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Dear Worms. SUPPORT FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!

cultsmasher

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Freedom of speech is the most important human right of all. Without it, you are all nothing more than worthless, boot licking, ass kissing slaves. I will show you some memes concerning freedom of speech. Tell me which ones you disagree with the most.

George Washington.jpeg


Thomas Paine.jpg


Tom Smothers.jpg


FOS1.jpg


Salman Rushdie.jpg


FOS4.jpg
FOS5.jpg
FOS6.jpg
FOS7.jpg


FOS9.jpg


FOS8.jpg
FOS12.jpg
 

Black Rose

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Just because you have freedom the speak does not mean you have the freedom to bully people. In public you can do whatever you want, but private property and freedom of association matter as well. In Fact, if you do want to be offended as you imply then I would say no rights exist without God giving them to you me, and everyone else. That God you don't believe in. God loves you and gave everyone equal rights not just freedom of speech. You are seen as an individual and should see others the same and not become prejudiced in assigning groups you don't like as lower than yourself.
 

ZenRaiden

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I agree with freedom of speech, but I think ideas like this can give off impression there is no consequence.
Like if I went to a blond barbie party and started telling them all their tits are super and they make me horny. How long would you think Id last there.
Yet its my freedom to express my self.
 

EndogenousRebel

Even a mean person is trying their best, right?
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Freedom of consequences should not be a thing. For anything.

You can nitpick that position, but any reasonable person knows that it simply means that speech holds power, and that any amount of power used, can be used for the wrong reason.

I find it hard for one to hold the position that all speech should be free, because speech itself has no power.
 

Puffy

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God praise Kora for removing this f’ing edgelord.
 

Grayman

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Freedom of speech is necessary for a functioning democracy. There should be no laws prohibiting or forcing speech.

However, there is and should always be social consequences. Example of those consequences should primarily be verbal opposition to your speech. However, the more obvious infractions, should include public ridicule, shaming your character, and in continuous circumstances, social rejection

There is and also should be civil consequences. If you lie or something and someone is damaged by it, you should have to compensate them. This however, cannot apply to government or elected officials because then it gets too close to banning criticism of the government.

Also, some things today are considered 'free speech' that aren't actually speech. One is porn. It's not speech, it's entertainment. Nudity in certain contexts could be speech but porn is different. Porn is destructive to society and addictive to young men. It should be heavily regulated.
 

Grayman

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Freedom of consequences should not be a thing. For anything.

You can nitpick that position, but any reasonable person knows that it simply means that speech holds power, and that any amount of power used, can be used for the wrong reason.

I find it hard for one to hold the position that all speech should be free, because speech itself has no power.

Speech does have power but that power can be opposed by opposite speech.

If you take away a person's ability to speak, if you push them into hiding, they only fester with their bad ideas unopposed. Then not having speech as an outlet to seek redress, they seek more violent means.
 

EndogenousRebel

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Freedom of consequences should not be a thing. For anything.

You can nitpick that position, but any reasonable person knows that it simply means that speech holds power, and that any amount of power used, can be used for the wrong reason.

I find it hard for one to hold the position that all speech should be free, because speech itself has no power.

Speech does have power but that power can be opposed by opposite speech.

If you take away a person's ability to speak, if you push them into hiding, they only fester with their bad ideas unopposed. Then not having speech as an outlet to seek redress, they seek more violent means.
I would be inclined to agree if we lived in a world that reflected that.

Truth is people don't change their mind based on the strength of an argument, and rhetoric itself is built off of exploiting biases we have such as appeals to emotions and authority. Very open to theatrics.

If anything you are describing a process by which some can practice catharsis through speech. Sounds like theatre.

I respect the power of speech more it seems. If a statement was nullified by it's opposite statement we'd live in a different world.

The tricky part is drawing that line of what is crossing the line.
 

kora

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God praise Kora for removing this f’ing edgelord.
Given the way he was insulting everyone, I didn't think it would be too controversial :D
 

scorpiomover

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Truth is people don't change their mind based on the strength of an argument,
I agree that it's not that common.

But I would not say it hasn't happened. I've changed my mind on several issues, due to reading a single internet post that had a concise argument that I found way too strong to ignore.

I seriously doubt that I'm the only person in the world that has done this.

and rhetoric itself is built off of exploiting biases we have such as appeals to emotions and authority. Very open to theatrics.
Yes. But when people change their minds due to theatrics, they're not changing their minds due to a good argument. So they fail the Gettier view of knowledge (knowledge without proof => not knowledge).

Also, if someone can be persuaded without relying on logic, they could be persuaded to believe ANYTHING (E.G. racism, sexism and slavery).
 

EndogenousRebel

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Truth is people don't change their mind based on the strength of an argument,
I agree that it's not that common.

But I would not say it hasn't happened. I've changed my mind on several issues, due to reading a single internet post that had a concise argument that I found way too strong to ignore.

I seriously doubt that I'm the only person in the world that has done this.

Of course. The culture of freedom of speech we currently have allows that.

The issue has arisen with mass media devices being given to everyone, and no regulatory structure arising to adjust for that.

