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WJM on Arguing with Subjectivists

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Zeroseven said:  “Hi Vivid, I’m not much of a logician. Just give your practical example and we can explore it.”

If you are not going to explore a practical example logically, what use is exploring it at all? To share your personal feelings?

Here’s the problem in for those that wish to interact with Aleta, Zeroseven and Clown Fish: it is utterly unimportant to them that their worldview, statements and behavior be logically consistent. This is why it simply doesn’t bother them to admit that they are hypocrites – insisting on one thing (that morality is subjective) while behaving the opposite way (like morality is objective), and why they keep raising objections that have already been thoroughly refuted (like morality is subjective because people don’t agree about it).

They do not enter conversations with a critical rationalism that they may be wrong about morality being subjective; they “know” it is subjective. Since they are not “logicians” and don’t care if their logic is in error, what good is rationally demonstrating the logical errors in their views? Their idea that morality is subjective is not based on any logical examination of their worldview premises leading to inferences then to rational explanations for actual behavior; it is based solely on sentiment – an emotional rejection of what objective morality would mean (theism), and personal sentiments about other people and their behaviors.

You cannot prove someone wrong about their subjective sentiments no matter how irrational or hypocritical those sentiments are. You cannot logically argue someone out of a faulty view if they didn’t come to that view via logic and if they do not consider logic a valid arbiter of truth.

While these exchanges are good as object lessons for many viewers, erroneous emotional investments cannot be corrected rationally. One would have to actually be committed to having a rationally coherent perspective before any logical argument might penetrate their commitment to their emotional views.

Without believing there is a truth by which some views can be considered erroneous, there is no valid corrective by which one can think they should correct their view. It’s just their personal, sentimental view of how things are, and they do not have to justify that view because there is – in their mind – no objective truth to such matters, and logic is not an arbiter of any real, objective truths.

I would add that while what WJM says is true, the logical incoherence of their views does not stop them from advocating for the use of the State’s monopoly on violence to force you and me to abide by those views.  Does anyone else see the irony of a moral subjectivist forcing a Christian baker to use his artistic skill to celebrate a homosexual wedding?

