Omnibus Pit Thread

I’m sensitive to the issue of monopolizing the Pit, so I will comment on more than 1 poster at once.

First, GIGOBuster. I no longer engage with this poster because he refused to answer a simple, reasonable question which would have helped me to understand his position.

Here is a link to the thread, in case anyone is interested:

Of course, this doesn’t mean that GIGOBuster is a bad person. I simply prefer not to debate with people who will not answer simple, reasonable questions.

I will note, however, that I do have a lot of contempt for GIGOBuster. For example, in the same thread there was an exchange between me and chronos in which chronos made a claim about the rate of increase of temperature. I responded to that claim. GIGOBuster responded to my response but completely missed the point. He doesn’t seem to understand that chronos and I were talking about rates of increase and not the amounts of increase.

I’m not sure if GIGOBuster actually stupid or just doesn’t read or write English very well, but he really manifests a lot of arrogant stupidity.


Next, Sage Rat. I don’t engage with Sage Rat because of his past weaseling and strawmanning.

In a discussion about global warming, Sage Rat made the claim that the actions/statements of a representative democracy or organization ALWAYS represent either the will of the constituents or are wiser and saner policy (so long as the actions concern something “major”).

Just so that nobody thinks I am misrepresenting this person, I will quote part of our exchange:

Me:

You now concede that that the statements or policies of an organization do not necessarily reflect the view of a majority of the members, but, as long as (1) the organization is democratic; and (2) the statement or policy concerns something which is not “minor,” you maintain that such a statement or policy is always more accurate and superior compared to the view of the majority of the organization’s members.
Do I have you right?

Him:

A) “Representative Democracy” and “Democracy” are not interchangeable terms for the purpose of this particular discussion. I’m talking about representative democracy.

B) You are correct. Representative democracies are set up to at worst represent the view of the majority or at best to represent a more accurate and superior viewpoint. This is their “reason for being” and I personally do believe that they achieve this goal in regards to the major issues. If you think that they fail at this, then that’s fine, but again general surveys of climate scientists agree strongly that the evidence is strong and that global climate change is in majority anthropogenic, so whether scientific bodies do or don’t represent the democratic view of their members is irrelevant. I beleve that scientific bodies do represent it or are in fact superior, and so to me this is very good evidence.


Later, this poster tried to weasel out of his “always” position by sneaking in the phrase “most commonly,” without acknowledging the change. Not only that, but he misrepresented (or proposed to misrepresent) my position as follows:

brazil84 believes that a representative government (like the United States government) most often acts without any sort of relationship to sane methodology or the will of the people. Most of their actions are mere pork barrels and self-serving legislation.

Of course, I had made no such claim, expressed or implied When called out, Sage Rat was unable to substantiate his strawmanning and weaseling and failed to acknowledge the same.

I will try to find a link if anyone is curious.


Again, the above exchange does not imply that Sage Rat is a terrible or stupid person. Actually I think he is pretty smart (compared to GIGOBuster who seems pretty stupid). I just have no interest in debating with people who (apparently) think it’s ok to misrepresent my position or their own position. Especially after I have pointed it out to them.

As with my thread about The Tao’s Revenge, I have little or no interest in discussing (in this thread) the merits of the underlying debate or my general smartness, honesty, or worthiness as a poster.

You really seem to think anyone gives a rat’s ass, don’t you?

I bet he has a little red note-book labeled, “Serious Injuries” too.

So, will your lack of engagement mitigate or aggravate anthropogenic global warming?
Maybe we should ask the Hispanics in Brazil.

Good start for what is looking to be a classic reverse pitting.

Listen brazil84, you are still insisting on telling the building owners that an ornamental tree in the lobby growing 4 feet is not rare, it is natural, of course it is, but somehow when the roof is beginning to be damaged for growing 4 feet **more **that explanation would be disingenuous, misleading and stupid in the end.

Answering yes to the simple question if a growth of 4 feet (in this example) is natural is to miss on purpose the big picture with the obvious intent to mislead people, a classic FUD.

Since you only can pretend that many are impressed with your “dazzling” intellect and Aldebaranian arguments (The post from my blog is my cite!) you bet I’m happy to see that it is you whom many in the dope have in contempt.