It's very difficult to hold people that spreads harmful information accountable, unless they are directly linked to causing monetary loss to someone.


and rhetoric itself is built off of exploiting biases we have such as appeals to emotions and authority. Very open to theatrics.
Yes. But when people change their minds due to theatrics, they're not changing their minds due to a good argument. So they fail the Gettier view of knowledge (knowledge without proof => not knowledge).

Also, if someone can be persuaded without relying on logic, they could be persuaded to believe ANYTHING (E.G. racism, sexism and slavery).

No rhetorical device on it's own stands, because they all reinforce each other to some extent. Logic has it's problems too.

Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes. I have never gone to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding.
Wiki on vacuous truths:

Examples common to everyday speech include conditional phrases used as idioms of improbability like "when hell freezes over ..." and "when pigs can fly ...", indicating that not before the given (impossible) condition is met will the speaker accept some respective (typically false or absurd) proposition.

In pure mathematics, vacuously true statements are not generally of interest by themselves, but they frequently arise as the base case of proofs by mathematical induction.[5] This notion has relevance in pure mathematics, as well as in any other field that uses classical logic.

Outside of mathematics, statements which can be characterized informally as vacuously true can be misleading. Such statements make reasonable assertions about qualified objects which do not actually exist. For example, a child might truthfully tell their parent "I ate every vegetable on my plate", when there were no vegetables on the child's plate to begin with. In this case, the parent can believe that the child has actually eaten some vegetables, even though that is not true. In addition, a vacuous truth is often used colloquially with absurd statements, either to confidently assert something (e.g. "the dog was red, or I'm a monkey's uncle" to strongly claim that the dog was red), or to express doubt, sarcasm, disbelief, incredulity or indignation (e.g. "yes, and I'm the King of England" to disagree with a previously made statement).

I write this to make the point that we use emotions to filter what logical (or illogical) parameters we adopt.
 

Puffy

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God praise Kora for removing this f’ing edgelord.
Given the way he was insulting everyone, I didn't think it would be too controversial :D
I think he (can’t imagine a they/she achieving that level of edgelordery :beauty:) deliberately joins forums to get banned. Some form of obscure masochism.
 

Black Rose

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Logic has it's problems too.

Sometimes people use the term "logic" or "rationality" to mean reasoned truth.

logic is simply equivalency rules (=). rationality has the prefix (ratio).

These are mathematical terms.

They are meant to be objective but people can use them subjectively.

That is why when people call math a language then it is assumed to mean that it is subjective and not objective - meaning it is either a tautology or as a language math has no inherent content, which means that math has no meaning to it.

math = launguage = not objective = no inherient context = meaningless hen pecks

The existence of an objective language (which math is) is disputed by many philosophers.
 

dr froyd

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i agree free speech is essential, but the purpose of it is to have discourse on things. You don't really strike me as a guy who's interested in discourse, @cultsmasher, you seem more like a lunatic tbh

first red flag of a lunatic btw is when their entire argument is a bunch of pictures with quotes on them. Like, you know they spend all night collecting and looking at these pictures, getting all fired up and going to forums writing titles in all caps
 

scorpiomover

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Truth is people don't change their mind based on the strength of an argument,
I agree that it's not that common.

But I would not say it hasn't happened. I've changed my mind on several issues, due to reading a single internet post that had a concise argument that I found way too strong to ignore.

I seriously doubt that I'm the only person in the world that has done this.
Of course. The culture of freedom of speech we currently have allows that.
In your imagination, that would be true. But I frequently have been castigated and attacked by you and other posters, both here and on other forums, for doing precisely that. So it's rather that whatever you consider to be "freedom of speech", is very much in opposition to that.

The issue has arisen with mass media devices being given to everyone, and no regulatory structure arising to adjust for that.
When I first went on the internet back in 1995, it hardly ever happened, mainly because in those days, when someone posted on a site, you had to wait until the mods had read your post and approved it.

It's very difficult to hold people that spreads harmful information accountable, unless they are directly linked to causing monetary loss to someone.
That was why so many Republicans and Conservatives were so opposed to net neutrality back during the Obama administration, in order to hold ISPs and sites accountable, so they'd police the posts posted by their users. But Obama pushed through net neutrality.

and rhetoric itself is built off of exploiting biases we have such as appeals to emotions and authority. Very open to theatrics.
Yes. But when people change their minds due to theatrics, they're not changing their minds due to a good argument. So they fail the Gettier view of knowledge (knowledge without proof => not knowledge).

Also, if someone can be persuaded without relying on logic, they could be persuaded to believe ANYTHING (E.G. racism, sexism and slavery).

No rhetorical device on it's own stands, because they all reinforce each other to some extent.
Rhetoric is "the art of eloquence and persuasiveness in language, the art of using language to influence others."

So I'm not exactly sure what you mean, because it would mean "no device intended to persuade, stands on its own", which doesn't sound like it makes sense to me.

Would you mind explaining what you meant?

Logic has it's problems too.
I am aware of that. Mathematically valid logic is much harder to prove than scientific theories, which annoys many people no end, because it's so hard to prove something mathematically, which in turn means that many things people believe to be true, and are true, have not been proved mathematically, because no known proof meets the requirements of mathematical logic.

Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes. I have never gone to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding.
1) In English, "every time I..." is about things that happened or happen in the present. If they never occurred, then what you mean to say is "If I ever go to Kenya, the world will explode. I have never been to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding."

2) In logic, you CAN say "For all case where X is true, Y is true". But you can ONLY make that claim if you have proved that it is IMPOSSIBLE for X to be true and Y to be false. Until you prove that (X AND NOT Y) MUST be false for all cases, it's an unproved claim, and has zero validity. It's a non-sentence.

The Wiki article states as follows:
In mathematics and logic, a vacuous truth is a conditional or universal statement (a universal statement that can be converted to a conditional statement) that is true because the antecedent cannot be satisfied.[1]
This is false. Mathematically true statements are statements that are rigorously true, meaning, that if Pythagoras' Theorem is mathematically true, then I have to be so certain of it, that even if I have never encountered a right-angled triangle, I am certain that if I or anyone else would encounter a right-angled triangle, Pythagoras' Theorem would definitely be true of all those future right-angled triangles, to the extent that any argument against it being true would HAVE to be wrong.

If I cannot be that certain, then it's not true in mathematics, and is called "indeterminate", meaning, that we don't know if it would be true or not.

A good example of that is the Continuum Hypothesis. Proofs exist that the Continuum Hypothesis is true and false. For that reason, the Continuum Hypothesis is called a "hypothesis" and NOT a theorem.

Another example of that is Fermat's Last Theorem. To most people it was called a "Theorem". But to mathematicians, for the 300 years since Fermat first wrote of it, until it was proved by Andrew Wiles, it was known as "Fermat's Last CONJECTURE",

When I mentioned Andrew Wiles' first proof to one of my maths lecturers in the early 1990s, he was adamant that it was a CONJECTURE, as it was still being checked by mathematicians, even though empirically it was shown to be true beyond any doubt.

Mathematical statements are often said to be "contingent", because they have to be proved to such an extent, that evn if we have never encountered a situation like that before, we can still be certain if we ever do encounter such a situation, it will definitely be true in those situations.

As a result, mathematical truths have a MUCH higher requirement of proof than any scientific theory, because scientific theories can be disproved by new evidence, while mathematical theorems that can be disproved by new evidence, cannot be considered to be mathematically true.

Examples common to everyday speech include conditional phrases used as idioms of improbability like "when hell freezes over ..." and "when pigs can fly ...", indicating that not before the given (impossible) condition is met will the speaker accept some respective (typically false or absurd) proposition.
"when pigs fly" and "when Hell freezes over" is a rhetorical device meant to imply that the speaker would never accept that would ever happen. E.G. if Abraham Lincoln had said "slavery will be banned in America when Hell freezes over" means that Lincoln is saying (in a roundabout way) that slavery will never be banned in America.

In pure mathematics, vacuously true statements are not generally of interest by themselves, but they frequently arise as the base case of proofs by mathematical induction.[5] This notion has relevance in pure mathematics, as well as in any other field that uses classical logic.
Mathematical induction (e.g. for all n>=1, P is true) requires 2 parts:
1) The initial step (e.g. P is true when n = 1).
2) The induction step: (e.g. (P is true for all 1 <= n <= some N) => (P is true when n = N).
Both of those statements have to be mathematically true, which requires that it must be impossible for even the smallest part of the claim to be false.

Mathematical induction is usually incredibly hard to prove, because although the initial step is usually easy to prove, the inductive step is unbelievably hard to prove. So the vast majority of proofs avoid mathematical induction because of it's difficulty.

Outside of mathematics, statements which can be characterized informally as vacuously true can be misleading. Such statements make reasonable assertions about qualified objects which do not actually exist. For example, a child might truthfully tell their parent "I ate every vegetable on my plate", when there were no vegetables on the child's plate to begin with. In this case, the parent can believe that the child has actually eaten some vegetables, even though that is not true. In addition, a vacuous truth is often used colloquially with absurd statements, either to confidently assert something (e.g. "the dog was red, or I'm a monkey's uncle" to strongly claim that the dog was red), or to express doubt, sarcasm, disbelief, incredulity or indignation (e.g. "yes, and I'm the King of England" to disagree with a previously made statement).
In mathematics, none of these sorts of claims would be considered to be true, because they're not proved to a mathematically acceptable standard.

I write this to make the point that we use emotions to filter what logical (or illogical) parameters we adopt.
Emotions are used by humans in real-life situations, because they help us make real-life decisions, as shown by Antonio Damasio's statements.

However, emotions can be wrong, because they're quick heuristic rules of thumb, which are beneficial on average, even though they're sometimes wrong.

Also, your emotions can be hacked. E.G. if the news starts talking about terrorists 20 times a day, your emotions can be heightened to the point where you behave as if there could be terrorists around every corner, even though you have twice the chance of being hit by lightning.

For that reason, mathematics tends to be taught in ways that removes emotions as much as is humanly possible.
 

EndogenousRebel

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You do this interesting thing @scorpiomover where there is no reward for getting involved in disagreement with you.

It seems like you want to silence my free speech because your free speech is more important. I think you have said what you said on this forum completely free from at least my influence.

You might sometimes say that you want to physically harm "bullies" and I think that is a vague statement, I could ask you what are bullies, what does harm meaning, but generally if I express that you shouldn't do that, and you shouldn't write about doing that, I am only practicing my own free speech.

