Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and common sense the best antibiotic.

[originalpckelly]

If you couch something in terms of art, to those outside of the profession, it won't make any sense. "Oh, dude, I don't get it! It's like a foreign language to me!"

That's because for all practical purposes, it is a foreign language. If I walked up to you and started babbling about something, and I sounded very rational, I could probably bullshit you into believing what I was saying. (For some of you, that's not exactly a hypothetical situation, either. :P)

It was about 4 years ago that I lost the last of my heroes in this world, and I tried to regain them in politics. In time, I have only come to be disappointed yet again.

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

I think that should really be, "anything that can go wrong will go wrong, so long as a human being is involved."

It's like we're all stuck on the stupid setting in the washing machine of life. Most people have no fucking clue what economists or politicians are saying, yet politicians and economists (and I dare say scientists and journalists) are playing with their lives.

Iraq/Judy Miller. Waterboarding. The current state of affairs in the economy. "Oh no soldier, don't be worried about that fallout, it's not going to hurt you." Asbestos. Cigarettes, and Thalidomide. (And don't even get me started on herbal medicine or religion.)

When there are too few minds making too many decisions, that stuff is bound to happen. Even when people are trying to do whatever they think is in the best interest of everyone, they may have made a mistake by thinking the wrong thing is the right thing for us. That, of course, is if they actually give a fuck about us, but we all know that the other human quality, greed, is almost as dependable as fallibility.

We simply cannot allow other people to tell us to nod our heads in agreement while they make all the decisions.

Everyone is not always full of shit, but everyone makes mistakes, even the best among us. I don't know about you, but I'd rather fuck up my own life, rather than fucking up someone else's. At least I stand to learn a lot from fucking up, fucking up is almost always a learning experience. (Except for things that cause death, see Darwin Award.)

If something cannot be explained to everyone, then be suspicious, be very suspicious. I'm sorry that I think it's a bunch of bullshit that people don't know how to explain things. After all, even the people who know it all started off as ignorant little kids. Very few of us are lucky enough to be born geniuses.

If you cannot explain it in common terms, then you need to go back to the drawing board and try again. How did you learn it?

This is advice, and considering that I'd be violating my own advice were I to say it's infallible, I'd have to say you could nitpick it. You ought to be capable of it, since I think most of the shit in here is common sense. Of course, it could be that fallibility creeping up.

This is a continuation of the ideas here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5290273

Perhaps someone will listen to me this time. :P

A lack of questioning of authority, was the basis of this thing called the Furherprinzip. It's basically what we do in every area of life, but put into organized use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerprinzip

I'm terrified by the ease with which anyone can be tricked into thinking bullshit is true, aside from those with a little fucking common sense or specific knowledge in an area themselves. It scares me to see stuff like this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5303530&mesg_id=5303530

In a time of economic instability, we're bound to see more of it, history suggests that.

I think it's clear that anytime someone starts making pleas to your superiority, they're about to fuck you over and try to get you to believe in bullshit. Your own sense of superiority is the bullshit artist's best weapon against you.

That's all.

[Webster Green]

1. "herbal medicine or religion"

Eliminating herbs (plants) from medicine seems pretty limiting. Lots of valuable medicines come from plants, or are synthesized to mimic herbal based stuff. (Opiates for instance)

One of the drugs (Vincristine ) that was in a chemotherapy treatment I once did is derived from Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar periwinkle). It was nasty shit, but I'm still here to tell about it.

I have no use for religion however. :smoke:

[originalpckelly]

2. If you really think something has medicinal value, do a controlled study.

Weed has been tested in millions of experiments worldwide, and it comes up quite frequently with demonstrable effects. :smoke:

Of course, burning something and sucking it into your lung might not be a good idea. That may be that old common sense creeping up.

[Webster Green]

3. Well yeah,

I guess you were referring to herbal quackery.

[originalpckelly]

5. HEADON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE MORON!

:rofl:

Yes, that is indeed what I'm talking about. Still not a great idea to suck on something that's burning. That's why you make brownies. :P

[originalpckelly]

4. Here's just one thing I'm talking about:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

Read that shit, I bet you won't understand one fucking bit of it. Aside from lawyers and the self-educated, I'm willing to bet most people have no fucking clue what that shit means. The problem here? Everyone is expected to follow those laws. Even those who don't know what the fuck they mean.

It's almost April 15, many people will be going to a professional tax preparer. They do that, because the tax laws are often so fucking complicated, most people are too afraid to try it. They are also too afraid to try it because they'll have their entire lives ruined by the IRS if they do it themselves, and fuck it up somehow. It's not right.

While most lawyers would argue that no one should represent themselves, everyone should know what the laws mean, both tax laws and laws in other areas.