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Originally Posted by CGMojo
Pray tell, esteemed moderator, is there any way that a topic can be flagged for responsed from Craigmass so that I can avoid the lunacy?
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Please keep this sort of thing out of the thread itself. This thread has been derailed enough as it is.
Craig, tired old stem-cell debate aside, you have so far pointed out two "problems". Maybe "conditions in which the world finds itself" is a less loaded description, but whatever:
1) The numbers of women vs. men in various walks of life (engineer, university student, whatever) is not proportional to the number of women vs. men in the country.
2) The government funding (at various levels) for "traditionally male" vs. "traditionally female" activities is not proportional to the numbers of males vs. females in the country.
As a side note, it's interesting that you should care about what's traditionally male vs. traditionally female (terms you don't explicitly use, but you imply you believe they are important when you talk about sporting arenas as "stuff for boys").
Anyway, you advocate that the solution to both of these problems is the same: that the government should increase its funding in the neglected areas.
By an interesting and probably not coincidental symmetry, I advocate that solution to the second problem is that the government should decrease its funding in the "preferred" areas.
Without getting into the moral hazards of stem cell research, but just to use the ongoing debate as an example: you argue that it would be inconsistent to fund weapons programs such as the atomic bomb or poison gas, and yet not fund stem cell research for moral reasons. Your resolution? Fund the stem-cell research too!
I think there is some traditional wisdom that applies here: you seem to be advocating that, if your motivations are "pure" (i.e., you care about gender inequity, or you are moved by the plight of people with genetic defects), two wrongs can make a right.
The rest of us are, I think, one way or another, simply denying that claim. We believe, as our mothers told us, that two wrongs do not make a right. Instead, we (or at least I) would claim that we should undo the wrongs.
Unfortunately you also pointed out that, when it comes to sports stadia, it's a local decision and that majority rules. Actually I think municipal governments decide this sort of thing on their own without a referendum, though I could be wrong. However a referendum would not make it any better: the majority is not a very good ruler.
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