Random Thoughts Thread #3

Just invited some random guy on Facebook who keeps getting banned, claims its his 30th account. We will see if he come here, he will be asking for Pete Rose

 

ur supposed to read the privacy policy every tiime you use a search engine or any website .... every time, because i think somewhere in there it says they can change the policy any time, without warning so if you don't read it at least every day they're likely to slip something in there or change the semantics.

i saw a video on youtube where some people from microsoft were being asked whether there were backdoors in their products and they basically said, "as far as we know there are no backdoors that we know of, but if there were backdoors we wouldn't know about them".

assume that everything has backdoors. some random feature that's used for debugging could act like a backdoor and not necessarily be called one.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo0nU6sAzg8

 

No answer? Too bad. I am genuinly interested in why you think it is not a necessary distinction (anymore). It seems even the remaining people at Charlie Hebdo see the use of making that distinction, as the new cover of their paper shows.

 

Next time you take a train trip, sitting waiting for the train, you notice an arab guy puts a backpack in a bin on a crowded station and walks away. You dont have to do anything, because most muslims are peaceful?

If a white guy did the exact same thing, would you notice, would it even register as something you should be concerned about?

 

So because there is a small minority of 'arab guys' that are terrorists we should not make the distinction between normal muslims (you can't nearly always spot if an 'arab' guy is muslim btw) and muslim extremists anymore? You see no use in acknowledging that the majority didn't and isn't planning on doing any wrong to you and me? Hey I am not saying we can't or shouldn't be alert of terrorists on certain train stations to be clear!

But how is it not necessary to make any distinction at all between normal people that are muslim and agressive fundamentalists? This implicates we should treat every normal person that is a muslim as a terrorist... While they did and do not plan on doing any wrong to their fellow people (us).

 

Way to avoid the question

Arab guy puts a backpack on the bin, oh I saw something, maybe I should go say something. White guy does it, you probably wont even blink

You are going to do that shit, so is everyone else, no matter how many times its affirmed most muslims are peaceful

 

That is curious because imo you are avoiding my question a bit by answering with another question (which is thus what my answer to you was mostly about). But I didn't mean to avoid your question at all, and I will answer it just the same if you answer mine

So again: regardless of any terrorist threat (not saying there isn't any but it is a really really small chance there will be a terrorist attack on a train station near you or me, and my question about making a distinction between normal muslim people and agressive extremists is bigger than how we perceive an 'arab guy' at the train station), there is no use at all to make a distinction between your fellow people that are muslim and a muslim terrorist? Wether we are talking on this forum or having a debate in real life, or pondering muslims from the safety from our own house etc. etc. No use to make this distinction at all?

I hope you answer my question! I promise I answer your question about the arab guy with backpack more directly too. But after all, my question was aksed first.

 

That was my answer, all those people in those peaceful protests and you, are still going to stereotype anyway. No matter how many times its said not all muslims are terrorists

Just becuase someone has the ability to say "most muslims are peaceful" doesnt mean that they are anymore racist than anyone else

 

Ok, so to see if I interpreted your answer right: the reason to not make such a distinction between the normal people that happen to be muslim and agressive terrorists is a) because people are going to stereotype anyway and b) because even while most muslims are peaceful they still have the same tendency as us to be racist (or not).

Now, the answer to your question about a very specific situation and how to handle with distinctions in that particular case (a slightly different distinction then I was talking about, as someone leaving a backpack behind on a station is already regarded suspicious behaviour, yes even when the person happens to be white):

