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What You Can't Say
dtolton writes "Paul Graham has an excellent article posted on the subject of things you can't say. His article explores what ideas are generally considered heresy, and whether or not those ideas might be true nonetheless. He also presents advice for handling heretical ideas. Considering that many of the ideas in technology in general and Open Source specifically are near heresy, it's well worth a read."
That's not so much political correctness, really. That's just the result of propaganda manifesting itself in group-think. The same thing happened during the Vietnam war. The administration instills a gung-ho patriotic frenzy in the population to drive support for blowing shit up. The sad thing is that it's sucked down faster than koolaid at Jonestown. It's quite ironic, actually. It's one of the few occasions when popular opinion will chastise you for your individuality.
Antibiotics are obsolete. Electricity does a better job with fewer side effects.
f cg i?artid=172457
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.
This has been known for a VERY long time.
HIV does not cause AIDS illnesses.
AIDS is currently defined as presence of HIV antibodies (not live virus necessarily) plus any ONE of about 30 other illnesses, from low t-cell counts to pneumonia to kaposi's sarcoma. So through a miracle of circular reasoning, yes, HIV causes AIDS - but only because that's the definition.
Scientists who dispute that HIV causes all AIDS illnesses (pointing out that HIV, if responsible, acts differently than any other virus known to man in about a dozen ways) and postulate other hypotheses - for instance, that drug usage, including the chemotherapy drugs like AZT used for AIDS treatment, causes the immunodeficiencies, are barred from conferences and their papers are blacklisted.
Chomsky's brilliant work "The Manufacturing of Consent" is a look at the influence of monopolistic media outlets on our culture. It's a two tape video and usually available from a well stocked public library. It's a nice fit for furthering the ideas presented in this story.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
Michael Crichton has a fine article about the sacred cows of science. It gets better after the attack on SETI. Read Aliens cause Global Warming.
Scott Draves
Similar to Godwin's Law of Usenet re. nazis. In this case the ism/ist would be antisemitism.
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So I can be modbombed? No thanks, I'll pass. Moderation has been broken for ages, trolls regularly post without using AC, why is it suddenly so crucial that a luser have a /. account?
/. accounts.
I mean, fuck, I could go make myself a dud account with no homepage, a private email and everything else, how does that give my words any more or less meaning? Hell, all it does is open me up to modbombing by the first person who disagrees with me. Click my user link, click my recent posts, mod each and every one down. Repeat with your other
Not only that, but with a UID up in the hundreds of thousands, you'd just use that against me as bait to say 'just another troll account.'
Seriously, do you have ANY grounds for what you ask? Do you not REALIZE why the AC option is there in the first place? Why not base your arguments on the merits of the post instead of the anoynmous face behind them?
Fucking slashbots.
Here's an excerpt from The New York Times article dated 2001-09-22 I referred to:
As for The Washington Post story about Odigo, that paper has since taken it down. Here however is the story as reported by Haaretz. And here is a Google search that lists all the hundreds if not thousands of web sites that have copied the Post story for posterity, perhaps this link is the best... it also goes into the allegations about the Israeli spy ring, allegations which are largely confirmed by the Jewish publication Forward.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Well, I'm too fucking lazy to look stuff up too, but I think you will find a higher correlation between all of those "features" and a lack of a middle-class than you will with rates of taxation - effectively the rich will have 0% taxation since they are the government in such countries and the poor will have either 0% (since they have nothing to tax) or 100% (since they don't get to keep much, if any, of the fruit of their labor) depending on how you look at it.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Modding down anything you do not agree with seems to be the Slashdot reaction to heresy. It goes right along with modding a post as redundant when it supports an unpopular opinion.
Slashdot is a microcosm of Political correctness run wild... I wonder when it will implode?
So the facial fashion game was already on in that arena at the time. Weird times, to say the least.
Christian Engström, Former Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014 for The Pirate Party, Sweden
For all the Canucks in the house, here's something that's true but you can't say:
Two-tier, user-fee health care is the way of the future.
Saying that something is the way of the future is quite different from saying that it is a good thing.
And frankly, Canada already has two-tier health care, but it's not cash based. My fiance is a medical doctor. I have far more access to see medical specialists without waiting. She got her mother a MRI scan in two days instead of 4 months.
The wealthy and powerful love the Canadian system - they get first tier service while the plebians wait in long lines.
On point number 2, roughly 12% of all drug users are black (National Household Survey on Drug Abuse). Slicing the data another way indicates that while 12.2% of all white people use drugs, only 10% of blacks use drugs.
To go even further with this, 35% of all people arrested on drug charges are black (US Department of Justice). Roughly 53% of all people tried for drug charges are black, and 70% of all time served for drug charges is served by blacks (US Department of Correctional Statistics).
