Debunking the Dunning Kruger Effect: Nihilism and Religious Attitudes Disguised as Science.

The Science of Stupidity.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRK-njQIiWw

It'll make a writer out of me. This spinal injury. ;-)

If this is your political philosophy, live your life accordingly.

Possibly foreshadowing my (long awaited?) return to podcasting about "the philosophy of" ASOIAF and its adaptations. Quite possibly.

LINK: https://youtu.be/BKSygw-xqR4

A Lottery: Elite Education in the Western World.

This one has interesting connections to what I've published in all three books, so far: (1) No More Manifestos, obviously, (2) Future of an Illusion, cryptically, and (3) Blood in the Snow, positively esoterically. Nobody will recognize what I'm doing (in these decades) as the proposal of a new kind of "philosophy of education"… BUT IT IS. ;-)

And this is now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc., as never before.

LINK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4sM3mWvKQp7lCPs90hVrBI

Ocean acidification update: yes, this is the end of the world.

Quote,

"Earth’s oceans have become approximately 30% more acidic since the industrial revolution began more than 200 years ago… Analyses of coral skeletons from the past century revealed that CO2 has been accumulating in North American waters faster than in the atmosphere, driving rapid acidification."

Digression: you may not be aware that the ocean both absorbs and also emits carbon dioxide, with the ("net") balance between the two changing due to a variety of bizarre factors… such as how much wind is stirring up "deep" (relatively high-carbon) water in the so-called "cold tongue" of the South Pacific. Yes, in case you hadn't noticed that 21st century rappers have run out of endearing stage names, the English language has become so depleted that we have had to resort to "cold tongue" as jargon.

"The ocean becomes more acidified when carbon dioxide dissolves to form an acid that releases hydrogen and bicarbonate ions, lowering the water’s pH level… Organic matter — dead plants and animals — sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it decomposes and releases carbon dioxide back into the water. Upwelling surfaces this CO2 rich water, increasing the acidity of subsurface and surface zones."

Could we propose a total ban on the idiom "carbon rich"? This use of the adjective rich for anything other than vegan chocolate pudding substitutes… ?

"Between 1888 and 2020, coral skeletons indicate that CO2 in seawater increased at a rate that outpaced the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. [Emphasis added —EM] The magnitude of acidification was also higher 100 to 200 meters below the surface, even though ocean acidification is typically characterized as a surface process."

Here's the point at which I disagree with the article being quoted:

"'This is no time for nihilism. The ocean is not destroyed,' …"

On the contrary, the time for nihilism is now. Right now. Before it's too late.

You are your addictions: you are the excuses you've made for yourself.

[And now, a few new words added in 2026:]

"Addiction" has become a socially acceptable way to explain evil, cruel and malicious behavior —it is more socially acceptable to explain behavior as "an addiction" rather than even inquiring into the possibility of true evil, cruelty and malice.

Of course, there are other categories to consider: rather than dealing with laziness and self-indulgence, for example, it would be more socially acceptable to explain the given behavior as "an addiction".

Why is it socially acceptable? (1) The concept of addiction is separate from the identity of the addict, whereas other personal characteristics are not. (2) This separation between addiction and identity implies the possibility of a treatment or cure: we are willing to assume that the addiction can be removed while the addict remains. (3) The very idea of addiction reduces personal responsibility and dilutes the concept of the motive cause.

If someone becomes a prostitute "for an addiction" or "because of an addiction" we are expected (culturally) to avoid questioning any other motivations or (incurable) personal characteristics that created this situation; even with murder, the crime is thought of in a totally different way as soon as the concept of addiction is involved.

Accomplishing nothing in particular over several years: if this is explained as the result of "an addiction" (to video games, to pornography, or both, for example) we avoid thinking through the real motivations and questions of character that created the situation —even if it is a situation unlikely to be investigated as thoroughly as the scene of a murder or the sudden choice to change careers and become a prostitute.

Addiction is a category that prevents clear thinking about the addict and the decisions they make. The possibility that the video game addict may be an evil person, with truly dark and terrible motivations for the decisions they make, and the notion that they should be held responsible, barely emerges from the smokescreen created as soon as the behavior is placed in this category.

At this moment, I have a very serious spinal injury: either it can be cured or it cannot, either I can recover or I cannot. I am my spinal injury. I am my disability. There is no real separation between the two of us. The whole moral character of the problem changes if I claim that the spinal injury is a result of an addiction. Perhaps an addiction to exercise at the gym, for example. Now we have a very different question: either I can overcome the addiction or I cannot. And now we all imagine that the addiction is something very different from the person who suffers from it, as a parasite is different from the host that carries it, and so on.