That was why so many Republicans and Conservatives were so opposed to net neutrality back during the Obama administration, in order to hold ISPs and sites accountable, so they'd police the posts posted by their users. But Obama pushed through net neutrality.
The president selects 5 people who run the FCC, the Senate approves them, but ultimately congress as a whole creates the laws that the FCC follows. Obama had a unified house and senate once in his presidency. I'm not sure what exactly Obama pushed but whatever, not sure how this is relevant at all really.

and rhetoric itself is built off of exploiting biases we have such as appeals to emotions and authority. Very open to theatrics. Click to expand... Yes. But when people change their minds due to theatrics, they're not changing their minds due to a good argument. So they fail the Gettier view of knowledge (knowledge without proof => not knowledge).

Also, if someone can be persuaded without relying on logic, they could be persuaded to believe ANYTHING (E.G. racism, sexism and slavery). Click to expand...
No rhetorical device on it's own stands, because they all reinforce each other to some extent.
Rhetoric is "the art of eloquence and persuasiveness in language, the art of using language to influence others."

So I'm not exactly sure what you mean, because it would mean "no device intended to persuade, stands on its own", which doesn't sound like it makes sense to me.

Would you mind explaining what you meant?

You don't use logic because you chose logic logically, you chose your axioms based on emotions.

Logic has it's problems too.
I am aware of that. Mathematically valid logic is much harder to prove than scientific theories, which annoys many people no end, because it's so hard to prove something mathematically, which in turn means that many things people believe to be true, and are true, have not been proved mathematically, because no known proof meets the requirements of mathematical logic.

Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes. I have never gone to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding.
1) In English, "every time I..." is about things that happened or happen in the present. If they never occurred, then what you mean to say is "If I ever go to Kenya, the world will explode. I have never been to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding."

2) In logic, you CAN say "For all case where X is true, Y is true". But you can ONLY make that claim if you have proved that it is IMPOSSIBLE for X to be true and Y to be false. Until you prove that (X AND NOT Y) MUST be false for all cases, it's an unproved claim, and has zero validity. It's a non-sentence.

The Wiki article states as follows:
In mathematics and logic, a vacuous truth is a conditional or universal statement (a universal statement that can be converted to a conditional statement) that is true because the antecedent cannot be satisfied.[1]
This is false. Mathematically true statements are statements that are rigorously true, meaning, that if Pythagoras' Theorem is mathematically true, then I have to be so certain of it, that even if I have never encountered a right-angled triangle, I am certain that if I or anyone else would encounter a right-angled triangle, Pythagoras' Theorem would definitely be true of all those future right-angled triangles, to the extent that any argument against it being true would HAVE to be wrong.

X (I have gone to Kenya)Y (The World Explodes)if X then Y (If I go to Kenya, the World Explodes)
TrueTrueTrue
TrueFalseFalse
FalseTrueTrue
FalseFalseTrue

Expressions of this table?What does it mean?
(X is false) OR (Y is true)I haven't gone to Kenya, or the world exploding, or both
YThe world explodes
X is equivalent to YI have gone to Kenya, The world explodes
X and YI have gone to Kenya and the world explodes
X is false (not X)I haven't gone to Kenya
(not X) and YI haven't gone to Kenya, the world explodes
(not X) and (not Y)I haven't gone to Kenya and the world doesn't explode
FalseNothing

Tell me where the problem in the logic is please.
 

Black Rose

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If you learn not to attack other people, most likely you will not be attacked.

In some places that is impossible but in other places it works mostly.

Look at how they use their emotions and you will see if there is a reason not to trust them.
 

dr froyd

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Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes. I have never gone to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding.
Wiki on vacuous truths:
i havent really followed the argument but just want to point out: this doesnt seem like a vacuous truth, but rather just circular reasoning, i.e. it's not valid reasoning

the first premise, "Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes", is a conditional statement K -> E where K is "i go to kenya" and E is "world explodes". But your conclusion is also K -> E, so you just made a statement where it's the premise that requires proof

edit: come to think of it, it's a trick statement... because causation and logical implication are two different things. It's more of an empirical statement, probably related to the induction problem
 

EndogenousRebel

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Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes. I have never gone to Kenya. You have me to thank for the world not exploding.
Wiki on vacuous truths:
i havent really followed the argument but just want to point out: this doesnt seem like a vacuous truth, but rather just circular reasoning, i.e. it's not valid reasoning

the first premise, "Every time I go to Kenya, the world explodes", is a conditional statement K -> E where K is "i go to kenya" and E is "world explodes". But your conclusion is also K -> E, so you just made a statement where it's the premise that requires proof

edit: come to think of it, it's a trick statement... because causation and logical implication are two different things. It's more of an empirical statement, probably related to the induction problem
Right. The point being it doesn't matter what the initial proposition is, logically, in a classical sense, a false proposition implies any proposition.

I see different versions of this story with Von Nuemann or Bertrand Russle but whatever. This one tried to make Russlle sound clever, but it still works.

The story goes that Bertrand Russell, in a lecture on logic, mentioned that in the sense of material implication, a false proposition implies any proposition.

