Stewart Lee - Morality and a Bold Opening Conversational Gambit

[ttasi7]

this is actually a crap joke. i love Stew, but this is just smug, which he sort of acknowledges in his book.

[BertieTheStud]

My god he looks like Tom Hanks in the thumbnail!

[GhastlyCretin85]

Men in tights was made in the 90s.

[Gallucciboy23]

baba papa has let himself go

[ArcanePath360]

facts tend to cloud my judgement! LOL - this is basically what modern religion is.

[youhorriblelittleman]

Leonardo Dicaprio's let himself go, badly

[noisyneil]

he doesn't always pronounce his 't's. that's why people are hearing 'gamble'.

[dylandior123]

Gumball...machine? Hehe :-p

[thebrazenvagabond]

The specific points are debated, but ancient greeks actually practiced pederasty which is arguably very different from homosexuality, and a true homosexual would have been frowned upon in ancient greek society. But, love between two men was definitely cherished as he said, but it doesn't explicitly condone homosexuality, as i think he is saying. Therefore making his overall point a little bit defunct.

[CROMERCRABO1]

dragons

[megamarsvin]

Instinct and blind prejudice have always served me well.

[KantorekBaumerB14]

the bit about scotland being invented by a ssweet compnay reminds me of an uncyclopedia entry.

[gyped]

gold!

[CambridgeHeights]

Hey everybody, guess what? When you die nothing happens. Nothing. Just blank, zero, fade to black, nothingness. Suck on that assholes!

[comanchio1976]

@CambridgeHeights YEAH, that told 'em!

[NEMZOOO]

@CambridgeHeights dane cook - bless you too

[bazbonehead]

@CambridgeHeights why, have you died already? and if you did, how the fuck did you find your way out of that darkness? i usually find myself stumbling all over the place trying to find a light switch. did you not see the tunnel of light? or are you just bullshitting? do you know anything about metaphysics, and the concept that life after death is beyond the capabilities of our observation. that if god existed, he wudnt be observable IN this universe? skepticism is questioning ur own beliefs too

[WalterLiddy]

@bazbonehead Life isn't an entity - it's a process. Death is when the process ceases. There's nothing happening, no movement, no observation, no awareness - nothing. Only matter and energy cannot be created and destroyed. Processes have beginnings and endings. Life is a process. Pretending there's any reason to believe in an afterlife is no different from pretending there's a reason to believe in god. It's a purely arbitrary, irrational notion.

[bazbonehead]

@WalterLiddy yet another armchair philosopher. show me your degree from a red-brick university and i'll consider having a discussion. otherwise, i'll just be having to correct you everytime you say something logically invalid.

[Lieu3C4]

Some choices are borne of genius as the truth does out.

[somerandomer]

...having read all of your comments I see now see where you're coming from; but your view of morality relies on the assumption that morality is just a question of doing what causes pleasure rather than pain. that in itself is a debated point.

[Svelter]

@somerandomer Oh, my assumption entails both - that morality is related to helping others attain pleasure and avoid pain. Of course, I know it has flaws. Stopping a psychopath from harming his victims could be seen as immoral in the short term. However, I think counter-arguments, such as that one, could be used to structure a more intricate moral code. I'd really like to hear other ideas of what ethics is though. It's a fascinating subject.

[somerandomer]

@Svelter I'm not at all an expert on it, but if you find ethics interesting, have a read of this

plato.stanford.edu/entries/eth­ics-virtue/

[leckerwurstbrot]

@Svelter

Sorry to burst into a conversation that's been dead for three months.

If you're still interested in other ideas about ethics, I cannot recommend the works of Immanuel Kant on the subject highly enough - he's tried (and rather successfully, in my not overly humble opinion) to formulate a code of ethics that works outside the system of pleasure, pain or other subjective influences and relies on logic alone. It's really quite brilliant.

[Svelter]

@andy59tube Yes, but what feels nice is dictated by evolution. High energy foods and sex feels nice because it helped our species survive and continue, whereas being stabbed hurts because it's seriously detrimental to your health. It's such a facile point and incredibly easy to justify. I don't even know whether you're trying to be frivolous or justify what you think is a valid point. Either way, we do have an evolutionary psychology. Scientists don't even try and dispute it.

[Svelter]

This is probably the only time I've ever disagreed with Stewart Lee. I believe morality is derived from our evolution, so it is fixed - or at least, hasn't changed since ancestral times. Perception of what is morally right may fluctuate throughout our history but I think there is a rational and absolute morality at the core of it.

[mbera11]

pfff, look at this guy over here who doesn't read history outside of his own culture

[Svelter]

@mbera11 No, I do. And I've read a lot on anthropology - so, in a sense, I've read about history before different cultures even existed. My proposition was, that since our idea of what causes pleasure or pain is largely derived from our evolutionary psychology, there could be an objective morality - it's just that we'd need to know a lot more about the Universe to unearth it. If morality were truly subjective, there would be no right or wrong. Everything would be equally okay.

[somerandomer]

@Svelter I don't really see how you can derive a notion of fixed morality from evolution. Morality is a question of ethics whereas evolution is about the survival of effective genes. If anything I would say the two are in conflict, as evolution allows for immoral actions so long as they help the individual's dna to survive into the next generation. Perhaps you can enlighten me.

[cardiffwilly]

This mans defending the homos. Why is this allowedon utube? Ll mi vides of mi mates hating on the liberal fag-enablers been taken down.

IOt's a dizgrace (is that spelt rite?) that the gays are now not burned.

[1985snowball]

@cardiffwilly the best thing about gays is, they offend the right people.

[TomStraub]

@1985snowball

And the worst thing about gays is...that they're gay. ^__^

[1985snowball]

@TomStraub You've just proved my point, thank you.

[TomStraub]

@1985snowball

No, you just proved MY point. ^__^

[1985snowball]

@TomStraub The worst thing about gays is how in this day and age, the redneck Billy O'Reilly brigade can't get over the fact that gays have been around for pretty much as long as the human species has, and that they're just a part of life. Is that so bad?

[TomStraub]

@1985snowball

What makes you think I'm part of the 'redneck Billy O'Reilly brigade'? I love gays. I think everyone should have one...locked up in their basement to be tortured. ^__^

[1985snowball]

@TomStraub Because you hate gays, obviously.

[ignoranttwat]

@TomStraub

Get fucked.

[peski73]

@1985snowball

That is genius mate!

[pmanngw]

Sorry, but very definitely gambit. The phrase "opening gamble" is not common, but "opening gambit" is a phrase widely used in chess.

[chrisofnottingham]

Gambol makes no sense, whereas Opening Gambit is a standard phrase.

[RodHullIOnceWasHim]

@chrisofnottingham Gamble (ends in "le") does actually make sense but anyway. I stand corrected.

[flankspeed]

You can prove anything with facts...

[RodHullIOnceWasHim]

Nope, and if it's desputed one more time I'm changing it to Gandelf ;-)

[Dominicokey]

definitely gamble...

[GlassPike]

the laughter makes it hard to tell

[GlassPike]

gambit, not gamble

[RodHullIOnceWasHim]

I thought he said that at first, then changed my mind to Gamble then back to Gambit and finally left it as Gamble...

Changed back to Gambit... :)