Thursday, August 28, 2003
Question answered: More wisdom than cowardice
I'm gonna try to do this without being too harsh. And yet it must be done.
In a previous post, I've lamented how fantastically polarized we've become as a nation. I wasn't alive during the 1960's, but I gather that as a political era, it was similarly turbulent. But I have a hard time imagining that the discourse at the time could possibly have been as irrational as it is today.
And now, while browsing a few blogs during lunch today, I've found the absolute quintessential example of this phenomenon. It can be found here.
This is the part where I don't want to be too harsh. "Matthew", the creator of that blog and poster of that item could be ten years old, for all I know. I certainly hope so, for his sake. But even so, let's examine the "reasoning" here.
... And he learned all this on a Transformers message board. And to those of you wondering, no he is not some electrical engineer (who also has a Ph.D in microbiology) who was discussing advanced electrical transformers. No, the message board he mentions does indeed concern the venerable line of toys that spawned animated television shows back in the 80's (Full disclosure: I loved the transformers. When I was 13). It takes a conscious effort of the will to not descend into ad hominem attacks here, an effort at which I've already partially failed. But seriously; What makes this person qualified to pronounce on forest management policy?
I have to stop now, because I've nearly run out of rational things to say about this kind of thinking. I feel like an idiot for having written as much as I have. One last thought: I'm sure this guy thinks that it's George Bush that's the big idiot. Take a look, America; here comes your future.
In a previous post, I've lamented how fantastically polarized we've become as a nation. I wasn't alive during the 1960's, but I gather that as a political era, it was similarly turbulent. But I have a hard time imagining that the discourse at the time could possibly have been as irrational as it is today.
And now, while browsing a few blogs during lunch today, I've found the absolute quintessential example of this phenomenon. It can be found here.
This is the part where I don't want to be too harsh. "Matthew", the creator of that blog and poster of that item could be ten years old, for all I know. I certainly hope so, for his sake. But even so, let's examine the "reasoning" here.
- Humanity sucks and has lost it's right to exist.
- The devil George Bush wants to chop down all the trees so we can have cheap gas.
- The destruction of tree slugs will lead inevitably to the extinction of humanity.
(Why should this matter if we've lost our right to exist anyway?)
... And he learned all this on a Transformers message board. And to those of you wondering, no he is not some electrical engineer (who also has a Ph.D in microbiology) who was discussing advanced electrical transformers. No, the message board he mentions does indeed concern the venerable line of toys that spawned animated television shows back in the 80's (Full disclosure: I loved the transformers. When I was 13). It takes a conscious effort of the will to not descend into ad hominem attacks here, an effort at which I've already partially failed. But seriously; What makes this person qualified to pronounce on forest management policy?
I have to stop now, because I've nearly run out of rational things to say about this kind of thinking. I feel like an idiot for having written as much as I have. One last thought: I'm sure this guy thinks that it's George Bush that's the big idiot. Take a look, America; here comes your future.
