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So man is natural, but the things man makes are not natural. Birds, monkeys, beavers, etc. are natural, and things they make are natural too. In other words - we're screwed, we can never do anything that is "natural".

And what exactly are we screwed about? It's a fucking word. Words have meaning. What the fuck did you think the word "artificial" meant?

"Made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural."
https://en.oxforddictionaries....

"Artificial objects, materials, or processes do not occur naturally and are created by human beings, for example using science or technology."
https://www.collinsdictionary....

"humanly contrived (see contrive 1b) often on a natural model : man-made - an artificial limb -
  artificial diamonds"
https://www.merriam-webster.co...

"made by human skill; produced by humans (opposed to natural): artificial flowers."
http://www.dictionary.com/brow...

Alas, they do but you don't. Dunning-Kruger in play.

wont

One, it's not a lense, it's a lens.

Agree in principle, but not in practice. https://www.merriam-webster.co... (look under "variant")

Bigotry does not require the subject of your prejudice to be born with anything. Here.

"sears" was already a verb.

I told her that as a privacy advocate I wanted to throw up in the back of my throat (actual quote), but as an advisor to campaigns I

You can't claim to be a privacy advocate while working a career that requires you to do the exact opposite.

Pretty sure that CNN itself created the fake news monicker.

Do you have anything to back that up? I'm legitimately interested. Google lead me here, here, and here, but they tell it differently.

IMHO, should do both. I'm not normally into suing people who find ways round things, but in this case it's an ex-employee with privileged knowledge. Pour encourager les autres.

Illegal alien, n. A term used by descendants of European invaders to deride descendants of native inhabitants while ignoring the two centuries of imperialism the U.S. has inflicted upon the rest of the hemisphere.

Fascinating, but you forgot to cite the source of your definition? The prominent online dictionary Merriam Webster defines it as:

Definition of illegal alien: a foreign person who lives in a country without having official permission to live there

The counterpart to this could be referred to as "legal alien," or "a foreign person who lives in a country with official permission to live there."

You wanna let these people come across and work at a 7-11 without getting hassled, or do you want to pay trillions in restitution?

This is a nuanced topic and the answer depends in part on your response to the following question: Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

Another crazy idea is for these people to go through the legal processes to obtain official permission to live in the country, like what the "legal aliens" have presumably already done.

Check this out: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/misuse-of-literally

That was far more interesting then anything else I've read on /. today.

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

Scroll down, it's there

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

I checked the dictionary because I thought you might be technically correct there, but no: going outside the legal system is not required. It might be technically inaccurate to call him a vigilante because it doesn't seem like he was really after justice, just revenge. This seems like an unimportant distinction though.

The parent claimed that his actions were justified because the results were positive, I said that isn't how it works.

So 25 years ago when GLBT people were still seen as "queer" by the majority, you would've been OK with businesses shunning people who were overtly pro-GLBT?

70 years ago when interracial marriages were frowned upon by the majority, you would've been OK with businesses shunning interracial couples?

100 years ago when women didn't have the right to vote, you would've been OK with businesses shunning people who thought women should be able to vote?

160 years ago when slavery was the norm in half the country, you would've been OK with businesses shunning anyone advocating freeing the slaves?

See, the problem with basing acceptance on what's deemed "normal" by the masses is that "normal" changes over time. People are fickle, and tend to follow what's popular, not necessarily what's right. What's normal today won't be what's normal 25, 50, 100 years from now.

Democracy's strength doesn't come from the majority imposing its will upon the minority. Its strength comes from allowing a wide variety of viewpoints to coexist. That allows it to find and take advantage of better ideas more quickly. Other systems of government may not even consider that idea because they've suppressed and subjugated the minority who would've brought it up for consideration. Minorities like people who were anti-slavery in the early 1800s, pro women's suffrage in the late 1800s, for racial integration in the first half of the 20th century, and opposed to discrimination against GLBT people in the second half of the 20th century.

