Autumn

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

However, that statement is a prime example of a non sequitur fallacy. It does not follow that the criticism of Islam, however hostile the vocal or written appraisal of it may sound, has anything to do with a fear or dislike of even a single Muslim.

Why do people keep conflating two separate things?

Three events…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:

Reg has a short vid from Dawkins about Islamophobia. How to reconcile the positions taken by Autumn and Dawkins?

I am better looking, therefore correct.

Correct me if i misstate your position Autumn. Islamophobia is a valid term. Whether the target is Muslims or Islam is immaterial. It is not about Muslims or Islam. Rather it is…

[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

World of Woo: A study into ‘truth relativism’.

As I started reading, my first thought was that it was hilarious this was posted on the New York Post—a publication whose target demographic is gut-feelers on one side of the political spectrum.

When I went to read the comments it was even more funny. I am surpr…[Read more]

Strega wrote:

The question is, which occurrence would be ‘proximate cause’ for the riders death?

So what you’re getting at is the family of the deceased should sue the horse, yeah?

TheEncogitationer wrote:

And then there are jerks from the dairy industry wanting the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on makers of soy, oat, nut, and plant-based milk for using the term “milk,” even though no one who has tasted plant-based milk would seriously think it comes from cows:

It’s a bit of a strange scenario. The word ‘ju…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

As the article so noted. The best anyone can do is go with known knowns.

The whole point is that there isn’t away to do that reliably. If you only go with accurately reported incidents, you’d get an underestimate, but if you conduct surveys prone to selection bias or inaccurate accounts then you’ll go over. Different…[Read more]

Defensive gun use statistics vary considerably study to study. It’s not necessarily the fault of researchers—it’s a difficult thing to quantify. Issues like selection bias, poor sampling, underreporting, false positives can all potentially swing numbers way up and way down.

False positives tend to be a major concern of mine. For instance, if I g…[Read more]

You question asked if my defence would be the same if the target were child molesters as if who the target was had some bearing on the bigotry in question. Why would it change? Why would who the target is matter? If it doesn’t matter, then what’s the point of the question? If you understood the argument I was putting forward then the question had…[Read more]

If not, then pedophiles have no relevance. The recipient of the bigotry doesn’t salvage bigotry or reframe it.

jakelafort wrote:

Autumn would your defense of the term be the same if the target were child molesters? Pedophilphobia?

In principle, yes. I feel no need to defend irrational, prejudicial bias. There are rational reasons to be critical of pedophilia. We don’t also need irrational reasons. We don’t need additional hate and fear-mongering. We don’t…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:

i think the concept has to be about individual Muslims as opposed to ideas.

It doesn’t. Islamophobia targets Muslims and Islam, but it isn’t about Muslims or Islam. It’s about bigots, cultural norms and systems of belief that promote and sustain irrational, prejudicial bias.

If you’re talking about rational criticism then there…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:

In regard to islamaphobia it is pretty obvious ya gotta define the term. Are you referring to Muslims or Islam? Ideas or people?

It’s not one or the other. It’s about patterns of thought and systems of belief characterized by irrational bias and/ or antipathy.

For instance, there is nothing irrational about opposing honour…[Read more]

My major issue with burning flags is I think most of them these days are either made or treated with synthetics that you probably shouldn’t be inhaling. I mean, no smoke is particularly good for you, but melted nylon? No thanks.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

I really dislike the term ‘Islamophobia’. I think Islam is a bad idea and of no practical benefit to anyone. I consider Christianity in a similar manner.

Whether you like the term or not, it encapsulates elements of irrational bigotry and unjustified moral panic toward the mere existence of Muslims in certain pop…[Read more]