As long as they carry protest signs and live I know they are wrong. Sometimes you can get to them by taking what they say at face value.

I am often told that the Arab-Israeli conflict is due to Israeli/Jewish racism and that the Arabs have nothing against Jews and that the war would end if Israel would just end its racism. I have now started to propose a bet to these people, and I am myself perfectly willing to do my share in it:

I propose to the left-wing debater in question that if HE will dress up as an obvious Jew wearing a pro-Israeli t-shirt and walk through an Arab city (sometimes of his choice), I will don a pro-"Palestinian" t-shirt, pretend to be a Muslim or supporter of Arab nationalism, and walk through Tel Aviv.

Whoever survives longer wins.

It's a bluff, of course, as I have already seen people do that in Israel and survive. (I never doubted that anyway.) I just hope that no left-winger will ever be stupid enough to do it!

But, ironically, most seem to know more than they allow to influence their opinion and refuse.

Turns out the difference between a conservative and a liberal is that a conservative can rely on his idealism.

The answer is as much as a).

A liberal who claims that Jews hate Arabs but not vice versa does NOT believe what he is saying. He knows that he would die if he would put it to the test.

And a liberal who claims that Bush is Hitler and then sits back doing nothing is simply waiting for somebody else to act against the new Hitler. Our sitting liberal can then be on the liberation committee, as the "People's Poet" or something like that.

Another point can be made that if they really wanted to expand their perspective or change people's minds, they would express their views in a mixed forum instead of in a 'sheltered' forum. It's easy to be a proud alcoholic in the company of other alcoholics.

We see that whether it's global warming or Bush. I mean, for example, if Bush is really the most evil person in the world, worse than Hitler, than how can these people sit back and do nothing but complain on a website? If I thought my government had been taken over but an evil fascist dictator, I'd be organizing armed resistance or something. Something. Not sitting on a forum or carrying some stupid protest sign.

That's a high threshold. People can really believe in something and not take major action. Christians, for example, really believe in Hell, and are not all cowards, and yet they don't take drastic action to defend their children or convert the unbelievers. That's just human nature. Most people whose government actually is taken over by evil fascists don't do anything about it, either.

Second, it may be that somebody is organizing an armed resistance, but is not doing it on the forum. The forum would be very helpful in getting them together with others of like mind.

--

The most interesting thing about this post is what it reveals about the nature of an Internet troll. You would never guess that a troll is someone like Draginol. You imagine people with nothing better to do than argue, or people who are solely animated by political hatred. Some left-wingers even theorize that articulate, persistent trolls are in the pay of Exxon or the Heritage Foundation, to keep their comments from developing into a useful discussion. No one would have guessed the truth: that this troll is a top 1% executive with an open mind and plenty else to do, but views political argumentation as something like an arcade game, where you mow down rows of mindless opponents and beating up on them is fun.

so now draginol you are a troll because you are against the left idiots.


where do i sign up to get paid for being a troll for exxon or the heritage foundation.


since i have nothing else to do i can be on line almost 24/7.

Maybe it's just one person posting all the other comments... pretending to be lots of people... in order to sucker you into their web of lies and deception. "I make x point." "I agree with x, for sure, you're so like minded." "I agree with x as well!" "x is the most brilliant thing I've ever heard!"

Etc.

so now draginol you are a troll because you are against the left idiots.

On this board, being against the left idiots doesn't make you a troll. On the left idiots' board, it might. Depends on whether your posts have the potential to become a legitimate discussion, or whether you're just disrupting the discussion by posting things for no purpose other than to start fights.

When I feel myself wanting to come here just so I can disagree with somebody, I go somewhere else. Neither I nor JoeUser benefits by me appointing myself Draginol's personal gadfly.

but you come here to call him a troll.

i didn't even know you could be a troll on your own blog.

You know, I think you can be a troll on your own blog. Scott Adams at the Dilbert blog says things purposely to get his commenters riled up. And he'll post stuff like, "the first person to respond to my 'evolution has errors' post by saying 'science corrects its own errors, that's what makes it great!' has no free will." He knows what buttons he's pushing with his posts and if he enjoys the feeling of control that gives him over his commenters, that's the definition of a troll.