The burden of the Intellectual

[The Fury]

Runa216 said:

The Fury said:

Runa216 said:
This thread just proves everything that I was saying in the original post.

Every statement I made is based on science, and everyone is just making blanket statements about how "none of what you said is based in science, it makes you look ignorant!" um, no, each and every 'undeniable truth' is an undeniable truth. that's not my opinion, that's fact. the details are irrelevant, the statements are true. just because I didn't elaborate on each and every one doesn't mean the statements are wrong.

Also, it's kind of sad that so few people actually responded to the point of the thread, instead you were all quick to jump on the "you're just arrogant and a hypocrite" bandwagon. I knew that would happen, but it's so sad to see some of the people I once respected disagreeing with scientific consensus.

The internet and it's boards are not there for open and free discussion to change opinion develop new ones and educate the masses, it's to voice opinions as loudly as people can, ignoring other arguements and logic. People will defend their opinion because it's their opinion. An issue lies, thought, if it their opinion is based unknown (to them) facts. Telling them the correct facts will not help your cause because their opinion is more important and they don't like the idea that they are wrong. Kind of the reason I haven't had a good internet discussion in a long time.

I don't know why I try to share facts with people if they're going to dismiss them out of habit.  as a self-proclaimed intellectual, I should know better.  I DO know better, but there's a part of me that is always optimistic that sufficient evidence will in fact change people's opinions.  

And there's a difference between opinion and fact.  my OPINION on abortion is very much positive (I'm a huge fan of population control), butI don't pretend that it's a FACT that the world needs more abortions.  my OPINION is that Euthanasia is occasionally acceptable, but it's certainly not a fact that euthanasia should be legal.  It's my OPINION that neutering your pets is a horrible thing to do, but it's not a FACT, in fact, I know there are medical benefits to it.  it's my OPINION that declawing is a disgusting thing to do, but it's a FACT that the cat doesn't really notice much of a change.  There are some situations where there are no facts to push an issue in one direction, but the ones I listed are. 

Circumcision, sexuality, nature, skin color, climate change, Evolution, guns, all of those things are undeniable facts, and yet people STILL insist on arguing.  I didn't say anything about gun control, I said "Guns are designed to kill", and they are.  Sure, some are modified to be nonlethal (which is awesome, I love nonlethal), but their original use was to kill.  I should have clarified that I was refering to INFANTILE circumcision, not circumcision as a whole, and the other stuff is just fact. 

I agree on the first line, the idea of these discussions is that if you tell these people and show them these known facts they will accept them and change their minds on it. In the end, I usually just end up comprimising to their unwavering opinion, accepting their arguements as arguements without proven fact and nothing more. Just because they won't listen though is no reason to stop, if you get through to one person, it helps.

For your opinions and supporting them in an arguement, it's about changing the moral opinion of the person you are argueing about. Sway what they think is morally right or wrong, this is hard to argue against. In the case of factual 'world problems', these opinions come from the influence of politics and religion. Scienfic fact will always have to try to battle the very convincing arguement of 'Yeah but they/it said...'.