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Comics

The Thoroughly Modern Spinoza

Peter Bagge | From the April 2020 issue

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Peter Bagge

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NEXT: The Crown

Peter Bagge is a contributing editor and cartoonist at Reason.

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  1. Robert   6 years ago

    Balloon error in bottom left frame: "MADE" ending one line and beginning the next.

    1. SQRLSY One   6 years ago

      https://www.space.com/23122-makemake.html
      Makemake: Discovery, Orbit & Characteristics

      "Made made" is the past tense of Makemake, the planetoid, which is where you make, make, make, and then make again, mad love to mad maids! (Preferably french maids).

      How did some folks back in Spinoza's day know of this tiny, remote planetoid, WAAAY before modern science discovered it? Maybe space aliens let secrets slip out, to the select few? I don't know!

      1. R Mac   6 years ago

        So dumb.

        1. SQRLSY One   6 years ago

          So arrogant and narcissistic! As if the whole world needs to know your opinion, whenever someone has a different sense of humor than you do! Do better, let's hear your joke, Oh Great Comedian!

          "So dumb" is perhaps your joke? Are we supposed to be rolling on the floor? My shitstains on my ever-dwindling supplies of R Mac (I mean, my toilet paper) are funnier than that!

          1. Mother's lament   6 years ago

            Piss off.

            1. SQRLSY One   6 years ago

              Wow, what hilarious comedy! Who writes your material for you?

              Also... Could you do something useful, please? Lots of people are way-low on, even out of, toilet paper... You could be licking the shit off of their assholes!

              1. Freddy the Jerk   6 years ago

                Seriously though, you need to take your meds.

                1. SQRLSY One   6 years ago

                  Seriously though, you really ARE a jerk, AND a joke! Your jokes are totally boring and stupid, but you, yourself, are truly a funny joker! I don't know how you do this, being a funny sort of joker, while not making ANY funny jokes, but you sure do it! And you ALSO do it with your mom!

  2. Mother's lament   6 years ago

    Unlike Jeeves, I never cared for Spinoza, but I did enjoy this cartoon.

    1. Behemoth the Cat   6 years ago

      I've never read Spinoza, and know of his existence mainly thanks to the name-dropping by Wodehouse. So I _hope_ that Bagge's summary is more or less accurate.

  3. Alan Vanneman   6 years ago

    After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.

    This is definitely a start! Thanks!

  4. Jerryskids   6 years ago

    Whether you agree, disagree or are totally indifferent to Spinoza, surely you must agree that freedom of conscience and freedom of speech are good things in that it allows us to explore the entire universe of ideas without fearing dire consequences for saying things like "**** the ****" or "all ***** should be ****" or "******" are responsible for ******** the ******", things that in the past would have gotten you expelled from polite society, condemned as a speaker of intolerable words, shunned by right-thinking persons, accosted in public places and de-platformed by any outlets of expression.

    1. Don't look at me!   6 years ago

      Good thing we are all past that now.

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  7. Eddy   6 years ago

    He should have worn some kind of gas-particle-resistant mask.

  8. Josh123   6 years ago

    That's something I never have seen.Bank Help

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