Exploring Anti-Americanism
POSTED BY: Khyron
UPDATED: Monday, April 30, 2007 03:01
VIEWED: 18266
PAGE 15 of 23
Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Oh, and I wanted to reply to this: "I think you should take some philosophy courses!" I don't subscribe to the Platonic notion that everything in reality is some corrupted version of an 'ideal' reality and that words refer to that 'ideal'. I tend to go with the mathematical model of what seems to happen biologically, which is fuzzy logic.
Well, you don't have to be a Platonist to be a philosopher--I'm certainly no Platonist. Most philosophers reject Platonic Idealism because it's going to turn out that the ideal is going to a pretty funny thing, ontologically. Many philosophers accept limited realism instead of Platonic idealism (including myself). I'm not a huge fan of fuzzy logic, except where it properly applies: inherently imprecise categories like hotness and coldness. Too often I see my colleagues try to apply fuzzy logic to things that can be adequately handled by a coherence account of truth--the proposition "There are two quarters in my pocket" is not an inherently imprecise matter. It's either true or false in virtue of whether there are, in fact, two quarters in my pocket.
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Quote:In so much as America is only a couple steps away from Nazi Germany because the government is headed by one man.
Originally posted by fredgiblet:
Only a couple steps away from 1984.
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
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Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:Quote:I, erm, know, I was joking...
Originally posted by Causal:
That's not what I meant. I was referring to the British Imperial policy of "divide and rule" in colonies such as India, where ethnic differences were played up such that the locals couldn't put together a coherent nation-wide resistance to the Raj.
King George isn't really on ice in bohemia grove.
He's in greenland, the ice is cheaper to get at.
I think somebody mentioned how joking doesn't come across well in type...sorry!
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Conservaties love America/Liberals hate America doesn't fly anymore, peeps. We all know it's not that simple. It's too easy to say that wanting to address terrorism is a hawk mentality, and disagreeing with the Iraq War is a give-up mentality.
Exactly! But we do so love our categories, and they surely are useful to the pols...
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
And now for the nuanced conservative approach:
Conservatives and liberals approach almost every issue with completely different philosophies, underlying assumptions, and methods. That's why it's so hard to find genuine compromise between conservatism and liberalism -- because not only are liberals almost always wrong, their solutions almost always make things worse.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2007/04/27/10_differenc
es_between_conservatives_and_liberals
If you really think that kind of thinking is representative of all conservatives, then you've bought into the very sort of binary worldview that Chris was criticizing.
I mean, how am I supposed to read that in any other way than as an attack on conservatives?
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Quote:
Originally posted by clarkent913:
I've been judged, by Canadians, by the few Americans that stumble through Canada, as tourists, making fools of themselves, or the news they read or watch. And then, I don't get upset with them, because they usually have no idea I'm American, and are quite surprised when they find out.
How many Americans visit Canada without "stumbling through" and "making fools of themselves" and how come people's opinions of Americans is based solely on the ones who do?
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Causal, I was just reading down and thought I'd reply to this: "the US is all about military takeovers, manipulation of the world economy, and our complete control of the UN". In fact this is what Geezer said about SigyM's posts, not something SignyM himself ever expressed or advocated.
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Causal,
Platonic v fuzzy logic: nouns can be fuzzy, especially nouns of category, which is where the issue came up (in reference to 'conservative').
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Hey Causal (again)
"I mean, how am I supposed to read that in any other way than as an attack on conservatives?"
You're right. But what I pulled from TownHall was just what I got from today's mailing. You'll find one, or more, of that type of opinion every day. Read Townhall some day for yourself.
As for them being conservative, this is what they say about themselves:
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About Townhall.com
Townhall.com was launched in 1995 as the first conservative web community. At that time, only a handful of political sites existed and Townhall.com was the first major investment in online activism made by either side. In 2005, Townhall.com split off from The Heritage Foundation in order to expand the scope of Townhall.com's mission to inform, empower and mobilize citizens for political change. Today, Townhall.com is a web site that pulls together news and information from its 120 different "partner organizations," political commentary and analysis from over 100 different columnists, and activism tools developed to empower an active citizenry.
Townhall.com is designed to amplify conservative voices in America’s political debates just as the 2006 and 2008 election cycles begin to heat up.
By uniting the nations’ top conservative radio hosts with their millions of listeners, Townhall.com breaks down the barriers between news and opinion, journalism and political participation -- and enables conservatives to participate in the political process with unprecedented ease.
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And please note that TownHall isn't some fringe group. By their scope and numbers, they ARE the conservative mainstream.
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And back to psychopaths/ sociopaths:
I couldn't find the references I was hoping to find.
"The Psychopath That You Work For" has no link.
I'm unfamiliar with the book "The Sociopath Next Door" though it does seem to make the same case.
And the one I was really hoping to find but couldn't - written by a psychologist who studies cognitive and emotional development in children from war-torn areas - was a paper saying the biochemistry of sociopathy can be induced by insecure environments and social teaching, as in 'Poverty', USA (her thesis, not mine).
I did find an interesting quote (if true) "There is also a cultural element at work here; which accounts for the fact that, although the United States accounts for five percent of the human population, it generates eighty-five percent of the world's serial killers."
Anyway, this idea isn't something I dreamed up - I'm not that smart. It's a bona fide discussion among researchers and professionals.
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