Protesilaos aka “Prot” is a well-known member of the Emacs community, being the author of several popular packages. I unfortunately just learned about an anti-feminist rant he posted to his website 5 days ago (Sep 5). I don’t want to link it, but it is easily found if you desire.
His philosophy just sucks, he’s not as smart as he thinks he is, he’s stuck arguing with himself over his own abstractions
In short, he equates feminism with individualism in order to “prove” that feminism and socialism don’t mix (and he doesn’t like socialism anyway)
shut the fuck up Prot
Assume everyone you meet is an unhinged fascist and you’ll never be disappointed. If you’re in The West, you’re going to be right at least 3/4 of the time.
That stranger on the street? He only doesn’t directly quote Hitler daily because he’s too illiterate to read Mein Kampf.
Your parents? Irredeemable.
Your favorite author? Posting shocking screeds on 4chan.
Your neighbours? They have a Confederate flag in their basement.
You? Haven’t read theory.
you? Haven’t read theory.
Your neighbours? They have a Confederate flag in their basement.
I used to have a neighbor that proudly flew the stars and bars in front of their home. This was north of the Mason Dixon line.
There’s a house near me that flies a Gadsden flag and the Stars and Bars. This is in Northern Ontario.
Is that near Lake America?
Pretty much as far as you can get via roads from Lake America without leaving Ontario.
Roads end a few km north of me and the only way to get around further north is via ice roads in winter or by flying in a float plane.
Kenora District is very big but has very few people. The population of Portland, Maine and a land area the size of California. Everything is lakes. In the “city” there are stores with more parking for boats than there are for cars.
One time I got mad at someone (also in canada) about the giant as confederate flag painted in their car. They were Dukes of Hazard fans, no kidding, that shit was huge in rural NS when it aired. Like, you made sure not to drive in the hours after it came on cause people would be drunk driving and hyped up on Duke energy. The guy I called out was an older fella who had just kept his recreated Duke Mobile and never considered the implication. He did repaint after and turned out he was a pretty cool dude in the end. I only yell this story cause it’s a fun story. This guy is the exception and confederate flags should be called out, this nice guy would have been driving around with a hate symbol of a car had I not gotten mad at him. Canadian Confederate Apologists are a weird thing but not uncommon. My fucking dad for one, I mentioned that I had been seeing a car with a confederate flag front license plate parked in the grocery store lot nearby often and he went on to tell me it doesnt represent being pro slavery but southern pride and rebellion in a broad sense. He just thinks this because he likes NASCAR. otherwise he’s lib Hank Hill.
I live in what was fiercely Union territory that was burned down by Confederates during the American Civil War and there are more than a few losers around here who display that rag
Not all of it, but I try
I think authors usually put screeds on bluesky or substack nowadays, which is not much better tbf.
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This man is politically illiterate… I’m reading it and just… Wtf? Does he even know what hes saying? Genuinely, cause like, he starts from an (incorrect) axiom, and then derives inane nonsense based on… Something? I can’t figure out his logic. He makes leaps and bounds without anything to inform them, his drivel isnt worth reading I’m stopping after a few paragraphs but good god damn.
Sucks tho. I dont use his packages but people said they were good. Fuck him.
Grey tribe/neoractionary/fascist writing is almost always like this. They don’t operate at one level, they’re constantly trying to incorporate information at smaller and bigger scales that don’t work together: various crime statistics, various anecdotes about women in their life, Greek tragedies, music lyrics, online memes, etc. They create this tapestry that seems convincing because it has all these supporting examples to people who already want to believe but to anyone who’s skeptical it’s scattered and nonsensical.
I had a friend who wrote like this but fortunately he stuck to episode recaps of Lost, where it was almost appropriate.
I also can’t follow his writing; what point is he trying to make exactly? It all just reads like conservative rambling that comes off as very egotistical.
I dont use his packages but people said they were good.
The only package of his I use is Modus themes, but that’s because they’re included in Emacs.
I read through most of it and totally agree with your analysis. Politically illerate is a nice way to put it, but those conclusions are something else.
FLOSS devs try not to be fascists challenge (impossible)
(Yeah I’m exaggerating, I know there’s plenty of cool people too)
Never trust FOSS nerds (unless they’re explicitly leftist)
It always sucks when someone like this turns out to be a shithead. Recently in the PS Vita modding community, the dude who runs the main homebrew/port Database was in his discord ranting about how he wants to shoot immigrant babies
ed is the standard text editor
men are from emacs, women are from vi
- prot probablyThe post ends with a section on how the Islamic prophet Muhammad understood family and how Christians are slowly unraveling in debauchery because he lives near a working class Syrian family of refugees.
Just put the
defunin the bag
lol what? I made it through almost the entire post and somehow missed that at the very end. Wild
Happened to me with someone who was a friend of mine for years, I thought they were cool but then something happened when we were hanging out & suddenly I was seeing this whole side of them that I’d never seen before (being strongly pro cop). Like I don’t hide my views, people who know me know what I’m about so it was pretty shocking to see them expressing that kind of shit & being surprised when I pushed back.
It fucking sucks to find out someone who you thought was cool is anything but
it hurts so bad because i assume everybody who has our politics is a safe harbor but thats not true
Noo prot why 😭 i really like all the stuff he makes and how much effort he is putting into things
Get some actual theory in this guy how is this supposed philosopher talking about socialism and feminism without being aware of diamat 😤
He’s a Greek Cypriot, he talks about dialectics but in the Socratic sense
does he actually?
For example https://protesilaos.com/books/2020-09-30-ethos-dialectic/
The Dialectician’s Ethos
2020-09-30
Dialectic is an inter-personal experience: a rigorous dialogical process where parties to an argument exchange views in pursuit of the common objective of approximating the truth. Socrates used the dialectical method in this exact way: a certain kind of targeted conversation.
To effectively and consistently partake in dialectic, one must have developed several virtues.
They must be honest. To stand by their arguments, recognise any possible mistake of theirs, not misrepresent the other side’s positions, not employ rhetorical tricks, not assume malevolence in the opposing side’s propositions or act in bad faith, and the like.
You can see how he embodies this honesty in practice /s
Oh dear, yeah I see what you meant
Never meet your heroes :(
Reactionary brain worms go deep. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of organizing for me. Just time and time again having to patiently swallow that garbage so they “feel heard,” and only then trying to explain/educate why they shouldn’t hate their fellow worker for things they’ve been programmed to hate but actually have zero impact on their lives. Even in socialist spaces you’ll see it crop up again and again.
Sorry you had to deal with it explicitly recently. Solidarity.