Please check the facts before you try to push your truths on others.
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
Texas has no state income tax.
In contrast to your point about the horrible "European ancestors", it was primarily the white Christian British who ended slavery over most of the world. Until that time, slavery was common just about everywhere.
Now about the only place slavery is still wide-spread is in a few locations that it's been going on for as far back as recorded history goes, being practiced by black muslims.
Hate to burst your bubble, but slavery was practiced by blacks on blacks, whites on blacks, whites on whites, blacks on whites, etc... by just about everyone for just about all of history until those "white Christians" finally put an end to it because of their moral beliefs informing their political decisions.
As for your rant on Native Americans, our people did plenty worse to each other for thousands of years before any Europeans showed up. It wasn't exactly a unique experience in history.
If you want a serious study of the issues, try reading a book like "Conquest and Cultures" by Thomas Sowell.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
Nothing we do actually matters.
You should read up on existentialism.Don't wait until 15. Sexual behavior re-appears most commonly at age 11 for girls. I know from personal experience that some girls in kindergarten on up will initiate plaing doctor given any reasonably secure opportunity, and 8th grade girls will offer the occasional blow job for no reason other than to satisfy their curiosity.
No, they wouldn't. Terrorism is defined by the type and intent of actions - namely, the targetting of civilians with the intent of causing fear.
Freedom fighters fight against government agents - typically soldiers and police - not ordinary citizens.
Thus the IRA, Al Qaeda and Tim McVeigh and friend were all terrorists.
And of course, you would bring up the worst example of mis-thinking on this subject: Israel vs. Palestine. Whatever wrongs Israel has committted, they are dwarfed by the terrorist atrocities committed by the Palestinians. If Israel were terrorist, it wouldn't have sent soldiers into the Jenin "camp" - it would have just bombed it. Instead soldiers were sent in (and many died) in order to prevent civilian casualties. If Israel had the same morality as the Palestinians, there wouldn't be any Palestinians west of the Jordan river! For you to call Israel's policies "ethnic cleansing" is to display either your abysmal ignorance or your willingness to freely lie.
Those who become terrorists are without moral qualms. It is not just one more tactic - it is evil and despicable. Israeli children have been intentionally targetted by Palestinian terrorists, who explode bombs coated with rat poison (warfarin). The reverse has not happened.
Israel has finally started what only makes sense: separation from the violent people of Palestine. After 50 years of trying to live in peace, being answered by hatred, bombings and war, they have decided to protect themselves by building a barrier between themselves and the people who have sworn to destroy them. During the "Oslo process," the Palestinian leaders used their new found freedoms to indoctrinate their own children with hatred, and to send their children to kill Israeli children. Europe, sitting on its moral house of cards, always condemned the Israeli's, of course.
I think Israel has been very restrained. I think if Americans were subject to the same level of violence as the Israelis have been, the Palestinians would have been completely crushed or sent someplace else by now. And it would have been the right thing to do.
If you look at Israel's history, there was a small amount of terrorism waged in their name (by the Irgun and the Stern Gang). But instead of applauding those incidents, Israeli authorities did their best to stop them - even while they were fighting for their lives against massive Arab armies. That is the action of a moral organization. On the other hand, most of the Arab world constantly condemns Israel, while at the same time doing nothing to help the descendants of Palestinian refugees (who fled at the request of those governments so they wouldn't be killed when the Arabs killed all the Jews during the founding war of Israel). 55 years after the creation of Israel, Palestinians are still be kept in refugee camps rather than allowed to assimilate. At the same time, about 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs, who have full voting rights and representation in the Knesset. But after the founding of Israel, most Arab countries drove out all Jewish residents. THAT's the ethnic cleansing that's really been happening.
If you find yourself justifying terrorism, then you are one sick puppy. You are justifying the murder of innocent people because of your anger.
Never confuse terrorism with resistance. The two are infinitely different. And any killing should be a last resort - even that of soldiers of a repressive and illegitimate regime (like Saddam's).
The only good weather is bad weather.
"We don't let women do things like crew submarines or fly combat jets in battle."
For submarines, the reason I hear is that women would want/need seperate showers etc. and there is not room on a sub.
As for flying jets, I think it's the male desire to protect the female; keep her from falling into the enemies hands where who knows what would happen to her.
That's not a heresy, that's a truism. The challenge is how to deal with that fact; either you become a nihilist, or you do something constructive about it.
Go and read some Camus. Seriously.
no taxation without representation!
Did Galileo listen to this sage political advice? Not a bit. He represented his opponents as simpletons (through a rather transparent dialog where the Simplicio character obviously represented the Aristoteleans and the intelligent character represented Galileo). The Pope rushed back with a "What do you think you're doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?", but Galileo still didn't listen - perhaps feeling that he was immune from the wrath of his opponents because of the favour of the Pope. He continued to attack his opponents as ignorant fools.
