No, both of those rants make sense. I don't think that the impulse to question things is innately better than the impulse to accept received wisdom, especially when the received wisdom in question is simply more logical than the alternative. It reminds me of a conversation Mom reported from one of her friends' ESL classes: An Afghani woman had spent the weekend helping out the family of a woman who'd been murdered by her husband (who was now in jail, leaving the kids effectively orphaned/stranded); for two guys in the class, their best response was: "Oh well, she obviously must have deserved it." That was their questioning, whereas the friend's received wisdom was: "Not over here, she didn't, so stop saying crap like that in public." What you believe isn't really the issue, but Canadian society just functions considerably more optimally--and you function more optimally inside it, as a New Canadian--if you don't go around randomly supporting wife-murderers because their victims "must" have had it comin', QED.
Or better yet, Ben Stein et al: Since nobody KNOWS, why not agree to disagree, and leave the people who prefer the logical supposition about possibly events leading to Life on Earth the fuck alone?
The city-TV phone-in last week, about the domestic abuse victim jailed by the police to make sure she testifies against the guy, got one such troll - a guy who phoned to say that she's probably lying to get the guy in trouble - just like all the women who got *him* thrown in jail multiple times on assault charges....
(Actually, while re-thinking that case, the only way the actions of the police seem plausible to me is if the boyfriend is a gangster as well as an abuser and this is the first chance they've had to convict him of something, but that the reporters aren't allowed to say anything until the trial.)
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chiming
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Date: 2008-04-17 10:23 pm (UTC)From:Or better yet, Ben Stein et al: Since nobody KNOWS, why not agree to disagree, and leave the people who prefer the logical supposition about possibly events leading to Life on Earth the fuck alone?
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Date: 2008-04-18 12:51 am (UTC)From:(Actually, while re-thinking that case, the only way the actions of the police seem plausible to me is if the boyfriend is a gangster as well as an abuser and this is the first chance they've had to convict him of something, but that the reporters aren't allowed to say anything until the trial.)