tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post4560664666070927843..comments2023-10-17T08:19:58.196-04:00Comments on FreeThinke: FreeThinkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-85547530526711636272012-08-14T16:00:55.493-04:002012-08-14T16:00:55.493-04:00Well, thanks for all the contributions pro and con...Well, thanks for all the contributions pro and con. <br /><br />I never called anyone a "dimwit," though I suppose such an inference might be drawn if someone on the receiving end is sensitive. <br /><br />This process is not as stressful as you might think, AOW. I admit to feeling frustrated when others fail to "catch my drift," as it were. <br /><br />For instance, did NO ONE notice the HUMOROUS aspect of this little item? <br /><br />Even though I made an effort to make a serious point about the nature of overzealous interventionists who want to change the world through their wily, often deceitful machinations, a lot of what I said was couched in terms so fanciful and exaggerated I thought it impossible that anyone might take it literally or strictly at face value. <br /><br />I've always thought it was possible to express serious concepts in ways that are entertaining and not purely didactic.<br /><br />Didacticism undoubtedly has its uses, but it really can be deadly dull when untempered with wit and the occasional flight of fancy.<br /><br />I don't know who said it first, but I've often quoted a line I first ran across at least thirty years ago:<br /><br /><b>"The world will not end in nuclear holocaust or by some cataclysmic natural disaster. It is far more likely the human race will become extinct through the persistent application of TERMINAL EARNESTNESS."</b><br /><br />I wouldn't be a bit surprised given the megadoses of oppressive suffocating nonsense coming out of Washington, D.C., if that diagnosis didn't prove to be prophetic.<br /><br />~ FTFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-20448549995579076342012-08-14T06:17:13.403-04:002012-08-14T06:17:13.403-04:00Running a blog and hosting a discussion in the blo...Running a blog and hosting a discussion in the blosophere are difficult tasks. <br /><br />Time consuming.<br /><br />Stressful.<br /><br />Thankless.<br /><br />So, why do we blog?<br /><br />I can speak only for myself:<br /><br />1. Catharsis<br /><br />2. Community<br /><br />3. Teaching<br /><br />Yesterday, I blogged very little. I was "in a mood" -- and not a good one. Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-38005512258339884142012-08-14T06:15:46.253-04:002012-08-14T06:15:46.253-04:00I should expand slightly something I wrote yesterd...I should expand slightly something I wrote yesterday.<br /><br />"proving each other wrong <i>in cases where you are wrong</i> is evidently productive"<br /><br />Trick tactics to make your opponent appear wrong, even when he's really right, are not productive.<br /><br />If we're wrong, we want to be aware of it, don't we?jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-59225482567573739282012-08-14T04:41:49.541-04:002012-08-14T04:41:49.541-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-22923357765749939672012-08-14T04:32:19.911-04:002012-08-14T04:32:19.911-04:00The Origins of Political Correctness by Bill Lind....<a href="http://www.academia.org/the-origins-of-political-correctness/" rel="nofollow">The Origins of Political Correctness</a> by Bill Lind.<br /><br /><a href="http://countercultureconservative.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/bill-lind-on-political-correctness/" rel="nofollow">Some videos </a>on the subject of political correctness and cultural Marxism by Bill Lind<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-6221565100752840152012-08-13T22:14:03.059-04:002012-08-13T22:14:03.059-04:00They always put forth the same old crap and expect...They always put forth the same old crap and expect different results. Mental instability.....roseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03948630176877454789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-61071748902985180912012-08-13T19:46:59.461-04:002012-08-13T19:46:59.461-04:00I wasn't feeling particularly angry when I pos...I wasn't feeling particularly angry when I posted my response. At least I don't recall feeling angry.<br /><br />And I think that I even threw out a disclaimer that my response was probably way overly simplified.<br /><br />I even threw in "???" to express that I wasn't sure if my understanding of what you said was correct.<br /><br />I don't deal in strawmen, and personally I think it's a bit ridiculous when people throw that term out there.<br /><br />This is not a contest. This is a discussion. If my arguments are weak, show me how they are weak. Show me where I'm wrong.<br /><br />I'm a reasonable guy, and I'm sorry if I came off as unreasonable here. I suppose "penis measuring contest," was probably not the most... neutral... term I could have used, but I admitedly wrote that response in a bit of a hurry.