Why is sciforums traffic so low now?

Small price to pay for calling out and deprogramming centuries of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, elitism, and xenophobia in our more enlightened society. I'll take an unruly kid over a hateful bigot any day!

 

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Unruly? I think it's more another form of bigotry, the kind that can't tolerate independent thought. I'm glad you approve. It is the product of your "enlightened society." Sadly, the world at large will probably find them intolerable once they step out on their own.

 

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Unruly kids have always been with us and always will. It has nothing to do with our enlightened society. If anything the growing movement against bullying has made for better students not worse. You can thank liberalism for that too.

 

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Did you read the article that I posted? Do you know what's going on in the schools? Your enlightened society has created a generation of over sensitive twats. They're babies who demand coddling...college students. It's the generation built on liberalism, not enlightenment.

 

Sounds like the only one being sensitive here is you. Define "sensitive twat". Justify calling someone that to their face. What are the limits, if any, of having to submit to bullying and abuse from others in a learning environment?

 

Here's yet another article if you care to read it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

Yes, what are the limits? Microagressions and trigger warnings are just some of the fruits of your enlightened society, and more sensible people are taking notice. "Bullying" is a general term for just about anything under the sun these days. Everyone is a victim by the standards of current thought. No thanks.

Do read the above article should you have the time.

 

Believe me, we are far better off nowadays with a few sensitive kids than in the days when bigots called people niggers and fags and burned crosses on people's lawns. So some kids are used to hatespeech not being used and are offended to read those words in literature. So what? That's a great thing in my book that we have deprogrammed society enough to make that behavior so taboo. At least we got that right.

 

Interesting choice of words.
Deprogrammed. Seems to me that even a small amount of observation reveals that you're attempting a fair amount of programming among the "deprogramming"... Is there any such thing as a human being having a natural state?

 

I would think our curiosity to be a natural state--always questioning the world around us. That characteristic of human nature has taken us far.

 

Yep, certainly... but I used it more in reference to the "deprogramming" bit.
I'd say the word "deprogrammed" was used here in the hope that one might be subsequently reprogrammed with a more subjectively acceptable operating system.

Bit of a slippery slope, that.

 

On a statistical basis the natural state of humans is to be dead. This tends to limit any kind of deprogramming, or reprogramming.

 

Hah! Fair enough.

 

Being a crass and ignorant xenophobe representative of only the local prejudices you were raised with is probably natural. That's why education and socialization with diverse ethnicities and races and lifestyles is so important. Enlightenment is a necessary cultural force that counteracts the programming of generational and provincial prejudices children and teens are typically saddled with.

 

Yeah, go join a church or something, they'll listen to that sort of thing.

Wondering why someone isn't bringing the big stick out on you for being Off Topic, actually.

And that last comment actually is on topic.
I mean if you're going to claim universal moderation under a strict set of guidelines, then the least you could do is actually adhere to it.

 

You wanna shut people up here in this forum? Then report me. I'm simply continuing the conversation that started at post #143 with bitching about the free expression of political views in this forum.

 

Don't know if you're up with current events, MR, but you got that all ass-backwards.
I've never reported anyone for anything.

I was just noting how much attention is paid in some circumstances and not others.
Carry on, then.

 

It wasn't lost on me, but I thought your question deserved an answer. My perspective is that schools should be a buffet of ideas, not limited to just one entree.

 

Unfortunately, to get that kind of education, in my experience, one must pay a little more. Even then, that kind of experience isn't guaranteed.
The thing is though, that even "out there in the real world", if the educational experience doesn't live up to it's reputation, people vote with their feet.
The best schools and the best universities are that because they hold themselves to a higher standard, and the results often reinforce it.
There is a danger in that thought concerning perception as opposed to reality, but I'll leave it alone for the moment.

The "buffet of ideas" thought isn't a bad one. In my view, it's a perfectly lovely one, in fact... bearing in mind that any idea is going to be rigorously examined if it's to continue to be entertained and, finally, accepted if it has merit.

But underlying that, must first come investment.

Investment in the facility to entertain ideas.
Investment from the staff.
Investment from the participants.

In short, behavioural economics, I suppose, although I haven't studied the subject beyond a cursory examination.
Investment in the form of capital would have to come in there as well, but I have little information on how much that is in play, with regard to this site in particular.


With more regard to ideas themselves, new ideas are often seen as cockroaches, particularly when they find themselves up against accepted morality.
The first instinct is to squash them, or run for the insect spray.
If they get under the fridge, people give up and leave them alone. Out of sight, out of mind.
Most don't ever want to see a cockroach. Ugly, dirty little things.

Only a precious few will capture the cockroach, study it, and find out for themselves that a cockroach is actually quite a useful little creature, as subjectively ugly as it is.

But if those educational systems condone the suppression of entomology and openly disregard dissenting opinion under the auspice of not seeing why anyone would want to study talking trees, you have a problem.
Hrrmmmmm..... hoom.

 

It's a little ironic that MR is the one arguing for intellectual orthodoxy with regards to left politics, when he's so determined to be unorthodox himself when the subjects are his beloved ghosts and ufos.

I would prefer that Sciforums be a place of free and open inquiry, based on scientific literacy and on sound logical and epistemological principles. I don't like the idea that there are thumbs on the scale, predetermining what conclusions must be, prior to any thought process leading up to them.

 

By extension of the sub forum titles, though - it would seem that the site welcomes ideas that are ''fringe'' and off topic. You can't have a pseudo-science/on the fringe section, and then scold people who are posting in it for advocating some of the ideas presented in there.