barack obama is not a pawn. if you think he is, this reveals more about your cognitive deficiencies in thinking about how the world works, than how the world actually works
"if gay marriage is legalized, people will marry goats, children, corpses, etc. therefore, gay marriage should be illegal"
"you can't smoke marijuana because marijuana is a gateway drug where the user inevitably slips into cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. therefore, marijuana should be illegal"
"premarital sex is wrong because it inevitably leads to orgies, pornography, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, etc. therefore, premarital sex should be outlawed"
etc.
slippery slope is a form of appeal to emotion. it's based on fear and hysteria, not logic. that you give an inch, and inevitably, a yard will be taken. no, that's bullshit
for the idea of the slippery slope to work, you have to assume that we aren't dealing with thinking human beings who can tell the difference between various topics, you have to assume that our laws are some sort of living force that if you release a seed of a concept into the wild it inevitably grows into a dark powerful entity we have no control over and it overwhelms all sense of reason until dystopia arrives. this is ridiculous. this is absurd. it's also the essence of the slippery slope argument
i can tell the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. i can tell the difference between marijuana and methamphetamine
and i can tell the difference between political expression and revolution. so can the average chinese citizen. why can't you?
all arguments that depend upon the idea of a slippery slope fail
look, folks: i can sit here, and criticize barack obama and his policies and the democratic party, all i want, here in the usa
i can't threaten his life though
ok, right there, that limitation: what does that mean? does it mean that because there are SOME limits on my freedom of expression, that that is logically equivalent to ANY limit on my expression?
"i can't threaten the president's life. therefore, i live in tyranny, and that limitation is equivalent to ANY limits on my expression, such as a limit on my right to criticize political ideologies"
is that a valid logical statement in your eyes?
no? then why don't you see that all the limits some of you have listed in this thread on your freedom of expression in the west is also NOT equivalent to what china does?
what you are doing, frankly, is showing hamfisted ignorance on your part. you reveal your own crude, uneducated way of looking at the concept of your freedom and your rights
some intellectual charity for you: in every society that ever existed, currently exists, and always will exist, limits will be placed on what you can say or do. because some people say and do things that are CRIMES. now, you may not agree with classifying some behaviors as crimes that currently your society stands against. which is fine. you can say "this behavior XYZ is not criminal, my society is wrong for saying that behavior XYZ is criminal." it is 100% legitimate for you say that
what is NOT legitimate for you to say is "because society places some limits on some behaviors, this is equivalent to society limiting ANY behavior, it's all the same. " no, it is NOT all the same. each behavior is DIFFERENT, and must be evaluated DIFFERENTLY, and some behaviors are PERFECTLY VALID subjects for limitation. do you understand that? please understand there will ALWAYS be some behavior that society classifies as crimes. you need to make peace with that fact, because that fact is never going away
to wit: just because a society classifies some expression as crime does not mean that it is equivalent to another society that classifies SIMPLE POLITICAL EXPRESSION as a crime. THAT'S the problem with china, and it is a valid criticism, a criticism that is NOT nullified, because the usa goes after kiddie porn. really
that's really the truth. please understand that engaging in false equivalencies only makes you look like a fool who doesn't understand what freedom of expression really is, and how it exists in natural philosophical tension with other fundamental freedoms in this world, with or without any government policies in play. grow up, develop a more sophisticated and nuanced way of looking at your world. because some of you right now look like idiots engaged in subject matter you simply do not understand
Well said, and I agree. The seeds of our salvation, and our destruction, are inside us. Against which, we have no real defense. Who watches the watchmen? Civilization then simply will have natural cycles of rise and decay.
But none of these observations convince me to stop trying to maintain civilization. Even as I understand that my ideas of the maintenance that is needed might actually be destructive. You have to assert yourself in life. Doubt renders your life impotent and pointless. So go with your best guess, even though you know your efforts might actually do more harm than good. Because no effort at all most certainly will do more harm than good, since you leave the maintenance of civilization to others, who could have ideas even worse than yours.
