Diversity has jumped the Shark!

[Cardinal Fang]

Never in recorded history has diversity been anything but a problem. Look at Ireland with its Protestant and Catholic populations, Canada with its French and English populations, Israel with its Jewish and Palestinian populations.

Or consider the warring factions in India, Sri Lanka, China, Iraq, Czechoslovakia (until it happily split up), the Balkans and Chechnya. Also look at the festering hotbeds of tribal warfare -- I mean the beautiful mosaics -- in Third World hellholes like Afghanistan, Rwanda and South Central, L.A.

"Diversity" is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. True, North America does a better job than most at accommodating a diverse population. They also do a better job at curing cancer and containing pollution. But no one goes around mindlessly exclaiming: "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!"

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Fang

Never in recorded history has diversity been anything but a problem. Look at Ireland with its Protestant and Catholic populations, Canada with its French and English populations, Israel with its Jewish and Palestinian populations.

Or consider the warring factions in India, Sri Lanka, China, Iraq, Czechoslovakia (until it happily split up), the Balkans and Chechnya. Also look at the festering hotbeds of tribal warfare -- I mean the beautiful mosaics -- in Third World hellholes like Afghanistan, Rwanda and South Central, L.A.

"Diversity" is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. True, North America does a better job than most at accommodating a diverse population. They also do a better job at curing cancer and containing pollution. But no one goes around mindlessly exclaiming: "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!"

so are you advocating that i leave or are you offering to pack and go in order to decrease our diversity? it's not diversity that's the issue, it's intolerance and your equating diversity to cancer and pollution is rather disingeneous...

[Cardinal Fang]

No, your projecting your own interpretation on this.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Fang

No, your projecting your own interpretation on this.

so are you saying that:

"Diversity" is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. True, North America does a better job than most at accommodating a diverse population. They also do a better job at curing cancer and containing pollution. But no one goes around mindlessly exclaiming: "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!""

doesn't translate to "diversity is a weakness" and "diversity is our greatest liability" along with everything that stems from that?

and if i'm "projecting" here, please feel free to tell us how you think what you wrote should be interpreted...

[Cardinal Fang]

well, its a free country, if you think diversity is all that, great! I think it causes more problems that anything else. And I am sick of this mantra, "Diversity is good". As my examples illustrated, its not as great as it sounds.

[andrew]

The internet has given rise to an annoying phenomenon. The annoying message board troll.
Once relagated to handing out poorly xeroxed pamphlets on street-corners, now people with opinions that most reasonable people have grown out of long ago have a world-wide soap-box to spew their skewed views. Trying to debate them with logic or reason only seems to encourage them. Unfrotunately "free speech" means free for all, including the wing-nuts.
I advise not feeding them nor their egos at all. It only makes them come back for more.

[Cardinal Fang]

It seems that if someone posts something that goes against the liberal mantras, they get all uppity. Why is this?

[Chump]

Blaming diversity for those problems is like blaming photo radar for being a distraction and causing accidents.

[Cardinal Fang]

How is diversity not to blame for all those conflicts I mentioned?
Protestant and Catholic populations, Canada with its French and English populations, Israel with its Jewish and Palestinian populations etc

[Chump]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Fang

How is diversity not to blame for all those conflicts I mentioned?
Protestant and Catholic populations, Canada with its French and English populations, Israel with its Jewish and Palestinian populations etc

Diversity is not to blame for those conflicts. Intolerance, hatred, ignorance and bigotry are to blame in many cases however.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by andrew

The internet has given rise to an annoying phenomenon. The annoying message board troll.
Once relagated to handing out poorly xeroxed pamphlets on street-corners, now people with opinions that most reasonable people have grown out of long ago have a world-wide soap-box to spew their skewed views. Trying to debate them with logic or reason only seems to encourage them. Unfrotunately "free speech" means free for all, including the wing-nuts.
I advise not feeding them nor their egos at all. It only makes them come back for more.

sometimes i wonder why any of us come back for more...

my own thoughts on what encourages the trolls and how to address it are no secret but they're far from universal. regardless, i'm less and less convinced all the time that the correct response is not feeding them but continuing to still invite them in. "the only think it takes" and all that while we support them with anonymity and a complete lack of accountability...

oh well, maybe it serves me right for continuing to come back thinking that so much has been invested by so many in this site that it still has the potential to be something different and not just another "more of the same" soapbox.

at least grish will probably get a chuckle out of kcantor being described as "an uppity proponent of liberal mantras"... i suppose that's pretty diverse in its own right.

