are also an illusion, albeit a shared one since consensus creates them.
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Do some people want to take away our freedoms one by one?
- Thread starter Reverend Rick
- Start date
Open Range is one of my favorites.
You don't have to take down the internet. You just have to be aware that you can't expect privacy.
The same thing with cell phones, the government knows which end of my house my phone is in. They know what I spend my money on and so forth.
People assist this lack of privacy with Face book. To me, only a fool would tell people their every move and thought.
"I'm going to leave my house now and will not return for 3 days".
Just a few days earlier, they brag about their big screen TV they just bought or show off pictures taken from a very expensive camera.
This. Our rights are whatever we can agree with enough others that they are.
And even then there are quite a few fictions wandering around.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
I'd prefer that god stay out of the class room because there is no room for promoting one religion over them all in a class room. So the best solution that is best suited for everybody is just don't teach it, don't make prayer mandatory, and avoid the whole mess of pushing things on people they don't believe in. And you may say people frown upon Merry Christmas, but I still hear alot of people say it.
Yes, they are coming for your guns by relaxing gun ownership laws over the past few years.
I don't see any of this. Wanting the rich to not have as many loopholes, deductions, and other ways to pay less taxes is not trying take away what they have earned, and certainly is not trying to take away the family farm. I don't know how other states do it, but here in Indiana we have signs here and there marking family farms that have been around for over 100 years.
A rant is a form of speech.
Are you still sore about the election? I know we have been over this 51/49 nonsense before.
Some try to take away liberty.
Some try to preserve it.
Judge rebuffs feds' secret arguments on no-fly list - POLITICO.com
At the moment, we don't seem to have leadership steering us towards less.
It's for our own good, they say.
Some try to preserve it.
Judge rebuffs feds' secret arguments on no-fly list - POLITICO.com
At the moment, we don't seem to have leadership steering us towards less.
It's for our own good, they say.
Alceste
Vagabond
Perhaps it's more accurate to think of secularism as an effort to accommodate people of all religious and none, in an even and unbiased fashion. Put yourself in the position of a school administrator. One kid wants to do a presentation on, for example, wicca. A tolerant attitude would be "Great! Go for it!" but as an administrator, you know you will receive bitter complaints from the parents of all the non-wiccan children in the class, many of whom probably believe quite strongly that any form of paganism is of the devil, and their children's immortal souls are at stake. Some of those parents might even go so far as removing their children from secular education altogether, picketing outside the school, lobbying to have teachers fired, calling Fox News, etc. The pragmatic administrator might then say "Well, that's not to anyone's benefit, so perhaps we shouldn't have presentations of controversial religious beliefs." But you can't stop there, because you are clearly discriminating against a religious minority if you simply outlaw pagan presentations. The fair and tolerant attitude would say the only solution is not to discuss religions of any kind in class, outside classes that are ABOUT religion. Why? To be fair, tolerant, open-minded and even-handed. And to avoid controversy.
That explains so much about your posts.
This is an attitude that was expressed a lot in the Western sandbox game Red Dead Redemption: the evil government is out to take away our freedom to shoot each other!
Frankly, if The Unforgiven is any indication, I say good riddance to that type of life.
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You don't have to take down the internet. You just have to be aware that you can't expect privacy.
The same thing with cell phones, the government knows which end of my house my phone is in. They know what I spend my money on and so forth.
People assist this lack of privacy with Face book. To me, only a fool would tell people their every move and thought.
"I'm going to leave my house now and will not return for 3 days".
Just a few days earlier, they brag about their big screen TV they just bought or show off pictures taken from a very expensive camera.
One reason I don't have a facebook account. ^_^
But then you give up your ability to stalk other people. :ninja:
(Wait. That isn't the point of facebook?)
Well, I don't exactly have any desire to stalk people, but if I did, I don't think I'd have an account with my real information on it. ^_^
Yeah, I understand these challenging aspects, which is why I don't know what the solution is. I do not like the solution of banishment. It strikes me as a short-term attempt to resolve what is a long-term issue, and a poor one at that. It brews a terrible amount of ignorance about religion, and ignorance is a wonderful breeding ground for intolerance and bigotry. It reminds me in a way of "don't ask, don't tell" and is flawed for similar reasons. Hiding these issues in the closet is not a proper long-term solution. We cannot expect tolerance for diversity to brew when we shove it all into the closet and refuse to talk about any of it. Avoiding controversy does not resolve it and ends up being oppressive in a country that is supposed to be about freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
I don't expect overnight solutions, but I think banishing religion from the public sphere entirely is the wrong thing to do. Requiring a religious diversity course in High School, on the other hand, would be a step in the right direction. Hopefully social norms would slowly follow from there to become more accommodating of diversity. It'd take at least a generation, as any major cultural shift does.
