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Why do people get so mad when questioned ?


Sakari

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The one time in my life when I was desperate and hungry (money had been sent to me but would take a few days to clear) I found a fifty dollars in the gutter, just enough to squeak me by. I have never before or since found any sort of money.

What do I make of this? Luck -- coincidence -- chance. There is no basis for my drawing any other sort of conclusion.

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How's that for an anecdote. I may be the only person on earth that has lost $900 down a car door, I think MWs anecdote is more than plausible.

I entirely agree with you White Crane, I agree that this likely happened. The problem with it and my point was that this episode doesn't jibe well with other statements he's made concerning how highly trained his mind is and how little heed should be paid to basic cognitive science that demonstrates the numerous cognitive and perceptive biases and errors that all brains are prone to. Except his when he believes he's using telepathic powers, the existence of which are supported merely by anecdote.

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If a person wants to believe they have special powers of this sort, they will believe it, and will constantly notice examples to reinforce it (of course failing to notice those that don't).

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What do I make of this? Luck -- coincidence -- chance. There is no basis for my drawing any other sort of conclusion.

Agreed. Sure, there are of course occurrences and coincidences that are very unusual and improbable, but most people, including myself, are not that good at just using their intuition to come up with realistic probabilities. I've had strange coincidences occur also, but I try to keep in mind that even if it was a one in a million coincidence, given a million 'events' in my life chances are good that a very unlikely coincidence will actually occur.

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If you were being "completely truthful" then answer my questions. If you can't answer them then admit that you were lying about having your telepathic powers verified under scientific conditions.

This is why I rarely read anything you write. You make bold statements and hope no one challenges you on them. When someone does, you retreat leaving a long trail of defensive verbiage, the whole time claiming you don't care what anybody thinks.

I answered your questions completely truthfully and also went on to explain the problems with applying scientific methods in the field, to paranormal abilities. I know that eventually science will discover the nature of these abilities and be able to enhance repicate and make them work more consistently.

At rhe moment it is like people using wilow bark for fever. They knew it worked but science was required to discover why it worked, and how to refine aspirin to do the job more efficiently.

Verbiage is another word for explanation but you may not like the explanations you hear.

My bold statements are always as true as i can make them, allowing for the limits my own experiential knowldege education and intelligence. There is no point in me lying about anything and it is against the moality taught to me as a child to do so. I have had telepathic powers tested by scientists in laboratories with just as much success as in the field, BUT this is rare. I have been "in the field" for over 60 years. I have not spent more than about 24 hours in total in a laboratory. How much can you expect to occur within that 24 hours. And how can a scientist know how I know things, or measure the accuracy of some things, even in a laboratory Unless they have scientific evidences and understanding, then the results I achieve are not credible anyway in scientific terms

In my experience some scientists are more open than others and conclude these are real but inexplicable abilities. One actually put it in those terms and explained that, over the years he had encountered a number of people with similar abilities. Others simply claim all such results are coincidence, even when they lie well outside of statistical probability..

My brain scans show a very unusual 'growth" on my frontal lobe which the specialists say is benign but unexplained. Does that have anything to do with anything ? How would I know'

And I am certainly NOT going to let someone operate to find out. I dont go near major cities By which i mean, maybe once in 20 years outside of work and medical commitments. Its been over 6 years since I went to one for any reason.

.As i said I am diagnosed by the best relavant experts in Australia as an exceptionally well grounded and functional human being. Given that, and the way i use and integrate abilities into my every day life, I have NO need to prove anything to anybody.

My past history demonstrates clear and actual difficulties and dangers, if and when one does come to the notice of authorities.

That is natural given the nature of some such abilities. Just how DO you explain you have witnessed something while many miles from the scene? ANd how do you thnk YOU would react if you were a police officer faced with such a story.

I KNOW what happens. If you witness something, then the police officer will have to believe you were there physically.. So you are immediately both a liar, and hence a potential suspect, in their eyes. How could i know where a stolen object was located, without having some connection to, or knowledge of, the crime?

In real life, and living such things, reality is a lot more complex than the wishful thinking some people display about such matters. I have been a school teacher in govt schools for forty years and lived in the same country community for over 30.

