[...] a) that doesn't mean that what they say is automatically wrong, |
The use of violence is automatically wrong. "Science" without free competition of ideas is not real science. If you are playing chess and you cheat - you automatically lose, even if you were in an unbeatable position before you've cheated!
I never implied that Mike Adams was a saint, but I do agree with his "
Health Tips" on most issues, which can be debated separately. I've recently discovered through personal experimentation that things like meat, dairy, artificial sweeteners, MSG, fried foods, etc are far more harmful than I previously assumed. In all likelihood I've already lost 10 years off my potential life expectancy because I didn't listen to "nuts" like Mike Adams sooner and put complete faith in the FDA. How many decades of my life I will lose for refusing to pay the salary of thugs like PZ Myers still remains to be seen...
and b) it doesn't mean that anything they say about matters related to policy amount to an endorsement of violence [...] |
A rational justice system cannot ignore the various methods by which evil people may try to "dilute the guilt" of their crimes. If 20 people fire at a victim at the same time, none can be proven THE murderer because you can never tell whose bullet did what fraction of the lethal damage and any 19 can claim to have missed or only have been shooting at a corpse, each to protect him/herself from their peer's aggression. A handful of persons may only be guilty of luring the victim, several other persons of each giving the victim a small sedative, another of binding the victim's hands, another of driving the taxi without knowing why one of the passengers was passed out, another for dumping him in the woods, and several others for keeping it a secret, etc - you get the idea, and each person can claim they thought it was just a trick, a game, or a part of their job. (See also:
the Milgram experiment, etc, etc, etc.) A true justice system must evolve to be effective at preventing such crimes, or else with a little prior planning anyone will be able to get away with anything they want!
That is an analogy for how millions of people who constitute the "government class" within our society are able to get away with their crimes against the "productive class", especially when those overlap in most individuals to some degree.
So I'm not saying that PZ Myers is guilty of any specific crime in the traditional sense, but he is guilty of playing an essential function in the government's crimes, systematically using his government-given reputation to strengthen the government's monopoly on power, including reducing the ability of people to
even feed themselves outside the government's iron grip of control, and being paid for it as well!