NOS4A2

Great thoughts. I don’t want to Pooh-Pooh the philosophy because I’m only vaguely familiar with its arguments, but I can’t see the reason or value of ...

What I see is the use of false accusations for the purpose of achieving power. Using your specious manipulation skills, which never turn out to have t...

Are my thoughts not regulated or controlled or determined by some organism? Secondly, Am I or am I not that organism? If I am not that which controls ...

Saying something “is bloody obvious” is insufficient enough reason for me to believe it. It’s more evidence of weak argument than anything else.

What racist rhetoric?

So long as thinking ( also hearing, understanding, interpreting, “telling that story” etc.) is an act performed by me, I see no reason to dispute that...

What bad behavior? Tweeting? Saying things that do not conform to the trite sensibilities of the media, celebrity and political class? And then refusi...

It’s not partisan because Trump has denounced racists and racism from the beginning. It’s actually you who is partisan because you refuse to see it. T...

In a few that you presented the authors no doubt use the language of “influence”, that someone else’s words and actions determine our responses. But a...

Pick one and we can talk about it.

I don’t think the meaning is constructed or generated on the fly, automatically or otherwise. To me, it’s more that the meaning is already there as a ...

You gave me an example of your question begging. End of.

You think that me saying “red” to finish that sentence is an example of your influence, and not a matter of there being no other option. To prove your...

I asked for an example of my thoughts and behavior being involuntarily influenced, something you said was common sense. It was a simple request. Inste...

Trump isn’t a racist, nor does he fan those flames. That’s the sport of anti-Trumpists who utilize that canard for the sake of power seeking. I never ...

They’ve already tried to sell us the notion of a dark future before the election—recession, race wars, nuclear fallout, concentration camps, the secon...

I just asked a question. It’s fine if you don’t want to answer it but blaming me is hilarious. Now, sincerely, can I get an example of thoughts and be...

Maybe it’s me; I don’t see images unless I’m dreaming. My thinking process resembles an inner language as opposed to an inner picture book.

I don’t think I need the meaning to “arise in my mind”. I already know the meaning. The meaning is already there. They are not put there or otherwise ...

If it is not me, then what is controlling my mind?

Anti-Trumpism is the opposition to trump as an ideology. Most people want their leaders to succeed and their country to prosper. Anti-Trumpists want t...

25,600 is still much higher than any of his predecessors. It hovered around 15,000 when he came into office.

I am not making an issue of people’s comments. I’m making an issue of anti-Trumpism and the behavior of those who adhere to it.

He did not tell the press.

Yes, it is. But I think there is justification for it. I’d also argue there is evidence of aggression-based schadenfreude. Reactionary responses to Tr...

I don’t think I’ve used the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. If I did, please quote me because I do not think I would use the term. Then again I can...

I did not make an issue of anyone’s comments, is what I meant. The principle was employed consistently.

The details of the process aren’t necessary for this discussion so long as we know where the process begins and ends: in an individual’s biology. Coul...

That’s the mindset at work here, isn’t it? Their actions are determined by prior states of the world and not self-generated.

You’d be wrong.

Great point. There seems a fine line between agonism and antagonism. Maybe that’s why the words used to describe debate—“argument”, “offence”, “counte...

I don’t see how that is the case.

I’d rather not. I think wagging my finger at someone for not conforming to political correctness is intellectual cowardice.

It cannot be demonstrated that words have an effect on matter and organisms beyond the medium they’re presented on. This poses a dire difficulty for p...

No, the act of believing something to be true and using that belief to justify betting a certain way is not a consequence of the speech, but of the un...

It’s not so much rationalizing what he said as it is opposition to the word-policing, snobbery, fear and gossip mongering. As an example, once he call...

I won’t take that bet because I can’t bet against man’s credulity. The group will certainly place fewer and smaller bets based on what they heard in a...

That’s a poor bet. It’s a journalist’s job to report on a politician’s speech. That still doesn’t mean their actions are affected or otherwise influen...

Allow me to clarify. To be more precise, yes, it will change reality insofar as more words are added to it—the politicians speech was not there before...

The phrase “speech act” assumes two actions in one act of speaking. 1) the utterance and 2) the changing of reality. I dispute 2.

My claim is that there was no consequence of speech. I never said “speech acts”, which I think are dubious. It affected the journalist’s desires? No, ...

It doesn’t have any consequence on others but that does not entail we do not talk about things in the world, for instance words and speech.

He didn’t state it publicly. Like many of these stories some “official” told the press, they sensationalized it, the Danish prime minister criticized ...

I never said people won’t talk about another’s words. “Come on”.

Maybe it’s me. I’d pretend to imagine a blue elephant before I actually did, just to humor the guy.

It’s nonsensical. But I’ll state that you will gladly think of a blue elephant if someone told you to.

Yes, his opposition is inflamed by tweets and out of context quotes, so much so that we’ve reached levels of mass hysteria. The era of public relation...

Thanks for writing that. Well put. Maybe I’m ignorant, but one thing I cannot reconcile in the debate over determinism and free will is that every “ch...

People thought the purchase of Alaska was stupid. The Danes sold the Virgin Islands to the US for $25 million. These aren’t stupid ideas and the outra...

No, I’m saying me thinking about a blue elephant is the cause of my own volition. It’s an act of will, not sorcery. You didn’t put the blue elephant t...