<br /><br />And don't worry about my emotional and social life. They're just fine. I do digest what people say. Most of the time I take some time to really think it through before I repsond, just in case I might have misunderstood.<br /><br />You assume that if I disagree with what you're saying, then I obviously don't understand what you're saying. Because your words are truth. To you, the truth that you express is so apparent and blatant that it should be comprehensible to even the dullest of people.<br /><br />That's not really an attack on you, because I do the same thing, too. I generally don't "vent my spleen" on other people's blogs unless I think there's some affront to decency or the life of the mind.<br /><br />Anyway, whenever someone on my blog writes a response detailing their understanding of what I said, and it's apparent to me that their understanding is contrary to what I was trying to say, I usually try to explain it in a different way rather than berate them or accuse them of venting their spleens.<br /><br />Surely you've seen me do that. Sometimes I write nearly an entire article's worth just to better explain myself.<br /><br />It's tiresome at times, but it's better than just saying "you didn't get it, dimwit," and leaving it at that.<br /><br />This is supposed to be a discussion, right? So discuss.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-82102438298962749812012-08-13T19:17:47.428-04:002012-08-13T19:17:47.428-04:00You always have great graphics. How do you find th...You always have great graphics. How do you find them?<br /><br />I like reading your stuff. Its really interesting.<br /><br />JamesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-45176429546654722812012-08-13T18:32:10.678-04:002012-08-13T18:32:10.678-04:00Mr. Sinclair,
I'm very much afraid I respond...<b>Mr. Sinclair, <br /><br />I'm very much afraid I responded to you with too much acerbity. Please try to forgive me.</b><br /><br />Instead of showing I was bit stung by your mildly rebarbative criticism, what I <i>should</i> have done was to ask you if you felt unwilling or uninterested in posting comments, because you mostly agree with the point of view expressed here, or because you disagree with it -- or because you believe I might be apt to come down on you like a ton of bricks? <br /><br />I always have a point in mind and continue to hope others will see it, and comment accordingly without any prompting from me. <br /><br />Instead, what I get most often are largely irrelevant, tangential, often personal remarks that seem unaware of what i was trying to say. <br /><br />I don't mean to imply that I crave <i>agreement</i>. That's not the problem. What I do long for, however, is a measure on <i>understanding</i> of what I'm driving at. <br /><br />Understanding -- even with reasoned disagreement is, apparently, The Pearl of Great Price in the blogosphere.<br /><br />Most interlocutors seem to have a positive genius for NOT getting the point, and instead choose to air grievances of a general sort often totally unrelated to the topic.<br /><br />It <i>is</i> rather trying. So, please try to forgive me, if i seem testy at times. I don't mean to be unkind.<br /><br />There are too many days when I feel too much like Alice in Wonderland.<br /><br />~ FreeThinkeFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-58832220258881333072012-08-13T18:18:56.925-04:002012-08-13T18:18:56.925-04:00Never read Walpole. Sorry. Perhaps I should... bu...Never read Walpole. Sorry. Perhaps I should... but good authors are so few and far between... especially in the modern era.Joe Conservativehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02696367580635901992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-1860725441323404762012-08-13T18:14:50.838-04:002012-08-13T18:14:50.838-04:00'Critical theory isn't about "questio...<br /><i>'Critical theory isn't about "questioning" what is. If it were, it wouldn't seek to unquestioningly CHANGE society. It's advocating FOR "change" for change's sake alone.'</i><br /><br />That's close to what I have in mind when I cite the term, but instead of change for the sake of change alone, if we are to believe The Frankfurt School, it's more about constant, relentless, insistent, aggressive DEMAND for change so as to weaken and destroy the specifically the Capitalist-Protestant-Christian-Bourgeois Establishment by causing it with incessant harassment to lose faith in itself, tire and let the "reigns of power" drop from exhausted hands into those of the tormentors.<br /><br />Now Jez is certainly no tormentor, but he admits to seeing probable merit in these agitators and troublemakers' point of view.<br /><br />I see <i>some</i>, myself, believe it or not, because a smug, complacent Philistine Establishment is much in need of periodic shaking up in order to remain viable.<br /><br />I emphatically do not sympathize with the desire of activists, agitators, Marxists, "reds," social-reform insurgents -- whatever you want to call them -- ambition to <i>annihilate</i> the Establishment.<br /><br />that's right I'm a <i>moderately</i> radical Old Tory. ;-)<br /><br />~ FreeThinke<br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-58877522116032633792012-08-13T17:15:49.184-04:002012-08-13T17:15:49.184-04:00By the way, thank you, Kurt, for the stamp of appr...By the way, thank you, Kurt, for the stamp of approval. Coming from you it means a great deal.<br /><br />~ FTFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-9582374078592730982012-08-13T17:08:55.705-04:002012-08-13T17:08:55.705-04:00Thersites,
