Well, to begin, I'm just your average guy. But unlike your average guy, I once had everything anyone could ever want: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful two-story house, an adorable seven year old daughter, a stable job, and a nice salary. Basically, I was living the American dream. None of my needs or wants were left unfulfilled. The family always got along, and everything was perfect.
Until one day, that is. Following one of my routine doctor appointments, my doctor informed me that I had lung cancer and that I only had a few years to live at most. As you can imagine, I was shocked. Not just shocked; I could see all of my hopes and dreams being shattered right before my very eyes. Still, my doctor gave me hope by telling me that there was a chance, however slim, that Chemotherapy and various other things could help me. After speaking with my wife, I decided to receive the treatments.
All was not lost. I still had a perfect family that I could rely on and get emotional support from. I still had hope for the future. I'm a firm believer that you should make the best of things rather than wallow in depression. I had to press on: not just for my sake, but for the sake of my loved ones. But my strong resolve was soon shattered.
The family I thought I could count on betrayed me. My wife, whom I loved deeply, filed for a divorce. She said that she could not handle the emotional trauma of being with someone who had cancer. She apologized profusely, but no matter what I said, I could not change her mind. I screamed, I cried, and I begged her to rethink her decision, but it was all to no avail.
In my madness, I made all kinds of accusations. I said that she was cheating on me, that she never loved me, that she just married me for my money, and various other things. I soon learned, however, that a few of those were more than just baseless accusations. I began stalking her, going through all of her personal possessions, and trying uncover any secrets she may have been keeping. What I discovered horrified me: she had been cheating on me with another man for the past year. She must have been waiting for an opportune time to abandon me for this other man.
When confronted about her betrayal, she screamed at me, told me it was none of my business, told me that I was always a worthless husband, and told me that I was an abusive man. I soon discovered that there was absolutely nothing that I could do. My marriage was in shambles, and by this point, I was on the brink of suicide. The only thing keeping me going was my devotion to my precious daughter.
It wasn't long before I received news from my insurance company that they were getting rid of my coverage. They gave me multitudes of vague and bogus reasons, but anyone could figure out their true reason: they did not want to waste money on a dying man. Naturally, I planned to fight this with every fiber of my being, but I knew it would be a long, drawn out process.
In the span of a year, I went from a very happy man who had everything he wanted to a miserable shell of what I once was. I couldn't take it anymore. Despite the fact that I wanted to remain in this world for the sake of my daughter, I tried committing suicide four times. All four attempts failed. I needed something to take my misery, regret, and anger out on. First I began verbally abusing my daughter. It wasn't long before I began physically abusing her. Sometimes I did it with my bare hands, and other times I used various objects. Beating my daughter soon became my only pleasure. My life had spiraled out of control into a den of anguish, uncertainty, and madness.
That's when it happened: I found MyCleanPC. I downloaded it, scanned my computer, and had it fix all of my problems. MyCleanPC is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever!
My wife's response? "MyCleanPC came through with flying colours where no one else could!"
Well, to begin, I'm just your average guy. But unlike your average guy, I once had everything anyone could ever want: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful two-story house, an adorable seven year old daughter, a stable job, and a nice salary. Basically, I was living the American dream. None of my needs or wants were left unfulfilled. The family always got along, and everything was perfect.
Until one day, that is. Following one of my routine doctor appointments, my doctor informed me that I had lung cancer and that I only had a few years to live at most. As you can imagine, I was shocked. Not just shocked; I could see all of my hopes and dreams being shattered right before my very eyes. Still, my doctor gave me hope by telling me that there was a chance, however slim, that Chemotherapy and various other things could help me. After speaking with my wife, I decided to receive the treatments.
All was not lost. I still had a perfect family that I could rely on and get emotional support from. I still had hope for the future. I'm a firm believer that you should make the best of things rather than wallow in depression. I had to press on: not just for my sake, but for the sake of my loved ones. But my strong resolve was soon shattered.