[andrew]

Originally Posted by kcantor

[at least grish will probably get a chuckle out of kcantor being described as "an uppity proponent of liberal mantras"... i suppose that's pretty diverse in its own right.

kcantor - Don't leave! I am definitely a supporter of posters like yourself that actually offer something constructive to this forum. Despite the noise from the "fringe", I think C2E is mostly worthwhile. I have been here since the beginning (although I don't post unless I feel there is something useful to say).

I think that the reasonable way most C2E members deal with the bullies and trolls speaks well of Edmonton and Edmontonians in general. Alberta is often portrayed (unfairly) as a land of hicks and red-necks. How we deal with the same on this forum is broadcast to the entire world. Personally, I don't understand narrow minded people who spout "dogma" or "talking points". For example, I am forever confused why people who can offer articulate and well-reasoned commentary are often dismissed with the label "liberal". However, I am sure that the (too often slient) majority of reasonable folk shouldn't be crowded out by the wing-nuts.

[jstock]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Fang

No, you're projecting your own interpretation on this.

Opinions on a topic are a bad thing on a public forum?

[nobleea]

you know what i'm intolerant of?

2010 AWD ford fusions. they're girly cars.

[Cardinal Fang]

Originally Posted by Chump

Diversity is not to blame for those conflicts. Intolerance, hatred, ignorance and bigotry are to blame in many cases however.

How is diversity not to blame? Diversity is apartheid with a smiley face. Case in point, To say our "Diversity is a strength" after a jihad terrorist attack on our US soil at a military base that murdered 13 and wounded countless others (soldiers and their families) leaves me stunned. There is a trust amongst soldiers that has been crushed by this one terrorist that should have been weeded-out LONG before now. How is this a "strength?'

Never, in the history of the world, has there been a more devastating plague as diversity.
I am tired of the low standards brought about by diversity. (think brain-dead affirmative action)

Whenever I hear the words like "diversity", "coexist" and "tolerance" I know people are trying to blur the lines of reality in order to escape any judgement. But in doing so, they readily jump to their own form of judgement. Namely that anyone who doesn't agree with these words is a racist, bigoted, homophobe, hater.

Diversity has also severely fragmented the Canadian identity.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Fang

Never, in the history of the world, has there been a more devastating plague.
I am tired of the low standards brought about by diversity.

Diversity has also severely fragmented the Canadian identity.

What examples of low standards directly due to "diversity" are we talking about? What is the mechanism for the fracturing and fragmenting of the Canadian identity by diversity?

(I know I shouldn't feed the trolls.)

[Cardinal Fang]

I know I should not feed the polly correct lefty libs!!! I mentioned one, affirmative action! (brain-dead I might add!)

[noodle]

How about backing up your own baseless claim?

[Cardinal Fang]

How about backing up your crackpot polly correct lefty opinions.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by Cardinal Fang

How about backing up your crackpot polly correct lefty opinions.

I'm not the one who's made the claim. The onus is upon you to back up your point.

[JBear]

Cardinal Fang, Are you saying you don't like Diversity because people are rasicist, and intolerable?

[Wrecker]

Originally Posted by Chump

Diversity is not to blame for those conflicts. Intolerance, hatred, ignorance and bigotry are to blame in many cases however.

I'm not going to take sides on this, but it I think a lot of these "problems" arise from fear, comfort, & familiarity. If someone is only comfortable with their own "kind", that doesn't make them a bad person, and it doesn't allow you to label them.

[RTA]

Setting aside that I'd love nothing more than to see yet another pointless, useless, and unrelated-to-Edmonton thread closed, I have to ask: If diversity is the problem, what do you propose as the solution?

[danimalrex]

Fang, in the examples you've sited, the problems were brought upon by those that were not willing to accept the fact that other people are different. They were anti-diversity conflicts, so to speak.

Diversity, to me, has always been about accepting the fact that there are people out there that do or think differently than you, keeping an open mind about how and why they do the things that they do that are different, and integrating some of those differences into your own lifestyle if you feel that they make you a better person.

Some people are very open to trying things from other cultures and some are not. I personally think it is important that someone maintain ties to their own families past and traditions (they need to be passed along to the next generation), but I also think that experiencing new things can make you a more well rounded person.

[Dusty Bear]

Originally Posted by RTA

Setting aside that I'd love nothing more than to see yet another pointless, useless, and unrelated-to-Edmonton thread closed, I have to ask: If diversity is the problem, what do you propose as the solution?

Now, now. I think Fang is on to something here. All of us who are not of aboriginal ancestry should leave Canada immediately. Myself included. Clearly, the problems with diversity started when Europeans came here.

[/sarcasm]

[Chump]

Originally Posted by danimalrex

Diversity, to me, has always been about accepting the fact that there are people out there that do or think differently than you, keeping an open mind about how and why they do the things that they do that are different, and integrating some of those differences into your own lifestyle if you feel that they make you a better person.

