Just want to make a couple of points.. as the debates rage.
First, I have a tendency to refer to you as the spawn of Satan - if he exists (har). Ultimately, we're all Americans and have far more in common then differences. I don't think anybody is going to go all inquisition on my ass.. However, I do think your thought methodologies are inherently dangerous. I also do try and keep my conclusions consistent with the words you are actually saying. If somebody disagrees, fine, but I do go out of my way to make sure I show everyone exactly what I'm arguing against, and not simply paraphrasing anything. A reader can look at what you've said, and what I've said, and see which makes more sense. In my view, that's the definition of debating.
However, if push comes to shove, we're all on the same team. Unfortunately, we have very different ideas of what constitutes shoving.
Second, this is exhausting sometimes (the back and forth debates). I spend a great deal of time with it (I'm lucky I have that time), and I know that everyone feels an urgent need to "set the record straight" as they see it. It's obvious, and some of you have out right said it, that no amount of persuasion is going to have any effect. I get that, and it's fine. That's pretty much the definition of a "faith based" personality type. Being competitive human beings, we engage anyway, lest it be perceived that the "other side" won the argument. We can probably agree that if there is no rebuttal on some specific issue(s), it's not a tacit admission that we agree.
I tried to keep the Doug specific stuff on Douggie Watch, but that's obviously not working out too well. I really would like to spend some time on some other topics and such, and I'll try and resist the urge to parse every single thing that Doug says. When I do, I'll try and get it back over on Douggie Watch, and leave this blog to my usual thing.
Finally, the whole issue is not going to be decided by us anyway. Changes in thought moves at a snails pace, and it takes generations and very long trends before much changes. It does change though, and if you think the slow evolution (har) of the human experience is regressing, then in my view, that's a rather pessimistic view of humanity.
Oh.. and Doug left a wall of text to one of my previous posts. lrn2paragraph dumbass.. LOL
I'll try and get to it early next week.
3 comments:
who cares about the paragraphing, it is a freakin' comment for God's sake - howabout you take in the content for once . . .
It sounds like you've had an epiphany Tom... even if a small one!
I think, as a long time reader, that if you were to put a link in your side bar that says 'evidence that Doug is insane', and tend it once in a while like one would an established garden, you could put your intellect to other things - be it current events or philosophical musings.
I like your writing style and I think it's maturing, but as someone with a lot of time on his hands, even I start to skim and scroll when your Doug-parsing word count gets around 5000 in the space of a few days.
I think you've realised that you're never going to convince him and his kind of their irrationality and shortcomings, and that you convinced the rest of your audience months ago.
Goodluck with your new approach!
Giant walls of text make it more difficult to read.. that's just how it is, but I did read it.. and I understand what you're saying.
.. and I'll have more to say about that next week.
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