The video you linked about the Socrat...Thersites, <br /><br />The video you linked about the Socratic Method being used to evoke embarrassment, elicit shame and virtually force and interlocutor into an admission that he is wrong looks interesting, but very frankly my poor old eyes cannot keep up with the text, and I find the background music very distracting.<br /><br />How I wish the words had been spoken aloud instead of flashed with lightning rapidity before my eyes!<br /><br />At any rate, my own feeling about "dialogue" is that it too often becomes -- or even starts out -- combative instead of inquisitive.<br /><br />Mr.Sinclair's post is a good example. He didn't ask me any questions. He didn't express any curiosity or understanding about the material posted. Instead he made a rather petulant accusation. <br /><br />I've known Jack Camwell for a year now, and realize he's intense, intelligent, but fundamentally angry. For one so young he does an awful lot of grousing, and seems to feel that all remarks within earshot or eyeshot are made with the intention of making him feel attacked, outraged, or whatever. <br /><br />Like all of us, Jack hates to be criticized, and doesn't accept it well. In fact I've never known him to accept it at all. <br /><br />It's difficult to deal amicably with an attitude like that. <br /><br />I'm old enough to be his grandfather for heaven's sake! -- not that that means I am intellectually superior, but long experience ought to count for something. Apparently few-if-any are ever interested in benefitting from someone else's knowledge, insight or experience, however.<br /><br />It's too bad. The advance of Civilization no doubt has been retarded, each generation's need to discover the wheel all over again -- metaphorically speaking, of course.<br /><br />Oh well! Who was that fellow who said <b>life is tragedy to him who feels, but a comedy to him who thinks</b>?<br /><br />Walpole! Horace Walpole, That's who it was.<br /><br />Know anything about Horace, Thersites? I think he's an eighteenth-century English literary figure who had a brother who was also very clever with the language, but that's about all I know of him.<br /><br />Cheerio, Thersites.<br /><br />I don't always understand you perfectly well, I'm sure, but I'm always glad to see you even so.<br /><br />~ FreeThinke<br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-30078288516648249172012-08-13T16:35:59.484-04:002012-08-13T16:35:59.484-04:00Well then, Mr. Sinclair, if you don't feel lik...Well then, Mr. Sinclair, if you don't feel like commenting, and the items posted annoy you, you are welcome to stay away.<br /><br />We are not interested in winning any popularity contests, nor are interested in using the blog as a substitute for a social life.<br /><br />Neither are we here to be a target for gratuitous personal criticism, badgering or other forms of verbal abuse. <br /><br />In our short existence we've posted a wide variety of items some political, some cultural, some serious, some meant to be entertaining, some intentionally comical. All have had a point. If people don't get the point, don't agree with it, or choose to ignore it, that's their affair.<br /><br />We are what we are, and no one has to love us or agree with us. <br /><br />If you find anything here to be interesting or enlightening or amusing, naturally we're delighted. If you find it puzzling, feel free to ask questions which we will be glad to try to answer. <br /><br />More than that we cannot promise.<br /><br />Please continue to read if it interests you, but we'd appreciate it if you'd refrain making gratuitous personal remarks in future.<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />~ FreeThinkeFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-45179480052468425972012-08-13T16:17:43.899-04:002012-08-13T16:17:43.899-04:00I read your blog often, but comment seldom. This ...I read your blog often, but comment seldom. This is mostly because I don’t have much to say about your point of view. I sense that you don’t really care about my point of view —or the views of others. It leaves me scratching my head. If you demean others for wanting to pursue dialog, what is the point of encouraging comments? This is not the behavior of a gracious host.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01230399044647334018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-80371151510627946842012-08-13T13:33:07.718-04:002012-08-13T13:33:07.718-04:00Because you and he have some garden in common.