I'm shocked, shocked to find out that there is stalking going on in Facebook.
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Good scene: Casablanca - YouTube
Foxfire
It's all about the Light
Completely agree with you! It is so refreshing for me to read your rant! Spot on! I am Canadian btw, but also American. I have Dual Citizenship (my Mom was born in Mass.). My sister (who lives in Montreal) voted in the last election and was heartbroken with the results. I haven't registered to vote although I do have a valid US passport.
Anyway, I see the same things as you and it is very disheartening. Here in Canada, we have a conservative Prime Minister and he is doing a fine job. A lot of liberals up here are howling at his door though.
Foxfire
It's all about the Light
Very well said. I find myself mourning the loss of common sense on a more regular basis these days as I see lemmings happily being led off the cliff. It appears to me that the issues of the day are not understood by the majority of the voters. During this past election, many young people voted for Obama. They did not know what "Benghazi" was. I blame the media for this. It is way too easy to feed flashing lights and buzz words then to try and distill and relay facts so a person can make up their own minds. I think the critical skill of critical thinking for our young people is becoming a thing of the past.
McBell
mantra-chanting henotheistic snake handler
Political correctness has gotten completely out of hand.
Politics is now nothing more than various groups of people telling lies in an attempt to get their favourite big steaming pile of bull **** the one most accepted big steaming pile of bull **** accepted by the willfully ignorant masses.
dyanaprajna2011
Dharmapala
God hasn't been taken out of schools, he's been put in his rightful, constitutional place. It's always funny to me to hear conservatives go on tirades about their rights, and the injustices done to them, when what they want generally disagrees with the constitution, all the while they're screaming about the constitution! Oh, the illogicalities of political meandering.
People don't like the idea that, wherever they go, they run the risk of being shot, either by a lunatic, or by a "well-meaning, law abiding" citizen, who's just trying to keep the peace, and be a law until himself.
When you live in a country, a society, you have to help pay for that society. How else do roads get built? You enjoy all kinds of things that can only be paid for by tax-money collected by the federal government. Don't forget, since you are a conservative, and tend to support wars, we can always take away funding for the military. I won't pay for them. I'm a Buddhist, a pacifist, I don't support any war, so I don't want my tax money going to something so evil. The people who support war should pay for it themselves, and the military should pay their own way. Glad you pointed that out to us.
People don't like being called racial slurs, or hearing biased remarks. People don't like being discriminated against.
Freedom is a relative term based on arbitrary ideas. It's different for different people.
We came to this country to be free, to have our freedoms, to be able to think and decide things on our own! Except those damn liberals!
I like the idea of living, and not being afraid of being shot, don't you? I'd rather have fear taken away than live by some arbitrary 200 year old law that has no real application today.
Enlightenment and progress has always been frowned upon by people stuck in the past.
I'd rather live in a communist society than a fascist one.
Most people would rather have a fair shot than kept down by government/political party/society.
The first one I can completely agree with, if anyone was actually capable of doing that, instead of being stubborn and bull-headed, thinking their way was the only right way. The second one, I have the right to not believe in a higher power. The first part of the third one, sure, but it's the second part that bothers me. I lived in the deep south, so I know about the shoot first, shoot at anything that you don't know, mentality. And it bothers me.
When no one worries about it, that's when we need to start worrying.
They're always trying to sneak little things in, eg, the petty offense doctrine (the USSC decision which unconstitutionally limits our right to a jury trial).
It's the ole frog in a pot of warm water over a low flame syndrome, eh?
So worrying is good. But I'm lazy, so I let others worry for me. Vicarious worrying as it were.
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Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
During the last election, many more groups than young voters voted for Obama. And many of them, such as racial minority voters, know damn well the Dems are far from perfect are really do nothing more than play to their demograph for support, but it's better than the other person who actively pursues policies of discrimination. As a GLBT voter, I was irate that of course Obama came out in support of marriage equality during an election campaign year, as I predicted he would as a political move to rally support, but it's better than Romney who wanted to amend the Constitution to ban marriage equality and setup commissions to investigate certain pro-GLBT groups and individuals.
And then Obama also had the union vote, many of those voters whose jobs were saved by the auto bailout.
You can call it misinformation, I call it politics as usual. Ever since day one our federal government has been debating and arguing over the constitutionality of laws, doing things that don't seem right, and offending the other party.