Thursday 19 April 2012

That first taste of fermented gibberish


It’s been a long time since I did any writing, several years in fact, and over that period I have been studying politics, intensely scanning all avenues of the media, trawling the seedy back alleys of the internet and getting into arguments with religious conservatives, far left hippies, right-wing neo Nazi’s, communists, rationalists and, quite bizarrely, people who believe that the world is secretly run by shape changing reptiles from another dimension. These online antics have taught me a few things about constructing logical arguments, how to find and present evidence for or against a position and that people are incredibly reluctant to give up a notion once held dear when it is proven false.  Not only reluctant but occasionally the amount of hoop jumping and mental gymnastics some will go through in order to hold on to a long disproved position can be quite extraordinary. 

It’d be amusing if it wasn’t so damned frustrating. Hell, I remember one instance when trying to convince a religious nut that the person he thought he was quoting never actually uttered the words he claimed he did. I tracked down the source of the quote (a goddamned magazine cover no less) and showed quite plainly that it was the magazine editor and not the subject person who said the words we were debating. 

The fact this whack-job hadn’t bothered to check his claims was bad enough but he still attributed the words to the subject stating something along the lines of “Well, that is how the magazine editor summed up his position so it is appropriate to attribute the quote to the subject involved”.  Never mind that this is a stupid and idiotic approach to any intellectual endeavour but it is fundamentally dishonest. I was eventually banned from the website where this debate took place after uttering some bad words in response to the breathtaking inanity after I had a few too many whiskeys one evening. But the reality of the situation was this debate had been going on for a goddamned year and I was tired of the stupidity.

I still visit on the religious quacks, the scientifically illiterate and wingnutted conservatives on occasion (and will no doubt write about it) however what really got me back writing again were things closer to home.
Over the last 10 months or so I have started getting a little fed up with some of the verbal goulash foisted upon the NZ public by fraudulent hacks with nothing better to do than broadcast their own opinions as fact while trusting the reader to not have the intellectual fortitude to go check on the claims presented because it fits nicely with their preconceived biases. So I thought maybe I would try beat the bastards at their own game.

I’ll always post sources for my claims, try to avoid egregious logical fallacies, try to remain nonpartisan and give credit where credit is due while admitting fault when fault has been shown.
Time to get busy and release the gibberish I have been fermenting.

2 comments:

  1. Okay, I'll bookmark and follow. Now, useful idiot, trotted out by those who think they know what a useful idiot is, is a mystery to me. Never uttered by Stalin, Lenin or for that matter anyone anywhere that I can cite. Who?.

    btw. Playing pigeon chess = arguing with idiots on the interwebs.

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  2. Your great faith fasinates me and has prompted me to blog for the first time ever! Congratulations!
    I was fasinated with the attacks brought to bear on you as a person by people who you disagreed with.
    I too am a person of faith albeit on the opposite side of the fence as it were and possibly with more doubts about my position. But first let me appologise as being a first timer here I'm not sure of the rules and not being an interllectual am not good at debating or writing.
    I too am disappointed by the things that are done in the name of God and pray that people would get back to simply following the principals of Jesus.
    Feed the hungry, heal the broken hearted, give without expecting anything in return, etc etc you know what I mean.
    These are the types of things I try to do. I don't put any label on myself as far as denomination and endeavour to meet regularly with other like minded people to encourage each other in following this track.
    I see over in another blog you say you only criticise people for their actions not their beliefs, well if you want something to criticize in my actions heres some of them.
    Helped pay for schooling for two deaf children in Fiji who otherwise would have been left on the scrapheap of life.
    Visited prisoners for over fourty years of my life to bring some hope to them.
    Helped fund hospital work in Africa.
    Please don't take this as boasting it's only what my faith demands of me.
    Well gotta go and do the grocery shopping, then off to prison for more time with inmates.
    Caio

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