In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Scott Pruitt, EPA Chief, said that the Bible tells people to use all the resources available to us, including fossil fuels:
"The biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we've been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind".
According to Vox: "But as far as his biblical assertion goes, Pruitt's words reflect a wider trend among American evangelicals, who largely have not embraced scientific thought on environmentalism or global warming."
The Trump administration has used a variety of excuses to legitimize its record-setting rollbacks on environmental protections: calling global warming a hoax, or arguing that the economic consequences of increased regulation would outweigh their benefit.
The latest justification? The Bible.
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, a media outlet that also seems to double as a propaganda arm of the Trump administration, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said his Christian convictions led him to conclude that America should use gas and coal freely because natural resources exist purely for man's benefit.
[...] That's why evangelical groups have, therefore, been historically resistant to environmentalist causes. Creationist lobbying groups frequently fund initiatives like the Louisiana Science Education Act, which mandates a "balanced" (and climate change-denying) approach to teaching environmental issues in public schools.
Please read the linked article as it explains the connection between contempt for science and protecting the environment and the beliefs of evangelicals.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:31PM (31 children)
I'd like to know if his "Christian convictions" were paid for by the extraction industry.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:45PM (1 child)
Yesterday, a man by the name of Eric Vorgond was found not guilty in a sexual assault case. The man was accused of raping a person in a park in the middle of the day. Despite countless witnesses seeing the defendant rape the person and video footage proving that the event took place, he was found not guilty of all charges.
Just as it seemed as if Mr. Vorgond would be convicted, his lawyer put forth two shocking arguments that proved his client's innocence. The defense first argued that the supposed victim did, in fact, exist. Finally, the defense argued that the alleged victim was, in fact, a woman. The entire all-male jury, the prosecutor, and the judge gasped in unison, and then shot a hate-filled glare at the woman. The astute judge instantly observed that, because women implicitly consent to all that a man wishes to do to them, the defendant could not possibly be guilty of rape. The jury immediately reached the not guilty verdict.
The woman who falsely accused Eric Vorgond of rape was sentenced to rape prison for her crime. The judge who presided over the case is set to receive numerous awards for his numerous innovations in legal theory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @04:30PM
You forgot to mention their primary argument: "Because God said it was OK!"
(Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Monday February 26 2018, @01:45PM (28 children)
The Bible can be used to justify any prejudice and hypocrisy you like, there's a Bible quote for everything. Could someone who's more familiar with it than I am perhaps cite the ones supporting being careful with the environment and not destroying it, i.e. the opposite of what Pruitt is saying?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:05PM (3 children)
Wrong. This only happens if you take it out of context.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by driverless on Monday February 26 2018, @02:24PM (2 children)
Readers should note that "taken out of context" in this case means "interpreted in a manner that I disagree with". By definition, the person quoting whatever Bible verse they find useful is applying it correctly, while everyone they disagree with is quoting out of context.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:50PM (1 child)
And if you point this out, they'll say something like if you are "properly tuned in with God", you'll know the proper interpretation. There's always one more layer of indirection beyond objective measure.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @11:13AM
OK, I'd like to properly tune in with god. What frequency does he send on? And does he use AM or FM?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 26 2018, @02:05PM (5 children)
Well, I think you're looking for the concept of "steward". https://tifwe.org/four-principles-of-biblical-stewardship/ [tifwe.org] And, I'll point out immediately that the oil company's concept of "mineral rights" and "ownership" contrast with the idea that "The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."
Pruitt is effectively trying to justify gluttony. He's saying, "The food is there, we should eat it!" Or, the oil. Use it until it's gone, it's our duty to consume everything we can reach.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday February 26 2018, @02:27PM
Yup, that's it, thanks!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Monday February 26 2018, @04:46PM (3 children)
Is this guy married? Does he have daughters? 'cause if they are there maybe we should make use of them until THEY are all used up.
Does this guy have an arse? Maybe we should make use of.....blah blah blah....
Can i have this guys' oxygen? God says i can. Gimme gimme gimme.
The guy is an idiot.
I.D.I.O.T.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @07:22PM (2 children)
I'm suddenly thinking of the story of Lot...
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 26 2018, @08:36PM (1 child)
"Meet my father, also my grandfather, my uncle, and his own father in law!" "Is that why they call him Odd Lot?" -- with apologies to the Cartoon History of the Universe :D
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday February 26 2018, @11:13PM
Most common thing heard at a hillbilly wedding: "Hey there, Uncle Dad!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:08PM
There you go:
http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=97582 [landoverbaptist.net]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @03:21PM
The problem is its a complicated line. To be taken seriously you're going to have to put some work into describing what the negation of his quote would look like TO YOU. I'll try to explain how it would look to me, but that's probably not going to satisfy you. For the duration of this post I'm not trying to be politically biased although, yah know, scorpions gotta scorpion or whatever that weird fable line is, exactly.
OK so you're not a big fan of that, so which section specifically are you trying to negate here? Lets break it on down by section:
Filler, delete it, you yourself specified you wanted the Bible not the Torah or Koran or some Buddhist writings.
We as in humans on earth not praying to divine intervention. The negation of this sounds like a much worse plan than the original quote. We should actively operate an EPA department, not pray and hope God works it out in the end.
