Liberal Pride - Forum Guide, FAQ Thread Options

[Optimus Mike]

Whether you're a returning member from this forum's previous incarnation, or a new member, you might be asking yourself what all this is about. Therefore, I figured it prudent to give you the guided tour.

Member Services & Non-Political Discussion - This is where you'll find things such as forum-wide news, a break from the daily grind of endless debate and bickering over politics, and your means to make your voice heard in the shaping and improvement of the forum. It has several forums and subforums to help you get situated. They are:

Member Services - This is where you can get started as a member of the forum. Here you will find Announcements, where you shall find news about forum updates; Introductions, where new members request their member groups and say hello; and Member Input, where members may constructively critique the forum and add ideas for how it may be improved upon.

Idle Conversation - This is where members may discuss anything non-political. Chat about music, sports, movies, general life stuff, tell jokes, or whatever.

Political Discussion Area - The main discussion area of the forum, the meat and potatoes of Liberal Pride, if you will. Here you will find:

Air America Radio - Listen Live! - Where you can tune in to the live 'net broadcast of Air America Radio.

Breaking News & Current Events - Members may post breaking news items and other events happening throughout the country and world.

General Political Discussion - This is the main forum for discussing general political, philosophical, and ideological issues.

Op-Eds & Other Reading Material - We love news as much as anyone else, but it mustn't be confused with opinion pieces, political books, magazines and theses. So here is where members may discuss op-eds, books, theses, magazine columns, and any other political opinions and material.

Gloves Off - We know arguments can and often do get heated from time to time, and sometimes people just need a place to vent their anger, frustration and general fuckery someplace where they won't necessarily be penalized for it. Bear in mind, though, that the rules pertaining to racist ans homophobic remarks still apply here.

Zombies of the Blogosphere! - The title of this forum is a pun on an old Republic Pictures serial of the late 1940s and early 1950s. If you have a blog you'd like to promote, or if you see something in the blogosphere you feel worthy of discussion, this is the place to post it.

Progressive & Liberal Area - An area open to liberal and progressive members.

Conservative Area - An area of the forum open to conservative members.

The Trash Bin - This is the final part of the whole forum on our guided tour. Here you will find:

Reform School - This is where we send incorrigible trolls, members who consistently violate the rules of the forum. This we generally do instead of outright banning. How long trolls stay in confinement depends on their ability and willingness to adhere to forum rules.

Liberal Pride Archives - This is where you'll find threads that have violated the rules of the forum. Rather than delete them, they may be found here so members may get an idea of how not to post. The archives are also used to move announcement threads that are out-dated and no longer serve their purpose. It has its own sub-archive, devoted to Spam Threads (threads posted by spam bots).

This post has been edited by Michael K.: Jun 9 2008, 05:22 PM

[Optimus Mike]

You might be wondering, after reading the rules and guidelines pertaining to honesty, how it might be possible to adhere to it. After all, one may ask, aren't honesty and dishonesty subjective terms? Isn't one person's truth another person's lie? The short answer is, "no, they are not subjective." The long answer is outlined below. By learning to differentiate fact from opinion, and truth from deception, it is possible to figure out which is which and when it is or isn't being applied to debate.

Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines Truth thusly:

Main Entry: truth
Pronunciation: 'trüth
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural truths /'trü[th]z, 'trüths/

Etymology: Middle English trewthe, from Old English trEowth fidelity; akin to Old English trEowe faithful

1 a archaic : FIDELITY, CONSTANCY b : sincerity in action, character, and utterance
2 a (1) : the state of being the case : FACT (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true <truths of thermodynamics> c : the body of true statements and propositions
3 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : TRUE 2 c : fidelity to an original or to a standard
4 capitalized, Christian Science : GOD
- in truth : in accordance with fact : ACTUALLY

And how does Webster's Dictionary define a lie?

