This might be old news to some of you, but....

Villains rarely think they are evil.

Villains are only villains to their adversaries.

That's what I said.

It certainly isn't
Your post seemed to imply there is such a thing as 'evil' and that villains are somehow oblivious to their alegience to said 'evil'
Whereas I was pointing out there is no such thing, and it is created in the perspective of others. The villain isn't evil, until the hero labels him such. But who defines who plays which role?

Thank you for this cogent and well thought out response.
Would you like a paper hat?

No, you seem to be using it.

Don't worry, I have enough for everyone.
You can distribute the lame smily faces, to be used in lieu of intelligent response, as you seem to have plenty to spare.

I understand your sentiment, Jespah, but surely we cannot censure ideas, no matter how stupid they are. They should be either shunned-- meaning that we do not respond--or treated as grist for our mills. We do the latter not by simple one on one oppostion--as in a duel between equals--but by using their ideas as object lessons, as things to avoid.

I'm not arguing that. Rather, with Search Engine Optimization (which A2K has in spades), by posting their nonsense here, we are effectively spreading their message to a lot of people who may not have seen it before. Talk all you wish, no one is stopping you. All I am suggesting is that there is something else going on and people ought to be aware of it. What they choose to do with that information, if anything, is their business.

Your right; you point to a real danger, but that's one of the dangers of the Open Society. But I'm sure you'd agree there is no simple solution to the problem. The "enlightenment" of society is not the result of keeping ourselves ignorant of false points of view but of having the ability of realilzing their falsity. I think that A2K does that effectively--at least for some people on the boundary.

I've just realised something. Wouldn't the ACLU's stance on free speech support Fred Phelps and his funeral protests?

Anyone has the liberty to state what they believe but if it goes past just words and into action in order to take away or deny the rights of others or even commit a brutality to make the point, I don't think the ACLU should be defending them.

And I'm not saying they are.

I figured that out!


\

The ACLU defended the KKK when they wanted to have a parade in a town a few years ago. As awful as the KKK is, I agreed with the ACLU.

I've always thought the people who are members of this group that Chai Tea has posted have an attraction to the same sex-- there shame is so great they protest the loudest, when really they ought to just let themselves have a little poontang with the objects of their secret desires. Truly, the world would be much improved, not perfect, but improved.