So not quite a commandment but its not exactly optional or merely an alternative fact. You can't seriously be suggesting promoting this to clay tablet and burning bush level of commandment? Seriously, like fire up a ceramics kiln for this and torch an innocent creosote bush? So its merely a responsibility, like do this or be damned. The opposite would seem to be the original Satanic commandment of "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law" which is not exactly in the bible as a general way of looking at the world, LOL, and its very Libertarian fundamentalist and and speaking of smoke this sounds OK WRT regulating smoking pot, but not a wise strategy for regulating power plant smoke stacks. So again the opposite of this clause sux much worse than the original quote, and I guarantee Anton LeVey style quotes are not going to be found in the bible as you specified as a requirement anyway.
Filler, this is the friggin EPA's area of operations mission statement definition, so delete it. If you screw around with this clause and turn it into "regulate the financial markets" then you've just transferred the poor guy from the EPA to the SEC. I think we can just skip further discussion of this clause, LOL. Next!
How refreshingly non-neoconservative of him. We have dominion over USA lands. Not claiming dominion over all the middle east's oil is downright anti-Semitic of him in today's political climate. Or the negation is nonsense, that the environment isn't a blessing, so fuk the trees and fishes or whatever. The negation of this clause is ridiculous, like seriously claiming the bible somewhere claims the USA has dominion over Iraq's oil fields? Again I think we can skip further discussion as ridiculous, Next!
So we should be nice to people and use what we harvest for wise purposes. So what are you looking for as a negation, something like "to crush (our) enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women." that's Conan the Barbarian not a biblical quote. I mean, even if you agree with that mindset, you're not gonna find it in the bible. Well, maybe the Jews and the old testament. Actually its probably in the old testament. But regardless of whats negated and in the bible, the negation is not exactly wise environmental stewardship, so you probably don't want it anyway.
So, I mean, what are you looking for WRT axe grinding? If you just want weird vaguely environmentalist bible verses I can try to find some. How about:
I would interpret that in context as something like shopping at a modern grocery store with tens of thousands of stock items is taking the Lords name in vain because only the Lord should have microwave hamburgers, feta cheese, goat stew meat, and whatever the hell mystery DNA is in chikn nuggets, which I guess tangentially is only possible via burning a lot of a lot of diesel oil and gasoline. God wants us to eat local fresh foods only, not some processed shit shipped across the country to a Walmart SuperCentre. I guess I can roll with that as the negation if you're willing to accept it? I mean, I like it, its vaguely paleo, although the "negation" aspect is a bit twisted and lacking...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @03:58PM (10 children)
There are two parts: The Old Testament and The New Testament. Pruit is rambling on about stuff found in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is about providing context for The New Testament and showing how things used to suck even worse before Jesus helped out. A lot of Jesus' life and actions were prophesized centuries before he turned up and these prophesies are in the Old Testament. Some congregations don't even hand out the Old Testament for regular reading. Jesus himself is not even in the Old Testament, despite prophesies. Christianity is about Christ (Jesus) so Pruit should be following the NT.
He is probably one of those Prosperity Gospel [dallasnews.com] types which ignore Christ, his teachings, and just about everything in the NT in order to cherry pick from the bad old days in the OT and ignore Christ and thus Christianity since Christianity is defined by Jesus.
2 Peter 2:1,
2 Timothy 4:3-4,
Acts 20:28-30
and all that.
The New Testament is about Christianity because it's all about Jesus The Christ and his works, goals, and guidance. Putting it into computing terms, the New Testament deprecates the Old Testament and Pruit is citing deprecated material.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @04:15PM (6 children)
I'll try an opposing post implementing standard SN automotive analogy:
New testament is like fuel injection and old testament is like carburetor, and Pruit is talking about the responsibilities of the water pump so in specific context he's not quoting deprecated technology.
As a style nitpick your post follows the general style of the linked article in not being very academically rigorous, lots of "should" and "probably" provided as proof, combined with a logical fallacy as an argument where by definition we'll say he sux in an unrelated field (politics) therefore his religion or perhaps all Christians also sux merely by association, which is pretty weak sauce.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @04:21PM (5 children)
I see your analogy but disagree. John 3:16 deprecates the OT. That is rather the kernel of the NT.
The OT is a mixture of a lot of things but it is deprecated so to speak. Otherwise he might as well be quoting the jollier parts like Ezekiel 23:19-21
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @05:56PM (4 children)
Jesus warned us about people like you. Just try to change one letter of the law and you'll find yourself in hell and those of us in heaven will consider you the least.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @07:23PM (3 children)
Matthew 22:36-40
(Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Monday February 26 2018, @08:21PM (1 child)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 26 2018, @08:37PM
Less, because we see cars every day. It's always funny to watch people with different versions of The One Truth sling shit at one another though.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @09:04PM
Derpy 13:37
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @04:16PM (1 child)
*snort*! lol!
You meet any Christians lately?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:06PM
Go talk to a laestadian - the entire sect is based off of a no true Scotsman argument.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:01AM
Let me make sure I've got this straight. You're elevating one set of fictions over a different, related set of fictions and suggesting that your preferred set of fictions should be the basis for policy making. Is that about the size of it?
I'm going to assume that you're attempting (poorly) to baffle us with bullshit [goodreads.com].
Stanislaw Lem [goodreads.com], is that you?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 26 2018, @05:28PM (2 children)
First you say
Then you ask for someone to provide you with justification for your prejudice.
FCS, a little internal consistency please!!!
