Arguments From Idiocy

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There are a few arguments that, when I hear them, I decide that I don’t want to listen to anything that person has to say anymore. I don’t mind debating with someone who is wrong, or who I disagree with when there is a possibility I am wrong. However, if someone shows willful ignorance of a topic, I am not about to waste my time on them. Here goes a few:

– Saying it is too easy to buy a gun legally and that we need background checks, or anything about the “gun show loophole.” There is no loophole. Let me put this in really simple terms: If you buy a gun from an individual you do to have to go through a background check because individuals do not have NICS access. Individuals still aren’t supposed to provide guns to felons. Background checks exist already.

– Anyone who confuses automatic and semi-automatic, or acts as though semi-automatic is some sort of rarity. No. Hillary Clinton just referred to semi-automatic guns as automatic guns and that is stupid.

– “97%” or any other debunked arguments. Also, anyone who trusts a model more than objective satellite measurements.

– Islam is not a race, people who follow that faith are not a race (though there are two major races that tend to be Islamic). Objecting to Islamic terrorism is not a racist standpoint. Objecting to sharia law is not racist.

– Similarly, “illegal immigrant” is not a race.

– Oh, and criticizing someone who is a non-white race is not by default racist. The constant insistence that people who disagree with Obama on policy are doing so purely for racist reasons is at best obnoxious.

– If you do not understand how computers and the internet work, you are not allowed to have an opinion about any regulation surrounding it. The harsh truth is that the United States is a third-world country when it comes to internet access and part of the reason is the natural duopoly that exists between cable companies and internet companies. It would be damned awful if those sets of corporate jack-asses got to control what their customers have access to.

– If you say “privilege” unironically… you have no idea who I am or what I’ve been through. This is especially true of anyone who works in academia, the media, or tech. A lot of people in those fields face adversity, but a lot of them wield the SJW sword like the privilege it is to get where they are.

– “You can’t judge (large group) by a few bad actors” coming from the same people who dump all over things like Gamergate and Sad Puppies is, ah, an interesting stance to say the least.

Those are just a few. Stop doing them.

  • Brian Grubba

    I’d be interested in reading your opinions on gun control and gun violence in the United States. Do you have previous posts that you could link to (I of course don’t expect you or anybody to write a well-researched and time consuming response to a Disquis comment).

    • I actually may have written about it at some point, but Larry Correia has a much better version that reflects how I feel:

      http://monsterhunternation.com/2012/12/20/an-opinion-on-gun-control/

      To summarize what I think: Given that statistically, gun crime and murder overall are declining, and in Australia they just replaced gun violence with other-murder-weapon violence, I don’t think it’s worth considering. We already have 20,000 gun laws on the books. We won’t magically solve anything with 20,001. Things just seem worse in part because of the multitude of 24/7 news stations and internet news stories. Most all gun deaths are gang violence from people who can’t legally own the guns they’re using — and often the guns are stolen or in some other way a black market purchase. Introducing new gun laws won’t stop that at all because they’re already getting their guns illegally.

      The best bet, and one most people won’t argue about, is for us to take care of the mental health of people — young men in particular, a group who see admitting to any mental health issue as having a negative stigma attached.