Hello everyone and welcome.
My name is Alias Pseudonym and today I will be interviewing my good friend Alias Pseudonym. Alias is currently the moderator of opinionspace.net and Opinion Space Video.
Hello Alias.
Hi, how are you?
Peachy, thanks. I guess my first question to you would be why opinionspace.net?
Well, it all started with a letter I wrote to Google explaining to them why I thought all search engines sucked and what I thought they should do about it. They never wrote me back. I then started writing down my opinions on all the things that annoyed me, just as something to do really. I had also been contributing my thoughts to the comment fields you sometimes see at the bottom of news stories on the internet. That was frustrating as my comments were often edited by the media outlet or not posted at all.
At this point I decided to start my own message board called opinionspace.net just so I could put my opinions out there and so I would have full editorial control over my thoughts. I also hoped other people would comment on my opinions and we could start a dialog and learn from each other.
Plus this gave me an opportunity to annoy others which is a hobby of mine.
Well you have succeeded there. I find you incredibly annoying.
Thanks.
Some of your comments are rather out there. Where do you sit politically speaking? Are you from the left or the right?
Tough question to answer. I think I’m mostly from the left but I have never found a political party or movement that has suited me 100%. When I vote, which is every election so I don’t get fined, I vote for the Australian Greens. I agree with most of their policies but not all. The Oz Greens are considered to be from the far left.
Some of the major policies I disagree with are on nuclear power, guns, abortion and partly on aboriginal issues. I’m closer to the right on those issues which is terrifying for me as I have a loathing for conservative people and I am not comfortable agreeing with them on anything.
Why do you loath conservative people?
Conservatism flies in the face of reality. The world is constantly changing and people must change with it. Conservative people are terrified of change and want to pretend that it isn’t happening. I have no respect for unrealistic traditionalists who are too lazy to think outside the box and constantly question the status quo to see if there is a better, fairer way of doing things.
That’s a bit harsh isn’t it?
Nope.
OK, moving on. You mentioned nuclear power earlier. Where do you stand there?
I would love to live in a world which had maximum efficiency and ran 100% on renewable energy. So far though I am unconvinced that this is possible. Coal has to go. Carbon capture technology is a pipe dream. But to run the whole world on a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, wave and tide power is also a pipe dream unfortunately.
Where will we get all of the raw materials we need to build these things in the first place? Coal is used because it is abundant, uranium is less abundant than coal but still widely available. The rarer elements used in wind turbines and solar panels are harder to come by. I doubt there is enough to go around.
In Australia people often say why can’t we fill up the outback with solar panels to cash in on our abundant sunshine? Well, besides the fact that we probably can’t build that many, what happens with all the dust in the outback? When solar panels are covered in dust they no longer work and there is no water out there to wash the panels off. The practical details are important. I expand on this at length in my posts and in my book.
We have to get rid of coal and I think that nuclear has to be part of the solution, at least until we can get our populations down to a more sustainable level.
You think the world is over populated?
Don’t you? When was the last time you tried to find a parking space?
I don’t own a car.
No, me neither. OK, bad example. The planet is finite in size, therefore our resources are finite. There are not enough resources to go around and this will inevitably lead to starvation and war.
Unless you’re rich.
Yes, unless you’re rich.
Wait a second; doesn't it say in your bio that you are wanted in 5 countries for outstanding parking tickets? Now you're saying you don't own a car.
Look, I shouldn't have to be the one to pay the fine when I illegally park a stolen car. It's not my vehicle! This is outrageous!
I see, I'm almost afraid to ask my next question. How do you feel about guns?
What a cool way to make a hole. I was trained how to use firearms when I trained in security. I had never fired a gun before that. Man, that was fun! BANG! Then a hole magically appears in something. Very cool. Drills are for pussies.
Don’t you think they are a danger to society?
People are a danger to society. Unfortunately humans shouldn’t be allowed to have opposable thumbs. We are a violent tribal species who use tools to smack the crap out of each other. Banning weapons doesn’t fix the problem of violence. We need to use education and reason to keep our violent natures in check, we need widely available mental health care and we need to get people off drugs.
You are clearly anti drugs then.
I’m not against drugs; I’m against bad behavior on drugs. I used to take drugs and it was fun so I can’t say drugs are bad and keep a straight face. But we do need to get our drug use under control. We are getting too wasted too often and this often leads to violence especially with amphetamines and alcohol. If you must take drugs, smoke cannabis. There’s nothing dangerous about an inert human armed with a packet of M&Ms.
Where do you stand on abortion?
I’m against killing people. The problem with the abortion debate is that it has been hijacked by people like me who are not qualified to speak on this issue.
I’m not following you.
I’m not a reproductive scientist. We are facing a situation here where one group of scientists is saying that life begins at conception. Another group claims that life begins a few weeks after that, more or less. If the scientists don’t know when life starts then how is anyone to enter into a logical debate on this topic? I’ve placed my bet on life beginning at conception and have therefore decided that abortion is wrong. I’ll change my opinion if science can prove me wrong.
What about aboriginal issues?
Oh man, what a can of worms. Clearly the invasion of Australia by the British Empire was morally wrong. But it happened and it can’t be reversed. The Australian aborigines have multicultural neighbors now and that won’t change.
I don’t understand why it is impossible for aborigines to move to areas that provide better opportunities. Everyone else has to. I don’t live in a city because I like smog; this is where the opportunities are. Aborigines are humans not museum exhibits who have to be kept in some kind of traditional display in their natural habitat from 100 years ago.
I’m also utterly sick of being blamed by the media for the state of their living conditions and health. Get off the piss and move to where the jobs and hospitals are. Who’s stopping you? This is an example of conservatism gone mad. Refusing to adapt to a changing environment will never end well for anyone.
I notice in your book and posts on this site that you have a go at gays as well.
No. That’s not true. Words cannot adequately express my level of disinterest in the sexuality of others. How did this become my business? The point I do try to make though is if you are going to run a civil rights movement then it would be a great idea to learn from the successful civil rights movements of the past. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Highlight your similarities with the wider community not your differences.
I have a question for homophobic men. If you were having a threesome with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and the Pittmeister grabbed your cock, would you really care?
I'm not sure I would even notice.
Exactly.
Are you a religious man Alias?
Hell no! Religious people are those folks who need the mental health infrastructure I was talking about earlier. If I’m not God then nobody is!
Fair enough. Now tell me, what is the difference between your opinionspace.net posts and your book The Philosopher’s Bible and why should people buy it?
My posts are short and sweet for the most part and are designed to piss people off so that they are goaded into signing up to this web site for free and then telling me why I’m an idiot. I’m trying to get people involved in these important discussions. Most people seem to be apathetic unfortunately so my view is, kick them in the nuts. It’s hard to be apathetic about a nut kicking.
My book is a more balanced, in depth discussion about my feelings on these various subjects and on other subjects not covered in the forum posts. It’s also much funnier. My posts are pretty serious but my book adds a lot of humor about the human condition. I let my freak flag fly in the book. The Philosopher’s Bible only costs $10 and you get hundreds of other ebooks thrown in as a bonus. You have to be happy with that.
All right, we have made the mandatory plug for your product. Thank you for your time today.
It’s all good.
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