If quoting the bible is pointless, then DON'T use it yourself.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @09:05PM
Quoting the bible is pointless; quoting it back at someone quoting the bible is a good way to point out the first quote was pointless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:41AM
you're kidding right?
you're just looking for an argument right?
he's stating the obvious that lies and statistics can be taken out of context to prove anything, even what they intended to prove and much of what they didn't.
and then asking the other person to provide their biased justification so he could prove to us all this universal truth. you called it prejudice when he said that.
he was entirely consistent and you werent supposed to take that bait
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fritsd on Monday February 26 2018, @07:01PM (1 child)
Here is the actual text of the encyclical that pope Francis wrote (or that he had distributed to "working groups" of 3000 bishops to write):
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html [vatican.va]
The first chapter contains an explanation why his encyclical is in the spirit of his predecessors' words on the subject.
He describes the destruction of our ecosystem as an attitude problem. I like this paragraph in the intro:
(He's talking about St. Francis of Assisi here, of course)
I'll give the index in the hope that someone here will bother to read it.
Chapter I WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR COMMON HOME
(A description of environment degradation)
Chapter II THE GOSPEL OF CREATION
(Religious texts from the bible that describe why we should care for our home)
Chapter III THE HUMAN ROOTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
(This is mostly sociology rather than ecology or theology. He also talks about the meaning of modern technology and the dignity of work here.)
Chapter IV INTEGRAL ECOLOGY
(A Catholic view on social ecology and the problems of individualism)
Chapter V LINES OF APPROACH AND ACTION
(The global political view; Rio declaration etc.)
Chapter VI ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY
(lifestyle changes, ecological education, the importance of vacation, and then he turns completely mystical)
It was a bit difficult to read for me but I found it worth it, and inspiring.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fritsd on Monday February 26 2018, @07:11PM
I think I got a bit off-topic; but chapter 2, paragraph 66-67 of the encyclical contains an interpretation of the Genesis story, and a refutation of that "dominion theory" that Pruitt quotes.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:31PM (2 children)
If the Bible doesn't justify the harvesting the natural resources, then it also doesn't justify cutting up the sexual organs of completely healthy boys.
Yet, I doubt the
Jewsmedia will agree.(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:35PM
???
The sentence appears to be grammatically correct parallel construction, but I see zero logical connection between the two clauses.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:11PM
You are a walking, talking, typing endorsement for the chopping away of sexual organs. Someone should have taken your parents in hand before you were conceived. Either your daddy was shooting faulty loads, or your mama didn't catch the full load. If there was a "best part" of you, it ran down somebody's leg.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:37PM (16 children)
To be put in charge of creation means being responsible about the squandering of resources, so environmentalism is not an interfering mindset, in fact it is a logical consequence.
Whether the left elevated the planet to the rank of a god is the left's problem, not Christians'.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday February 26 2018, @01:42PM (5 children)
You may be a Christian, but presumably not the American Fundamentalist kind.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:58PM
It was an extravaganza. Many respected philosophers were present for this event, which occurred only once a year. Food, fun, and intelligent discussion awaited those who attended.
Besides offering an excellent selection of exquisite food, there were the games. One game had players throwing darts at a woman nailed to a wall; they earned a certain amount of points depending on which part of the woman's body their dart hit, with the center of the eyeball being the most rewarding. Another game - called The Silence Contest - had players try to create Absolute Silence with only their fists as quickly as possible; the one who succeeds first is declared the winner. From the perspective of the women being beaten, it may as well have been literally raining fists. There were many fun games just like those at the Men's Rights Extravaganza.
Then there were the people who attended, which included many famous Men's Rights Philosophers. You could meet and chat with people such as Dr. Rubert Wilson, who wrote the critically acclaimed books "The Right to Rape" and "Rape In Self-Defense." There were many such well-respected people at the event.
This year's Men's Rights Extravaganza was looking to be the best one yet. Indeed, each and every person who attended the event vowed to return the next year.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @04:13PM (3 children)
You may be a Christian, but presumably not the American Fundamentalist kind.
There really isn't any other kind in America any more, except maybe the Catholics (and even they seem to be adopting a lot of the fundamentalist political stances). The liberal, non-fundamentalist sects are literally dying out: their members are elderly, and the younger ones are either abandoning religion altogether, or converting to fundamentalist sects.
(Score: 2) by Bobs on Monday February 26 2018, @10:23PM (2 children)
Actually, I think the problem is the crazies get all the press / clicks.
There are a lot of Christians / most Christians who are moderate, more traditional but they are a "dog bites man" story and rarely get mentioned in the news.
Like I get a lot of SPAM email from stock pump and dumpers, not much email from calm, effective investment advisors.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @10:45PM (1 child)
I really don't think so. You can read about it, and I saw it myself in my last marriage as my wife was religious and dragged me to some churches. The fundies (which I consider "evangelicals" and "Prosperity Gospel" followers to be part of, though some will disagree with me on this) are growing in number: they're the ones who have all the "non-denominational" megachurches, the televangelists, etc. The "moderate, more traditional" Christians you're talking about are what's called "mainline Protestants". Those are really dying out, like I said before.
If you don't believe a random Orc on the internet, here's [washingtonpost.com] some [vox.com] articles [stream.org] about it from various sources I found with one quick Google search (all 3 authors are religious BTW).
