Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
It's only hostile in your eyes because it counteracts the simplistic catch-phrases and solutions that papers like the Daily Mail continually trot out and you don't like that. I heard someone described as an "intellectual bully" once and while I certainly wouldn't class myself as an intellectual, I recognise myself a bit in that description.
I go to games with Ducado and one thing we often talk about in the car is the way people blindly accept or repeat something they've heard without thinking it through for themselves or asking even the simplest questions about its validity. So I always like to see things from all sides and understand the issues for myself. And funnily enough most aren't black and white & there's often a lot of ambiguity. Take the Israel/Palestine issue. I'm essentially pro-Israel and fully support their right to exist but that won't stop me being very critical of many things they do or don't so. And I am. And it also doesn't make me anti-Palestinian by default because I can see that they've been wronged in many instances but that they also should do things differently. Yet many who are pro-Palestinian are completely anti-Israel.
And it's nothing personal either as we might well find ourselves agreeing with each other and having a good laugh on the next thread. Damocles and me have been quite offensie to each other on here at times yet he's a guy whose views I respect and take seriously (even if I don't agree with them) as I know they've been carefully thought through and are often supported by empirical evidence. And that includes thinking I'm a complete ****. I'm a lot more respectful to people who have thought things through, even if they're diametrically opposed to me.
But people like Hopkins and that Watson virgin from Prison Planet, just incite hatred and fear to self-publicise and make money. And people swallow it without thinking.
