Not Thinking and Bad Arguments. The Only Arguments for the Belief: You Are Where You Are Meant To Be. Think Of A Woman Being Raped. Welcome to Good Thinking.

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ANIMAL RIGHTS,
AN INNER VOICE,
GAMBLING IMPULSE,
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Paranormal Proof
Warnings of Danger
Sept 2009

Feed the Bears?!
bears starving
Sept 2009


What's Narcissism?
and what's wrong with it?
Sept 2009


Fatal Flaw in
Economics of Growth

Aug 2009
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Hard Lessons About
Islamic History

August 2009


Deceptive Advertising
and Islam

July 2009

Conservative America
bad thinking
June 2009

The Ultimate Reality
are all religions equal?
Mar 2009

The Brain Game
Manifesto

good thinking,
great thrills
Mar 2009

Collective Guilt &
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past horrors,
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Lots of Thinking!
A Celebration
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Mar 2009

Western Tolerance,
Islamic Intolerance
Muslim outrage, Western
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my curious eyes
Jan 2008   INTRO

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Imagination -
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not just make believe
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Open Secret on
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Bush, McCain, Palin -
Armed & Dangerous

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Paranormal
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Political Correctness
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Autism, Vaccines -
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Gambling -
Great? Gruesome?

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How To Think -
Tip Number One:
Ask This One Question

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Walls in the Mind,
They Cripple and Bind

inner walls,
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frustrating for outsiders
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Don't Keep it Simple -
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mental challenge -
the thrill of a lifetime
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Animals and Ethics
a childhood NO to a god
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Whose Dog Is It?
pets, ownership, slavery
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The Rottweiler Pope,
The Danish Cartoon
and Muslim Moderates

the pope's remarks -
help or hindrance?
Sept 2006  MORE  ALL

Mirror, Mirror,
Who is that Horror?

on the rage of the
righteous when coming
across mirrors
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A Dangerous
Temptation -

Counter-Prejudice

the lure of hating back
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Bush the "Righteous"
illusions, delusions, lies
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The Pope Speaks
outraged Muslims protest,
kill nun, demand apology

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Give Peace a Chance
by giving empathy
a chance
An Open Letter to
All People, and
for now, especially
all Muslims -
Feb/Aug 2006   MORE

The Rage
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on Muslim outrage
at a Danish cartoon
Feb/July 2006   MORE

This Is Not Me
but it's a tempting
disguise due to the
"righteous"
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Stupid
Opinions


stupid opinion #1
all opinions are equal
Aug 06  MORE  ALL
  

logical fallacy
opinion #2

you are where
you are supposed to be
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Collective Sense of Guilt
Crazy Not Thinking

past horrors,
current baggage
Feb 09  ALL

Breaking the Spell
of Irrational Opinions

rule #1 - don't start by
calling it a stupid opinion
Aug 06  MORE   ALL

stupid opinion #3
everything happens
for a reason

stupid opinion #4
everyone always did
the best they could

stupid opinion #5
we shouldn't
be judgmental

stupid opinion #6
all religions are
basically the same

stupid opinion #7
all cultures are equal

 

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    elsa with ideas  

Not Thinking and Bad Arguments. The Only Arguments
for the Belief: You Are Where You Are Meant To Be.
Think Of A Woman Being Raped.
Welcome to Good Thinking.

We're born with the capacity to learn how to think.
All too often, people don't develop that capacity.

Not Thinking meets Good Thinking on ...
We're All Where We Are Meant to Be

 


I've heard it over and over. We are all where we are meant to be.
Everybody is where they are meant to be. Or it was not meant to be.
And of course, it's all happening for a reason.

The backing: there are usually not even bad arguments.

We are all where we are meant to be - statements like that have irritated me for years. Then one day, trapped on an airplane, watching in-flight "entertainment" - pop star Bon Jovi gyrating while belting out, over and over, "Wherever you are, is where you are "I reached for pen and paper. Words - my weapons of choice.

