NeonMadman wrote:
Your criticism was nit-picking, not in the number of people about whom I misstated a fact, but in the negligible amount of impact that the misstated fact had on my overall argument. You held up my one misstated fact (significant though it may have been in terms of the number of people it misrepresented) and attempted to make it appear as though, by disproving that one fact, you had utterly devastated everything I had argued. In fact, that was not the case at all
You still fail to understand... Let us check what you refer to as nit-picking, OK? It is revealing.
You more than imply, by repetition of varying innuendo and read in context of what you are supporting, that:
1. The evidence shows that very many, perhaps most, Arabs hate the U.S., are basically enemies or potential enemies of the U.S., even terrorist-supporters.
(which is highly offensive IMO, and which sentiment - when uttered by enough people - may influence or determine policy, thus making it a self-fulfilling prophecy; but leave that aside, I do not need to deconstruct it - let us assume here that you are right!) and then, through your egregious perception of the world's second last religion and who are its adherents, throw in for good measure:
2. The vast majority of Muslims are Arabs.
So what you reiterate is but a most minor and irrelevant error reclassifies almost a BILLION PEOPLE (the number of non-Arab Muslims) as being, on the balance of probability, haters of the U.S. and even sympathetic to terrorists.
It is most telling that you view my criticism of such views/reasoning as comprising mere "nit-picking".
You really don't care very much for the feelings of "them", now, do you? You can't or won't see how such highly abusive "classification" causes deep offense and hurt, right? How the generally law-abiding, generally honest, "I hate absolutely no one" Muslim, who has barely given the U.S. a thought in his life, might get really riled when he is classified by some ignoramus as being of such a hateful Noachian "kind"? Doh!
And when enough are slandered in this way, guess what - some get riled enough to actually find plenty of reasons TO hate the U.S., to support terrorism, maybe even (for one in a thousand) - sign up as a suicide-killer recruit.
Of course, you say "he always was!". DOH!!
And you wonder why so many (including THINKING Americans) hate such "Americanisms"? LOL!
These sorts of views give the whole country a bad name, cause the U.S. to be the butt of ill-humor among its natural/historic allies and get it more hated around the world.
And attract the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune - and the bombs of terrorists.
They are going to nuke Baghdad??? Where did you read this?
Errr...now you've confused me. I mentioned a mushroom cloud over your town. Do you live in Baghdad? If so, it explains a lot.
Firstly, I never implied I lived or live in Baghdad. I did not write "So, they are going to nuke Baghdad???" or similar. And "Where did you read this?" does not imply that you read it. "Do you enjoy beating your wife?". Sorry for the little trap, the point being to get you to express your real views. Which you did, exactly as I expected.
Your clear statement that you can, will and do PREDICT MY VIEWS AND OPINIONS, EVEN JUDGE ME, ON THE BASIS OF WHERE I LIVE ("you live in Baghdad .. If so, it explains a lot.") has already determined what your feelings border on, and allows the reader to consider your own "objectivity", "maturity" etc. on this issue when reviewing your arguments.
I warned you not to post when angry. When people are angry, people's real feelings, biases etc. come to the fore.
That you resort to the likes of "potential terrorists won't read what I write in jw.com, so how could the expression of these views prove your point that ignorance here helps recruit terrorists?" shows me that you know you are lost. Your scribbles are symptomatic of, and while being more refined still broadly reflect, the very widespread "anti-turban-head" thinking prevalent in U.S. society. Allowed to influence policy, this results in the perceived opponent (within or without the U.S.) to be brutalized, treated as something other than an individual, made to feel inferior and contemptible, and so on. Which makes recruiting suicide-bombers much easier.
I plead guilty to scapegoating you. Sorry. But you appeared, of all those in this thread whose world-view contrasted with mine, the one most able to take a bit of heat. So - Merry Christmas..... ignoramus. Seriously, you need to read a bitLOT more. You need to first understand how the world is, before trying to tell others how to get the world to the state you (and maybe I: I am sure you want the basic causes of terrorism i.e. ignorance, injustice and intolerance done away with, making our little planet better, safer and fairer for all) want it to be. Common sense. I have no intention of verbally brutalizing you; your own arguments and views, when exposed for what they are or lead to, do that. Pray reflect on this.
As you are clearly intelligent, though somewhat less knowledgeable than many, why not apply your mind to solving this problem. Real, lasting propaganda damage is being done to the U.S. within the Arab world by the extremely widespread dissemination of outrageous "hate" material there by those who have an anti-Semitic/Holocaust-Denying/pro-Nazi/pro-Hitler agenda. There are many academic and other studies showing that this is a major factor influencing Arab intellectual opinion. Arab libraries often dare not stock Lipstadt or Hilberg (because of protests from a vocal minority), but they will have the disgraceful distortions of Irving, David Duke, Leuchtner, Raven, Zundel etc. By denying that the Holocaust happened, and repeating all sorts of absurd mega-lies and myths (e.g. The Protocols of Zion) about "the Jews", their enormous conspiracies to run the U.S. etc., the authors of such material in their quest to rehabilitate National Socialism (i.e. Nazism) as an acceptable form of government both:
a\ remove the reason for the world sympathy that resulted in the U.N. majority vote to create/recognize the state of Israel by deeming it all a hoax by the Jews to gain money, power, influence and their own state (even that the Jews perpretrated the Holocaust themselves, or directly deserved it, etc. - many variations); and
b\ foment rabid race hate against Jews, and
c\ portray the U.S. as run by "Jewish" "monsters" who wish to destroy Arabs, and therefore fighting the U.S. is fighting the Jewish conspiracy.
And where are the authors and originators of such distasteful, often openly fraudulent, material to be found? In the Arab world? Nope. The vast majority live in the U.S. and Canada. It is true that a few are in Europe (from where one or two have fled to totalitarian Arab regimes, to stay out of European gaols because of laws against hate speech/writings). But the vast majority are in the U.S. and Canada, abusing their First Amendment rights and doing their bit, wittingly or otherwide, to encourage the U.S. to be bombed.
Same folks basically said the Jews were directly responsible for 9/11.
And what is the ethnicity of the vast majority of such authors and originators of this propaganda? WHITE. And obviously so. Check for yourself.
Want to encourage or justify witch-hunts, target them better, Neon, methinks...
Knowledge!
Anti-ignorance!
--
Focus
(Knowledge is Power Class)
Edited by - Focus on 22 December 2002 23:51:26