That is, you posted a biased assertion unsubstantiated by evidence. — skyblack

NO. It is a definitional assertion that Philosophy cannot function under bias.

Small point, philosophy, I think, has never enjoyed the freedom we would all like to think it should have — tim wood

When I did my degree I knew Philosophers had incredible biases. It is puzzling because my study into philosophy (I feel) freed me of biases.

I can play devils advocate.

I think that paid Philosopher's nowadays get paid based on ideology/conformity.

Questions posed in my course books were like "Is reality a dream/ of course not" They mentioned philosophical scepticism and completely dismissed it with no good reason.

i.e "some people held this opinion but you'd be deranged to hold it."

My problem is not with The Philosophy Forum but with the general restriction of debate in society which also manifests here.

But in a general point I am concerned that all philosophy is undermined by social strictures and ideologies.

The above is a bias.not substantiated by evidence. — skyblack

If philosophers were unable to critique discourse what would be the point of them?

The whole point is not to accept any claim but dissect it. (Which apparently doesn't happen here?)

Say for example someone says "Women are inferior to men". Anyone anywhere can disagree to this with or without evidence. But the point of philosophy is to analyse the nature of the claim being made. Not to virtue signal or win an argument.

I would not be interested in Philosophy if I took ANY claim for granted.

I'm sure there are good utilitarian/consequentalist arguments for why ""Chinese people are inferior to Europeans"" should be censored here. — RogueAI

How could you discuss this if the topic was censored?

Also why should we be Utilitarian?

I am not claiming this forum censors people but I think people censor themselves to the latest public ideology. I would not start a thread like that if I wanted to, because I know how it would be received. So we are self censoring the quest for knowledge based on current social norms.

Presented by itself, however, it is an exercise in bad form, and depending on content, bad taste, ignorance, bad or ill will, or anything that correctly characterizes abuse of reason and acceptable forms of argument. — tim wood

I grew up spending the first seventeen years of my life being told I would got to hell if I wasn't a born again Christian and then being rejected for being Gay.

Why would a forum on the internet designed for debating reality need to defend people against other peoples opinions?

You can switch the computer off if you don't like what you are reading. I take offense, as a victim of unrelenting childhood abuse at people equating comments on the internet that they choose to read to genuine assaults on an individual by the people in their lived lives.

I am not saying this forum practices censorship but I feel that based on peoples statements they are in the throes of PC and Wokeness.

How can "Chinese people are inferior to Europeans" produce a good discussion? — Judaka

I didn't say it would create a good discussion. You could make a good discussion about notions of ethnicity, the history of certain nations progresses/achievements failures. Philosophy is not about "Good" discussion" but about examining claims.

The controversial book "The Bell curve" made claims endorsing racism. I just made up a random potential topic but race and ethnicity debates have a long history. The only way to counter these claims is intense discussion.

I think philosophy can lead to uncomfortable conclusions (for example I am an antinatalist who thinks it is unethical to have children).

Two issues on here I think are interfered with by some degree of conformity/ideology/censorship are transgender issues and The Middle East/Islam/Jews. Other issues which are less pronounced are religion/atheism/science. Outside of this forum there are many groups claiming that discussions about their claims is an assault. That by mere disagreement you are physically/mentally assaulting them.

Having children is oppressive and unnecessary. Oppression ends when people stop having children.

How can you oppress people that don't exist? Life is oppressive and freedom is illusory.

In nature animals produce trillions of offspring most of which get eaten as some other organisms food source. The human narrative of oppression is an ideological exercise to shift the balance of power. No power over another is justified.

"Ichilov Hospital announced that the daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza and deputy head of the organization's political bureau, had been treated at the medical center.

The Reuters news agency reported that this was an urgent treatment after Haniyeh's daughter suffered from complications relating to a recent medical procedure

Haniyeh's daughter has been hospitalized at the Tel Aviv hospital for more than a month and also stayed there during Operation Guardian of the Walls, when Hamas fired over 4,000 rockets at Israel, including large barrages at Tel Aviv.

The hospital said that she "is one in more than a thousand patients from Gaza and the territories, children and adults, who come for treatment every year at Ichilov Hospital."

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/307004

These are the people Hamas has called for to be beheaded in the streets.