Bad arguments and not thinking meet good thinking.

Bon Jovi gyrates and grimaces. I think.

I think of one slaughter after another. Hey, Bon Jovi should have been there to tell his good news to the millions of Armenians slaughtered by Turks, the million or so Ugandans murdered by Ugandans under Idi Amin.

Of course the same - wherever you are is where you are meant to be - goes for the Nazi soldiers massing the Jews into gas chambers, the Hutus butchering the Tutsis, the Turks slaughtering the Armenians. Darfur, Biafra, Stalinist Russia. Hey, who can blame the killers? They're just doing what they're meant to be doing.

More ammo against not thinking.

I expect the song to end. It doesn't. On and on and on - with close-ups of Bon Jovi grinning like an imbecile.

Not even one bad argument.

I keep thinking. Hey, what about editing the video, fine-tuning it - throwing a few great shots of towns in Africa with only children and old people. All those in the middle have died of Aids. "Wherever you are, is exactly where you are meant to be."

And how about a bit of footage of women being raped, of kids being run down by drunk drivers, children dying of cancer, a child abducted from her bedroom, raped and murdered.

Those images would certainly have spiced up Bon Jovi's brainless video.

Was Jon Jovi meant to be not thinking, not even having bad arguments?.

A question remains. In Bon Jovi's universe, he was meant to be in that absolutely mind-bogglingly inane video. He had no choice.

The question: Could it possibly be true that he was meant to be making a fool of himself? Was it happening for a reason? - other than the reason that he doesn't seem to be able to think himself out of a paper bag with a clearly marked exit.

A simple logical answer: Why would anyone - divine or diabolical, human or nonhuman - set up the universe to trap Bon Jovi into being in that video? Wouldn't they have better things to do? Plus, why would anyone be mean enough to trap me into watching imbecilic Bon Jovi.

All the evidence points to the most likely conclusion: thhe only one who got Bon Jovi into that awful video was himself - not thinking, not thinking, not thinking at all. Not even giving any bad arguments - perhaps because if he ever stopped to think, he would know what an idiot he was being.

Dangers of not thinking and bad arguments - you're an easy target.

It doesn't take much to figure out that I don't agree with Bon Jovi - not just because I disagree, but on the basis of readily available evidence.

But that's not what's central.

Critical thinking, logical thinking, lateral thinking essential.

Point one. It seems that Bon Jovi is incapable of even the most elementary thinking. If you open your mind - instead of sealing it off - you would get images like mine, brewing up in response to a vision of reality that makes no sense.

Point two. One can go on. If you are where you are meant to be, it makes no sense to try to change anything. You are meant to have no education, to die from a lack of adequate drinking water, to never get a chance in life.

Point three. In his version of reality, you have a universe with no choice - you are meant to be here or there, pushed or pulled around by cosmic forces. Why bother trying to make choices? Everything is meant to be.

Point four. If things go wrong, don't try to figure out what happened. Is there something you could have done? Is there some resource that, had it been there, would have helped? Nope. It was all just meant to be.

Not thinking and bad arguments everywhere!.

Point five - and this is the big one. Bon Jovi is not alone. His song did not introduce me to his way of thinking.

One might ask, what person in their right mind would say anything like he did?

The answer: millions of people do not seem to be in their right mind. Bon Jovi's un-thinking is widespread. Millions of people of at least average intelligence utter the same thoughts - and hold onto them adamantly.

There are even New Age people who go further. They hold that you choose your parents, so that if you are battered, raped, starved, etc. in childhood, you chose that before birth (to learn some lesson or other.

Bad bad thinking, bad bad arguments!.

Arggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That brings me to my central question: what makes people so resistant to taking in reality. Many of these are caring concerned people, educated people (but then high-ups among the Nazis were also educated, some with Ph.D.'s). These people don't think it's okay to go around massacring millions, don't think suffering is unimportant.

But still they believe, ....

Wherever you are
is where you are meant to be.

And I gnash my teeth.

Tooth gnashing from bad arguments and not thinking: not helpful!.

