On 7/3/2012 5:18 PM, George Plimpton wrote:
> On 7/3/2012 5:05 PM, Hawke wrote:
>> On 7/3/2012 3:58 PM, George Plimpton wrote:
>>> On 7/3/2012 3:09 PM, Hawke wrote:
>>>> On 7/3/2012 11:22 AM, George Plimpton wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>> I don't believe in any god, but rights do not come from government.
>>>>>>> Rights are inherent in the individual. They don't "come from" any
>>>>>>> source outside the human self. You have rights because you're
>>>>>>> human.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No you don't.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes - yes, you do.
>>>>
>>>> You don't.
>>>
>>> Yes, people do.
>>
>> Did you forget the rules
>
> Of course not - I helped to write them.
Then you damn well better follow them. You are making the claims here.
Back them up with facts, evidence, and citations, or withdraw them.
>>>> Without a government to give them to you
>>>
>>> No. Governments do not - *cannot* - "give" rights. They can recognize
>>> them and protect them, or they can infringe upon them, but they *cannot*
>>> give rights.
>>
>> There are no rights without a government to grant them and protect them.
>
> False. Governments do not grant rights - period.
Nobody ever had a "right" until there was a government. Go find some
primitive people and ask them what rights they have. They'll look at you
like you're crazy, which of course, you are.
> Rights can be and have been protected without government.
Once you have a group of people whose job it is to protect rights you
have government, and that is who is protecting those rights. The
government came first, then the rights.
>>>>>> Humans aren't born with "rights" attached to them or in
>>>>>> them any more than the other animal life on earth has.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, they are. Non-human animals do not have - *cannot* have - any
>>>>> rights at all. Rights only apply to humans, and rights inhere in
>>>>> individual person at birth.
Humans cannot have any rights either until a government is formed to
decide on the rights and how to protect them. Until that happens no one
has any kind of right to anything.
>>>>>> Some people think that a god gives it to them but that's obviously
>>>>>> not
>>>>>> true.
>>>>>
>>>>> No, it's not "obviously" true because it's not "obvious" that there
>>>>> isn't a god. *I* don't believe in any god, and I believe that rights
>>>>> are not "given" by any entity at all. But none of that is "obvious".
It is to me and to the majority of scientists.
>>>> You don't think they are given, they just are there. But of course you
>>>> don't know why human animals have them but the other animals don't.
>>>
>>> Of course I do: because non-human animals are not part of a moral
>>> community.
>>
>> Oh brother! If you knew how utterly stupid that sounds
>
> You clearly don't know anything about rights theory.
What you are saying is that it's the fact of having a moral community
that gives humans the ability to have rights. Animals have no moral
community so they have no rights. Lots of people believe animals have
rights too. But the truth is no animal has any rights, neither human or
otherwise until a government is created. Before that we're all on the
same animal level and as you said, animals have no rights. But if they
ever get a moral community they will. That's a real crock of shit,
irrationality.
>>>>>> You don't have them installed in you at birth either.
>>>>>
>>>>> Not "installed" - they are a fundamental attribute of being human.
>>
>> At least according to one person
>
> According to basic rights theory. According to Thomas Jefferson, too,
> who was very well acquainted with the theory.
So now you have to appeal to authority to prove your point? Logical
fallacies are not allowed. Just because someone came up with a "rights
theory" doesn't mean it's worth a darn. It's just opinion and has no
evidence to prove it's veracity.
>>>> That sounds exactly like the crazy shit the religious think.
>>>
>>> They are closer to being right than you are. They are right for the
>>> wrong reason. They are right in observing and noting that rights are
>>> inherent in the person; they are wrong, in my view, in saying that we
>>> are "endowed by our Creator" with these rights. However, the effect is
>>> the same. People simply have rights. Whether or not government respect
>>> them is a separate issue.
>>>
>>>
>>>>>> Nobody has any rights at all to begin with.
>>>>>
>>>>> Wrong.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> The only rights anyone ever had were the ones that men
>>>>>> created for you when they created governments
>>>>>
>>>>> No.
>>
>> Yes.
>
> No.
>
>
>>>> You only think that because of your ignorance of history and political
>>>> science.
>>>
>>> My knowledge of history vastly exceeds yours. Political science is a
>>> bullshit discipline - it is on an intellectual level with astrology.
>>
>> You don't have any knowledge.
>
> I have a very solid knowledge of history. Unscientific political
> "science" is not anything worth knowing.
Your problem is you over rate yourself in every way, and by a country
mile. Your "knowledge" of history isn't even up to what any ordinary
college grad with a degree in history has. Moreover, you show your
ignorance by trying to paint my field as not as valid as yours. If you
actually spent time among professors and educated people you would know
that political science is not thought of as inferior to other
disciplines. You are just pretending that what you know is more
important than what I do because of your over inflated view of yourself.
The fact is it's not. Political science is just as important as
economics, or history, or biology, or any other field. Just because you
say it isn't doesn't make it so. In fact, if you allege it the chances
are the opposite is true.
Hawke