While this gives me some good opportunitys to validate and experiment, using multiple participants/witnesses, both adult and teenage, I have to be very careful. A certain degree of sanity, as well as probity and morality, is STILL required of teachers, by their communities. Fortunately, given the nature of the job, there is a lower expectation of teacher sanity, than of their morality and probity.

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As I've said multiple times, the issue is that you are just assuming what I am disputing, that you have telepathy. It is entirely unsurprising that you and many others claim that they can directly connect to another's mind and 'know it as clearly as they know it themselves', however you are measuring that. It is unsurprising that people believe that they are able to directly connect to another's mind. It's like you and I exist in two different worlds sometimes, like you don't live in a world where many people make certain claims of special or unusual powers or experiences that when put to a proper test, do not pan out. Ever.

Your kind of telepathy, without physical interaction, has never been shown to work to date nor has it ever been convincingly demonstrated.

Great! You now have a testable claim, there is no excuse for you not to get it tested, the demonstration of the existence of these abilities will be a boon for several areas of scientific research and should be able to assist mental health providers with the care they give. Do you have science teachers at your school? I recommend they contact a university to have a proper blind test conducted of your abilities, one where you personally are not involved in evaluating how accurate your abilities are. Let me know how that goes, although I'll probably see it as it should be the top news story if you can actually do what you claim.

I find it difficult to swallow this story as I can think of no valid rational reason why someone would be so careless to just leave 500 dollars in cash just sitting on the backseat of their car, with their dog no less, who then forgets about that when they open up the window. What, you don't have pockets? But thanks for laying to rest your earlier statements about what a highly-trained mind you possess, it appears that it is not very reliable after all and is susceptible to doing the stupid and forgetful things that we all do from time to time.

I claim i can see also How do I KNOW i can see visually? Via indpendent confirmation

if i can "see" what is in another perosons mind clearly precisely and accurately, on many occasions and have it confirmed indpendently, then what would YOU call it. The only other logical explantionos coincidence but this is statistically less probable than telepathy'

I Hve already done as you suggest with science teachers. I actually found lost objects for two of them over a period of time which started this process of testing off.

The tests i talk about include such ones but also in the psychology depts of Flinders and Adelaide university.

At adelaide the professor said that my abilities were genuine but inexplicable given current science and he had come across a few such cases in his career. At Finders the comments tended to the conclusion that this was a very interesting statistical anomaly. But both places concluded that I was very intelligent, highly perceptive, very well grounded in reality, (because i could talk to them in their own terms and language probably) and highly functional as a human being. I already knew all those things but it was nice to have it independently confirmed.

:clap:

I use my car to travel over a thousand kilometers every week and it is used for everything. There is a constant pile of stuff on the back seat; invoices, receipts, school work, library books, newspapers, all the mail form our post office box, tutorial lessons for students, library books from a number of libraries, shopping bags and drink bottles etc.

Its a typical teachers car to quote my car salesman. When you work 60 or so hours a week you don't have much tine to fuss over your car. It has to be functional economical and reliable. I wash it once a month or two in the car wash and clean it out every six months or so. I take the dog and the wife out three or four times a week for a walk or lunch etc.

Normally I carry my money in a wallet, but this time the money was for a particular purpose, and I placed it with the bill or what ever it was for. Tne dog has its own section in the back of the fourwheel drive. In fact the onlty reason we bought a four wheel drive was for the damn dog.

Any way i opened the windows up a litlle bit (3-4 inches) using the automatic opener from the driver's position so the dog could get some fresh air.

I was aware of the money in the back, but despite an excellent physics education, I underestimated the venturi effect of Bernoulli's principle. This is not stupid, nor did i forget the money was there. Arguably it is something which was highly unlikely to occur, but obviously it did.

I honestly still cant see how it could suck notes up over 18 inches in the air and out the top of a window, but it did.. I have since had a single large newspaper page float up from the seat and out the window when the windows were open about 8 inches, so it is theoretically possible.

ANy way, however it happened, the point is I "knew" exactly where it was, along a 30 mile highway and found all but one note.

To make a point. This is the sort of "verbiage" some get upset at, but it does set the scene and explain the circumstances. Unless you saw the state of my car you might disbelieve me, but as soon as you did all would become credible.

Edited by Mr Walker
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Perhaps some people are not looking for truth, or new perspectives, but rather they only want to hear things that reaffirm their existing world view. Anything else is to them, an attack on their world view, someone trying to force them out of the comfortable box they live in. And like any person who feels like they are being forced out of their home, they get upset and defensive.

