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Yes, my impression from the video feeds was that the presentations were rather from the left-wing "entitlements" angle rather than the right-wing liberties one.
Still, there is cause for hope. It's only the liberties angle that will unite both sides, and it's a future Tory government that needs to be influenced.
Was it worth it?
Yesterday's Convention on Modern Liberty was, in many ways, what I expected. The surprise - and the undoubted highlight - of the day was David Davis's closing speech. He was generously credited, by Henry Porter in introducing him, with having stimulated the whole event by resigning his parlia...
I think Nova's argument that you are relying on the argument from authority is correct. When you say that you shouldn't need to go and study all these things and that it is sufficient to take the words of the experts for it, you are in essence saying that you either don't want to know or you lack the ability. Relying on the word of experts is not an unreasonable thing to do in these circumstances, but it means that you are essentially ducking out of the argument rather than deciding it.
The argument from authority is rather misunderstood. Authorities in logical terms are people who can lay down rules. The philosopher Jamie Whyte pointed out an example of a real authority as being a parent - literally the "author" of the child's bedtime. Scientists of course aren't authorities in this sense - how would any scientific paradigm be overturned otherwise. So evoking experts to decide scientific arguments is, as Nova says, the logical fallacy of the argument from (false) authority.
Global Warming Denial
Sometimes I worry that I’ve run out of new things to blog about, but then out of the blue up pops something that proves me wrong. I recently received an email from Joanne Nova, who writes a blog where she claims global warming isn’t caused by human created greenhouse gas emissions. In her firs...
Someone posted a comment on my site that the RNLI is still kosher.
The NSPCC, real or fake charity?
- Bishop Hill blog - The NSPCC - a danger to society. Bishop Hill has upset me this morning. I have had a standing order to the NSPCC for some years. I was unaware that it was taking £14 million of government money and angry to find that it is supporting the government's current attacks on home ...
Guthrum
Is that separate to the fakecharities.org effort?
The NSPCC, real or fake charity?
- Bishop Hill blog - The NSPCC - a danger to society. Bishop Hill has upset me this morning. I have had a standing order to the NSPCC for some years. I was unaware that it was taking £14 million of government money and angry to find that it is supporting the government's current attacks on home ...
If it makes you feel any better, my monthly standing order (to Plan International) is going to have to be cancelled too. They are also getting millions from the state.
The NSPCC, real or fake charity?
- Bishop Hill blog - The NSPCC - a danger to society. Bishop Hill has upset me this morning. I have had a standing order to the NSPCC for some years. I was unaware that it was taking £14 million of government money and angry to find that it is supporting the government's current attacks on home ...
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