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Poll
Thanks, nx01!
I'm glad you enlightened me. 0%
Wow, I can't believe I didn't see this before. 0%
I have learned I still have a long way to go. 0%
I wish that I could be like you someday. 0%
Teach me, O wise one! 16%
Tell me more about God! 16%
nx01 is a bigot since I am a liberal idiot that takes your pearls of wisdom and spits them back into your face like the pig I am. 66%

Votes: 6

 "Holding a rational argument with someone who refuses to be rational"

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Aug 30, 2001
 Comments:
I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun being an idiot in the "The Problem Is You - Not Religion" article. Especially in this thread (starting here).
diaries

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Plastic
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Well that sucked.



Why? (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by localroger on Thu Aug 30th, 2001 at 08:19:28 PM PST
I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun being an idiot

I'm honestly curious. Why do you find this fun?

I have been told by people like you that I am very good at these games when I get involved, but I have never seen the point of approaching debate as a "game." Even high school debate impressed me only as a fruitless waste of time. Is the intellectual equivalent of bear-baiting really that amusing to you? If so, why?

This is not meant as a flame or criticism, but as an enquiry. Since you obviously know better, what really was the charge you got from writing this screed? Was it making the fundies look like fools by the art of your parody? Was it making the respondent look like a fool because he took you for the real thing? Some combination?

I have a problem with finding stupidity or humiliation "funny." If you watch a film clip of someone tripping on a banana peel, it may be hilarious. But if, every single day, you have to avoid banana peels and watch people who aren't as cautious tripping on them and going to the hospital and incurring medical bills and so on, it stops being funny. You will eventually reach the point where you see a banana peel and feel sick at heart, because you know the tragedy it can cause.

Your story was very skillfully written; it actually took me a couple of paragraphs to figure it for what it was. You have my highest praise for the execution of your art. My question, one asked of many modern artists, is exactly what did you intend it to mean, and why.


Well (5.00 / 2) (#2)
by nx01 on Thu Aug 30th, 2001 at 08:43:08 PM PST
Pretty much to lampoon the viewpoint that I was writing from. I have an incredibly dry sense of humor, and it comes across horribly over the internet.

Also, I enjoy the challenge of trying to get myself into a state of mind where I can actually think such thoughts. It gives me a bit of insight about the subject I'm actually debating, and the people that hold that viewpoint. I'll try and learn as much as I can about something, then purposefully do an extremely bad job of arguing (count the number of logical fallicies/bad information) and see if anybody picks up that there's something wrong.

To clarify one thing, though: I didn't write the actual article. I'm not that good of a writer.

Unfortunately, I kinda went over the top while posting in the last article. Usually I just bullshit about stuff on slashdot and (occasionally) plastic, where the biggest topics of concern are linux and politics. Religion, on the other hand, is something many, many people hold very deep opinions about. I probably should have held back a bit more.

Well, enough navel-gazing. Have a nice day and such.


"Every time I look at the X window system, it's so fucking stupid; and part of me feels responsible for the worst parts of it."
-- James Gosling

 

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