Controversial Opinions (For Everything Other Than DC Comics)

[ed2962]

While I think online harassment and cyberbullying are real issues, people really need to stop acting like anytime someone gets criticized on twitter for stuff they say in public, is that person being "cancelled". And they really need to stop acted like this behavior is somehow unique to the so-called "left".

[ed2962]

You don't need to watch the news everyday. Or ever really.

The real important events, you're going to hear about them anyway sooner or later, at work or whatever.

Except if you don't check it out yourself, you get really distorted accounts of those events.

[Starter Set]

Except if you don't check it out yourself, you get really distorted accounts of those events.

Oh but you can check by yourself, once you have learned about it.

See, it's like a BS filter. You only let the big events go through and you spare yourself hours of pointless crap.

And anyway, you always get distorted accounts of events. There is no such thing as a really objective person, may that be on tv, online or in the street.

[Jim Kelly]

I don't know why people get so upset about Hawaiian Pizza--which should really be called Canadian Pizza because it was created in 1962 in Chatham, Ontario. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to, but some of us love pineapple on our pizza.

Our family started eating pizza in 1967, because my sister got a toy Chef Boyardee Pizza Party Oven as a present (for her birthday or maybe for Christmas). None of us had had pizza before, but we loved this stuff that came out of her toy pizza oven. Especially Mom, who soon would have us buy it from the corner store--many a time I'd run over to the store on an errand for Mom, to get that precious Chef Boyardee pizza mix. And the pizza with the ham and pineapple was a favourite.

[DrNewGod]

I don't know why people get so upset about Hawaiian Pizza--which should really be called Canadian Pizza because it was created in 1962 in Chatham, Ontario. You don't have to eat it if you don't want to, but some of us love pineapple on our pizza.

Our family started eating pizza in 1967, because my sister got a toy Chef Boyardee Pizza Party Oven as a present (for her birthday or maybe for Christmas). None of us had had pizza before, but we loved this stuff that came out of her toy pizza oven. Especially Mom, who soon would have us buy it from the corner store--many a time I'd run over to the store on an errand for Mom, to get that precious Chef Boyardee pizza mix. And the pizza with the ham and pineapple was a favourite.

The pineapple pizza perverts are the cause of all societal rot in Western Civilization. T'was their heathen slice ways that poised our lands!

[Ragged Maw]

I think that genetically tailoring your own children will solve more problems than they create (less genetically inherited diseases or associated risk factors; better psychological health; etc.)

Better than playing “russian roulette” with you and your partner’s chromosomes.

[GozertheGozarian]

I think that genetically tailoring your own children will solve more problems than they create (less genetically inherited diseases or associated risk factors; better psychological health; etc.)

Better than playing “russian roulette” with you and your partner’s chromosomes.

Supporting eugenics is definitely conroversial.

[Ragged Maw]

Supporting eugenics is definitely conroversial.

That’s because the first iteration of it (as far as public awareness is concerned) was total bunk crudely based almost exclusively on race peddled by white supremacists. Nowadays, scientists have mapped the human genome and helped diminish the bullshit idea that different ethnicities are fundamentally different down to genetic structure. So I say it’s getting nearer to the time when a stigma around gene manipulation will be done away with. Similar case with nuclear power.

[DrNewGod]

I think that genetically tailoring your own children will solve more problems than they create (less genetically inherited diseases or associated risk factors; better psychological health; etc.)

Better than playing “russian roulette” with you and your partner’s chromosomes.

The Late Midshipman Peter Preston would like a word with you.

Seriously though, genetic tailoring has the potential to solve more problems than it creates if access to the techniques is widely distributed among the population. I'm willing to bet tall money that it won't be.

If there's one thing that's pretty universal in this world, it's the desire of the wealthy and powerful to insure their offspring don't have to cope with pesky level playing fields against the great unwashed masses. Those elites will want to horde such an advance among the smallest number of themselves possible, for as long as possible, and a lot of harm could result. If there's a small uber elite immune to disease, they might conclude that investing in medical and pharmaceutical research is an unnecessary investment of resources that could generate better returns elsewhere. These supers might decide that lesser beings really shouldn't have a say in their destiny because, without dispute, the elites' judgement and intelligence are superior; best keep all the decisions to themselves.

So, unless genetic tailoring is so cheap, and so widely available that anybody can do it, there are a lot of scenarios in which it goes sideways

[mathew101281]

The Late Midshipman Peter Preston would like a word with you.

Seriously though, genetic tailoring has the potential to solve more problems than it creates if access to the techniques is widely distributed among the population. I'm willing to bet tall money that it won't be.

