@newtboy

I don't think I'm much in danger of contradiction in suggesting that you yourself have yet to crack a book of feminist theory or engage with a feminist activist making no more extravagant sex/gender claims that the one you quote from that unimpeachable source, dictionary.com (and when did dictionaries move from being an aid to understanding obscure words to the ultimate arbiters of political thought?).

There is no separating the movement from the ideology; this is an ancient truism. Without the movement, the idea dies. Without the idea, the movement doesn't exist. My unfollowable second paragraph comprises only examples of actual, nasty feminist doctrine which I have encountered in the real world, and could probably even document with a few google searches. I can hardly be blamed that this group is so dissolute, so indiscriminately inclusive of maniacs and criminal fanatics that no single representative feminist can be found, no central text can answer for the whole.

But for the sake of increasingly and inexplicably divisive argument, let's attempt to isolate just that 'small-f' feminism in the definition you give: "feminism: noun: the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men", which I will unconditionally repudiate and abjure, for the following reasons.

i) Let's be boring and start with the name. A name that has rightly attracted much criticism, and which Virginia Woolf - not a feminist, merely a devastatingly intelligent and talented woman - called "a vicious and corrupt word that has done much harm in its day and is now obsolete".* Anyone can see the defect here, an implicitly sexist term that apparently calls for the advancement of one sex at the expense of - whom? Well, whom do you think? A special politics for women only and exclusionary of those other incidental members of the human species, once allies and comrades and now relegated to the other side of what has become a literally unending antagonism.

You may say, "it's only a name", but how little else your dictionary leaves me to examine. No, were there no other social or intellectual harm in feminism, I would reject it on the ground of its name alone.

ii, sailor) Would that there were a known equivalent for the term 'racialism' that could relate to the cultural fiction of gender. The demand for women's rights necessarily requires that such a category 'women' exists, and is in need of special protection. Well what virtue is there in any woman that exists in no man? What mannish fault that finds no womanly echo? Then how is this distinction maintained except through supernatural thinking?

There are no women; and if there are no women, then there is nothing for feminism to accomplish. You may sign me up at any time for the doctrine of 'anti-sexism' or of 'individualism', but I will spit on anyone who advocates for 'women's rights'.

iii) This has been touched on before, and praise satan for that time saving mercy, but I reject the implicit assumption that there is a natural societal opposition to the principle of sex equality and that those who fail to declare for this, again, historically very recent dogma fall by default into that opposing force.



*The quote is worth taking in its fuller context, written in a time when the word 'feminist' was a slur on those heroes whose suffering and idealism has been so ghoulishly plundered for the tawdry use of @bareboards2 and her cohort:

"What more fitting than to destroy an old word, a vicious and corrupt word that has done much harm in its day and is now obsolete? The word ‘feminist’ is the word indicated. That word, according to the dictionary, means ‘one who champions the rights of women’. Since the only right, the right to earn a living, has been won, the word no longer has a meaning. And a word without a meaning is a dead word, a corrupt word. Let us therefore celebrate this occasion by cremating the corpse. Let us write that word in large black letters on a sheet of foolscap; then solemnly apply a match to the paper. Look, how it burns! What a light dances over the world! Now let us bray the ashes in a mortar with a goose-feather pen, and declare in unison singing together that anyone who uses that word in future is a ring-the-bell-and-run-away-man, a mischief maker, a groper among old bones, the proof of whose defilement is written in a smudge of dirty water upon his face. The smoke has died down; the word is destroyed. Observe, Sir, what has happened as the result of our celebration. The word ‘feminist’ is destroyed; the air is cleared; and in that clearer air what do we see? Men and women working together for the same cause. The cloud has lifted from the past too. What were they working for in the nineteenth century — those queer dead women in their poke bonnets and shawls? The very same cause for which we are working now. ‘Our claim was no claim of women’s rights only;’— it is Josephine Butler who speaks —‘it was larger and deeper; it was a claim for the rights of all — all men and women — to the respect in their persons of the great principles of Justice and Equality and Liberty.’"

Every knee will bow, Every tongue will confess.
Philippians 2:10

You wont have the balls to challenge GOD. You will be weeping pleading for mercy.

The second half where he explains the joke possibly isn't necessary and the first half could have been tightened down to 4-5 minutes, but otherwise this was beautiful satire.

It's also a good example of why I hate people who post online about how they built up a successful business or whatever and poor people would be fine if they just did the same. Hard work improves one's odds, certainly, but you're still mostly at the mercy of chance and that's why I think societies should have a strong safety net for those who do everything "right" but still fall down.

The problem of induction has been a well known issue for hundreds of years. The gist of it is, we cannot rationally justify inductive reasoning. The significance of that is that virtually all of our knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is arrived at by inductive reasoning. Here is a good overview of the problem:

https://faculty.unlv.edu/beisecker/Courses/Phi-101/Induction.htm

So, when you say your worldview is designed to show reality, do you have any rational basis for your claim? Even an insane person will make the same claim that you have, so how do you know that you are not one of those? The problem of induction reveals that underlying any knowledge claim there is a series of unprovable assumptions, and that everything, even rationality itself, is subject to change. If you are just a blip on a computer screen somewhere, the whole thing is kind of moot isn't it?

