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Then they aren't decisions or choices. But I reject that. I think that it makes more sense to continue to talk about decisions and choices, but to con...

So close, and yet so far. With a simple qualification to that, we'd be in agreement. I am a liberal, as are many others, but we keep our liberalism wi...

The oceans don't contain a single drop of water.

To no one's satisfaction, with a possible exception of just one, meaning the Trump supporter who keeps contradicting himself and has been accused of t...

We need laws as an authoritative reference point to enforce order and to protect citizens. Only a fool would have such faith in people as to actually ...

Not being able to walk down a street because someone is throwing rocks off of a building is not a negative consequence in his world. Utter madness.

Terrapin's bizarre and extreme views on such matters would make for the stuff of dystopian fiction.

So I'm right to dismiss your point about removing free will because it wasn't part of any argument you're forwarding?

You obviously got confused somewhere along the line, lost focus, and somehow reverted back to a previous example I brought up. But whatever. Influence...

You must have lost track of the conversation: Someone call the brain surgeon!

Oh my god. Yes, that's exactly what I was referring to. :up: :roll:

Because it wasn't. I should know, it was an example taken from my life. That simply wasn't how the events unfolded, and I don't possess a time machine...

I classified them that way because that's what they are, and your point about immediacy only makes sense if you ignore the context of what we were tal...

Because you're assuming your conclusion in part of your argument. You would first need to reach the conclusion that we have free will, which you haven...

Obviously I meant that it was a cause prior to other particular causes within a particular context relating to what we were discussing. It was very si...

If people are essentially robots, then you are essentially a robot with a malfunction.

Silly point.

That test would clearly be compromised by your involvement. But an obvious example would be if I was in my local pub and a newcomer asked me where the...

Prior cause: a cause further back in the chain of cause and effort. Sprechen Sie Englisch? Either I didn't choose to do so, or I did so in a way that ...

That's blatantly begging the question.

Of course they are. They're just prior causes. I already gave you an example, which you ignored. The writings of Marx influenced my thinking, which in...

Oh, so you've already conceded. I must've missed that.

Decisions are influenced, and influences are causes in some respect. So you're conceding the point, then? What Elliot Rodger did and said was an indir...

Yes, but you're the Flat Earther in this case.

Why are you drawing this out to such unnecessary and unreasonable lengths? What would it take for you to concede the point? What if some teenage boy h...

We already know that. That's not a proper response. The Manchester bomber was inspired by Choudary's hate speech. He was a known acolyte of his. It wo...

He was embroiled in incel culture, and he has since become a hero in the eyes of those who delve in that twisted world. I would not at all be surprise...

How about Anjem Choudary? He wasn't partly responsible for any acts of crime that his hate speech inspired, I suppose? That this is even up for debate...

Which is also dumb. It is evident that hate speech has an inflammatory effect on certain kinds of people under the right circumstances, and that this ...

Sorry, but that's just dumb. No one on my side of the argument ever suggested anything like a causal impact of 4,999 people for every 5,000. You think...

Don't be pedantic, like with "care" earlier. You know what I mean. Of course you'd say that, because you're far too entrenched in your position to ack...

But even if it did go ahead, and even if no one committed any hate crime afterwards, that wouldn't prove anything of relevance. What if it's actually ...

No, but that's the problem. Do Flat Earthers not also feel that they're reasonable and warranted in their "challenges"?

Wherever his peculiar view stems from, I think there's only a very slim chance, if any at all, of him seeing sense enough to abandon it. He wears it a...

You don't think whether your "challenge" is reasonable or warranted should be a matter of concern?

But why should your "challenge" be given the time of day? This is not much different from someone "challenging" that London is the capital of England....

Yes, well spotted. His earlier remarks are so absurd that he can't help but slip back into contradiction. Of course, the sensible thing to do in this ...

I don't agree with the status quo, I just don't lend my support to unrealistic causes, for obvious reasons. When your pipe dream has become a realisti...

It should be coined as a fallacy, if it hasn't already, to confuse your own ethical stance for the definition of morality. Normative ethics and semant...

Logically? Look, words have definitions, and the word, "life", has a definition, and an acceptable definition can be found in the dictionary. I'm not ...

Why would you say that morality is based on flourishing when all you really mean is that you think that it would be useful to think about morality in ...

Because they're idiots. You're right, the examples I gave won't work on you if you're an idiot.

Oh, shut up. I don't know why I'm wasting my time here.

Well, it's a step too far for me when people deny really important parts of history for the sake of argument. Pathetic really.

I made no such claim.

No, you're the one attempting to portray something really fucking obvious as though it is an absurdity, which is just a fallacious appeal to ridicule....

It sends a twofold message worth sending about crime and discrimination.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you just make your own poor judgements regarding topics like this, rather than as a result of an ave...

The burden lies with you, just as it lies with the Flat Earther.

Neither do I. But you do seem to deliberately go against it, even when doing so is going against good sense.