Comments
Marfin, the limit is what they think they can get away with. KFkairosfocus
June 2, 2016
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So what are the limits to the message a baker can refuse put on his cake , if during ww2 a German asks a baker to put congratulation on your 10,000 jew exterminated , or what if now a guy wants to have a polygamous marriage arrangement with his son and his daughter would that be ok to write congratulations on such a close family relationship. Can any atheist please tell me where the boundaries start and finish and on what basis do they come to these conclusions.Marfin
June 2, 2016
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Headlined: https://uncommondescent.com/atheism/fyi-ftr-conscience-is-a-gift/kairosfocus
June 2, 2016
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CF, Re:
A very wise man once told me that it’s not name calling if it is true.
The namecalling is of course not true, but that is not the most important thing at this point. You and your ilk have so often indulged in red herrings led away to strawman caricatures laced with ad hominems and set alight to cloud, confuse polarise and taint the atmosphere that we know to discount such tactics to zero credit. But something else is at work, something soberingly revealing. Do you not see that you are arguing AS IF truth was something we OUGHT to pursue and OUGHT to respect? That, you assume and expect that others will recognise as something they ought to pursue and respect? Do you not see that this again reflects the underlying issues -- that OUGHT-ness is a real, accurately perceived, binding condition of our moral government (not a delusion) -- that you and your ilk routinely rhetorically deride and disregard when it suits you? Do you not see that this tells us that your views show the precise incoherence and patent reductions to absurdity that have been highlighted but have been rhetorically dismissed or studiously ignored, strawmannised and derided over and over again? Do you not realise that manifest hardness against oughtness regarding truth and right is a very bad sign? Do you not see why it is evident that this will not end well? For individuals and communities alike, then our civilisation as a whole? I strongly suggest, think again:
Conscience, is a gift. Guilt, is a mercy. Repentance, is a grace. Renewal and reformation, are hopes.
Perhaps, even at this late stage for a civilisation that has so obviously lost its way, something positive can be done before it is utterly too late. KFkairosfocus
June 2, 2016
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Barry: "BTW, all that name calling is not very tolerant. Isn’t your side the one that is supposed to have a monopoly on tolerance?" A very wise man once told me that it's not name calling if it is true.clown fish
June 1, 2016
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Trumped: "Perfect point and very valid….so just take your business to someone who values your values then… why on Gods great earth would you try to silence someone for standing up for their beliefs?" And why didn't the black teens go eat at a diner that allowed blacks? Why force the owners and operators of the diner to do something that went against their beliefs?clown fish
June 1, 2016
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Sev:
All they were asked to do was to bake a cake
False. The baker in Master Baker, a case in which I have filed an amicus brief, would have been happy to bake a cake. The government has forced him to use his artistic talent to decorate the cake and write things that celebrate a ceremony that is inimical to his religious beliefs. It is the forced artistic expression, not the mere baking of a case, that is objectionable. Sev, you really should make an effort to understand the basic facts of a matter before you comment on it, especially if you are going to call people hateful names. BTW, all that name calling is not very tolerant. Isn't your side the one that is supposed to have a monopoly on tolerance?Barry Arrington
June 1, 2016
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Sev "Logic is the arbiter of a valid argument, nothing more" Sev, although logic cannot tell us what is true can it tell us what cannot be true? Vividvividbleau
June 1, 2016
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john_a_designer @ 9
But is forcing a baker who has deeply held religious beliefs, about what is/is not marriage, to bake a wedding cake a gay couple’s only option? What’s wrong with simply finding another baker? As far as I can see nothing. That’s known as accommodation and tolerance, as well as courtesy. Christian Doctors, for example, cannot be forced to perform abortions if they are personally oppose them for moral or religious reasons. Why can’t the same accommodation be extended to religious wedding vendors?
Those bakers were not being forced to officiate at a SSM ceremony, they were not being forced to attend said ceremony and they were not being forced to officially endorse SSM. All they were asked to do was to bake a cake and instead of displaying the Christian virtues of charity and compassion that they are supposed to live by, they chose sanctimonious bigotry. Suppose that those bakers had belonged to some sort of fundamentalist Lutheran sect that endorsed the rabid anti-Semitism of Martin Luther's On The Jews And Their Lies. Suppose it had been a Jewish couple who had asked for a cake and been tossed out on their ears because they were Jewish. Would that have been a valid exercise of religious freedom?Seversky
June 1, 2016
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Sev:
The reality is that you cannot demonstrate the objectivity of morality any more than you can demonstrate the reality of beauty. They’re both in the eye of the beholder, in other words, us.
But then:
Need I point out that the views of the millions who died at the hands of the Nazis were never sought by that terrible regime.
There you go using that word "terrible" as if it means that the Nazis were objectively terrible. But if morality is in the eye of the beholder, then when the Nazis beheld their death camps they beheld a moral enterprise. Sev, you can't keep your argument straight over the course of two paragraphs. How is anyone supposed to take you seriously.Barry Arrington
June 1, 2016
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Here’s the problem in for those that wish to interact with Aleta, Zeroseven and Clown Fish: it is utterly unimportant to them that their worldview, statements and behavior be logically consistent. This is why it simply doesn’t bother them to admit that they are hypocrites – insisting on one thing (that morality is subjective) while behaving the opposite way (like morality is objective), and why they keep raising objections that have already been thoroughly refuted (like morality is subjective because people don’t agree about it).