"The excuses are harder to quit than the thing itself" has been my catchphrase for many years: the very concept of addiction is a kind of excuse-making mechanism. I do not think there is a falsifiable, scientific reality to "pornography addiction" in the same sense that there is a falsifiable, scientific reality to my spinal injury —nor in the same sense that there's a falsifiable, scientific reality to diabetes. If it doesn't show up on an x-ray or a blood test, it doesn't exist.

Yeah. That's nihilism, baby. I don't care if your therapist told you that you're still some wonderful person "underneath" your addiction, as if it were a mask you could remove: in this case, I do not believe in the distinction between the mask and the face. I am my spinal injury, and you are your addictions: you are the excuses you've made for yourself.

Jaclyn Glenn's legal team demands the deletion of an old blog post that barely mentions her existence.

Yes, the title was long enough already, but I could add the adjective Estonian in there: it's not every day that I get threatening emails from law firms in Estonia… or, if it is, I really haven't been paying attention to… uh… "fan mail" lately.

Here is the original text of the blog post (that presumably nobody will remember) still visible via "the wayback machine" on archive dot org. Thereafter, you'll see the… law firm's attempt to intimidate me.

——————————

[Sunday, January 2nd, 2022]

Q&A;: What About Pornography? (Will There Be "Quit Porn" Videos on ABLC?)

Hey Eisel,

Thanks for your awesome videos on video games. I was considering buying a Nintendo Switch but will now never buy one after your many videos on video games and Nintendo products. Can you make similar related videos on people having ruining their lives with porn and such? I think that's the last hurdle I have for sobriety really, I don't drink, don't smoke, no video games, no meat or animal products, but there is still porn that is prevalent in my life.

Your videos that show people who really effed themselves by falling into their addictions and then your commentary on those, really drives home the message for these other things.

Also I did want fame and wealth too, but that's not the end goal anymore. You're right that I should make the effort in trying out things just for the sake of doing them, even if I end up as a failure in them and nothing comes about it, the fact that I tried is meaningful enough, more meaningful than the success ever would be. I don't want to end up like those "successful" people who do nothing but waste their lives all day.

Thanks

———[My reply ensues.]———

Hi _________,

I'm really "a moderate" on both of these issues, but I'm perceived as an extremist, because we live in such an immoderate culture.

From my biased perspective, is it possible to play SOME video games? My honest belief (applied to myself and my daughter) is, "yes", but I keep having encounters with particular examples of people who are so susceptible to addictive behavior that it seems the answer may be "no" --i.e., I may be rather too moderate (although I'm perceived as extreme in my critique of video games).

To give an example, I often point to "Pacman C.E." as a positive example of a game that can be played for a maximum of five minutes (this exists as an 8-bit Famicom cartridge, but is primarily played on emulators).

However, I've received emails from people who were SERIOUSLY ADDICTED to games that were even more simplistic than that --games that lasted two or three minutes that they would play, repetitiously, for many hours.

Now, as you know, I'm living in a country and culture where the vast majority of people think it's totally acceptable for adult men to spend 20 hours per week playing video games --so I'm perceived as an extremist in any case.

So, by the same token, at what point is pornography a problem for people?

If we're talking about 5 minutes here and there (say, 35 minutes per week, even if not distributed evenly as 5 minutes per day), then I really don't see the problem.

And it's very difficult for me to imagine anyone being stupid enough to spend hours watching porn (it's just fundamentally boring, IMHO).  It's very difficult for me to imagine porn as an addictive behavior.

Human sexuality is innate, curiosity is innate, and being curious about what other people look like naked (etc.) seems to me anodyne enough --so I do not put pornography in the same category as video games (nor in the same category as gambling).

Do people ruin their lives watching pornography?

Do people fail courses in university because they're spending too much time watching pornography?

The equivalent, for video games, is at epidemic levels: a large percentage of high school and university students are either failing in school, or learning nothing in school while passing, precisely because of video games.  However, is there a significant percentage of people ruining their lives (in this same way) by spending a similar number of hours watching pornography?

How many people per year get fired from their jobs because they stayed awake all night watching pornography?  (The equivalent does indeed happen with video games, stereotypically with MMORPGS.)

So, in short, I'm skeptical that pornography really presents the same kind of cultural problem (as video game playing).

The counter-examples I have seen are either (1) people who were addicted to drugs (e.g., a meth addict who would watch pornography for many hours, but it was clearly meth --not porn-- that was the fundamental problem), and (2) people who were seriously mentally disabled (and/or insane) who would have had many of the same problems without pornography in their lives.

So, honestly, my perception is that the inclusion of pornography in the same category as video games may be "a false equivalency".