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:09AM
Interesting. And that was quite similar to the argument I heard here [c-span.org] this morning.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @01:52PM (9 children)
Maybe someone should point him to the following Bible verse, especially the last eight words:
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:13PM
Yeah or maybe just toss that shit out.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @03:32PM (6 children)
Most Bible-thumping Christians I've met are more interested in holding that book of theirs than they are in opening it and actually reading it. And when they do, they are usually reading what us modern Americans would consider a confusing and archaic translation from the original Hebrew and Greek, namely the King James version completed in 1611. Conveniently, though, their leaders have provided annotations that help them interpret what they're reading "correctly" (i.e. in accordance with their beliefs, which may or may not resemble the actual meaning of the text), and organized study groups so they can focus on those bits they want people to focus on.
And of course that means ignoring all the sections that don't say what they want their followers to think about, in confidence that they'll be so busy contemplating the passages they want their followers thinking about that they won't bother to read the rest of it. And they teach that other translations and commentaries are bad and wrong, so their followers won't listen to anybody telling them that the Bible doesn't actually say what they think it says.
Or as Penn Jilette put it, nothing will make you an atheist faster than reading the damned Bible.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @04:07PM (3 children)
There is a symmetry in that leftist/progressive/marxist thinking works the same way with their masses.
Its really opposite sides of the same coin.
As a general rule across political boundaries, even across civilizations, all functionally illiterate populations naturally evolve a charismatic leader to middle-man the mass illiteracy into personal power.
The original alchemy, turning lead into gold. Nobody is immune. Makes you wonder about the implementation of Hammurabi's code, maybe the weird implementation was a hack to make themselves immune. They were fairly successful, for awhile.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @04:16PM (1 child)
There is a symmetry in that leftist/progressive/marxist thinking works the same way with their masses.
Not really: there's no "holy book" here, just whatever line of thinking is currently popular. That can change, and it's open for debate, so over time it does change. With religion, you're always stuck with that holy book which never really changes, so the only change comes through changing interpretations.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:53PM
An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming
A People's History of the United States
Yeah about that... As a trivial example a few edits here and a few there and suddenly priests are no longer allowed to marry. Or papal infallibility which was kinda a coup against the college of cardinals.
Not seeing it as different as you'd think...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @06:17AM
If you want some kind of analogy, try neocon economists and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @05:39PM
'EULA Christians. Folks for whom the Bible is like a software license. Not to be read or understood. Just assume that you know what it means, scroll down to the bottom, and click "I Agree."' -- Roger Strong, Techdirt comment
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday February 26 2018, @07:55PM
Obviously. Because otherwise the Euphrates would be filled with Bibles. [biblehub.com] :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday February 26 2018, @06:40PM
Revelation 11:18
I was about to post that one, and have posted it before.
I would also point out that strip mining resources irresponsibly is not "stewardship" of the Earth's resources.
There are far more versus in the Bible about helping orphans and widows (that is widows and the fatherless). Yet many of the people who would strip mine the resources for their own personal greed, aren't interested in helping widows and orphans in the least. I wonder how much overlap there is with wanting to get rid of environmental protection and also wanting to get rid of any kind of public assistance or welfare?
About greed: greed is idolatry [biblegateway.com].
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Dr Spin on Monday February 26 2018, @01:40PM (1 child)
American evangelicals, who largely have not embraced the basic concept of thought
FTFY
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 26 2018, @06:42PM
I think it takes quite a bit of thought to contrive some of the mental gymnastics and contortions they come up with to lead to a conclusion they want.
Conclusions are the end point. Not the starting point.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: -1, Troll) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @01:44PM (4 children)
All "things that get turned into religions" are self serving. Christianity, Leftist progressivism, its all the same.
BTW this is being demonized as being Satanic but I'm not seeing the problem:
Maybe engineering thinking is too far opposed to normie thinking or enviro nut thinking. Probably this horror response is from the watermelon people (green enviro nuts on the outside, commie reds on the inside), for them the only purpose of enviro stuff is to eliminate capitalism (plus or minus white males) from the planet
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:10PM (3 children)
In your list, you left out the religion of the invisible hand.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @02:48PM (2 children)
Agreed, AC, the only time you see propaganda worship of the free market in legacy media is from someone trying to protect a price gouging monopoly. With a side dish of someone trying to protect a rigged market. Outside legacy media, far enough away from monopoly problems, there are some genuine believers.
Another good one is the Libertarians who talk a good talk but mostly want to smoke pot. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but don't feed me an elaborate philosophical rationalization that could only apply to a society where every participant in the unified culture has an IQ over 120 when the only real personal reason is "I wanna get high".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @09:56PM
Then there is you, the propagandists favorite collaborator. At least your brain is capable of understanding some things without the Fox News seal of approval.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:46AM
hey if every value participant in your new culture had an iq of and over 120 which would then make it the new average iq, wouldn't that make them have an iq of 100, because the score is a based on a sliding scale that changes over time based on the progressive education of the society using it as a baseline measurement for how the average individual ranks?
also i always score higher than average on average.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday February 26 2018, @01:48PM (4 children)
Well, my contempt for Evangelism just went up a bit more. Willfully ignorant fools.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday February 26 2018, @03:58PM (2 children)
Does it help to be contemptuous, no matter how deserving? We're stuck with somewhere between a quarter and a third of the population being ripe for exploitation because thinking is hard work and they'd rather someone else do it for them. For them, the world is a scary place, full of enemies.
