This has to be a Joke: Turning the US into a Theocracy

Politics and religion
41

“That government is best which governs least.” - Thomas Paine

Of course, going around quoting people like him is liable to get one marked as a dangerous individual these days.[/quote]

Well, all the contemporary Tomas Paines get huge campaign contributions from corporate interests. I think back in our more agrarian, communal, past these sentiments had alot more traction. Folks knew each other in a community and really had to live more with the consequences of their actions. Life was smaller. I wonder what Tom Paine would make of the accumulation of corporate power considering he lived in an era when many leading public figures opposed the legal-philosophical construct of business ‘incorporation’ entirely on the grounds it would insulate the owners from the legal consequences of their actions.

42

The idea is that even if you guys know I don’t really mean some dumbass shit I said, that I said it still indicates that I’m a dumbass. Nobody calling Anax an idiot actually thinks he wants to build a giant Dairy Queen.

Poor people commit a lot of crime. Say McCullough was talking crazy about his newest massive wealth redistribution scheme, if I was like: “You know, maybe just poisoning the free school lunches would cut down on the poverty problem”, I’m a fucking idiot. Further, if I made vehement anti-poor rants about twice a day, even if I use hyperbole, there’s something more than me trying to be funny going on.

McCullough- Are you really against gun control? What are your feelings on regulatory agencies? Single payer health care?

It’s not just that you want to steal my money while the Christian Right wants to steal my liberty. You want some of that liberty too, maybe not as much, but you still are for a big government.

43

I know that. It was a stupid thing to say anyway. To take a momentary tangent into serious argument here, I can’t see what the point of saying it was, or what it added to the discussion, or what you were trying to convince people of by saying it, or what.[/quote]

Well, your failure to see is hardly my problem. The South is a cess-pool… yes, it may have quite a few good people, but all the viewpoints I expressed (except for the killing bit) I can support with rational argument. With the exception of parts of Georgia, Florida, Texas, the region is a drag on this country economically, intellectually, and socially. They’re a throw-back to medieval times, complete with the aggression, violence, and provincial world view. Yes, I’ve been there, and yes, I know there are exceptions. But look at who they consistenly elect to office, and then try telling me that the majority of them aren’t conservative, igrnorant reactionaries.

My point in saying it was to point out exactly the above. What it added to the discussion was an agreement with Jakub that we should have let the South go instead of fight the civil war, as well as to introduce these points. And as for convincing people… you can’t convince people of stuff they don’t want to know, so most people that heard that would already have a strong opinion on it, and thus already agree or disagree with me. Mostly I framed it humourously because I didn’t seriously expect to sway anyone, so I thought I’d at least paint a humourous picture. That some people would be stupid enough to take me literally, or even extrapolate that I think every last Southerner has X traits, truly astounds me.

However, to hold that any generalizations about a culture are always false is complete bullshit… cultures do indeed have traits… that’s what defines them as cultures. And the Southern culture has some very unfortunate traits, which is why I consider the region a cess-pool. It seems that most of the negative responses to my post are by people who equate any generalizations with bigotry. Bollocks. It’s useful to talk about general cultural tendencies, so long as you don’t forget that when you talk to someone from a culture, you’re always talking to an individual, not a culture.

44

Been to northern Virginia lately? The Research Triangle in North Carolina? Charlotte? You’re still overgeneralizing, Anaxagoras.

45

There’s a point when you read someone’s posts and you realize there’s nothing for it but to wait for him to refill his medication prescription. Anax has hit that point.

46

Been to northern Virginia lately? The Research Triangle in North Carolina? Charlotte? You’re still overgeneralizing, Anaxagoras.[/quote]

Fair 'nuff. There are other areas. But they are most definitely islands in a sea.

I’m not wearing any pants. They split, so I’m not wearing any. Now who want to party with baby '33?

47

Here’s a link for the curious. It’s pretty short.

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/HR3799ConstitutionRestorationAct.html

The sad part is that there’s some language I like in it. I’ve always been annoyed at the constitutional drift that comes from rewriting through repeated small reinterpretations.

48

Misunderstanding of generalization and stereotype is pandemic among people who haven’t been specifically educated in the social sciences, or haven’t taken a vested interest in that area. Instead, they’ve learned from TV and the media to equate both with ethnocentrism, discrimination and racism. In fact, ethnocentrism itself has been warped to encapsulate accusations of bigotry.

What does the regular guy say? Generalizing is racist, stereotypes are racist, ethnocentrism in racist. Why does he say that? Because he mistakenly believes that an individual from a particular culture is an instantiation of the social representation rather than an instantiation of the category. Something that, if you can be bothered to read up and think about, Anaxagoras clearly does understand.

The one-liner brigade will keep tossing their insults and slapping on their labelling of individuals because of an obstinate devotion to their own beliefs and prejudices. Which, by the way, is the definition of bigotry.

49

SOMEbody’s playing with the thesaurus agaiiiiinn…

50

Please explain. I’m not familiar with the language you’re using; I don’t understand the distinction you’re making between social representation and category. And yes, you’re right, I have studied sociology. My first sociology class was a real eye opener. I had no idea how much of a slave I was to social norms. And it wasn’t even slavery… it was just an inevitable part of the human psyche. Hoo-ray for bondage!

