True. I think talk of 'theft' is unhelpful here because it implies some law. The law (at least in my country) allows for the recovery of the proceeds ...
Indeed. And if where such hawks claim life and liberty are equally important, then it follows they should insist that city authorities resolve crimina...
You've just repeated your argument again without addressing any of the points I raised. If you're just going to ignore me there's not much point in me...
Yeah, I'd agree that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with merely having a set of metaphysical mantras which one uses as a tonic, to calm the nerve...
This is a perfectly legitimate position to hold, but as I was trying to explain to ssu, it your opinion, not established fact. Its' neither reasonable...
Well nothing, that's rather the point of my consternation. Are we discussing ideas or canvassing opinions? Why would I (or anyone) be the least bit in...
Who's said anything about force? I never even mentioned it. Why? I get that in conservative ideology the arbitrary geographic lines we draw around gro...
That's a legitimate point of view, but many authors disagree, so whilst it might be a valid point to argue for within the thread, it's not anywhere ne...
Disagree with what, with the fact that I am sure, or the fact that I don't object, or the fact that I wouldn't advocate it. Because all I've given by ...
Yes, but that's no different with any other company. So you've got a company which is opaque, and doesn't know (or doesn't tell) about 100% of its sou...
Yes, but you used two properties of reason to draw this conclusion. The fact that it must be used to interpret neurological data, and the fact that yo...
I'm not attempting to disprove your argument. I'm asking how you're not committing the same fallacy. I'm presuming (hypothetically) that your argument...
Yes, I get your argument against using reason to explain reason. I really do. What I'm asking you is how you are not committing exactly the same falla...
Yes, I get that. You're doing exactly the same thing. You're saying that it's a problem that we use reason (applied to the evidence from neuroscience)...
The question is, how do you know that this is the case? How did you find this fact about our faculties and how they work? You say "it is deployed to i...
What a classic! You tell us that you can't use a brain to understand a brain because the faculty cannot analyse itself, and then you proceed to make t...
I don't mean to pick you out, but this has getting my goat for some time. This is supposed to be a discussion forum, it's not a fucking football match...
How is 40% ethical sources arbitrary? It's obviously 40% better than non-ethically sourced. Are you suggesting there's some measurable disadvantages t...
Right. And I'm sure for those groups such terrorist tactics probably work, at least for a time. BLM want fairer treatment for minorities, not the exte...
No, I don't suppose I would. I can't think of a group of people who would want individuals to be terrified of having their lives and all their family'...
Of course they think it's OK. They didn't accidentally use child labour. Yes, seeing as the number of slaves is increasing, I'd say the media article ...
No, but McDonald's using child labour in miserable working conditions is a reason to burn down McDonald's in Wyoming. And if it wasn't that, they'd be...
Well, it's not far off. What I actually believe is that people become very easily drawn into patterns of behaviour (whether that's a job, childcare, o...
22,000 children are killed at work every year in positions of slavery working to produce the crap that supports our 'peaceful society'. I'm not advoca...
Yes. In some cases that is absolutely my argument. The population (be they politicians, wealthy elites, or just ordinary people) who just sat back and...
But those political movements have to take some action to persuade the electorate. Simply existing isn't sufficient. So it seems we're back to ideas o...
That's irrelevant to the argument. Firstly the fact that most Americans support change doesn't have any bearing on the argument about which courses of...
What's so unbelievable about that? Academics spent years talking about religion, but it's all just a bunch of bedtime stories, why is it so surprising...
Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I think I'm most interested in one step back, what if the public's will is not even where it should be on the is...
The task of changing public opinion. For, me, this whole section of this thread has been about the legitimacy of methods for changing public opinion o...
I said "Elections are utterly trivial in political terms" as in the political task is over by the time of the election, the dye is already cast the el...
Those were the 'most recent posts' to which I was referring. I haven't even mentioned democracy. Elections are not democracy. Elections are a single e...
This is a really nice post (and thanks for bringing the thread back on topic). Have you read any Michael Friedman? He wrote a book a while back called...
Yes, basically. Agreed. So how do we establish that one has understood the terms of the debate? The point is, this becomes self-fulfilling. One cannot...
It never ceases to astonish me the nature of the discourse. If it's basically clear to everyone, then why have you not interpreted my posts under that...
But one could simply say that protests ought to be some thing or other. I can see the advantage of proffering a solution along with your complaint. I ...
That's a fair assessment, but did something go wrong which representative democracy failed to prevent, or was it some other institution's failure? I a...
Do you think elections ought to implement public opinion? I'm not sure they should. Is there no extent to which we'd prefer to be lead by people who t...
Still missing the point. Elections do not cause power to change. Let's say you have a 100% committed Conservative population. You could have an electi...
There has been significant change in all those areas. The governance is made up 100% of different people to the ones who presided over the issues you ...
That simply presumes that arguments cannot be constructed around things which are self-evident. That's the question here so it's begging it do assume ...
That makes sense, so you're not really comparing methods of moving public opinion so much as saying that simply having a representative democracy hasn...
They may. They are of course free to think whatever they like. The point is merely thinking something is the case is not sufficient to make something ...
No, I don't think that's true. People can very well be more or less confused by competing models of empirical representation because such confusion is...
The behaviour of the observers is itself an observed fact. That's what I'm saying. The only observer whose response is not itself just another observe...
I've possibly just misunderstood what you're saying (or just read too much into it) but I can't understand how you could even argue the latter. Electi...
Of course they could. You provided that yourself That describes some way the world is. One in which people are confused and ask questions to which the...
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