All that is required for evil to succeed is good men to do nothing. No struggle, no progress.
peace and freedom require maintenance yes. the natural state of humanity is to slide to slavery and conflict. the notion that the implements that preserve peace and freedom are morally equivalent to the implements that extend slavery and conflict is an absurdity believed only be imbeciles
show me a street where the police patrol. show me a street where they don't. you tell me which street is peaceful and free. yet that still won't stop stop some idiots from bemoaning the existence of the police
face it: civilization requires maintenance against natural, organic, self-emergent forces of decay. what do you think would happen to civilization if that maintenance effort were stopped? you only feel disdain for this maintenance effort because, safely coccooned in the ivory tower, you fail to be able and look down and see what is holding your tower up. you live a life of benefits you don't understand, and sneer at that which makes those benefits possible. you're a parasite
well yeah, but just because fraud will always exist doesn't mean you stop trying to minimize it
altering security protocols to prevent frequent and common means of exploitation is worthwhile, even though someone somewhere will still get ripped off
in any society of human beings, free speech will always be threatened, for various arbitrary reasons, such as this asshole Joseph Rakofsky and his wounded ego
freedom, in any society, for all time, will always erode, and must always be fought for, and maintained. concepts like freedom are not things that are fought for once, and then that's it: freedom established! happy ever after is here! real life is a not fairy tale kingdom
no, freedom is constantly under attack, forever, and you, yes YOU have to keep fighting for it, or it will decay. depend upon someone else to fight for it, and if enough people do the same thing, it will also decay, since no one is actually fighting for freedom. so whose responsibility is freedom? YOURS. in a society where enough people think that, and you live in the best society on earth
aside to Ratfuckski:
grow up, scumbag: people say nasty things about people all the time. let it pass and move on. you only validate their opinion of you when you react to it. ignore it, and the insult loses power over you, and by extension, everyone else. even better, embrace it, make a joke, and laugh at yourself, and turn a negative into a positive impression about how smooth your are
but give an insult attention, and you validate someone's poor opinion of you. to the extent it becomes truth. after all, if it wasn't the truth that you suck as a lawyer, why would you react so vigorously to the accusation? you're a loser Ratfuckski. now sue me, scumbag
i'm a man in black who enjoys watching interplanetary sex acts, but i don't smoke. i resent the stereotyping, you insensitive clod!
us men in black are unique and special individuals, to be valued and judged independently on the merits of our unique journey in life, not to be thought of as a monolithic force bent on galactic domination!
and if not, if you are part of the oligopoly of large banks worried about competition that works for the consumer (but not for you), then there is a congressional whore in your employ holding a chair on a finance committee who can "raise serious objections" about some sort of "regulations" for you
you're talking about some pretty fringe time cases
besides, the problem is easily corrected: if you write something valuable to you that you fear someone will rip off, you ACTIVELY submit the page to the search engines, rather than waiting for them to be passively scanned
and if google wallet and its competitors are smart, they'll start with better security from the ground up, and use that as a selling point. consumer awareness of credit card insecurity is high
replacing all our credit cards with our cell phones is a natural evolution, regardless. but at this stage, in the beginning of the evolution, now is the time to address security robustly, before weaknesses get baked in
and for the lunatic paranoid fringe who thinks their own democratically elected government is an evil alien entity out to butt rape you: i said replace CREDIT CARDS, not replace cash
click on the "comment subject" input type=text line, then hit tab to get into the textarea field without triggering the errant javascript
yes, i know, this sucks too, it's only a half-measure. it's just easier to manage until slashdot finally fixes their javascript
slashdot: i code for the web. my desktop always has 5 browsers open: firefox, safari, ie, chrome, and opera. i test to make sure my code works in all five
slashdot: please make sure you do the same before you release your code to the wild
that it will be easy to randomize/ spoof/ rip off, and a stupid tag doesn't change anything:
FIRST APPEARANCE of author tag means something. and no, it doesn't mean i can change the publish date on the file to June 1st, 1896 and always be the first author: when did SEARCH ENGINES first see content XYZ with author tag ABC?
that's case closed, right there. you can't spoof this system, unless you have a time machine, or you can hack google
now, if anyone rips off your content, you will be able to point to google's independent records and say "google says i wrote it first, you're ripping me off"
down the road, this could even replace the copyright system, since this is basically how copyright currently works
it's certainly better than other options for the poor in china
i always want to ask people who complain about the exploitation of factory workers in poor countries: what's your alternative? go back to the farm and starve?