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Often because in chosing that belief they are confirming other sptrongly held beliefs or prejudices. eg the people who believe 9/11 was a govt plot to gain greatercontrol over american citizens would already be predisposed to see their govt in that light.

Or to have a good reason to go to the other side of the world, kill thousands of innocent people and gain control over oil rigs and plants. Only crazy people could believe this.

Edited by MrBene
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[/size]

Or to have a good reason to go to the other side of the world, kill thousands of innocent people and gain control over oil rigs and plants. Only crazy people could believe this.

There is no connection between 9 /11 and oil. The muslim attacks on western life, of which 9 /11 is only the biggest among hundreds, represent two things. A real hatred of the western material lifestyle combined with some historical enmity to christianity, and long held geopolitical enmity caused by european/western interference in the middle east. But this goes back far before oil to british coloniaism in the 17 and 1800s.

Like wise, western and american influences in the middle east are only very partly based on oil, and far more significantly on longer term geopolitical realties including trade routes, spheres of influence, the historical containment of soviet russia, and the desire to reduce the influence of states which are antithetical to western democracy and freedoms.

The first gulf war did not begin unitl gaddaffi invaded a smaller nation, saudi arabia, which had defence treaties with western powers. To fail to react would have been the same as the appeasement policy which led to ww2.

The second gulf war was more problematic but would not have been required if the coalition had finished of saddam in the first war The problem was, that to do so would have created a power vacuum which would have been readily filled by iran,, a state which had not long before waged a long and terrible war with iraq and which, unlike iraq was a fundamentailst islamic state, and a long time avowed enemy of israel and america.

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.

The tests i talk about include such ones but also in the psychology depts of Flinders and Adelaide university.

At adelaide the professor said that my abilities were genuine but inexplicable given current science and he had come across a few such cases in his career. At Finders the comments tended to the conclusion that this was a very interesting statistical anomaly. But both places concluded that I was very intelligent, highly perceptive, very well grounded in reality, (because i could talk to them in their own terms and language probably) and highly functional as a human being. I already knew all those things but it was nice to have it independently confirmed.

:clap:

.

.

Normally I carry my money in a wallet, but this time the money was for a particular purpose, and I placed it with the bill or what ever it was for. Tne dog has its own section in the back of the fourwheel drive. In fact the onlty reason we bought a four wheel drive was for the damn dog.

Any way i opened the windows up a litlle bit (3-4 inches) using the automatic opener from the driver's position so the dog could get some fresh air.

I was aware of the money in the back, but despite an excellent physics education, I underestimated the venturi effect of Bernoulli's principle. This is not stupid, nor did i forget the money was there. Arguably it is something which was highly unlikely to occur, but obviously it did.

I honestly still cant see how it could suck notes up over 18 inches in the air and out the top of a window, but it did.. I have since had a single large newspaper page float up from the seat and out the window when the windows were open about 8 inches, so it is theoretically possible.

ANy way, however it happened, the point is I "knew" exactly where it was, along a 30 mile highway and found all but one note.

.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

At adelaide the professor said that my abilities were genuine but inexplicable given current science and he had come across a few such cases in his career. At Finders the comments tended to the conclusion that this was a very interesting statistical anomaly. But both places concluded that I was very intelligent, highly perceptive, very well grounded in reality, (because i could talk to them in their own terms and language probably) and highly functional as a human being. I already knew all those things but it was nice to have it independently confirmed.

:clap:

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

This comes as no surprise to me :w00t:

fullywired

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

ANy way, however it happened, the point is I "knew" exactly where it was, along a 30 mile highway and found all but one note.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

I suspect that the same angel that put the money in your wallet last time was in attendance again ,as to the missing note, the angel may have kept it for a tip

fullywired :whistle: :whistle:

Edited by fullywired
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'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

At adelaide the professor said that my abilities were genuine but inexplicable given current science and he had come across a few such cases in his career. At Finders the comments tended to the conclusion that this was a very interesting statistical anomaly. But both places concluded that I was very intelligent, highly perceptive, very well grounded in reality, (because i could talk to them in their own terms and language probably) and highly functional as a human being. I already knew all those things but it was nice to have it independently confirmed.

