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Sunday, December 5, 2021

RAW Semantics on RAW vs. Plato



RAW Semantics discusses Robert Anton Wilson's criticism of Plato:

I note that Bob uses the phrase “Ideal Platonic Horseshit” multiple times – I count 14 times (including variants) – in his book, Natural Law. For example:

‘[A]ccording to Plato, every chair we encounter in sensory-sensual experience “is” an imperfect copy of the Ideal Chair somewhere outside space-time. From this I long ago deduced that every horse encountered and endured in space-time is also an imperfect copy of the Ideal Platonic Horse and all the horseshit I have ever stepped in is just an imperfect copy of Ideal Platonic Horseshit.’ – RAW, Natural Law

And at the end of the post, Brian posits something called Red Pill Platonism, an underlying supposed truth invisible to the rest of us that seems to defy the known facts:

I may’ve coined the label, as I’ve searched and can’t find anyone else using it. I wanted an idea that conveyed the contemporary relevance of RAW’s critical takes on Platonism, and it popped into my head as a fairly good fit for a strain of thought one sees in some of the QAnon type stuff.


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