I'm not so sure about that. Face-to-face interactions generally induce in people pressure to adhere at least tangentially to some sort of social decorum. This is not true in the online realm, where the cloak of anonymity can bring out the very worst in people, leaving them feeling uninhibited to give voice to whichever insane or hateful thought burbles up in their consciousness.One now must develop one's online social skills to procreate, which, honestly, are far easier to develop than face to face social skills. — Hanover
I think it represents a trend of young men and women who have enjoyed the fruits of a modern Western life (no pun intended, really...) being swept up in the crazy hate-mongering of radical Islamist groups such as ISIS (the shooter was a second-generation Afghani). Your post, while paying lip service to negative religious views towards homosexuality, ignores the elephant in the room. One might name that elephant "radical Islam." The late shooter's father, while apologizing for his son's actions, was also quick to make a point which will no doubt be parroted by left-wing Western apologists in the coming weeks and months, namely that this attack "had nothing to do with religion."Apparently the Pulse Bar shooting was the expression of at least one man's homo hatred. Does it represent any sort of trend? — Bitter Crank
certainly includes radical islam, but I think the elephant also includes Christian and Hindu conservatives too. A plague comes from all their houses because religions define what is moral and immoral for a lot of people, and conservative religions have a fairly long list of immoralities, which include homosexuality, transsexuality, feminism, and so on.the elephant in the room — Arkady
I am sometimes curious as to what goes on on pedophile forums, for instance, but that's just not the sort of thing I want in my browser history — Arkady
Absolutely. And the fact that some of them are American Christian groups is all the scarier. (Such movements even seem to have at least the tacit approval of certain members of Congress.) Christianity was made to modernize by the forces of secular rationalism, forces which are considerably weaker in certain parts of the world (not that the West occupies some exalted position of ideal rationality).In East Africa, for instance, some Christian groups are calling for the death penalty for being, and acting on, one's gay sexuality. — Bitter Crank
Oh, there is, even if they've been relegated to the "dark web." I've seen reporting on this phenomenon, and it is quite disturbing.Actually, I'd be surprised if there even was such a thing as a pedophile forum, these days. — Bitter Crank
If not for Islam, gays in America would have it no tougher than heterosexual white men, for instance? As a heterosexual white man myself, I somehow think that swapping places with a gay guy (a Latino gay one, no less, in the case of this massacre) probably wouldn't be a lateral move for me.If not for one particular ideology, gays wouldn't really have it much better or worse than any other demographic in America. — WhiskeyWhiskers
Attempting to burn down bars full of gays is not relegated to the 1970s, it seems. One recent attempt to burn down such a bar in Seattle was committed by Libyan immigrant Musab Mohammad Masmari.before Sunday that grim distinction was held by a largely forgotten arson at a New Orleans gay bar in 1973 that killed 32 people at a time of pernicious anti-gay stigma. — Bitter Crank
Don't forget, this is Florida you are talking about. — swstephe
Sure, throw it in, as I am cis-gendered, insofar as we need a term to describe that. I'm not sure what "angle" I'm working, though. My point could have been made with any heterosexual white male, or even just a hypothetical one.Ah, the "straight white male" angle. You might as well throw 'CIS-gendered' in there at that point. — WhiskeyWhiskers
I'm not sure I agree: it seems to have produced an upswelling of support and sympathy for gays.What I'm saying is that the gay lobby has 'won the culture war' (for better, no doubt). Every demographic has problems, but they manifest in different ways. The recent events in Orlando have certainly made matters worse, for gays and everyone.
Why does it require omniscience? Do all knowledge claims require omniscience in your view (such a view would entail that one either knows everything, or one knows nothing)? Or does this particular knowledge claim require omniscience for some reason?edit, and to claim to know that x group has a particular disadvantage or advantage over the rest is to assume an omniscience no one is entitled to.
Several countries in Europe forbid expressing certain views about Nazis -- like, they were nice people, really, and didn't kill all that many people. Total rubbish, of course, but I don't quite understand why people there put up with such a rule. — Bitter Crank
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