:clap:

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

This comes as no surprise to me :w00t:

fullywired

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

ANy way, however it happened, the point is I "knew" exactly where it was, along a 30 mile highway and found all but one note.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

I suspect that the same angel that put the money in your wallet last time was in attendance again ,as to the missing note, the angel may have kept it for a tip

fullywired :whistle: :whistle:

I am sure that irony never comes as a suprise to you. :innocent:

I am not sure that beings with the abilities of angels need money but in a sense you might be right. I figured it was; a. coincidence/fortune or b. god's sense of humour and a warning to be more careful next time.

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The one time in my life when I was desperate and hungry (money had been sent to me but would take a few days to clear) I found a fifty dollars in the gutter, just enough to squeak me by. I have never before or since found any sort of money.

What do I make of this? Luck -- coincidence -- chance. There is no basis for my drawing any other sort of conclusion.

This has happened to me a few times also, I was broke and 60 dollars was on the ground, another time a hundred dollar bill. How tempting it is to think my thoughts caused this, how tempting to see a correlation between my inner reality and the outer reality, how tempting to spin stories insisting my biases are actually reality, and quite frankly there is nothing odd about doing this-- it is how our brains are wired, so we have things in place to help us sort it out science, critical thinking, skepticism. The reality is not everyone applies these tools. In life luck happens too, two times spells nothing other then luck. Nothing more, nothing less. If my thoughts had the ability to create outer circumstances this would happen all the time (who couldn't use money all the time. lol) not just 2 times in an entire life time.

There are times my intuitions are in error, I recently thought I lost my expensive cell phone in a public bathroom at a hiking spot. I hauled ass to that bathroom, I was so sure it was there, I even saw it there in my mind. I even thought I remembered hearing the clang of laying it down on the sink..Turns out It was not in that bathroom-- it was in my car where I had left it. '

Good grief, thankfully I was wrong. What a pain in the ass otherwise. UGH!!!

Having an error margin is a good thing too, having a grip on reality does serve me, I can't complain. For some, it may be more interesting/useful to correlate everything that happens to something magical. For me, life is works well enough for me without putting extras on it.

Edited by Sherapy
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People can claim anything, and so I think it is perfectly valid to claim that something someone has claimed is false. Frankly I don't do that much, or at least nearly as much as I think it.

Exactly, for me to accept any old claim would only nurture my gullibility. I think there is room for a lot of things, I just prefer to begin with reason.

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Fraudsters have little choice but to get verbose and personal. It is funny to watch. One wonders if it is believed or just done for attention; either way it can be disreagarded if there are no genuine scientific tests involved.

Most of the time peope who become convinced they have ESP abilities ("powers") simply are fooling themselves and don't understand the notion of coincidence. This is also why the reports of the phenomenon are so hard to reproduce in a controlled setting.

Yep, it is simply a matter of fully understanding how the mind works, (there has been so much growth in the last 15 years, some are just not current in their understandings) which is easily rectified.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I believe everybody has a right to their opinion and I do love reading them because I like to learn from others.

Well, I dunno about that. It kinda implies that all opinions are of equal value, and this is manifestly not the case.

Some opinions are reasonable but false; others are just stupid or uninformed; others are dangerous.

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I agree, but why?

I've given this some thought recently as I frequent sites on occultism/Satanism etc and you won't find a more defensive and argumentative bunch than those.

I think many people tie their beliefs directly to their identity so that if their beliefs are questioned then, to them, it's the same as questioning their validity as a human being.

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I think we're starting to lose the art of civil discourse in our society. Look at someone like Rush Limbaugh, who still is extremely popular with some folks. He and some others have taught us that it's OK and even desirable to use pejoratives for those who disagree with us, to cut people off in mid-sentence who aren't true believers. I saw it during the last 2 election cycles, and in my own family. Those of us who are Democrats & liberals were called all kinds of names, denigrated, mocked, and subjected to rants that were full of inaccuracies. And the people who felt perfectly free to post or say whatever they wanted got really p***ed when they got a response they didn't like. Part of it is just plain bad manners, some of it is due to adopting a poor role model, ignorance plays a role, as does confirmation bias and immaturity.

