Shila

Hi! I’m Tejretics. I joined DDO in 2015, and DART in 2018. I was this site’s first Voting Moderator, and was on the DDO Hall of Fame. I’m currently a college student in the United States studying math and economics, and am from India. I’ve got a fair bit of experience doing formal parliamentary debate, and care a lot about effective animal advocacy and international development. Ask me anything!

Some things I can talk about:

• My thoughts on trends in modern competitive debate 
  
• Any of my political views
  
• Anything about India
  
• My honest opinion of you, if I have one 
  

That’s a non-exhaustive list!

> @Lunatic @RationalMadman @Sum1hugme @Theweakeredge

Any thoughts?

--> @RationalMadman

I fear this place will just use up mod after mod until it becomes an unmoderated ghost town like DDO.

..." very day, on average, 316 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention.

Every day, 210 people are shot and survive.

• 95 are injured in an attack
  
• 10 survive a suicide attempt
  
• 90 are shot unintentionally
  
• 4 are shot in a legal intervention
  

Every day, 106 people die from gun violence.

• 39 are murdered
  
• 64 kill themselves
  
• 1 is killed unintentionally
  
• 1 dies but the intent is unknown
  

115,551 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, or by police intervention. "....

This does not include all of the big guns/weapons used in war.

https://www.teamenough.org/gun-violence-statistics

--> @Shila

They were just as stolen on day 1 as day 500. I don't know why the FBI gets a free pass on this. I expect more out of the FBI.

--> @Public-Choice

I am willing to hear your experiences with guns if you'd like to talk about them

IVe owned one gun. Single shot .22 home made stock{ with crack in it }, with springfield IL stamp on barrel. I was a good shot. My brother passed it on to me. Shot a bird with it once, and felt bad that I did  that, afterwords.

Killed a frog with it and agin felt bad, so at this time, 1970 or so, I took gun and threw it out in the far in of hog pen. Many years later my friends told me that found the barrel. So I shot shotguns with other friends as teenager, and shot 457 mag. with some other friends. One of those finally stuck his pistol in his mouth and shot himself some years after I have left town.

Las time a shot couple of guns was some 40 years later I was at a Turkey shoot, where I borrowed guns from others, and I got first prise in shootoff with couple of others.  The sheriff had the exact 22 rifle I had as the rifle my brother gave me..

So ive owned several knifes and once skinned a cow and pegged out the skin to try and make leather.  Didnt work out for me. I had much better luck with carving art pieces out of wood poplar and cedar.

Never killed any animals with a knife. I remmber my mother, killing chickens in backyard by wringing/breaking their necks, and then chicken would run around yard in circle before collasping. Have killed couple of rats by stomping on them with shoe/boot.  Killed mice with traps. I did see a muskrat once, lumbering along side of paved road not too far from the rive. Never ever saw another one, and dont care if I ever do. The are like a huge hariy rat from out of sci-fi movie. Haha

Another best friend from childhood was killed by his wife with a gun. I dont know circusmtances, as he wand I had split ways some years.  Last time I saw him he was still single man and dressed in his high collar white and all sparkly Elvis costume.  When we first met in 7th grade, he used always say I looked like Elvis. So I heard from his younger brother, about the incident, but never got any details of the circumstances. Only wife shot him dead.

He was devout Christian type like his parents were.  

SkepticalOne: Yes, there were two polls referenced in the OP - one reflects the views of a group of right leaning Americans and the other views of South Africans about South Africans. Neither prove black Americans are more racist than other races. 

--> @Shila

And? If it were so important to secure the documents, Somebody in the FBI should have been fired for taking 500 days to do it.

Polytheist-Witch: There has been some ridiculous and scary shit posted at this site since the lockdown. People did not handle it well. 

Polytheist-Witch: The Indians still mostly view God as one being with many faces. They believe God can manifest into different aspects so that they can address certain issues. They don't necessarily believe that there are thousands of gods it's thousands of faces for one God.

--> @Double_R

In fairness, you could also say the FBI "sat" on the information that Trump had unsecured documents for over 500 days.

