Random News Observations

[mrdannyg 274]

I don't presume to know the motivations for things that haven't happened yet. Seems like doing so would lead to extreme and dogmatic beliefs.

[Essay21 2,385]

Saying you want to get rid of all Muslims who support Sharia Law is the same thing as saying deport all Muslims.

 

Yes, precisely.

[Scrim 115]

I don't presume to know the motivations for things that haven't happened yet. Seems like doing so would lead to extreme and dogmatic beliefs.

 

So what you're basically implying with that statement is... it's probably difficult for someone to preemptively evaluate the general belief system of persons of Middle Eastern origin who commit terrorist attacks again the west in the name of jihad, right?

 

Like, it's "hard" to guess what the motivations might be of a guy who hops in a truck and drives down a bunch of innocent people in the name of ISIS?

 

Or really, it's a 'nuanced situation' when someone hollers Allah Ackbar and beheads some old European person? How could we possibly know what their motivations are? Right?

 

If you ever wonder why academics are some of the first people stood against the wall in a revolution, it's not because people oppose 'intellectualism'. It's because academia has nothing to do with intellect and if left unaccountable to reality for too long, eventually, becomes nothing more than an elaborate web of bullshit to stymie people from drawing basic conclusions using ordinary logic.

[Balloon guy 158]

I don't presume to know the motivations for things that haven't happened yet. Seems like doing so would lead to extreme and dogmatic beliefs.

 

So you are against gun control?

[scuudagouch 15]

"If you ever wonder why academics are some of the first people stood against the wall in a revolution, it's not because people oppose 'intellectualism'. It's because academia has nothing to do with intellect and if left unaccountable to reality for too long, eventually, becomes nothing more than an elaborate web of bullshit to stymie people from drawing basic conclusions using ordinary logic"

 

+1

[mrdannyg 274]

BG - that would be the opposite conclusion to my post. I'm not denying that people do bad things, just that we can't assume motivations in advance. Gun control would suggest removing the tools for the most damaging behaviour, which is actually consistent with acknowledging that people will do very bad things whether or not they have easy access to do so, and so perhaps limiting the potential damage of those bad things is a good idea.

 

Scrim - People don't like academics because they really feel strongly about their personal beliefs and don't like to be asked to actually examine them.

[Scrim 115]

Scrim - People don't like academics because they really feel strongly about their personal beliefs and don't like to be asked to actually examine them.

 

The problem with certain ideals-driven branches of academia is that they're not constrained by normal logic and normal acceptance of fact.

They're driven with a certain, very specific ideological thesis, then engage in elaborate webs of self-bullshit to justify that thesis and demand that anyone who points out that their bullshit is bullshit is really 'too dumb to see it' or 'anti intellectual'.

 

A good example of how 'asking questions' becomes a surrogate for accepting fact would be 9.11 trutherism where questions are presented in lieu of fact and 'open mindedness' is a critical virtue since the narrative doesn't survive if conclusions can be drawn.

 

Parts of academia do essentially the same thing on certain issues that have nexus with certain sacred ideals.

[mrdannyg 274]

ok

[Balloon guy 158]

BG - that would be the opposite conclusion to my post. I'm not denying that people do bad things, just that we can't assume motivations in advance. Gun control would suggest removing the tools for the most damaging behaviour, which is actually consistent with acknowledging that people will do very bad things whether or not they have easy access to do so, and so perhaps limiting the potential damage of those bad things is a good idea.

 

 

75million registered gun owners, 11,000 gun deaths if you add in suicides a year = 0.0014% of gun owners are the 'bad kind'

 

1.6billion muslims, 100,000 are active members of terrorist groups ( active ) = 0.0063% of muslims are the 'bad kind'

 

So you are 450% more likely to be a terrorist than kill someone with a gun ( of course many of those gun deaths were by 'bad' muslims. )

 

Its just science.

 

Why do you hate science?

[Balloon guy 158]

And that 100,000 number is a joke, but its the absolute lowest number anyone is claiming.

 

It's probably more accurate to say 10% of muslims are the 'bad' kind.

 

But that math might damage some brains in our neighbors to the north,

[Dubey 1,035]

I think your post damaged my brain, but probably not in the way you hoped.