We used to be able to agree to disagree, now we just call each other names and identify ourselves and others by our differences instead of our commonality. The US has become extremely polarized, and that them vs us attitude hurts everyone in the long run. But, people do like to be right, and some people will insist on being right no matter what price they have to pay. In the long run, they end up hurting themselves.

Hi Beany. I'd like to preface this by saying, while I don't agree with points of your post, it's possible we have more in common than either one of us realize. And that is really the point of my response. And, It has been a long time since I've posted here, years. But today out of curiosity, I was compelled to check this forum out again. It's fitting that one of the first threads and posts I've read has the name of Rush Limbaugh in it!

Actually, I've been an avid listener of his show going on 11 years now, and agree with him most of the time and share a similar political philosophy. Funny thing is.. before I truly listened to what he had to say, I didn't like him. Not sure why really, maybe it was what I heard others say and how media sources depicted him? At that point I hadn't given him a 'fair shake' and made a preconceived notion that I didn't like him based on other's beliefs (Beany, maybe you have listened a lot, I don't know? This is more of me thinking out loud and based on my experiences). As time passed I learned you can't always trust other's judgements of a person or situation. You have to research it for yourself. Why? Because you owe it to yourself and to the person's involved that the truth is sought, and that you understand where someone is coming from.. their background, beliefs, motives, etc, etc. It's the only way to get an honest picture.

My point to all of this and to the OP is that sometimes what we don't understand, we fear. What we don't understand we lash out at. It's a defense mechanism I suppose, we feel threatened. I've had many heated arguments over the years about religion and I've been blessed with a genuine curiosity of many things and an even temperament, so I am not one to lash out at other's even though I may vehemently disagree with them. Hate and vengeance are brutal things and breed like gerbils. When we receive it, it is easier to return in kind and much harder to turn the other way. I could also say, love and forgiveness are beautiful things and breed like gerbils. When we receive it, it is easier to return in kind and much harder to turn the other way. When I see individuals live their lives with hate, I feel sorry for them. Some have been relatives. I don't hate them back, because they will feed on it.

We as humans have so much more in common than our differences, and instead of looking for the things that tear us apart, we should be focusing on the things that bind us together and make us stronger. If we did a better job of that, those differences would be more appreciated between us and petty stuff would work its way out.

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Go back and read past rhetoric; our times are no better or worse in the amount of public rudeness and false accusations than any other. It is just that most of it is rarely quoted and only the great and good stuff gets put in anthologies.

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Hi Beany. I'd like to preface this by saying, while I don't agree with points of your post, it's possible we have more in common than either one of us realize. And that is really the point of my response. And, It has been a long time since I've posted here, years. But today out of curiosity, I was compelled to check this forum out again. It's fitting that one of the first threads and posts I've read has the name of Rush Limbaugh in it!

Actually, I've been an avid listener of his show going on 11 years now, and agree with him most of the time and share a similar political philosophy. Funny thing is.. before I truly listened to what he had to say, I didn't like him. Not sure why really, maybe it was what I heard others say and how media sources depicted him? At that point I hadn't given him a 'fair shake' and made a preconceived notion that I didn't like him based on other's beliefs (Beany, maybe you have listened a lot, I don't know? This is more of me thinking out loud and based on my experiences). As time passed I learned you can't always trust other's judgements of a person or situation. You have to research it for yourself. Why? Because you owe it to yourself and to the person's involved that the truth is sought, and that you understand where someone is coming from.. their background, beliefs, motives, etc, etc. It's the only way to get an honest picture.

My point to all of this and to the OP is that sometimes what we don't understand, we fear. What we don't understand we lash out at. It's a defense mechanism I suppose, we feel threatened. I've had many heated arguments over the years about religion and I've been blessed with a genuine curiosity of many things and an even temperament, so I am not one to lash out at other's even though I may vehemently disagree with them. Hate and vengeance are brutal things and breed like gerbils. When we receive it, it is easier to return in kind and much harder to turn the other way. I could also say, love and forgiveness are beautiful things and breed like gerbils. When we receive it, it is easier to return in kind and much harder to turn the other way. When I see individuals live their lives with hate, I feel sorry for them. Some have been relatives. I don't hate them back, because they will feed on it.

We as humans have so much more in common than our differences, and instead of looking for the things that tear us apart, we should be focusing on the things that bind us together and make us stronger. If we did a better job of that, those differences would be more appreciated between us and petty stuff would work its way out.