It's a big problem and we don't as yet have an answer for it. We don't even have a good understand of the causes. For instance, does peacetime and easy living cause a rise in the percentage of people who are poor thinkers? Is peacetime a time when there is less evolutionary pressure weeding out the violent and stupid? If that's so, it doesn't make for good conclusions, like that we need wars. Or that however smart and serene you are, if you help achieve Peace On Earth and it actually comes about, your great grandkids will evolve into violent morons who feel stifled and contemptuous of the peace you worked so hard to give them. Perhaps other less damaging activities such as sports can be substituted for war.
Or, what of pollution? Lead poisoning is known to reduce intelligence and increase violence in the afflicted. One of the leading explanations of the fall of Rome is lead poisoning. Lot of heavy metals are bad for our health.
At the least, dividing people into groups, such as "the evangelists" and everyone else, and then stating that the minority group is a bunch of idiots or is morally depraved or whatever other insult, even if it's true, lays groundwork for a fight. We love to do that, and maybe it's unavoidable, but we should refrain from gratuitous divisions. Love thy neighbor as thyself.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by turgid on Monday February 26 2018, @08:22PM (1 child)
I hear what you say. However, there is only so much abuse you can take without defending yourself.
From out of nowhere a couple of years back, I, and people like me, started to be labeled with pejorative terms like "liberal fascist" "Marxist" "traitor" "quisling" "liberal Metropolitan Elite" and being accused of "sneering" and condescension. Our well-meaning attempts at discourse have been derailed by vacuous soundbites, continuously repeated untruths, bigotry, willful ignorance and personal insults.
A war has been waged against some mysterious "liberal elite" and our societies destabilised, apparently to be led by "men of the people" who are no more than an illiberal elite of very wealthy and greedy individuals with dubious attitudes to their fellow human beings.
Ordinary human values of compassion and the pursuit of knowledge are now apparently popularly regarded as being abhorrent. We have apparently "had enough of experts" and "liberals." We are too serious to appreciate irony and satire. We have had enough of "human rights." Only criminals could possibly need those. We have had enough of social security. Only the work shy and selfish could possibly need that. We begrudge contributing to children's education from which we as a society benefit. Apparently the parents should pay for it all themselves. And parents who fall on hard times should never have had the children in the first place. We begrudge paying for the sick to have proper medical care. We denounce facts we don't care to hear "fake news."
In the immortal words of Captain Solo, "It's not my fault." I did my best and it wasn't good enough. I don't know what to do now. Any suggestions?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:03PM
Carry on, be a single data point of reason. Hope that this cultural shifting point turns out alright, and not to worry about the hot air from the GOP. The political spectrum is already shifting, many GOP supporters are finally coming to terms with the fact they they have been repeatedly lied to and red states are suddenly going blue! We'll need deeper reforms to fix the political shitshow, but at least this current cesspool has generated a cleansing storm.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @06:02PM
These are people that actively supported, and continue to support, on Christian religious grounds, a guy who exemplifies at least 6 of the 7 Deadly Sins (gluttony is up for debate, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, avarice, and even envy are pretty much his defining characteristics), and has broken at least 7 of the 10 Commandments (adultery, stealing, coveting, bearing false witness, idolatry - his own name in giant gold letters, having another god - himself, working on Saturdays), and never shown the slightest bit of remorse or repentance for doing so. Nor has he ever shown any sign of being "saved" or "born again" as the lingo goes.
If you're going to proudly stand for people that don't even follow your own rules, you've already earned my contempt.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @01:52PM (11 children)
The problem with environmentalism today is an excessive concentration of nihilist misanthropes who hate the idea of above. They're not really opposed to burning oil, they're opposed to the general public taking a nice vacation driving to a national park instead of suffering in squalor for eternity because of their original sin.
Meanwhile you also have the watermelons who are greens on the outside and reds on the inside and all they want is to watch the world burn because they had a difficult childhood or whatever, so they want to kill everything and all economic activity just to spread pain. So they also hate the quoted line.
Ironically once you remove the nuts, whats left is mostly Trump supporters who are somewhat more moderate; it would be nice to have a job and a car so we can drive to the hiking trail on the weekend. And their politics and demographic identity infuriate the left into derangement. All good hipsters should worship the environment by never leaving the hyper urban condo they live in, and knowing there exists grass and trees somewhere they never see it, should be good enough for a good Democrat, people who've never been more than 100 yards from the closest Starbucks are the REAL environmentalists, etc.
(Score: 4, Funny) by turgid on Monday February 26 2018, @02:07PM (7 children)
The problem with patriots today is they make sweeping generalisations about people they disagree with.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @02:37PM
I know, those poor Christian Evangelicals :)
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday February 26 2018, @04:03PM (5 children)
FTFY
(Score: 3, Touché) by turgid on Monday February 26 2018, @04:20PM
Iron knee.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @04:51PM (2 children)
Dude, your side completely and totally owns the entire legacy media and academia and half the government. If you've mumbled your lines, its not our fault.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by RS3 on Monday February 26 2018, @05:01PM
"My side"? I don't understand- are you just making a general statement about some side that you haven't clearly defined but assume is obvious? Or are you attacking me, being so sure you know who I am, what I believe, stand for, vote for, etc? Please clarify. I don't like riddles and guessing-games. And this stuff is too important, and much of what's wrong with the world is people fighting over misunderstood tiny details, when in fact most people want the same things.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by number11 on Monday February 26 2018, @06:31PM
It's true that the corporate oligarchy "completely and totally owns the entire legacy media and academia and half the government." Though if I were to quibble, it would be that they only own most of academia, and do own most of the government.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @06:03PM
To summarize: All generalizations are false.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Monday February 26 2018, @07:37PM (2 children)
What the fuck has anything you posted had to do with anything related to this topic? You sound like some kind of alt-right Markov chain that got fed the entirety of Breitbart.
