Originally posted by: destrekor
Originally posted by: morkus64
Originally posted by: destrekor
I full support civil rights, but somethings don't belong as a right. And all you damn hippies need to get this through your skull: the USA is not a damned free state, where you can get away with everything. We are a federal republic that has granted much needed freedoms to its people, but never stated you can do everything.
This is a little off topic, but regarding the idea of government and us damn hippies:
The natural state of things is not to have constraints. Something isn't prohibited until it is explicitly allowed, and the view that it is is rather Orwellian of you. Freedoms are not granted unless they have been taken away. The first amendment does not give freedom of speech, it protects against having it taken away.
That being said, I'm really trying to understand where you all are coming from, but I personally feel that the view that being gay is somehow wrong is akin to racism, classism, sexism, and all the other isms that are essentially rooted in bigotry and ignorance.
Also your apparent embrace of eugenics is rather disturbing.
Well said, and I truly have no contest to this post.
But I will say this...
in regards to racism, 'classism', etc... I agree this is all petty and ridiculous. It's not needed. We are but one race, but due to natural genetics and habitat of choice for generations, we have adapted different skin colors. Big deal. No different, except in some ways blacks might be naturally faster due to a genetic history of needing to be faster due to being hunters/gathers in much more recent times than most of humanity (Africans, naturally, are more tribal due to their way of life, something most of humanity has moved past due to modern civilization... nothing stereotypical or racist about that, only factual... try and contest it someone, please. fuck political correctness). This is something I touched upon briefly earlier in this thread. We need to move past this idea.
But sexual preference is a bit bigger of an issue. Honestly I mean no offense with that concept, but it is fact: humans, as animals, must mate with the opposite sex. Choosing to prefer the same sex and not mating with the opposite sex is very backwards in nature - it happens, as it happens in other species. Doesn't mean it has to be accepted. It's simply something that is there. Nobody needs to accept it, and I don't necessarily care/desire for it to be eradicated, as I don't know if it can be, or else nature probably would have taken care of that in the animal kingdom a long time ago... but it should be underground and not so up front imho, and it certainly doesn't need to be accepted. Why should it be? It's unnatural except for a likely genetic mutation of some sort, just as blue eyes and blond hair aren't natural but rather have just kept their mutated presence through our history (note - I'm blue eyed and blonde, though it's grown brown as I've aged except for the finer hairs, and I accept it's a mutation that's survived rather than truly 'natural').
But on to the rest of your post.
I am kind of Orwellian in my philosophy, but not entirely in actuality. But I disagree with your statement.
I fully believe freedoms exist unless otherwise stated. And yes, the First Amendment protects against the freedom of speech (something taken for granted and abused, but that's an entirely different topic). Do not get me wrong here, I have signed my life away to protect the Constitution, and I already feel we as a people have forgotten about it and let it get trampled upon for ages and ages. As a country, we haven't been the same as the Constitution set forth for a LONG time. Federal government has grown larger while state governments have grown far less powerful than they should be. Maybe it is a part of the natural process of modernization, but the point stands that we aren't what we should be. Many of the powers the Federal government currently has should be for the State and lower governments only, as stated by the Tenth Amendment, something everyone apparently forgets.
And with that, it should be obviously realized that States have the exercised freedom to have the style of government desired as long as it fits the style of the Republic and meets the needs of the people, or else people can move away and abandon that government. Our government is styled to be more State-based than Federal, but it's currently backwards to some extent - but it is still seen as evidenced by the extreme differences between say California and Ohio, though as time progresses other states are becoming similar.
But... my point is rights exist until taken away, or unless explicitly protected. UNLESS, those rights not protected by the Federal government are contested/taken away by States, which is perfectly legal. A State can be rather Orwellian and fascist as long as specific rights stand as protected by the Constitution of the Federal Government.
Basically, we are not the free democracy everyone envisions, but rather a Federal Government with a lot of freedoms either protected - or not restricted through law - by the Federal level of government. The States are supposed to have a lengthy list of powers essentially reserved to them, though all of our electors have given them to the Federal government - something likely not fully envisioned by our Founding Fathers, but something also entirely legal under our system of governing. We as a people are failing ourselves, and there is no other way to put it.
Back to the topic though:
I feared someone would bring into question eugenics. I no doubt have an inkling of support for it, but I will not claim blind faith to it being the savior of our people, nor believe that it and only it is what we should follow through with. We should indeed dabble into it, but that is it. I will no doubt rightfully earn some hate for such a belief, but oh well. I'm looking out for the future of our species, something most seem to not care about. Who says everything we are doing now is in the best interest of our species, and who can claim to know all the right answers to what we need to do? We DO need to change our habits and our future course, or else we'll be a failure of a species.
However, do know that eugenics was a VERY popular belief, even here in the US and with many popular political leaders, until Hitler put it into play in all the wrong ways. You don't extinguish a people or types of people, that's not the idea nor was it ever. So now, everyone has it on their mind that eugenics is evil, period, so much so that no one even questions how can one go about it morally and fairly. It can be done, on a small scale, quite well. We don't need to kill people.
And no, I'm not claiming it's the answer, nor saying it is what should be done. But everyone has it in their head that the way we are living now is the way we should always live. Sorry, but I look to the future more than the present, and we are on a course for destruction and extinction if we continue. The Earth isn't going to be around forever, and at the present we are no where near being a united race. There are many variables and many small problems preventing a wonderful future for our species, and genetics is far from the only issue. I just enjoy proposing little ideas to get people thinking, even if my ideas are far from the right answer. Getting people thinking about our future as a species, and not just about our country or anything else, is what I enjoy most. Eugenics as a concept might be the most wrong of wrongs for our future, but it is a conversation starter, and a necessary one at that. I don't claim, or even imagine, I have all the right answers for our future, and most of what we need to do I'll be long dead before they are even popular thoughts, but if my ideas get people moving in the right direction eventually, damn right I'm going to talk about them. I don't care if people hate me, or even kill me, for my ideas. I don't have that concept of preservation of my own life, though I do enough to the point that I want to have a kid to protect any kind of immortal future (through text) that I might have. My name must live on somehow, even if just in ideas.