PF Ban of Ahmadinejad?

[mheslep]

Can PF ban this clown in absentia for conspiracy theory promotion (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100923/ap_on_re_us/un_un_world_summit_ahmadinejad)?

UNITED NATIONS – The U.S. delegation walked out of the U.N. speech of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday after he said some in the world have speculated that Americans were behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks, staged in an attempt to assure Israel's survival.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100923/ap_on_re_us/un_un_world_summit_ahmadinejad

I just thought it would be nice to see a strike through

Sep22-10, 4:00 PM
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Posts: 1

along side:
[...] That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view.

on PF somewhere

[lisab]

Great post :approve:

[Borek]

That would be a political action. We can discuss it, but enforcing it would be IMHO wrong (even if I agree that he is a clown).

[Andre]

I believe at that same place, several years ago, some American and British authority's pleaded for enforcement of sanctions against Iraq for the devellopment and possession of weapons of mass destruction. How many of us with our western roots *knew* that this was an absolute certainty? and so the security of civilisation demanded action.

However, nothing of that proved to be right, and maybe it's not too far fetched to realize that the west was guilty of group think (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink).

The term "groupthink excess" does not give direct hits in google. So it's probably new and I propose to use it, whenever groupthink is the direct cause of a major conflict with fundamental human principles at stake. Examples of these are in lesser form lysenkoism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism) and more extreme, the medieval witchhunt and anti semitism.

Now with groupthink in mind, I think that if you happened to be Iranian, *knowing* the roots of your own culture and your own religion, using your Iranian sense of what is right and what is wrong, that you are convinced that everything what Ahmadinejad said was fully correct. However, looking from the outside; that outrageaous claim is just an example of groupthink at the 'other' side. Perhaps that the claim of weapon of mass destruction was just as outrageous and clearly visible as such at the 'other side' too.

Obvously groupthink can best be identified outside the group. Inside the group there is an overwhelming tendency to group-agree consensus and a 'holy rage' against anybody challenging it.

Clearly to break the spiral of massive cultural groupthink excesses, banning Ahmadinejad or calling him a clown, is not the answer. We have to find ways for the cultural groups to communicate, understand and respect each other.

I had a hope that internet forums like PF could have played that role

[mheslep]

That would be a political action. We can discuss it, but enforcing it would be IMHO wrong (even if I agree that he is a clown).

[...]
Clearly to break the spiral of massive cultural groupthink excesses, banning Ahmadinejad or calling him a clown, is not the answer. We have to find ways for the cultural groups to communicate, understand and respect each other.

I had a hope that internet forums like PF could have played that roleMy OP was a wishful tongue in cheek. I realize of course that PF can't make a political statement, but I certainly can use humor to make one (and did :biggrin:). While I take Andre's point, I actually think humor is an effective and violence free way of drawing the bounds of what is and what is not rationale discourse. Humor is certainly a traditionally American way of making political points in our rambunctious free-to-say-anything-but-fire! society.

[FlexGunship]

That would be a political action. We can discuss it, but enforcing it would be IMHO wrong (even if I agree that he is a clown).

Amen.

[nismaratwork]

Technically you could ban it on the same grounds that discussion of 9-11 conspiracies are banned. Just a thought...

[lisab]

Wow, everywhere I look, I see this thread.

[Evo]

Wow, everywhere I look, I see this thread.It got moved a couple of times. Still waiting on someone to actually make a response to the article.

[nismaratwork]

It got moved a couple of times. Still waiting on someone to actually make a response to the article.

Response to Article, in the immortal words of Jon Stewart (directed at Ahmadinejad), "Go **** Yourself."

Need more be said?

[Gokul43201]

It got moved a couple of times. Still waiting on someone to actually make a response to the article.The article itself requires little response. The statement by the US Mission covers it nicely:

"Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

This is more or less typical Ahmedinejad - nothing particularly new about it.

I think the thread was meant not to elicit responses to the article, but to have some fun at the expense of a crackpot ... along the lines of citing something said by Kirk Cameron or Kent Hovind and having a little laugh at it.

[Evo]

The article itself requires little response. The statement by the US Mission covers it nicely:

"Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

This is more or less typical Ahmedinejad - nothing particularly new about it.

I think the thread was meant not to elicit responses to the article, but to have some fun at the expense of a crackpot ... along the lines of citing something said by Kirk Cameron or Kent Hovind and having a little laugh at it.I guess then that there is really little that you can say in response to someone truly insane.

Thread closed.