Master Debaters
By Mitch Berg
At some point over the last five or six years, Big Gun Control – a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Left – decided they were done trying to debate second amendment rights groups.
Its hard to fault them on their reasoning. Every time they have tried to debate the issue against a “near pair opponent“ in the past 35 years, they have fared incredibly badly.
With the flameout of the mascist establishment over Dr. George Hotez crab walking away from a challenge to debate Robert F Kennedy, Junior, the entire the left’s noise machine has switched into full gaslighting mode.
After two solid years of being busted using power, instead of fact to shut down debate on issue after issue after issue – on Fomite spread, the Wuhan Lab origin story, on vaccines preventing spread, and on and on – suddenly not only will they not debate, but…
…debate itself is bad.
Of course, when you’ve been wrong about climate change guns, transgenderism, welfare, the Soviet Union and pretty much everything else, I suppose avoidance is understandable.
But let’s call this what it is. Gaslighting.
The Left is America’s narcissistic abusive spouse. .
June 22nd, 2023 at 7:13 am
Odd that debating is considered to be designed to legitimize lies & target critics for harassment. I mean, isn’t it during a debate that the lies can be exposed publicly? Oh, wait, is it that exposing the lies publicly part that is considered “harassment”?
June 22nd, 2023 at 7:28 am
Debate is for opinions. Nothing else is debatable.
Facts cannot be debated: 2 + 2 = 4 whether you like it or not. Beliefs cannot be debated: I either believe in God or I don’t. Opinions can be debated: Donald Trump was the greatest President of the 20th Century.
Liberals hate debate because it reveals the hatred and lies upon which their opinions are founded, which reveals them as hypocrites.
Prove me wrong.
June 22nd, 2023 at 7:44 am
At least at first glance, there are more comments slamming Rupar and Hoetz, who is a gubmint grant whore than support.
June 22nd, 2023 at 7:55 am
Scalia said it best when he said that the Constitution is a legal document. It says what it says. It doesn’t say what it doesn’t say. That said, go back and read the whole second amendment. There’s pure dynamite into what everyone call the prefatory clause.
In modern vernacular the Second Amendment says that a free government needs a skilled population. So don’t mess with the right to keep and bear arms.
First note that the second amendment tells the government not to mess with an existing right. The government could revoke the second amendment except for the implications.
The biggest implication is that a government that infringes on this right is no longer a free state. Any tyrannical government worth its salt will immediately attempt to disarm rival political groups. The second amendment was written as a tripwire for aspiring tyrants.
By this measure is New Jersey a free state? Nope. Illinois? Oh Hell no. NY? You know the answer. California is a free state? Bull feathers. Minnesota? Your call. For my part, I started steering business away from Minnesota decades ago.
June 22nd, 2023 at 8:14 am
Aaron Rupar vacations at rAT Emery’s FaBUloUS LaKEfeOnT EsTaTE.
Many to not know this.
June 22nd, 2023 at 8:25 am
I would begin every debate with a scientist by asking him or her if is possible for a man to become pregnant and bear a child.
June 22nd, 2023 at 8:40 am
I confess… I watch PBS.
I know, I know, it is a horrible habit that I am trying to break and I promise to do better in the future…
Still, if you want to see “bad actors get access to all platforms & audiences” watch Democracy Now! on your local PBS station. It is not just that the government funded show gives airtime to every wild-eyed, hair-brained, crack-pot leftist theory – but it does so by shoving a camera in the face of the planet’s ugliest people.
Every show is a bestiary of uni-brow women, graying harpies and rainbow haired hags. It is bad enough to be ugly, but these people work at ugly. I mean, they are really, really good at doing ugly, and it is not just their appearance, their ideas are far uglier than the faces they adorn with unbelievable hideousness.
Why do I watch such things?
I suppose for the same reason people slow down to gawk at the aftermath of car crashes.
June 22nd, 2023 at 8:48 am
Maga: not trying to scare anyone with sci fi themes, but there exists a rare medical entity known as abdominal pregnancy in which a fertilized egg somehow finds its way into the peritoneal cavity of a female and continues to grow. Such pregnancies have gone full term. Do not rule out a neo-Dr Frankenstein attempting this on a gender affirming 46XY human.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:07 am
Rupar is just doing his part to maintain our nation’s cognitive infrastructure.
