Kanadajin3: Historical Nihilism vs. Islamic Idealism.

hey guys this series of videos began
with a very light-hearted tone a lot of joking around and a lot of laughter on camera I think in part two you got to see my my girlfriend Melissa really breaking down laughing quite often and with this video the fourth in the series apparently from now on 51% of all the videos on my channel will be direct replies to Canada jin-san in this video I don't think there's going to be a single laugh or a single punch line so it's become more and more serious and I think the two sides of the debate have indeed disambiguated what is there about if you are an internet atheist watching this video I want to start by pointing out to you that my position is in a subtle and profound way different from anything you've seen on YouTube before because I'm not an atheist I'm a nihilist my problem with Islam my problem with the Catholic Church my problem with communism is not with particular beliefs but with believing itself I'm not merely a critic of the principles espoused by any one of these ideologies I'm a critic of ideology I'm a critic of a view of the world that proceeds from principal from matters of principle so in the most recent reply I've received in Canada gin-san she's just doubling down on her position as already stated in this debate she writes to me saying quote thank you for the video but she fails to see why it is relevant to talk about racism in a certain country the actions of individuals she argues do not reflect the religion do not reflect the principle of the thing now the position she's adopting here is in no way unique to Islam the contrast between what I have to say and what she has to say as a proponent of Islam is a hundred percent identical to the position I'm in as a nihilist when I'm debating communists and that's been a huge factor in my life both because the type of research I've done and simply where I've lived I've lived in post-communist countries like Cambodia and have lived in countries that are still communist today like Laos it's very easy for the defendant of any one of these ideologies Islam communism Catholicism or even American imperialism the American Empire or even Israel it might make some Muslim why some Muslims watching this video might be very uncomfortable with recognizing that the type of rationale they're engaging in here works just as well in providing excuses for the modern nation state of Israel as it does in making excuses for the religion of Islam but the difficult principle thing to get at here when you're dealing with believers face-to-face is to get them to recognize that the mode of reasoning they're engaged in is insincere although they feel piously that it's the most sincere thing they can say or feel or events that in fact it is an excuse making mentality it's not even a sincere mode of reasoning Canada gin-san is inviting me to believe that the principle of the thing is more important than the particular people who espouse the principle and that is the diametric opposite of what I believe I do not think it's possible to look at massacres that were carried out under the orders of Lenin Lenin was one of the dictators in Russia following after the Russian Revolution Congress revolution in Russia I do not think it is possible to look at those massacres and dismissed them in the same way the canidius and dismisses massacres in history of Islam in the same way the Ken Johnson dismisses the history of slavery and Islam in the same way that she dismisses the historical reality and current present-day reality of racism Islam she dismisses all these things by referring to the purity of the principle the matter of principle now what we soon learned in practice is that this principle is something anyone can invent for themselves and that even when they're claiming it's something they've discovered written in an ancient text that it's something immutable that they have no role in editing in fact they are picking and choosing they are making an editorial selection from that that ancient text so so extreme that they might as well be making up a new religion out of thin air of course this happens with Islam believe me it also happens with Buddhism believe me it also happens with Catholicism what is the principle that a Catholic feels Catholicism represents that can be separated from the historical reality of what the Catholic Church did to Native Americans to indigenous peoples North America or hate South America look at what's now Brazil Chile etc the historical reality of what Catholicism actually is what it did and its outcomes is much much more important than the principle of the thing and the problem is again the principle the thing is so malleable it's so easily reinvented in the minds of believers we could claim that there is some immaculate principle for the Catholic Church that is in no way besmirched in no way stained by the mirror historical reality of what the Catholic Church did in South America or in North America for that matter that genocide mirror genocide mere massacres mere crimes against humanity mere slavery mere racism in no way touches the principle of the thing not of what the Catholic Church is but of what it ought to be the problem I have here is with the very mode of thinking that proceeds from as its first premise a delusion not about what the world is but of what but what the world ought to be a mode of thinking that takes principles as something more real than reality itself historical reality is precisely what we must proceed from we can't as with the laws of GM three start on a chalkboard to draw out sketch out how a bridge is supposed to work how a bridge is supposed to support the weight of a train as it goes across a chasm on the cart we simply simply put politics does not proceed geometrically from a set of principles on a chalkboard instead we're in a situation where we're looking at it we're looking at a bridge that collapsed and a whole bunch of people who died when the Train went over that bridge and collapsed and then on the other side of the world in a totally different political context totally different cultural context people tried to build the same bridge using the same blueprint and it collapsed and lots of people died and somewhere else on the other side of the world people use the same blueprint the same principles and a bridge collapsed on and we're standing