Longrider

Comment by Peter Horne

# November 8, 2007,

Quite right but…

What strikes me most about “Pauline’s” views are their breathtaking (and probably unconscious ) arrogance. Eg. the allegation that making the police more accountable to the people they serve would lead to ‘illiberal demagoguery’ or that ’strong regional assemblies’ should be introduced by the back door (ie against the clearly expressed wishes of the English people), show an arresting contempt for the views of ordinary people.
Would you agree that anyone displaying such elitism in support of views of which our Stalinist masters disapproved
would be likely to be punished for some kind of hate crime?
It is this type of thing libertarians need to attack, or statists will always win because they will always appear to occupy the moral high ground. Swearing isn’t enough, we need to wipe the smug, ‘holier than though’ grins off their faces by exposing their real motives….lust for power, chief among them.
I’m beginning to think that Mencius Moldbug might be right and these people are infected with a distorting mental virus. I must confess, I was not convinced until I recently accidentally stumbled on a book by cognitive scientist Dan Sperber called ‘Rethinking Symbolism’ 1996, which contains an uncannily similar thesis on the spread of religious ideas, but I digress.
Suffice it to say that we must wrest the moral high ground from these people or suffer the consequences.

Regards

PS hope this comment does not disappear into the ether for a few days like the last one.

Comment by Peter Horne

# November 8, 2007,

Further to the above, DK seems to have really upset poor Pauline.
See here
http://drinksoakedtrotsforwar.com/2007/11/07/defining-bloggertarian/#comments

Comment by Mark Wadsworth

# November 9, 2007,

‘What a tit’. Mildly put!

Comment by Longrider

# November 9, 2007,

Jesus! Just followed the link. What a bunch of moronic pricks. I just love the assumption that DK and I are Tories. This demonstrates that the ignorant pillock either cannot read, cannot be bothered to read or is plain stupid. DK is a UKIPper and I am ex-Labour and both of us have made it clear that we despise the Tories almost as much as we despise Labour and the LibDems. The Tories being marginally less awful than the other two, but it’s a close run thing…

But, then, when a socialist is faced with facts and truth, they have so much difficulty rationalising their abhorrent and evil ideology with those facts that their heads are in danger of implosion. Unless, of course, they are of a rational bent. Then they recognise that they are wrong, change their minds and move on. It worked for me.

Comment by jameshigham

# November 10, 2007,

Sorry to be stupid but I never did learn what a straw man is. I’d left the country before this clearly came into vogue.

Comment by Longrider

# November 10, 2007,

It’s a logical fallacy. In essence, it is to deliberately misrepresent your opponent’s position and attack that rather than his actual position. In this instance, I am being accused of being opposed to CCTV, ID cards, DNA databases and police powers. At no time have I made such an argument. I am opposed to the compulsory registration of people on a national identity database and compulsory identity cards, just as I am opposed to the plethora of CCTV cameras serving as an excuse for proper policing and the compulsory registration of the entire (innocent) population on the DNA database. I have never opposed the principle of police powers and the suggestion that I have is so risible that it is worth no further comment other than to point out that the person making is an utter fuckwit.