Democracy's strength comes from preserving that minority, even if you disagree with it. Especially if you disagree with it. If democracy hadn't protected people with those ideas when they were unpopular, those reforms never would've happened. That's why we don't discriminate against people based on how they voted (secret ballot), or their political opinions, or their religious views, or their race, or gender, or a myriad of other things which simply aren't relevant to running a business. Sure if you don't like that racist, you don't have to go camping with him. But discriminating against people in an activity which is completely orthogonal to the reason you dislike them - that is destroying the fundamental basis of democracy.

The whole point of democracy is protecting and preserving people's right to disagree. Advocating discrimination against people who hold a different opinion than yours, for no other reason than because they hold a different opinion, makes you a bigot. What, you thought that term only applied to racists? Perhaps you should look up its definition in the dictionary. Take away the right to disagree (while still living a normal life) and you've gutted democracy.

Tolerance doesn't mean accepting only people who hold the same beliefs you do. It means accepting and coexisting with and even defending people who hold different beliefs than you do.

"'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall

It's an immune system response to something that isn't harming you (like peanuts) or an over-reaction to something (like bee venom). It's caused by a defective immune system.

Here's a definition for you https://www.merriam-webster.co...

Of course it is censorship. From https://www.merriam-webster.co...

1 a : the institution, system, or practice of censoring
        They oppose government censorship.
b : the actions or practices of censors; especially : censorial control exercised repressively
        censorship that has permitted a very limited dispersion of facts —Philip Wylie

and from https://www.merriam-webster.co...

: a person who supervises conduct and morals: such as
a : an official who examines materials (such as publications or films) for objectionable matter
        Government censors deleted all references to the protest.

and some examples from the same page, which show that a censor doesn't have to be a government official,

In the novel, Rebecca is murdered by her husband, while in the famous Hitchcock film her death results from an accidental fall—a change made in deference to industry censors, who frowned on a crime going unpunished.
—
WSJ, "Five Best: Lily Tuck," 15 Sep. 2017
But with Trump out to punish and intimidate critics, and many CEOs scared to give offense, a lot of Americans will slowly develop an internal censor.
—
slate staff, Slate Magazine, "How Trump Will Change America," 24 Jan. 2017
Zuckerberg has long maintained the company doesn’t want to play censor, but Facebook has drawn some lines—banning Greece’s Golden Dawn, the ultranationalist party, for example.
—
lauren etter, Bloomberg.com, "How Facebook’s Political Unit Enables the Dark Art of Digital Propaganda," 21 Dec. 2017

Now your example isn't the clearest but changing it to a policy of the homeowner not allowing people to call his wife a whore, you're censoring peoples speech, and it is perfectly legal and could probably be grounds for eviction if it was a tenant.

Of course it is censorship. From https://www.merriam-webster.co...

1 a : the institution, system, or practice of censoring
        They oppose government censorship.
b : the actions or practices of censors; especially : censorial control exercised repressively
        censorship that has permitted a very limited dispersion of facts —Philip Wylie

and from https://www.merriam-webster.co...

: a person who supervises conduct and morals: such as
a : an official who examines materials (such as publications or films) for objectionable matter
        Government censors deleted all references to the protest.

and some examples from the same page, which show that a censor doesn't have to be a government official,

In the novel, Rebecca is murdered by her husband, while in the famous Hitchcock film her death results from an accidental fall—a change made in deference to industry censors, who frowned on a crime going unpunished.
—
WSJ, "Five Best: Lily Tuck," 15 Sep. 2017
But with Trump out to punish and intimidate critics, and many CEOs scared to give offense, a lot of Americans will slowly develop an internal censor.
—
slate staff, Slate Magazine, "How Trump Will Change America," 24 Jan. 2017
Zuckerberg has long maintained the company doesn’t want to play censor, but Facebook has drawn some lines—banning Greece’s Golden Dawn, the ultranationalist party, for example.
—
lauren etter, Bloomberg.com, "How Facebook’s Political Unit Enables the Dark Art of Digital Propaganda," 21 Dec. 2017

Now your example isn't the clearest but changing it to a policy of the homeowner not allowing people to call his wife a whore, you're censoring peoples speech, and it is perfectly legal and could probably be grounds for eviction if it was a tenant.

