Comments for alien eleutheronomy

Comment on CUPE local 3903 executive dissolved by x

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:11:40 +0000

looks like solidarity is not forever after all.

Comment on Hitchens is an accommodationist! by malachain

malachain — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:32:14 +0000

It’s a hard thing, distinguishing between real people and having actual conversations. So people are jerks, and you kind of shrug and forgive them. So it goes.

Why does this happen? Perhaps we might think of the clichee about generating “light not heat” and extend the analogy to public communication. You can’t reach light to Pluto without running the risk of heating up Mercury.

Comment on Hitchens is an accommodationist! by Philip H

Philip H — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:16:54 +0000

I get where you are coming from, but being a literalist, I often see no need to add those throw away openers. Doing so demenas me, and my listerner. And as I have experienced more then once on the web, the minute I start saying what I actually believe, there are a lot of people who want to stomp on me becasue I self identify in certain groups that they loathe. The throwaways won’t mitigate that reaction.

Comment on Hitchens is an accommodationist! by malachain

malachain — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:15:10 +0000

Well from my point of view I think people tend to overreact when the terms aren’t clear. i.e., If you say something like “atheist activism is great, but everyone ought to avoid being the first to resort to being a complete bastard” then it’s obviously not accommodationistic, and anyone who pans you with a label in response is probably just a confused minion. But if you leave out the “atheist activism is great” part, then while technically it could be said by anyone, people will assume you’re an accommodationist.

Comment on Hitchens is an accommodationist! by Philip H

Philip H — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:16:15 +0000

What riles a lot of us who get binned as “accommodationists” is that the “new Atheists” or “Activist Atheists” do not, in fact, allow for Dawkins or Hitchens views as you outline them above. We get eviscerated for them. So we have to over react to such quote mining, if only to try and level the playing field a little.

Comment on On Ideology [Long] by Bernstein Watches the Human Rights Watch (Watching Israel) « alien eleutheronomy

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:07:41 +0000

[...] there’s no such thing as “my society” versus yours (or at any rate not much of a thing), then it follows that there’s nothing morally interesting to say about foreign and domestic [...]

Comment on York University (Toronto) goes fishing by malachain

malachain — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:14:24 +0000

Hmm it’s a bit too long for a t-shirt, maybe it will fit on a postcard?

T-shirts need to be short and snappy. Like my Zell Miller ironic t-shirt. It just has Zell’s face on it, and the word “Zell”.

Comment on York University (Toronto) goes fishing by Philip H

Philip H — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:05:34 +0000

In other words, my picture of Canada is more or less that of a burnt-out reformed alcoholic trying desperately to lead an AA session full of half-hearted louses.

That may be the best quote I’ve seen in weeks. Now, how do we get it on a t-shirt?

Comment on York University (Toronto) goes fishing by malachain

malachain — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:32:17 +0000

Welllll we get some things right every so often. Our health care system isn’t perfect by any means, because the Conservatives don’t know how to fund social systems properly. If/when our system fails, it’s not a necessary byproduct of the system working the way it does, but instead it’s just contingent on the priorities of the government. By contrast, you guys have a self-fulfilling train wreck that is set up to defraud and exploit everyone involved in it. There’s no sense in which you can keep the system the way it is and still hope to avoid catastrophe.

I guess my point is that we were able to screw up first and large in many areas, and have the kind of gelatinous value-system that makes us feel no shame when free speech goes out the window. But we also generally know when we’re being conned, since we have a history of being conmen ourselves. In other words, my picture of Canada is more or less that of a burnt-out reformed alcoholic trying desperately to lead an AA session full of half-hearted louses.

Comment on York University (Toronto) goes fishing by Philip H

Philip H — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:29:10 +0000

And yet American Liberals keep promoting your healthcare system as a gold (plated) standard against which we Americans should be judged. It often makes me wonder if many Americans talk to actual Canadians before pronouncing judgement.