So your strongest argument against the subjectivity of morality is that subjectivists behave as if its objective and you resent what you assume to be hypocrisy? That's pretty feeble for a master logician. Football players during a game behave as if they are bound by the rules of the sport, for all intents and purposes as if they are objective. Yet is anyone here arguing that the rules of football are anything other than an entirely arbitrary cultural construct? Or are you that far gone that you think American football was divinely ordained?
They do not enter conversations with a critical rationalism that they may be wrong about morality being subjective; they “know” it is subjective. Since they are not “logicians” and don’t care if their logic is in error, what good is rationally demonstrating the logical errors in their views? Their idea that morality is subjective is not based on any logical examination of their worldview premises leading to inferences then to rational explanations for actual behavior; it is based solely on sentiment – an emotional rejection of what objective morality would mean (theism), and personal sentiments about other people and their behaviors.
Whatever you might believe, you don't have a monopoly of logic or morality. Your insistence on the objectivity of morality, like everyone else who takes your part, is not about any old morality but your specific version or morality. It's an attempt to establish that your morality - and yours alone - is the one true morality a position which could warrant imposing it on others. In other words, it's a blatant bid for political power. The reality is that you cannot demonstrate the objectivity of morality any more than you can demonstrate the reality of beauty. They're both in the eye of the beholder, in other words, us.
You cannot prove someone wrong about their subjective sentiments no matter how irrational or hypocritical those sentiments are. You cannot logically argue someone out of a faulty view if they didn’t come to that view via logic and if they do not consider logic a valid arbiter of truth.
Logic is the arbiter of a valid argument, nothing more. We both know it's perfectly possible to construct a valid argument that is complete nonsense. If you want truth, what matters is the content of the premises. Any valid logical argument can be attacked on those grounds.
Without believing there is a truth by which some views can be considered erroneous, there is no valid corrective by which one can think they should correct their view. It’s just their personal, sentimental view of how things are, and they do not have to justify that view because there is – in their mind – no objective truth to such matters, and logic is not an arbiter of any real, objective truths.
By the correspondence theory of truth moral propositions are neither true nor false because they are prescriptive not descriptive. They are about 'ought' not 'is'. The only warrant that is required by a moral code is that it has been negotiated by and assented to by all the people who will choose to be subject to it. Need I point out that the views of the millions who died at the hands of the Nazis were never sought by that terrible regime. If anything, it's a hideous lesson abut what can happen when one group gets to impose their version of morality on all others. I am as certain that the victims of the Holocaust would never have assented to their fate as I am that the family and friends of the victim of a psychopath would agree that his version of morality was as valid as theirs. That is what stands between us and the maniacs or anarchy or nihilism.Seversky
June 1, 2016
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@clown #18 "A baker, florist and photographer are providing a service, a commodity, a product, that has no official and legal status. They do not legally require any acknowledged training. Their is no “college” of bakers, florists, photographers that they must belong to and are governed by. Their signatures do not appear on marriage certificates." Perfect point and very valid....so just take your business to someone who values your values then... why on Gods great earth would you try to silence someone for standing up for their beliefs? I get it, you can't be A-moral in this situation... an activists view is never about balance...nor about truth... So what if you can't find a local baker to bake a gay-cake? take it to the next town...or the next if you still cant find one.... maybe that should be a good indicator that something is askew here.Trumper
June 1, 2016
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KairosFocus: "The perversion of marriage, sex and family under false colour of law are all seriously morally dubious behaviours, and bear no comparison whatsoever to race. Really? What were these arguments made to try to prevent? I numbered them to keep in the spirit of our discussions. 1 --> "They cannot possibly have any progeny, and such a fact sufficiently justifies" not allowing their marriage." 2 --> "This relationship "is not only unnatural, but is always productive of deplorable results ... [Their children turn out] generally effeminate ... [their relationship is] productive of evil." 3 --> "State legislators spoke out against such an "abominable" type of relationship, warning that it will eventually "pollute" America." 4 --> "“It not only is a complete undermining of ... the hope of future generations, but it completely begins to see our society break down ... It literally is a threat to the nation’s survival in the long run.” 5 --> "This type of marriage is not allowed "because natural instinct revolts at it as wrong." 6 --> "This type of marriage is "regarded as unnatural and immoral." 7 --> "This type of relationship is "distasteful to our people, and unfit to produce." Such marriages would lead to "a calamity full of the saddest and gloomiest portent to the generations that are to come after us." 8 --> "Although there is no verse in the Bible that dogmatically says [this marriage should not occur], the whole plan of God as He has dealt with [humanity] down through the ages indicates that [this] marriage is not best for man." 9 --> "I believe that the tendency to classify all persons who oppose [this type of relationship] as 'prejudiced' is in itself a prejudice," a psychologist submitted to the court. "Nothing of any significance is gained by such a marriage."clown fish
