because you don't understand or agree with someone's behavior or culture doesn't mean you have the right to ban or limit them, and I think everybody can agree on that.
Actually, I think Everyone would DISagree with that.
For example, the Aztec culture requires human sacrifice in order to ensure the return of the Sun.
Human sacrifice to ensure the return of the sun is illegal because it hurts people, not because we think it's weird and dumb.
because you don't understand or agree with someone's behavior or culture doesn't mean you have the right to ban or limit them, and I think everybody can agree on that.
Actually, I think Everyone would DISagree with that.
For example, the Aztec culture requires human sacrifice in order to ensure the return of the Sun.
Human sacrifice to ensure the return of the sun is illegal because it hurts people, not because we think it's weird and dumb.
"Weird and dumb" wasn't specified.
But there are plenty of practices that aren't tolerated, if not actually ilegal, because they are outside cultural norms, even if they don't hurt anyone.
The problem was the two-party system. You had two warring political parties both wanting to be in charge of human sacrifices. So more often than not, they'd have two human sacrifices going on in the same day, resulting in our current "two-sun" dilemma.
My results weren't really surprising, although in fairness the first time I went through it I didn't really catch on until after Round 3 of 4, which definitely skewed things.
Don't think the test works if you aren't American.
Even if you are, surely the outline of certain states has a different meaning for people who come from that state?
It (supposedly) shows how much bias you have regarding the major American political parties. It should work for everyone, but I would expect most non-Americans to care less.
Legally, that is not generally true in the U.S. Morally, I think it falls short of "surely."
This quote stands in direct contradiction to this one:
because you don't understand or agree with someone's behavior or culture doesn't mean you have the right to ban or limit them, and I think everybody can agree on that.
Clearly people do feel they have the right to limit another person's right to dispose of their own life in the manner of their own choosing, irrespective of that person's culture.
I've been reading the Washington Times comments for a little while now. I hear some people complaining about radical Islam and saying that moderate Muslims need to step up and speak out against it, rather than being silent. You're a Muslim, so it's your responsibility to show that you're not a terrorist sympathizer.
The Washington Times then publishes an article about a moderate group of Muslims who are stepping up and speaking out against radical Islam, rather than being silent. The response?
The commenters said it wasn't enough. They said it was too late. The commenters said she wasn't really a Muslim if she opposed terrorism. They said she was opposing Islam by opposing terrorism. They said all Muslim leaders had to do it before they would take the message seriously. They say Islam has to be destroyed. Even when a Muslim group does exactly what their critics ask, the critics do not listen. They do not care.
It's like Japanese apologies to China for WW2-era atrocities. China castigates Japan constantly for not apologizing. The reality is that Japan has issued an official apology about once every year for the past 70 years, but China does not listen. It's not politically convenient to accept the apology they claim to want.
It's a rhetorical whip. They don't really care what you say or don't say. They just don't like you because they already decided, long before ever meeting you, that you are their eternal enemy.
Your main mistake was reading a newspapers comment section. There is a reason why newspapers now have started getting rid of theirs. Time consuming to moderate and frequently full of hateful stuff.
I don't know that I would take seriously anything that was being said in reference to Aztec sun-worship.
Which is where you go wrong.
To the Aztecs it was absolutely real. There are many peoples in the world with beliefs that seem ridiculous to us, but to them they are absolutely real, and it is our beliefs that seem ridiculous.
I don't know that I would take seriously anything that was being said in reference to Aztec sun-worship.
Which is where you go wrong.
To the Aztecs it was absolutely real. There are many peoples in the world with beliefs that seem ridiculous to us, but to them they are absolutely real, and it is our beliefs that seem ridiculous.
I just mean in the context of this conversation and the recent tangent.
Or do you think I was being serious about there being two Suns?
@elminster: My experience reading comment sections on Cracked.com and the New York Times gave me a different impression. The comment sections there were often very balanced and insightful, and often in the former they were higher quality than the articles themselves. But those comment sections appear to be the outliers, not the low quality ones you see elsewhere.
The fact is, one side of the political spectrum in the United States has a Fascist demagogue leading in the polls by nearly 20 percentage points (and his nearest rival, Ted Cruz, isn't much, if any better). And it isn't the Democrats. And this comes as no surprise to anyone who has studied and watched the right-wing in this country for the last 35 years. They don't like Trump in spite of what he is saying, they like him precisely BECAUSE of what he is saying. He is the Frankenstein monster that is the result of decades of demeaning and scapegoating every minority group in existence for political gain. The GOP establishment has been content to use the people who support Trump for years, and now they are shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that the true colors they've been trying to hide with clever marketing and words for 3 decades are being exposed. Trump isn't an accident, he's the logical conclusion and result of a party of American Fascists.