Um, Chris, knowledge of stupid mainstream garbage entertainment is not "geeky".

Blasphemer!

Go read JCR Licklider's work, maybe we can talk.

Not everyone on Slashdot is an underwear smelling CS major.

"Please turn in your geek cred "

It's "card", numb butt.

Cred: street credibility.

You're an embarrassment to the Slashdot community. Please leave.

including the Linux kernel, the core software program behind the world's biggest eponymous open source software.

What open source software, aside from possibly Linux, a mashup of the original developer's name (LINus) and the thing he was trying to recreate (UniX), is named after it's original author?

Is there a Mr. Containers? Ms. Drupal? Mrs. Apache? I've scan the list of books at O'Reilly and none jumps out as being named after their creator, the defining requirement for considering something as eponymous last I checked.

No, they're saying "octothorpe me too." You gonna get octothorped.

That wouldn't help much, would it? https://www.merriam-webster.co...

From Merriam-Webster:

1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

- https://www.merriam-webster.co...

I keep hearing/reading about people who think the book Starship Troopers is about a fascistic society and I don't get it, especially when I compare the society expressed in the book to definitions of fascism.

Juan Rico, who is revealed to be Filipino at the end of the book and we don't know where he grew up, joins up to win the ability to vote and is trained in a melting pot camp in Western Canada (I'm presuming that because of the name of the camp, Arthur Currie). There is no discussion, let alone glorification of a central "leader", nor is there any apparent racism.

There is what we would consider brutal corporal punishment rather than incarceration, but this is a result of the society's "superior" (from the perspective of the book's characters) understanding of psychology. When the book was written, hanging was still a common form of capital punishment and public hangings had only ended about 25 years before.

I've always read in the book as being set in a society that resulted after a terrible war and is presented by people who had that experience and perspective.

FYI, it's the British for a parking lot or (like in this case) a parking garage. https://www.merriam-webster.co...

if creimer knew how to light photos properly.

The photographic style is bokeh, where the foreground object is in sharp focus against a blurry background. Under the right lighting conditions (natural sunlight), shadows are very black. Creimer tagged this photo on Instagram as being taken with a Canon D60 camera and a Yongnuo 50mm lens.

https://instagram.com/p/BeL3JZ_j4R3/

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

You are being obnoxious. You know that, right?

Why?

Have you never seen someone bullied as a child grow up and become a bully?
Have you never seen a victim of racism grow up and exhibit racist behavior?
Have you never heard of a victim of childhood sexual abuse grow up and sexually abuse children?

Assuming someone's generosity based on their sexual orientation is simply nonsensical, and I think fits the definition of sexism:

behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex

Well, Miriam Webster believes that fake and false are synonyms:
https://www.merriam-webster.co...
fake Synonyms
Synonyms
artificial, bogus, dummy, ersatz, factitious, imitation, false, faux, imitative, man-made,

I didn't intend to imply that I felt the missile warnings had been intentionally faked, so I'd agree with you that the use of "false" would have been a better choice of words.

Not all facts, but facts about racial differences, yes.

Racial? ok... how about facts about the difference between men and women? You know, since that's the topic.

How about the genetic, regional, cultural, and historical? Sociological? It's hard to have a diversity class if you can't talk about the fact that there's low diversity, that's a sociological fact.

And I've had those debates with the asshats that try and point out Africa is poorer that Europe. But that doesn't help their assertion that black people are infeior because it's explained by the history of colonialism really screwing them over. Same thing right? Facts used by the bigots towards a bigoted end. I've asked what James Damore's sexist end was and all I've heard back was that he said women are neurotic. What did Damore propose that was sexist?

racial meritocracy, ...If you try selecting a team based on what people of a certain race are very sightly better at on average,

Wut? Where the hell did this creep in? ok. no. Do not start beating up some strawman that isn't even in this discussion. I am not suggesting nor have ever suggested that we hire people based on their race.