June 1, 2016
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EvilSnack, ”Since subjectivist ethics cannot be falsified, doesn’t that make them non-scientific, and therefore worthy only of utter rejection?” Indeed, it is completely absurd, if not foolish, for an admitted moral subjectivist to use bait-and-switch tactics to begin arguing about rights as if they were now objective. Rights based on what? On whom? Who does he think he’s fooling? But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he is fooling himself.john_a_designer
June 1, 2016
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ES, actually, such ethics reduce to self referential incoherence and/or to might/manipulation makes right nihilism. Such will not end well for our civilisation. KFkairosfocus
June 1, 2016
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CF, The perversion of marriage, sex and family under false colour of law are all seriously morally dubious behaviours, and bear no comparison whatsoever to race. The tactics at work, from Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:
5 “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. 13 “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
That's before we get to the studiously ignored issue of the cultural marxist subversion of law, institutions and culture and its utterly destructive impact. Which is what is now quite openly going on. Such will not end well for our civilisation. KFkairosfocus
June 1, 2016
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@ BA #6 - Saying so don't make it so.... maybe you can enlighten me please..... TIA I'll do my part to better explain my simplistic view of why shutting down a private bakery can be somewhat like the burning of the two structures in my example so you might better see that point. no bakery. = no cakes that either LGBT or non-LGBT folks can partake of. you might say that denial of a cake is the same thing from an LGBT view... I would say you are sadly mistaken as that denial if of just one cake and not all that the bakery has to offer. The point then becomes the ability to force one to deny their core beliefs and comply to something they are not for. there was a much smarter path that could of been taken there. Are we getting more remote now?Trumper
June 1, 2016
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Since subjectivist ethics cannot be falsified, doesn't that make them non-scientific, and therefore worthy only of utter rejection?EvilSnack
June 1, 2016
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KairosFocus: "CF, there you go again, conflating race with morally dubious behaviour. That insistence speaks for itself. KF" And what morally dubious behaviour are you referring to? I thought we were talking about marriage.clown fish
June 1, 2016
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KairosFocus: "CF, you are simply digging in deeper with more and more projections and personalities." If you can't address the substance of the issue, attacking the person is a poor argument. But if that is all you have, I guess you have to go with your strengths. You still have not addressed the fact that your example has an almost identical parallel to the Woolworth's diner.clown fish
June 1, 2016
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CF, there you go again, conflating race with morally dubious behaviour. That insistence speaks for itself. KFkairosfocus
June 1, 2016
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JAD: "So when a committed and active Christian florist, baker or photographer is sued for not participating in a SSM wedding ceremony you are in fact trying to coerce a Christian priest (no scare quotes required) into helping in or participating in the performance of a wedding ceremony which they see as something religious and sacred. How is that any different from officiating over it?" Now, that is a stretch. A baker, florist and photographer are providing a service, a commodity, a product, that has no official and legal status. They do not legally require any acknowledged training. Their is no "college" of bakers, florists, photographers that they must belong to and are governed by. Their signatures do not appear on marriage certificates. They are in business to provide baked flour products, dead plants and images on paper. As service providers, they are not legally allowed to deny services to anyone based on race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Would we be sitting here defending the baker if he refused to provide a cake for an inter-racial couple?clown fish
June 1, 2016
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CF, you are simply digging in deeper with more and more projections and personalities. This is the strongest possible proof that you have no sound answer on the merits. The lawfare agenda is plain, and the consequences of such are even plainer, on a lot of history. Divide, polarise and ruin eventually has a hard collision with rock bottom reality. Any responsible person or movement knows that. Maybe some imagine they can win any confrontation with the assumed marginalised minorities that may develop through the sort of agenda Tushnet advocates, but such is utterly ill advised. It is also utterly reckless in a geostrategic situation such as the world now faces. But then, geostrategic folly seems to be a habit of major western democracies, going all the way back to Athens. KFkairosfocus
June 1, 2016
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Some time ago, I responded to an SSM supporter who was trying to reassure us Christians that, “The reality is that Christian ministers will never be forced to marry gays.” Oh?” I replied. “I think something close to that has already happened. Christian priests (and priestesses) have already been sued for not participating in a same sex wedding ceremony. BTW I am using priest here in the way it is defined for Christian’s in the New Testament. (See I Peter 2:9)" The clergy/ laity distinction is an artificial one which was created later in church history. So when a committed and active Christian florist, baker or photographer is sued for not participating in a SSM wedding ceremony you are in fact trying to coerce a Christian priest (no scare quotes required) into helping in or participating in the performance of a wedding ceremony which they see as something religious and sacred. How is that any different from officiating over it? Most wedding ceremonies performed in the U.S. are indeed distinctly religious in nature—which is why they are performed by ministers, priests or rabbis in churches, synagogues etc. The role of the state, according to the establishment clause, is to be completely non-religious. You don’t need a ceremony to be married civilly. So even though SS couples have “won” the right to be married civilly that does not give them the right to demand that Christian wedding vendors violate their rights of conscience to participate in quasi-religious ceremony. Please notice that their not participating in a wedding ceremony does not deny a SS couple the legal right to get married (or find someone else to do their wedding.) For that all they (the SS couple) need to do is sign a piece of paper.john_a_designer
