Gadfly

North Sentinel Island

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@MahmoudMassri15 @byPlestia Mahmoud, we hear and read about your stories, watch clips of your day-to-day lives and, in that way, we try to share your burdens as you share each other's.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

Indeed. Truth requires some alignment between reality and what is perceived by the unwashed brain. One and the same folly, and the same disdain for human dignity, lie, basically, behind the billionaires' control over the propaganda and the socialist Left's "we never make mistakes" approach to reality. The socialist Left's strategy and the billionaire's control can both lead to the same perverting effects on the human mind and morality.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

The term "cultural Christian" contains an inherent contradiction: you are either a Christian and accept the whole truth of the New Testament or you are a secular humanist/atheist picking and choosing from the Bible what you deem useful for political, aesthetical (e.g. the song and candles) or therapeutic purposes.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

China has not been a Communist country since late 1970s (before that it looked quite different), when they lost their 'ideological purity' (Was it not Deng Xiaoping who said "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice"? - meaning that whether socialist or capitalist it did not matter as long as the economy worked). China now appears to be a state-controlled capitalist state.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@Radwan05491813 You are not alone, Abood. I pray for peace in your heart and that you may be soon given reasons for optimism and happiness. ✌

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@GBNEWS But a lot can be lost.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

"So learn the lesson of this shore:
To move ahead, look back once more.
For progress is not always straight,
Sometimes a step back guides your fate.
Protect the weak, restrain the strong,
With patience, you will drift along.
True wisdom lets opposing forces live,
By knowing when to take, and when to give."

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

Technology (just like economics) is not an end in itself – it serves (should serve) a human-centered purpose, the meaning and goal of human life, and, as such, it ought to be orientated by morality. AI is a most powerful technology likely to yield to the same forces that turned many of our past inventions into dangers. It is a historically demonstrated lesson that the more advanced a technology, the more urgent the need and the greater the effort required to set up an ethical counterbalance.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@Sameh27nash @Skafou8Cie @RadioWatermelon @CorruptedLiars @anluma99 @EricLDaugh @GiorgiaSalvagn1 @ImBreckWorsham @joekent16jan19 @MullisVsMachine @narendramodi Of course you will, and I hope it will be much better than it used to be before the war.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

ENCYCLICAL LETTER MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
In a materialistic age, characterised by rapid technological advancements and the rise of artificial intelligence, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV’s timely words call for the safeguarding of the human person, with their inherent value and dignity - “the immeasurable dignity of every person, the common good and a world truly governed for everyone”.
In a world where the individual is seen merely as an exploitable object, a statistic, a means to an end rather than an end in themselves, human life tends to become desacralized, resulting in increased violence, injustice and inequalities.
Modern man’s ambition to exceed his natural limits, his attempts at self-creation, can also bring about the very loss of what makes us exceptional – i.e. truly human. Pope Leo XIV reminds us of the limitations, responsibilities and higher purpose of each individual, society and of humanity as a whole.
As we devalue truth and lose sight of our creature status and of the value of being created in the image of God, new technologies can lead to new forms of subjugation. (AI must serve everyone, not detach us from our own and our neighbour’s humanity.)
Pope Leo reveals the choices facing humanity: the Tower of Babel or the work of Nehemiah, and guides us towards the latter, the right choice: “building a civilisation of love”, with everyone taking part in the great work.
Pope Leo XIV’s enlightening words pierce the fog of our present-day confusions, and offer a clear re-evaluation of our measures of progress and solutions for healing and building a world for the common good.

https://t.co/9puzwFRzmj

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@MarioNawfal And, today, we are less equipped to see the danger of these ideologies and combat them.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@PublicDiscourse Yes, "playing by the rules, so to speak, is actually a strategic advantage". Moral principles are not just constraints, they are guardrails leading to alternative, better solutions, which can be left unexplored in the haste of reaching for the easy and the expedient.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@Myasar1112 Beatiful girl - I trust better days will come and look forward to more videos from you.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@PublicDiscourse Faith and public life are laced toghether. In the face of today's challenges, this close relationship is more vital than ever.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

"It’s not enough that everyone has a voice in our political and social life. It only works if everyone also has ears — and a listening heart. And maybe this is exactly what we can learn from religious or Christian traditions." (Hartmut Rosa)

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

Economy and security – and good governance in general – depend on what we hold to be true or not about the world. When you subordinate free speech to expediency, you subordinate truth to the interests and unverifiable considerations of a governing elite, and lose sight of the realities of the world. (Unlike China, we are not a historically collectivist civilisation.) Respect for truth is a main pillar of Christian Western culture and the ability to speak it is the foundation of our Western morality, rights, democracy and trust in each other.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@SprinterPress I don't think that Trump is going to fully disengage from (Western) Europe. He may try to use that threat as a means of shifting the burden and of politically reforming Europe according to his vision. Anyway, Trump's successor may have a different view. Let's not scare-monger.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

@RightToLifeUK What safeguards can there be? Making sure that assisted suicide is "voluntary, informed, and free from coercion or pressure"? Once you cross the line beyond which human life is no longer sacred, safeguards are only temporary compromises, as flexible as our political tastes.

[Gadfly @Gadfly2]

"One must remember that paternalism may exercise its power in secret and that it accomplishes much in the dark. Democracy, on the other hand, is afflicted and blessed with pitiless publicity. Thus its evils are all exposed, it washes all its dirty linen in public; but the main thing is to get it clean." (Edward Howard Griggs)