent, people in poor Third World countries are not eating food grown locally. Instead you have this totally irrational situation where basic food staples that hundreds of millions of people in poor countries need to survive are transported and imported from thousands of miles away. Do I really need to go into further details to make you understand how much energy this requires and how terrible it is? There is no reason that food must be produced and exchanged in this way--other than the fact that the system of capitalism demands this, and enforces it through its armed might and political power.
So here we are in the 21st century facing skyrocketing food prices and food shortages. And now people in poor countries around the world are taking to the streets to demand something as basic as a loaf of bread and a bowl of rice. Hundreds of millions of poor people around the world who were already malnourished now face the threat of starvation. All this is not only criminal but totally unnecessary. The basis exists, in human knowledge, technology, and resources, to solve the food needs of humanity. But what stands in the way of this is a world economic system of capitalism driven by profit.
Unless and until this system is abolished through revolution, and is replaced by a new socialist system, there will continue to be massive hunger and starvation... and some people will continue to be forced to eat “mud cookies” and drink pesticide out of horrific desperation... in what could--and should -- be a world of shared abundance for everybody.
I may not be a Saint or a Saviour, but I do the best I can out of good will. Such a person is called a Stoic. Every decision that I make I try to make not only for myself but as a statement to what is valuable for humanity as a whole. If I were to become wealthy -- nothing would change, I would use it for good, and put my dollar where it is valuable, otherwise I would find no fulfillment in it. From that alone, how similar are we, really?
So you don't wear name brand clothes and you eat organic food. I never knew the line between selfish prick and walking the walk was so fine.
How the fuck am I selfish you ignorant moron? Instead of making personal attacks at me for stating that I actually do strive to make a difference with my decisions, why aren't you countering the actual argument? Is my lifestyle similar to Tien or not? Am I driven by the same greed than he is? I thought that was the whole fucking point of me typing out my living situation. All I see is you guys being cowards and attacking/ridiculizing me because of it. I said I made efforts to eat LOCAL it has nothing to do with eating just organic food you ignorant. The truth is I care and my lifestyle reflects it, that is all there is to it really. The only thing one can do is change his way of thinking and act accordingly with moral integrity, no matter how fucked up things are you don't have any excuse because you can always do better yourself.
Perhaps you should re-read my post because I didn't call you selfish. It really wasn't that hard of a post to comprehend.
If your post didn't intend to say that I'm very close to being a selfish prick and I can twist it by saying that I just walk my talk then I don't know what else it said. Saying that I'm close is like saying that I am completely -- as in both cases it doesn't make sense to label me as selfish with what I presented here, at least.
Anyway, the whole point that seems to have been marginalized in the whole thread is not even about helping poor people directly. It's about choice, it's about awareness and it's about morals. Believing we are selfish assholes and we should embrace it because of our social position is the problematic thinking that I wanted to outline here. Even if you cannot help them -- you can help others, and as long as you truly care, those values are transposed in everything you do, and everyone you interact with in life. Again, when you make up your mind about something and you act on something, think about how things would be if everyone did the exact same. When you listen to Tien and imagine that everyone would embrace his worldview, is that the world that you guys would wish to live in? Do you really believe that that would be a product of our evolution? That train of thought would be comical if it wasn't so tragic. Would your life, and would this world be a better place if we were more empathetic and humane or more selfish? I think the answer is very clear and anyone who doesn't see it is in self-denial.
fuck I should just sell some of my Pokemon cards, if no one stakes that is what I will have to do - lostaccount
As a human being on this earth, I understand I can't always be a heartless bastard. I need to be more compassionate and it is something I will work on.
I can easily showcase that he is wrong and that it is recorded in history that things have already been different, and the perfect example of a successful ruler who was virtuous is Marcus Aurelius. Maybe there is nobody as great as Marcus living anymore, and things are different now, but there will have to be at some point a drastic change in human behavior that will make people pursue the things that are valuable -- the things that made Marcus Aurelius such a great humanistic philosopher -- if we are to survive as a species that is.
fuck I should just sell some of my Pokemon cards, if no one stakes that is what I will have to do - lostaccount
On July 11 2010 22:14 Tien wrote:
Loco I will give you this.
As a human being on this earth, I understand I can't always be a heartless bastard. I need to be more compassionate and it is something I will work on.
you have to stop being an asshole and start picking D... (reference to the image i posted)
