tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post6686783286467280016..comments2024-03-28T09:19:27.451+00:00Comments on RevK<sup>®</sup>'s ramblings: ExtremismRevKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369263214193333422noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-76317689572663070082017-06-07T00:13:26.073+01:002017-06-07T00:13:26.073+01:00Since you don't care to understand Islam, why ...Since you don't care to understand Islam, why are you picking at my comments?<br /><br />Seems a bit silly to me.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12713589675630568460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-91625472750434166992017-06-06T15:51:30.989+01:002017-06-06T15:51:30.989+01:00Now consider Theresa May and her government from t...Now consider Theresa May and her government from the perspective of someone who disagrees with them (could be ISIS, could just be a British citizen who disagrees with Brexit, austerity and back-doored encryption).<br /><br />"These people want the whole world to become an English-speaking conservative monarchy and for us all to live under their law. You can't negotiate with these people, as their desires / demands are totally at odds with our society's core beliefs, so no acceptable compromise to both sides is conceivable. We therefore have no choice but to treat them as the evil, barbaric terrorists that they really are and to do whatever we reasonably can to stop them."<br /><br />Seem like a bit of an over-reaction? Well perhaps there is an argument for finding common ground and not persisting with the intolerance and ostracizing of others.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-39741478328895822762017-06-05T18:27:04.104+01:002017-06-05T18:27:04.104+01:00Since this is obviously a bit of electronic forme ...Since this is obviously a bit of electronic forme (i.e. pasted from somewhere), I thought I'd ask Google where it came from.<br /><br />Turns out it's from some guy who writes ostensibly academic books about Islam that are actually just a tirade.<br /><br />"Since every Muslim can have three parts, it is hard to nail him down. There is a shifty quality that goes with the territory."<br /><br />The linguistic style is sadly reminiscent of many historical paragraphs written about 'the Jew'.<br /><br />If I cared to understand Islam, I doubt this guy would be a good place to start.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-33771597270543810802017-06-05T10:47:35.898+01:002017-06-05T10:47:35.898+01:00[citation needed]
It's just as plausible to t...[citation needed]<br /><br />It's just as plausible to think that they want to continue to enjoy the power and money that they have gained by sending idiotic children out to become martyrs. If you believe their rhetoric, do you also believe what politicians say when they're speaking English?<br /><br />ISIS is already collapsing under its own weight with a slight nudge from outside. The only way to keep it going and give its people hope is to give it an enemy that wants it dead. That's you, mate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-72813349951043128552017-06-05T09:59:46.893+01:002017-06-05T09:59:46.893+01:00I'm not convinced that a technical services co...I'm not convinced that a technical services company is well placed to make decisions as to what content is "extremist" or "terrorist". My preference would be for a court to decide, and to impose obligations / orders. Same with copyright infringement: let a court, not an ISP, make that decision.<br /><br />If there is so much material that we need an appropriate independent body to do this, so be it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18427000118752159232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-32252268631466094942017-06-05T09:43:56.070+01:002017-06-05T09:43:56.070+01:00This is being reported in the newspapers this morn...This is being reported in the newspapers this morning:<br /><br />-------------------<br /><br />The friend told the BBC’s Asian Network that the terrorist had been radicalised watching videos of the infamous American hate preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril.<br /><br />He said: “We spoke about a particular attack that happened and like most radicals he had a justification for anything and everything and that day I realised I needed to contact the authorities.”<br /><br />He added: “He used to listen to a lot of Musa Jibril. I have heard some of this stuff and its very radical. I am surprised this stuff is still on YouTube and is easily accessible. I phoned the anti-terror hotline. I spoke to the gentleman. I told him about our conversation and why I think he was radicalised.”<br /><br />-------------------<br /><br />Youtube / Google make billions from advertising and need to re-invest some of that money in actively searching for and removing this type of unacceptable content, so that it is no longer "easily accessible". The people that carry out these atrocities are easily led astray and we should be doing more to prevent this.<br />Ruperthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04685206007070599216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-57643563094614374412017-06-05T08:43:57.519+01:002017-06-05T08:43:57.519+01:00I was brought up by a lapsed Catholic (my grandmot...I was brought up by a lapsed Catholic (my grandmother) and we had a Rabbi as a neighbour. I was given access to all the books and read them out of interest. Your quote "It is often said the the best way to turn a Christian in to an atheist is to get them to property read and study the bible" is close but in my case I suppose I'm agnostic as I can't prove for or against.