Statism - the fundamental dysfunction of our world

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

 

To be fair, WoD lives in Texas, and it's a pretty small state, so he probably already has Ebola from that Liberian guy.

 

 

Let's shut down all the airports and close the borders just in case though.

A hundred people have been exposed to that guy, how would you like to be one of them? But I guess it's OK so long as it's someone else.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I've gotten exposed to SARS and the Bird Flu, given all my students spend holidays in Asia.  But yeah, it's a bit early to condemn the government when right now we have one guy who is quarantined and all the people he was in close contact are being watched and isolated.  What else are you looking for in a response to this?  Should we send everyone into the fallout bunkers immediately?

 

You students had SARS and Bird Flu? What we should do is stop having random people from affected countries be able to come here for any reason, most African countries have those restrictions already, which is the only way the epidemic hasn't spread to them.

[TrashMan]

 

To be fair, all research around spanking suggests it's absolutely horrible for children. Infact, interestingly my aunt apparently almost spanked me when I was 1 or 2 or maybe even 8 months old, and my mom flipped out on her. BOTH of my aunt's children ended up with some form of autism. Mind you I'm by no means implying spanking causes all autism, but I do recall encountering a study that linked them to some degree. Likewise I think my aunt is a particularly bad and drastic example.

 

   Point is merely that spanking is a terrible punishment that should be avoided at all costs and only used if everything else has been exhausted. My mom had a no spanking policy and resorted to it once when I was 4 or so, but it was just once and she didn't let it become some lazy standard "cuz easier."

 

 

I'll believe that just as I'm going to believe the moon is made of cheese.

For thousands of years children have been spanked and it worked fine. Spanking is one of the tools in the parenting box. It's not the only one, and one that should be rarely used, but to deny or forbid it completely? Sheer, utter folly.

 

It's the same kind of BS as is "video games cause violence in children" or this entire feminisim/gamersgate crap going on now. A bunch of people utterly convinced they are campaiging for a great cause.

 

Studies? Articles?

HAH! In this day and age nothing can be trusted anymore.

[Agiel]

I feel that like religious nuts, Randists believe that somehow absolute faith in their dogma secures their fate against oblivion.

 

Oblivion in this case being an existence of mediocrity working a nine-to-five job as an office drone, wherein every day you stand in the shower regretting the decisions you made in life.

[Namutree]

I feel that like religious nuts, Randists believe that somehow absolute faith in their dogma secures their fate against oblivion.

 

Oblivion in this case being an existence of mediocrity working a nine-to-five job as an office drone, wherein every day you stand in the shower regretting the decisions you made in life.

I don't think that's true. I think Objectivists (Which is what they call themselves) simply want the world to be simple.

 

Force =  Bad

Voluntarism = Good

 

The real world isn't that simple though.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Sorry to keep derailing the thread, but this is interesting : http://westhunt.wordpress.com/2014/10/03/disaster-in-the-south-pacific/

[Namutree]

Sorry to keep derailing the thread, but this is interesting : http://westhunt.wordpress.com/2014/10/03/disaster-in-the-south-pacific/

Reading about how little people understood viruses/bacteria back then helps me appreciate modern medicine. This was a good read.

[Gorgon]

Every time people write 'studies say' and don't cite it makes baby jesus cry. 

[Walsingham]

As if they didn't already have enough problems, there's now an outbreak of the Marburg virus in Uganda.

 

http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2014-10/05/content_33686011.htm

[AGX-17]

Telling people essentially "read this/watch all this stuff, blindly accept it and adhere to my beliefs or you're an ignorant sheep who just thinks what they're told to" without a shred of irony isn't really the best tone to set for a thread from the outset.

 

The human brain has already stopped your thread dead in its tracks, anyway. Confirmation bias and the backfire effect practically guarantee that you will change nobody's belief systems and nobody who argues against you will change yours.

Edited October 6, 2014 by AGX-17

[Walsingham]

Telling people essentially "read this/watch all this stuff, blindly accept it and adhere to my beliefs or you're an ignorant sheep who just thinks what they're told to" without a shred of irony isn't really the best tone to set for a thread from the outset.

 

The human brain has already stopped your thread dead in its tracks, anyway. Confirmation bias and the backfire effect practically guarantee that you will change nobody's belief systems and nobody who argues against you will change yours.

 

Someone who challenged, and shifted some of my views is Guard Dog.

 

He didn't do that by calling me an **** and posting some links.

[Kroney]

Hi guys! It's me, Kroney from the internet. I pop up every now again to be sarcastic at people. I've got to say, you guys really do have a great variety of posters on here, don't you? This chap in particular is a triumph. Say, do you think he'll be able to find time to carry on posting links to what I shall generously call "alternative theory" sites next half term?

Edited October 7, 2014 by Kroney