State some controversial beliefs that you have.

The BBQ Pit
321

[QUOTE=MrJackboots]
I believe that inheritance is unAmerican, a crime against our ideal of a meritocratic society. Upon their parents’ deaths, grown children should be given some small but reasonable amount of credit (low-mid six figures maybe) to buy their memories back from the government at fair market value. The rest should be sold at auction. If they want more, they can buy it. In the case of underage children, I believe the estates should be managed until the youngest reaches majority.
[/QUOTE]

I think it is dangerous to simply say all property is the government’s upon our death. There are some societies where that has been a traditional thing, you die, your property becomes the tribes. But that has never been the American way and we’ve enshrined exactly the opposite stance in our laws, so to say inheritance is un-American doesn’t really make much sense to me.

322

I think Daniel Craig is an ugly motherfucker. I think he looks like Vladimir Putin, has an ugly lower lip, a perpetual bloodhound experession on his face, poor posture, a weak chin, and an overall unpreposessing physical appearance, and that he is no more fit to play James Bond than James Gandolfini is to play Shaka Zulu.

This seems to be a very controversial belief on the SDMB, for some reason.

323

[QUOTE=scr4]
After reading this thread, I now believe one should no have any controversial beliefs. If you know it’s controversial, then you should know it’s just an opinion. You can hold that opinion, but don’t believe in it.
[/QUOTE]

What does this even mean? If I hold an opinion, it’s because I think that opinion is true. If I didn’t think that opinion were true, my opinion would be otherwise, by definition.

324

[QUOTE=Brain Wreck]
This is an interesting incongruity with the rest of what you posted. I wonder if this is based on any personal experience of your own with drugs or just economic considerations. I can tell you that if you ever tried any of the sacred psychedelics, you would cease to hold these other unfortunate opinion. I’m guessing you only have experience with either the socially-sanctioned “oblivion” drugs that chase away reality, like alcohol or marijuana.
[/quote]

I haven’t done anything heavier than weed and beer for several years, but I have had experience with acid, shrooms and several other drugs. I don’t see what that has to do with it though.

Look, I just don’t have any sympathy for people in prison. I think prison should be about punishment and that rehabilitation is a dream.

[/quote]

Thanks for the concern, truly, but I’m content.

325

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
Look, I just don’t have any sympathy for people in prison. I think prison should be about punishment and that rehabilitation is a dream.
[/QUOTE]

Punishment for what, exactly? I mean, given that you’ve expressed your indifference toward the ones that are ostensibly innocent as well, i.e. “we get it right often enough”.

Do you advocate punishment for excessive misfortune?

326

[QUOTE=Martin Hyde]
I think it is dangerous to simply say all property is the government’s upon our death. There are some societies where that has been a traditional thing, you die, your property becomes the tribes. But that has never been the American way and we’ve enshrined exactly the opposite stance in our laws, so to say inheritance is un-American doesn’t really make much sense to me.
[/QUOTE]

It’s a prescriptivist stance, not a descriptivist one, like saying that slavery (perfectly normal for most of our history) or torture (cough) are unAmerican. On the one side we have “What do you mean? Look at what we do, at what we’ve always done!” and on the other, we have, “Well, yeah, but we’re the Americans! C’mon, shouldn’t we be better than this?”

We’re proud of our work ethic. We like the practicality of “He who does not work, does not eat.” We like to believe in people being successful on their own merits, not because they were born with the decks stacked in their favor. It’s not a perfect solution, I admit, but it eliminates as a class the worthless rich, the people who have never and will never produce a meaningful day’s work in their lives, just because Mommy or Daddy made it big. It cuts back dramatically on the people who’d be born on third base, thinking they hit triples, and sending the funds back to educate the next generation would let more people step up to the plate to hit those triples. I think it’d be good for our national character.

You can’t take it with you, and you can leave your kids some really nice bootstraps over the course of eighteen or twenty years. What more does anyone deserve?

327

[QUOTE=Brain Wreck]
I can tell you that if you ever tried any of the sacred psychedelics, you would cease to hold these other unfortunate opinion. I’m guessing you only have experience with either the socially-sanctioned “oblivion” drugs that chase away reality, like alcohol or marijuana.

[/QUOTE]

I wish it was true that using psychedelics would cause all people to abandon genuine violent intentions towards others, and empathize with their fellow man more. It does have this effect on a lot of people. It certainly had the effect on me. Like you, I can’t understand how someone could use these drugs and then continue to feel callous and indifferent about people suffering.