Though it could be worse, at least your input text wasn't infowars.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:06PM
That would be VLM, the resident neo-nazi wannabe. Lately he seems to be going further off the rails, as with most things these days I blame Trump! If he hadn't been such a deceitful scam artist maybe VLM wouldn't be doubling down on his mistake instead of coming to terms with reality.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 27 2018, @02:02PM
That's the cultural escape velocity problem in a nutshell. As the left dies out because its beliefs failed and are obsolete, the remaining radicals accelerate faster and faster left until a simple clear uncontroversial statement by a boring official is incomprehensible to the radicals leading to riots over a weird variation on the telephone game.
The linguistic drift is much like modern Italian would be hard for a Roman emperor to understand perfectly. Think of the UK vs US weirdness with language, times a thousand, and its rapidly increasing over recent time. Another example, redefining words. Nobody likes the phrase "censorship" so the tech left refers to it as "safety". Whenever you hear a tech left say "safety" think the the nazi's burning jewish books, its the same thought process.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @01:55PM (36 children)
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."
Whoever said that was right.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @02:15PM (13 children)
Wrong, Obama is a Muslim so he doesn't carry a cross. Checkmate athiest scumbag.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @04:31PM (10 children)
The funny thing is that the same people who thought Obama was a Muslim also thought he was a stooge of the thoroughly Christian Jeremiah Wright. It's almost like the religious angle wasn't the problem they had with him.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @06:33PM (2 children)
What's inconsistent about that? One doesn't need to be Christian to be a stooge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:27PM (1 child)
Jesus Christ, OK you have a learning disability of some kind. Go get diagnosed. If you're lucky it'll just be garden variety stupid.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 27 2018, @12:25AM
If only you'd stop wasting our time and understand other peoples' points of view and arguments (no matter how terrible they might be). I'm not asking you to respect Birthers, I'm merely asking you to understand them well enough that you aren't being another idiot on the internet spitting out straw men. Then we wouldn't have these silly threads in the first place!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @09:15PM (6 children)
Here is Obama slipping up, mentioning his Muslim faith:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGdkqfBICw [youtube.com]
That said, I think it is more realistic to think that he is an atheist with strong positive feelings for Muslims, which is bad enough. His father was Muslim. (actually supposed to qualify you as Muslim) His elementary school is in a Muslim part of Indonesia, and thus he was surrounded by Muslims during a formative part of his life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)
Lolol, ok lets hold ALL politicians accountable to their fuckups. Oh man this'll be funny!
I grew up around a shit ton of christians, some of whom actively tried to convert me. I still came out sane and non-christian. You can too!!! Oh wait, given what you post it is too late :( Sorry, to fake-hell with you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:04AM
I’m sure you slip up about your Muslim faith all the time and have the person you were talking to have to correct you. It’s funny how liberals consider themselves so intelligent. Sad.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:20AM (3 children)
Obama is an even shittier Muslim than I am or you are, though. Even the supposed moderates are duty-bound by the Quran, as I understand it, to kill people like him. So...what gives?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 28 2018, @03:04PM (2 children)
You understand incorrectly: If you're Jewish or Christian, the moderates don't think you're an infidel at all, but instead "People of the Book" (′Ahl al-Kitāb). This is so ingrained in Islam that you'll find things like specific protections for Jews and Christians in places like Iran.
Now, I could understand some specific Muslims wanting to kill Obama, but that would be due to drone strikes he ordered killing people attending weddings, working in a hospital, or just going about their business.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 28 2018, @09:39PM (1 child)
The very same Quran tells you not to associate or make friends with Jews and Christians, doesn't it? I'm not anywhere near as well-researched in Islam as I am in Christianity, but one of the principles of how the Quran works, if I understand this right, is the principle of abrogation: basically, if a later verse contradicts an earlier one, the later one takes precedence.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 28 2018, @10:14PM
The rule was that the Jews and Christians were generally OK so long as they paid a tax and weren't interfering with what the Muslims were doing. That had substantial implications: For instance, you were much better off as a Jew in Muslim Spain than you were as a Jew in Catholic Spain.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @06:18PM
Shirley you have heard of "False Flag" operations.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday February 26 2018, @06:57PM
Um . . . I would just point out Trump. Not Obama.
Trump claims to be a Christian. In interviews (YouTube it for yourself) he claims to have never asked God for forgiveness. When he makes a mistake, as he says, he just tries to make it right. (eg, thinking his own righteousness is good enough. It isn't according to the N.T.)
Trump is one of the worst examples of the values Christians should embrace. I posted a list recently, but in short, Trump is not: humble, forgiving, compassionate, loving, temperate, self controlled, etc.
When Trump was asked what his favorite Bible verse is, after an awkward moment, it's the one where Jesus says "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". The irony here, is that principle is exactly what would appeal to Trump, but if you look it up [biblegateway.com] it is quite amusing that what Jesus was talking about was exactly the opposite of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. Quite the opposite of Trump's frequent "hit back harder".
IMO . . . if fascism comes to America, Trump is a likely candidate to bring it. Trump seems unique among recent presidents in wanting to have total power to do whatever he seems to want to do today, even if he wants the opposite tomorrow.