What is the Cognitive Infrastructure?
The nation’s cognitive infrastructure includes the mental capacities of our citizens and the decision-making ability of people, organizations and our government. It also includes the information channels used to feed our decision-making capabilities and the education and training systems used to prepare people and organizations for critical thinking.
https://www.oodaloop.com/archive/2019/09/03/americas-most-critical-infrastructure-is-also-our-most-neglected-infrastructure/
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:19 am
I’m a bit surprised the 2A crowd isn’t rallying to Hunter Biden’s defense because, you know, 2nd Amendment and whatnot.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:25 am
Hotez’s problem is that what he does is in the noman’s land where science and public policy (e.g. politics) come together. It’s called public health and not your personal health for a reason. Sometimes it might be good to improve public health by degrading your personal health. The field has some high points and some very low points. Eugenics is public health, for example. The Tuskegee Experiment was justified as a public health project.
In a democracy, politics requires persuasion, negotiation, and compromise.
Does Rupar sound like he is interested in persuasion, negotiation, and compromise?
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:26 am
As a general rule, one should not debate publicly with conspiracy theorists.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:32 am
^ gosh, gang, Fluffy doesn’t like the topic of discussion. Let’s talk about what Fluffy wants instead.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:33 am
I’d like to know how MBerg managed to write a post about RFK Jr seeking the presidency without mentioning that he is being boosted by Steve Bannon and Alex Jones. What more does anyone have to know about this aspirant for the presidency without turning away in disgust?
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:48 am
^^ right out of Dawg Gawn’s playbook
Is this a seance Emery?
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:48 am
The other day, on this topic, some blue check journo on twitter jumped in on Hotez’s side by saying that it never does any good to debate conspiracy theorists, and that’s why astrophysicists never debate flat earthers.
Problem is that astrophysicists regularly debate flat earthers.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:49 am
doc, further to your point, with the advent of synthetic human embryos, male and female are no longer biological constructs. You can identify yourself as anything you wish, your ability to bear or sire offspring is no longer a valid criterion. MP, you have to come up with a better litmus test in this rapidly expanding universe.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:52 am
Emery mewled,
“As a general rule, one should not debate publicly with conspiracy theorists.”
given all the conspiracy theories you promote that raises the question “why should anyone respond to any of your posts?”
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:53 am
Mac, you just did and energized trolls for another round of incoherent blather and threadjacking.
June 22nd, 2023 at 9:59 am
JPA, occasionally a puppy is born with an extra pair of legs, or a dog loses a leg. But it is still true that a dog is a four legged animal.
If you can’t say a dog is a four legged animal you can’t say anything about anything, and nothing has meaning.
June 22nd, 2023 at 10:04 am
Your thoughts and your decision making process are national assets, they are an important part of our nation’s cognitive infrastructure. You should be grateful that our government is protecting them.
June 22nd, 2023 at 10:10 am
“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.”
― Ronald Reagan
They CANNOT debate because what they know for certain bears no resemblance to the reality the rest of us inhabit, and they simply cannot acknowledge it or, these days, even allow truth to be spoken.
June 22nd, 2023 at 10:14 am
A search on Pubmed Central using the terms “COVID-19 and vaccines” done today retrieved over 143,000 citations. That’s a lot of reading. I haven’t read them all, but I have read a large number of peer-reviewed primary data papers in journals with high impact factors. My interpretation of this work is admittedly “contaminated” by the fact that I’m not a conspiracy theorist. My takeaway is that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives with very low rates of serious adverse effects.
RFK Jr. only presents the studies that supports his views (as many people do). So, yes he comes off as being well read. However when one only considers the writings that supports your views, it can hardly be considered as being well read.
June 22nd, 2023 at 10:24 am
emery asserted;
“by the fact that I’m not a conspiracy theorist. “
Since when? All you do is promote conspiracy theories!
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:03 am
I selected a website which refuses to present both sides of the discussion. I found a 143,000 citations supporting my side of the discussion. I didn’t review them all but it appears to me that my side of the debate is correct.
Well duh.
