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A comment on Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate It in Any Way. Parent comment

Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by dllthomas on Thursday February 27, 2014 @08:59PM (#7316772)
"No I'm not. The debate was over 100 years ago, the ignorant just haven't figured it out yet. They simply get laughed at now for trying to argue the case. Mockery is not concession."

If it's actually half the country, and they actually think it's substantially more important than the other half the country, there's an argument that it's effective concession. But, at the risk of putting words in your mouth, I more understood you to be saying that having the argument wasn't important - conveying the understanding behind your "your side" of that argument you might consider quite a bit more important.

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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by logfromblammo on Friday February 28, 2014 @12:06PM (#7319988)
There never was a debate. Having a debate presumes that it is possible for one side to concede. The public discussion between Bill Nye and Religiousguy Whatsisface showed that one side is not debating; they're just baiting. Bill Nye said all it would take to change his mind is just one piece of real evidence. The other guy said that nothing anyone could ever say or do would change his mind.

On hearing that, it becomes obvious. There is no quest for truth or spirit of inquiry in the opposition. They are simply obstacles to progress that must be routed around. The debate is not over; it never took place, and it never will.

If you can't get someone to support rational argumentation by means of rational arguments, you're better off talking to someone--anyone--else.

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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by dllthomas on Friday February 28, 2014 @02:31PM (#7320916)
There are some people who claim to be beyond convincing. There are probably some people who are beyond convincing - and there's probably some overlap between those two groups. It's just not the case that either of these sets includes everyone who doesn't "believe in" evolution.
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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by gnaritas on Friday February 28, 2014 @04:59PM (#7321812)
You can't have a reasoned debate about evolution; reasonable people already know it's a fact and don't dispute it. Only unreasonable people are still disputing a basic fact of the world discovered well over 100 years ago.
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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by dllthomas on Friday February 28, 2014 @07:36PM (#7322498)
You're presuming a lot about people's exposure to various ideas. A reasonable person surrounded by unreasonable people, who has - of course - encountered talk of evolution but almost exclusively absurd caricatures isn't going to "already know it's a fact".
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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by gnaritas on Sunday March 02, 2014 @11:53AM (#7329726)
If they graduated high school, they were exposed to the facts regardless of who they're around. Anyone who doesn't know evolution is reality is not a person of reason.
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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by dllthomas on Tuesday March 04, 2014 @09:00AM (#7340160)
"If they graduated high school, they were exposed to the facts regardless of who they're around."

Unfortunately that's basically false.

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