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A couple weeks ago I was going through my daily round of websites: teamliquid, reddit and some others too obscure to mention. I ended up reading some commentary and discussion on commentary and discussion on drone strikes in Pakistan and terrorism. Basically people complaining about people complaining about continuing wars in foreign countries.
While I dislike war (Brave stance), I also enjoy the smug superiority that comes with reading metacommentary on how people are misinterpreting things and getting high handed about basically nothing. The people arguing against the war were doing it not because war was bad, but because they thought their own freedoms where being encroached on, or because it allowed them to mock and degrade the US or even dipping into conspiratorial waters to explain the war. (With some diving right in)
Then it hit me. First of all, I was reading this for entertainment purposes only and the original discussion could have been on any subject and I probably would have only slightly absorbed the information with the same lack interest.
Secondly I had no real opinion on the matter (Aside from, you know, war sucks), so I was letting which ever random person managed to string together sentences in a way which I deemed coherent and logical enough decide my opinion for me.
And finally I didn't know which posters where right and wrong in the discussion. I would see two comments arguing, so whichever had the most coherent argument I would consider correct. It got to the point where I would read a comment, think that it was correct, then read the one below arguing against it and think that was correct.
In short, I had no fucking clue just what was going on. I had zero stake in the subject matter, so my opinion was generally that of the last person I had read who spoke loudly enough and when it came to the issue I actually had no idea what was going on. (Reading the threads wasn't helping)
So I did what you are supposed to do in this day and age. I researched the damn issue.
What I looked at was: Civilian - Terrorist death ratio, how long US strikes had been happening, Pakistan - India relations, inquires into the legitimacy of the ratios, consent of US troops/drones into Pakistan and nuclear war between Pakistan & India.
All of this took around 30 minutes, during which I found two things.
1. The conflict is very real and very serious. Deathbots controlled halfway across the world is one thing, but just an isolated nuclear war between Pakistan and India is enough to destroy modern society.
2. I do not properly research things I emotionally invest in. And I'm definitely not the only one. Overhearing a someone saying something or catching parts of an article can set my view of a certain thing in stone, while also entitling me to have an opinion. While this isn't generally an issue, misunderstandings can go a long way, especially when we don't admit to them or try and make amends.
I'm not really sure what my point is at the end of this. Like the subject matter, its shades of grey and no-one really seems to know what is going on. I wrote this as a confessional, about my lazy habits when it comes to writing.
Besides, thats what blogging is really about right? Writing about what you know and giving it to the world. I want to start doing more blogging as I want to become more comfortable with writing in general and seeing how others think about such subjects
 
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
You did not know about how hostile the Pakistan vs India relationship is? I mean they have rivalry that matches the Middle East vs America in terms of hatred.
You have your Israel vs Iran your America vs Middle East North Korea vs South Korea and Pakistan vs India. Whenever they play cricket vs eachother it is like a war is about to break out!
Other than that you basically randomly learnt something that day because of the internet....good job :D
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On December 23 2013 19:42 Bswhunter wrote:
so I was letting which ever random person managed to string together sentences in a way which I deemed coherent and logical enough decide my opinion for me.
I had that epiphany once myself regarding many topics. It literally changed me and I grew out of my childish and irrational libertarian phase, as well as other bullshit I had picked up along the way.
It's good that you have a new perspective.
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Hong Kong9168 Posts
think about the fact that upon any warning (real or perceived) of a nuclear weapons threat, india and pakistan literally have seconds to decide whether to use it or lose it.
edit: also, I expected this to be a shauni blog.
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good blog, sometimes on the internet people write with a bold stance and form a coherent argument even if everything said is wrong. We have to stop being lazy and really learn on our own rather than taking the opinions of others at face value, but I must admit that it has become a habit for me as well.
I begin reading threads/commentary out of curiousity and maybe some entertainment value, but soon it becomes a type of false/pseudo learning where I am simply assimilating the ideas of others into my own simply because I am too damn lazy to actually look up and verify everything I find on the internet. So my solution to this is to just assume no one knows what they are talking about :p
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Interesting blog. It's positive in that you took a perplexing and unconstructive situation and did something about it. Yeah it is seductive to just indulge in consuming rhetoric rather than trying to research complex issues. It's really daunting nowadays to try and research an issue inside and out, because of globalization, mass media, internet etc. Becomes more an exercise in filtering out what is false than looking for what is true.
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Wikipedia is always right
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On December 24 2013 04:17 NeuroticPsychosis wrote:
Wikipedia is always right
Many people really believe that is true.
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On December 24 2013 01:31 biology]major wrote:
good blog, sometimes on the internet people write with a bold stance and form a coherent argument even if everything said is wrong. We have to stop being lazy and really learn on our own rather than taking the opinions of others at face value, but I must admit that it has become a habit for me as well.
I begin reading threads/commentary out of curiousity and maybe some entertainment value, but soon it becomes a type of false/pseudo learning where I am simply assimilating the ideas of others into my own simply because I am too damn lazy to actually look up and verify everything I find on the internet. So my solution to this is to just assume no one knows what they are talking about :p
Really true and make me angry sometime, many people do what the op say, just read some reply then another reply and pick the best opinion about something while they don't really know the reality or the fact of the subject in the first place and you can say this problem not only on the internet but in the whole world currently about anything and everything.
Many people got a hard time find what they really think for themselves about a subject or are just lazy to read, I'm working in a field who sells a lot of stuff and most companies in the same field know something
''Make it short and easy to read because most people will never read it if that's more that 200 words... Sad but true'',
Most people don't even read anymore, book ???!!! And the new generation will be even worst....
They pick the view off people on tv, internet, movie, the newspaper and just copy them while at the base the guy who did make them was only saying what HE was thinking, sometime even the smartest and best writing not always right and the trust...
People need to start to think for themselves....
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On December 23 2013 21:06 Pandemona wrote:
You did not know about how hostile the Pakistan vs India relationship is? I mean they have rivalry that matches the Middle East vs America in terms of hatred.
You have your Israel vs Iran your America vs Middle East North Korea vs South Korea and Pakistan vs India. Whenever they play cricket vs eachother it is like a war is about to break out!
The Pakistan - India relationship never makes news here in Australia. Too concerned with other things. Also I didn't really realise that Pakistan had Nuclear Weapons (While having an overwhelming terrorist problem, wtfx)
On December 24 2013 09:30 quebecman77 wrote:Really true and make me angry sometime, many people do what the op say, just read some reply then another reply and pick the best opinion about something while they don't really know the reality or the fact of the subject in the first place and you can say this problem not only on the internet but in the whole world currently about anything and everything.
Many people got a hard time find what they really think for themselves about a subject or are just lazy to read, I'm working in a field who sells a lot of stuff and most companies in the same field know something
''Make it short and easy to read because most people will never read it if that's more that 200 words... Sad but true'',
Most people don't even read anymore, book ???!!! And the new generation will be even worst....
They pick the view off people on tv, internet, movie, the newspaper and just copy them while at the base the guy who did make them was only saying what HE was thinking, sometime even the smartest and best writing not always right and the trust...
People need to start to think for themselves....
I definitely think you are right, for some reason people are finding it harder and harder to research things. The worst (And most annoying) example of this are my hipster friends who just love to have contrarian views to the mainstream, purely because they are contrarian. It is incredibly annoying, especially when its done purely for shock value.
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EPT