The family I thought I could count on betrayed me. My wife, whom I loved deeply, filed for a divorce. She said that she could not handle the emotional trauma of being with someone who had cancer. She apologized profusely, but no matter what I said, I could not change her mind. I screamed, I cried, and I begged her to rethink her decision, but it was all to no avail.
In my madness, I made all kinds of accusations. I said that she was cheating on me, that she never loved me, that she just married me for my money, and various other things. I soon learned, however, that a few of those were more than just baseless accusations. I began stalking her, going through all of her personal possessions, and trying uncover any secrets she may have been keeping. What I discovered horrified me: she had been cheating on me with another man for the past year. She must have been waiting for an opportune time to abandon me for this other man.
When confronted about her betrayal, she screamed at me, told me it was none of my business, told me that I was always a worthless husband, and told me that I was an abusive man. I soon discovered that there was absolutely nothing that I could do. My marriage was in shambles, and by this point, I was on the brink of suicide. The only thing keeping me going was my devotion to my precious daughter.
It wasn't long before I received news from my insurance company that they were getting rid of my coverage. They gave me multitudes of vague and bogus reasons, but anyone could figure out their true reason: they did not want to waste money on a dying man. Naturally, I planned to fight this with every fiber of my being, but I knew it would be a long, drawn out process.
In the span of a year, I went from a very happy man who had everything he wanted to a miserable shell of what I once was. I couldn't take it anymore. Despite the fact that I wanted to remain in this world for the sake of my daughter, I tried committing suicide four times. All four attempts failed. I needed something to take my misery, regret, and anger out on. First I began verbally abusing my daughter. It wasn't long before I began physically abusing her. Sometimes I did it with my bare hands, and other times I used various objects. Beating my daughter soon became my only pleasure. My life had spiraled out of control into a den of anguish, uncertainty, and madness.
That's when it happened: I found MyCleanPC. I downloaded it, scanned my computer, and had it fix all of my problems. MyCleanPC is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever!
My wife's response? "MyCleanPC came through with flying colours where no one else could!"
Yes, they are. They're taught so many different ways its not even funny.
No, they're not. They might think they understand, but they likely don't. Schools encourage rote memorization.
If your in line at a fast food restaurant, you need to be able to estimate if the $20 in your pocket will cover the order you plan on making or not. Combo is $7.99 round to $8, I need two of them...$16 tax is 7%.. round to $10... $1.60 tax... $17.60 total; ok I'm good.
If you need to memorize a table to do that, then maybe you're just slow. I can think about it and calculate it almost instantly, without even memorizing results from a table.
Of course, I still maintain that math isn't about speed, and it's that kind of thinking that makes me wish I was homeschooled or something instead of being sent to an awful public school.
Basic arithmetic and advanced mathematics are no more the same subject than basic arithmetic
Of course they're not.
Being able to instant recall the multiplication tables is a useful capability to have, not just for math, but for life in general.
Keep saying that, while I continue not using them and getting along fine.
But I've had this discussion so many times before, and people who are dead-set on rote memorization don't seem to be capable of understanding how other people can get along just fine without it in many of the places they used it.
Can you really not tell the product of two single-digit numbers at a glance?
I didn't waste time explicitly trying to memorize them, but results I saw often were memorized. Yes, that is different than explicitly trying to memorize a table.
I'm sorry for your innumeracy.
And yet I understand many abstract mathematical concepts that most rote memorization drones produced by schools could never even hope to comprehend. I'll take my "innumeracy" and not waste my time with a table.
Why don't you go dig a giant hole in the ground with a spoon? It builds character, and until you do that, you're not a True Human Being.
Hysterical exaggeration. It is explained to small children what multiplication means.
But they're never taught how and why it works. Ask them, and a grand majority of them will just regurgitate garbage they heard, if they say anything at all.
After that, rote memorization of the tables increases efficiency.
