Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Flight

2012-10-26T17:51:56Z

Cactusjack:

'''Flight''' is the capacity of self-propulsion through the atmosphere or through space, without contact with the ground. Most birds, many insects, the mammalian [[bat]] and [[flying fox]] and man-made contraptions (such as [[aircraft]]) are capable of true flight; although creatures such as [[flying fish]] merely leap. When airplanes fly, air over the top surface moves faster than air under the bottom surface (of the wing). This causes the plane to be sucked upwards.

God never intended for man to fly, which is why planes and helicopters have very spotty safety records.

[[Category:Aviation]][[Category:Zoology]]

Fact

2012-10-26T17:50:23Z

Cactusjack: /* Quotes About Facts */ Steven Colbert is a liberal

A '''fact''' is a statistic, datum, or event that is objective, observable, and recordable.

Facts are used as evidence to make claims. Facts are generally held to be [[mind-independent]], i.e. they would continue to be the case whether or not anyone believed them, or indeed whether or not there were any minds to believe them in the first place.
[[category:philosophy]]

Facts are different from theories, which attempt to explain trends in facts. Facts are also different from opinions, which are subjective interpretations of facts.

In history and journalism, "facts" refer to recorded, independently-verifiable events or statistics. In science, "facts" are observations or data, (fact: at sea-level, water boils at 100 degrees [[Celsius]], while other liquids boil at different temperatures) and theories are built to explain facts (theory: why water boils at 100 C, why different liquids have different boiling points).

During The 18th century [[Enlightenment]], the statement "facts are stubborn things" was widely repeated. It encapsulates an Enlightenment belief that incontrovertible empirical data could be found on any question and that such facts would irresistibly lead public opinion in an enlightened direction by dispelling the mystifications and superstitions of earlier, barbarous ages. In the Early Republic in the United States, the phrase was often directed against the allegedly dangerous speculations and innovations of Jacobin-Jeffersonian philosophy.<ref> Jeff Pasley, "Department of Not Giving John Adams Too Much Credit" in ''Common-Place (july 2009) [http://www.common-place.org/pasley/?p=1593 online]</ref>

There is some evidence that human psychology is such that facts often do not drive beliefs as much as beliefs drive one's willingness to listen to certain facts.<ref>Joe Keohane, Boston Globe, July 11, 2010. ''[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/?page=1 How facts backfire]''</ref>

For example, it is an ''opinion'' that the [[homosexual agenda]] is not harmful, while it is a fact that the average gay man has a life expectancy far less than that of a straight man.
==Quotes About Facts==

John Adams wrote: "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." <ref>John Adams, 'Argument in Defense of the Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials,' December 1770 The Quotations Page </ref>

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple." -- Oscar Wilde

"First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure." -- Mark Twain

"We all know that facts have a liberal bias." (Sarcasm) -- Stephen Colbert

==Further reading==
* Pasley, Jeff. "Department of Not Giving John Adams Too Much Credit" in ''Common-Place (july 2009) [http://www.common-place.org/pasley/?p=1593 online]; shows the slogan was very widely used in the 18th century.

==References==
<references/>

Class warfare

2012-10-03T22:36:17Z

Cactusjack:

'''Class warfare''' is a [[Marxist]] notion that people in different social classes must necessarily be in conflict with each other, the rich seeking to keep the poor down and the poor seeking to take away what belongs to the rich.

"'Class warfare' first entered the political [[lexicon]] primarily as an attack by [[liberal]]s against [[conservative]]s." <ref>[http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20030115.html The art of "class warfare"], Ben Fritz, Spinsanity.org, January 15, 2003</ref>

==Democrats==
The era of Obama has ushered in a new push by [[Democrat]]s to make class warfare a centerpiece of the 2012 political cycle. Obama makes the most noise when it comes to class warfare but his congressional allies and those in the media very much help facilitate the message.

Weeks before America heard of the Buffett Rule (Tax the rich), Democrats in [[San Francisco]] were trying out their class warfare message. [http://www.breitbart.tv/buffett-rule-inspiration-bay-area-dems-embrace-class-warfare-weeks-before-obamas-tax-the-rich-proposal/ See video]

The [[Occupy Wall Street]] movement is fundamentally a classic Marxist class warfare direct action movement.

==Marxist theory==
The apocalyptic language of Marx's class warfare argument is articulated in Volume I of ''Das Kapital''. Few modern economists believe there is any scientific basis for Marx's dark forebodings, yet some sociologists and political scientists remain dedicated to varying twists of Marx's emotional appeal.
{{cquote|Hand in hand with this centralization, or this expropriation of many capitalists by few, develops…the entanglement of all nations in the net of the world market, and with this, the international character of the capitalist régime. Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolize all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself. The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along with it, and under it. Centralization of the means of production and socialization of labor at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument bursts. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.<ref>Karl Marx, ''Das Kapital,'' vol. i, ch. xxxii.</ref>}}

==Why is class warfare problematic?==
At the first glance, the idea of "taxing the rich and giving to the poor" appears "fair". However, there are many problems with this idea. Under a capitalist system, one becomes "rich" through the process of hard work, and raising taxes on this group signals that this hard work is not being appreciated. In addition, the demonized top 1% of Americans pay 22% of all revenue<ref>http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0415/Taxes-and-the-rich-How-much-do-they-pay-now</ref>, while the bottom 50% of Americans pay nothing in income tax, clearly indicating that those who are wealthy already pay a "fair" share of revenue. The richest Americans are also known to be in control of job creating industries; taking too much from this group will yield job losses, which ends up hurting the average American.

==Occupy Wall St.==
The Occupy Wall Street movement is, at its heart, a class warfare advocacy movement. Most of it's participants are younger, less educated, and unemployed people who hate the very idea of capitalism. This group of socialists is bent, as their name suggests, on dismantling Wall Street and redistributing its wealth.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==See also==
*[[Envy]]

{{Liberalism}}

==External Links==
*[http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/03/karl-marx-and-democrats-why-i-hate.html Karl Marx and the Democrats: Why I hate Class Warfare], Mike Volpe, ''The Provocateur'', March 1, 2008.

[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Marxist terminology]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Liberal Falsehoods]]
[[Category:Liberal Traits]]