Miscellaneous observations for July 2019
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How did a "buttload" come to mean a large quantity? Are there people who carry large quantities of stuff in their asses?
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If people respond only when they disagree, there will be nothing but arguments.
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I'm a free-expression absolutist. "Hate speech"? The Bible and the Koran are full of more "hate speech" than any other books in the world. Incitement to violence? The Bible and the Koran have incited more violence than anything else in history. Promotion of dangerous ideas? Fanatics dedicated to the Bible and the Koran have devastated entire civilizations. Yet I would fervently oppose any effort to ban those books.
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Knowing only one language must be a bit like having only one eye -- you still perceive everything, but a lot of the depth is missing.
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Especially on politics, beware of posts containing a lot of swear words and emotionally-charged language. The state of mind those things imply is not conducive to accurate assessment or strategic thinking.
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Libertarians are useless for actually solving problems. For any problem you have, there is a libertarian somewhere to "explain" why it's your own fault and you don't deserve any help with it.
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If someone responds to an argument by saying "you're a [label]" or "this is [label]ism" or the like, he hasn't really said anything.
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Cynics are among the most gullible people of all. They always believe the worst, regardless of the evidence.
[For previous miscellaneous observations, see here.]
posted by Infidel753 at 4:16 AM
10 Comments:
These are good and thought-provoking, even though I disagree a little with some of them.
One I don't disagree with is the libertarian one. They've frustrated me for decades (big L and little l).
I'll be talking along with someone who seems reasonable and suddenly he (always he) will say, "As a libertarian, I'm forced to say [something ridiculous]." If you realize your philosophy is "forcing" you to take ridiculous, indefensible positions, get a new philosophy.
At first I misread "libertarian" for "librarian" and thought "that's not true!!!"
I agree with the one about knowing*only one language 😎.
I’ll memorize it to silence the next Cheeto voter who tries to berate someone for speaking another language in public.
XoXo
RE the use of swear words in posts: The Rude Pundit is the exception to this rule.
Harry: Thanks. It's always seemed to me that libertarians tend to be ideologically rigid, not pragmatic, and to base their ideas on theory rather than data.
Debra: "Libertarian" sounds like it should be a combination of "libertine" and "librarian", but they're not much like either.
Sixpence: A lot of Trumpanzees don't seem to have real mastery of even one language.
Unknown: Most rules have a few exceptions. I'm not too familiar with the Rude Pundit, but my impression is that he uses profanity as a kind of wordplay, unlike most writers for whom it's a sign of venting anger or trying to sound certain of themselves via vehemence. Even so, I suspect he reduces his audience a bit by using it.
One definition of the word "butt" is a cask. A butt is also a unit of volumetric measure. I don't know if that has anything to do with the word "buttload", but who does?
I only know one language and tried to learn Spanish in high school but I only know a few words.
One: Interesting, thanks. That could well be it.
Mary: It's easier in some circumstances than others. The US is such a monolingual society that it doesn't really encourage learning second languages. In many parts of the world it's routine to have several different languages spoken in the immediate environment.
Your blog offers the coolest stuff, and makes me ponder. I have to agree with the buttload phrase, and hate to think any of us have lots of useless stuff we're carrying back there(lol)It would be totally cool for each of us to know more than one language,a dn to speak it fluently, and easier to travel. I also think people would respect those people more who actually tried to learn the language before traveling to other countries. In high school, I learned 3 years of French which I never thought I'd need in life. Then I took a business trip years later with my boss, paid for by Showtime to Montreal, and due to insomnia, I was up traveling around the neighborhood trying to remember my high school French as I conversed with these amazing people. It was sort of a fun disaster.(lol) Sure hope your day is as amazing as you are. Hugs, RO
Thanks: I'm glad you find it interesting. I've always found that learning something of the local language before I go adds a lot to traveling, even if my knowledge is a bit limited.
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