I'll throw out one other final thing Christians might think about. There are different views about the end times. But . . . Trump openly brags about being the only one who could possibly negotiate peace in the Middle East. If Trump doesn't do it, somebody will do it one day. But think about that.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @02:23PM (18 children)
The irony is its attributed to Huey Long (Democrat) and Sinclair Lewis (anticapitalist far leftist) who were both actively trying to bring fascism to the US using propaganda and judges robes instead of flags and crosses, and five minutes of googling discovers neither ever said or wrote the quote but contemporaries claim you'd expect them to say something similar to it.
Both were the kind of people who wanted to bring Stalin's 25 million deaths to the USA by using Hitler's 6 million as a propaganda whip. "Sure we'll kill four times as many people, but you can be SO PROUD that at least we're not Hitler ha ha ha"
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @02:56PM (17 children)
The fascists usually portrayed themselves as a necessary response to Soviet communism. The argument amounts to: "You tolerate our atrocities, or Stalin will get to commit his atrocities." Stalin, for his part, justified his atrocities on the grounds of "You tolerate our atrocities, or Hitler will get to commit his atrocities."
This is of course false dichotomy at its worst. Atrocities are wrong, period.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @03:40PM (16 children)
Yet the total number of independent leftist atrocities, aside from uncle joe, over the course of the century is staggering; I don't know, hundreds of millions killed at least?
And to this day the standard reply to any right wing response against leftism is a rather tepid "remember that one time the right tried to fight back, and we who won then wrote the history books made them look bad? That's why we should not oppose leftism that leads to atrocities as a general life rule, because that one time someone tried we made uncle adolf look bad and all those people ended up just as dead anyway."
The modern version is something like "Your people should not speak up against being yet another atrocity victim, or you'll die anyway and then we'll victim shame you on twitter, and since your side is politically censored you won't even be able to argue back oh wait you'll be too dead to twitter reply anyway even if you were alive ha ha" is not very convincing.
Also this fits the weak argument pattern analogous to "I anecdotally know someone who did or did not die of influenza therefore the influenza epidemic this year is or is not fake news" Yes same topic but talking at different scales.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @04:08PM (13 children)
It's hard to gauge exact numbers when it comes to this sort of thing, but I'm guessing part of why you think that is that you aren't recalling many of the rightist atrocities. I'm not talking about just Adolf & company, there are such incidents as:
- The Armenian Genocide
- The many atrocities of Francisco Franco and the other Spanish fascists (the Spanish Republicans weren't much better, but the Nationalist side was definitely bad)
- Japan's invasion of China
- The US actions in southeast Asia which routinely attacked civilian targets in neutral countries like Laos and Cambodia
- The Nicaraguan Contras
- The Chilean coup and subsequent "disappearances"
- The Rwandan genocide
- The "ethnic cleansing" campaigns of the Balkans Wars of the 1990's
All of these were carried out by right-wing leaders and governments. For an example of some of what I'm talking about, read through Christopher Hitchens' "The Trial of Henry Kissinger", where he makes the case of how much destruction that 1 right-wing person has caused.
My basic opinion: Once you get the idea in your head that the right way of dealing with people who disagree with you is to kill them, atrocities will follow. It doesn't matter whether you're right-wing or left-wing, that's an inevitable consequence. And as soon as you start thinking "Well, but these ones are/were necessary", you've become exactly the sort of person who would follow the order to send Jews to the gas chambers.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 26 2018, @04:47PM (8 children)
Some I won't contest but the numbers are still lower; order of magnitude lower. Many in your list are apolitical. The remainder are mostly civil wars and those are historically bloody regardless of politics because they often turn, if not racial, into regional battles.
Come on man, racial to the core. No way possible those were going to be called off if the victims had merely elected the "correct" political people to office.
Curious interpretation of "civilian" and "neutral". For that matter, again, if some politician on the other side of the world or hundreds of miles away switched sides, its not like the bombing raids would have been called off on the logistics trails purely for political reasons. You locally and actively participate in an enemies military logistics system, you kinda have to expect some incoming rounds, regardless of which side of the aisle both sides far away politicians may or may not sit.
I think your list of right wing atrocities is entirely actually motivated solely by race war or civil war and it was a mere coin flip as to dear leader being right or left at that time. Surely there must be some right wing govt other than uncle adolfs who did something really really bad once for purely political reasons, but I'm having trouble thinking of one at this instant?
I actually agree with your basic opinion with the minor addition that it doesn't matter if the genocide is hard core (dead today) or soft core (dead ASAP).
was hyperactive with a large standard deviation in his results. Lots of very good and very bad results. So its easy to find "right wing" stuff he screwed up, much as its easy to find "left wing" victories. He gets accused of a lot of "to form a right wing dictatorship you gotta break some eggs" by leftists with axe grinding hardware, but the guys total overall life was more like "when you enter an egg delivery truck in the Indy 500 you gotta break some eggs". Same dude did Paris peace accords, China, détente with the Soviets, the dude was like everywhere from the 60s to the 80s to some extent and level of influence. And in those decades yeah sure "everywhere" includes some interesting genocides and civil wars and race wars. Its like I can't apologize for the guy because there's nothing to apologize for; he was everywhere, and some places on earth are occasionally not vacation paradises, as the God Emperor himself recently observed, some countries are shitholes. Like seriously, if you're in power and a man about town, during the Bangladesh War it was impossible to do anything, including doing nothing at all, without looking terrible in the infinite monday morning quarterbacking. Vietnam as a long overarching multi decade event was kinda like that too. He's like sending in the Delta force or a SEAL team. One way or another things are going to turn out really good or really bad, but its not his fault someone decided to deploy him.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @05:42PM (7 children)
Racism is a right-wing idea. That's why people like Richard Spencer don't describe themselves as "alt-left". Hence why I described those genocidal attempts, explicitly justified by racist ideology by leaders who self-identified as conservative or right-wing, as right-wing.