Maybe I wasn't clear. I suggested we should hire based on merit. And in a scenario where there is definite, clear, and obvious trend in merit (like let's say women vs men when it comes to being surrogate mothers), the demographic composition of the industry will reflect that.

You're the one that claimed that sounded like "pseudo-utilitarian dystopia powered by scientific bigotry", which is really just you shit-talking. ok, it's kind of an argument I guess. This happens. But what I was describing was hiring based on MERIT. And this is what Damore ran into. No one is attacking him based on what he said, but a SHITSTORM grew out of what people THINK he was arguing for.

Bigotry is intolerance of those with different opinions....

LOLWUT? By this definition,

Um... yeah? "obstinate or intolerant devotion to one's own opinions and prejudices :" I mean, that's only Merriam webster. Lemme seee.... There's Wikipedia: "Bigot is a term used to describe someone intolerant of the opinions of others."

But... ok. What did you think the definition of "bigot" was?

By this definition, being intolerant of nazis, NAMBLA members, you name it, is bigoted.

Oh yeah, that happens a lot. Tolerate intolerance. A lot of people have a hard time with this one.

But you can still be against all these scumbags not just because you have different opinions but because of the provable factual negative effects they have on society. NAMBLA fucks up kids. That's bad. Prove otherwise and I'll reconsider opposing NAMBLA, but that ain't going to happen. And for the love of god, YES even the NAZI's get to have political views. And share them in public. As Evelyn Hall paraphrased Voltaire, "I do not agree with that you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". If someone can't tolerate NAZIs having the same right to free speech as they do, that makes them a bigot.

And being as racist and sexist as all hell is not.

Noooo... I didn't follow that jump at all. Being sexist and racist is still being bigoted.

If someone has the opinion that men are pigs, and aren't open to any arguments otherwise, they're bigoted and sexist.

But if there's a definite advantage of X over Y, there should definitely be a disparity of people choosing more X than Y, cultural and social effects be damned.

Here's the kicker: There are no big advantages of X over Y in the real world.

Well. X and Y a

No one has ever been denied the ability to associate with members of their own party. And they are not disenfranchised:

Definition of disenfranchise
transitive verb
: to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; especially : to deprive of the right to vote

        disenfranchising the poor and elderly

Famine is a thing that doesn't vanish just because of free markets.

Okay, maybe it's my turn to link the dictionary then. I explained above, in this post, why I think those ideas are contradictory. I didn't go into great detail, since it all made sense to me, but I will go over anything that you don't follow or disagree with.

Let's say a conservative on the internet or anywhere else espouses clearly racist ideals. Does that make conservatives racist? No, of course not. Plenty of idiots espouse plenty of idiotic ideals on the internet and sure, they should be confronted, but that doesn't mean we need to change the meaning of a word.

I'll leave you with the literal definition of feminism: https://www.merriam-webster.co...

There's nothing bad there.

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

all while you SIP your beverage of choice!

This might help you
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sheeple

According to these idiots insults are hate speech:
http://www.dictionary.com/brow...
noun
speech that attacks, threatens, or insults a person or group on the basis of national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Websters seems to have it simplified down to a literal state which could be fine:
https://www.merriam-webster.co...
Definition of Hate speech
: speech expressing hatred of a particular group of people

Wikipedia is all over the map but at least seems to only report on various countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

These people are subjectively confused thinking "any form of expression regarded as offensive":
https://definitions.uslegal.co...
Hate Speech Law and Legal Definition
Hate speech is a communication that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred for some group, especially in circumstances in which the communication is likely to provoke violence. It is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and the like. Hate speech can be any form of expression regarded as offensive to racial, ethnic and religious groups and other discrete minorities or to women.