Deleted that — Baden

So delete evidence that makes the Palestinian look bad, irrational and like the aggressors. The photo is mentioned in the wiki article I linked to anyway

Except of course that linking a photo of a baby with a fake bomb vest as an example of these child suicide bombers is a deliberate misrepresentation. The youngest Palestinian suicide bomber was 16. — Benkei

What possible reason is there for dressing up a baby like that? The indoctrination from Hamas starts in early childhood.

You can't rationally discuss a conflict by portraying one side as the sole victims and with constant rants and no historical or philosophical lens applied.

I have said before that this conflict is a microcosm of the human history of warring over territory boundaries and resources, religious fanaticism and over population. Portraying one side as the enemy will harden the debate and feelings on both sides making the situation more intractable.

But I am beginning not to care.

"According to Amnesty International, "Palestinian armed groups have repeatedly shown total disregard for the most fundamental human rights, notably the right to life, by deliberately targeting Israeli civilians and by using Palestinian children in armed attacks. Children are susceptible to recruitment by manipulation or may be driven to join armed groups for a variety of reasons, including a desire to avenge relatives or friends killed by the Israeli army"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_child_suicide_bombers_by_Palestinian_militant_groups

↪Andrew4Handel LOL. An IDF website. You sad pathetic piece of shit. At least@BitconnectCarlos makes an honest attempt. — Benkei

Which presents evidence. There is tonnes of evidence on line none of which you seem interested in.

You and others here have a hysterical tonne about you inexplicable and disproportionate.

"The children of Gaza, like many other groups within the population, suffer from systematic violations of their rights at the hands of Hamas. Through economic, physical, and mental abuses, Hamas has consistently demonstrated its willingness to prioritize its terror campaign against Israel, even at the cost of the welfare of Palestinian children. Hamas' activities targeting children essentially constitute para-military training characterized by indoctrination of hate towards Israel. These form an early recruitment pool for Hamas' military wing."

"The Hamas religious authority, the waqf, has carried out exorcism campaigns, in which preachers perform exorcism rites on children at schools in Gaza. Speeches delivered during these ceremonies proclaim a desire to drive children to Islamic repentance. In reality, the rites instill fear in children who do not understand their wrongdoings, and ultimately encourage compliance with Hamas' Islamist doctrine, which is presented as the "Islamic alternative."

"In 2015, Hamas posted on its Facebook page pictures of a young boy, about five years old, wearing a military uniform and carrying an automatic gun. The pictures were captioned, "These are our lion cubs. We have brought them up on the love of Jihad and martyrdom."

"During the 2014 Gaza War, 11 children were killed by Hamas rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel. In one particularly bloody incident, eight children were killed in Shati Refugee Camp by a misfired rocket. In an earlier incident in 2010,"

https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hamas/hamas/the-status-of-children-in-gaza/

Palestinian terrorism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Palestinian_terrorism

"During the Second Intifada (2000–2005) Haaretz reported that Palestinian militant gunmen used civilians and children as human shields by surrounding themselves with children while shooting at IDF forces"

"According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers "2004 Global Report on the Use of Child Soldiers", there were at least nine documented suicide attacks involving Palestinian minors between October 2000 and March 2004"

"According to Amnesty International, between 2000 and 2004 during the First Intifada "more than 100 Israeli children... [were] killed and hundreds of others injured in suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks carried out by Palestinian armed groups in Israel and in the Occupied Territories."

"The Avivim school bus massacre was a terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus on May 22, 1970 in which 12 Israeli civilians were killed, nine of them children, and 25 were wounded. The attack took place on the road to Moshav Avivim, near Israel's border with Lebanon. Two bazooka shells were fired at the bus.[27] The attack was one of the first carried out by the PFLP-GC.[28]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict

Pro natalists are deluded because no problem is solved by having children and any problem is exacerbated.

"According to Alexander Scholch, Palestine in 1850 had about 350,000 inhabitants"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine_(region)

Now the combined population of Israel and the Palestinian territories is 13.7 million. If you don't care about over population then you don't care about children and you are simply lying if you say otherwise.

Making a claim over land does not entitle you to overpopulate and destroy it. I am still waiting from an actual argument from Baden other than bizarre ad hominem style retorts.