Unfortunately, it happens. Don’t forget, the Hells Angels dropped acid. Adolf Hitler and other Nazis reportedly used mescaline and peyote. I’ve known any number of violent, thuggish people who did mushrooms and acid regularly. The mind-opening and spiritual potential of psychedelics are no match for some people’s ingrained social ideas.

328

[QUOTE=DianaG]
Punishment for what, exactly? I mean, given that you’ve expressed your indifference toward the ones that are ostensibly innocent as well, i.e. “we get it right often enough”.

Do you advocate punishment for excessive misfortune?
[/QUOTE]

Are you refering to the people in jail due to their environment? As in, people who grew up in the ghetto and started dealing drugs or gang banging? Yes, I believe that they belong in jail and that it should be punishment.

Or do you mean the people who end up in jail but are in fact innocent? These people should not have been in any sort of situation or area where they could have been mistaken for commiting the crime that they are in prison for.

Basically, it won’t happen to me and if it happens to someone else who I don’t know then I already have enough to worry about and hope they can prove their case but I really don’t care since it doesn’t affect me.

329

[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
I wish it was true that using psychedelics would cause all people to abandon genuine violent intentions towards others, and empathize with their fellow man more. It does have this effect on a lot of people. It certainly had the effect on me. Like you, I can’t understand how someone could use these drugs and then continue to feel callous and indifferent about people suffering.

Unfortunately, it happens. Don’t forget, the Hells Angels dropped acid. Adolf Hitler and other Nazis reportedly used mescaline and peyote. I’ve known any number of violent, thuggish people who did mushrooms and acid regularly. The mind-opening and spiritual potential of psychedelics are no match for some people’s ingrained social ideas.
[/QUOTE]

Was this in any way directed at me or was it meant in general?

Just curious if you think me a “violent, thuggish” person.

330

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
I believe islam is a disaster and all followers should be rounded up and exiled totally from the rest of the world.

I feel absolutely zero remorse or regret with regards to dead iraqi civilians.
[/QUOTE]

Trendwatch. I’ve been seeing a lot of this genocidal attitude towards Muslims on the part of the extreme right in the past six months or so. Some of them talk about rounding up Muslims in the U.S. into concentration camps; some of them talk about attacking the Middle East with nukes. I’ve heard the “we’ll probably have to eliminate most of them” more than once. Some of them add including liberals and gays as a footnote.

I’m wondering if these are mostly harmless nuts who would otherwise be obsessing about abortion or illegals and will ultimately move on to the next rant, or if it’s something more worrisome. And is there a reason it’s the hot topic only lately? My sense is a lot more now than even right after 9/11. Has Rush or one of his ilk been harping on the evils of Islam recently or what?

331

[QUOTE=uglybeech]
Trendwatch. I’ve been seeing a lot of this genocidal attitude towards Muslims on the part of the extreme right in the past six months or so. Some of them talk about rounding up Muslims in the U.S. into concentration camps; some of them talk about attacking the Middle East with nukes. I’ve heard the “we’ll probably have to eliminate most of them” more than once. Some of them add including liberals and gays as a footnote.

I’m wondering if these are mostly harmless nuts who would otherwise be obsessing about abortion or illegals and will ultimately move on to the next rant, or if it’s something more worrisome. And is there a reason it’s the hot topic only lately? My sense is a lot more now than even right after 9/11. Has Rush or one of his ilk been harping on the evils of Islam recently or what?
[/QUOTE]

I don’t know. I am neither a nut nor a conservative.

332

[QUOTE=Bippy the Beardless]
I agree, and there is nothing about her face hidden or secretive. Mind you I also love women who wear hot pants and tiny t-shirts. I also know a women who dress like the first, despite their husbands wish that they would dress more western-like. So much for this being something always imposed by men on women. Unfortunately I don’t know enough women who dress in hot pants and tiny t’s.
[/QUOTE]

Unlike DanBlather, you understood what I was trying to say. Congratulations!

This said, I don’t find hot pants and tiny t-shirts especially sexy.

333

[QUOTE=uglybeech]
Trendwatch. I’ve been seeing a lot of this genocidal attitude towards Muslims on the part of the extreme right in the past six months or so. Some of them talk about rounding up Muslims in the U.S. into concentration camps; some of them talk about attacking the Middle East with nukes. I’ve heard the “we’ll probably have to eliminate most of them” more than once. Some of them add including liberals and gays as a footnote.