Math is a form of art; it's not about speed. Plenty of mathematicians are rather slow at performing trivial calculations, but they are far beyond the fools our public schools pump out. Not really because of that, but because it doesn't matter. Instead of tables, why not use one's understanding of multiplication and such to observe simple patterns and tricks that will work in general, rather than be confined to some idiotic table of calculations?
But it's been shown that memorizing multiplication tables (and using them in drill until you reach effortless competence with multiplication) directly improves your ability to learn more abstract math and related reasoning.
It's been shown using some flawed study that likely had subjective criteria and used crappy tests to measure people's abilities.
I never bothered memorizing the multiplication tables, and I never will. I'd rather learn how and why things work, and because of that, I learn general tricks that help me solve pointless calculations faster; I'm not confined by some stupid table.
So you're saying people have a right to freedom and no censorship.
I said that a few posts ago, so it's rather strange to hear you mentioning it now.
Humm, get the UN to agree with it and you might have a case.
I don't need the UN to agree with facts; facts are facts regardless of whether they agree. In the US, we have the first amendment. The government may ignore, and we should stop them from doing so, but we have it. Countries with government censorship do indeed need to put a stop to it, one way or another.
I disagree that it's deserved. People may be apathetic and foolish, but I don't think it's moral to screw them over simply because of that. I would say, instead, that every nation gets the government it's willing to tolerate.
If you want liberty then you'll have to fight to change the statis quo because no nation on earth is free.
If you don't want to watch it, then don't. You don't get to use censorship to stop everyone else from seeing something you're offended by; that's 100% anti-freedom.
I don't like your comment. Therefore, no one else should be able to see it. But I'm sure you'll talk about how this is 100% different because of some arbitrary nonsense you spew forth. I can do the same, so don't waste your time.
Does it make us less human and desensitize us to future events? Yes.
Not only can you not prove that (I assure you, watching a video does not turn someone into a different species.), but it wouldn't matter if you could; government censorship is 100% intolerable, and anyone advocating it should move to North Korea.
Don't confuse free speech and the right to information as the same thing either.
If your speech is removed by the government, then your free speech rights are being infringed upon; the end.
X is worse than Y != Y is not bad. "first world problems" is a phrase used by fools who don't understand simple logic. Problems are problems, no matter how small.
The government doesn't need to ban guns in order to oppress the populace, because the people with guns don't seem to be doing shit about all these constitutional violations anyway. Some (not all) even support this nonsense in the name of fighting "terrorism." I guess the 2nd amendment is the only thing that matters to some of them.
The countless abuses of government power throughout history, and simple, observable human nature, should have made it plainly obvious that giving the government that much power was a awful idea. Furthermore, we're supposed to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave," and our country was founded on a distrust of government, which is another reason for all the limitations we place upon it. I cannot even fathom how anyone would not understand this.
It's not that they just shrugged it off; it's that throwing away fundamental freedoms and the constitution for security is inherently disgusting. You should take the critics seriously. The people who are trying to manipulate you after some disaster are the ones who should not be taken seriously.
You didn't know all along... you worried about it, you feared for it, but you didn't know Now you do
This isn't the first time the NSA has done something like this. When the Patriot Act came around, and even before that, anyone with a brain knew that they were at least spying on citizens. If you give the government the power to collect all this information on people, that's what it's going to do. Plus, there were news stories long before Snowden that dispelled all doubts. What I did not know was the details of the programs, and that was what information Snowden provided.
They're probably utterly ignorant of history, and can't come to simple conclusions on their own. Even someone who is ignorant of history should know that those with massive amounts of power will abuse it.
"Land of the free, home of the brave," huh? Not while most of the population is either apathetic or supports massive violations of the constitution and people's fundamental liberties.
Well you do tolerate it, what do you do to combat it?
Vote for people I feel would truly represent me, participate in protests, donate to various organizations who lobby for policies I agree with, write to my supposed 'representatives', and encourage others to do the same. That might not be much, but it's also not nothing.
