181–190 of 284 posts
The solution is quite simple to achieve individually, but near impossible to get everyone to achieve at once. Stop being insulted. Stop being offended. Let things go. Life is too short for it. If you're not offended, it doesn't matter what people say. Then we can all say what we like and no-one has to worry.
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> Folks in the West with stakes in maintaining the monopoly on oil as an energy source have a lot of power. There are certainly people at home who have just as much of a vested interest in preserving the status quo, which is precisely why things haven't changed much at all despite the rise of militant Islam. It's upstarts like Elon Musk that are going to force the hand of Big Oil on this matter. But it will be a long…
I'm amazed at the hubris shown towards a civilisation that has existed far longer than your own. Please reflect more on this. Your "solution" to this problem is just to oversimplify everything and solve these simple problems. A clear flag, that you lack the education to actually contribute something meaningful to the discussion.
I don't understand why the age of a civilization should be a matter of pride. This is an entirely arbitrary point of distinction and has no real relevance to the conversation at hand.
> Your "solution" to this problem is just to oversimplify everything and solve these simple problems. A clear flag, that you lack the education to actually contribute something meaningful to the discussion.
And your inability to literal make any meaningful statements other than ad hominem attacks against me suggests that you need to go back to high school and study logic and debate.
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> Militant Islam scares the crap out of the West, and we're willing to pass laws and endure a certain level of self-censorship to avoid provoking violence out of these people. This is such a stupid strategy. The right thing to do is to look at the root cause of all this. After all, there are lots of angry people all across the world that hate the Western world and want to hurt it, but most can't. What sets the Arabs…
> "If you want to fight militant Islam, the first thing to do is to limit immigration from those countries and spread the immigrants out to force assimilation." It would work, but is not very different from banning all white people in order to shut down the KKK. The proportion of Arabs to radical Islamic fundamentalists is so small that it really, really wouldn't make sense. That's a lot of baby for very little bath…
Take a parallel with communism and the Rosenberg execution. Many declared that as just plain barbary, antisemitism, etc. "Between the trial and the executions there were widespread protests and claims of antisemitism; the charges of antisemitism were widely believed abroad" (wikipedia)
But they were spies, and they gave secrets to help an enemy build atomic weapons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg
Was this racism?
Sometimes big problems require hash actions. It might look like a bad move morally, but tactically it might be justifiable.
Example in hand - Quebec in Canada is selecting its own french speaking immigrants. After noticing on studies that immigrants from a specific part of the world were much more likely to be jobless or receiving public help, they discussed reducing the ratio of immigrants from this part of the world. The part of the world was north-Africa.
Is this racist? (while they keep welcoming immigrants from the rest of the world and north-Africa - but just adding a ratio)
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I think it is fair to say that both Islam and Christianity were spread with more or less the same mix of techniques. The two religions have a great deal in common. However that should not be interpreted as praise of Islam. In fact, I think that comparison is extraordinary damming .
Not really, big coup for Christianity was conversion of the Roman empire and that was most definitely peaceful. Contrast that with how Middle east, and North Africa became Muslim
As for the pagan citizens of the Empire who didn't convert after that, the Parabalani made short work of them...
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> It would work, but is not very different from banning all white people in order to shut down the KKK. There's a big difference in that those white people are already in America, and getting rid of them would be impossible. Note that I'm talking about implementing stricter immigration policies going forward , not getting rid of people who are already here. > The proportion of Arabs to radical Islamic fundamentalists…
> "(although it has failed quite miserably so far when it comes to Hispanic and African Americans)." I wouldn't exactly describe African Americans as immigrants per se... It seems to imply a level of volunteerism that simply wasn't there. Anyways, that's a nitpick. > "Note that I'm talking about implementing stricter immigration policies going forward, not getting rid of people who are already here." Right, but how d…
Part of ICE's job is to deport any foreign nationals who are a danger to the country, and I think this would be acceptable action. For example, ICE failed to detect and deport/imprison the 9/11 attackers before 9/11, even though they were in the US legally.
> Also bear in mind that of all Muslim terrorists who have committed an act of terrorism on American soil, many were visitors to the US, not immigrants. Do you believe we should also restrict Muslim visitation of the USA?
