Apparently the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is NOT a good guy with a gun

How can an OP not get the thread? Man that is one bizarre concept.

 

Since there was a reported post here I'll have to restate:

I and the other mods are treating this as a laissez faire thread for all but spam. My apologies go out to Ginger for that.

Also, I'm man enough to admit that I was wrong last night. I take back what I said about Richard Dawkins; and I can say I don't strongly dislike the man. I really like his scientific work, which I have read most of. And also, I must admit that he is a good mouthpiece for people who share my lack of belief.

 

I agree with you completely! IronPalm was in err by stating you "didn't quite get this". Yet I suppose by now you must be a veteran of bizzare concepts by way of this thread so don't sweat it too much.

Maybe if he had changed the "this" to "that" it would make more sense...

And @ Lemex

I second that motion! Apart from Dawkins being a good mouthpiece (disregarding his electrical clarinet, some would say he should stick to blowing air, some say that's all he does nowadays), he lacks the eloquence of Hitchens.

 

What's most depressing here is that 4 pages later, the person and her heroic deed are completely ignored! The only thing that remains is bickering and arguing about the same thing some members argue here all the time (namely trying to 'prove' that their life philosophy is somehow better or 'more true' than someone else's aka 'fool's errand').

Recently on the forum, the moment someone mentions the infinitely wise concept of 'gun control', which is supported by vast majority of humans on Earth and as such is a valid opinion, certain people feel compelled to grace us with almost verbatim repetition of the rant we all heard from them a hundred times already. Is there no such thing as ignoring the threads you disagree with? Or do you think we all forgot what you believe in since the last time? Or is the whole point to intimidate others into being afraid to voice their opinion, for the fear of your ranting? Because you must know by now, you won't change their mind.

I'm really annoyed with this bullying behaviour, uninvited thrashing every time certain 'trigger words' are mentioned, that's why I decided to put quite a few members on ignore. Sure threads look a bit weird now, because ignored people's posts don't even show up so you occasionally get a loose thread of someone replying to the member you are ignoring, but I would still strongly advise everyone else to consider the same, rather than allow every single thread with even slight political flavour, to deteriorate into a shit-throwing match and alienate loads of members who would be quite happy to discuss, without obligatory escalating tensions.

 

Ah yes, the populist fallacy! "Lots of people believe something, ergo it is valid!" I'm sure pro-slavery advocates in the antebellum South argued this, too. (And let's not pretend people today are any smarter, more enlightened, or reasonable)

Me too! I couldn't agree more.

Here is a particularly egregious example of this, occurring throughout an entire topic, directed towards multiple members.

Totally agree with this as well! Personally, I find it annoying when non-political subjects get hijacked by off-topic political rants from certain members with an ax to grind.

This is a really good example. A topic about hard work and dedication gets derailed by an angry political rant about how "neo-conservatives" are secretly trying to mass-murder people.

 

Why would you ignore anybody? Even the biggest assholes have something to contribute every now and then. Some people like to argue, others don't. I disagree with a lot of what people say about dialogue in writing, but I don't ignore that person even though they say the same shit every time a dialogue thread arises. You said yourself,

Is that a one way street?

 

Of course you are right, and I do that most of the time. However, occasionally I come to a realisation that a member has nothing else to offer but argumentativeness-for-argumentativeness sake and general lack of knowledge on topics they passionately argue about, whilst categorically refusing any factual information that can help them create a more informed opinion. This is not your ordinary disagreement on one topic, this is their default behaviour regardless of the topic, so it's pervasive.

Since I like my free time spent in constructive discussion with people who at least try to avoid logical fallacies (because you can't argue with a logical fallacy, it's self-perpetuating whilst contributing nothing to the discussion) I put them on ignore and all of a sudden, the forum is no longer a tiresome place

Or to put it simply - I don't care what biggest assholes have to say, because that would be too much like work, and I'm not paid to listen to crap on the internetz

 

Why? I have better things to do with my time than take part in pointless debates Especially when it only feeds someone's agenda. I don't argue with my TV set either. It too is an output-only device.

 

This piece on news was something incredible, and I'd hate to see it being used as a weapon in gun control debate. That woman was brave -- and also lucky yes -- but the fact that she tried to reason with this young man out of his planned crime makes me tip my proverbial hat at her. He could've been someone who wouldn't listen to anyone, things could have ended up horribly wrong, but at least she tried -- and succeeded!

 

While I'm not innocent of getting into an argument online I never take such things personally. And I always like it when people don't either. I'm often honestly shocked when people say a debate I've had with them has made them think less of me - it has happened before. I don't understand it.

I've never thought that way about anyone and to me it's not honestly very important if I disagree with someone or not. I have always thought, and I was always told that a good debater is one who can understand the other side well enough to be able to argue it themselves, and someone to whom a disagreement is just nothing at all - yet with some you'd think their entire world had just collapsed.

Disagreeing with me will not make me think any less of a person. It could make me respect that person more. Acting like a child and swearing and crying, however, will make me think less of a person.

That's mostly why I've stopped bothering with e-drama. I'll just close a thread that gets out of hand now.

 

I think one of the reasons this thread hasn't been closed is because most of us have chosen to ignore the attempts by the OP to swing the thread into 'gun control' territory. Most of us have been trying to speak to the content of the news article instead. Granted it hasn't been perfect but so far very respectable. This could have very easily turned into a heated gun control debate but instead the members are choosing differently.

As far as ignoring people I would personally never ignore someone. Everyone has the right to a voice or an opinion and if you remove the voices you disagree with then you never grow and never learn. It's the same reason that I watch MSNBC. It's important to understand both sides of an issue instead of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying, 'Lalalalalala, I can't hear you!'

 

Everyone has the right to an opinion. I have the right to stop listening, which I quickly exercise when I hear the same old arguments being volleyed back and forth like a ragged tennis ball.

As I said, there are better uses I can put my mind to.

I am not a slave to the soapbox.

 

And with that, I declare this thread closed. It has become nothing but a succession of holier than thou chest thumping from members on this entire last page with the sole innocent exception of KaTrian's post.