Stay away from copyrighted content, but you can't, you are unable to. The problem is you know your system doesn't work and you *require* the products of the copyrighted system.
The reason I don't is because copyright is irrelevant to me. Don't tell me what I know, or I'll have to start doing the same to you. You know that you're 100% incorrect, and that's why you spew forth ad hominems left and right. Does that sound wrong? It probably is. But that's what happens when you assume you know what others believe. In fact, telling others what they themselves believe is something I've seen religious fundamentalists do quite often. Do you enjoy the company you keep?
No, your need for copyrighted content *proves* you need copyright until you can *demonstrate objectively* that copyrighted content would have existed without copyright. Can you?
I use copyrighted content because it is there. If it wasn't there, I would still live. It is by no means a "need," and you're an imbecile for using such a term in this context.
Whether it would be there or not is not known to you or me.
Wrong again! The onus most certainly is on you but you want to shift that onus because you know you cannot prove your system is superior.
It *is* law, so prove it is ineffective and that all copyrighted content would have been created whether or not the law exists. Come on, prove it. Oh right, you can't.
No, the onus is not on me, but on those who seek to create or defend laws that were never proven to be effective to begin with. Why do you get to impose or defend unproven restrictions without a shred of proof, and then you get to shift the onus on other people after you've forced through your unjust laws? That's an interesting strategy.
Not the same thing, use only copyleft / public domain content or prove objectively that copyrighted content would exist without copyright law. Come on, if you're right that would be easy but your inability to do it proves unequivocally that you are wrong.
If you think that proving whether or not something would exist in an alternate universe without copyright law is easy, then you don't much of anything.
Strawmen won't help you here, but nice try.
Not a straw man (you don't even understand that term); I was just using your own stupid logic ("If I force a law or system on people, then anyone who opposes it must prove it's *not* effective, instead of the other way around!")
Your failure to understand the term "ad hominem attacks" is quite clear here, you need to educate yourself on the meaning of that because your response is invalid.
I do not fail to understand what it means; that would be you, ignorant fool. Attacking me in such a way will not actually debunk my arguments.
But one thing you're overlooking is that I do not care only about how effective copyright is. The single most important reasons I oppose copyright is because it infringes upon free speech (through censorship) rights and real private property rights. I would oppose it even if it was 100% effective. Your insinuations that I "need" copyrighted content demonstrate your ignorance of what a "need" is, demonstrate your ignorance of my actual position, and demonstrate your ignorance of logical debate.
But I'm sure you'll continue trying to shift the onus of proof onto me simply because others forced through laws before they ever had a shred of proof that they'd be effective, and since they were able to push through the laws, that must mean the restrictions the laws place on people are perfectly valid and therefore the onus of proof shifts to those who reject the laws. That's definitely a just, workable system.
Give me an example of a memorization question from any standardized test?
Any questions like "Find the missing side of the triangle." rely on rote memorization of a specific procedure rather than a true understanding of why it works. Word problems are no better. Furthermore, multiple choice inherently constrains what answers someone can give, so writing out a detailed explanation of why and how something works is not possible.
These crappy tests simply do not care whether you understand the material.
Did your kid blow the SATs and so now you have to spend the rest of your life making excuses for their failure?
Did you do well on standardized tests and so now you're desperate to defend them? Meaningless assumptions.
Slashdot Mirror
-----------
Well, to begin, I'm just your average guy. But unlike your average guy, I once had everything anyone could ever want: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful two-story house, an adorable seven year old daughter, a stable job, and a nice salary. Basically, I was living the American dream. None of my needs or wants were left unfulfilled. The family always got along, and everything was perfect.
Until one day, that is. Following one of my routine doctor appointments, my doctor informed me that I had lung cancer and that I only had a few years to live at most. As you can imagine, I was shocked. Not just shocked; I could see all of my hopes and dreams being shattered right before my very eyes. Still, my doctor gave me hope by telling me that there was a chance, however slim, that Chemotherapy and various other things could help me. After speaking with my wife, I decided to receive the treatments.
