Since I am in a positive mood for once, I think I'll actually post something in-depth tonight. From my understanding to your post Tokis, Americans seem to be ignorant of many things in today's world. While I agree with you whole heartedly on that point, please keep in mind Americans aren't the only ones who are ignorant of the world. It is humanity in general that is ignorant of certain issues in the world. For example, take a look at the comment I made to Scorpion earlier. Granted, it was a bit brash on things, but the comment has a three folded meaning.
1.) Produce a negative action, and receive a negative response in kind.
2.) Producing only one sided arguments makes you look intellectually dishonest.
3.) Ignorance is not an excuse in producing poor arguments on issues.
Every argument that I read coming from Scorpion was always in a negative, absolutist fashion with no actual backing, and lack of comprehension or explanation of all sides of the issue. An example is the whole anti-Zionist attitude. He discusses how the Israelis are invaders, and should be dealt with in a quick and efficient manner. He never once talks about the Israeli side of things. Nor does he talk about how recent poles, sentiments, and overall feelings on the matter from both the Israelis and Palestinians is to solve problems in peace, break into a bi-state region, and remain good neighbors (much like how Czechoslovakia broke into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and remain positive in ties with one another).
Scorpion also fails to acknowledge that the Israelis have every right to be in the Middle East, as anybody does, especially with the Hebrew faith having such a tragic history in a constant struggle in losing and regaining their holy land. Granted, in today's world both sides are to blame for certain hostilities, but for the most part it is the ignorant ones who continue to keep the flame going. It is due to a consistent preaching of said ignorance throughout the generations, and Scorpion's comments proved that.
Any sane person would realize that Islam isn't to blame, rather it is the culture of the region that is to blame. Add in about 100 million nut jobs perverting a religion and keeping the people ignorant, and you have what you have today. It isn't religion that drives the agenda, rather it is politics. The negative comment I made before that seemed to generalize Muslims was done on purpose. Why? It is because that is the kind of sentiments people have due to ignorance, from a society who justifies their actions in even further ignorance and complacency to fix it. If Muslims don't want the negative comments brought about them, then they need to be proactive in trying to fix the problem and change their culture around. Ignorance breeds ignorance, and to push it aside makes matters worse.
We are all guilty of ignorance. The whole world is. If people wish not to have such generalizations put into place, then they need to fix it. Provide different points of view. Provide facts not factoids. Don't actively go off on a tangent with a few scraps of poor information to provide your point of view, and then feel you're right and everybody else is wrong. It only gets you into further trouble. Most importantly, do let your feelings take control of the intellectual debate. Furthermore, do not judge certain events now in such an absolutist point of view. You don't know what the outcome will be, nor do you know what all the factors are either. It takes a good thirty years before the world can truly find out and justify the causes and effects of historical events.
*Note*
(I plan to at a later time (possibly tomorrow), to give an example of this with one of the most controversial historical topics of the twentieth century, the Vietnam War. What people think they know and what actually happened are so far apart it isn't even funny. I also plan to offer some insight later on why the US government does certain things that seem so negative to some, but in a twisted way actually has a positive spin in the long term. Lastly, I would like to go into the whole PC culture issue to, and provide how fallacious that is too.)
The point I am trying to make is that ignorance is all around us. It is what makes us human. The only way we can fix it, is to be active as a society to do so. All I have seen in this thread is nothing more than one sided arguments based on notions of hearsay, disinformation, and ignorance. The whole point of this section of the forum is to discuss serious matters in an intellectual context. However, when you have people throw out nothing but one sided arguments with little backing in context and get pissed off and leave when they know they're trapped in their own fallacies, it is no wonder this thread has degraded in the way that it has. There are a lot of criticisms that can be made about the US, but the same can be said for any country, culture, and society. If you are not willing to take the heat for it, then stop coming in here and posting in the thread with hate filled, ignorant messages.
We can learn from each other's ignorance and lies to find the truth. Just have the guts to do it, that's all.
-Doc