You see my worldview as rigid because you don't appear to believe in absolute truth. Have you ever pondered that the claim "there is no absolute truth" is actually an absolute truth claim? The whole idea of relative truth eats itself at a certain level, but those who believe in only relative truth don't follow the evidence where leads. Aren't you willing to take these ideas to their logical conclusions, newtboy? You're the stubborn type, but not the intellectually incurious type.

I only know what I know because of what God has revealed to me, otherwise I wouldn't know anything. I would say the same thing as most of you do, that "I don't know" is the most rational position to take. That's the position I took before; I have been convinced of the truth because God, through His love and supreme mercy, revealed Himself to me. I don't deserve it, believe that much. It's not because I am so special, it is because of His grace.

What I absolutely believe newtboy, is that He doesn't love you any less than He does me. He didn't truly reveal Himself to me until I was in my 30s. I don't know what He has shown you, but I know He has shown you something. Perhaps you won't put it together until later in life, and there is a reason for that too, although I couldn't tell you what that is. I just know that He loves you the same and is faithful to show you the same kind of revelation that He has to me. If you are truly open to that, if you would want to know the truth regardless of your personal preferences to the contrary, then you won't fail to find out what I've found out; that there is meaning and purpose to life, because you were created on purpose for a reason:

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

My favorite Chicken Lady sketch, my wife and I still use some of these quotes, like "scarred for life!" and "may God have mercy on your soul, yeah you too, eh?"

This is somewhat humorous, although probably less so for the poor guy stuck behind that wall:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=816_1424011880

Hope he was alright, being stuck in that position too long isn't good for one's health.

From http://altapress.ru/story/152132

From Russia.

February 14 Barnaul rescuers, gouging a hole in the wall of the hallway, got out of the ventilation shaft a man who was there for unknown reasons.

Rescuers and medical staff were called by residents, who heard the heart-rending cries for help from their kitchen ventilation. Emergency workers arrived at the scene who gouged a hole in the wall in the hallway and got out a man . According to one eyewitness , during rescue operations man shouted "I go-oo-oo." (? "Я иду-у-у")

After the man was extracted from the ventilation shaft, he was examined by the first aid officers who had arrived.

The accident happened in one of the houses in the area of Barnaul "Malachowski ring."

P.S. Actually, it was a drug addict who was going through a ventilation shaft and climb to rob residents of the house, but fell into the trap and thus no mercy.

P.P.S. he refused hospitalization and ran for a new dose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7w64fbqYQY

"What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

Merci Conan.

If you have read any kind of meaning into this, may God have mercy on your soul.

For the uninitiated: This video came from ClickHole. (http://www.clickhole.com/) It is intentionally meaningless nonsense, as is the entire rest of the site. Also: Freaking hilarious, and aptly named.

Have mercy. I don't think he's just yucking it up for the camera. I hope Sara isn't his girlfriend. If she is, and she doesn't dump him for such an inglorious display of pansyhood, he should marry her immediately because she must really appreciate whatever his other qualities are. Wailing and falling to pieces over a minor problem such as this doesn't bode well for the future.

Unless, of course, he has some phobia of water or something, in which case I take it back. He did well to be out there to begin with.

Your video, Merci Satan - Detective God, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

*actionpack - and good mercy call.

Given the reception I've received from many people here on the sift, I take it as a Saving Grace that voting is completely pointless, since I for one wouldn't want to be at the mercy of such people.

As an aside, the environment, like nuclear war, presents one of the few problems for which it is difficult to fully opt out. In such areas, we are all at the mercy (more or less) of "the people" and their rulers. As such, your "debate" with me has contributed nothing to "fighting" global warming.

The truth is that "intellectual laziness" is purely the territory of those who believe that their "knowledge" is irrefutable because it comes from the bible. A book clearly, irrefutably, written by man to control man. Saying "the bible says" so it must be true, is the definition of lazy, brain washed thinking. I'm sorry you cannot see this, perhaps one day you will. Actually, you may get help by looking at the myriad contradictions in the bible. Of course the theologians tell us "you are misinterpreting it." Well, considering it is, allegedly, the word of god, it's pretty poor. Oh, and incidentally, I certainly have not had "plain facts" revealed to me and chosen to ignore them. Were there even one fact indicating the existence of a creator. I would be happy to acknowledge it. Sadly, for the believers, all they have is blind faith and a book of childish stories. I, on the other hand, will enjoy the only life I am sure of. I will enjoy the many things that this one life has to offer, and do my best to be a caring, thoughtful, happy individual. When my time is up, if I am proved wrong, and find myself standing before the great dictator - who wanted me to bow and prostrate myself in abject worship, I will tell him I have been a good person and if that is not enough for him then I'm sure - in his "mercy" - he will send me straight to hell.