All was not lost. I still had a perfect family that I could rely on and get emotional support from. I still had hope for the future. I'm a firm believer that you should make the best of things rather than wallow in depression. I had to press on: not just for my sake, but for the sake of my loved ones. But my strong resolve was soon shattered.
The family I thought I could count on betrayed me. My wife, whom I loved deeply, filed for a divorce. She said that she could not handle the emotional trauma of being with someone who had cancer. She apologized profusely, but no matter what I said, I could not change her mind. I screamed, I cried, and I begged her to rethink her decision, but it was all to no avail.
In my madness, I made all kinds of accusations. I said that she was cheating on me, that she never loved me, that she just married me for my money, and various other things. I soon learned, however, that a few of those were more than just baseless accusations. I began stalking her, going through all of her personal possessions, and trying uncover any secrets she may have been keeping. What I discovered horrified me: she had been cheating on me with another man for the past year. She must have been waiting for an opportune time to abandon me for this other man.
When confronted about her betrayal, she screamed at me, told me it was none of my business, told me that I was always a worthless husband, and told me that I was an abusive man. I soon discovered that there was absolutely nothing that I could do. My marriage was in shambles, and by this point, I was on the brink of suicide. The only thing keeping me going was my devotion to my precious daughter.
It wasn't long before I received news from my insurance company that they were getting rid of my coverage. They gave me multitudes of vague and bogus reasons, but anyone could figure out their true reason: they did not want to waste money on a dying man. Naturally, I planned to fight this with every fiber of my being, but I knew it would be a long, drawn out process.
In the span of a year, I went from a very happy man who had everything he wanted to a miserable shell of what I once was. I couldn't take it anymore. Despite the fact that I wanted to remain in this world for the sake of my daughter, I tried committing suicide four times. All four attempts failed. I needed something to take my misery, regret, and anger out on. First I began verbally abusing my daughter. It wasn't long before I began physically abusing her. Sometimes I did it with my bare hands, and other times I used various objects. Beating my daughter soon became my only pleasure. My life had spiraled out of control into a den of anguish, uncertainty, and madness.
That's when it happened: I found MyCleanPC. I downloaded it, scanned my computer, and had it fix all of my problems. MyCleanPC is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever!
My wife's response? "MyCleanPC came through with flying colours where no one else could!"
My daughter was
-----------
Well, to begin, I'm just your average guy. But unlike your average guy, I once had everything anyone could ever want: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful two-story house, an adorable seven year old daughter, a stable job, and a nice salary. Basically, I was living the American dream. None of my needs or wants were left unfulfilled. The family always got along, and everything was perfect.
Until one day, that is. Following one of my routine doctor appointments, my doctor informed me that I had lung cancer and that I only had a few years to live at most. As you can imagine, I was shocked. Not just shocked; I could see all of my hopes and dreams being shattered right before my very eyes. Still, my doctor gave me hope by telling me that there was a chance, however slim, that Chemotherapy and various other things could help me. After speaking with my wife, I decided to receive the treatments.
All was not lost. I still had a perfect family that I could rely on and get emotional support from. I still had hope for the future. I'm a firm believer that you should make the best of things rather than wallow in depression. I had to press on: not just for my sake, but for the sake of my loved ones. But my strong resolve was soon shattered.
The family I thought I could count on betrayed me. My wife, whom I loved deeply, filed for a divorce. She said that she could not handle the emotional trauma of being with someone who had cancer. She apologized profusely, but no matter what I said, I could not change her mind. I screamed, I cried, and I begged her to rethink her decision, but it was all to no avail.
