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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
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Fact vs. Opinion
#8033941 - 02/17/08 08:15 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Not sure why some people struggle with this, but let's try to clarify.
We shall start with some examples.
1. (You choose: Obama or McCain) will make the better American president.
This is an opinion (even if you chose neither or another candidate). Why? a. Because the future is not yet here.
b. Because "better" is a vague metric that could be applied in nearly limitless ways.
McCain voted for the Iraq War. Obama voted against the Iraq War.
These are both factual statements. They are unabiguous and are a matter of record.
Let's try another in which fact and opinion is comingled and presented as fact.
1. Timothy Leary was a visionary who freed a whole generation by turning them onto LSD.
2. Timothy Leary was a very dangerous man for turning a whole generation onto LSD.
Now recently on M&P I presented a fact, "Author Such & Such falsified his academic record" and was threatened with a ban for going against the wishes of the OP.
This is just ridiculuous and (opinion) seems to me to be fear-based. I can think of no other reason (my limitation) for one to NOT want to learn more about a favorite author.
This is not the first time. Folks got angry when I pointed out that Alan Watts had a drinking problem (fact) and that Lilly was a self-admitted ketamine junkie (fact).
Getting angry at me for the facts of another's life is just denial of reality. Suppression does not changes the past (fact) and is quite childish (opinion).
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mushbaby
woodswalker




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Actually Obama was not in the Senate at the time of the vote. Which I find horribly convenient. Yes he opposed it verbally, but not on record.
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Kombat Frank
GREAT JOB!



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Re: Fact vs. Opinion [Re: mushbaby]
#8034050 - 02/17/08 09:25 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
mushbaby said: Actually Obama was not in the Senate at the time of the vote. Which I find horribly convenient. Yes he opposed it verbally, but not on record.
leaving himself open to flip??
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ego tripping at the gates of hell
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Can anyone stay on track? This was not meant to be political.
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ScavengerType



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I think that your Leary example was the best for your question of how to understand these events. Weather or not he was dangerous or a liberator may have been a matter of perception. My approach to it is that he destroyed a generation that had revolutionary potential by introducing them en mass to a strange hallucinogen that had not been comprehensively tested. I am jaded against him because I cannot speed read anymore after taking LSD the first time. I still feel different from the substance and regret taking it and I can count the number of times I've done it on one hand.
Either way it cannot be denied that Tim Leary was acting with what he perceived to be the common good in mind. He really thought that LSD was the key to getting people to drop out of the rat race and take human values seriously. His opinion was that LSD was good and at the time little facts about LSD were available to the public. He kinda abused his authority as a university professor IMO when he did this and did it so publicly, cause if he was just some guy not so many people would have believed him but because of his position too many people took him seriously.
-------------------- "Have you ever seen what happens when a grenade goes off in a school? Do you really know what you’re doing when you order shock and awe? Are you prepared to kneel beside a dying soldier and tell him why he went to Iraq, or why he went to any war?" "The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done—dare I say it—in the name of God. Montesquieu said, "There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of God." And I begin to feel that’s true. The shareholder is the excuse for everything." - Author and former M6/M5 agent John le Carré on Democracy Now. Conquer's Club
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Humble lurker
Stranger
Registered: 02/11/08
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When does something become fact?
Seems to me that everything is opinion. A fact is just an opinion that appears more reliable.
You could say its a fact that we are alive but what if we actually weren't? What if we are beings that are attached to computers like in the Matrix?
Everybody interprets their surroundings the way they want to or the way they believe things to be. These interpretations are vast and vary hugely from individual to individual.
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Quote:
Seems to me that everything is opinion.
That is mere opinion and not a fact. What would you wager me that I cannot come up with a single non-arbitrary fact?
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mushbaby
woodswalker




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Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said: Can anyone stay on track? This was not meant to be political.
You were defining "fact" I was pointing out the irony of using a non-fact as a fact when defining fact.
The political opinion was just an added bonus. Kind of like the cherry on top of the sundae.
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



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Re: Fact vs. Opinion [Re: mushbaby]
#8034504 - 02/17/08 12:24 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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I trust your knowledge on this subject and I chose a poor example. Beat the dead horsey. 
There is an actual POINT to this thread in how often people mix up the two.
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mushbaby
woodswalker




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I like this one better.
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Humble lurker
Stranger
Registered: 02/11/08
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I am of the opinion that there are no facts. Nothing can be proven to be real for certain.
A fact is just what is believed to be true therefore a fact IS an opinion. Just an opinion that is generally accepted by the majority to be actuality.
The problem with any fact stems from the basic assumption that anything is real at all.
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deranger


Registered: 01/21/08
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it is a fact that a pencil is pencil. it is what it is. but do i know what a pencil really is based on my conception of it? do i truly really know what it is, and what it is composed of?
what is happening, am i looking at a pencil for what it is or is it a program that i am seeing, that is being triggered from my observation and memory of it?
maybe there is more to fact than what meats the eye?
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Humble lurker
Stranger
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Re: Fact vs. Opinion [Re: deranger]
#8034782 - 02/17/08 01:42 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Fact is described as being true reality. Yet nobody knows what that is.
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PhanTomCat
Teh Cat....



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Quote:
Humble lurker said: I am of the opinion that there are no facts. Nothing can be proven to be real for certain.
Huh....? Is it a fact or opinion that I just quoted what you said....?
>^;;^<
-------------------- I'll be your midnight French Fry.... "The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...." >^;;^<
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



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and that Lilly was a self-admitted ketamine junkie (fact).
I see this as a good thing.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger



Registered: 03/12/02
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Quote:
OrgoneConclusion said: I trust your knowledge on this subject and I chose a poor example. Beat the dead horsey. 
There is an actual POINT to this thread in how often people mix up the two.
Strange, I thought it was a standard affair to stick with one fact, or contribution of limited scope, ad nausem throughout a thread regardless of the general theme or point of the thread. 
The ironing is delicious.
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



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Quote:
fireworks_god said: The ironing is delicious.
No. What's delicious is your tongue!
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger



Registered: 03/12/02
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My tongue is delicious from having tasted the ironing. 
Perhaps I'll find something to iron with my tongue...
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
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Oh?  You realize that I can hold you captive and do whatever I please to you?
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger



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You're going to get us in trouble again. 
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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