Main Entry: 3 lie

Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): lied; ly·ing /'lI-i[ng]/

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English lEogan; akin to Old High German liogan to lie, Old Church Slavic lugati
intransitive verb

1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression
transitive verb : to bring about by telling lies <lied his way out of trouble>
synonyms LIE, PREVARICATE, EQUIVOCATE, PALTER, FIB mean to tell an untruth. LIE is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty <lied about where he had been>. PREVARICATE softens the bluntness of LIE by implying quibbling or confusing the issue <during the hearings the witness did his best to prevaricate>. EQUIVOCATE implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another <equivocated endlessly in an attempt to mislead her inquisitors>. PALTER implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises <a swindler paltering with his investors>. FIB applies to a telling of a trivial untruth <fibbed about the price of the new suit>.

So how does one tell, especially on an Internet discussion forum, if someone is lying or telling the truth? For that matter, how does one differentiate fact from opinion? Well, these questions are about to be answered.

1.) Separating Truth from lies.

Distinguishing Truth from lies really isn't as difficult as it might at first appear. With a little research, and some deductive reasoning, it becomes easier to find out if someone is telling the truth or if he is lying. We can do this by examining the different kinds of lies. They are:

Lies of Omission - Leaving out facts that contradict or weaken one's argument. If someone omits facts that contradict or weaken an argument but cannot or will not give a reasonable answer as to why the information was omitted, chances are they're not being honest.

Lies of Exaggeration - Puffing up actual facts in such a way as to distort them, to the point they are no longer facts.

Lies of Distortion - Twisting existing facts, statements or arguments in such a way as to obtain a false conclusion.

Lies of Fabrication - Manufacturing "facts" out of thin air.

Intentional - Deliberate dishonesty. This is when the liar knows the truth yet chooses to deceive anyway.

Unintentional - When someone makes an honest error, but out of sheer stubbornness refuses to correct himself. The mistake, then, becomes a lie borne of pride.

2.) Spotting dishonest tactics in arguments.

This, again, is pretty easy once you know how liars present their arguments. Their tactics are:

The Straw Man - A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that position to the opponent. A straw-man argument can be a successful rhetorical technique (that is, it may succeed in persuading people) but it is in fact misleading, because the opponent's actual argument has not been refuted.

Its name is derived from the practice of using straw men in combat training. In such training, a scarecrow is made in the image of the enemy with the single intent of attacking it. It is occasionally called a straw dog fallacy or a scarecrow argument.

Here's a good example of a straw man argument.

Assume that there was a very credible intelligence report that a hidden nuclear device or some other mass killing device would be set off sometime in the next few hours in some city in some country. Assume further that the authorities had in custody a person who definitely had knowledge of the bomb's location. Now here's the tough question. Should every possible option, including torture, be utilized to extract the information from the person? Or do the authorities do nothing and have many thousands, possibly millions, of people die?

The straw man argument is in presenting a false set of options. It's arguing that if someone is for or against a thing, then that person therefore must be for or against another thing. Obviously in a 'ticking time bomb' scenario, there is never an option to 'do nothing'. That's where the straw man tactic is revealed, in that false option. The tactic assumes that if you are against torture, therefore you must be against preventing terrorism. That's false and dishonest.

The Ad Hominem - An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally argument against the person), involves replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. It is a logical fallacy. Some examples of it include include the personal attack, when a personal attack is used to discredit a specific claim or assertion, and the you-too argument.

It includes ad hominem abusive (argumentum ad personam), ad hominem circumstantial (ad hominem circumstantiae), ad hominem tu quoque...

A good example of this is in replying to a set of statistics, "well, you can't trust this because it's written by a well-known liberal." The ad hominem here is in arguing as though the source's bias, real or perceived, and not any actual flaws in logic or methodology, is reason enough to dismiss an argument. Another example of an ad hominem is in responding to a statement by replying with something along the lines of, "well, that's what I would expect from liberals; they're all for legalized murder." Or, "you're [fill in the blank with your own insult -- use your imagination]." In this fashion, someone who is dishonest can avoid having to respond to an argument by attacking the source.

The Dodge - Also known as The Evasion. This is when a person avoids answering questions or presenting facts with which to support his argument. It can be done a variety of ways, including (but not limited to): changing the subject; openly refusing to answer a particular question, challenge or charge; or refusing to answer questions, challenges or charges by denying that the other person has answered them. This last can also fall under the category Ad Hominem category, since it attacks a person rather than his argument.