These people get it:
https://www.urbandictionary.co...
  Hate speech
A highfalutin' way of saying "I disagree with your meticulously-researched, irrefutable facts, so I am going to organize a social media campaign to demonize you and ruin your life. But don't forget to donate to my Patreon."
Sane, rational human being: "I sure do loves me some grapes!"
Filthy SJW bacterium: "OMFG GRAPE HAS 'RAPE' IN IT THAT'S HATE SPEECH! RAAAAAAAPE CULTUUUUUURE!"

Disparaging a social group is hate speech to these people:
https://www.thefreedictionary....
hate speech
n.
Bigoted speech attacking or disparaging a social group or a member of such a group.

"Their" is plural.

Only to people woefully ignorant.

Definition of their

2 : his or her : his, her, its —used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent
anyone in their senses —W. H. Auden

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

I don’t.

Definition of their

2 : his or her : his, her, its —used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent
anyone in their senses —W. H. Auden

Wrong. The rational approach is to check a dictionary. Or several.

1. https://www.thefreedictionary....
2. https://www.merriam-webster.co...
3. https://www.collinsdictionary....

You might actually (gasp) understand what the other person is saying. Crazy talk, I know.

If the leaders of a democracy

Uh, oh, you did it now. You summoned the retards.

Let's just knock them all out in one post:

democracy: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

democracy: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

democracy: A democracy is a country in which power is held by elected representatives.

democracy: government in which the people hold the ruling power either directly or through elected representatives; rule by the ruled

The word "republic" is a bland word that means nothing more than the government is a public thing subject to laws. There many totalitarian governments that can accurately be described as republics that cannot be called democracies, yet all democracies are necessarily republics. You could make an exception with constitutional monarchies with elected representatives, though without supreme power being in the hands of the people, it runs afoul of most definitions of democracies.

A lot of dumb people have built a weird religion around Federalist #10, which is ironic, considering that these poorly educated conspiracy theorists whipped into a frenzy by populist demagogues are precisely the sort of people Madison was worried about. And for all of that whining about mob rule, it was the electoral college that gave us the stupidest person to ever hold the office of President.

Couple can mean two or a few. So the use was imprecise but acceptable.

5. an electronic system that connects to a display (such as a television set) and is used primarily to play video games

Seems to fit for Nintendo Switch

What did you do before that made people think you were worth listening to? Its been so long, I honestly can't remember.

But let me help you out here. From a dictionary:

fiat (noun):
1. a command or act of will that creates something without or as if without further effort
2. an authoritative determination - dictate
3. an authoritative or arbitrary order - decree

And from Wikipedia:

Fiat money is a currency without intrinsic value established as money by government regulation

Now pray tell us all exactly which government established bitcoin as money by dictate or decree...

If you can remember whatever it was that established your credibility, you might want to consider sticking to that topic, whatever it is. Because you don't even know the stuff that your teacher would expect you to know walking into an Econ 101 course on the first day, and talking about things that don't know even the most basic definitions of is going to tank your brand.

Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that one of the intellectual forefathers of fascism was called 'Gentile'.

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

Interestingly Fascism, at least in the Italian version, wasn't anti semitic in the way that National Socialism was. Some of the founder members of the Italian Fascist Party were Jews and Mussolini tried to resist any sort of anti semitic laws initially, only relenting as he became increasingly militarily dependent on Germany as the war progressed. By the end of the war Mussolini was a German puppet in Salo, defended by German troops and essentially powerless.

What defines terrorism from other kinds of murder is intent. Try a dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.co...

There was no political motive. He wasn't trying to achieve a social change, or spread a message. It was just mass murder for the sake of mass murder.

Social Media
Forum
Message Board

I'll just leave this right here for you.

Social Media
Forum
Message Board

I'll just leave this right here for you.

Social Media
Forum
Message Board

I'll just leave this right here for you.

https://www.merriam-webster.co...

Thank you for beating us all to the butthole.

https://www.merriam-webster.co...