Finally, he was tried for heresy. Fortunately, the Pope convinced him to say what the Aristoteleans wanted to hear, "No the earth doesn't move." This was a wise move. Because inconvenient things like mountains on the moon and moons around Jupiter screamed loudly that the Aristoteleans were wrong - without Galileo's ad hominem ranting. The Pope also issued a ban on Galileo's works - which I personally think was also a sly move since this made them hugely popular on the black market.
You forget the various "orthodox" christian religions of eastern europe.
And most protestants are catholic, just not Roman catholic. Catholic means you can join the faith, rather than having to be born into it.
There is a dictionary definition of someone whos labor and property are entitled to others, as your post says "the poor" are entitled to the property of "the rich".
SLAVE
Are you ready to actually stand up for your beliefs and enslave people openly, rather than by advocating someone else (government) to it for you?
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
One of our top guns is Lieutenant Colonel Martha McSally.
IAAH, and i have to comment on your first statement. not all kinds of homosexual behavior are harmful, just as with heterosexual behavior.
a strictly monogamous gay relationship is quite patently about as harmful as a strictly monogamous straight relationship. the harm comes not from the homo-/hetero- distinction, but from promiscuity. promiscuous homosexual behaviors probably do carry greater health risks than their heterosexual counterparts, and both are significantly dangerous.
sadly, the gays who live in stable monogamous relationships are a silent majority in the community. this is why gay marriage (or civil unions) are such a good idea - to encourage everyone to form and stay in lifelong monogamous relationships.
example
That's actually the only thing I could find on the subject using google, but recently there was a flap by a guy over how it was wrong for us to call a team "the Redskins", because how would we like it if there was a team called "the niggers". Needless to say, he got yelled at.
In response to your favorite example, I think a storyline from FlemCo addresses it, but you gotta sit through ~13 (I think) strips to get the idea.
[o]_O
If you think about it the lack of a pot test isn't an issue. All you need is a test for impairment. If a person can't "walk a line" or pass a coordination test it doesn't matter if they are intoxicated or just sleepy. Anyway, a blood test can be done later to discover the specifics of the persons driving troubles.
Sure some people will try to make the lack of a test an issue, but it is really a strawman. Look at what New Jersey is doing toward sleepy/tired drivers. There is no chemical or mechanized test for tiredness, but they have started using physical tests to be able to charge people with driving while sleep deprived. For pot it is no different or more complicated.
"Drug related crime" is a misnomer, "prohibition related crime" is the more accurate and correct phrase.
I've never done Ecstasy (MDMA). But... for one thing, the "real" thing used to be an FDA approved drug for weight loss. The only danger is that in high enough doses you get stupid and don't realize you are overheating and dehydrating, both of which will kill you.
Now, the chemistry to make MDMA is relatively hard and expensive. As a result the majority of X is cut with cheaper (and more dangerous) substances.
I can't speak towards the additiveness other than to say the friends I had who did it a lot seemed to stop when they felt like it. (Scientific, eh?)
Another thing to note is that the original "ecstasy is bad" study was completely flawed. The substance they tested turned out to be a completely different drug! (Congress Passed Ecstasy Law on Flawed Science)
There may be dangers with X, but they are likely much less than the current batch of: "if you do X, you'll instantly become a brain-damaged addict" ads on TV.
Hitler got some serious financial support by some large investors :
:
http://www.john-loftus.com/Thyssen.asp
"Throughout the Bush family's decades of public life, the American press has gone out of its way to overlook one historical fact - that through Union Banking Corporation (UBC), Prescott Bush, and his father-in-law, George Herbert Walker, along with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, financed Adolf Hitler before and during World War II. It was first reported in 1994 by John Loftus and Mark Aarons in The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People.
"
Well of course it should be noted that by the time the Holocaust was getting mainstream news, USA of course sent in their Army to remove the Nazis. When looking at it in this way, and noting that also Saddam was enabled into power by USA, the analogy and the reason for the US Army to remove Saddam from power is striking.
Robert
On Slashdot, you can't criticize Apple LAPTOP keybaords. Not even when the criticism is directly relevant to a story.
Well, actually, you can criticize Apple, but you'll get modded down to -1 almost every time.
You explanation of "piracy" is pretty decent.
For reference the International Federation of the Phonograph Industry (IFPI) which is the umbrella organsation of all the various national industry organsiations worldwide (such as the RIAA, which is a member in good standing, along with 1500 record producers and distributors in 76 nations) defines piracy more-or-less as you do.
Check out the music industry's own definitons here:
IFPI: What is Piracy?
If there's no commercial gain, there's no piracy.