--> @Shila

Blacks are more racist than whites - The Race Card Project

"Black People Are MORE RACIST Than White - One News Page VIDEO

You must be a very lost individual, Avery. I hope you find some truth which can lighten your heart from such odd beliefs.

--> @Shila

You aren't making sense. Either the rate of births is the same as Islam or it is not, yet here you are telling me about abortion rates in the west being the same as in Africa. In Islam women are not allowed to terminate a pregnancy. In Islam the man can have more than one wife. Yet here you are telling us that the rates of births are the same.

Islam is outgrowing Christianity all around the world.  Christianity is on its last legs and the only growth is shown to be in only some African countries.

There were more Christians than Muslims.

There may well have been, but you can be assured that Christians are being outnumbered all over the world. Christianity/Christians is/are in decline. These are facts.

Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U.S. and around the world.

Muslims and Islam: Key findings in the U.S. and around the world | Pew Research Center

--> @Shila

Humans were better suited for survival and outpaced every other animal species.

That is the biggest load of old bollocks I have ever heard. Humans are the most unsuited species for nature than any single species on earth. Humans will very rarely last one single night in his natural state in the wild. 

--> @Shila

You have built a compelling case for both for and against God. So you would hardly be blamed for picking either side.

But your remain undecided so if either position is proven right you have nothing to gain having remained on the fence.

The post asked for our thoughts on the best arguments on both sides. So I didn’t think my specific opinion was relevant.

For what it’s worth, I’m a strong atheist (in that I think God probably doesn’t exist). I still have respect for people who choose to have faith in God, though, and I’m unclear about whether religion is net positive for society (it seems quite plausible to me that it is). 

What is even more surprising is you are from India a country which has a god for every occasion. For you  to walk away unconvinced of your own heritage smacks of betrayal.

I don’t think disagreeing with your heritage constitutes betrayal. 

I have no idea what your last sentence means. 

--> @Stephen

More over, if the Son is the Father what of  Mary getting pregnant?  Is this not an incestuous congregation? The Father has sex with the mother to conceive the Son who is also the Father.....so technically the Son, who is also the father, had sex with his mother"... 

I am from the southern part of the United States. I speak for every southerner when I say, that fucking my own mother is nothing to be ashamed of.

Beat/Instrumental to Loop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAu68YGuZ-0

I wonder when they'll end the ridicule, it's pitiful,

Understand my presence here's a miracle,

Imagine the site without me in its early days... Got banned and yet my presence remains far from minimal,

Banned first week, was it? Hell, that's how I roll, I'm that antivillain you'll love to hate and hate to need like a fraction that's not simplifiable and vigilantly indivisible,

I'm the one to rise to second place on leaderboards and not even contemplate being chill at all,

I want to climb or teach, a primal beast that's here to stay and try to slay me, David, you'll leave miserable,

This aint biblical, it's Luciferan, I'm a monster that's invincible,

I'm the demon Airmax tried to slay that bided time and prayed DDO would find the fate it did, how spiritual?

I'm the one to block then cry and bitch yet witches know I'm true to all my principles,

Also one they mock and knock off a pedestal, but I stay here at the pinnacle,

Amphibian that regrows my limbs, axolotls fear this salamander when he's near at all,

I'm the one to take the hits and systematically recover, oh so clinical,

Some call me a sad man, others whiny little bitch but I prefer RM the unkillable.

--> @Shila

Weisselberg was with the Trump family for decades. Not very likely that he will throw Trump under the bus.

He took a plea deal on 15 felonies two week ago.  Part of that deal is that he must tell everything he knows about the Trump org or lose his plea deal.

liberals get everything wrong

Tongue piercing, the idea of kissing a girl with a large metal bolt through her tongue I find totally repulsive. But sadly my days of being a total babe magnet are long past.

As much as I dislike Trump he was the first to pass comprehensive Criminal Justice reform in decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Step_Act

--> @zedvictor4

> @Shila

 Talking of cunts.

Q. What is the only animal with a cunt in the middle of it's back?

How long did it take you to find out you were in the wrong place before you corrected yourself?

