On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:12:51 -0800 "Volokh, Eugene" <[email protected]> wrote:
> There are surely many arguments in the gun control debate > that are based on factual falsehoods. Yet despite that, gun crime is > something to fear, and not just when you're a gang member or live in > a gun-infested neighborhood. So I don't think there is a sound > objection here to fear-mongering, or even irrational fear-mongering; > rather, the objection would be (1) to lie-mongering, and (2) to > failure to recognize why the proposed solutions are unlikely to > diminish the thing one reasonably fears. > Here's another example of lie-mongering (a good term, that): http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/11/2012_prostitute_invasion/ For those not familiar with The Register, it's a British IT webzine known for its feisty irreverence. Another example of lie-mongering is the whole climate control/global warming litany, which Bjorn Lomborg debunked with his The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, Cambridge University Press, 2001. What all of these have in common is that they feed on and exacerbate an irrational fear of something, while ignoring the likely benefits of the something. -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
