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A Big-Mouthed Politically-Incorrect Blog About the UK... ...it may be crap, but at least it's genuine crap! |
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A Big-Mouthed Politically-Incorrect Blog About the UK... ...it may be crap, but at least it's genuine crap! |
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About Contact Links Caveat The DR Manifesto...Manifesto I'm not standing for office. I'd be a shite politician, partly because I'm unpleasantly honest and partly because I hate wearing suits... If I wasn't, this is what I'd be campaigning on... (26 Feb 2007) 'Please let my Mother live!'...Environment There's only one way to ensure our survival as a species - live sustainably. It's easy! Nuclear Idiocy (15 January 2007) Sustainability (16 October 2006) Global Warming (15 October 2006) Housing Shortage (15 October 2006) Cycle Paths (11 October 2006) Tourism (10 October 2006) Main Topics...Make Drugs Legal Prohibition doesn't work, duh! It gives too much money to organised crime... Updated: Letter to the Telegraph 'Alcohol and Tobacco are the gateway drugs - if there is such a thing...' (Upd: 11 Mar 2006) Errant Fathers How can fathers be expected to 'take responsibility' for their kids when the law always presumes in favour of the mother? I got a reply - and here's my reply to that Welfare and Compensation Culture = No Legal Responsibility (Upd: 11 Mar 2007) A New Political System A solution for: Party Funding, Reform of The House Of Lords, and it incidentally makes the whole voting process far more democratic... (Upd: 25 Feb 2007) Principles My principles of government. (Upd: 25 Feb 2007) Road Pricing Tony Blair and the entire Labour Government are cretins... Road pricing has to be the most hare-brained scheme ever - devised by the evil cretinous muppets from hell - the Politicians... (19 Feb 2007) Old People Old folks have no respect in our culture. That is so wrong!... (18 Feb 2007) Poverty How do we define poverty? How do we reduce it? Well, not taxing the poor would help... (18 Feb 2007) Europe The EU is a criminal organisation intent on conquest... (Upd: 30 January 2007) Cash for Honours Why would anyone give money to a political party?.. (16 January 2006) Social Security A fresh approach to the problem of how to provide social security... (15 January 2006) David Cameron David Cameron and the Conservative Party... (12 December 2006) Random Rants Some random musings... (12 November 2006) Prisons If prisoners are 'paying their debt to society' - why is is so damn expensive to keep them? (21 October 2006) Tax Taxes kill businesses and people. (16 October 2006) Free Speech Some peoples brains work overtime trying to figure out how to turn opinions into insults... (14 October 2006) Health Why are tax-payers footing the bill for sex-change operations and IVF? (13 October 2006) Law British law is stupidly complex and inefficient. You'd never design a system like that... (13 October 2006) Education Educators need to aim higher, and politicians need to butt-out. (12 October 2006) Security It was a no-brainer that invading Iraq with Bush would cause more grievances than it solved. When has starting a war ever brought peace? (8 October 2006) |
The Value of Opinions15th January 2007 Hi Derek, I was re-reading this email, and just wanted to raise another point. Hope you don't mind me ranting on ;^)... You said: "...Civilized people should be able to disagree, but accept that everyone is entitled to their opinion even if it is unpalatable, unreasonable, unscientific or just daft or stupid to the protagonist." ... and while I wouldn't disagree with that in principle, I do feel that it is wrong to support an opinion if it is, on the balance of probabilities, wrong. Facts are too often ignored in preference for 'views' or 'opinions' in politics, and increasingly in everyday life. There is a tendency to treat peoples opinions as if they're sacrosanct. People are encouraged to hold opinions without ever being encouraged to think things through. This leads to vast numbers of people holding opinions which are completely and utterly wrong - for example hundreds of thousands of people predicted that '24-hour drinking will cause a bloodbath', and that banning smoking would 'Kill the pub trade in Ireland'. Furthermore, the primacy of opinion over fact leads to the facts being changed to match peoples opinions - famously: Tony Blair's 'dodgy dossier' on Iraq. One of the vestiges of political correctness is that you have to 'respect other peoples opinions'. I disagree. If someone thinks all jews should die - then they probably need locking up... If someone tells me that 'they should bring back the death-penalty' then that person is either an idiot, or is simply copying other peoples opinions and hasn't thought it through one bit. It's a fact, not an opinion - the death penalty is wrong. (In the USA, the 12 states with no death penalty *all* have a lower than average murder rate... 'Thou shalt not kill'...) Peoples opinions are only of value if those people really understand what they're talking about. That requires the ability to follow an argument, put together the facts for yourself, and build an understanding based on that. Far too many people simply copy other peoples opinions with no thought whatsoever... So, anyway, I guess what I'm saying is this: Opinions only have a positive value if they correspond with the facts, otherwise they can be extremely deleterious. Consider going to war in Iraq or Hitler... While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, it is also that person's duty to constantly re-evaluate the facts. If they don't that opinion can be extremely damaging. If someone's opinion is demonstrably wrong, it is every person's duty to point out the facts to them and to not act on that opinion. That's my tuppence worth anyway... Reply From DerekPending... Next InstallmentA Plan to Halt Global Warming... CommentsThis is a sporadically moderated blog. I am not responsible for anything below! There are no comments for this page. To add your own comments, click here to login or register |
