Random thoughts... - by Tocky
Tocky on 13/1/2022 at 06:22
In absolutely no way whatsoever. Just because you lose an argument does not mean the other side are Bolsheviks or whatever other straw man you wish to throw up. He starts out calling people things which he does not support with fact and ends with saying people are scornful of him because of his beliefs. Ever think maybe it's the unsupported argument he started out with in the first place? No? Not a clue? Can't figure that one out? You see, when you are wrong and you name call without evidence, nobody is going to like you. Of course people are scornful of unsupported statements. It's hilarious to think anyone should listen to you when you start with a scornful lie about them and end with umbrage that others are scornful of you. Can you not see the hypocrisy? I don't even consider myself left and it insults my sense of what is right and true that he takes the high ground while pulling the low ground up with him.
Briareos H on 13/1/2022 at 13:35
I'm not seeing a deconstruction but 3 minutes of non-sequiturs. Here is, in order, the list of statements he makes about things other than his own self:
* the whole point of being a trotskyist is to have no morals
* being a trotskyist means that ends justify the means
* morality in politics is dangerous
* morality is becoming more subjective
* most politicians force people to do what they don't want to do
* most modern laws aim at preventing people from raising their own children and women from staying at home
* the left think they are inherently moral and that others are immoral
* you cannot debate against someone who despises you
* facts and reason fly out of the window when debating the left
Not only do I not hear anything logically connecting or argumenting for these statements, let alone verifiable sources, but I think most of them may be demonstrably false? This is truly the shittiest facts & logic I've ever seen used in an attempt to defend facts & logic vs. feelings.
faetal on 13/1/2022 at 14:16
"I may not have any good arguments, but I sure do know how to post a YouTube link which I like the sound of"
Jason Moyer on 13/1/2022 at 17:23
I agree that we should be able to have civil discourse over political topics like capital punishment without things getting personal or either side staking a claim to a moral high ground. I don't think that applies to most of the actual things that the left and right disagree on anymore, as there is a clear right and wrong when you're dealing with something like genetic minorities having human rights and equal protection under the law, or the idea that thousands of years of scientific progress are intellectually equivalent to the random ponderings of the confidently ignorant. You can't have civil discourse with people who are openly hateful and who are oblivious to most of their worldview consisting of false equivalencies.
Aja on 13/1/2022 at 18:33
I hate this so much because it's the kind of nonsense that spurs on conservatives despite not being anything approaching a coherent argument. Ironically he's doing exactly what he accuses the left of, appealing to emotion and in this case the mythical Common Sense without providing any evidence or reasoning.
And now YouTube has registered it as a click on my account, so I'm going to be filtering out garbage recommendations for months, like the one time I clicked on a Jordan Peterson lecture.
rachel on 13/1/2022 at 19:58
Not if you scrub it from your YT history (which I did) (from mine I mean xD)
Harvester on 13/1/2022 at 20:06
Did you guys know that this is Christopher Hitchens' brother? He and Christopher have held public discussions about religion in the past. I've read a book by him (Peter), called "The Rage Against God". I have no desire to discuss that book in detail*, but it's very conservative with some added homophobia to boot, but it's more coherent and not as rambling as whatever he's trying to say here. I can't distill a coherent argument out of this mess.
* I have a demanding job and neither the time or the energy for the sort of discussions on religion I used to partake in, and I also find them too emotionally taxing, especially when I can't look my discussion partners in the eye and people start getting personal.
rachel on 14/1/2022 at 14:48
Thanks for the info, Harvester. I was curious about whether they were related but hadn't gotten around to checking it out.
Tocky on 23/1/2022 at 17:51
Back to lighthearted fare. I was passing by a little arts section in Walmart when I noticed the sketch pads. I haven't lifted a finger for anything artistic since maybe forty years so I thought what the heck. At first I did a little thing that came to mind about a cowboy ambushing an Indian who was himself being ambushed by another Indian and it was awful. I had lost my touch completely. I was having to find perspective and distance and proportion all over again. Cartoonish really. Then I did a little thing and another little thing and I was getting a bit better each time. Then I decided to try my hand at drawing my wife. I thought, hey that kind of does look like her so I kept at it. It's a process of picking away. Adjusting this and that. Does the chin need to be shorter? Do the eyes need to come down more? I got close. I can't stop picking at it though.
This is my wife ready for a night on the town in her heyday. She is always on the verge of saying something so I hope I managed to capture that.
[IMG]
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/ruQEKjJ.jpg[/IMG]
I think I got her mostly right. But even now I'm seeing things to fix. A line to smooth here. A shading to correct there.