factories in poor countries are exploitation RELATIVE to standards in the west. but RELATIVE to where these workers are coming from, conditions are BETTER
what came of horrible industrial conditions 100 years ago in the usa? workers agitated for the labor laws we now enjoy in the usa (republican attempts to turn the usa back into a poor country with no worker standards notwithstanding)
they are asserting their rights, they are agitating for labor laws
this is the way of PROGRESS: you don't move from squalid poor slum to the best conditions in the rich west by snapping your fingers. you climb there, you STRUGGLE. there is no other way
and china is certainly leveraging its industrial might to be as rich as the west, to dominate the west, in a decade or so. it's not exploitation, i'm sorry. it's called progress. chinese workers are busting their ass so their children live by western standards. and that's commendable of them. and some whiny westerner complaining about exploitation is certainly of no use or help to them
you're right, she's not stupid. she's not smart either. i don't know about you, but i prefer an intelligent leader, no?
and she is playing the left like a fiddle. mainly because the left can't keep it's rage in place at the idea that many americans don't have a problem electing pam anderson to the white house
Slashdot Mirror
and should be encouraged
additionally, all the video in patrol cars, street lights, intersections...
we pay for that, and there should be a right to access those feeds if we pay a small fee and fill out some paperwork
i don't understand a world where the police have anything to fear by the truth being shown
LOL ;-P
barack obama is not a pawn. if you think he is, this reveals more about your cognitive deficiencies in thinking about how the world works, than how the world actually works
hey, asshole: it's a new system, give it time. i'm glad you've decided everything already for all of us. don't be such a blowhard
examples of slippery slopes:
"if gay marriage is legalized, people will marry goats, children, corpses, etc. therefore, gay marriage should be illegal"
"you can't smoke marijuana because marijuana is a gateway drug where the user inevitably slips into cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. therefore, marijuana should be illegal"
"premarital sex is wrong because it inevitably leads to orgies, pornography, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, etc. therefore, premarital sex should be outlawed"
etc.
slippery slope is a form of appeal to emotion. it's based on fear and hysteria, not logic. that you give an inch, and inevitably, a yard will be taken. no, that's bullshit
for the idea of the slippery slope to work, you have to assume that we aren't dealing with thinking human beings who can tell the difference between various topics, you have to assume that our laws are some sort of living force that if you release a seed of a concept into the wild it inevitably grows into a dark powerful entity we have no control over and it overwhelms all sense of reason until dystopia arrives. this is ridiculous. this is absurd. it's also the essence of the slippery slope argument
i can tell the difference between homosexuality and pedophilia. i can tell the difference between marijuana and methamphetamine
and i can tell the difference between political expression and revolution. so can the average chinese citizen. why can't you?
all arguments that depend upon the idea of a slippery slope fail
now kiss the ring
there will be an envelope for you at humphry's bar if you succeed, payment and next assignment
look, folks: i can sit here, and criticize barack obama and his policies and the democratic party, all i want, here in the usa
i can't threaten his life though
ok, right there, that limitation: what does that mean? does it mean that because there are SOME limits on my freedom of expression, that that is logically equivalent to ANY limit on my expression?
"i can't threaten the president's life. therefore, i live in tyranny, and that limitation is equivalent to ANY limits on my expression, such as a limit on my right to criticize political ideologies"
is that a valid logical statement in your eyes?
no? then why don't you see that all the limits some of you have listed in this thread on your freedom of expression in the west is also NOT equivalent to what china does?
