I am a human, and just as fallible as any of you are. You make some interesting points on the whole. Yet the manner in which they were expressed show a clear level of hostility and resentment towards those with opposing beliefs. Why are you all so angry? Your very own admin has threatened to use my private information against me. Is that not forsaking your own beliefs? Where is my liberty, if you believe in it so strongly?
WHY SHOULD WE RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF SOMEONE WHO, FUNDAMENTALLY, FEELS WE HAVE NONE?
I despise that you call me a leftist - I identify myself with no political party. I only adhere to the doctrine of compassion, understanding and mutual respect.
You don't like the "leftist label", that is fine. Lets talk specifics:
Do you support Socialized medicine? Government run Welfare? Redistribution of wealth? If so, you are suggesting the power of the government be employed to enslave people into supporting the causes you believe in- and violating in their inalienable rights in order to do so. How does that show compassion? That you hurt some to help others ( who will then vote to support your causes and increase your power) does not show compassion, understanding or respect. (See Dawkins' work on Cheaters, Suckers and Grudgers) As you admit , there was nothing admitting of these qualities in your first and subsequent posts.
An independent (non-leftist) thinker will know both sides of an argument. What Conservative writers have you read? Why do you reject their arguments? How did you come to your conclusions?
In no way however did my behavior justify you changing my username and threatening me (despite being a rather empty threat).
And your thoughts on publishing the names and addresses of gun owners in the paper and on the internet are?
This was simply childish and immature, yet you have the audacity to label me a child? I am a grown man - with a masters in Philosophy and Economics.
Ohh, you have a piece of paper that says you are smart huh? Sorry, paper credentials, while we have them aplenty here, are no proof of education or maturity. The fact you offer them as some sort of proof of such speaks volumes. Its like hearing Sheldon on Big Bang Theory explain he isn't crazy- because his mother had him tested. Your posts are proof of the opposite. We have found the only way to deal with a grade school bully is to knock him down- being no other form of persuasion has been found effective. You, by your own admission, you came in here lecturing and bullying. Our response is childish? Sure. But no real debate is possible with the likes of you. Case in point.
However, I will not stay here and argue with you over the internet. It is up to you to find peace within yourselves, and love for your fellow persons. Your life in its entirety is insignificant in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Use your time to love others and understand the universe in which we reside. I would gladly lose my life in a voluntary adherence to nonviolence then pick up the gun and take the life of another. Perhaps this makes me a fool, perhaps it makes me an idealist.
No, it makes you dead, because contrary to your childish belief the world is some sort of benign Kindergarten, there are people out there you would gladly use violence against you, and not feel the least bit of remorse about it. I am sure you have better things to do than to actually debate your beliefs with the likes of us. The holier-than-thou attitude you have is proof enough of that. Debating us might make you aware of how flawed your worldview really is, and you can't have that. Believing yourself superior I am sure is far more important than the not-so-very-glamorous or pretty truth. We have seen it before. Childishness makes you depart faster. That is why we use it.
I just thought it was important for you guys to see the humans behind those persons you mock so openly and with such vindication. I myself used to be a Muslim before I outgrew religion. My only belief is in the power of humanity, the capacity for individuals to think and learn, grow and adapt to the problems we as a collective society now face.
And what about those humans who refuse to learn? The ones for whom their way is the only way? The ones that see you only as the means to their end? Sure, they are "human" - but they are barbarians- uncivilized savages, who hold no life sacred but their own, who believe "Might makes Right", and for whom the tribe is paramount. . Do you deny there are such people? Open your history text and start reading. That is the majority of human history and the majority of the human race. If you aren't one of "us" you are one of "them" - and "THEY" are inhuman. I have a right, sir, to defend myself from such people. I have a right, sir, to hate them as the arrogant, tyrants they are.
"A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe," limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close to us.Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty."
- Albert Einstein
We are separate from the rest BY DESIGN, and compassion can not bridge the gap with people who do not see you AS HUMAN or having value. Offer them peace and they see it as weakness. You want all of humanity to be the same family? Do you have a family of your own? Do you all get along? Do the other families you observe get along? Humans can't even get along with those closest to us. The Madman in the desert who wants my daughter stripped of her rights and approves of her rape (sorry, serial 3 minute "marriages") by Jihadists and I are certainly not going to get along - because he denies the rights of anyone not like him. As, I suspect, do you, as you vote for politicians who deprive people of firearms and the right to protect themselves, to steal their wealth for your purposes, to mandate what they eat, when and how the worship, and what they must value through the force of govt.
Individual Freedom is scary to 90% of the human race..they want the comfort of the group. They want responsibility for personal desires and obligations to be distributed. Our country was founded by people who crossed the pond to get away from the collective tribalism of Europe ( and other places) If there was a new frontier, you can bet we would be on the starships and leaving. We are not, and never will be, part of the human tribe, because we reject the collectivism that defines it.