And if you don't think Kissinger doesn't have anything to apologize for, then it's pretty clear you don't mind a little genocide as long as it's the people who are dying aren't on whatever side you've decided is yours. And if your reference to the American president as "God Emperor" is meant as anything other than jest, then I'd say you're basically exactly the sort of person Il Duce would have been happy to have on board.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @06:38PM (2 children)
Does make you wonder how many left-wings are actually right-wings in disguise. Racism seems very common across what we think of as the political spectrum.
It might not be the best idea ever to delegate the definition of racism to Richard Spencer.
Woosh. Even I saw that one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:10PM (1 child)
1. You're a moron trying to equate movements for racial justice with racism. Yes there are a ridiculously small number of liberals who have embraced hatred but that is not the same as racism and is statistically insignificant anyway. Sorry bub, false equivalence for the looooose.
2. No one delegated you're just being stupid again.
3. So it was in jest? You mean the whole "And if..." was pointless? Failed reading comprehension for the looooose!
Khallow everybody! Don't forget to pick up your crosses and gasoline on the way out!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 27 2018, @02:09AM
What does "racial justice" mean? For example, the ACLU says [aclunc.org]:
I have no problem with that. But when people assume that you're enjoying "privilege" merely because you're part of a particular ethic group, demand reparations from people of particular ethnicities for wicked deeds that were committed by long dead people, or simply excising a double standard and excuse some racism based on the ethnicity of the believer, they aren't engaging in racial justice. All those behaviors are often exhibited on the left-leaning side (in particular, concepts like "check your privilege", "microaggressions", and the myth of the helpless disadvantaged).
Yes.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:56PM (3 children)
Let me guess, races don't exist?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 28 2018, @10:33PM (2 children)
Haplogroups and such do exist. This has implications for diet, medicine, and so forth.
The races as most people think of them, though, don't. And don't think I and everyone else with at least half a brain doesn't see what you're trying to do here, you disingenuous little shit. Peddle your divisive nonsense elsewhere. And remember: the elite won't let you into their club no matter how much water you carry for them.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 28 2018, @11:03PM (1 child)
Oh, please, enlighten us. This should be good...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @02:54AM
> Oh, please, enlighten us. This should be good...
It is correct. There is no genetic basis supporting claims for the existence of race. See books like "Genes, Peoples, and Languages" by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza or his other works for a starting point if it is interesting. He did real groundbreaking work in mapping the human genome and the geographical distribution of phenotypes and their frequency of occurence. The conclusion even back then when his first major work was complete was that there are no races. Subsequent work by him and others reinforces that. There are clusters where some subsets of phenotypes occur with higher frequency, but its not really possible to say there are races.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/07/meet-cheddar-man-first-modern-britons-had-dark-skin-and-blue-eyes/ [washingtonpost.com]
http://afritorial.com/black-people-with-blue-eyes/ [afritorial.com]
Despite being no genetic basis for race, I might say there is a psychological basis but there I think that crosses fully over into what we'd call culture with language as a subset.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 26 2018, @05:38PM (1 child)
The two leading genocides by far - exceeding 20 million each - were the USSR and China. No righties have had their act so together as those two.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:44PM
USSR and China
Do attempt to be the slightest bit specific.
exceeding 20 million each
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Burz on Monday February 26 2018, @08:40PM
And just about every policy decision made by Victorian Britain can be considered right-wing, which perpetrated a whopping load of atrocities.
This was an empire that outlawed (blockaded) famine relief to India and Ireland expressly to maintain ideal free-markets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:46PM
Not true. I had exactly that idea in my head at one time.
Atrocities did not follow.
What actually followed was my 6th birthday.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 26 2018, @05:34PM (1 child)
I believe the total of all genocides from the 20th century amounts to approximately 120 million people. The USSR and China run a very close first and second, exceeding 20 million each. Nazi Germany lagged behind in third place. Japan's atrocities have had far less publicity in the Western World, but China will never forget the Rape of Nanking. There is a video on Youtube, that sets the total at 170 million, but I've never attempted to verify that number. It begins it's list with Turkey's act's against the Armenians, during World War One. Let me find that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVs9psi_G5k [youtube.com] The people they mention don't quite tally up to 170 million, but they never make any mention of the various indigenous peoples around the Americas, or Asia, or the Pacific.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:15PM
Not to worry, Runaway! Your reputation for historical scholarship precedes you! A video on Youtube, yeah. You racist!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Monday February 26 2018, @03:57PM (2 children)
Source: https://www.snopes.com/sinclair-lewis-on-fascism/ [snopes.com]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 26 2018, @04:28PM (1 child)
Notice I didn't actually put anybody's name with that quote. The murkiness of its origin is why I didn't.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday February 26 2018, @05:17PM
I just thought it was interesting. I wasn't familiar with the story before. Figured I might as well share it now that I found it. I don't blame you for not wanting to get into it. The point was still made.