What Axes do you Grind?

1: Blatent, selective stupidity
2: Chosen ignorance
3: People so afraid of everything that they are miserable in life.
4: Armchair philosophers who declare themselves right or flawless because they read a book by <Insert Philosophers Name here>
5:Governments run by people with no common interest in helping their nation
6: People who believe in anything blindly to point of arguing about it without evidence.
7: People so lost in belief of something that they dedicate themselves to it entirely (religious suicide bombers and wars in the middle east)
8: Illogical arguments based solely on emotion
9: My Ex-Girlfriend
10: My Ex-Girlfriend
11: I'm actually going to stop here because I listed 47 on paper but they are just getting me more and more upset as I list them

I see ignorant people on TV acting like experts.
Really don't matter if they really thought there were WMD:s in Iraq or just used the war to make a name for themselves.
I want them punished.

Economics isn't a science. It's more of a religion. But economists don't act like it. They claim they know. And now everyone pays. ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!

Republicans had the power for a long time.
But somehow they are still the victims.
diabolical

FOX news isn't a person, is it?
If it isn't then I have a big axe just for Fox.
(See Corporate personhood debate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

A religous leader said about 9/11: ...throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

Another religous leader said about Katrina: "One other factor which must be considered: Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy ('I will bless that nation that blesses you, and curse the nation that curses you')?"

Another religous leader said: We have the ability to take him [Hugo Chavez] out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Another religous leader said that the holocaust never happened.

These religous leaders all called themselves christians.
:shocked:
THAT'S NOT WHAT JESUS WAS ABOUT! :brickwall:

If they are then I'm not.


I better stop now.

1. Disinformation - The intentional manipulation of the truth has long gotten out of hand by the powers that be.

2. Public education - For the amount of money spent on educating the youth in the U.S. you would think that there would be far fewer idiots running around.

3. the Military-industrial complex - profiting off of the war machine is a rather insidious practice that promotes more war

4. Active ignorance - you can forgive people who just do not know and are passively ignorant. But you cannot forgive those who chose to be ignorant.

5. Infotainment - I would not want to meet the person who watches Fox News to be entertained.

6. top 40 music - Generally insulting to all other categories of music.

7. John Grisham - Do I need to explain?

8. Lack of dissent (complacency) - A lot of people should be more pissed off than they currently are.

9. Elections - People seem to like voting for people that have no interest in helping them.

10. Democracy - I would rather be ruled by one intelligent person than millions of stupid people

11. Suburbs - Urban planning that forgot about the planning.

12. David Icke - David Icke's Official Forums Just visit the forum to see why it made my list. The subtitle of the forum says a lot: "exposing the dreamworld we believe to be real."

13. Scientology - this message has been deleted due to lawsuit threats

14. Reunion tours - You know when it is out of hand when the former drummer of Guns N Roses, Steven Adler, forms a Guns N Roses tribute band to play Appetite of Destruction in its entirety. Maybe an economic downturn will convince bad bands to stay retired or force people to quit giving their money to bad 80s hair bands, and washed up bands from the 70s. No one wants to see Led Zeppelin all old playing good songs poorly, they only think they do.

15. I could keep goings, but now I am mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore. Have you ever seen the movie Network? I feel like Howard Beale.

YouTube - Network - Mad as Hell Scene

People still have just as much right to believe in God after they have been told what an arsehole He is.

No, no, no, I was just being satirical and acting in jest. :bigsmile:

Side note here... addressed to no one in particular.

If it's pertinent, the purpose of this thread was a "confessional" of sorts. Emotions can hamstring reason, compassion and insight. The more one recognizes those 'hot buttons', the more there exists the possibility those may be taken into account the next time one gets pushed.

Everyone, I believe, runs risk of this. No matter how dispassionate you make yourself out to be; you're not. Laconic phrasing aside, you do you have your 'issues'.

The more we recognize these, the better our cause - any cause - is served.

Thanks

Oh, my apologies. Sometimes jest isn't easily seen through text, especially the sarcastic kind!

There are points of view that do regard pride as beneficial to humans. Correctly channeled, the pride can spur productivity...

This is another thread.



Very well said. This is part of the personal training I put myself through - right as I receive the inherent emotional response, I try to take a step back immediately, recognize why I'm feeling the way I do, evaluating it's reasonableness.