A student raised his hand and said "In that case, given that 1 = 0, prove that you are the Pope."

Russell immediately replied, "Add 1 to both sides of the equation: then we have 2 = 1. The set containing just me and the Pope has 2 members. But 2 = 1, so it has only 1 member; therefore, I am the Pope."

We see that contradiction as something that is not linear, even though it's completely logically coherent. It even FEELS logically incoherent.

We understand practically, Usain Bolt has never beaten me in a race before, but doesn't mean that he wouldn't given the scenario. Until such an event occurs, he hasnt* beaten me, or I'm the fastest person in the world, or both.
 

Old Things

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Everything has consequences. You can say offensive things, but then you should expect to be offended as well. "Live by the sword die by the sword," etc.

I am pretty sure I have said things on this forum that have offended people. Of course, unlike the OP, my motivation is not to offend people, but to speak the truth as best as I am able. The truth is often offensive. Obviously, I am not omniscient so I can be wrong.

The OP has a point (though you have to dig to find it) in that politically correct speech is typically reserved for people who specifically do not want to offend people and go far out of their way not to do so. But when you focus on using free speech to offend people, just to be an "edge lord" from the obscene corners of the internet, well, that's not productive for anyone. It's literally Biden vs Trump here. Biden is a wimp and will do a lot not to offend people and Trump literally goes out of his way to offend people.

There also seems to be a lesson in here somewhere in becoming bitter and resentful for the sake of trying not to offend anyone so you bottle up your emotions and eventually explode outwardly or implode inwardly for the sake of not being able to speak your mind. Now, obviously, I think the solution is to simply say what is true or at least not lie so you don't become bitter and resentful for lying to others and yourself and causing internal fissure. Telling the truth also keeps you from being more offensive than you have to be. In my estimation, 10% of people are always going to hate what you say, 10% of people will love what you say, and 80% of people will not really care that much. That's if you are just trying to tell the truth all the time. All bets are off if you go off the rails and try and be the biggest edge lord or a mambie pambie pansy.
 

scorpiomover

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I don't like disagreements. IMHO, they are conflicts which frequently lead to violence, then war, then war atrocities and genocides.

So I am pleased that you see no benefit in fighting with me. That's a good thing.

OTOH, that doesn't stop you talking to me about things that we agree on. IMHO, when people talk about the things we agree on, positive solutions happen exceedingly quickly, and the results are nothing short of AMAZING!!!!!

Now, if we can only get the rest of the world to feel similarly about getting involved in disagreements with each other, then we can all stick to where we agree on things, and then the world will soon be a paradise for everyone.

It seems like you want to silence my free speech because your free speech is more important. I think you have said what you said on this forum completely free from at least my influence.
I love free speech, because I love talking to people about all sorts of interesting stuff.

The other day, I ended up talking to a woman from Saudi Arabia who supports Hamas, with me explaining the side of the Israelis. We had an amazingly positive conversation.

However, I have had major problems for all of my life, because of something that someone was saying. Nearly all of the time, they admitted years later, that they were only saying that stuff because of short-term personal gain. Once I found out their true motivations, I realised that I could have satisfied their personal motives extremely easily, with zero cost to myself or anyone else. But because they weren't honest about their true motivations, everything went to sh*t for me, and at the same time, lots of other people also got screwed over.

My suffering was entirely unnecessary. I'm still dealing with the aftermath of those problems. I'm also seeing the world turn to sh*t because these people won't be honest about their selfishness.

So I am constantly livid.

You might sometimes say that you want to physically harm "bullies" and I think that is a vague statement, I could ask you what are bullies, what does harm meaning,
I have zero problems with people asking me to explain myself, as I get that all day long from my boss, and so is normal for me.

but generally if I express that you shouldn't do that, and you shouldn't write about doing that, I am only practicing my own free speech.
If you were practicing your free speech, then you'd be honest about your personal motivations and true reasons for your claims. To give you proof, is easy, because this conversation is a case in point.

That was why so many Republicans and Conservatives were so opposed to net neutrality back during the Obama administration, in order to hold ISPs and sites accountable, so they'd police the posts posted by their users. But Obama pushed through net neutrality.
The president selects 5 people who run the FCC, the Senate approves them, but ultimately congress as a whole creates the laws that the FCC follows. Obama had a unified house and senate once in his presidency. I'm not sure what exactly Obama pushed but whatever, not sure how this is relevant at all really.
I am amazed at the number of times I've heard people say they were suffering because of policies that Obama introduced.

For example: A few years ago, I met a few Americans on holiday. One was a woman who was being nice to a friend of mine. He had major health problems. She was interested in him, because she was a nurse and was clearly seeing him as someone who she could nurse. She mentioned how she was working 2 jobs, because her sister had cancer. I asked her why her sister wasn't on Obamacare. She explained that Obamacare came with "deductibles", which meant that you could get free healthcare, but only if you paid the deductibles. She was having to work 2 jobs, just to pay for the deductibles. Her sister could never afford them. If it wasn't for the fact that her sister had a relative who was willing to work harder than a slave for pure altruism, her sister would never be able to afford the deductibles with her level of health, and she would have been left to die.