I'm a lifelong Democrat myself, but there is more to the GOP than xenophobia and demagoguery.
Trump is an outgrowth of the GOP, but he doesn't represent it's "true face" (or whatever phrase one might use). Most Republican leaders find him too extreme. A lot of Republican civilians feel the same way. There has been an increasingly radical turn away from the center inside the GOP, but Trump is nevertheless an extreme case. Republicans in and outside of the government aren't actually that big on internment camps for minorities.
It would be like hearing a Democratic candidate advocate banning fossil fuels. That's not the "true face" of the American left that the Democrats have been hiding for years; that's a fringe belief that most Democrats would reject. It's a branch, not a root.
It is not that Republicans like Trump. It's that the people who like Trump are Republicans. And those supporters are mostly limited to poor, uneducated whites. Granted, that's a major constituency for the Republican Party, but that doesn't indicate Trump's policies are the Republican mainstream. The last polls I've heard say that Trump is only the second most popular candidate.
I'm a lifelong Democrat myself, but there is more to the GOP than xenophobia and demagoguery.
Trump is an outgrowth of the GOP, but he doesn't represent it's "true face" (or whatever phrase one might use). Most Republican leaders find him too extreme. A lot of Republican civilians feel the same way. There has been an increasingly radical turn away from the center inside the GOP, but Trump is nevertheless an extreme case. Republicans in and outside of the government aren't actually that big on internment camps for minorities.
It would be like hearing a Democratic candidate advocate banning fossil fuels. That's not the "true face" of the American left that the Democrats have been hiding for years; that's a fringe belief that most Democrats would reject. It's a branch, not a root.
It is not that Republicans like Trump. It's that the people who like Trump are Republicans. And those supporters are mostly limited to poor, uneducated whites. Granted, that's a major constituency for the Republican Party, but that doesn't indicate Trump's policies are the Republican mainstream. The last polls I've heard say that Trump is only the second most popular candidate.
The most popular Republican candidate?
"Undecided." With 80% of the vote.
The Republican base is going to decide the nominee. That nominee is either (mark my words) going to Trump or Ted Cruz. We keep hearing that Trump's latest statements and actions will be what torpedoes his bid, and his numbers continue to go up. The GOP base is done with people like Jeb Bush and Chris Christie. Why settle for a diluted form of the drug when the pure, uncut version is right in front of your face?? The Republican Party is a mish-mash of racists, xenophobes, gun nuts, religious zealots, and, more importantly, a portion of the citizenry that just plain believes complete nonsense.
The party platform at present (and there is NO denying this, for any candidate) is closing our doors to refugees we had a hand in creating, no abortion even in the case of rape or incest, reversing course on same-sex marriage, complete denial of climate change, and willingness to go to war at the drop of a hat to line the pockets of defense contractors. This isn't even dealing with their obscene economic policies. And the candidate who is leading by leaps and bounds is one step away from calling for internment camps. And the other nominees are only SLIGHTLY below him on the totalitarian scale. It's a party in the grip of mass insanity. Listening to Sanders and Clinton, you can at least sense that these are reasonable people who you may or may not have disagreements with on policy. But they aren't lunatics or sociopaths. I'm not sure I can say that about anyone running on the Republican side. Maybe John Kasich, who has about as much a chance of securing the nomination as I do.
@semiticgod: Saying that Trump isn't in the Republican mainstream is being very generous. I would like to believe that most of those undecided voters prefer a more moderate candidate, but that's almost irrelevant if they can't get on track to nominate one of them. It's not a perfect analogy, but something like 72% of American adults didn't vote for Obama in 2012 (or Bush in 2004, if you prefer). We can't credibly say that he doesn't (didn't) represent the U.S.
Also, while it's true that the party establishment generally loathes Trump, they're dependent on his supporters. The other GOP candidates are slow and measured in their criticism of him because they're all planning on courting people who *love* these policies following his "inevitable" campaign collapse.
I agree that many of Trump's views aren't shared by most Republicans, but his rhetoric and his popularity still tell us a lot about the Republican party.
@jjstraka34: I'd like to encourage you to tone it down a bit. You're being hyperbolic in a way that's unlikely to change anyone's mind and isn't careful with facts. For example, Trump, Bush, Kasich, Fiorina, Christie, and Graham all support exceptions for rape and incest. Graham spoke rather forcefully about this (albeit from a political angle) to the RJC last week. Likewise, their views on climate change are a bit more varied than you're claiming. I don't like the GOP either, but let's keep this discussion grounded in reality.