[mrdannyg 274]

That is easily the dumbest thing I have read in weeks BG, so thanks for that. Just like the anti-vaxxers, it is incredible to me that the people who spend the most time reading what they consider to be "science" actually have the least understanding of what science actually is, or the ability to perform the most basic functions of critical thinking.

 

Also, while you're trying to do science, you might want to go back to remedial addition, because you actually forgot to include suicides in your numbers.

 

Let's try it another way, which is also a terrible example of comparing apples to oranges but is more logically sound than yours:

 

In the United States, there were about 13000 killed in gun-related homicides last year. We'll be nice and not include the ~26000 injured. Another ~20,000 gun suicides. So that's 0.00044 deaths per gun owner.

 

There were approximately 531 deaths related to terrorism. A significant percentage were not even related to Muslims, but again, I'm being friendly here. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, so that's 0.00000033 terrorist deaths per Muslim.

 

So a gun owner is about 1300 times more likely to cause an American's death than a terrorist Muslim. Have a nice day.

[Balloon guy 158]

Oh good, you are admitting that Muslims killing people is a relevant number meaning we should be looking hard at any new Muslims being allowed to enter country.

 

And you really need to not use silly numbers while lecturing about how good you understand science.

[scuudagouch 15]

I laughed.

[FCP Bob 1,312]

Duterte is pretty special

 

TIME.comVerified account

‏@TIME

Philippine president calls U.S. ambassador a ‘gay son of a whore’

 

http://time.com/4446...ialflow_twitter

[FCP Bob 1,312]

Max FisherVerified account

‏@Max_Fisher

Growing signs of rapid Russian military, rhetorical, and political build-up toward Ukraine. Maybe just a bluff, maybe something big coming.

 

 

Gideon Rachman ‏@gideonrachman 22m22 minutes ago

Gideon Rachman Retweeted Max Fisher

Remember Russia's attack on Georgia took place in August 2008 - coinciding with Olympics & US presidential election

[Balloon guy 158]

But the reset button....

[Scrim 115]

Max FisherVerified account

‏@Max_Fisher

Growing signs of rapid Russian military, rhetorical, and political build-up toward Ukraine. Maybe just a bluff, maybe something big coming.

 

 

May be something big coming. We really should be sure that we have the right person at the helm.

 

Which of these candidatesis more threatening to global stability?

 

The one who insists that we should start funding and arming Ukrainian opposition forces against Putin (and coincidentally, has been given a shit-ton of money by Ukrainian oligarchs)...

 

Or the one who pretty much says that we should stay out of conflicts that aren't our business and that every single conflict in the world is not, by default, 'our business'?

 

Or the other one who says that

given our own problems at home?

[FCP Bob 1,312]

[FCP Bob 1,312]

Not an immigrant and not born Muslim. Most likely just a crazy person drawn to ISIS

 

Canada Terror Suspect Dies After FBI Tip Led to Police Standoff

[Scrim 115]

 

I see.

 

So when Hilary threatens global stability by poking Russia, it's simply our "not being Neville Chamberlain" but when George Bush overthrows Saddam Hussein (a guy who killed upwards of a half million of his own people, whose sons literally raped and murdered their people at will), well that's bad... right? Because it 'threatens world peace"?

 

Here's a curveball: Both Hillary Clinton and George W Bush are absolute shit in this regard.

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are on the right track.

 

How does that reconcile with your partisan allegiances?

[Scrim 115]

Not an immigrant and not born Muslim. Most likely just a crazy person drawn to ISIS

 

Canada Terror Suspect Dies After FBI Tip Led to Police Standoff

 

Clearly, since we cannot stop all instances of domestic extremism, that means we really run no risk of importing people from hostile Islamic countries since, well, there's that domestic extremist guy and since we can't stop him, may as well import more!

[JustDoIt 10]

Clearly, since we cannot stop all instances of domestic extremism, that means we really run no risk of importing people from hostile Islamic countries since, well, there's that domestic extremist guy and since we can't stop him, may as well import more!

Careful Scrim, don't want to insert to much Logic and totally confuse them..

[Dubey 1,035]

Yes, excellent logical dismantling of that straw man.

[mrdannyg 274]

The two are almost completely irrelevant (it assumes 'imports' are extremists, when all evidence to date contravenes that), but there's actually a strong argument to be made for the alternative, even if it were true. Minorities who have like-minded communities in their adopted countries and are welcomed by the population at large are probably less likely to be convinced to extremist actions by social media contact with jihadis.