To me and a lot of people that daily travel in places where nothing happens there is a difference between every day life before news about a terrorist attack with huge impact and after. Normally it could very well be I would not registrate someone walking away from his backpack at a train station at all, just because I am busy with my own things like most people. It could also be I do notice it, in which case it would make little difference for me personally if the person would be white, black, chinese or middle eastern looking. Because after I had the conscious thought about the threat that there could be a bomb in there I would do the same thing either way: look at and try to judge the person leaving the backpack behind. Maybe they just go buy a snack or something. This is hypothetically speaking because in this day and age at the greater train stations nobody leaves their stuff behind without anyone to watch it. I can't recall a situation where I really saw someone do such a thing, other than on a local train station were people are not scared to leave their backpack alone unsupervised to do or get something.
So maybe I would now think about it when I see something like that happens (also if they are white, like white people are less looney or never went the terrorist approach, or as if there are no white muslims ) but in lets say a few months of no terrrorist activities my alert level probably will go back to before.
As I said in my first answer: I am not saying we shouldn't be alert at all. We just should use our brain about it and recognize that normal muslims have just as much to do with terrorists as you or me. Even though there is a bigger chance that a terrorist will look like 'an arab guy' does not mean we should stigmatize all arab guys (racist). People who do could be in for a treat anyway as there have been pale british people who have threatened with muslim extremism, US citizens who did not look like an arab, and there are countries with a majority of muslims who do not look like arabs (for example indonesia). So albeit understandable it still would be pointless and wrong to stigmatize muslims in general or people that look like arabs. Yes you can be extra on your guard on train stations, sure. But convict people as extremist because they look like an arab: giving in to fear, is letting yourself be terrorized by fearmongerers.

Like I said before on this forum it is good to keep in mind there is very very little chance there will be a terrorist executing his attack near you or me (this is a really good thing obviously, take it to heart I would say), so if we let the fear of that influence our behaviour and our and other peoples life we are giving in to terrorism, in fact we are leting us get terrorized (by fear and frustration) without extremists even attempting a terrorist attack near us. I would not grant them that succes.

 

I was on the tube in London and near King's Cross station just a week or so before it was bombed.

OK - that's London, and in my home town the risk is obviously much lower.

Back in the days of IRA bombs in mainland Britain, a lot of people did become suspicious of Irish people in general. Of course, they dress the same so it wasn't as easy to identify them without speaking. But I think it's probably a tendency of many people to stereotype and generalize in this way when you have terror attacks.

I'm well aware that most Muslims are not terrorists. At the same time I don't like Islam. There are different issues here. Even if there was no Islamist terror I still wouldn't like Islam.
In this current climate it's getting to be that if you criticise Islam at all, you get accused of being racist or not seeing that most Muslims are peaceful. Islamaphobia.

 

ftr........any person of any color or race puts a backpack into a trash can while I am watching then I would stand up and yell loudly...''hey dude why you throw your backpack in the trash?''.....I would then start evacuating people....pulling the alarm etc while I tackle buddie and become a national hero

 

Well, people don't have to like islam in any way. Personally I find that I only dislike parts of islam. I see no use in simplifying the whole religion as something to dislike. It is also all in the details how we criticize something (in this case islam) wether that criticism can be perceived as racist, is insulting without any constructive element, and/or coming from an irrational fear or dislike of a religion in general (often turning in some form of bias). There is of course lots of good solid criticism as well. Here too it is worthwile to make distinctions

The difference between disliking islam and disliking and stereotyping innocent muslims is also worthwile and very important. If we are giving in to this stereotyping by talking about and to our fellow humans as terrorists we are only giving extremists a better reason to punish us for mistreating muslims. Not saying the primarily reason to not stigmatize these innocent muslims is to give the terrorist no excuse, but we should not want to change our society and behaviour because of the terrorism of a few.

Just because we find (parts of) islam dislikeable we should stereotype and stigmatize, and be intolerant to every follower?

 

I'm a bit in trouble.I've annoyed someone who is in a position of power in my life.I got to be careful here for the foreseeable future.It should work out okay this time,but there is something I do in my life occasionally that someone else really doesn't like or respect me for.So I'm just going to enjoy what I've got for now and not do it again,or at least until this person or persons are know longer in a position of power in my life.

 

^
Sounds pragmatic to me. Hope he gets lost soon!

 

What a mess this morning in massachusetts when the "Black Lives Matter" Protestors blocked traffic on I-93 by sitting in the middle of the interstate
with their arms encased in barrels filled with cement. traffic was backed up for miles






Hotwater

 

wouldn't time be better spent filling out job applications?

 

Maybe if there would be jobs available.

 

Sunday Croatia got their first female president. Looks like they beat a lot of progressive countries to it (in this department) I wanted to say beat the US of course , but we dutchies didn't have one either yet.

 

I burnt my right hand with boiling water. It bloody hurts and now I can't write.