In my madness, I made all kinds of accusations. I said that she was cheating on me, that she never loved me, that she just married me for my money, and various other things. I soon learned, however, that a few of those were more than just baseless accusations. I began stalking her, going through all of her personal possessions, and trying uncover any secrets she may have been keeping. What I discovered horrified me: she had been cheating on me with another man for the past year. She must have been waiting for an opportune time to abandon me for this other man.
When confronted about her betrayal, she screamed at me, told me it was none of my business, told me that I was always a worthless husband, and told me that I was an abusive man. I soon discovered that there was absolutely nothing that I could do. My marriage was in shambles, and by this point, I was on the brink of suicide. The only thing keeping me going was my devotion to my precious daughter.
It wasn't long before I received news from my insurance company that they were getting rid of my coverage. They gave me multitudes of vague and bogus reasons, but anyone could figure out their true reason: they did not want to waste money on a dying man. Naturally, I planned to fight this with every fiber of my being, but I knew it would be a long, drawn out process.
In the span of a year, I went from a very happy man who had everything he wanted to a miserable shell of what I once was. I couldn't take it anymore. Despite the fact that I wanted to remain in this world for the sake of my daughter, I tried committing suicide four times. All four attempts failed. I needed something to take my misery, regret, and anger out on. First I began verbally abusing my daughter. It wasn't long before I began physically abusing her. Sometimes I did it with my bare hands, and other times I used various objects. Beating my daughter soon became my only pleasure. My life had spiraled out of control into a den of anguish, uncertainty, and madness.
That's when it happened: I found MyCleanPC. I downloaded it, scanned my computer, and had it fix all of my problems. MyCleanPC is outstanding! My computer is running faster than ever!
My wife's response? "MyCleanPC came through with flying colours where no one else could!"
My daughter was
Yes, they are. They're taught so many different ways its not even funny.
No, they're not. They might think they understand, but they likely don't. Schools encourage rote memorization.
If your in line at a fast food restaurant, you need to be able to estimate if the $20 in your pocket will cover the order you plan on making or not. Combo is $7.99 round to $8, I need two of them...$16 tax is 7%.. round to $10... $1.60 tax... $17.60 total; ok I'm good.
If you need to memorize a table to do that, then maybe you're just slow. I can think about it and calculate it almost instantly, without even memorizing results from a table.
Of course, I still maintain that math isn't about speed, and it's that kind of thinking that makes me wish I was homeschooled or something instead of being sent to an awful public school.
Basic arithmetic and advanced mathematics are no more the same subject than basic arithmetic
Of course they're not.
Being able to instant recall the multiplication tables is a useful capability to have, not just for math, but for life in general.
Keep saying that, while I continue not using them and getting along fine.
But I've had this discussion so many times before, and people who are dead-set on rote memorization don't seem to be capable of understanding how other people can get along just fine without it in many of the places they used it.
Can you really not tell the product of two single-digit numbers at a glance?
I didn't waste time explicitly trying to memorize them, but results I saw often were memorized. Yes, that is different than explicitly trying to memorize a table.
I'm sorry for your innumeracy.
And yet I understand many abstract mathematical concepts that most rote memorization drones produced by schools could never even hope to comprehend. I'll take my "innumeracy" and not waste my time with a table.
Why don't you go dig a giant hole in the ground with a spoon? It builds character, and until you do that, you're not a True Human Being.
Hysterical exaggeration. It is explained to small children what multiplication means.
But they're never taught how and why it works. Ask them, and a grand majority of them will just regurgitate garbage they heard, if they say anything at all.
After that, rote memorization of the tables increases efficiency.
Math is a form of art; it's not about speed. Plenty of mathematicians are rather slow at performing trivial calculations, but they are far beyond the fools our public schools pump out. Not really because of that, but because it doesn't matter. Instead of tables, why not use one's understanding of multiplication and such to observe simple patterns and tricks that will work in general, rather than be confined to some idiotic table of calculations?
But it's been shown that memorizing multiplication tables (and using them in drill until you reach effortless competence with multiplication) directly improves your ability to learn more abstract math and related reasoning.