I’m wondering if these are mostly harmless nuts who would otherwise be obsessing about abortion or illegals and will ultimately move on to the next rant, or if it’s something more worrisome. And is there a reason it’s the hot topic only lately? My sense is a lot more now than even right after 9/11. Has Rush or one of his ilk been harping on the evils of Islam recently or what?
[/QUOTE]

And what I said was not a sign of a “genocidal attitude”. I never said I like the killing of iraqi civilians, just that I really don’t care that much. I have other things in my day to day life that I don’t have any time for things that don’t affect me directly. That is all I meant.

334

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
I believe that the sorry state of America’s youth, as well as the sky rocketing crime rate, is a result of desegregation and women’s lib.
[/quote]
Last I heard, the crime rate was going down. And even if you were right, too bad.

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
I believe that I can’t be bothered to give any kind of a shit about the environment or wild fucking animals.
[/quote]
You do know where oxygen and so forth come from, don’t you ?

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
I do not care if we get it right 100% of the time when administering the death penalty. We get it right enough.
[/quote]
And I believe this common, not controversial attitude is simply because Americans like to kill, and don’t care at all about innocence or guilt; they just want an excuse.

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
I feel absolutely zero remorse or regret with regards to dead iraqi civilians.
[/QUOTE]
Another non-controversial attitude, I believe.

I believe most Americans would cheerfully kill everyone outside our borders without remorse.

I believe that George Bush the Brainless and his allies and those who voted for them are if anything morally inferior to Osama Bin Laden, and I think he’s a monster.

I believe that most people in a position of power in America have zero loyalty to America or it’s people. Or humanity, or life in general.

I believe that no matter how many people vote for the Democrats, they will not be permitted to win. Even if the Republicans have to stop pretending this is a democracy, roll out the tanks and start massacring Democrats and other left wingers.

I also believe that the American military will obey orders to do just that.

It’s only “practical” until the hungry people come after you, either to rob you or simply to eat you. Or until society collapses due to mass starvation; “let them starve” has not worked well for North Korea.

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
Or do you mean the people who end up in jail but are in fact innocent? These people should not have been in any sort of situation or area where they could have been mistaken for commiting the crime that they are in prison for.
[/QUOTE]
:rolleyes: The only way to follow that rule would be immediate suicide, since as long as you’re alive you can always end up in a situation where mistakes can happen.

335

*I believe that you should go down with the sinking of the ship if you can save a person, even if it’s only one. However, in the context of this thread, you’ve got to jump when you can, especially if whoever you’re dealing with refuses to extend the same courtesies (like answering polite inquiries without ducking them) to you that you’ve done for them. So Mr. Hyde, I choose to disengage and I’ll just go back to reading and overall nodding in agreement.

Also, once again, I apologize for my participation in this hijack. Certainly, that’s extended to woodstockbirdybird. Sorry y’all.

336

[QUOTE=rooster circle]
Was this in any way directed at me or was it meant in general?

Just curious if you think me a “violent, thuggish” person.
[/QUOTE]

No, definitely not. I disagree with some of your political views but I’m not trying to make a personal attack on you this way. I was referring generally to certain people I have had personal experience with, who I would view as having dangerous tendencies despite their use of psychedelics.

337

[QUOTE=scr4]
After reading this thread, I now believe one should no have any controversial beliefs. If you know it’s controversial, then you should know it’s just an opinion. You can hold that opinion, but don’t believe in it.
[/QUOTE]
That is simply wrong. Evolution for example is both highly controversial, and hard fact. It is not an opinion.

338

[QUOTE=severus]
Unlike DanBlather, you understood what I was trying to say. Congratulations!

This said, I don’t find hot pants and tiny t-shirts especially sexy.
[/QUOTE]
No, I understand what you were saying: “you don’t have to look like a freak to dress modestly”. I just happen to think that having a society/religion system where women have much more restrictive dress code than men do is not desirable and reflects a perverse set of beliefs that lead to the abuses that we see in parts of the world where dressing like that is common. I’m just not comfortable with a society where women are chattel, are beaten by their husbands, fathers and brothers, and have little or no recuse. Call me crazy.

339

[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
No, definitely not. I disagree with some of your political views but I’m not trying to make a personal attack on you this way. I was referring generally to certain people I have had personal experience with, who I would view as having dangerous tendencies despite their use of psychedelics.
[/QUOTE]

Ok.

I agree. I have known several people with violent tendancies despite their use of psychedelic drugs. Fortunately I was never around them when either I or they were actually on the drugs.

340

Not a one. I am the perfect comformist as my posting record shows.