At the time in the UK, if someone had a major health issue, it was free. In the USA, it was free for those who were middle class and could afford the deductibles. But the vast majority of poor people are living paycheck to paycheck, and take 6 months to pay off $150, let alone the thousands that deductibles charge.

The only thing that was comparable to that situation in my memory, was debtor's prison, as once someone owed debts and was in debtor's prison, they were unable to work and so the only way they would ever become free, was if their relatives stumped up the money to pay off their debts. Those who didn't have family, or whose family didn't care about them, or whose family were too poor to pay their debts, could not leave debtor's prison and died there.

In debt and incarcerated: the tyranny of debtors' prisons

So it seems that Obamacare is free healthcare for the rich and the middle class, but is almost as unavailable as expensive private healthcare for the poor, and is a modern-day version of debtor's prison.

To me, that sounds like the most right-wing thing you can do.

Still not sure what you mean by that. Any argument that "stands on its own", i.e. is independent of anything else, is an argument that doesn't assume anything about anything else that is not in the argument. So if any argument has that trait, even if I mention 100 million other things, those things would not have any effect on the argument, because the argument stood on its own, and was thus true whatever those 100 million other things were.

However, I have seen people get very annoyed when they gave an argument, and I mentioned something that wasn't directly to do with the point, that proved their argument was incorrect. However, that would only be possible if their argument would only be true if that other thing I mentioned was not true, which in turn meant that their argument did NOT stand on its own.

So to me, that's just people getting annoyed because I metaphorically pulled back the curtain and proved that the Great and Powerful Oz was nothing more than an old man with a light show, and not the powerful and super-smart wizards that they pretended to be.

You don't use logic because you chose logic logically, you chose your axioms based on emotions.
I did maths in school and as a degree. My maths teachers and lecturers wouldn't let the slightest mistakes pass, even when the overall argument was correct, and even when the conclusion was correct. I had to present arguments in such a way that I had to be ultra-logical, and where emotions were not allowed to have ANY sway whatsover. I had to do that for YEARS, and for so long, that being unemotional and ultra-logical became an ingrained habit.

X (I have gone to Kenya)Y (The World Explodes)if X then Y (If I go to Kenya, the World Explodes)
TrueTrueTrue
TrueFalseFalse
FalseTrueTrue
FalseFalseTrue

Expressions of this table?What does it mean?
(X is false) OR (Y is true)I haven't gone to Kenya, or the world exploding, or both
YThe world explodes
X is equivalent to YI have gone to Kenya, The world explodes
X and YI have gone to Kenya and the world explodes
X is false (not X)I haven't gone to Kenya
(not X) and YI haven't gone to Kenya, the world explodes
(not X) and (not Y)I haven't gone to Kenya and the world doesn't explode
FalseNothing

Tell me where the problem in the logic is please.
Most of the KKK in the USA haven't been to Kenya. So that means that you have the KKK to thank for the world exploding.

Also, the guy who runs the LGBT-hating Westboro church, probably hasn't been to Kenya either. So according to you, you and the LGBT have him to thank for the world not exploding. Moreover, according to you, if he had been to Kenya, the world would have exploded, and so all the LGBT in the world would be dead. So according to you, the LGBT should be thanking that guy who runs the Westboro church, and should be thanking him for saving their lives.

See what I did there? :xen-wink:

You have not proved that if you had been to Kenya, that the world would have exploded. Moreover, there's no mechanism I know that would cause the world to explode just because you visited Kenya. Therefore, there's no reason to think that the world would have exploded because you didn't visit Kenya. So there's no reason to thank you.

Since I don't see a reason why anyone would think that by you going to Kenya, the world would have exploded, unless you're really dumb, even you don't think that the world would have exploded if you'd visited Kenya. So even you believe that you didn't avoid Kenya to stop the world exploding. You probably just didn't feel like going there before.

But since you know that you would probably have not saved the world by not going to Kenya, you are trying to take credit for saving the world, when you didn't do anything to deserve it.

But you only made this false argument, to claim that logic has flaws as well as rhetoric. But you only did that to claim that because logic has flaws as well as rhetoric, that we are not better off by avoiding rhetoric, and therefore we should accept rhetoric as valid (except you haven't done that).

So why would you want to claim that rhetoric as valid as logic, using an argument that is false? Why not bring a true argument that rhetoric is valid, at least in some cases? Because if you used a true argument, then you would only be able to use rhetoric in the cases where it would make sense and thus be beneficial to other people? But if it would not be beneficial to anyone, then it would not be beneficial to you either. So then why suggest that rhetoric would be valid when it wouldn't help you, and would likely harm you? You wouldn't.

Ergo, you're only suggesting that rhetoric is valid using a false argument, in situations where if you would use rhetoric, it would be beneficial to you, but harmful to others, and so you show intent to do things to hoodwink other people into accepting things that would be better for you, but would cause suffering to everyone else. How is that not evil?

So we're back to people trying to use their "free speech" to making up false arguments that benefit themselves while making everyone else suffer.

Hence why I behave as if I want to crush what you call "free speech".

I am for free speech.

I am just opposed to free speech that is evil, that causes great harm and suffering for millions, just to benefit a few selfish b*stards, the same as I am opposed to anything that causes great harm and suffering for millions, just to benefit a few selfish b*stards.
 

