And now, piracy.

[mcity]

Apologist: People who pirate games to test them should buy them? That's like saying anyone who has pre-marital sex should get married.
Me: Well, since piracy requires that the thing being pirated is taken without permission, it's more like rape.
Apologist: N...no it's not!
Me: If two people have sex, and one person doesn't want it, it's rape. Your analogy is flawed.
Apologist: Stop that! My analogy is fine! You're just jumped to the comparison to the worst possible thing! Copying bits is not comparable to one person forcing themselves on another! What next, are you going to compare piracy to Hitler?
Me: So it is comparable to pre-marital sex, but not pre-marital rape. You don't actually have a single bit of actual logic explaining how I'm wrong, do you?

Comments

[simplypeachy.livejournal.com]

You're the voice of reason against the lies of the world. I'd like to think you'd keep your cool even against climate change skeptics.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

You are talking to a man who argues with 9/11 and moan hoax conspiracy theorists. Whatever doesn't rile me up makes me snarkier. Sometimes both.

I was arguing with someone yesterday about an article in The Guardian. Specifically, this piece of nonsense was claiming that there is an organized crackdown against Occupy because five cities were subject to police action over a span of a few days, and the mayors were in communication with each other, so clearly Congress is trying to suppress them via their lapdog Homeland Security, which provides support to local cops. (Homeland said "lol no".)

The person I was having the debate with was one of those sorts that takes a condescening, go-away-little-boy-adults-are-talking tone, along with a few passive-aggressive, indirect insults, in order to bait people into flaming. It was fun to watch her,I think, get more and more desperate. In fact, that's the best part of refusing to be trolled; watching the troll get more and more frustrated and overt as you don't bite.

I think what crested the hill was when she implied that I was a silly American who didn't realize the article was written for UK sensibilities, or that there were countries outside of the US. I responded by asking her, rhetorically, to guess where I live and what country is on my passport. "Hint. It's not the US."* She made another post that was almost wall-to wall indirect insults, and then put me on her ignore list with a passive-aggressive "you win!" Fun times.

*British Overseas Territories. But since that is legally more-or-less a British citizen, the difference is as near to nothing as makes no odds.

[simplypeachy.livejournal.com]

I think that's what I love about so many of your journal posts. So many other people would feed trolls but you feed them poison.

I'd be glad that the mayors and police organised in cracking down on these tossers are talking to each other - the more lessons they can share and learn for dealing with the participants safely and efficiently, the better for everyone.

"UK sensibilities", hah! We might have some if the tabloids were ground to a pulp and the majority population started re-gaining an ability to form their own opinions.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, I forgot to link to the article in question.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy

I am easier to incense by accident than on purpose. For example, all the articles comparing police actions against occupy as directly comparable to the unrest in the Middle East. They don't use tear gas, they use live grenades. Their bullets are lead, not rubber. And they don't warn the people they're facing, who are often armed themselves.

I've also seen someone say the police use "paramilitary tactics". I then snarked on JREF that the standard tactics of militia are more along the lines of "rape, conscription of children, and AK-47s". Such comparisons make Occupy seem like self-aggrandizing children--which they far too often are--and do a disservice to people who do actually suffer under oppression.

I would have more respect (i.e. any) for OWS if they had more than the vaguest of goals, self-righteousness, and great steaming heaps of intellectual dishonesty layered three metres thick on top.