what you are doing, frankly, is showing hamfisted ignorance on your part. you reveal your own crude, uneducated way of looking at the concept of your freedom and your rights
some intellectual charity for you: in every society that ever existed, currently exists, and always will exist, limits will be placed on what you can say or do. because some people say and do things that are CRIMES. now, you may not agree with classifying some behaviors as crimes that currently your society stands against. which is fine. you can say "this behavior XYZ is not criminal, my society is wrong for saying that behavior XYZ is criminal." it is 100% legitimate for you say that
what is NOT legitimate for you to say is "because society places some limits on some behaviors, this is equivalent to society limiting ANY behavior, it's all the same. " no, it is NOT all the same. each behavior is DIFFERENT, and must be evaluated DIFFERENTLY, and some behaviors are PERFECTLY VALID subjects for limitation. do you understand that? please understand there will ALWAYS be some behavior that society classifies as crimes. you need to make peace with that fact, because that fact is never going away
to wit: just because a society classifies some expression as crime does not mean that it is equivalent to another society that classifies SIMPLE POLITICAL EXPRESSION as a crime. THAT'S the problem with china, and it is a valid criticism, a criticism that is NOT nullified, because the usa goes after kiddie porn. really
that's really the truth. please understand that engaging in false equivalencies only makes you look like a fool who doesn't understand what freedom of expression really is, and how it exists in natural philosophical tension with other fundamental freedoms in this world, with or without any government policies in play. grow up, develop a more sophisticated and nuanced way of looking at your world. because some of you right now look like idiots engaged in subject matter you simply do not understand
said "countertrolling", the wannabe vigilante
YOU are a self-styled button-man. you are at war, by your own choice, with what you see as enemies of what you think is right
which is fine, that behavior doesn't bother me. countertroll to your heart's content, vigilante, with my blessing
what bothers me is that you're a giant hypocrite. because the behavior you criticize, is your own
Well said, and I agree. The seeds of our salvation, and our destruction, are inside us. Against which, we have no real defense. Who watches the watchmen? Civilization then simply will have natural cycles of rise and decay.
But none of these observations convince me to stop trying to maintain civilization. Even as I understand that my ideas of the maintenance that is needed might actually be destructive. You have to assert yourself in life. Doubt renders your life impotent and pointless. So go with your best guess, even though you know your efforts might actually do more harm than good. Because no effort at all most certainly will do more harm than good, since you leave the maintenance of civilization to others, who could have ideas even worse than yours.
All that is required for evil to succeed is good men to do nothing. No struggle, no progress.
My gosh, my post has become empty platitudes.
peace and freedom require maintenance yes. the natural state of humanity is to slide to slavery and conflict. the notion that the implements that preserve peace and freedom are morally equivalent to the implements that extend slavery and conflict is an absurdity believed only be imbeciles
show me a street where the police patrol. show me a street where they don't. you tell me which street is peaceful and free. yet that still won't stop stop some idiots from bemoaning the existence of the police
face it: civilization requires maintenance against natural, organic, self-emergent forces of decay. what do you think would happen to civilization if that maintenance effort were stopped? you only feel disdain for this maintenance effort because, safely coccooned in the ivory tower, you fail to be able and look down and see what is holding your tower up. you live a life of benefits you don't understand, and sneer at that which makes those benefits possible. you're a parasite
well yeah, but just because fraud will always exist doesn't mean you stop trying to minimize it
altering security protocols to prevent frequent and common means of exploitation is worthwhile, even though someone somewhere will still get ripped off
in any society of human beings, free speech will always be threatened, for various arbitrary reasons, such as this asshole Joseph Rakofsky and his wounded ego
freedom, in any society, for all time, will always erode, and must always be fought for, and maintained. concepts like freedom are not things that are fought for once, and then that's it: freedom established! happy ever after is here! real life is a not fairy tale kingdom
no, freedom is constantly under attack, forever, and you, yes YOU have to keep fighting for it, or it will decay. depend upon someone else to fight for it, and if enough people do the same thing, it will also decay, since no one is actually fighting for freedom. so whose responsibility is freedom? YOURS. in a society where enough people think that, and you live in the best society on earth
aside to Ratfuckski:
grow up, scumbag: people say nasty things about people all the time. let it pass and move on. you only validate their opinion of you when you react to it. ignore it, and the insult loses power over you, and by extension, everyone else. even better, embrace it, make a joke, and laugh at yourself, and turn a negative into a positive impression about how smooth your are
but give an insult attention, and you validate someone's poor opinion of you. to the extent it becomes truth. after all, if it wasn't the truth that you suck as a lawyer, why would you react so vigorously to the accusation? you're a loser Ratfuckski. now sue me, scumbag
the same could be said for credit cards. think of all points on the chain that could fail but have to work for credit cards to work
but that doesn't seem to bother you
there are indeed more points of failure with cellphones
and also increases in convenience
and that latter point outweighs any argument you could make
i'm a man in black who enjoys watching interplanetary sex acts, but i don't smoke. i resent the stereotyping, you insensitive clod!
