Quote Originally Posted by Cloud No.9
eestlinc people will always think they are right. and some of those people will never be convinced out of that when it comes to their views. that's how it really works. i don't expect to be able to convince a hindhu to turn catholic in the same way i don't think people could convince me of right wing views.
Exactly. But my confidence in my convictions is commonly mistaken for the blind faith of any religious nut. I have confidence in reality, and in my own mind to perceive that reality. I am confident in my conclusions because I know that I based them purely off reality and an objectively-defined morality, with my life as its highest value. I am confident in my interpretation of reality until and unless I am given reason to do otherwise. I will always bow down to reality - whether the facts support or dispprove me. I have no preconceived notion of my infallibility, as "the more you know, the more you know you don't know" (or, as I prefer, "the more you know, the more you know there is to know") - but I do have the rational trust in my own ability to perceived reality, and to use reason.

Our arguments differ as follows:

You: "typhoid fever spread at roughly the same time as lasseiz-faire happened - therefore, lasseiz-faire caused the disease and its spread. How? I don't know how, but it did!"

Me: "Socialist policies caused the Great Depression. This happened because the government forced the interest-rates on bank loans down, and let the banks lend out as much money as it wanted, regardless of the money in its own vaults. This was made possible through the Federal Reserve, which housed a lot of imaginary money. The banks lent out many times more money than existed, which was in turn spent on other things. People made fortunes - on paper. An economy can only last so long based on nothing."

I explain my reasons, as clearly as I can. You have yet - in your numerous incoherent rants - to respond to them.

In reply to eestlinc: should people respect others? Absolutely. But, as was expressed in the "Intolerance of intolerance" thread a while ago in EoEO, I would not be "tolerant" of an idea of a society where homosexuals are forcibly castrated. I would not be tolerant of an idea of a government which could tell its citizens what it can and cannot reach. And I would not be tolerant of an idea of a country in which the people are considered nothing but slaves - and their property only the property of the country. I am not tolerant of evil - nor should I be. They can think whatever they want - but they don't necessarily deserve our consideration. The only people who benefit from such tolerance are those who least deserve it.