Well said. And if people are unable to do that, that is not the fault of the circumstances themselves, but their inability to accept / adapt / understand.

[Wrecker]

Originally Posted by Chump

Well said. And if people are unable to do that, that is not the fault of the circumstances themselves, but their inability to accept / adapt / understand.

Then shouldn't you accept the fact that Fang isn't an accepting person? Don't equate hatred with reluctance, or unwillingness.

[Chump]

Originally Posted by Wrecker

Then shouldn't you accept the fact that Fang isn't an accepting person? Don't equate hatred with reluctance, or unwillingness.

I've never said I don't accept that, and I'm not sure where I equated hatred with reluctance or unwillingness.

[kcantor]

Originally Posted by Wrecker

Then shouldn't you accept the fact that Fang isn't an accepting person? Don't equate hatred with reluctance, or unwillingness.

but accepting that fact regarding an individual is still no reason to excuse it. acceptance and excusing are not the same things. and there is - or should be - even less of a reason to excuse - or support - it as a group or as a society. that is what allows groups and societies to become the very petri dishes that do indeed foster hatred and support the very conflicts he twists as support for his own reluctance or unwillingness.

interesting that the strongest calls for tolerance and understanding and the strongest accusations about not having tolerance and understanding are sometimes made on behalf of or by those that offer the least amount of those very things in return. dumping the apple cart upside down if you ask me.

[Komrade]

This thread is now about Trolls





Sooo cute!!!

[Dusty Bear]

^ Ha

Given that Fang takes his name from Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch, I have begun wondering whether it's all just some sort of performance.

[Cardinal Fang]

Diversity....what..as a goal? Political Correctness, Tolerance, Redistribution of wealth... ad-nauseum...I am finished with PC and enforced guilt.

Diversity and Tolerance is akin to Compromise. None of it works in the long run and actually tears at the root of democracy.

To many, celebrating Diversity means to celebrate people in the following order: Race/Origin/Ethnicity/Sexual Orientation, and then, almost as an afterthought, ACCOMPLISHMENT!! I call those people Ignorals!

Why has society STOPPEd celebrating accomplishments and started rewarding mediocrity?

[Cardinal Fang]

An example of an opinion on diversity from an immigrant.

"My Dad, born in 1893 on a Mediterranean island, passed alone through Ellis Island in 1904. Like the other two million immigrants of that year, Dad couldn't wait to pass through The Golden Door and sample what the Promise of America was. He was born speaking Greek but learned English as his first priority. He put himself through school, working nights in restaurants washing dishes and showing black-and-white movies while he studied. He graduated from the Dental School of the University of Louisville in 1924. His central motivation was to become prosperous, to become a professional man, to "succeed" as he couldn't have on his tiny home island, to be free to be as successful as he worked to become. My two sisters and I were raised speaking Greek, attended and were baptized in the Greek Church, ate Greek food but the First Rule of our home was that we were Americans. We were to master English, were to eat "American" food, were never to speak Greek in front of people who couldn't understand us because it was rude. We were to venerate the Founders of this Nation since they had bequeathed to us the Promise of being Americans. We were to honor the Law and to value education. Like my sisters, I was born here. I am almost 70 years old and am still Greek by heritage but I am not a Greek-American. Without hesitation, I can affirm that I'm an American first and foremost. I cannot cast aside the heritage that our Dad compelled us to follow. He wanted us to learn how to be as free as he worked to be. Dad is spinning in his grave to witness the folderol that is "diversity." He knew that in "diversity" is weakness. He understood that "diversity" is a cry for division. He taught is that our family must forever be unified under the banner of America's Promise. He taught us in the larger sense that a "nation divided against itself cannot stand."

[RTA]

You like to talk a lot without saying anything. How does diversity and tolerance "not work?" In what way does it "tear at the root of democracy?" In what way have we stopped celebrating accomplishment? And back to my original question, if diversity is such a problem, what do you propose as the solution?

[MrOilers]

Cardinal Fang has jumped the shark.

[ralph60]

Cardinal Fang has just cut and pasted this weeks Ann Coulter blog entry: http://www.anncoulter.com/
Ignorant and without an original thought, Fang's post was pathetic enough to make me forget my boycott of this forum.

[MrOilers]

Really? Trolls plagiarizing other trolls?

[Dusty Bear]

Originally Posted by ralph60

Cardinal Fang has just cut and pasted this weeks Ann Coulter blog entry: http://www.anncoulter.com/
Ignorant and without an original thought, Fang's post was pathetic enough to make me forget my boycott of this forum.

So that's where you've been. I've missed your posts, Ralph (no joke).

[Chump]

hah!
Cut and Pasted!
Classic. Speaks volumes.