use Perl

• I'm picking my teeth with your straw man (Score:2)

  by Ovid (2709)

  It's so easy to knock down straw men. Kinda fun sometimes, too.

  If only I had known that that liberals are driven by "wishful thinking" and and "the notion that we can make life on Earth perfect" and "[maybe] we can all have a Star Trek like existence". Gosh, even though I've never met a single liberal who espouses such a view, clearly you, Pudge, the Champion of Truth and Light, have revealed to me the Way. Never again shall I be so shallow as to believe that differences in core values might lead peopl
  • Re: (Score:2)

    by pudge (1)

    It's so easy to knock down straw men. Kinda fun sometimes, too.
    
    Sorry, try again. Actually, YOU are the one with the straw man here.
    
    If only I had known that that liberals are driven by "wishful thinking" and and "the notion that we can make life on Earth perfect" and "[maybe] we can all have a Star Trek like existence".
    
    I didn't say that. Listen again. I said it is a core part of the motive of MANY liberals. Not liberals in general.
    
    Gosh, even though I've never met a single liberal who espouses such a view
    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ovid (2709)

      Agreed that you didn't say "all liberals". My apologies. However, you presented the viewpoint of what describe as "many liberals" and you quite failed to make it clear that this is a minority viewpoint. Instead, you presented a viewpoint that is clearly your own, you mocked it ("Star Trek like existence"?), and used a minority opinion -- one I don't hear -- as a contrast to conservative opinion. You might think it's fair to contrast a minority opinion with what you clearly view as the rational conservat
      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pudge (1)

        Agreed that you didn't say "all liberals". My apologies. However, you presented the viewpoint of what describe as "many liberals" and you quite failed to make it clear that this is a minority viewpoint.
        
        Excuse me for not being perfect. I guess my own lack of perfection is part of why I don't believe in the possibility of immanentizing the eschaton. :-) If I had gone deeply into it, I surely would have made that point, but I quickly moved on to another aspect of the topic.
        
        Also consider the context: I just g
        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ovid (2709)

          So to contrast this, I could make the following statement:

          Many conservatives are racist bastards who feel that non-white people are less intelligent than white people and are genetically predisposed to commit crime. Liberals, quite rightly, reject this notion.

          One problem with that statement is that I've now lumped all liberals in the same category. I doubt that many liberals would agree with the "many conservatives" viewpoint I present, but I'm sure that some do. However, my statement about conservat
          • Re: (Score:2)

            by pudge (1)

            So to contrast this, I could make the following statement:
            
            Yes.
            
            One problem with that statement is that I've now lumped all liberals in the same category. I doubt that many liberals would agree with the "many conservatives" viewpoint I present, but I'm sure that some do.
            
            Yes, but that is not a problem with the statement I made, I believe. Racism and liberalism are not mutually exclusive (although certainly, liberalism in America tends to reject it). But the possibility of "immanentizing the eschaton" is, I b
            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Aristotle (5147)

              But why compare non-pervasive ridiculous notions in the first place? Isn’t that an excercise in futility? The fact that someone is liberal or conservative does not make them more or less likely to hold ridiculous views. What changes may be the particular form of crackpottery or the way it it is expressed. But either way, neither conservatives nor liberals (nor anarchists nor people of any other political view) are in any way protected from stupid ideas purely on account of their ideology.

              This is th
              • Re:I'm picking my teeth with your straw man (Score:2)

                by jdavidb (1361) on 2006.09.27 10:40 (#50495) Homepage Journal

                But why compare non-pervasive ridiculous notions in the first place?

                Because that's what the question asked in the first place.

                --
                J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers

                Reply to This

                Parent