"Ideas should be judged on their merits. Not by who else agrees with them."
Seems simple enough. I was just gonna say last paragraph, but I thought it was *so* good:
"Although ideas, like life, are like a box of chocolates. We can pick out the ones we like without touching the rest. If we prefer, we can throw out the whole box. But we shouldn’t swallow them all just because a few seem good. We shouldn’t judge them based on who else likes them. And, especially, we shouldn’t be afraid to try a new one from time to time."
My ex said one thing in all the years he threw his life away on spiritualism that was profound in its truth:
"our weaknesses are extensions of our strengths"
Wow. For we on what the Marching Morons call "the left," our openness to new ideas and to a breadth of viewpoints is a strength, no question.
But its extension into timidity to condemn bad viewpoints has become our weakness. This was the most corrosive consequence of postmodernism. For me being a politically and sexually active gay man during the HIV crisis this peaked in dealing with the issue of HIV+ gay men deliberately infecting others with lies about their HIV status and even perforating condoms; these were murderers yet very few gay men could bring themselves to condemn them. Just yapping bullshit about "personal responsibility," I had one guy sweating and trembling and finally running away in terror, unable to make the most obvious value judgment.
Yes we need to be able to examine other viewpoints. We also need to be ready to identify wrong ones.
I believe this takes top prize for bizarre.
"Ideas should be judged on their merits. Not by who else agrees with them."
Seems simple enough. I was just gonna say last paragraph, but I thought it was *so* good:
"Although ideas, like life, are like a box of chocolates. We can pick out the ones we like without touching the rest. If we prefer, we can throw out the whole box. But we shouldn’t swallow them all just because a few seem good. We shouldn’t judge them based on who else likes them. And, especially, we shouldn’t be afraid to try a new one from time to time."
My ex said one thing in all the years he threw his life away on spiritualism that was profound in its truth:
"our weaknesses are extensions of our strengths"
Wow. For we on what the Marching Morons call "the left," our openness to new ideas and to a breadth of viewpoints is a strength, no question.
But its extension into timidity to condemn bad viewpoints has become our weakness. This was the most corrosive consequence of postmodernism. For me being a politically and sexually active gay man during the HIV crisis this peaked in dealing with the issue of HIV+ gay men deliberately infecting others with lies about their HIV status and even perforating condoms; these were murderers yet very few gay men could bring themselves to condemn them. Just yapping bullshit about "personal responsibility," I had one guy sweating and trembling and finally running away in terror, unable to make the most obvious value judgment.
Yes we need to be able to examine other viewpoints. We also need to be ready to identify wrong ones.
For example, "a trans woman is a woman."
I don't always agree, but *big* "Yup" on this one. TY for reply.
If two people agree on everything then one of them is superfluous.
YW.
Lol... Hadn't heard that one. TY again.