——————————

Details of the original claim are included below to help you better understand and respond to the claim against you.

Name of claimant: Ahmet Teke

Rightsholder represented: Rulta OU

Description of claim: To Whom It May Concern, We are writing to you as Rulta OÜ, a copyright protection company resident at Harju maakond, Tallinn, Kesklinna linnaosa, Tartu mnt 67/1-13b, 10115 Estonia, with the registration code 14640476 in Tartu County Court Registration Department, the duly authorized representatives of Jaclyn Glenn ("The Client"), the sole owner and the user of the alias/pseudonym/stage name/username/sobriquet/alternative name "Jaclyn Glenn". It has come to our attention that the below-stated URLs of your website contains copyrighted content originally belongs

QUESTIONS VEGANS CAN'T ANSWER

LINK: https://youtu.be/TC2EOC-fE8A

All new. All different. Not a curated copy of something from the past. Not a remix of earlier materials. And yes, I keep wonder if this is the last time I'm going to make a video of this kind: there was a first time, there has to be a last time.

Iran is Greenland, Greenland is Iran: Doomed Republic. (March 7th, 2026)

天下大勢分久必合，合久必分。

LINK: https://youtu.be/swASb2Y2h0o

(This will eventually be re-posted as a podcast on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, etc., but not today.)

El nihilismo como filosofía moral: Sangre en la nieve. Le nihilisme comme philosophie morale : du sang sur la neige.

New, posted publicly within the last twelve hours or so: the Spanish edition of Blood in the Snow, also including the English and the French.

[Link 1:] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRGP2TDZ
[Link 2:] https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0GRGP2TDZ —each country's Amazon page follows the same pattern, e.g., you can replace "ES" with "DE", to order the book from another country.

Trilingual Edition: English, Spanish and French. Edición trilingüe: inglés, español y francés. Édition trilingue : anglais, espagnol et français.

Se nos enseña que bajo el totalitarismo todos viven con miedo, mientras que en una democracia todos deberíamos estar bastante relajados, pero esto es lo contrario de la verdad: bajo un gobierno totalitario puedes relajarte sabiendo que todo es problema de otra persona—no tienes sentido de responsabilidad política. Los israelíes deben vivir con la agonía de saber que las masacres cometidas por ellos también son cometidas por ellos: son responsables, democráticamente. Y el resultado es un miedo constante: es un tipo de miedo que no puedes imaginar porque nunca has vivido en una democracia. Esta es la realidad moral de la democracia, y al igual que el Imperio Romano, las masacres nunca terminan: el proceso de conquista, interna y externamente, es infinito. Soportamos la tiranía como los cambios en el clima, pero soportamos la democracia sabiendo que nosotros mismos somos el clima: hay un tipo único de pavor moral al ahogarse, sabiendo que somos la inundación.

On nous enseigne que sous un régime totalitaire tout le monde vit dans la peur, alors que dans une démocratie nous devrions être parfaitement détendus ; or c’est l’inverse qui est vrai. Sous un gouvernement totalitaire, vous pouvez vous détendre en sachant que tout est le problème de quelqu’un d’autre — vous n’avez aucun sentiment de responsabilité politique. Les Israéliens doivent vivre avec l’agonie de savoir que les massacres commis pour eux sont aussi commis par eux : ils en sont responsables, démocratiquement. Et le résultat est une peur constante — une peur que vous ne pouvez pas imaginer, parce que vous n’avez jamais vécu dans une démocratie. Telle est la réalité morale de la démocratie, et tout comme dans l’Empire romain, les massacres ne s’arrêtent jamais : le processus de conquête, interne et externe, est infini. Nous endurons la tyrannie comme on endure les changements de temps ; mais nous endurons la démocratie en sachant que nous sommes nous-mêmes le temps qu’il fait : il y a une forme unique d’effroi moral à se noyer en sachant que nous sommes le déluge.

We are taught that under totalitarianism everyone lives in fear, whereas in a democracy we should all be quite relaxed, but this is the opposite of the truth: under a totalitarian government you may relax in knowing that everything is someone else's problem --you have no sense of political responsibility.  The Israelis must live with the agony of knowing that the massacres committed for them are also committed by them: they are responsible, democratically.  And the result is constant fear: it is a kind of fear you cannot imagine because you've never lived in a democracy.  This is the moral reality of democracy, and just like the Roman Empire, the massacres never end: the process of conquest, internally and externally, is infinite.  We endure tyranny like the changes in the weather, but we endure democracy knowing that we ourselves are the weather: there is a unique kind of moral dread in drowning, knowing that we are the flood.