there looking at the rubble trying to figure out trying to put together rationally an explanation for what went wrong what am I talking about here if you're Muslim watching this video please reflect on whether or not these excuses you make for the principle of the thing whether or not you would extend these principles to the history of communism within Afghanistan Afghanistan today is a Muslim country in a semi colonial relationship with the United States of America before that it was a Muslim country under the rule of independent Muslim extremists you guys probably know that part of the story there was a time there was a time when Afghanistan was a communist country would you make these same excuses for communism being good in principle being good in its intentions despite the disaster that happened under communist rule in Afghanistan meanwhile on the other side of the world with no particular connection to Afghanistan you can look at the reality of a communist society in North Korea you can look at the reality of a common study society in Laos in Vietnam in Cuba in South America to some extent we have completely independent cultural examples even just the contrast between Russia and China their respective experiments with communism it's astounding how much they have in common it's astounding the extent to which different people in different cultures at different times took this same blueprint try to build a bridge and it collapsed and among the features of that collapse were racism genocide persecution of ethnic minorities and yes of course mass starvation topics I'm not going to get into in this video during the life of vladimir Ilyich Lenin I will give you a link below this video to an essay I wrote about it you can read about unbelievable I really mean that unbelievable massacres and persecutions of Jews within Russia under Russian communism I think the very first group to face ethnic cleansing to face genocide 'l repression in russia right after the communist revolution were the cossacks that's no joke it's a really terrible chapter of history and repression of ethnic groups extermination of ethnic groups this was a feature of communism again and again in diverse places around the world actually I've heard Muslims complained that Muslims themselves were persecuted by communism within Cambodia another interesting chapter in this in this history the treatment of Muslims by communists in some cases would you accept what Canada jin-san says here in defending Islam in defending communism in defending Catholicism or indeed in defending the modern nation-state of Israel or the American Empire abroad what Canada Jensen says is that the actions of individuals in no way impugn the principle of the thing they no way touch the reality of what their religion is and from my perspective that is the fiction of what the religion ought to be can you not recognize that there is a principle the United States was pursuing when it bombed Vietnam Cambodia and Laos can you not recognize that there are people who to make a principled defense of the United States military in its actions whether in the devastation of Laos the devastation of Cambodia or examples that this audience may be more familiar with the conquest of Afghanistan the disaster of the interaction of Iraq if you will say yes yes yes but what America represents can never be known from a particular historical figure like George W Bush or Abraham Lincoln or George Washington no no no they can defend this by claiming there's a principle here and there's a principle that they insist they alone can define by working from some sacred text whether that text is the Constitution of the United States of America or the Communist Manifesto that there is some sense in which they will claim the beliefs and conduct of vladimir Ilyich Lenin Lenin the dictator of Russia that the conduct of Joseph Stalin dictator of Russia that they are conduct or misconduct the outcomes of their decisions are something that you need to understand as completely separate from the principle of what communism is itself the principle is nothing what you're being asked to do in this mode of thought is to disregard everything and focus your attention exclusively on nothing what can we learn from the historical reality of actually existing communism everything it's profound it's baffling it's unbelievable I'll give this link to this article I wrote about a chapter of history I'm sure none of you have heard before it's a fascinating chapter of history in East Asia where Russian communists did carry out anti-semitic massacres they did carry out anti-japanese massacres and they carried out anti Cossack massacres there was ethnically insane going on there was starvation there was chaos that unbelievable violence under communism by studying that example the unfolding of these historical particulars we can learn so much that's valuable and by disregarding those details to instead focus on the principle of what communism ought to be we learn nothing and indeed from my perspective the religious mentality is one of the same whether the example is the Catholic Church in South America of the Russian Empire or the Russian Revolution communism or what have you or if we're looking at Islam and the rarely discussed question of the history of Islam and slavery and racism in Mauritania now some of you will claim that there's something really significant but working from the primary source texts here sometimes there is I mean is it is significant if you want to understand the American bombing of Vietnam is it important to read the American Constitution well yes sure you can understand a lot of things about American politics conversely if someone said to you no no the American Empire is not racist just look at the US Constitution there's nothing in there about bombing Vietnam there's nothing in there about Vietnamese people and lotion people being not equal to Americans that is ridiculous when you're trying to invoke the secret purity of this source text to disregard the reality the very complex reality of racism in a context like the United States trying to conquer Vietnam trying to conquer Cambodia trying to cover your loss is racist was racism a factor in American foreign policy towards Vietnam Cambodia Laos yes it was a factor is it the only factor did they start those wars just because they're racist no of course not okay is racism