In response to comment by clumma on Closet survey #1
Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 16 March 2009 02:51:33AM 3 points [-]

Clicking on the bold "vote up"/"vote down" undoes it.

Comment author: clumma 16 March 2009 06:23:40AM 1 point [-]

Thanks. I thought I was doing that, but I must have been switching to the other link because the score was incrementing by 2.

In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: clumma 16 March 2009 02:26:06AM *  0 points [-]

OK, here goes. I could probably produce a list of things that all y'all'd disagree with, though I'm pleased to see that routine neonatal circumcision = bad isn't among them. But I'll just go for the jugular:

Flush toilets are the greatest evil in the world.

Edit: OK, so why the downvote? Presumably not because you disagree.

In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: CronoDAS 14 March 2009 10:40:08PM 12 points [-]

Here's one on a very different topic:

England's offenses against the American colonies did not justify the American Revolution.

In response to comment by CronoDAS on Closet survey #1
Comment author: clumma 16 March 2009 02:22:37AM *  2 points [-]

The justification was the tremendous economic potential needed local, independent government given the constraints of communication and transport at the time. That's what they taught me in high school History, anyway. Also, that about 1/3 of colonists supported the revolution, 1/3 the crown, and 1/3 weren't aware it was going on.

By the way: I'm new here, and I notice there's no way to neutralvote once you've already voted. e.g. I voted you up and then changed my mind, but don't want to vote you down. So you get a freebie.

In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: Rings_of_Saturn 14 March 2009 06:25:11PM 27 points [-]

That both women and men are far happier living with traditional gender roles. That modern Western women often hold very wrong beliefs about what will make them happy, and have been taught to cling to these false beliefs even in the face of overwhelming personal evidence that they are false.

Comment author: clumma 16 March 2009 02:17:30AM 6 points [-]

I agree. But even though feminists (and other women exposed to the rhetoric) may say they want gender "equality" to increase their happiness, it is not necessarily the real reason. Once it becomes possible for women to enter the workplace (for any reason), competition will force other women to follow suit. Elizabeth Warren's research shows, for instance, that positional goods (housing, education) have experienced tremendous inflation since the '70s. The quality of these goods hasn't improved commensurately.

In response to comment by billswift on Closet survey #1
Comment author: BrandonReinhart 15 March 2009 06:27:43AM 2 points [-]

If they are, then why do they persist as sources of harm?

Comment author: clumma 16 March 2009 02:12:06AM 8 points [-]

There are a lot of persistent sources of harm in the world. Some of it is down to game-theoretic limitations (Arrow's paradox, prisoner's dilemma, etc.). Most of it is down to stupidity.

In response to Closet survey #1
Comment author: Z_M_Davis 15 March 2009 07:24:48AM 31 points [-]

I sometimes suspect that mass institutionalized schooling is net harmful because it kills off personal curiosity and fosters the mindset that education necessarily consists of being enrolled in a school and obeying commands issued by an authority (as opposed to learners directly seeking out knowledge and insight from self-chosen books and activities). I say sometimes suspect rather than believe because my intense emotional involvement with this issue causes me to doubt my rationality: therefore I heavily discount my personal impressions on majoritarian grounds.

I don't actually believe it as such, but I think J. Michael Bailey et al. are onto something.

In response to comment by Z_M_Davis on Closet survey #1
Comment author: clumma 16 March 2009 02:06:53AM 3 points [-]

I agree in principle. The problem is kids in the workplace. When you're gardening and making necklaces, the children can float around among the adults, learn by observation, and from one another. When both parents are sitting in front of a computer all day...