The one-liner brigade will keep tossing their insults and slapping on their labelling of individuals because of an obstinate devotion to their own beliefs and prejudices. Which, by the way, is the definition of bigotry.

Again… please explain. It seems like their one line insults have been ignorant, but not bigotted. They’re stupidly and blindly railing against bigotry without understanding what it is, but again… isn’t that ignorance, not bigotry?

51

Both QT3 as a whole and, hopefully, you are better than the fucking thesaurus card, for god’s sake. I’ve yet to see anybody go quite that pathetically low in my entire time posting here, and hopefully it won’t become a trend. Save that for the Counter-Strike and Official Starsky & Hutch forums. That is to intellect what a racial slur is to respect.

You actually explained it better before: “It’s useful to talk about general cultural tendencies, so long as you don’t forget that when you talk to someone from a culture, you’re always talking to an individual, not a culture.”

If physicists are stereotyped as lazy people who smell bad, that’s the social representation of the category physicists. It’s what people who have little to no experience with individual physicsts would use to describe them socially to others, either in jest or in rebuking them or in some other conversational situation. Even physicists themselves would make similar comments, also in jest, or in making fun of the “stupid” types of people who would stereotype them thus. An individual physicst is not a representation of “lazy people who smell bad”, he is a representation of “physicsts”. That’s all it means, and it’s just what you said, said a way that I half-cribbed and formulated to fit our situation out of a paper by Rom Harre.

It’s a question of definition versus usage. Bigotry itself isn’t restricted to only racial prejudices. Extreme devotion to one’s own beliefs coupled with intolerance of those of others is bigotry, whether those beliefs are about white superiority, Muslim superiority, liberal superiority, etc. It’s not exactly a spin job to note that viciously insulting someone for simply disagreeing with you is clearly more bigoted than an educated understanding of stereotype and generalization.

However, an unfortunate fact of language is that if enough stupid people regularly misuse a word, the word’s meaning acquiesces (for Denny: it means it changes in kind). What bigotry “means” according to a dictionary and what bigotry “means” according to the Fox News audience are two different things, the irony of which is that when the latter affixes a “bigot” label, they’re probably actually being bigoted in accordance with the former.

“Bigot!” becomes quite the hypocritical insult amid everybody playing whack-a-mole at good ol’ P&R.

52

Thanks for confirming to everyone else that you’re a moron. It’s always nice to get validation for your views.

It seems that most of the negative responses to my post are by people who equate any generalizations with bigotry.

Having prejudicial generalizations is the definition of a bigot, which you are, but at least you’ve provided additional proof that morons are often also bigots.

[/quote]

53

I like regulation when the market outcome is unacceptable for other policy reasons, I like single-payer health care because its (probably) cheaper and (definitely) fairer, and I think gun owner licenses would be no big deal, but apparently people go apeshit over that, so no, I don’t think we need another further gun controls.

Basically, I just don’t consider the market to be really much of a liberty.

54

Like what?

55

Only thing I could come up with is:

SEC. 201. INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

In interpreting and applying the Constitution of the United States, a court of the United States may not rely upon any constitution, law, administrative rule, Executive order, directive, policy, judicial decision, or any other action of any foreign state or international organization or agency, other than the constitutional law and English common law.

But I think that’s generally what we they do anyway.

56

Guido’s got the paragraph I like, and in particular the bits about policy and judicial decisions.

Courts will often make decisions based on administrative policy or precedent which doesn’t really apply, and that language indicates, if rather weakly, that they shouldn’t.

One of the few times my father was reversed on the federal bench was when he wrote an opinion saying that poison pills were clearly illegal to put in incorporation papers. It was such a common practice at the time that the appeals court basically said policy had made it legal, even though the statute said it was not.

Anyway, that paragraph doesn’t redeem the bill as a whole by any stretch.

57

Have you ever been to eastern Washington?

You can find some uneducated people anywhere you go. I saw a lot more of them in my time in Spokane than I have in my time in the South. Clearly you’ve had different experiences. That doesn’t excuse your prejudice.

58

They were scouting a location for a water purification plant. Apparently they were charitable, not evangelical, missionaries. I don’t think their religion had as much to do with why they were murdered as the fact that they were westerners trying to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq.

59

Man, I want a lapdog, too. Jobe, are you like for hire or did you sign a contract? Did he have to pay extra for that praise/question-brag/more praise bit? I really love the “You actually explained it better before…”, that’s fucking gold.

Oh, but I’d like it to be physics instead of sociology, because I’d like to be able to brag about my undergraduate requirement knowledge of a real science. It’s a shame you already used that best poster line already, but I’m sure you’ll come up with something equally absurd about me once you are on payroll.

Anaxagoras is a stone-cold bigot. He uses conservative as an insult in one of his posts. What problems you have with some people misusing bigot are not relevant.

Oh, and Jobey, you called Rollory -fat-. You think the thesaurus line is weak?

60

Fat as in massive as in creating a gravitational field as in the center of the universe, which was his original comment. Thanks for trying to actually get it, rather than just firing off bullshit. Now I see I’m on your “list” and can expect to be insulted by you every time I post.

I don’t quite understand criticizing me for saying somebody said something better. Is that just the general rule of troll forums? If you haven’t got anything asinine or mean to say, don’t say anything at all?