An...<i>Because you and he have some garden in common.</i><br /><br />And THAT "common" Constitutionally ONLY consists of facilitating Inter-garden commerce and Garden Defense.... NOT research for YOUR future commercial crops of hybrid corn and soybeans and a water subsidy for your illegal Poppy Crop.-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16745768408538827278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-1396573933582283162012-08-13T13:03:03.718-04:002012-08-13T13:03:03.718-04:00Jack, most of the time you sound personally outrag...Jack, most of the time you sound personally outraged, indignant, affronted, irked, annoyed, infuriated, and approach discussion as though you, personally, -- or something or someone you love very much -- had been unfairly attacked. <br /><br />That may not be true, but that is the way it sounds to me. <br /><br />Frankly, instead of digesting the substance of other's words, you reflexively go into combat mode. The result is that you waste a lot of energy wrestling with phantoms, boxing with strawmen, and tilting at windmills.<br /><br />It's all right with me of you want to come over here and vent your spleen, but I'm honestly concerned at the effect your habitual reactions must be having on your emotional and social life.<br /><br />Where does all this anger come from? It certainly could not have been generated by today's little parable.<br /><br />The very idea that you <i>assume</i> someone is trying to dictate to you in a situation like this indicates a need to investigate your own motives.<br /><br />Seriously,<br /><br />~ FreeThinkeFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-85685020488255495442012-08-13T12:41:17.193-04:002012-08-13T12:41:17.193-04:00"but why do you have to tax MY garden to subs..."but why do you have to tax MY garden to subsidize your own?"<br /><br />Because you and he have some garden in common.<br /><br />Honestly, these absolutist arguments are pretty boring. OBVIOUSLY you accept the need for some taxation to cover some services. The real question is how much.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-80275996674557214412012-08-13T12:17:57.334-04:002012-08-13T12:17:57.334-04:00If you all think this is as good as it gets, if yo...<i>If you all think this is as good as it gets, if you think that this is the pinnacle of human civilization, then Dr. Pangloss and I will just tend to our garden.</i>....<br /><br />but why do you have to tax MY garden to subsidize your own? That's what I object to.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-66296986770586117162012-08-13T12:14:58.019-04:002012-08-13T12:14:58.019-04:00Critical theory isn't about "questioning&...Critical theory isn't about "questioning" what is. If it were, it wouldn't seek to Unquestioningly CHANGE society. It's advocating FOR "change" for change's sake alone.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-50215747050775139782012-08-13T12:03:15.696-04:002012-08-13T12:03:15.696-04:00"Jez, with all due respect you provide a near..."Jez, with all due respect you provide a near-perfect example of a superb, practitioner of Critical Theory in action."<br /><br />Interesting. I consider myself eminently reasonable. Do you disagree? That's a genuine question -- it occurs to me that your objection to critical theory might not be its reasonableness, or lack of.jezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14865247084509280406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-15067657439333750332012-08-13T11:53:07.363-04:002012-08-13T11:53:07.363-04:00Okay, so here goes an oversimplification of what y...Okay, so here goes an oversimplification of what you wrote, FT.<br /><br />Basically we're not allowed to criticize anything ever.<br /><br />???<br /><br />We're not allowed to call each other out when we know the other person is being completely inconsistent, and we're not allowed to question culture. Ever.<br /><br />We're never allowed to hilight the differences and similarities between cultures, and we're never allowed to talk about their downsides.<br /><br />This seems odd to me, because you and many other conservatives spend SO MUCH TIME taking an intellectual dump allover other cutlures. But it seems like any time someone critiques American culture, it's as if we've committed some sort of grave blasphemy for which we can never be forgiven.<br /><br />What's funny is that from what I've read, critical theory doesn't have to devolve into a penis measuring contest where we're all trying to prove each other wrong. I think that mentality only arises from the pride and arrogance of the persons involved in the discussion.<br /><br />If every human would buy into the idea that perhaps your respective culture ISN'T inherently the pinnacle of civilization, perhaps then we could have real, productive conversations about how to move human culture and civilization forward.<br /><br />If you all think this is as good as it gets, if you think that this is the pinnacle of human civilization, then Dr. Pangloss and I will just tend to our garden.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-14271438277418180832012-08-13T11:44:34.061-04:002012-08-13T11:44:34.061-04:00The Left have always adopted the "cynical&quo...The Left have always adopted the "cynical" school of ancient philsophy as "their own". Only recently have they begun to apply their own preferred "critical" methodologies <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critique_of_Cynical_Reason" rel="nofollow">upon themselves</a>.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-14003170381878206112012-08-13T11:32:22.258-04:002012-08-13T11:32:22.258-04:00Proving each other wrong is inherently UNPRODUCTIV...Proving each other wrong is inherently UNPRODUCTIVE so long as both sides fail to <a href="http://youtu.be/9tAT01xqrIs" rel="nofollow">bridge the "cynical" gap</a> that separates them. Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-6636784733581467422012-08-13T11:31:15.709-04:002012-08-13T11:31:15.709-04:00Jez, with all due respect you provide a near-perfe...Jez, with all due respect you provide a near-perfect example of a superb, practitioner of Critical Theory in action.<br /><br />I'm so glad you showed up to illustrate my point so tellingly.<br /><br />~ FreeThinke<br /><br />PS: I left a detailed message for you two days ago in the comments regarding The Fisherman and His Wife. - FT FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.com