Tea Partiers Are Just Embarrassed Republicans

[Michael Tee]

<<No you know it to. The kids admitted to mugging people in Central Park that night. What they did was recant the rape.>>

Mugging is a relatively minor crime compared to rape and bashing in somebody's skull.  These kids or some of them may have been petty criminals.  (I didn't see the confessions, and I don't know if they apply to all the kids framed by the racist pigs.)  It does not make them monsters and it does not justify the cops framing these kids on forced confessions.  That is abominable.  The mugging can be explained (though not excused) by socioeconomic factors for which neither the kids nor their parents are responsible.

<<You think being black is an excuse to mug your daughter?>>

It's not an excuse to mug anyone, but if it happened, (and it actually has,) I'd know enough not to focus the blame and the anger exclusively on the perps.   Whitey had a lot more to do with their being muggers than they themselves did.  So did capitalism.

[BT]

It's not an excuse to mug anyone, but if it happened, (and it actually has,) I'd know enough not to focus the blame and the anger exclusively on the perps.   Whitey had a lot more to do with their being muggers than they themselves did.  So did capitalism.

What is your take on free will?

Does it exist?

[Michael Tee]

<<What is your take on free will?

<<Does it exist? >>

I really don't know.  I've heard all the arguments, and I just don't know.  That's one of the toughest philosophical problems I've ever had to wrestle with.

[BT]

That's one of the toughest philosophical problems I've ever had to wrestle with.

I get the impression from your rhetoric that you don't believe in free will.

[Michael Tee]

<<I get the impression from your rhetoric that you don't believe in free will. >>

You can believe in greater or lesser degrees of determinism in people's lives without going all the way to a final decision on free will.  I mean even if there is free will, it's capable of being influenced by external factors.

[BT]

Flip Wilson got rich with the line "The devil made me do it"

But nevertheless i am intrigued by your forgiveness of muggers but not of racists. Both behaviors influenced by external forces and I am not sure why one practitioner is held accountable but the other isn't.

[Michael Tee]

Racism is the indirect cause of muggers. Stopping racists in the long run will also stop or cut down on muggers.

Stopping muggers won't stop racists, who will just generate more muggers.

I see racists as evil bastards who are causing a lot more suffering than muggers are.  Muggers affect only their victims, whereas racists can affect whole populations.

Racists killed about six million Jews in the span of about six years.  They raped and lynched all over the U.S. for well over a century.  What the hell are muggers in comparison to racists?  They're a petty annoyance at most.  You need some kind of sense of proportion here, BT.  Your question is really naive.

[BT]

Racism is the indirect cause of muggers.

Doubtful. Else there would be no white muggers.

Poverty and drug addiction would probably be more likely causes for someone going for the easy buck.

[Michael Tee]

I didn't mean that racism caused all muggers.  When you mentioned poverty and drug addiction, sure, but racism feeds into them too, without being the cause of every case.  Racism is one of the cancers eating into America, capitalism is the other.  Between them, you could explain most of the poverty, drug addiction and street crime.  Do the two cancers cause ALL problems?  Probably not, only 98% of them.

[kimba1]

poverty and drug addiction


magic words

many people think this is voluntary so racism is not a factor any more.

[BT]

many people think this is voluntary so racism is not a factor any more.

Drug addiction cares less about color.

And using drugs is voluntary prior to addiction.

[Michael Tee]

<<Drug addiction cares less about color.

<<And using drugs is voluntary prior to addiction.>>

Ai yi yi, you got to read what I'm writing more carefully.  There isn't just one cancer at work in America, there are two.  Between them, racism and capitalism will account for most of the problems that the country is experiencing, INCLUDING drug addiction.  Capitalism contributes in many ways to drug addiction, race is certainly also a factor in non-white drug addiction.

[BT]

Is non white drug addiction different than white drug addiction?

[Michael Tee]

IN the sense that racism could be a contributing cause to a non-white's addiction but not to a white's addiction, yes.

[BT]

IN the sense that racism could be a contributing cause to a non-white's addiction but not to a white's addiction, yes.

How patronizing. As if whites can't feel oppressed.