3. Distinguishing fact from opinion.

Webster's Dictionary defines 'fact' thusly:

Main Entry: fact
Pronunciation: 'fakt
Function: noun

Etymology: Latin factum, from neuter of factus, past participle of facere

1 : a thing done: as a obsolete : FEAT b : CRIME <accessory after the fact> c archaic : ACTION
2 archaic : PERFORMANCE, DOING
3 : the quality of being actual : ACTUALITY <a question of fact hinges on evidence>
4 a : something that has actual existence <space exploration is now a fact> b : an actual occurrence <prove the fact of damage>
5 : a piece of information presented as having objective reality
- in fact : in truth

Webster's Dictionary defines 'opinion' thusly:

Main Entry: opin·ion
Pronunciation: &-'pin-y&n
Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin opinion-, opinio, from opinari

1 a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter b : APPROVAL, ESTEEM
2 a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b : a generally held view
3 a : a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert b : the formal expression (as by a judge, court, or referee) of the legal reasons and principles upon which a legal decision is based

An opinion may be based upon facts, other opinions, and yes, even lies. But it is not to be confused with a fact. A fact is raw information, a statistic or set of numbers, a quote or set of quotes accurately depicting what someone has stated, and so forth. If someone tries to pass opinion off as fact, or vice versa, he is not being honest.

[Optimus Mike]

There are three main member groups: Undeclared (the default group you register under), Liberal and Conservative.

The Liberal and Conservative member groups each have their own discussion forums to post in, that are exclusive to the groups under which they fall. Guests and Undeclared members may read the contents of these forums, but may not post in them. If you have registered for the forum and wish to change your Member Group, simply post a thread in the Introductions forum asking for a change to either Liberal or Conservative. The Introductions forum is also a way for new members to introduce themselves.

This post has been edited by Michael: Apr 19 2008, 06:04 PM

[Optimus Mike]

How to Embed YouTube Videos

If you've checked out the Juke Box thread in Idle Conversation, you'll have noticed a lot of embedded YouTube videos. And you're probably wondering how to repeat this. It's easy. Say you have a YouTube video you want to embed. You simply take the URL of the video you want to add:

CODE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1a_ikfUico

And select the portion of the URL that comes after the = sign, like so: Y1a_ikfUico

Then you can add that to the following code tag:

CODE

[YouTube]Y1a_ikfUico[/YouTube]

And if you want to center it, you can simply add the align center tag, like so:

CODE

[center][YouTube]Y1a_ikfUico[/YouTube][/center]

The result should be this:

[Optimus Mike]

Paid Subscription Services

This forum doesn't pay for itself, unfortunately. It costs thirty dollars a month to maintain. Thirty dollars that this site owner just can't afford. So paid subscriptions help immensely. How does one get a paid subscription? Easy. Just go to your user control panel, which you can access my clicking the link called 'My Controls' at the top-right corner of the page below the forum logo. Once you're in, scroll down a bit until you see 'Options' in the left hand column. Click 'Purchase Paid Subscriptions', and you should see a list of packages. These packages are as follows:

One Month

Purchase a paid subscription for one month. If you're unsure about making a long term commitment, this is probably the best package for you. Renew on a month-to-month basis. This costs five U.S. dollars ($5.00).

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Wow, in it for the long haul, eh? Thank you! Renew at the end of six months. Twenty-five big ones ($25.00).

One Year

Saints be praised! You've decided to make a year-long commitment! You rock! This is a fifty dollar ($50.00) package.

Once you've selected a package you'll be asked to select a payment method. Currently, we accept only two payment methods: PayPal and U.S. money order (although cash won't be turned down, but that's something you mail at your own risk for obvious reasons).

Once I've received payment, I'll convert your member group to its subscriber version. This shall gain you access to our Arcade, which is a treat you get for subscribing. We're currently working on getting a Casino to sweeten the proverbial pot, but that may take a while to obtain. Arcade games include, but are not limited to:

Asteroids
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Yes, the Arcade is comprised of the old Atari games from ages past. This is what comes with any subscription package. So you're not just forking over money to help keep this forum going; you're getting something else -- something fun -- in return.