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Climate-Cat's out of the Bag!
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PMM
PMM
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Edited Dec 03, 2009, 12:12
Re: Climate-Cat's out of the Bag!
Dec 03, 2009, 02:12
DarkMagus wrote:
The reference to right wing is an implied smear, suggesting someone with generally right wing views cannot be trusted on any subject.


No it isn't, any more than describing, say, Derek Hatton as "left wing."

I can imagine someone picking me up on it, and claiming that I meant that all scousers were supporters of authoritarian stalinism, but what lies in the intent of the writer, and the interpretation of the reader are two different things. Unless you're telepathic, you don't know that I meant the term in any kind of derogatory sense. You can of course, continue to assert that there is an implied smear, and I can continue to laugh at you since I know that I implied nothing of the sort.

And as far as the second bit goes, about not trusting about any subject, well, again you read far more into this than I said. Play the ball, not the man? This from the guy who's throwing slurs around like confetti? I'd trust Delingpole to provide me with insight about how to run the economy, or how the money could be made to run around faster if we removed state control. If I bothered to find out more about the guy, I might find he could be trusted to tell me about windsurfing or how to grow geraniums. Who knows.

DarkMagus wrote:
Surely what someone says should be judged objectively on it's own merit.


Of course it should not. Context is important. The source, and previous stances of the writer are clues to what the writer intends to get across just as much as the words they write.

So if Nick Griffin, writing in a private e-mail said "Muslims should be deported" you'd take it at face value, but if George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian were to say exactly the same thing, you'd read on, expecting to find some ironic twist or biting criticism further down the page.

Someone with a racist agenda, of course, might go on to selectively quote Monbiot saying that Moslems should be deported, but then somehow neglect to include the context or the rebuttal, while demanding of course that the words should be judged objectively on their own merit.

DarkMagus wrote:
You referred to bloggers you said were dubious as right wing libertarian. Would their analysis be more credible if they were the opposite i.e. left wing authoritarian?? No. Agreed? If so it was a pointless observation. [/quote]

Well yes. Of course left wing bloggers will put their own slant on things. Would their analysis be more credible? Yes/No/maybe* delete as appropriate. Depends on the blogger. See points made above. But no. It's not a pointless observation. If jshell links to a biased site, it's right that the bias should be pointed out, no?


The polarisation of the global warming debate into left wing/right wing is one of the most alarming aspects and you seem to be contr
[/quote]

And again, if by "you" you mean me, you're reading stuff that I never wrote. I was very careful to try to avoid stating a political position. That was entirely deliberate because in many ways the usual battlelines are irrelevent. The left right argument is about how the spoils should be divvied up, and traditionally, both sides come from a position that the Earth's resources are bountiful and exist to be exploited by humans.

[quote="Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists"]`Of course the workers don't create the raw
s,' replied Owen.
`But I am not aware that the capitalists or the landlords do so
either. The raw materials exist in abundance in and on the earth, but they are of no use until labour has been applied to them.'[/quote]

Neither left nor right have a history of calling for a reduction in our material standard of living, as radical environmentalists are now calling for. Still, the Left tend to be more amenable to the ecological argument, because they don't adhere by faith to the idea that our economies can grow indefinately.
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