Hey Arty, it has been a while since you have been on Um, nice to see you posting.

Hi Beany. I'd like to preface this by saying, while I don't agree with points of your post, it's possible we have more in common than either one of us realize. And that is really the point of my response. And, It has been a long time since I've posted here, years. But today out of curiosity, I was compelled to check this forum out again. It's fitting that one of the first threads and posts I've read has the name of Rush Limbaugh in it!

Actually, I've been an avid listener of his show going on 11 years now, and agree with him most of the time and share a similar political philosophy. Funny thing is.. before I truly listened to what he had to say, I didn't like him. Not sure why really, maybe it was what I heard others say and how media sources depicted him? At that point I hadn't given him a 'fair shake' and made a preconceived notion that I didn't like him based on other's beliefs (Beany, maybe you have listened a lot, I don't know? This is more of me thinking out loud and based on my experiences). As time passed I learned you can't always trust other's judgements of a person or situation. You have to research it for yourself. Why? Because you owe it to yourself and to the person's involved that the truth is sought, and that you understand where someone is coming from.. their background, beliefs, motives, etc, etc. It's the only way to get an honest picture.

My point to all of this and to the OP is that sometimes what we don't understand, we fear. What we don't understand we lash out at. It's a defense mechanism I suppose, we feel threatened. I've had many heated arguments over the years about religion and I've been blessed with a genuine curiosity of many things and an even temperament, so I am not one to lash out at other's even though I may vehemently disagree with them. Hate and vengeance are brutal things and breed like gerbils. When we receive it, it is easier to return in kind and much harder to turn the other way. I could also say, love and forgiveness are beautiful things and breed like gerbils. When we receive it, it is easier to return in kind and much harder to turn the other way. When I see individuals live their lives with hate, I feel sorry for them. Some have been relatives. I don't hate them back, because they will feed on it.

We as humans have so much more in common than our differences, and instead of looking for the things that tear us apart, we should be focusing on the things that bind us together and make us stronger. If we did a better job of that, those differences would be more appreciated between us and petty stuff would work its way out.

Arty, for me, it doesn't make sense to advocate tolerance and neutral language on one hand, yet excuse Limbaugh on the other. As a culture we are trying to move towards a more respectful dialog especially when we disagree with others. I think (IMO) we could try and see if we could benefit from communication standards in the way we disagree and challenge the things we do not hold fast too.

It is my understanding/experience/opinion that Limbaugh has a difficult time doing this; in other words, it is not his strong suit.

http://www.carbonite...Ads-on-Limbaugh

With that being said it is nice to see you back posting, Arty.

Edited by Sherapy
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I try to be reasonable and tolerant and soft-spoken and all those good things, but I also try to not make judgements about whether or not others are being the same.

Actually that is not quite accurate; I do judge whether others are being intolerant or rude or whatever: what I try to avoid is judging such things as good or bad. There may be times when they are very appropriate.

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Well, I dunno about that. It kinda implies that all opinions are of equal value, and this is manifestly not the case.

Some opinions are reasonable but false; others are just stupid or uninformed; others are dangerous.

Very well said!

Edited by Sherapy
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Well, I dunno about that. It kinda implies that all opinions are of equal value, and this is manifestly not the case.

Some opinions are reasonable but false; others are just stupid or uninformed; others are dangerous.

May I (with the utmost respect) ask if the value/classification of those opinions depend on how closely they match your own?

Edited by ealdwita
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My we are walking on eggs today; I thought I had joked enough about this to make my view of my own opinions clear enough, but of course not everyone reads all my posts any more than I read everyone else's posts.

The classification, to have any reality, would have to be relative to whatever is the reality, assuming there is one. My opinions would no doubt have some in each category, although I would hope none too dangerous.

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We believe our opinions because we think they are true; we have no alternative -- there seems to be some sort of reality check in sane people that forces us to believe whatever is true. Where we have freedom here is when there is insufficient evidence to force a realization of truth. In these cases our views are often dictated by our upbringing or other indoctrination, aspects of our personality, or maybe false information we have accepted.

I know as fact that I have changed my opinion on many things during my lifetime, and therefore conclude I will probably continue to do so. This is grounds for a little humility about my present views. Some things I feel quite sure of, there are others where I can see where I might be wrong, and there are others where I have strong doubts.

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