If there's one thing that's pretty universal in this world, it's the desire of the wealthy and powerful to insure their offspring don't have to cope with pesky level playing fields against the great unwashed masses. Those elites will want to horde such an advance among the smallest number of themselves possible, for as long as possible, and a lot of harm could result. If there's a small uber elite immune to disease, they might conclude that investing in medical and pharmaceutical research is an unnecessary investment of resources that could generate better returns elsewhere. These supers might decide that lesser beings really shouldn't have a say in their destiny because, without dispute, the elites' judgement and intelligence are superior; best keep all the decisions to themselves.

So, unless genetic tailoring is so cheap, and so widely available that anybody can do it, there are a lot of scenarios in which it goes sideways

Thats the catch. It's very unlikely it would be evenly distributed around the world. The rich in wealthy nations would more than likely have more easy access then poor people in poor countries for example. It's like Mass Communism, the theory sounds interesting and positive until you try accomplish it and take into consideration human nature.

[Ragged Maw]

The Late Midshipman Peter Preston would like a word with you.

Seriously though, genetic tailoring has the potential to solve more problems than it creates if access to the techniques is widely distributed among the population. I'm willing to bet tall money that it won't be.

If there's one thing that's pretty universal in this world, it's the desire of the wealthy and powerful to insure their offspring don't have to cope with pesky level playing fields against the great unwashed masses. Those elites will want to horde such an advance among the smallest number of themselves possible, for as long as possible, and a lot of harm could result. If there's a small uber elite immune to disease, they might conclude that investing in medical and pharmaceutical research is an unnecessary investment of resources that could generate better returns elsewhere. These supers might decide that lesser beings really shouldn't have a say in their destiny because, without dispute, the elites' judgement and intelligence are superior; best keep all the decisions to themselves.

So, unless genetic tailoring is so cheap, and so widely available that anybody can do it, there are a lot of scenarios in which it goes sideways

Barely have anything to add to this. Well put. Yeah, there isn’t much room for error on this one. Litigation to ensure its cautious use and wide availability for people of all income brackets may become a crucial battle in our three branches and other world government bodies.

[GozertheGozarian]

If it ever did become viable, the screams of the evangelicals and anti-GMO crowd would be pleasant.

[Ragged Maw]

If it ever did become viable, the screams of the evangelicals and anti-GMO crowd would be pleasant.

If this is the proverbial madman from the mountainside that proclaims the death of “God” in their eyes, then I consider it tough love. I won’t miss their psychotic fervor over religious beliefs, and hell, I doubt even they’d miss it either once the initial shock and existential angst starts to subside

[DrNewGod]

If this is the proverbial madman from the mountainside that proclaims the death of “God” in their eyes, then I consider it tough love. I won’t miss their psychotic fervor over religious beliefs, and hell, I doubt even they’d miss it either once the initial shock and existential angst starts to subside

Dude. Hope you're staggeringly rich. Otherwise, your Schadenfreude against the zealots is going to be your sole comfort in the pit of the inferior along with the rest of us.

[Adam Allen]

Dude. Hope you're staggeringly rich. Otherwise, your Schadenfreude against the zealots is going to be your sole comfort in the pit of the inferior along with the rest of us.

I really don't think you need to be some kind of religious nutter to see how saying people can pick out the undesirable traits they want to avoid in their kids is just a whole can of worms to open up. Maybe you get a pass on saying you want to rule out a tendency towards addiction ... but beyond that, you're gonna get push back even about mental health issues. We can all agree that having a severe mental illness makes one's life much more challenging ... do we all want to sign off on saying nobody with a mental illness should ever be born, period? What about more common things, like a tendency towards depression? People like that shouldn't exist, either? People on the autism spectrum, let's make sure there's never anybody like that again? Obesity, even? It causes all kinds of health problems over the course of a whole life, so why not? "If someone would be fat, it would be better if they were never born at all"?

I mean, I don't doubt some would be okay with saying that, but a whole lot of people would have a problem with it, and not just because it's against some ethereal holy plan. I mean, what about intelligence? You might think that one would be a gimme, as far as saying nobody's gonna fight you on wanting your kid to be smart ... but you know, I honestly don't know my own IQ, but I have to tell you, I would probably be offended if it turned out I'm just below the cutoff of what people would consider viably smart enough. Not only that, but even if someone like me would be allowed to be born, I also have empathy enough to have a problem if people said someone just a bit lower in the range of IQ should be considered literally too stupid to live. I mean, I am being flippant here, but honestly I imagine developmentally disabled people would be about the first group some would say it should be okay to eliminate from among your potential offspring, and I guarantee you lots of folks, including myself, would not really be on board with saying that.

At the end of the day, I think you'd be okay with saying if your child would be born with some kind of rare condition that would make them unlikely to live long at all, and unable to enjoy any aspect of life before they die, then sure, avoid creating a life that would be nothing but suffering. But anything beyond that ... it's really kind of, you're not perfect, but none of us is, so welcome to the human race.