a factor in understanding the reality of Mauritania today is racism and important factor is racism and important factor in understanding Islam as it actually exists in Mauritania today is racism an important factor in understanding the role of Islam in slavery in martini today yes no it's not a complete explanation you're not just gonna say well people are racist therefore that's the whole story of course of course it's an important factor is it possible for people to focus on the mere facts of history so much so that they exclude or ignore important questions of principle maybe that is possible maybe it's possible for someone to focus on the reality of the United States using torture in Vietnam Laos and Cambodia to focus on the use of torture so much the practical reality the historical reality of what the Unites States didn't torture people that they ignore questions of principle that they ignore the fact that United States Constitution it says that America's against torture I've never known anyone who had that problem I've never known anyone who was so invested in the mere facts of what actually happens in history and planet earth did they ignore those questions well on the contrast heard me on the contrary I think those people tend to be deeply involved in drawing our attention to the contrast between those statements of principle the United States claimed it would never use chemical weapons who would never use biological weapons and they did they claimed they would never engage in this kind of torture and they did etcetera etc it's those people who really care with that on the contrary the problem I see again and again is people who want to lead us down the rabbit hole the rabbit hole of the true believer of the ultimate conformist the Canada Gen Sana's has gone down here who want us to believe in the principle of the thing primarily exclusively they want us to believe so much in the principle of the thing that were willing to disregard a thousand years of history that were willing to disregard the world as it actually is just for the sake of our pious hope our pious belief in the world as it ought to be and that plays out the same way whether your belief is in what communism is what it ought to be or the American Empire is an ought to be or Islam or Judaism as it exists in the modern State of Israel today the difference between myself and other race of the atheists on the Internet or to myself and these true believers is much more extreme than you might at first believe I describe myself not merely as a nihilist but an historical nihilist many people will tell you to study history just to learn the lessons of history and ultimately that's not my point here at all I think that people who sincerely study any of these episodes in history any of these ideologies any of these collapsed bridges if you like to use my former image the point is not that they just examine one collapsed bridge and come to the conclusion this was a disaster I think that with time with real depth of understanding with profound introspection and examination examination of the human condition and the reality of each of these disasters that ideology leads to I think that the study of history itself is profoundly incompatible with belief I think that a true appreciation for what history is and for how human beings who have the best of intentions human beings who tell you sincerely that in the colonisation of Canada they were going to set up schools for the forced assimilation of the indigenous people the enforced simulation of First Nations indigenous people Native Americans American Indians we're going to say the Cree the Egyptian there are people who will tell you still to this day so sincerely that what they were doing in principle was bringing civilization and literacy to people who had none of their own people who were not civilized and who were illiterate and on the level of just examining the principle of the thing it isn't that easy to believe in isn't it easy to support such a positive pious principle that is presented to you as a way of helping people and isn't it so much harder to examine the disconnect between those positive human intentions and the unbelievably horrible human outcomes isn't it so much harder to learn from the reality of what history really is but when we do that one disaster or another residential schools in Canada forced assimilation of indigenous people whether in Canada or in the Soviet Union under communism there are parallel situations with them forcibly assimilating the native people it's amazing the extent to which in a Christian and a secular context human beings can reinvent many of the same evils when we learn from history what we learn I think finally you know maybe not even in your first 10 years of learning from history but finally inexorably inevitably what we learn is that there is nothing to be believed in that all beliefs are false that all beliefs are dangerous that we can't look amongst the rubble of one of these collapsed bridges to find the good and pure principles of geometry that were once written on a blackboard that what we can do and what we must do is learn from historical reality historical reality is all we have but in that rubble the tremendously hopeful and the tremendously positive thing is human mutability is the potential for positive change that knowing what we know now if we don't disregard the reality of what went wrong in Mauritania the reality of what we're not wrong in Ontario Canada or Canada ginseng comes from the various disasters genocide and worse that we can learn from from history of the Catholic Church in history of Islam from the history of communism that it would be so easy for us to do better next time that for me is the sense in which nihilism is endlessly optimistic compared to any particular belief believers end up trying to cling to one principle or another they end up trying to defend that principle the imaginary purity of their principle against the unbelievable historical reality of what happens when that principle was put into practice again and again again nihilists instead get to look around at the rubble and say hey I'm just doing it trying to do something positive here what can I do that'll make a positive difference and the answer the answer is something not nothing whereas belief makes you beholden to an abstraction that is in truth worse than nothing at all