[mburbank]

"As I've said before, I think the US of A is, in the main, morally superior to the vast majority of the Arab world."
-Me, being reasonable and clarifying

"We're not all on the same level. There is right, and there is wrong, and I'd hope you're not so morally bankrupt that you can't pull of a little rational thinking. "
-Alphaboy, continuing to muddy the waters by being so morally bankrupt he continues to argue against a fake me that's easy to argue with, instead of a real me, that isn't.

"I'm not going to keep repeating myself."
-Alphaboy

Is this a new policy? When will it go into effect. I'm assuming right after the paragraph preceeding it.

"The movement in question needs to be defined, "
-Alphaboy
PLEASE do. That would allow me to reagrd them as

"less then acceptable for our standard of evolution EVEN IF we live in a shitty world full of shitty people."

You also need to define 'acceptable'. What does them being 'unacceptable' to us empower us to do, since while admittedly shitty they are more so. Might it be possible to address their inacceptability in such a way that they become more acceptable instead of less aceeptable? Becuase so far, our approach seems to be making more people more inaceptable. I'm pefectly willing to say they are unacceptable, but I'd like to be really clear on who they are and how many acceptable people we are willing to convert into more unacceptable people in our quest to make all people acceptable to us. I just don't think we should let how marvellously acceptable we are to go to our head in the process.

"What would it take for you to be able to acknowledge this without shame"
-Alphbestboy

You can call it shame if you like. I prefer to call it humility. Humility is an admirable characteristic, and it makes people ever so much more acceptable. Sadly, I have acknowledged your point over and over and over, (let me do it again. 'They' to use your broad brush, are morally inferior to 'Us'. 'They' do things that are even more barbaric than the things we do, and given the chance, they would probably be even more barbaric on a larger scale. Good Lord! I said all that and I'm not feeling even a smidge of shame! How about that?) but I fear you won't be satisfied as by 'acknowlodging' you mostly want me to parrot your position identically and cease ever mentioning any relationship (or even existance) of our actions.

What would it take for you to admit that our ever so slightly superior mentality may have in some small way contributed to the dire straights we find ourselves in, and that being aware of it and behaving somewhat differently as far as foreign policy goes might help us find our way to better straights? Do you think you could do that without feeling you've utterly capitualted to terrorism? Or are you so didactic, so utterly sure of the degree of our cutural moral superiority that you can't?

"Seriously, what would it take for you to say "okay, these people are not functioning up to the standards of the modern world, and our standards ain't that high to begin with"."
-Alphabajudge

okay, these people are not functioning up to the standards of the modern world, and our standards ain't that high to begin with. I'm saying it again, so that you'll be able to hue to your new policy of not repeating yourself. I even cut n' pasted you, so there could be no chance of my deviating from your opinion.

I'll leave the questions of how you sort the 'them' from the 'not them' or how you keep the currently 'not them' from becoming 'them' when you collatterally kill lots of their 'not them' friends and relatives while attempting to bring 'them' up to the standards of the modern world for a different thread. Why? Because I, Max Burbank, agree that okay, these people are not functioning up to the standards of the modern world, and our standards ain't that high to begin with.

Say, I know the perfect thread for you to go sort out who you think exactly 'these people' are and how we should modernize them effectively. It's got your very own name on it! AND you could do it without repeating yourself!