Chacham's Journal: July 4th

On a birthday, i find it the appropriate time to show appreciation for the person. Being the fourth of July is considered the birthday of the US, i find it appropriate to express gratitude for this wonderful country, specifically in the area of freedom and intolerance to class warfare.

Especially as Jews in France and the rest of Europe are noticing, and South America as well, anti-Semitism is real, and is tolerated regardless of what officials say. When a Rabbi in France was told that it was better not to wear his head covering outside, it drove the point home.

Even Israel, with all her neighbors hating her, and the world is sympathetic to them, to the point where it recognizes an erstwhile terrorist organization as one that works towards peace, it is a sad state of affairs.

Yet, here i am, sitting in the US, and not really directly affected by many of these terrors. And for this i am grateful.

Discrimination

[Planesdragon]

Especially as Jews in France and the rest of Europe are noticing, and South America as well, anti-Semitism is real

Of course anti-semitism is real. The jews are still a seperate community, who think of themselves as something different than the rest of us.

Every single exclusive group I can possibly think of gets discriminated against. The only way to stop this requires one to stop identifying oneself with the exclusive minority--regardless if you're "black", "jewish", "christian", or what have you.

As f

Re:Discrimination

[Chacham]

That is absurd. This will sound harsh, but you obviously know nothing about history in this area.

Re:Discrimination

[Planesdragon]

That's an ad-hominem attack, Chacham. And it's wrong.

Do you see people discriminating against the Irish anymore? Or the Germans? Do you see discrimination between "pure black" and "half breed" in the American Black culutre?

If you discriminate yourself from the majority, the majority WILL discriminate against you.

It isn't popular to say so, but unfair discrimination isn't always the fault of the majority. And discrimination isn't always bad--just when it's taken too far.

If you can kindly point me to

Re:Discrimination

[Chacham]

an ad-hominem attack

I don't believe so. Ad-hominem would seem more to me to be that because one knows nothing *therefore* his views are ignored. It basically discredits the person instead of the arguement. The reason ad-hominem attacks are not good are: one they are harsh on the person attacked, and two, even if the person was the worst person around, it should have no bearing on the validity of the arguement.

However, when an arguement is so incorrect, that it can only be the product of sheer ignorance,

Re:Discrimination

[Planesdragon]

However, when an arguement is so incorrect, that it can only be the product of sheer ignorance, it would be demeaning to the argumentor to nit pick the arguement, as that would actually honor it as being valid. Instead, mentioning how he regards the first person as ignorant, states the case well.

It is an ad hominem attack. Or, to be technical, an inverted ad-hominem attack. ("that's so ludicrous you must be ignorant.")

Whatever you call it, it's a logical and rhetorical fallacy. I stated my thesis and