Moderation Questions

Well no there is always going to be more to it than that.

But that also wouldn't be circular reasoning if that were the case fwiw

If would be a form of assuming the conclusion. But even if the premise were correct, it would be faulty logic (at least as described by checkraise).

If all Bs have characteristic A, it doesn't follow that all things with characteristic A are Bs.

I don't believe that one bit fwiw. I've chosen the life I live.

It is true I'm forced to have a job currently but that's only temporary.

O-blama was the first democratic candidate I voted for since my first vote was cast for Nixon (second term). Conservative by nature... I would vote (if I could) to replace the ghouls on the current SC. Business owner since 1980 until I sold last August. I think I simply started to see that the entire "good" of the country was WAY more important to me than which candidate would let me keep more of my earned income.

Oh boy... that does put your views in a different light.

I am confused by this sentence in the context of your post. Who are you rating as the ghouls on the current court?

😀

Apology accepted and I'm sorry for offending you.

I do genuinely believe that these sorts of ideas we've discussed like ancestry/heritage/bloodlines are associated with the right-- as you know the left (the actual left) is concerned with the material condition of workers...but certainly just labelling it all "Nazi stuff" is hyperbolic.

I also understand that you are specifically saying that your focus is on concepts like culture and "identity" and not race, ethnicity, and bloodlines-- but for sure when we talk about ancestry we are talking about bloodlines.

My points have always been that 1) the culture of American black people is the culture that they created in the United States and that black Americans are not Africans that happen to find themselves living in the United States, but rather a people who were created in the United States-- and this is simply genetics. So you can't talk about a stolen culture because they created their culture. I asked if you'd go back in time to eliminate the slave trade if it meant the entirety logical result of having less black people in the US now including me, and never got an answer. My point there is the entire discussion that started this is built on faulty premises-- that a black person in the US is the same as a black person in Africa and that they are completely fungible in these hypotheticals-- but they aren't.

The part about how this obsession with genetics and heritages is right wing was just a bit gratuitous although it is something I genuinely believe and something that certainly also makes a lot of sense.

I could do definitely be remembering things wrong but i recall, back in the daya of the bad posters/mod threads, it seemed like you had a lot of people eager to mod with the majority of that reason being that rhey would be able to put the hammer down on those they didnt like. Other spin off forums certainly had that. But ill take your word on it.

I actually had to look back because i didnt remember ever having the thought of being a mod. I dont pay near enough attention to this place to to be one. But i did offer help if it meant saving the forum from beinf shut down.

in all reality i think it's mostly my time abroad has given me a bunch of perspective that makes me appear difficult to my fellow americans

just today my sister who works at a private school was talking about how the school stopped receiving federal money under trump to which point I said - no private school should be receiving federal funding - you're already charging 70k a year to each boarding student and 40k a year to each day student - if that can't cover expenses then you're doing it wrong

she of course took this as a personal insult towards her to where she felt like i was exclaiming that she was overpaid

but the core of the argument was not that at all - it was that we're spending about 17k a year per each student in public school, so if a school is spending several multiples more than that and can't make it work then that's on them and they shouldn't get a bailout - that the high cost of education in america is not rooted in teacher salaries which are comparable to teacher salaries in other countries but in bloated administration and facilities which are inefficiently run

england spends a little less than 8k per student compared to our 17k and teacher salaries are about the same - so the cost is not in teacher salaries

i think this is pretty standard for americans - it's difficult to have genuine conversations because they are so focused on taking offense where none is warranted that it prevents any discussion of how to solve the actual problem

likewise, i have celiac, so when in rural areas of maine where that is a foreign concept that requires a few extra steps while ordering

i asked if an item was breaded and got a yes, so then i asked if i could sub it out and got a no, so then i asked for another item that came with toast but said i wanted the toast on the side (because i was going to give it to another person since i can't have it as i have celiac) - meanwhile we were also splitting the bill 3 ways amongst 2 tables so my sisters are like "omg we're causing so many problems for this lady - we better tip well"

to which i replied "wtf are you talking about this is standard for her and a basic part of her job"

and of course when the 10 year old at the other table ordered an omelette - she forgot to specify which kind of cheese and hates american cheese which was the default so i said "let's just flag her down and let her know" and they were all aghast like "omg how can we inconvenience her"

she then gives us a random bill that is not accurate at all - (i was paying for my parents who did not get omelettes our bill was 3 orders of omelettes, my sister's bill had 2x orders of omelettes, only 1 omelette was ordered between both tables) so we figured no biggie it's all about the same - let it go - that is until both sisters realized there was no hot cocoa on either of their bills but their kids ordered that - to which i exclaimed - leave it, it's all a wash, i've been overcharged by a few bucks but no they have to fix it to make sure this small town diner will survive

so we can't inconvenience them if it's a genuine medical issue that will deeply impact us
so we can't inconvenience them by splitting the bill
so we can't inconvenience them fixing a broken order
so we can't inconvenience them by pointing out we've been overcharged by a few bucks

but we can inconvenience them to add extra money onto the bill which already was overcharged to begin with

and... we can then stay there for an additional half hour slowly sipping coffee while there's a long line of people hoping to get a table

just nothing about it is consistent at all - and the entirety of it is rooted in the soft bigotry of low expectations of working class people - oh this poor stupid waitress is so inconvenienced being asked to have a cheddar omelet - we're so terrible if we ask that of her - we better tip 30%

the rest of the world doesn't have that guilt - they are at a restaurant, they order what they want and enjoy what they want and don't have an ever-present notion of social justice and how that poor stupid working class waitress couldn't possibly survive without their charity

this is by far the biggest bit of culture shock i have in america - it's incredibly jarring

ghouls was poorly chosen.... but Thomas has got to go... for a start.

i think the best description of my outlook is that we need to accept hard truths in order to fix broken systems

ie see how much flak norm gets here for simply stating that black people in general are poorer - which he says not out of racism but in pointing out that you can't solve any of the issues they face until you recognize what is happening

barret has been pretty decent

i think one of the real measures of the bias in a supreme court judge is the frequency in which they recuse themselves

obviously not the best measurement as breyer was pretty high up there in recusals

but rbg, thomas and scalia having zero should surprise nobody

How about the hard truth that society’s problems are deeper than system fixes?

Are you willing to accept this hard truth?

Bolded is a terrible measure of bias in my opinion. It presumes that, if all justices were behaving appropriately, they would recuse themselves at approximately the same rate.

That is a terrible presumption.

I thought you were criticizing the liberal justices, which is why I was confused.

Bolded was a long time ago. I honestly don't remember from that time. Based on your description, I suspect that some (most?) of those people were joking.

Idk about that.
Corporations and rich people kinda polute the most and have their pound of flesh.
X guy stabbing people (or w/e crime you want to infer) is ultimately way less than water polluters, the Monsantos of this world, etc...

i pointed this out as well - but having 0 is definitely not a green flag imo

i need the guidance of a divine female

She calls out to the one she knows.

🙄

Only if you're doing it right.

If people were raised right most people would vote for the good of the country over a small percentage of their income. Unfortunately, we aren't raised right.

This is one of the most ritarded theories ever posted on the internet.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense would realize that a tiny 6yo child has next to zero chance of absorbing .223 shot from a rifle at 2000+ miles per hour like a full grown adult could. Even an extremity wound would likely be fatal.

I hope for your dog's sake that this is just a troll and you're not really this dumb.

You are all idiots