Just wanted to present a balanced view of Carroll's background (his bio) and by another observation of his ideas....I can't speak for the blogger.
And bringing up the slavery issue is probably a straw man argument. From the research I've done, and history of slavery, that "institution" had been around for thousands of years. The "sellers" in Africa were some of the very tribesmen of the people they were selling into slavery. Did anyone think anything about them? I certainly do today! How could one's own people sell their own brothers and sisters into slavery? What would you call that?
Besides, I'm just finding that one of my great grandfathers and his family may have been involved in helping the slaves from the south via the Underground Railroad..... People didn't want to be caught then....fines of $250 (a princely sum in those days when $100 a year was a lot of money)...plus prison sentences, which would have destroyed the family. It is VERY difficult to prove, and I am researching that now.
As to your question: >>>Does it improve the argument to attack the person you are arguing with, rather than the ideas?<<<
I'm assuming you are just asking that, and not saying that I personally was attacking anyone. I wasn't.
But yours is a great question. Maybe it is we have all gotten so used to "attacking" the person, particularly our public figures, like Cheney and Bush, that we forget the niceities of not attacking the person, and just their ideas....
If people stop to realize what has been going on for several years, they will realize that we have been surrounded with people around us, in the media, radio, TV, cable, newspapers, etc that attack the PERSON and NOT just their ideas.....
Thanks for bringing that to our attention. Maybe more people will realize what they are hearing on a daily basis. |