Black Rose

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logic is valid regardless of whether the premises are true or not.

The problem happens when we take premises to be always true when the logic is correct.
 

Old Things

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The problem with focusing on rhetoric is it often obscures the central point or issue and distracts from the nuts and bolts of the argument. That is what it is essentially since it appeals to sensibilities and emotions rather than facts. In short, it hits a different part of the mind. Now, an argument can have rhetorical punch while remaining true. But the way I see rhetorical speech in general is more akin to hypnosis than an honest pursuit of truth. Often times upon closer inspection of a rhetorical claim it is shown to be more or less false which is the opposite of just trying to speak the truth as best as you are able. The New Atheist Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, are known for their rhetorical wit, but their arguments are often very shoddy and many serious philosophers do not take them seriously. I have noticed that many of the New Atheists are very good at rhetoric but are very poor at logical thinking. But I suppose that is expected since they hold a logically inconsistent worldview.
 

Black Rose

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I have noticed that many of the New Atheists are very good at rhetoric but are very poor at logical thinking. But I suppose that is expected since they hold a logically inconsistent worldview.

New Atheism is the counter-movement to the anti-intellectualism in common pop Christianity. What I mean is that it is as illogical as Christianity has become (Anti-Science moralism). Christianity can be intellectual but that is not what common Christianity is.
 

Old Things

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I have noticed that many of the New Atheists are very good at rhetoric but are very poor at logical thinking. But I suppose that is expected since they hold a logically inconsistent worldview.

New Atheism is the counter-movement to the anti-intellectualism in common pop Christianity. What I mean is that it is as illogical as Christianity has become (Anti-Science moralism). Christianity can be intellectual but that is not what common Christianity is.

Most people are not very intellectual. It does not matter if they are Christian or atheist, or Hindu or Muslim.

To your credit, there is this kind of cultural Christianity that tends to come out of the Bible Belt south that I despise. It is very much anti-intellectual and in many cases down right hateful towards different belief systems. On top of this, many of the keyboard warrior atheists come from that demographic. It is only natural that more intellectually minded people become atheists from that region since their mere intelligence and curiosity are viewed with disdain there. It is not uncommon for these pockets of Christianity to think doubting is sinful even though the Bible actually says to be merciful towards doubters.

The Christianity that I adhere to is not anti-intellectual at all. It is not opposed to science and I often see science and faith as two sides of the same coin.
Scientific Method.jpg
 

LOGICZOMBIE

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two things,

one, freedom of speech is the freedom of two or more people WHO WANT TO TALK to each other unrestricted by a third party

and two, IF YOU DON'T SUPPORT SPEECH YOU DISAGREE WITH, YOU DON'T SUPPORT FREE SPEECH
 

LOGICZOMBIE

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I have noticed that many of the New Atheists are very good at rhetoric but are very poor at logical thinking. But I suppose that is expected since they hold a logically inconsistent worldview.

ok, "i have noticed" isn't exactly "airtight logic"

care to elaborate ?
 

ZenRaiden

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I definitely see a value in many things, that would have been alright if there were no laws.
I think the real danger is we as society might learn to rely on controls, that will atrophy society skills to function freely.

So for instance a lot of what we see today in media is combative rhetoric.
Some of it is intended as a good thing, but in many ways limited and narrow.
Which can for many people create the illusion that say people like Ben Shapiro are the gold standard for US ideas about gun policies, when in reality there are 100s of views on gun policies, among people from gun nuts to enthusiast.

I see this same thing happen in politics, where political culture narrows down to few comfortable controversies and rather ambiguous ideas with vague connotations.

A lot of these things shape peoples minds.

For instance I found it pretty annoying and interesting that in my country they passed a law that basically forbade pro russian stand points on internet.
Basically it was something like "if you say something pro russia" "you are going to be persecuted" and they also banned web pages like RT news.

I think it pretty much falls under free speech and is unconstitutional, but its currently OK with people and have found zero interest in people who found this problematic or controversial.

SO basically if I see something off the mark about Russia I can go to jail.
This has been the main reason our constitution decided to include free speech as it was common practice during socialism to jail people for being western agents just because they spoke their minds, or said something against establishment.

I don't know the nitty gritty legalise speak of the law, but in spirit at least its pretty persecutory for a democratic nation.

So democracy and free speech are a big continuum. Where on one hand we can edit and curate many things, by mere societal pressure to presidential decrees telling people to shut up about Russia.
I find it all the more funny the President often cites things as unconstitutional.
 

birdsnestfern

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I think You can say what you want if you can reframe it like you are teaching in a kind manner, explain why and what would be better alternative and include peoples feelings some.

It’s good to ban outright attacks on others or when the intent behind words is to harm.

It’s important to reframe information so it can serve the general good and increase awareness is more diplomatic way of saying your truth.

Say your truth without attacking. Include your reasons and why you think others should consider something. Remember anything people say invites opposition and that’s ok and part of communication, but respect the opposition and use a teaching intent to increase respect and peace not destroy it.

The Dear worms bit is what qualifies the ban,lol.
 

LOGICZOMBIE

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It’s good to ban outright attacks on others or when the intent behind words is to harm.

