Unfortunately you and more than a few others on this board, right and left, are dicks. Complete fucking assholes. While some of us come here for recreation or occasionally even for a wee bit of enlightenment, others like to come here to be confrontational nitwits. They like to make outrageous statements in order to get lots of attention and then sit back on the proverbial lawn chair to watch what happens. Or, like in your case, pretend like they are defending it when, in fact, they’re just continuing to stir the pot.
Shut the fuck up about not being a dick. 'Fess up and admit that you like to piss people off and shit in a forum that tries to hold itself to a higher standard than Rush “The media is very desirous that a black quarterback do well” Limbaugh. Fuck you, Scylla.
However, that is not the argument being made in the case of climate change. Look, let’s face it, not everyone can be an expert on everything. It just doesn’t make sense for me when I take an airline flight to be looking over the pilot’s shoulder and telling him how to fly the plane…and it doesn’t make sense for me to be doing that when my relative is getting brain surgery either. That doesn’t mean I may not ask questions and try to arrive at a basic understanding of what is going on…but it is quite ridiculous of me to expect that I can arrive at an independent opinion on these matters without investing a hell of a lot of time and energy.
So, yes, when discussing complex scientific issues that have policy implications, realistically one has to expect that it becomes important to know what the general scientific opinion in the field is, as expressed in the hundreds of scientific papers that get published in peer-reviewed journals each year. This is where the notion of a consensus comes in. It does not mean that all debate is over…but it is questionable how fruitful it will be to carry out a debate on scientific issues in a venue (e.g., a messageboard or a hearing room in Congress) that is not really designed to ferret out scientific truth as best we know how to do that.
The other thing is that, like it or not, most people in our society accept science as the best authority we have on certain issues involving the understanding of our natural world. And, while science may not be infallible, it seems dangerous to pick and choose which current general scientific understanding (consensus, if you will) one chooses to listen to and which one chooses to ignore. The fact that one can find a few scientists who endorse a point of view that better agrees with your philosophical, economic, religious, or political prejudices (or economic self-interest) does not mean it makes sense to make policy decisions on the basis of these scientists while ignoring the weight of the scientific opinion on the “consensus side”.
Bah! Let me know when the person currently posting under Scylla’s handle goes away and the real Scylla returns to amuse us with delightful tales of blimps and family fun.
All you did with your OP was temporarily deny good faith debaters the opportunity to draw distinctions between an audience “consensus” on Rush’s accuracy and scientific consensus on global warming. I say temporarily because once people figured out what was going on, that is exactly the argument they made. I don’t know if that’s trolling, but it’s certainly not fighting ignorance.
I think it would be helpful if instead of beating around the bush and trying to spare my feelings, you just came out and told me what you really think of my thread.
As long as I remember, he’s always presented both aspects of himself. I respect that, actually; I enjoy his stories, and don’t enjoy his politics, but appreciate that he is, here as in his real life, himself. I wish more posters were themselves.
It’s not so much for the rest of the world, as for my wife. The last miscarriage was very difficult for her, and it’s probably best that we give up here and count our blessings with the two daughters we have rather than go through that again.
Thank you for caring though. It’s good to know that people out there like you recognize that they are speaking to real human beings, and not just little dots on a screen at which they vent their frustrations and inadequacies from their self-absorbed universes of one.
Okay, now you’re just being a complete asshole. Encouraging Scylla’s stated plan to get a vasectomy on the grounds that we certainly don’t want any more conservative spawn in the world? Fucktard.
Scylla, I similarly loathe your politics, but I am very sorry about your miscarriage(s?). My mom miscarried her first kid.
I expect Rush to be an idiot. I look for better from Dopers.
If Rush had half a brain cell, he might realize that the point is not to ‘win the argument by acclaim or proclamation’. Rather, the point is that consensus was reached because hundreds of scientists in different fields of endeavour reached the same conclusion through doing different sorts of studies on different aspects of the problems in the environment. Therefore, the conclusion is not ‘it’s a problem because a bunch of people said so’ but rather ‘it’s a problem because many experts working in their separate fields of endeavour reached the same conclusion’.
Do you get it now? Maybe you could call your buddy Rushie and let him know he (as usual) needs to go buy himself a clue.
Scylla annoyed me with his OP. but you sirrah bring a whole new meaning to the word “dick.” I’m often a dickhead and I’m personally outraged to be lumped into the same umbrella of hatred that you so nobly parade under. I seriously hope you weren’t serious about that quasi-eugenics comment, or I’m going to have no choice but to Godwinize this thread. It doesn’t help your case any that many people here have suffered through the effects of miscarriage.
I’m going to ask you nicely to apologize, barring an intervention by Scylla.
Scylla, the beauty of this for me is that I caught your dryness from the beginning of the other thread, but I am seeing Limbaugh’s only because you’ve been called upon to explain here in the Pit. I agree! His comments are not to be taken at face value either. Limbaugh is trolling; you’re not!
I might suggest you don’t hold your breath waiting for any sort of apology from me. When Scylla goes into his ultra right wing cubbyhole – as he is doing presently – I don’t wish his family or himself any mishappenings. And you’ll find that in the sequence of posts between us, I have not so done a single time. Of course, your lack of reading comprehension might very well explain your faux-outrage rant.
But, by the same token, the last think the world needs now, is loud and foul conservatives, with an ax to grind. And ax, that I might ad, has been wielded in Iraq rather indiscriminately – and yet he finds no compunction in justifying said savage behavior, but rather presents as an example of “truth in news” one of the most disgusting character in your media today. A lying sack of shit, who’s only interested in his ratings, filling pockets through same and distorting anything and everything that belies his chikenhawk status. You’d guess the way this particular blowhard speaks of war, he’d have at least a purple heart or two. In that sense, he reminds me very much of Scylla, batallion commander of the few keyboard warriors that remain on the SDMB. And to a greater extent, “patriotic” Repubhlicans who think their nation can do no wrong and wear anything from pin-lapels to the silliest bumper stickers know to humankind.
I find much more integrity in those initial Bush supporters that finally realized they’d been taken for the ride of their lives and/or simply quit stirring the political pot as they realized it was simply pointless, to douchebags that still refuse to acknowledge reality – as long as it’s others that are doing the killing and/or dying.
Don’t wish a miscarriage on anyone, but by the same token, too many warmongerind and unthinking Scylla-clones around as it is (if there weren’t, you obviously wouldn’t be stuck in such a predictable and bloody quagmire as you currently are).
Thus a vasectomy seems like a perfect idea.
Meanwhile, you’re welcomed to lick my dingleberries, dickweed. Make sure to mke an appointment first, though. I am a busy man even when it comes to dingleberry-eating drones.
Your brain-damage is worse than I though from your own expelanations. I honestly hope you may still fully recover from it. And there’s not a trace of a smile in my comments.
If it helps, you are, of course, welcomes to stalk me now that your favorite target is no longer here.