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:05 am
⬆️ From the guy who writes repeatedly about stolen elections and election fraud.🤔
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:13 am
Elon Musk Challenges Mark Zuckerberg to ‘Cage Match’ in Tweet
• Fight idea follows Meta boss and Twitter owner’s tech rivalry
• Zuckerberg has recently posted about jiu-jitsu achievements
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-22/elon-musk-challenges-mark-zuckerberg-to-cage-match-in-tweet
Forget JFK Jr — this is the real battle America wants to see.
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:16 am
From the guy who regularly cites the thieves denying that they stole the election.
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:38 am
Rupert tweets “…which demands bad actors have access to all platforms and audiences…or else”.
Who defines what is as bad actor? If we limit bad actors none of us would qualify for access. Another possibility is if bad actors can be defined relegate them to a naughty platform where they can post their bad stuff.
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:39 am
Rupar not rupert.
June 22nd, 2023 at 11:48 am
By the way, E-clownz , your 10:14 attempt at Appeal to Authority did not escape me, I just didn’t bother to point out the stupidity of violating the rules of debate in a discussion of why the left hates to debate.
If you need help understanding logical analysis and persuasive reasoning, there are lots of resources available going all the way back to with Ancient Greece.
June 22nd, 2023 at 12:12 pm
We have reams of data—Covid vaccines mitigated severity and are safe.
June 22nd, 2023 at 12:23 pm
^ there are also reams of retracted papers.
https://retractionwatch.com/retracted-coronavirus-covid-19-papers/
Funny you didn’t mention these.
June 22nd, 2023 at 12:37 pm
Oh, yeah, for the sake of completeness, Gone but Not Forgotten: Retracted COVID-19 Papers Still Cited
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/gone-but-not-forgotten-retracted-covid-19-papers-still-cited-70232
June 22nd, 2023 at 12:37 pm
Safe is a Conclusion, an Opinion. Not a fact.
June 22nd, 2023 at 12:46 pm
Even if you could convince me the covid vaccine had no adverse side effects whatsoever and therefore was completely safe, that would not mean RFK junior was wrong to criticize mandatory vaccination as inconsistent with good public policy.
Good Public Policy is another Opinion. Debates about public policy are the highest form of political speech expressly intended for protection by the 1st amendment.
By pretending that opinions are facts, you attempt to cut off legitimate discussions. You attempt to force the discussion into your preselected avenue, using the cherry picked data which supports your opinions while denying your opponents the chance to support theirs.
Two possibilities: You don’t understand the difference between a fact and an opinion, or you’re a liar. Oh wait, I know that one.
June 22nd, 2023 at 1:02 pm
Suggesting that peer review, often called “pal review” is a mark of quality is tantamount to suggesting that a high school diploma certifies that the holder can read, write and do simple math at grade level.
It might in Edina, but across the line in Minneapolis, not so much.
A few things to consider:
– How many peer reviewed studies have been retracted?
– How many peer reviewed studies fail attempts to replicated them?
– How often is peer review simply a method of gate-keeping?
– How hard is it to pass review of an article on the wrong side of “consensus”?
– How many “reviewers” were actually refereed by the author?
– How many “reviewers” were refereed by an agency hired by the author? Yes, this is a thing. A very big thing.
– How many “reviewers” are fake?
– How many journals control for biased reviewers?
So please spare us the “peer reviewed” bullsh*t. If an article is right, it is right, if it is wrong, it is wrong.
June 22nd, 2023 at 1:31 pm
Master Debaters or Masturbaters …
June 22nd, 2023 at 1:38 pm
passout76 on June 22, 2023 at 11:38 am said:
. . .
Who defines what is as bad actor?
. . .
The FBI and DHS.
Bridget Phetasy interviews Jacob Siegel, an investigative journalist who just published a 14,000 word piece on the rise of the censorship state. It’s bad. The people whom you would think would be protective of the bill of rights — intellectuals and the federal government — are actively subverting the bill of rights.
https://tinyurl.com/37ezeypa
June 22nd, 2023 at 2:31 pm
That is probably why Trump tried to reverse course and briefly announced he was vaccinated and encouraged his voters to do so, after all his lies pretending ivermectin and chloroquine were either a cure or vaccine against COVID (he never seemed sure which he meant). Most likely, he was told that too many of his own voters were dying and that this might lead to an election loss for him in a tight election.
