then you don't know your history

this is not a dating site. if you're interested in such things you should be happy to know that gay rights are increasingly accepted. good luck to you and your romantic interests

there have been exotic glimmers of true fairness and equality, always. but they were on the edges of civilization, were fragile and fleeting, and not enshrined rights hard fought for at the centers of power. now they are

progress is not a straight path, it's two steps forwards and one step back. it will always be a fragile growth prone to breakage and backsliding. and then pick up again and resume

and if some horrible world changing event occurs: an asteroid, a plague, then i am sure we will backslide back into barbarism and lose our progress

but as long as civilization is stable, then we are on a new path of rights we have never, ever had in this world anywhere remotely on this scale before. your exotic historic oddities don't remotely compare

yup

the arc of history is clear: progress is real. it wasn't long ago the idea of gay marriage rights or marijuana legalization seemed distant and impossible

bigots, sexists, racists: they may whine and bitch, or go full douchebag and do immoral things, but their fate is clear and certain: the dustbin of history. they are losing, and they will lose in the end

don't get me wrong, sexists, racists and such losers will always exist. it's just that they will no longer dominate the social, legal, and political status quo like they used to. the fact that they no longer do is, like the arrow of time, proof of the march of history and progress

you will always encounter sexists and racists. a moronic comment on slashdot. a throwaway comment by a loser coworker. a catcall or a tweet from who knows where that momentarily catches your eye

ignore them. they hold no power

such shitbags will always linger like a fungus in a dank basement, the socially malformed pathetics of any society. serious civilization has moved on without them, and will continue to make them more and more irrelevant

like cannibalism and slavery, things that also do still exist, and always will exist, in the dark cracks. but are now an exotic shocking fringe, and no longer dominate our societies

while i agree with you that this story sounds like bs, i despise this "always dealing with rational actors" argument

people do insane things. all the time. if your argument depends upon how someone you don't know is perfectly sane and rational, your argument sucks

The answers in this thread are telling, and they don't paint a pretty picture.

Here's my hypothesis: Geeks (myself included!) tend to be lone wolves. We like autonomy, and hence have a strong belief in personal responsibility, often at the detriment of shared responsibility. See how many libertarians are on /.?

Geeks also tend to have girl problems. They're often intimidated by them, but also want and can't have them. This leads to resentment. Women seem incredibly powerful and unattainable, so when they claim disinfranchisement, we are incredulous.

In the sciences, geeks rule. Women who enter this field have to be fun, approachable and totally geeky too. Not many women fit that description. But many who don't are otherwise fantastically gifted, intelligent women. And we're missing out.

Let me guess: Middle class, white male?

Why do you hate Islam?

Not likely. Obama doesn't have the balls. Nor does he have the desire.

Piqued your interest, eh?

Yes. I have an interest in insulting trolls.

in normal human conversation, errors are expected and normal

if someone is corrected and they flip out because of it, they are not socially well adjusted

if someone catches someone in an error and they flip out because of it, even after a normal, gracious apology, they are not socially well adjusted

congratulations, your behavior in this thread defines a deficiency in your basic social development

welcome to slashdot i guess

My table saw has a removable shield for when I'm working with something other than a typical pine board.

Band saws and jigsaws typically do not contain shields, as they're used for curved cuts.

There is an inherent danger to most tools, and why training on how to properly use that tool is important.

Programming Languages are tools. If you don't understand how to use the tool, the tool can be destructive.

Now I know why you didn't log in, you didn't want your stupidity broadcast to the world.

You know all about tops and bottoms, don't you...

Karl Marx wanted to promote homosexuality as an "alternate lifestyle choice" for one reason and one reason only: He wanted to undermine and destroy the Catholic Church, which he saw as the only real obstacle to building his utopian socialist hell-hole. He wanted, as did / do Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, Wilson, Obama, Clinton -- people using their religious fervor in pursuit of the State, not in pursuit of heaven.

And right now, his side is winning.

Look at the increasing number of sola scriptura Protestant churches that are suddenly throwing out huge chunks of that scripture to support gay marriage.

And they say "Oh, but Jesus didn't say anything about it" -- only he did. He said he wasn't there to change one letter of the law. He wasn't there to change what is moral and is not moral.

And now, one by one, Protestant Churches fall away and now many of them shouldn't even call themselves Churches... they should call themselves Sunday Morning Coffee and Terrible "Praise" Band shows.

I visited a Protestant Church at the request of a friend... it was a Southern Baptist church.

Aside from the fact that it was lily-white (my catholic church is very, very diverse) and conformity was expected / required... it was weird.

Despite being white, I was looked at with suspicion because *gasp* HE HAS LONG HAIR! ZOMG!!!

So then the service started. They had a crappy "praise" band where each dork they had warbling (I wouldn't quite call it signing) all did this same weird "look to heaven" head shake thing before they started singing. And the crowd put down their coffee, pretended to smile, and praised them some Jesus. Only I didn't see Him there.

Then, the Pastor got up and said his sermon. It was about the ABC's of faith. Lesson 1: God is in control.

Ignoring the deeper and important themes of free will, this sermon was as childish and lacking substance as the crowd's suspicion of the long haired dude.

Sadly, THAT is what mainline Protestantism has become. Church is just a thing, a club people want to feel like they belong to, and they choose a church based on if they like the free coffee or is they like the praise band, and I'm not going to the Grace Faith Fellowship because their praise band isn't hip enough, instead I'm going to go to Faith Grace Fellowship where the coffee is really good and they have free creamer and it's televised and so I'll be on TV and I can use my connections to further my business or my career and Jesus? The guy that prunes the garden with Jose? OH THAT JESUS. Yeah, he's great! Like a peaceful hippie or Ghandhi or something.

And people wonder why I state that the Great Apostasy has begun.

If you ask me, we've only got a handful of years left, because we continually invite judgment on ourselves. Once the Supreme Court crams gay marriage down all our throats, and Turkey launches the real Caliphate... the end will be swift.

If I wasn't permanently blacklisted from getting mod points, I'd mod you up.

Don't blame the tool, blame the user. A chainsaw is dangerous, but if I'm clearing brush or cutting tree limbs blown down by a storm, it's the best tool for that job. If I cut off my foot with it, is it the chainsaw's fault?