The thing is, the more I actually abide by



the less I actually find any action intolerable. Any. If I took enough time, I could rationally evaluate even a stone-cold mass murderer, and come to a compassionate understanding.

Is too much understanding a problem? Or, is that exactly what humanity needs? A continuous stream of understanding that transcends our emotions, that drives us closer together rather than farther. I won't be the judge

i can honestly say that I have come to the conclusion that most people would rather not hear me complain anymore about anything. Especially my children.:bigsmile:

Axes I Grind:

1) That somehow the scientific method is superior to other forms of knowledge creation.

2) That all things can be demystified.

3) That they canceled Scrubs twice then put it on a different channel

4) That pop-culture is marginalized as base and stupid, when all things classical were at one time popular as well.

5) The romanticism of empiricism.

6) Revisionist history

7) Archaeological theory

8) The herpes parade that VH1 calls Rock of Love Bus.

I don't want to go off topic so I'll make this short. The good news is, Ola, is that this is not what Jesus was all about. Remember, in case we forget, Jesus was not a Christian. . Just had to throw that in there. Thanks.

1) One of my biggest (sharpest? most frequently used) axes? -- or should that be targets for axes? -- is people's extraordinary capacity to dispense kudos to themselves for having the opinions that they have as opposed to the ones that they attribute to others.

Explaining: going on personal experience, I have never met (nor do I expect to meet) anyone who has ever said anything like:

"You know what -- I'm gullible. I'm an easily deceived follower of trends. I've thought really deeply about something maybe ONCE in my life, after which I spent the rest of my life patting myself on my back for my opinions and telling myself that I was the ghost of Socrates crossed with the spectre of Orwell. I have a grossly inflated sense of how rigorously I've tested everything I believe, alongside a ridiculous underestimation of the thought's of my opponents -- which I do not understand because I've never sought them out. Why do I choose to spend my time setting fire to straw men? Well, philosophy -- doing the Socratic thing is HARD -- whereas continuously setting fire to caricatures of my opponents allows me to present myself as a lone free-spirit in a world of conformist cretins, an amazing free-thinking contrarian amongst bovine, brainwashed morons."

Nobody SAYS things like the above (well, I suppose I should say that no-one says the first part -- lots of people say the second), and yet is no one gullible -- is no-one deceived?

The problem I have here is that SO MANY people (in fact, everyone I've ever met) seems to think of themselves as someone who can't be taken in, whose too sharp-shooting, too incisive, too orignal, humane et cetera to ever be 'taken in', whereas everyone else is illusion-prone. But do we live in a world where everyone is Socrates. Mais, non.

But we DO live in a world where people will give them enormous kudos for setting fire to straw-men. The left do it to the right, the right do it to the left, the centre do it to left and right; the religious do it to atheists, the atheists do it to the religious and so on. But, on the rare occassions, when I meet someone who treats their own opinions the same way they treat the opinions of others -- (allowing for respectful thoughtful conversation) I know I'm in the presence of a philosophical mind. But I can think of maybe, three people I've met who fit the description.

But -I- like saying to people: how about you focus on the argument and not on what an amazing person you are for taking your side in the argument...

Bit ranty, I apologise, but the title of this thread does practically invite self-indulgence. Oh, and how much kudos do I deserve for my own opinions, oh ye hypocrisy-spotters? Enormous amounts. Obviously.

-Mal

Maladjusted,

I believe you've found the right place. There are many here that embrace the respectful discussion you speak, the exchanging of free thought, without that hardened "I'm the man!" lens. Before this forum, I was in the same boat as you: There were only two people in my life that would even dare to critically think and allow consistent contemplation respectfully. It really is difficult at times to find someone to run ideas across -- and have intelligent contribution towards -- in everyday life. Here, you will find many. Nearly everyone I've come across here understands (and usually shares) the problem you and I had, and because of this, I've seen many just simply thrilled to be here.

We're thrilled to have you, and I've really enjoyed your posts thus far!

Be well,

Zeth

Zetherin,

Thank you for that very gracious comment.

I -am- looking forward to philosophical discussions on this forum, whenever I can snatch a few spare moments. People have been very kind to me so far and I'm looking forward to further conversations with you all.