I know I haven't been using a nice or polite tone. I know that the way I've been writing is not the best way to reach people.

But sometimes one gets fed up. I think of all the people who've fought for equal rights - women, people from different races and ethnic groups, gays and lesbians. At some point one gets fed up being reasonable, using a nice and reasonable tone.

I don't want to resort to physical violence.

But I stop caring about being nicety-nice, sugar and spice.

Actually, the spice word has jumped out at me. I think that at some point the sugar burns away and the pepper remains.

I've often made the points I've just made in a more quiet, neutral tone. But this time, watching Bon Jovi making a fool of himself, I rolled my eyes and (as has also happened at other times) also let not nicety-nice words roll out. No swear words. Just words that came from a bit of very elementary good thinking stated in a heated tone.

Time for more good thinking about not thinking and bad arguments.

That brings me to a fork in the road, each leading to a different topic. The first fork leads to other inane opinions - such as the inane opinion that all opinions are equal. The other fork leads to quite a different question: are there effective ways of breaking the hold of stupid opinions? And the third fork leads to an even bigger question: what is going on the the West - which prides itself in being "advanced" - that such irrational thinking, such crazy ideas, are rampant.

Take your pick:

The Mother of All Stupid Opinions:
The Opinion That All Opinions Are Equal


or
Breaking the Spell of Stupid Opinions


signed,
Elsa
June 30, 2006/August 20, 2006
copyright © Elsa Schieder 2006, 2009 - all rights reserved

 

smart comments

WHY such bad thinking, such bad arguments? Click here.

Click here for The Rage of the Righteous,
another rigid stance not backed by evidence,
but ardently held as utter truth
.

 



blue green idea

THE IDEA EMPORIUM
INSIGHT vs BAD ARGUMENTS * THEORIZING vs NOT THINKING *
COMPLEXITIES vs BAD ARGUMENTS, NOT THINKING about
THIS IS MEANT TO BE, NOT MEANT TO BE, NEVER MEANT TO BE *
* GOOD THINKING, CRITICAL THINKING, LOGICAL THINKING vs NOT THINKING, BAD ARGUMENTS *
THE IDEA EMPORIUM

blue green idea

Stupid Opinion One:
Where you are is exactly where you are meant to be.
Believed by many.
Not thinking. Bad Arguments.
The Idea Emporium - facts, logic, good thinking.


The Idea Emporium - why and what

One of my lifelong concerns has been trying to make sense of reality. What is happening?
Why is this happening? And with that I come to ideas - ideas about reality,
ideas that need to be checked against reality, not just believed in like the tooth fairy
is accepted by a child.

But like children believe in the tooth fairy, so many people believe in things backed only by belief - not thinking is the only way to keep believing - bad arguments are all that can be found in favor of the beliefs.

The bad arguments can be excruciatingly bad. A student argued that she had proof things happen for a reason. The evidence: her brother had had cancer. Before having to deal with cancer, he had been a brat. Now he was nice. So some deity, or divine force, according to her, had given her brother cancer to teach him to be nice - a pretty harsh force to teach by such harsh methods. Bad bad arguments. Very weak.

Why, so often, is evidence of no interest to people? We have masses of evidence of how good many people are at denying evidence when it goes against what they believe.

It boggles the even slightly rational mind - how can so many people be so utterly blind. Somehow they had a wall against the evidence.

Elsa
July 30, 2006


copyright © Elsa Schieder 2006, 2009 - all rights reserved
publishing house - FlufferDuff Impressions 2009, 2011

Questions - on rage, hatred, narcissism, empathy, caring, peace.
Good thinking and analysis. Logic plus emotion.
The Idea Emporium - facts, ideas, conclusions.
Plus stupid opinions exposed.

blue green idea

THE IDEA EMPORIUM
GOOD THINKING, LOGICAL ANALYSIS versus BAD ARGUMENTS, NOT THINKING
THE IDEA EMPORIUM


blue green idea

 

 

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