A lesson in clear thinking from an exchange in an online thread between a friend of mine and a person identified as Tiggr:
Tiggr: I think everyone is missing the real point of all this. Forcing your opinions and beliefs on anyone else is wrong. That is the crux of it all. Everything else is just posturing and rhetoric.
DGG: I think that Tiggr is missing the point too. The statement that "everyone is missing the real point" is a self-defeating statement because, if true, then Tiggr is missing the point too.
Further, the statement that "forcing your opinions and beliefs on anyone else is wrong" is interesting because every statute or regulation enacted by a governmental entity is a means of forcing one's or society's beliefs on someone else. Forbidding murder is one method of forcing a belief against murder on everyone else in society. Thus, that can't be the point! The question cannot be whether or not we are forcing our beliefs on everyone else, but whether or not the belief is a legitmate one. What Tiggr must mean, then, is that only those beliefs held by Tiggr are appropriately forced on everyone else. Otherwise, the comment is nonsensical.
One should deal with the issues and not engage in personal attacks or self-defeating statements.
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