50% of Americans, and 80% of likely GOP primary voters, now support the Trump ban on Muslims

Let's not leave Cruz and Rubio out of this discussion.

When you heard a member of a middle eastern government say they want to do something violent, you guys flip the F out.

Meanwhile these two morons - running to be commander and chief of the most destructive and active military on the planet - are regularly talking about carpet bombing countries which I promise you they couldn't even geographically pin point on a map. They are talking about policing Muslims in their neighbourhoods in the US. They are talking about keeping Mexicans out.

Same ****, different levels of showmanship.

 

I assure you that Ted Cruz could pin point the places he wants to bomb on a map. He is extremely bright and well educated. His problem is that he is a terrible narcissist with anti social tendencies.

 

I disagree with Bush, Clinton, Sanders and everyone who says it. It is just so blatantly and obviously untrue. People are able to get it when a politician says: "Collective punishment and labeling all Muslims as enemies is not acceptable." I totally agree with that statement. But I - and many - feel like they are being played for fools when a politician says "this has nothing to do with Islam". These are two different statements. I understand why they are saying it, I just think it has the opposite effect of what they intend. The obvious dishonesty in the statement doesn't help - it is damaging.

As you said - politicians from the right and from the left have followed the same "strategy" here - do not alienate Muslims by stating the obvious truth, the elephant in the room - yes, it does have to do with Islam. Has that helped? If the polls quoted in the OP are correct - no, it hasn't. On the contrary.

Yes, but sadly, it doesn't end with the Wahhabists. The Pew polls clearly show that hundreds of millions of Muslims worldwide support totalitarian and completely unacceptable goals, such as wanting to kill people who no longer want to be followers of their religion, wanting to kill gays, wanting lesser rights for women and for people of other beliefs, etc. etc.

I could not agree more.

Exactly.

 

Wouldn't be shocked, but I highly doubt it. Going to a great American college/university doesn't make you necessarily able to care or know about these things. That's not how "well educated" is solely defined. He's never struck me as bright, ever. I don't know where that comes from, though I'm open to the idea.

Rubio, I could buy that maybe he could do it. But certainly not Cruz, you can sense it when he's talking about the Middle East. Also doesn't help that I've seen this creepy stuff:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hO_MkcZh-VY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Could he pinpoint the exact place in the Atlantic Ocean where Iran will launch it's nuclear missile into the air causing an electromagnetic impulse in the atmosphere and blackout the U.S. eastern seaboard killing millions of Americans?

I keep hearing Cruz is smart, and he seems to have the pedigree. I also keep hearing what an amazing debater he is.

But in the Presidential debates (I know different format) he has been okay, but not spectacular.

And as far as his intelligence, he says some really stupid and crazy things. Maybe he's saying them to gain votes, but he speaks like he's completely clueless in a lot of areas.

That's especially true when he's spouting off about the Iranians shooting a nuclear missile straight into the atmosphere from the Atlantic Ocean. He's talking like a crazy person with little real knowledge.

I don't doubt that he's smart. But he tries really hard to look and sound like he isn't.

 

Obama's decision making has been criticized but there's a general consensus that he does listen to his advisors and is fair to them before making his executive decision.

Dubya emphasized extreme trust and loyalty which meant he deferred much but took ownership for being the Decider.

I'd fear more about Trump's ego and his tendency to surround himself with yes-men as advisors than his individual knowledge across different governmental duties.

 

Who are these people that say Islam shouldn't be criticized? There's plenty of criticism for Islam I hear from the left - especially for things like apostasy, the way women are treated, and justice. Islam needs to see suicide bombings as apostasy, not someone who wishes to reform the religion.

Christians once killed those who tried to reform that religion - calling them blasphemers. This is a problem with religion. It needs to be confronted.

I think where you cross the line and go beyond criticism when people say it is Islam itself and it is impossible of reform, that it is a religion of violence and therefore encouraging people to discriminate against Muslims. And that's what we see with someone like ATW and how that thinking spurs guys like Trump.

 

You constantly try to derail any thread that criticizes Islam.

You are also a self-described Marxist. Any credibility you ever tried to get by posting lengthy essays on this board went out the window when you confessed to that.

Here is an article to educate you.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/oh-good-were-arguing-whether-marxism-works.html

Oh, Good, It’s 2016 and We’re Arguing About Whether Marxism Works

Every Marxist government in history has been a repressive nightmare. Marxists — aside from the ones who defend the remaining Marxist regimes — consider this a strange coincidence that has no bearing on Marxist ideology.

(...)

 

Idiots like your current fake persona on this board, as evidenced by you calling people "Islamaphobes" and all your idiotic posts.

 

Criticizing a belief system for its shortcomings is something entirely different than singling out people for less-than-equal protection under the law. You are either with The Enlightenment, (and the respect for the rights of others and the commons they share) or you are against it.

That goes equally to governments that want to single out certain communities as it does those communities demanding any government respect or enforce blasphemy laws (like using public transportation on weekends in Tel Aviv or buying liquor on a Sunday in the Bible Belt...or censoring cartoonists drawing Muhammad).

 

The little intern in you who desperately wants to be around successful entrepreneurs is trying to pass himself off as one on this basketball message board.

 

Authoritarianism has many flavors. Reading Marxist critiques of mid-19th century capitalism or his and Engels' interpretation of the Hegelian dialectic is a far cry from embracing the governments of Stalin, Mao, Castro, or Kim. I personally think Hegel is even more welcoming of authoritarianism than Marx or Engels, and while I am certainly not alone, no one I know uses Hegelist as a pejorative to deflate someone's credibility.

It would be like attacking anyone that supports the Austrian school of economics as party to Chilean genocide because Pinochet followed them. No one tries to do that to hang that on Ludwig von Mises or Friedrich A. Hayek, and they are no less controversial or challenging to the status quo.

 

A problem with individuals like Northside and Sweet Lou is they subscribe to the proverb "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". This is severely flawed for two reasons;
He views his fellow countrymen who disagree with him as the enemy.
Additionally in this case, there is a large percentage of middle easterners who would love nothing more than to gut him for their beliefs.

 

Yes, exactly.

 

Which must be why you were such an enthusiastic supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood - run Islamist Mursi government in Egypt.