I think we should just compile our beliefs here. If we all started arguing over the beliefs then the thread would immediately become yet another re-hashing of the same old arguments over taxes, abortion, gun control, death penalty, etc.
My controversial beliefs:
I am a strong advocate of sexual education and birth control access, AND also believe that abortion should be illegal.
Both are pretty mainstream ideas on their own, but you rarely see them combined together the way the abortion debate is conventionally framed. To me, there is a world of difference, morally, between putting on a condom and aborting a fetus. To me, it makes perfect sense to think that “reproductive choice” should start and end before the formation of an embryo. But many people out there, on both sides of the debate, don’t see it that way.
I would support a program where people who know they have pedophilic tendencies can voluntarily get castrated (either surgically or through chemical methods) to hopefully reduce the likelihood of committing sexual assault in the first place. My belief is that most sex offenders probably truly can’t control themselves (although of course I’m sure some-perhaps most-don’t want to control themselves), so giving them a way to control those sexual urges before they hurt anyone seems fair. Then if they still choose to offend even with that option available to them, I would definitely support life in prison.
I am not a fan of those campaigns to get the apathetic voters to go out and vote. You know, those “I don’t care who you vote for, just vote! Be a participant in democracy!” type things. Everyone should have the right to vote, of course, but I don’t feel that it truly benefits democracy to encourage voters who don’t really care (and therefore probably didn’t take the time to educate themselves about the stances of the candidates beforehand).
If you care about an issue, I’m sure you’ll investigate it and then go vote for whoever supports it without me telling you to. If you don’t care, and I tell you to vote anyway, you’ll probably just pick whatever name looks nicer on the ballot. :rolleyes:
I’m in favor of corporal punishment for extremely violent and/or sexual crimes, to some extent. It’s a bit hard to explain these views, but it can be summarized as saying I would love it for all violent, repeat, sex offenders/child molesters/rapists to get the ever-living crap kicked out of them from time to time. Cruel and unusual? You bet your ass it is, but then, so was what they did to their victims.
I know, eye for an eye makes the world blind and blah blah blah, but really, I don’t care. Rotting in prison is too good for some of those fuckers.
(And for the record, I am against the death penalty.)
I believe that not everyone should be saved, medically. No, I don’t want to be the one making that decision - it should be made on a case-by-case basis, by people with more knowledge on the subject.
Having a baby is not a basic human right when there are 6 billion humans on the planet, with that figure doubling every 40 or so years.
A related opinion of mine - humans are not special.
Canada should stop sending aid and troops to other countries. In other words, we should tend our own knitting.
Birth control and good sex education for boys and girls freely available in grade schools and up.
Banks are evil.
Capitalism as we know it is evil.
Tobacco should be outlawed.
Trucks and SUV’s should have the same pollution control requirements as cars.
Governments should grow the balls to stand up to big business on issues that affect future human survival on this planet.
Well, that was very liberating.
This will always be unfair. I’ve split it every which way and decided that without legal contracts signed and notarized prior to conception, there will never be a good answer to Father’s Rights debates.
I do feel that if the father refuses to consent (in writing) to having a child, the mother and father should be required to draft up a legal release from all rights/responsibilities as a parent in order to allow pregnancies to run full term.
Again, it’s still unfair (and not enforcable without stomping all over somebody’s rights, I’m sure) but it’s better than the status quo where the woman is allowed to be chief decision maker and daddy just ponies up money when the court says to.
As for my personal controversial belief, I feel that all women on welfare should receive a birth control shot along with their paycheck. I realize it seems harsh, but if we’re really that concerned with the well-being of children, maybe we could do a bit more to prevent even more children from being born to impoverished families and allow more money/health care/etc to flow to existing children.
Once you’re back on your feet and no longer need government assistance, you’re welcome to procreate until your little heart is content.
That’s one I missed, Revenant - I also believe that organ donation should be made mandatory. I’d be willing to allow a waiver if you can prove you are a member of a religion that violently opposes it (an organ no-donor card, as it were), but the default would be to take the organs that can be used.
I believe in Unicorns. I just do, so don’t ask stupid questions about it.
I believe that “King Kong” was really Grape Ape, and we should feel a little guilty about what our government did to poor Grape.
I believe that, using modern day definitions of the terms, Liberals and Conservatives are two sides to the same self fellating coin, both attempting to enforce their own morality while decrying the other side for doing the same.