Where are all these extra humans supposed to live? The earth is a finite size with finite resources.

As readers have probably noticed, Andrew is a parody account aimed at making supporters of Israel look like sociopathic child murderers. I'm no fan of Israeli policy but I think you are probably taking this too far. — Baden

What are you on about? Abu Talal does not mind having 400 Grand children because losing 200 of the doesn't matter when you have so many spares. It is what you call canon fodder.

Can you or anyone produce an actual argument about why anyone in this region is entitled to have a large family and how that is beneficial to resolving the conflict and in the child's interests?

The problem with people using children as the face of victimhood here ignores the facts I pointed out earlier.
People are having more children they can afford and more than the land can house for often ideological reasons to outnumber the other side.

You can't just have loads of children and blame all their problems on someone else.

"Does Abu Talal not worry about bringing children into such a world?

"No, because if I lose 200 of my grandchildren, I will still have 200 left.""

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10475261

Most people buy their land... — Tobias

Who did America buy it's Land from? Who did Australia Buy it's land from? Who did Britain buy it's land from etc.

The problem here is that lots of people want the same land for purely ideological reasons. It is an ideological conflict supported by ideologues

Humans have overpopulated the world (child abuse/environmental abuse) having a child makes an unwarranted claim on resources and puts you in competition with everyone else.

We could just return to the the prism of survival of the fittest where nature will decide who survives and is strongest. Humans create fictional narratives to justify the claims they make such as nationality claims and ownership claims.

This conflict will not be resolved through ethical fictions rather it is either a war of attrition that will be resolved when people have had enough or the strongest will survive.

I think that the act of having children makes a demand on land for your child to survive on. But it is completely arbitrary and unjustified. No one can justify having a child based on the idea that they are entitled to some spot of land. Unfortunately humans are deluded and so here we are...

Nobody here or in the rest of the world has justified concepts such as property, Countries, Morality and so on.

These kind of discussions are therefore completely redundant. They are just the inflation and propagation of fiction.

Anybody could be invalidated by other peoples false beliefs.

The pathological Anti-Semites here will never be reasoned with. There is no other dimension to their position. They will blame the Israeli Jews for anything and everything. Another degrading spectacle for humanity.

These types of anti-natalists are lunatics — Maw

I refuse to cause suffering to children and I am a lunatic? If that is your notion of reality then I pity reality.

Every antinatalist holds parents responsible for their child's suffering.

The idea that people in a war zone are justified in having however many children they like is sadistic unconscionable child abuse.

Isn't it great that I could have a hundred children and you would blame the Jews and Israel for their suffering?

My children don't live in a refugee camp because they are non existent. Biological Parents are child abusers. This is a philosophically indisputable fact. They create the cycle of harm and exploitation.

These kind of ideological conflicts are not only a distraction from parental responsibility but a deliberate infliction of suffering onto future generations.

The solution is not to have children.

There is no other solution or cure.

All of histories horrors centre around people unnecessarily having children. These children are histories canon fodder.

If you have children and expect some kind of natural justice and equality then you are deeply deluded.

The kidney of a Jewish man who was killed by an Arab lynch mob who hurled rocks at him during an anti-Israel riot has been donated to an Arab woman.
"
Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died in hospital in the Israeli town of Be'er Ya'akov on May 17 just days after he was hit in the head with rocks which were thrown at his car by rioters as he drove to his home in Lod last week. "

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9602701/Family-Jewish-father-two-56-lynched-anti-Israeli-riot-city-Lod-donate-organs.html

"The Arab Christian woman, who is now making a successful recovery in hospital, later spoke to Mr Yehoshua's wife Irena and said: 'We are like family now'.

The mother-of-five told Fox News: 'I never believed I would take the kidney of a person who was killed in such a way, in such a criminal way.

'I hurt for the family. I feel that I am taking a kidney of a person who is like family to me. Now I have a family, a different family, a Jewish family.'"

'There is no such thing as Arabs and Jews. Rather, we're just people, and we need to live together.'

and is the source of the worst atrocities in modern history. — Benkei

Please tell me you joking.. This has to be the most egregious nonsense on the whole thread.

You are comparing this with The Rwanda Genocide, ISIS, 9/11 and the Taliban.