Restrictions should have nothing to do with religion. It's a matter of doing the proper legwork to ensure that those who are a danger to the country, Muslim or otherwise, are not allowed in.
> Your idea is fun to think about, but IMO it's not realistic. There are too many moving pieces for "no more Muslims in the US" to be a realistic policy choice.
You're attempting to use reductio ad absurdum. I never suggested that there shouldn't be any more Muslims in the US.
> Go to any of the top US schools and look at both the grad student and professor rosters, count the people of Middle Eastern decent or of Muslim faith. These are all huge wins for American society - both in talent addition and talent denial to rival regimes. Do you really want all of these people to, say, go work for the Chinese? Or Iran?
Strawman. I never suggested that educated people with a significant contribution to make to the country shouldn't be allowed in. My statement was mostly applicable to Europe actually, where they allowed in a lot of poor and uneducated Muslims who ended up living in Muslim ghettos and failing to assimilate into mainstream European society. They're now well known for killing their daughters for talking with a guy not related to them and keeping them from getting a higher education.
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> I don't see how mathematical contributions hundreds of years ago have any relevance to the modern world. We're talking about a time when the US as a country didn't even exist. No math = No modern world. Got it?
No, you're the one that still doesn't get it. Who invented algebra 1000 years ago is entirely irrelevant to modern geopolitics.
But if you insist that it's irrelevant than Arabs being desert nomads is irrelevant to modern geopolitics too.
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Wow this is a surprisingly hateful and ignorant comment for Hacker News and its not even getting downvoted.
Yes the ignorance and hate on that comment exceeded my daily quota and ruined my day. By the way, how do you downvote on HN? Do I need more score?
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I'm amazed at the hubris shown towards a civilisation that has existed far longer than your own. Please reflect more on this. Your "solution" to this problem is just to oversimplify everything and solve these simple problems. A clear flag, that you lack the education to actually contribute something meaningful to the discussion.
> I'm amazed at the hubris shown towards a civilisation that has existed far longer than your own. I don't understand why the age of a civilization should be a matter of pride. This is an entirely arbitrary point of distinction and has no real relevance to the conversation at hand. > Your "solution" to this problem is just to oversimplify everything and solve these simple problems. A clear flag, that you lack the edu…
> And your inability to literal make any meaningful statements other than ad hominem attacks against me suggests that you need to go back to high school and study logic and debate.
It is arrogant to assume a single countries path is correct vs a much older civilisation, given that single country has not stood the same test of time.
It was not intended as an ad hominem. Only that a meaningful debate could only be made with you, were you open to learning the full history and reasons behind the current problems. After reading your comments so far it is apparent you aren't open to learning these things. I'm sorry if you took offense.
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You would like to limit immigration. What would companies like google like look after that? Would you advocate sending the head of youtube back to Iran? What about much of Detroit or New York? You're conflating some poverty-stricken residents of impoverished parts of the world riled up by political rhetoric with a credible enemy (like a cold war style superpower). You're arguments make as much sense as labeling all w…
> You would like to limit immigration. What would companies like google like look after that? Would you advocate sending the head of youtube back to Iran? What about much of Detroit or New York? I'm not talking about educated people, and like I said above, this issue is not particularly applicable to America, it's more relevant to Europe. In Europe, there is a serious issue with Muslim immigrants not integrating into…
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Quick question, do you actually think it is the 'militant' or the 'islam' that scares the west? And once you figure out the (right) answer to that question, please rewrite your post to replace 'islamists' with 'militants'. The real lesson here is what better way to mobilise a generation of a nation into militancy than occupy their country, sell off their assets, kill 5% of the population and then insult their religio…
> please rewrite your post to replace 'islamists' with 'militants'. No need to rewrite anything, it's both their hostility and philosophical differences that scare us. Overcoming that fear and reaffirming our values is the basis for one of the most important texts in the European culture — The Song of Roland. EDIT: I do know what you mean and I'm sorry but those are just feel-good platitudes. West quite obviously is…
The Wikipedia entry for "Song of Roland" ends with the actions of Roland's avengers:
"The traitor is torn limb from limb by galloping horses and thirty of his relatives are hung for good measure."
What differences in philosophy and hostility were you referring to again?