Overthinking Clearly

One of the arguments I do not particularly like is the so-called - not as bad as - argument. I am sure you have it seen all over the internet.
It can take many forms in many situations, for example:

• Religion is very influential, but not as influential as in Saudi Arabia
• Trump is a dictator, but nothing compared to Stalin
• Women are paid less than men, but children are starving in Africa
• Women do not have equality in Europe, but women in Saudi Arabia have it even worse

Is this a good argument? Certainly, at the first glance, it could see that way, especially if applied to issues that are connected, for example, the status of women in the western world when compared to the status of women in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan or somewhere else. It kind of does seem to have some argumentative power. But, does it really?

Let me just repeat author's warning before the video. Content Warning: This educational episode contains graphic sexual and violent game footage.

In this video from Feminist Frequency (site) host, Anita Sarkeesian takes notice how game developers tend to create non-playable sexualized female characters whose only function is to add some substance to the background of these games and to keep presumably straight-white males interested.

I highly recommend you take 30 minutes of your time and watch this video, even if you're not into games. I promise it will remind you how we as human beings take some things too lightly, without thinking them through. And if it helps to do that, I'd say it's 30 minutes well spent.

Every so often it is possible to come across some right-wing blog or Facebook post which claims to have proof that women on average are less intelligent than men, or that black people are less intelligent than white people or that one nation is more intelligent than other. Naturally, if you’re a decent human being and a good person, your first instinct will most likely be to try and deny the factual basis of those claims and thus ending up in a flame war.

Sometimes I get the feeling people do not really understand what this whole democracy business is all about. I am sure that you too many times have seen arguments like „that is what majority wants, so we have to do it that way“, or „religion is in schools because the majority is religious“. So, let us see if these kinds of arguments have any merit or make sense.

So, to continue what I started on June 24 – (not even three full months ago ) – I now return to the Chemtrails conspiracy. Last time together we took a look what are Chemtrails really.

To summarize quickly, just in case you are not interested in visiting the part 1., aircraft do leave trails behind. But they are actually a phenomenon that occurs when the byproducts of burning the aircraft fuel mix with cool air. The process of burning aircraft fuel leaves behind carbon dioxide and water. So, there is water vapour in the engine exhaust. This means that water droplets can form. How? Well, in essence, hot and humid air exits the engine. This is kind of like when you breathe out hot air from your lungs into the cold air outside. What happens? You provide moisture to the air, so condensation happens. This is not the whole story, as the contrail freezes in the cold air. By cold air it’s usually meant below -30°C. When you have air that cold, that means that those water droplets freeze very quickly. So, you now have ice particles. This is what the contrails are made from.

You know how the argument goes:

“If you can get drunk, get into an accident and then be responsible for decision to drive, why can’t you be held responsible for agreeing to have sex while drunk? Why is it rape?”

If you are looking superficially, the argument looks pretty solid. However, it is also invalid. Let’s see how.

Sorry for not posting for more than 20 days, it was vacation time. Anyway, we are back now and to kick off another season, let’s say a few words about this page and it’s goals, simply to try and clear up any misunderstandings that might have happened.

Most people that like the page are probably non-religious so you might feel annoyed by some of the arguments and thoughts being published here and consider it "preaching to the choir". You do not need to be told this. You already know it.