I really question people like this actual motives.

conquest does not give title to land. — Tobias

That is the only way you can justify land ownership or come to claim to own land. Land doesn't give itself to you

In any case, don't pretend you give a flying hoot about LGBTQ issues, you opportunistic weasel. Besides rolling out a talking-point right out of IDF Twitter, conveniently weaponizing a sliver of wokeness for which you'd otherwise couldn't care less about is the lowest form of cynical manipulation — StreetlightX

I am a gay person and I definitely do care. Supporting Islamic fundamentalist regimes and claiming to care about peoples welfare makes your whole position untenable hypocritical nonsense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Iraq#Persecution_by_Iraqi_authorities

In 1948, the year of Israel's independence, there were about 150,000 Jews in Iraq.[49] Persecution of Jews greatly increased that year:

And Israel's internal security would be inestimably improved by not deliberately cultivating an entire population whose misery and poverty is a direct result of Israeli state policy. — StreetlightX

Israel withdrew its Settlements from The Gaza Strip and that clearly reduced it's security and also made it much more difficult for Gazans to travel freely in Israel and to the West Bank. In What way are Hamas or the Palestinian Authority dictatorship (who have had Billions in Aid) helping their people as opposed to causing their misery and not offering them a way out?

Also I am mixed race. So which of my parents country of origin do the monocultralists think I should be expelled to?

Ethnicity does not define land entitlement. Last time looked I had to pay rent and taxes and didn't get anything for free because of my ethnicity.

Agreed. It is reasonable that Israel cease its genocide of the Palestinian people, immediately remove all its illegal settlements, and compensate the Palestinian territories for the nearly incalculable damage it has inflicted upon it - all of which counts as among Israel's monumental acts of aggression, thinly masquerading under the veneer of 'defence' by the sycophants who continually draw attention away from its world-historical cruelty. — StreetlightX

I knew you you would respond to that. You want The Jews expelled from the Middle east and to have no internal security. Your stance on them threatens there existence and is genocidal.

They withdrew their settlements from Gaza as requested and what did that achieve? Thousands of rocket attacks. Your position removes any chance of compromise by Israel or it's supporters and is hysterical.

Please feel free to respond the rest of my post about the validity of nation states and international law etc.

You are just ranting and shouting slogans.

Also as I said previously a Palestinian Arab having 14 children cannot blame Israel for their suffering it is called personal responsibility. Apparently anything a Palestinian Arab does is completely justified or excused because of Israel's conduct. Well that is demented and is certainly not going to make the world a safer place. Enjoy your eternal conflicts.

This is asymmetrical terrorism carried out by a state which holds all the power. — StreetlightX

The reason Gaza suffers more casualties is because Israel has created bunkers for civilians and has the highly sophisticated Iron dome defence system. The aggressor once again was Hamas. The person defending themselves is Israel.

Unethically and pointlessly firing rockets from among civilians knowing rockets will be returned and your own civilians will die is a double act of aggression against Gazan's and Israeli's (including the nearly 2 million Israeli Arabs)

The number of casualties does not prove who started the aggression and who has some kind of moral upper hand.

That isn't even a logical moral stance. It's a war. War could be described as a crime in it's nature.

People forget the survival of fittest and the use of force and exploitation necessary to maintain civilisations. No one's country (repeating myself here) has more of a valid justification for their statehood (or survival).) No country is legitimate or legitimised by written claims or verbal statements(nor any moral claim by that matter)

You are using black and white type rhetoric/polemic because you consider the situation to be unambiguous which it clearly is not. You are exacerbating the situation by having a position that means neither side will want to compromise.

International law has no validity (else where does it get it from?) and is divisive and self serving and only applies by consent. No one is going to compromise without reasonable demands being made on them.

Let us not forget that the vast Majority of the much larger country Jordan was part of The British Mandate of Palestine and 80% of its population are Palestinians.. They make up 10% of it's politicians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2008
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2009
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2013
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2015
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2019
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel_in_2020

Israel withdrew all it's settlers from The Gaza strip in 2005

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_suicide_attacks

Hamas in Their own words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU438kMknbQ

"We must attack every Jew on planet earth we must slaughter and Kill them with Allah's help"

Yes these are the people you are supporting.