What I'd really like to see though is someone go for number two. In other words, someone who would actually make the effort to figure out they were completely, objectively, in the wrong. Very hard to do. Who knows, maybe one of my blocked users could have gone for number two. Certainly I think a couple of them would have gone for one.

@kmaz People who are so dumb they were still supporting Trump when he was extorting Ukraine are not smart enough to reflect now and realize they were wrong.

@JeffMurray

Yes, but I can dream. I mean, just think if there was even one just person on this board who sincerely reflected on the error of their ways. Maybe they could get some help for example if the radio in their car broke and they no longer had their head filled with toxic sophistry from talk radio. Maybe they could consider (for the first time, or re-consider) the question of whether every person who opposes them is "liberal" (not so), or whether being politically liberal is as uniformly evil as they have been taught (it isn't). Maybe they could ask themselves if they have really been defending individual liberty, property rights, free markets and such (they have absolutely not been defending anything resembling those things).

Probably none of this will happen, but I still think it's worth hoping. After all, many (but not all) on this website came to be here by reflecting that maybe the delusional theistic anti-thought blather of their parents could be in error. They have had at least one semi-lucid moment in their lives where they faced down something really difficult and came out ok on the other end. For those that supported Trump in this matter, maybe they could face down the toxic pseudo-freedom-defending second-hand soup they have adopted as their take on US politics, or which impacts their personal views on philosophy of government.

@kmaz For sure those are nice thoughts. I would love it if that were true. I honestly don't think it is though. If you could still be on board with that disgusting pile of shit through the 628 things on the list below, I just can't see how #629 changes anything for you. Possible, I guess, as I consider what he did to be a war crime, but I already recognized what a horrible scumbag he was.

As for the "people on this website" I made the same mistake. I used to think that if one was atheist, it meant they had at least some heightened reasoning skills or a dedication to rationality and logic, and I think I thought that because of how I personally saw people become atheist, but it's just not the case. There are a number of ways one can be a non-believer. Not having to become a non-believer is one that leaves the door open to any other possible combination of traits. Someone could be an incredibly stupid person with no reasoning skills who just happened to be raised without any religious indoctrination.

[mcsweeneys.net]

@JeffMurray
good link thanks