I don't understand how trump has such a lead in the polls. WHO Is supporting him? He's universally bellittled and mocked in EVERY media source. I've never seen or heard a real person support trump other than himself. I'm very skeptical of these poll numbers and I still think trump will fade into the background as the nomination approaches. I seem to remember a similar, but more mild "x crazy republican is going to be president and the world is going to end because of the GOP" around Herman Cain, and to a point, Newt Gingrich(hehe, you had me at moon base). It seems like everytime the worlds about to end it just keeps on going. Disappointing, I know.
Trump leads in the polls because he is the ONLY one that the media talks about and is the only one impartial voters have heard of. Chances are, many of these people won't even cast a ballot in the federal election let alone the party election.
Comments
But there are plenty of practices that aren't tolerated, if not actually ilegal, because they are outside cultural norms, even if they don't hurt anyone.
The smart thing would just be to tone down the sacrifices, to shorten the days and limit global warming.
http://www.vox.com/2015/12/7/9828120/partisan-test
There's a whole bunch of them on all kinds of subjects to be found here: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/education.html
And as expected, I am so far over to the left I'm almost off a cliff.
Don't think the test works if you aren't American.
Even if you are, surely the outline of certain states has a different meaning for people who come from that state?
Or indead any decision. The brain is a computer, it acts according to it's programming.
www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/07/donald-trump-calls-for-banning-muslims-from-entering-u-s/
The Washington Times then publishes an article about a moderate group of Muslims who are stepping up and speaking out against radical Islam, rather than being silent. The response?
The commenters said it wasn't enough. They said it was too late. The commenters said she wasn't really a Muslim if she opposed terrorism. They said she was opposing Islam by opposing terrorism. They said all Muslim leaders had to do it before they would take the message seriously. They say Islam has to be destroyed. Even when a Muslim group does exactly what their critics ask, the critics do not listen. They do not care.
It's like Japanese apologies to China for WW2-era atrocities. China castigates Japan constantly for not apologizing. The reality is that Japan has issued an official apology about once every year for the past 70 years, but China does not listen. It's not politically convenient to accept the apology they claim to want.
It's a rhetorical whip. They don't really care what you say or don't say. They just don't like you because they already decided, long before ever meeting you, that you are their eternal enemy.
Sometimes bigotry is really just that--bigotry.
To the Aztecs it was absolutely real. There are many peoples in the world with beliefs that seem ridiculous to us, but to them they are absolutely real, and it is our beliefs that seem ridiculous.
Or do you think I was being serious about there being two Suns?
Trump is an outgrowth of the GOP, but he doesn't represent it's "true face" (or whatever phrase one might use). Most Republican leaders find him too extreme. A lot of Republican civilians feel the same way. There has been an increasingly radical turn away from the center inside the GOP, but Trump is nevertheless an extreme case. Republicans in and outside of the government aren't actually that big on internment camps for minorities.
It would be like hearing a Democratic candidate advocate banning fossil fuels. That's not the "true face" of the American left that the Democrats have been hiding for years; that's a fringe belief that most Democrats would reject. It's a branch, not a root.
It is not that Republicans like Trump. It's that the people who like Trump are Republicans. And those supporters are mostly limited to poor, uneducated whites. Granted, that's a major constituency for the Republican Party, but that doesn't indicate Trump's policies are the Republican mainstream. The last polls I've heard say that Trump is only the second most popular candidate.
The most popular Republican candidate?
"Undecided." With 80% of the vote.
The party platform at present (and there is NO denying this, for any candidate) is closing our doors to refugees we had a hand in creating, no abortion even in the case of rape or incest, reversing course on same-sex marriage, complete denial of climate change, and willingness to go to war at the drop of a hat to line the pockets of defense contractors. This isn't even dealing with their obscene economic policies. And the candidate who is leading by leaps and bounds is one step away from calling for internment camps. And the other nominees are only SLIGHTLY below him on the totalitarian scale. It's a party in the grip of mass insanity. Listening to Sanders and Clinton, you can at least sense that these are reasonable people who you may or may not have disagreements with on policy. But they aren't lunatics or sociopaths. I'm not sure I can say that about anyone running on the Republican side. Maybe John Kasich, who has about as much a chance of securing the nomination as I do.
Also, while it's true that the party establishment generally loathes Trump, they're dependent on his supporters. The other GOP candidates are slow and measured in their criticism of him because they're all planning on courting people who *love* these policies following his "inevitable" campaign collapse.
I agree that many of Trump's views aren't shared by most Republicans, but his rhetoric and his popularity still tell us a lot about the Republican party.
It seems like everytime the worlds about to end it just keeps on going. Disappointing, I know.