But don't you understand, Sonia, that to criticise someone or their opinion, is to hate them ? There are absolutely right opinions, and anything else is hate.

I blame 'Play School'.

Joe

There are now so many people reporting Christophobia that it must be true or, the ‘reporters’ are expressing their own phobia by referring to third parties so they don’t have to say it themselves.

As for the PC condemnation, censoring and whining virtue-signalling, ignore it; stop talking about it and enabling enable the creeps trying to control you

A better question is; is social media adding an oblique view of opinion, or are people naturally oblique in their outlook and opinion?

I go for the latter.

I'm often astounded by opinion contrary to mine, in day to day life many times.
And isn't it all the easier to go along with the crowd? Why argue the point with someone who is locked into a stupid position?

How much of the “going opinion” on social media can be believed? I think opinion on social media platforms lack credibility and truth: But it certainly doesn't lack harm through manipulation by outside forces. It's a gaming device.

Yes, “teach your own children well”…it's your golden opportunity to manipulate their young minds before the current confused world catches them unawares. It's up to you entirely.

Martin Luther King jnr was not a champion of 'gay' rights. I wonder why his statues have not been removed. Identity politics stinks and I would like to think that it had a part to play in Labour's demise at the last election. The swamp needs draining.

It is false to believe that one person's opinion is as relevant as another person's opinion. Everyone's opinion is based on what a person is and what a person knows. Therefore some people's opinions are worth more than other people's opinions. For example, Tim Flannery's opinion on the impact of burning fossil fuels on the environment is worth much more than ScuMo's opinion on it because Flannery is a scientist with knowledge on ecology and environment whereas ScuMo is a politician with a low level of education outside of business and tourism. Problem is that most people (I reckon 85%) are similar to ScuMo in what they are and what they know and that results in very little being done to tackle a problem as big (and probably now unfixable) as climate change.

Anybody can make a mistake or just put mouth into gear before engaging brain/open mouth to change socks.

Mistakes are essential and often the only way we learn anything really really useful. the only time a mistake is bad is when compounded by repetition!

As we see in so many ideologically driven control freak pollies, without a new idea to bless themselves with.

Just an eternal insatiable lust for more and more power and control and a hapless prosecutable minority to target in their interminable, divide and rule strategies.

Public figures who stand up and speak for Joe average need to be applauded, not shouted down by the (greed is good and its handmaiden individualism) moribund/feminazis!
Alan B.

Thanks for that, Dan. I too am confounded that some people don't agree with me, cheeky monkeys that they are. I don't know what's wrong them

Hi Joe

Yes "Playschool"

And what of the subliminal messages Rolf Harris's (The Bastard's) WOBBLE BOARD was sending us all those years ago?

And the b---j--? phallic symbolism of Mr Squiggle? http://youtu.be/BX_APbyV24c?t=58s

Dan & Mr Opinion,

I wholeheartedly agree with you:

"I'm often astounded by opinion contrary to mine .... "

Clearly, anybody who disagrees with my opinion has faulty 'opinions' of their own which are not worth paying attention to, and which they've probably got from someone else. And there are experts with whom we should never disagree - I know of many of them - so wouldn't it be better if everybody else stays silent and listens only to the experts ?

As Pluto wrote 2400 years ago, society should be run by only learned men, whose deep knowledge is infallible. Any other view is therefore not only wrong but hateful and should be banned.

Joe

'because Flannery is a scientist with knowledge on ecology'

dear oh dear!

and Al Gore is a ?? getting very rich on scamming Governments and the gullible.

Nice scribbling Sonia, thank you.
It seems to me the trick is not to care about anti-social media and the twatsphere: then it evaporates.
Toby Ralph

Yer Joe, but it hurts when your contrary opinion gets you the sack. What is the solitary opinion of one contrarian at that point?
See, it's who holds the stick wins the argument. So, all is futile and a striving after wind; and a hot wind at that, as oft it is.

Have you ever been sacked for telling the truth Joe? :-))

Dan

What else can you expect whey you are part of a dying culture & civilisation.

Today a significant proportion of the population have to do nothing at all to earn their daily bread, & an even more significant proportion earn a very good living doing not very much more.

These bored people have to fill their useless time some how, & many do it playing with their phone or keyboard.

You only have to look at parliaments making laws that we will all have to drive electric cars in 30 years time, & that electricity is to come from renewables, a complete impossibility in the timeframe, to see how stupid even our leaders in the west have become.

The stupid, with time on their hands become vicious with their fellows.

Or inflame it Toby. Look at what it's done for Israel Folau's fundraising efforts!

Graham,

$2 1/4 million so far.

While the Magna Carta is now 800 years old, it was about 200 years earlier when the rule was established by Rabeinu Gershom, that one must never read other people's letters:

http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/67/Q1/
http://shulchanaruchharav.com/halacha/reading-another-persons-mail-or-emails-or-whatsappsms-messages-without-permission/
http://torah.org/learning/business-halacha-5757-vol2no17/

Would you send a letter if you suspected that the postman would read it?
Would you talk on the phone if you suspected that anyone was eavesdropping?

Then you must draw the necessary conclusion: keep away from such places and instruct your children too to stay away from evil.

In any case, what a fool would expect to receive a "free" comunication service? Would anyone in their right mind believe that American corporations are charity organisations that offer their services because they love you? Obviously their very existence is for trapping you, getting your information, then use it against you by sending their scammers and advertisers after you.

Now suppose that for some reason you do want to share some ideas with strangers - why won't you do so anonymously? In the good old days, you could write letters to the editor of a newspaper and whether published or not, you could be confident that your personal details remained safe with the editor alone.

A couple of years back I wrote an article that was overwhelmingly supportive of feminism ; but I held the reservation that the term 'mansplaining' could potentially be misappropriated simply to silence a rival. I also argued that a 'men's' rights' was possible that was not anti-feminist ; that supported feminism re: equality in the home, in sport, in public life, the labour market etc ; but for instance that falling male academic participation was a real problem.

I was hauled over the coals for several days and nights on Facebook with people I thought I could trust turning on me an condemning me as a 'misogynist'. One person I thought I could trust as a friend tried to get me to publicly 'admit' I was a 'misogynist' as if that would make me worthy of 'forgiveness'.

I still support feminism. My views there haven't changed. But there are people out there who will do and say anything to anyone so that they completely control the narrative. It's a kind of cultural Terror. Yes, sometimes it goes too far.

Hi Diver Dan,

Yes, actually: working in Indigenous university student support, I expressed misgivings about a policy change which I thought moved Indigenous education more towards apartheid, by attempting (in the nicest way possible) to channel Indigenous students towards enrolling only in Indigenous-oriented courses, and sub-degree courses at that, and avoiding 'white' courses: standard, mainstream courses. My annual contract was not renewed. Does that count ?

Fortunately since then, the vast majority of Indigenous students have made up their own minds and chosen standard, mainstream courses. Of the twenty-thousand-odd students currently enrolled, I would estimate that more than 90 % are enrolled in standard, mainstream courses. Of the sixty-thousand-odd graduates, I'd say that more than fifty thousand have graduated in standard, mainstream courses.

I have far more confidence in the sense of Indigenous students than their self-appointed 'education leaders', of whom the great majority are total wastes of space.

Cheers,

Joe