Vici: excellent point - tremendous 

--> @Shila

If rape had any evolutionary advantage, raped women would not be seen as victims but held as models of human advancement.

True. 

There's also heavy emotional evolutionary baggage against it.

-> @Shila

If humans evolved from Apes then why are apes still with us. So May I ask what are you doing here?

They are here because they remained apes. That is to say although we humans are said to have evolved from apes doesn't necessarily mean the apes have to die out. The better question for me is why is a chimp still a chimp?

You aren't making sense. Either the rate of births is the same as Islam or it is not, yet here you are telling me about abortion rates in the west being the same as in Africa. In Islam women are not allowed to terminate a pregnancy. In Islam the man can have more than one wife. Yet here you are telling us that the rates of births are the same.

Islam is outgrowing Christianity all around the world.  Christianity is on its last legs and the only growth is shown to be in only some African countries.

--> @n8nrgim

Weisselberg was CFO, number 2 in the company.  The only person with authority to compensate Weisselberg is the #1 executive and owner of Trump Org, Trump.

Besides which, the number one corrupt under the table thing of value that Trump gave Weisselberg was an apartment at Trump Towers worth about $5 million dollars tax free.  Do you think somebody other than Trump has the power to hand out free apartments at Trump Tower?

--> @sadolite @Shila

Biden’s speech was a call to Americans to get real!! The institutions, constitution and democratic government are being attacked by the marginalized fringe minority led by Trump who will not accept he lost the elections 2 years ago yet still sees himself as the President of US. and republicans at the highest levels of government are still promoting the big lie.

SkepticalOne: Sounds like a good summary to me.

--> @Shila

You are admitting you saw Biden’s speech very differently than anyone would. But you don’t give any specifics. Could it be your level of education?

Are you unaware that every single person who voted for Trump in the 2024 election sees this as Biden saying half the country are extremists which also implies that they need to probably be put on some terrorist watch list?

You do know that was not the take away for the average Democrat, correct?

-> @ILikePie5

But I like DeSantis. Plus I want to see DeSantis wield the Gestapo. If anyone complains, we can blame the Orangeman like we blame Putin.

Americans won't know any better.

--> @Lemming

Arguably in ancient society, two men fight, the stronger wins, thus the stronger mans genes were selected rather than the weaker man's,

The stronger man is then able to pillage gold and take the woman of the weaker man, giving him a wife if he had not previously one, or two if he had one previously.

But this isn't rape. The woman will likely be thrilled to have a strong winner want to mate with her.

Arguably in modern society, if a country practiced 'forced eugenics, that required people of desirable genes have X many kids, and people of undesirable genes have less or no kids,

Genetics of later generations would improve.

I guess the modern society is essentially doing the women's mate selection job, in your scenario. I'm not sure all of the mating would be rape (seeing as the people are of higher quality), but if someone was forced to breed in this scenario when they didn't want to, there would be an evolutionary advantage from rape.

A tenet of some religions I've heard, allow neither the husband nor wife to refuse their partner sex, even if they don't want it.

One would suppose this would result in more children.

If your partner doesn't want to have sex with you, you're probably too ugly for them. Perhaps it's better for society you don't breed so you don't pollute the gene pool. Hence, this is an example of rape being an evolutionary disadvantage. More children doesn't necessarily equal better survival chance in the long run.

A tenet of some religions I've heard, disapprove of some aspects of modern medicine, resulting in death sometimes from situations where some medical practice might have saved.

Sounds like an evolutionary disadvantage to me.

--> @Shila

That’s like giving a blind man a torchlight and taught how to use the on/off switch. How does he know when to apply it?

SkepticalOne: You're inability to grasp how a blind person functions in the world is not a valid indictment of the analogy. 

--> @Shila

I exist day to day and an essential part of the process is making data assessments.

And for sure, I've come to consider certain ideas as irrelevant to my existence.

-> @Shila

->

@Shila

Christian countries are breeding just as fast.

Where.  In Africa?

Africans are converting very fast to Christianity. But Christians breed just as fast in every country.

 And your evidence for this is what exactly? 

