On 1/19/2014 9:35 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> And also:  Texas Board of Education.  If the individuals want to cripple
> their own childrens' understanding of science and handicap them in the
> real world, that's less a decision I feel I should get involved in.  When
> they use their influence to cram religious dogma into the public schools
> in ways that affect the entire country - no, they're not permitted to do
> that.
>
> Jim
>
And.. When there is a popular movement, like say.. McCarthyism, which 
does the same thing to, by, say, introducing revisionist history, which 
distorts the truth about both their own actions, and the actions of 
those they are apposed to, then... does it suddenly become OK because 
the "majority" is now supporting the wide spread proliferation of the 
resulting dogma?

See, that is the problem. As long as the "group" is small, 
inconsequential, and only impacts their own members, its fine. But, it 
often doesn't stay that way, and there are serious consequences to, 
gee.. the spread of hyper-capitalist, pro-corporate, US libertarianism, 
which presumes that "looters" are only ever poor people, or 
anti-communism, which goes so far as to undermine social programs, on 
the basis that "all" social programs are destructive to the nation, and 
so on. Oh, and lets also mention the new rise of snake oil sales, and 
its near total deregulation, as well as the unwillingness to call 
"alternative medicine" what it really is, which is a scam, that has been 
proven to not only not work as described, but kill people, where their 
problems are ones that don't go away on their own, given enough time.

It can be a.. fuzzy problem to deal with, but there are objectively 
better, and worse, things to "allow" people to push on themselves, and, 
yes, each other, and their kids. Its why we have laws specifically 
restricting a lot of things, and some of those things where, briefly, 
illegal (like most of the altie med/supplement stuff), until it was 
unintentionally let loose again.

Its kind of like the whole physic nonsense. For a while, there was a 
concerted effort to crack down on it, because it "did" have a major 
impact on people, financially or otherwise, and was deemed dangerous 
enough to do something about. Then, someone gave them a loophole. You 
can still charge for a "performance", that is "for entertainment", and 
unless you get sued over it... its all OK to still charge people, as 
long as its "small" amounts. It only becomes a "scam", somehow, if you 
charge them thousands (but, not if its for TV).

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

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