OR, you can simply identify ad hominem attacks and consider them invalid arguments

 

LOGICZOMBIE

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However, there is and should always be social consequences.

there it is.

do you think that maybe, "moderation standards" and or "terms of service" should at least attempt to be transparent and logically-coherent ?
 

LOGICZOMBIE

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I am for free speech.

I am just opposed to free speech that is evil, that causes great harm and suffering for millions, just to benefit a few selfish b*stards, the same as I am opposed to anything that causes great harm and suffering for millions, just to benefit a few selfish b*stards.

IF YOU DON'T SUPPORT SPEECH YOU DISAGREE WITH,

YOU DON'T SUPPORT FREE-SPEECH
 

Old Things

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I have noticed that many of the New Atheists are very good at rhetoric but are very poor at logical thinking. But I suppose that is expected since they hold a logically inconsistent worldview.

ok, "i have noticed" isn't exactly "airtight logic"

care to elaborate ?

It wasn't meant to be "airtight." It was meant to be an observation. It's just what I have observed. That's why many times when I get into debates with atheists on X it often devolves (for them) into name-calling.
 

dr froyd

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it was common practice during socialism to jail people for being western agents just because they spoke their minds, or said something against establishment.
i wouldn't be surprised if they had more freedom of speech in USSR than we have in most of Europe today

EU took a big dump on freedom of speech when they introduced hatespeech laws without defining what hatespeech even is. Nowadays we're way beyond that.
 

LOGICZOMBIE

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It wasn't meant to be "airtight." It was meant to be an observation. It's just what I have observed. That's why many times when I get into debates with atheists on X it often devolves (for them) into name-calling.

ok, what do you believe is "the atheist's" key failure of logic ?
 

Old Things

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It wasn't meant to be "airtight." It was meant to be an observation. It's just what I have observed. That's why many times when I get into debates with atheists on X it often devolves (for them) into name-calling.

ok, what do you believe is "the atheist's" key failure of logic ?

They claim they are an atheist because of their reason alone but have nothing to ground their ability to have reason in anything. They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.
 

LOGICZOMBIE

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They claim they are an atheist because of their reason alone but have nothing to ground their ability to have reason in anything. They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.

would you consider a dog an atheist ?

or an infant, is an infant an atheist ?
 

sushi

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it is one of the most important but not the most important

freedom to think and survive is
 

dr froyd

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They claim they are an atheist because of their reason alone but have nothing to ground their ability to have reason in anything. They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.
thus if one can prove that god doesn't exist, then this proves the existence of god
 

Black Rose

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They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.

I know about artificial intelligence in a deep way.

Yes, chemicals can reason but that requires loops and the transfer conditioning from parent to offspring.

The problem(but not a disqualifying issue) is that Earth's biosphere is an open system, so evolution is possible for your parents to be stupid, but the right genes allow you to be smarter than they were. Technological progress is a good example.

The environment allowed loops to form that could reason as the earth is an open energy system. Socialization is an emergent process of loop formations increasing reasoning in human groups.

 

Old Things

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They claim they are an atheist because of their reason alone but have nothing to ground their ability to have reason in anything. They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.

would you consider a dog an atheist ?

or an infant, is an infant an atheist ?

No to both. Children often believe in a higher power disregarding what they were taught.

They claim they are an atheist because of their reason alone but have nothing to ground their ability to have reason in anything. They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.
thus if one can prove that god doesn't exist, then this proves the existence of god

Not sure what you mean by proof. I will say, for example, that the discovery that the universe had a beginning was big new when it first came up and there were headlines in newspapers saying things such as, "The Genesis Creation Story Was Right!" For so long, it was thought the universe was eternal. When it was proven that it wasn't that was very very strong evidence of theism.
 

Old Things

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They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.

I know about artificial intelligence in a deep way.

Yes, chemicals can reason but that requires loops and the transfer conditioning from parent to offspring.

The problem(but not a disqualifying issue) is that Earth's biosphere is an open system, so evolution is possible for your parents to be stupid, but the right genes allow you to be smarter than they were. Technological progress is a good example.

The environment allowed loops to form that could reason as the earth is an open energy system. Socialization is an emergent process of loop formations increasing reasoning in human groups.


Humans have the same genes that they have had for thousands of years.
 

Black Rose

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They are basically just saying chemicals have the ability to reason, which does not make any sense.

I know about artificial intelligence in a deep way.

Yes, chemicals can reason but that requires loops and the transfer conditioning from parent to offspring.

The problem(but not a disqualifying issue) is that Earth's biosphere is an open system, so evolution is possible for your parents to be stupid, but the right genes allow you to be smarter than they were. Technological progress is a good example.

The environment allowed loops to form that could reason as the earth is an open energy system. Socialization is an emergent process of loop formations increasing reasoning in human groups.


Humans have the same genes that they have had for thousands of years.

No, every human that has ever lived has had different genes from any other human in existence. even clones.
 

Grayman

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However, there is and should always be social consequences.

there it is.

do you think that maybe, "moderation standards" and or "terms of service" should at least attempt to be transparent and logically-coherent ?
Yes.

Also, Adding political beliefs to the 14th and ensuring that public businesses cannot discriminate based on political affiliation would be helpful.
 

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