us men in black are unique and special individuals, to be valued and judged independently on the merits of our unique journey in life, not to be thought of as a monolithic force bent on galactic domination!
we're talking about a whole new system here, that google just put in place
so either google is really concerned about properly attributing sources, and guarantees the timestamp on a submission
or google just added support for the author="" attribute, and all their work means nothing
besides, you really believe there's no timestamp record on their addurl page?
google, the people who track everyone and everything?
there might be regulations about that
and if not, if you are part of the oligopoly of large banks worried about competition that works for the consumer (but not for you), then there is a congressional whore in your employ holding a chair on a finance committee who can "raise serious objections" about some sort of "regulations" for you
true
but i'm amused by their desperation
i call them out for my entertainment purposes
you're talking about some pretty fringe time cases
besides, the problem is easily corrected: if you write something valuable to you that you fear someone will rip off, you ACTIVELY submit the page to the search engines, rather than waiting for them to be passively scanned
and if google wallet and its competitors are smart, they'll start with better security from the ground up, and use that as a selling point. consumer awareness of credit card insecurity is high
replacing all our credit cards with our cell phones is a natural evolution, regardless. but at this stage, in the beginning of the evolution, now is the time to address security robustly, before weaknesses get baked in
and for the lunatic paranoid fringe who thinks their own democratically elected government is an evil alien entity out to butt rape you: i said replace CREDIT CARDS, not replace cash
click on the "comment subject" input type=text line, then hit tab to get into the textarea field without triggering the errant javascript
yes, i know, this sucks too, it's only a half-measure. it's just easier to manage until slashdot finally fixes their javascript
slashdot: i code for the web. my desktop always has 5 browsers open: firefox, safari, ie, chrome, and opera. i test to make sure my code works in all five
slashdot: please make sure you do the same before you release your code to the wild
thanks
that it will be easy to randomize/ spoof/ rip off, and a stupid tag doesn't change anything:
FIRST APPEARANCE of author tag means something. and no, it doesn't mean i can change the publish date on the file to June 1st, 1896 and always be the first author: when did SEARCH ENGINES first see content XYZ with author tag ABC?
that's case closed, right there. you can't spoof this system, unless you have a time machine, or you can hack google
now, if anyone rips off your content, you will be able to point to google's independent records and say "google says i wrote it first, you're ripping me off"
down the road, this could even replace the copyright system, since this is basically how copyright currently works
i think the wealthy should be curbed. but you still have to struggle. everyone does
it's certainly better than other options for the poor in china
i always want to ask people who complain about the exploitation of factory workers in poor countries: what's your alternative? go back to the farm and starve?
factories in poor countries are exploitation RELATIVE to standards in the west. but RELATIVE to where these workers are coming from, conditions are BETTER
here, from us history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
this is basically china, today
what came of horrible industrial conditions 100 years ago in the usa? workers agitated for the labor laws we now enjoy in the usa (republican attempts to turn the usa back into a poor country with no worker standards notwithstanding)
what are chinese workers now doing?
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/labor-issues/index.html
they are asserting their rights, they are agitating for labor laws
this is the way of PROGRESS: you don't move from squalid poor slum to the best conditions in the rich west by snapping your fingers. you climb there, you STRUGGLE. there is no other way
and china is certainly leveraging its industrial might to be as rich as the west, to dominate the west, in a decade or so. it's not exploitation, i'm sorry. it's called progress. chinese workers are busting their ass so their children live by western standards. and that's commendable of them. and some whiny westerner complaining about exploitation is certainly of no use or help to them
that's easy
the left is enraged and in grief that so many fellow americans don't have a problem electing pam anderson to the white house
i prefer my leaders intelligent. sorry
you're right, she's not stupid. she's not smart either. i don't know about you, but i prefer an intelligent leader, no?
and she is playing the left like a fiddle. mainly because the left can't keep it's rage in place at the idea that many americans don't have a problem electing pam anderson to the white house