<br />What does irritate somewhat is the number of religious leaders who misquote (either through ignorance or in their own interests) the religious scripts. <br />In most cases religion is an accident of birth, you're defined by the religion of your family, I was fortunate enough to be left alone to come to my own conclusions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-83510857068480601012017-06-05T01:00:16.078+01:002017-06-05T01:00:16.078+01:00I think you're missing two important things in...I think you're missing two important things in your argument: humans aren't naturally rational creatures; and using that definition of extremist then most political parties probably match it too.<br /><br />Humans are pattern matchers, that learn an explanation and then exhibit confirmation bias to retain that explanation in the face of evidence that doesn't fit (in machine learning terms a bit like a slack variable). We also have a nasty habit of then deliberately selecting input data to fit a desired worldview.<br /><br />We also hold contradictory world views all the time, people will often assure you that they believe it is wrong to litter but then get caught littering a few minutes later. There are climate science deniers who believe in evolution and are fervent atheists. Now they accept the scientific consensus on one matter but not another, are they rational or irrational?<br /><br />Once a hypothesis has been formed evidence changes viewpoints far less than most people believe. This is particularly acute in cutting edge science, where you get scientists denouncing each other as idiots because they interpret the same results differently through competing models. When the conclusion someone has reached seems incorrect based on the evidence you know and you write them off as irrational they almost certainly view your thought process as the irrational one.<br /><br />Our problem is humans are cognitively limited to only one viewpoint, we find it difficult to weigh multiple hypotheses fairly and the longer it has been held then the harder it is to update even in the face of pretty damning evidence. As a species this pattern matching behavior means we seem to be determined to form a view about everything, even when the evidence is incomplete. Unfortunately that means it's hard to teach a true null, as if not initialised with a hypothesis the learners will seek one out or even randomly form one.<br /><br />Political parties being made up of humans often don't make their policy decisions based on evidence, they're already have a hypothesis which is why they formed the party. Instead they have focus groups, polls, policy wonks, a little evidence is there but politics and ideology matter more, got to win the votes to be able to do anything. When you look at the far left and the far right you see more obvious examples of this but as your blog posts have shown the mainstream parties are often guilty of evidence free policy too.<br /><br />Incidentally I predict there will indeed be a clash between organised religion and politics over power and the politicians will win but that the results will be disappointing to everyone.Technical Vaulthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06706968838212709673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-4283149975210752262017-06-04T23:14:50.741+01:002017-06-04T23:14:50.741+01:00"...What we see cries for is to pull the extr..."...What we see cries for is to pull the extremism from the internet"<br /><br />As a society, I think we should be happy to pull pages from search engines which are an abuse of free speech in that they glorify / incite terrorism or instruct terrorists on how to construct bombs and / or kill lots of people. This is completely different to saying that you want to ban religious pages, as the vast majority of people of all religions are peaceful and they should be allowed to say what they want under our right to free speech.<br /><br />Judging what should or should not be pulled is of course the hard bit and I think it would be better if Google and co. did this voluntarily themselves so that they could judge what it is reasonable to keep or remove. The Government should nevertheless provide public guidance as to the type of material it would expect the search engines to try and remove and examples of what it believes is acceptable should be provided too.Ruperthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04685206007070599216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-74092482426248142982017-06-04T23:02:10.159+01:002017-06-04T23:02:10.159+01:00You say: "...I think we need to be understand...You say: "...I think we need to be understanding the motives of the organisers - why they are doing this and what do they want?"<br /><br />These people want the whole world to become an Islamic caliphate and for us all to live under their law. You can't negotiate with these people, as their desires / demands are totally at odds with our society's core beliefs, so no acceptable compromise to both sides is conceivable. We therefore have no choice but to treat them as the evil, barbaric terrorists that they really are and to do whatever we reasonably can to stop them.Ruperthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04685206007070599216noreply@blogger.com