His voters booed him when he switched and told them at a rally to get vaccinated. He never tried telling them that again.
June 22nd, 2023 at 2:54 pm
Took 38 comments, a full seven hours, to get the pun in the headline.
You guys really are dim.
June 22nd, 2023 at 4:20 pm
rAT squeaked: “A search on Pubmed Central using the terms “COVID-19 and vaccines” done today retrieved over 143,000 citations. That’s a lot of reading. I haven’t read them all”
Oh no…Really, rAT? Did you quit at 10,000?
Hahahahahahaha!
You fucking mutant. Kys, pls.
June 22nd, 2023 at 4:22 pm
“We have reams of data…”
Well, if anyone can identify a reaming, its rAT….or maybe his ER nurse daughter.
June 22nd, 2023 at 4:24 pm
“Garçon ! Apportez-moi un nouveau troll, s’il vous plaît. Celui-ci est cassé.”
June 22nd, 2023 at 4:28 pm
Wife and I are headed to Hawaii to visit an ailing relative. Was gonna book a discount trip with an outfit out of Washington, but they feature PS3 gaming consoles to control the craft.
Told the wife “Fuck that. If they’re too cheap to spring for XBox consoles, we’re out”
June 22nd, 2023 at 5:11 pm
All peer review is not the same. The social sciences have a high rate in irreproducibility, because its easy to cheat. No one is going to try and duplicate your stats on 500 newly released felons or 2500 people with certified learning disabilities. Another problem is that in the social sciences they aren’t trying to discover a thing, they are trying to promote an approach to public policy. If your research is intended to prove that outcomes are better if single moms have their welfare payments increased, your experiment is designed to produce this outcome. Why actually do it?
Biology has a lot of research with irreproducible results, probably because these are money makers with applications in health care. Basically any paper that proves its thesis with statistics should be viewed with suspicion.
And a word about meta studies, research that uses previous research results in a novel way to prove a new thesis. These things can be okay, I suppose, but the temptation is there for the researcher to looks through hundreds of possibly applicable previously published papers & only use the ones that will support the researcher’s thesis.
Math, physics, and astrophysics should be okay, because there is usually a pre-review approval process & those guys love to point out mistakes in each others’ papers.
But all my knowledge of this stuff is from before DEI infested the hard sciences, so YRMV.
June 22nd, 2023 at 6:17 pm
So the lib conspiracy theorists have been rubbing their hands together and chuckling for days because GEORGE SANTOS WOULD HAVE TO REVEAL WHO PAID HIS BAIL!! Might be a glimpse into the conservative network of billionaire religious maniacs, tax cheats and neo-Nazi’s who are the financial backbone of the GOP!
Turns out Santos’ bail was paid by his dad and his dad’s sister.
So now the lib conspiracy theorists are all “His dad and his aunt? Why did he hide that? THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ELSE GOING ON!!”
June 22nd, 2023 at 8:01 pm
And, BTW, one reason the GOP majority in congress censured Schiff but not Santos is that congress should only censure members for actions taken as house members. The house of reps is the most basic, democratic division of the federal government. There is no electoral college in the House, There are almost no rules restricting any person from being elected to congress. Only your misbehaviour as a house member should lead to your censure.
This is really simple stuff. Unbelievably elementary. Yet so many people who consider themselves to be serious journalists don’t get it.
June 23rd, 2023 at 10:12 am
Yet so many people who consider themselves to be serious journalists don’t get it.
MP, it is not a question of not getting it, it is a question of pushing conspiracy theories and false narratives for the sake of greater good, despite facts and reality.
June 23rd, 2023 at 12:30 pm
So much went wrong with the vax rollout . . .
The public health officials and vaccine scientists told us that the vax would not only stop you from getting symptomatic covid, it would prevent the vaxxed from spreading the disease. Turns out this last part was incorrect, and there was never any evidence that it was true. And this was used to impose a mandate, and the mandate gave civil libertarians and people distrustful of the gov’t a rallying point. It was a typical Biden screw up, an immense squandering of governmental authority while achieving no measurable success.
And then is the Nuremberg Principle. You aren’t allowed to experiment on people with their advised consent. The vax mandates & other pressures to get vaxxed is the clearest violation of the Nuremberg Principle the world has seen since WW2.