I just read through some comments about George Clooney’s Syriana on Fox New’s website. It was quite interesting reading some of the reaction from the liberals. I particularly liked responses such as,
“Ah the fanatics on the Right like to have everything so simple for their simple little minds.” — Matt (Mobile, AL).
“It’s the same nuts that like to burn CDs, books, or even witches. It’s the uneducated angry because they can’t quite understand anything that’s not black or white.” — Linda (Chicago, IL)
But this one takes the cake:
“…[A]re we back in the inane McCarthy days? Humans have truly not evolved that much since the days of witch burnings. It is the so-called far Right and neo-con who call themselves Christians that spew the most un-Christian things. We live in America; the films mentioned are more than the simple critique given. Hopefully you can have a sane debate and intelligent discussion about the issues provoke and move forward. Most of the crazy conservatives want to blindly believe in a distorted idea of what patriotism is. They are just as dangerous as any zealot Muslim. Fanatics are fanatics who think their God is the right one, while in the process completing forgetting about humanity and the tenants of their religion.” — Jane (Red Hook, NY)
These comments expose a couple of things about the liberals (and I’m not speaking just politically here). Did you notice how many “burning witches” references there are to the Right? I, for one, can’t recall the last time any witch was burned (other than from accidentally pouring their Starbucks into their lap). Yet for some reason, the group of people who had a fit over Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ because (they claimed) it showed Jews killing Jesus and was therefore anti-semetic has no problem whatsoever saying that the Religious Right is a bunch of “witch burners.” Does this make their speech “anti-right”? Of course not, because double standard thy name is Liberal.
Not to stop there, the Leftist comments also decide to label all those on the Right as “ignorant”, “uninformed”, “lunatic”, and “uneducated.” All of which is, of course, simple ad hominem. In addition to that, I find it highly ironical when people start ranting about how other people are ranting. Of course, these same people will think that simply because I have quoted them then I must also be ranting (because, after all, anything someone on the Right says is by definition a “rant”).
But all that aside, this does demonstrate a few simple facts that we need to look at. First of all, ideas do have consequences. What you think about reality does affect how you act and how you treat others. Therefore, having incorrect presuppositions about the world will lead to incorrect behavior.
This is demonstrated clearly in the comment that states “they can’t quite understand anything that’s not black or white.” The idea expressed by this is that there is no such thing as black and white, but instead everything is gray. This statement is actually self-refuting, since it’s not refering to colors but to truth, and therefore is a false presupposition.
Just as a quick aside, let me prove that the concept of “there is no black and white” is self-refuting. This is actually expressing the concept that “You can’t know what is right or wrong because right or wrong is not clear cut.” Implied in this is the notion that if you cannot know something is true then you cannot express it as a black and white idea. So, given that, we have the following:
(1) It is impossible to know if something is right or wrong.
(2) Proposition (1) is something that is known to be right.
(3) Therefore (2) contradicts (1).
Add to that the fact that to say “There is no such thing as black or white” is itself a black and white statement, we can add the charge of hypocrisy too. Unfortunately, given the dismal state of publik edjukashun, it is likely that many people exist in this country who cannot see the logical fallacy presented in the relativist’s view. This is why we need to be all the more dilligent in our reasoning.