It's been shown using some flawed study that likely had subjective criteria and used crappy tests to measure people's abilities.
I never bothered memorizing the multiplication tables, and I never will. I'd rather learn how and why things work, and because of that, I learn general tricks that help me solve pointless calculations faster; I'm not confined by some stupid table.
The tests are garbage and don't mean anything. They mostly just test for rote memorization.
So you're saying people have a right to freedom and no censorship.
I said that a few posts ago, so it's rather strange to hear you mentioning it now.
Humm, get the UN to agree with it and you might have a case.
I don't need the UN to agree with facts; facts are facts regardless of whether they agree. In the US, we have the first amendment. The government may ignore, and we should stop them from doing so, but we have it. Countries with government censorship do indeed need to put a stop to it, one way or another.
"Every nation gets the government it deserves."
I disagree that it's deserved. People may be apathetic and foolish, but I don't think it's moral to screw them over simply because of that. I would say, instead, that every nation gets the government it's willing to tolerate.
If you want liberty then you'll have to fight to change the statis quo because no nation on earth is free.
Obviously.
If you don't want to watch it, then don't. You don't get to use censorship to stop everyone else from seeing something you're offended by; that's 100% anti-freedom.
I don't like your comment. Therefore, no one else should be able to see it. But I'm sure you'll talk about how this is 100% different because of some arbitrary nonsense you spew forth. I can do the same, so don't waste your time.
Does it make us less human and desensitize us to future events? Yes.
Not only can you not prove that (I assure you, watching a video does not turn someone into a different species.), but it wouldn't matter if you could; government censorship is 100% intolerable, and anyone advocating it should move to North Korea.
Don't confuse free speech and the right to information as the same thing either.
If your speech is removed by the government, then your free speech rights are being infringed upon; the end.
X is worse than Y != Y is not bad. "first world problems" is a phrase used by fools who don't understand simple logic. Problems are problems, no matter how small.
Give me no censorship at all; anything else is 100% intolerable, regardless of how bad other countries are.
Also, this pursuit of power *over the populace* is evil.
It depends on the means.
And their means are evil. Way to miss the point.
The government doesn't need to ban guns in order to oppress the populace, because the people with guns don't seem to be doing shit about all these constitutional violations anyway. Some (not all) even support this nonsense in the name of fighting "terrorism." I guess the 2nd amendment is the only thing that matters to some of them.
The countless abuses of government power throughout history, and simple, observable human nature, should have made it plainly obvious that giving the government that much power was a awful idea. Furthermore, we're supposed to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave," and our country was founded on a distrust of government, which is another reason for all the limitations we place upon it. I cannot even fathom how anyone would not understand this.
It's not that they just shrugged it off; it's that throwing away fundamental freedoms and the constitution for security is inherently disgusting. You should take the critics seriously. The people who are trying to manipulate you after some disaster are the ones who should not be taken seriously.
The existence of the slippery slope was just too obvious. Again, we have all the government abuses throughout history to attest to that.
You didn't know all along... you worried about it, you feared for it, but you didn't know Now you do
This isn't the first time the NSA has done something like this. When the Patriot Act came around, and even before that, anyone with a brain knew that they were at least spying on citizens. If you give the government the power to collect all this information on people, that's what it's going to do. Plus, there were news stories long before Snowden that dispelled all doubts. What I did not know was the details of the programs, and that was what information Snowden provided.
If the NSA hears about a delivery of 500 Kilos of drugs and they intercept it, I'm fine with that
I'm not. The NSA should have nothing to do with drugs, and shouldn't be collecting all this 'metadata' on people in the first place.
They're probably utterly ignorant of history, and can't come to simple conclusions on their own. Even someone who is ignorant of history should know that those with massive amounts of power will abuse it.
"Land of the free, home of the brave," huh? Not while most of the population is either apathetic or supports massive violations of the constitution and people's fundamental liberties.