June 1, 2016
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KairosFocus: "the facts are plain, given for instance my racial background." Your narcissism is showing. Given my pseudonym, what race am I? What sex am I? What age am I? What skin colour do I have (hint, it is not orange and white)? How the hell would I know what race you are? From your comments, I can infer your religion, but how would anyone know your skin colour from your comments? You really have to get over your self importance.clown fish
June 1, 2016
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CF, the facts are plain, given for instance my racial background. The issue of a dangerous lawfare agenda is also quite plain, given for example this by Harvard Law professor and cultural marxist Tushnet:
The culture wars are over; they lost, we won. Remember, they [= conservatives] were the ones who characterized constitutional disputes as culture wars [–> lawfare, the usurpation of the sword of justice to impose a ruthless agenda, is an outright act of war] . . . For liberals, the question now is how to deal with the losers in the culture wars. That’s mostly a question of tactics. My own judgment is that taking a hard line (“You lost, live with it”) is better than trying to accommodate the losers, who – remember – defended, and are defending, positions that liberals regard as having no normative pull at all. Trying to be nice to the losers didn’t work well after the Civil War, nor after Brown. (And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.) [–> notice, the revealing and sadly familiar pattern of invidious, tainting comparatives on offer: slavery, racism, nazism, aggressive imperialism . . . telling us a LOT about the hostility and slanderous projection we are dealing with, this professor needs to publicly apologise and retract with a serious mea culpa based explanation, starting with this point] I should note that LGBT activists in particular seem to have settled on the hard-line approach, while some liberal academics defend more accommodating approaches. When specific battles in the culture wars were being fought, it might have made sense to try to be accommodating after a local victory, because other related fights were going on, and a hard line might have stiffened the opposition in those fights. But the war’s over, and we won.
Your ilk are playing with very dangerous matches, and the consequences for our civilisation are highly predictable and destructive. Your attempt to twist my statement of concerns into casting aspersions against my character simply compounds the nature of what you have done. KFkairosfocus
June 1, 2016
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KairosFocus, once again your response attempts to cast aspersions on the motives and intents of the commenter rather than addressing the substance of the comment. Not a very attractive character trait.clown fish
June 1, 2016
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CF, my skin colour is not an issue of morally freighted behaviour. Your attempted comparison is instantly outrageous -- and an indication of extremely dangerous intent raising the question of a train of abuses and usurpations invariably pursuing a patently malevolent design. KFkairosfocus
June 1, 2016
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KairosFocus: "In the case of a bakery or photographer or the like, we are not dealing with the only source of food and water in the midst of a desert." Your comment with one minor change. "In the case of a Woolworth's diner or the like, we are not dealing with the only source of food and water in the midst of a desert." In many small towns or remote communities, it is not uncommon for there to be a single baker or photographer in the town.clown fish
June 1, 2016
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JAD, The discussion I have again put up on moral truths includes this:
7] Seventh, in light of the above, even the weakest and most voiceless of us thus has a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of fulfillment of one’s sense of what s/he ought to be (“happiness”). This includes the young child, the unborn and more. (We see here the concept that rights are binding moral expectations of others to provide respect in regards to us because of our inherent status as human beings, members of the community of valuable neighbours. Where also who is my neighbour was forever answered by the parable of the Good Samaritan. Likewise, there can be no right to demand of or compel my neighbour that s/he upholds me and enables me in the wrong — including under false colour of law through lawfare. To justly claim a right, one must first be in the right.) 8] Eighth, like unto the seventh, such may only be circumscribed or limited for good cause. Such as, reciprocal obligation to cherish and not harm neighbour of equal, equally valuable nature in community and in the wider world of the common brotherhood of humanity. 9] Ninth, this is the context in which it becomes self evidently wrong, wicked and evil to kidnap, sexually torture and murder a young child or the like as concrete cases in point that show that might and/or manipulation do not make ‘right,’ ‘truth,’ ‘worth,’ ‘justice,’ ‘fairness,’ ‘law’ etc. That is, anything that expresses or implies the nihilist’s credo is morally absurd.
We are dealing with those wishing to use claimed rights enforced under colour of law as a bludgeon to intimidate others into support, enabling behaviour or silence. In the case of a bakery or photographer or the like, we are not dealing with the only source of food and water in the midst of a desert. In such a circumstance, compelled labour in celebration of the morally dubious is being used to push an agenda. With very serious onward implications given that objectors on principle are routinely slandered as "bigots" etc in an era where hate speech laws are seriously open to dangerous abuse. KFkairosfocus
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