Good start for what is looking to be a classic reverse pitting.

Listen brazil84, you are still insisting on telling the building owners that an ornamental tree in the lobby growing 4 feet is not rare, it is natural, of course it is, but somehow when the roof is beginning to be damaged for growing 4 feet **more **that explanation would be disingenuous, misleading and stupid in the end.

Answering yes to the simple question if a growth of 4 feet (in this example) is natural is to miss on purpose the big picture with the obvious intent to mislead people, a classic FUD.

Since you only can pretend that many are impressed with your “dazzling” intellect and Aldebaranian arguments (The post from my blog is my cite!) you bet I’m happy to see that it is you whom many in the dope has in contempt.

We could also ask the Yanquis in Georgia. :smiley:

Just the fact that you could write things like this - presumably with a straight face - about one of the most intelligent, nicest, most well-spoken members of this board brings you down even farther. GIGOBuster’s first language isn’t English, but I doubt you could’ve guessed that from his posts, because the dude writes it better than most of us do.

:shrug: Just look at his most recent post in that global warming thread. He completely missed the point. As far as I can tell, he thinks my point (that he was responding to) was about the total temperature increase and not the rate of increase.

Not only that, but his post in this thread shows that he still doesn’t understand the point I was making.

Of course, there’s no sin in being stupid. Or in not speaking English very well. What’s annoying to me about GIGOBuster is that his incoherence is combined with arrogance. My sense in reading his posts is that he thinks he’s really smart.

Actually you put me on ignore or otherwise ceased debating with me because I’d called you on breaking your own rules.

As to your facade reason for stopping debating me: When someone always does X or Y, they can still most commonly do Y. That’s the magic of the word “or” as paired with “always”. This isn’t a vast leap of logic.

And by the way, you are a terrible and stupid person. o/

That **Cisco **is the best endorsement I have ever gotten in the board, thank you for making my day.

And yes I apologize for some confusion, please remove the word “somehow” from the last reply and the duplicate.

My excuse is that indeed English is my second language, what excuse brasil84 has… We can only guess. :slight_smile:

My latest reply points to the stupid attempt to use the natural rate in a clear misleading attempt to dismiss the unnatural one.

The problem is really you, I already noticed, but you are just being obtuse regarding the overall point, and the reason why scientists report that there is a problem.

Only a person that is proud of misleading others could keep going on like you did here, just keep digging you troll.

If we all work together to get on brazil84’s “Ignore” list, do you think he might stop posting altogether?

P.S. I pit me for thinking that this was going to be an early start to the April mini-rants thread.

Well, tough titties. The rest of us have an opinion on those issues and you’re going to hear it whether you want to or not.

And my opinion is that you don’t have any of those things.

I’ll save you the trouble and tell you that the answer is “yes.” But you need to understand that being on my ignore list simply means that I’m not interested in debating with the person. If you are not interested in debating with me, it’s completely your right. I’m obviously not here to achieve popularity. If it turns out that there’s nobody here I’m interested in debating, then I won’t debate anyone.

I should emphasize that everyone is free to choose their own style of debate. For folks like Sage Rat, strawmanning and weaseling are apparently acceptable. For me, they are not.

I don’t mind if you go right ahead and express your opinion. I fully expect to get aggressively flamed in this thread.

I’m simply saying that I have little or no interest discussing such issues in this thread. But you should feel perfectly free to raise them. So go ahead and flame away.

It seems that the only person you’re interested in debating is yourself. More specifically, the generic “other side” of the argument that you’ve framed in your mind, and are upset that the debate has strayed from the clearly defined manuscript that you have set up. Why don’t you just tell us all what you think we should be saying, and everyone can get back to what they want to do.

So basically, you flounced into the Pit to erect your own cross, and now you’re climbing up on it and praying for nails.

I’m not upset at all. I already know that I’m extremely unpopular on this board.

Say whatever you want. If I find it interesting, I will respond.

It’s very simple, you are free to say what you want, and I am free to respond or not as I choose.

So go right ahead and flame me.

Not really, I started this thread simply to express my thoughts about 2 other posters. If this thread sinks fast I won’t care. But I did find your analogy very amusing, so thank you.