I believe that anyone who thinks taking away guns will lower crime, or that prohibition of drugs is an effective way to combat drug problems, is an idiot.
I believe that most of what people try to turn me onto as “art” is little more than self indulgant tripe or sentimental, cloying garbage. And I believe that beautiful art can be found anywhere you want it to be, whether it’s the newest car design or unique architecture.
Contrary to what I just said, art that falls under the umbrella of Dadaism almost always makes me laugh.
Farts are really funny. People only pretend to not think they are.
I believe that very few people who talk politics actually operate from an ideological/philosophical ground, but from whatever pleases their ego.
And, I believe that words like “freedom” and “responsibility” have lost any coherant meaning in this culture other than as buzzwords that political demagogues use to control their respective flocks. And that people generally invite despotism in their lives if that desoptism is enforcing their particular sacred cow.
Capitalism, in its ideal implimentation, is the most humane, respectful form of economic structure that exists.
I’m a libertarian. That usually gets people’s panties in a bunch for some reason.
I belive that (whiel I respect people’s right to make this choice) drinking or pretty much and form of intoxication is for people who are afraid to face reality.
I’m an epistemic solipsist. You people all may or may not exist.
I’m surprised to see a lot of things I agree with in this thread. I believe declarative sentences make things seem more reasonable.
I do not believe that the September 11 attacks were faked, or that the World Trade Center was brought down by any kind of “controlled demolition” (a big freakin’ jet airplane crashed into the building, and the building fell down. What’s so freakin’ hard to understand?), or that the Bush administration ordered the attacks or were complicit in the attacks or anything like that. Negligent, possibily even criminally so? Sure. Complicit? No.
However, I do believe that the anthrax attacks that occurred shortly afterward were a Northwoods-type operation conducted by someone in the American military intellegence apparatus for the purpose of pushing us toward war with Iraq. The Project for the New American Century got their “Pearl Harbor event”, but it didn’t come from where they needed it to come from. Osama bin Laden wasn’t connected with Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran or any place with enough oil to sieze to make an invasion worthwhile. As Rumsfeld said to Richard Clarke “There aren’t enough good targets in Afghanistan.” So they decided to terrorize the population with some anthrax, and then claim Iraq gave the anthrax to the terrorists and use that as a pretext for going to war. But I think something went wrong with the plan, and it ultimately proved unnecesary anyway. I think the FBI knowns damn well who did it and has for some time.
I have little doubt that playing violent video games for hours on end inures one to violence and lowers any innate barrier one might have toward committing real violence.
Personally, I think there’s something suspicious about the death of Princess Diana. Not necesarily in her death, but in the way her death has been reported by the French and British authorities.
I believe that the Bush administration was aware, or wilfully or criminally negligent of, the terrorist threat that led to the 9/11 attacks. I also believe that they acted opportunistically regarding the invasion of Iraq, that it was absolutely nothing to do with the attacks on the US, but that invasion was a current governmental desire prior to the attacks, and that Rumsfeld was largely behind it. And that the PNAC is a force for extreme idealistic stupidity in the world.
I’m an atheist, and regard religion as intrinsically bad.
I think that homosexuals should be allowed marriage.
I think that most drugs should be legal.
I don’t think children should be taught the Santa Claus myth.
I think America should lose it’s dominant position in the world.
I want the American troops in Iraq to be slaughtered by the Iraqi resistance.
I think churches should be taxed and regulated like any other business, including false advertising. In other worlds, don’t claim to be able to heal the sick unless you can.
I believe that the neocons in the Administration knew about 9-11 beforehand, let it happen, and feel no guilt whatsoever.
I believe that abortion should be allowed for any reason whatsoever up to the third trimester, paid for by the government if necessary.
I not only think that humanity will within a few centuries at most either be destroyed or replaced, I’m all for it.
I think homosexual leader in SF contributed to the wider spread of AIDS in the US by fighting the temporary shutting of the bath houses
I think that ultimately we will find some correlation between regional genetic groups and intelligence, and that WASPs like me will not be at the top of the heap
I think that strong belief in religion is a type of mental illness
I think that there is something about the conservative mindset that allows them to be fundamentally immoral and corrupt (Enron, tobacco companies, pyramid schemes, lobbyists)