It never seemed stupid to anyone with even a tiny bit of knowledge about history.
Well you do tolerate it, what do you do to combat it?
Vote for people I feel would truly represent me, participate in protests, donate to various organizations who lobby for policies I agree with, write to my supposed 'representatives', and encourage others to do the same. That might not be much, but it's also not nothing.
Stay away from copyrighted content, but you can't, you are unable to. The problem is you know your system doesn't work and you *require* the products of the copyrighted system.
The reason I don't is because copyright is irrelevant to me. Don't tell me what I know, or I'll have to start doing the same to you. You know that you're 100% incorrect, and that's why you spew forth ad hominems left and right. Does that sound wrong? It probably is. But that's what happens when you assume you know what others believe. In fact, telling others what they themselves believe is something I've seen religious fundamentalists do quite often. Do you enjoy the company you keep?
No, your need for copyrighted content *proves* you need copyright until you can *demonstrate objectively* that copyrighted content would have existed without copyright. Can you?
I use copyrighted content because it is there. If it wasn't there, I would still live. It is by no means a "need," and you're an imbecile for using such a term in this context.
Whether it would be there or not is not known to you or me.
Wrong again! The onus most certainly is on you but you want to shift that onus because you know you cannot prove your system is superior.
It *is* law, so prove it is ineffective and that all copyrighted content would have been created whether or not the law exists. Come on, prove it. Oh right, you can't.
No, the onus is not on me, but on those who seek to create or defend laws that were never proven to be effective to begin with. Why do you get to impose or defend unproven restrictions without a shred of proof, and then you get to shift the onus on other people after you've forced through your unjust laws? That's an interesting strategy.
Not the same thing, use only copyleft / public domain content or prove objectively that copyrighted content would exist without copyright law. Come on, if you're right that would be easy but your inability to do it proves unequivocally that you are wrong.
If you think that proving whether or not something would exist in an alternate universe without copyright law is easy, then you don't much of anything.
Strawmen won't help you here, but nice try.
Not a straw man (you don't even understand that term); I was just using your own stupid logic ("If I force a law or system on people, then anyone who opposes it must prove it's *not* effective, instead of the other way around!")
Your failure to understand the term "ad hominem attacks" is quite clear here, you need to educate yourself on the meaning of that because your response is invalid.
I do not fail to understand what it means; that would be you, ignorant fool. Attacking me in such a way will not actually debunk my arguments.
But one thing you're overlooking is that I do not care only about how effective copyright is. The single most important reasons I oppose copyright is because it infringes upon free speech (through censorship) rights and real private property rights. I would oppose it even if it was 100% effective. Your insinuations that I "need" copyrighted content demonstrate your ignorance of what a "need" is, demonstrate your ignorance of my actual position, and demonstrate your ignorance of logical debate.
But I'm sure you'll continue trying to shift the onus of proof onto me simply because others forced through laws before they ever had a shred of proof that they'd be effective, and since they were able to push through the laws, that must mean the restrictions the laws place on people are perfectly valid and therefore the onus of proof shifts to those who reject the laws. That's definitely a just, workable system.
Give me an example of a memorization question from any standardized test?
Any questions like "Find the missing side of the triangle." rely on rote memorization of a specific procedure rather than a true understanding of why it works. Word problems are no better. Furthermore, multiple choice inherently constrains what answers someone can give, so writing out a detailed explanation of why and how something works is not possible.
These crappy tests simply do not care whether you understand the material.
Did your kid blow the SATs and so now you have to spend the rest of your life making excuses for their failure?
Did you do well on standardized tests and so now you're desperate to defend them? Meaningless assumptions.
Actually, these kind of standardized tests are very important to education because you can't judge how good a student is by looking at their grades
You can't judge how good a student is by using shitty standardized tests that only test for rote memorization.
Standardized tests only compare rote memorization ability, which is simply unimpressive.