--> @Benjamin

I’d say the strongest arguments for God are:

• The teleological argument, based on a fine-tuned universe
  
• Perhaps something like this, or versions of the simulation hypothesis -- just broadly based on the idea of a “superintelligence”
  

I also think there are good arguments for believing that God exists, regardless of the truth-value of God’s existence (e.g. that God’s existence is an irresolvable question, and faith makes life happier/more meaningful in some cases, so it might be good to have faith). And some arguments that I find pretty uncompelling of this nature, like Pascal’s wager, might still be compelling for some people. 

Maybe there’s some strength to arguments from religious experience, though I personally am pretty uncompelled by them. I find most cosmological and ontological arguments plain silly -- I’d rate them as two of the weakest categories of arguments for God’s existence in the popular/academic discourse. For instance, I’m not even remotely compelled by the kalam cosmological argument.

I’d say the strongest arguments against God are (I can’t quite pick two, so I’m going with three):

• The notion of God is prima facie absurd (or invokes tons of ad hoc assumptions), and naturalism can explain most observable phenomena 
  
• Generally, God tends to be defined as a mind that created the universe/space-time, but minds are a process that -- to our knowledge -- only exist within space-time/seem to require time to even be coherent 
  
• The universe probably doesn’t have an external/original “cause” of existence, insofar as (1) an efficient cause requires time, and it’s unclear whether simultaneous causation is even possible and (2) philosophers and theoretical physicists seem to converge on a B-theory of time, under which the universe probably doesn’t have a meaningful “origin”
  

And I think there’s reasonably compelling arguments against particular definitions of God. For instance, I think -- though this is pretty extensively debated in academic philosophy -- the problem of suffering makes it unlikely that God is simultaneously all-knowing, all-powerful, and benevolent. But that’s not really evidence against some version of God existing. 

--> @Shila

No, I am saying two people can watch the same speech and interpret it two completely different ways. You know like the news media outlets all reporting on the same event but reporting completely different stories about the same event. I have my interpretation, what is yours? You may think it needs clarification where as I don't. What do you think I and everyone else should think about his speech

Why Slavery is Good.

I’ve lost 2.4kgs or about 5 pounds for you imperialists. Overall weight now is about 90kgs or 198lbs

--> @Shila

What do you mean? Like wearing mixed fabrics and all that?

So what am I as a voter to make of Biden's last speech? My only opinion would be, the speech speaks for its self and needs no clarification. But I am sure I should be thinking something completely different because the speech I saw was completely different than the one you saw even though it was the same speech.

Poll after poll shows black Americans are MORE racist than whites or any other race.

Are blacks more racist than whites? – Chicago Tribune

Americans Say Blacks More Racist Than Whites, Hispanics, Asians - Rasmussen Reports®

More Americans feel that black people are more racist than whites and Hispanics. study finds | Daily Mail Online

Why So Many People Believe Blacks Are America's Racists | HuffPost Voices

‘Blacks more racist than whites’ (iol.co.za)

Poll raises question: Are blacks are more racist than whites? (daytondailynews.com)

More Americans View Blacks As Racist Than Whites, Hispanics - Rasmussen Reports®

Thoughts?

Discussion?

--> @Shila

It would appear Tarik  is wired to use an opiate.

--> @Avery

@Avery #141

Arguably in ancient society, two men fight, the stronger wins, thus the stronger mans genes were selected rather than the weaker man's,

The stronger man is then able to pillage gold and take the woman of the weaker man, giving him a wife if he had not previously one, or two if he had one previously.

Arguably in modern society, if a country practiced 'forced eugenics, that required people of desirable genes have X many kids, and people of undesirable genes have less or no kids,

Genetics of later generations would improve.

A tenet of some religions I've heard, allow neither the husband nor wife to refuse their partner sex, even if they don't want it.

One would suppose this would result in more children.

A tenet of some religions I've heard, disapprove of some aspects of modern medicine, resulting in death sometimes from situations where some medical practice might have saved.

->

@Shila

Christian countries are breeding just as fast.

Where.  In Africa?