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If the World is serious about minimising international violence then it needs to tackle poverty and oppression from a stance of offering to help by sharing technologies and providing better education and the tools to help people help themselves out of poverty. By its nature it's philanthropic not asking for anything in return. The powerful must help but not dictate, and when companies make money in those countries they must put a large amount of profit back into that nation and its people, NOT take it all back overseas and especially NOT avoid local taxes through unethical and immoral, if not always illegal accounting practices. As people with our money tied up in investments we should be demanding ethical investment choices from our pension fund managers. Don't get me wrong, I'm far from recommending a communist type of system, but we need to realise the current situation is aiding the oppression that gives rise to terrorism.

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And if we were really serious, we'd recognise that all people are human beings and essentially the same and to be treated with respect. Latest dan profiling reveals how we all essentially evolved from the African continent and spread and intermingled around the world.

And if we were really really serious, we would recognise that all people have the right to have different belief systems but to respect others as equals. Imagine the powerful message to the worlds people if the leaders of all religions started preaching this publicly and having gatherings and prayers together?

Should we not strive for Utopia even if it is difficult?

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In the U.S. anyone who mentions Utopia is laughed at by the Right.

Unfortunately the religious leaders you imagine would never start preaching of a heaven on earth. It runs counter to their business model.

Except possibly for the Jesuits. This is why Francis is my favorite Pope of my lifetime.

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You're right Tuco but does it mean we don't try to improve the world? Francis has been a breath of fresh air but is still surrounded by people such as George Pell, someone who knew so much about sexual abuse in Australia yet did so little.

As you so rightly put it, most religions are today a business. Time they paid their taxes don't you think?

Difficulty score 17.

I think maybe someone should start a movement called Truth Matters.

Anyone who believes the Interstate Highway system is racist, see me about a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

For the rest of you, read the articles on the racist freeways, but keep in mind disparate impact proves nothing about intent.

Intent is entirely irrelevant.

Let's just go with the (entirely incorrect imo, but this is a thought experiment here) theory that the disparate impact of the highway system was entirely a result, not of bad intent, but of the natural working of the system.

The freeways tore up poor neighborhoods which are black? Well, the land was cheaper to buy there. Why did primarily black people live in the cheapest areas? Well, there was this process called "redlining". That was a system explicitly designed to keep black people in poor areas, because black people bring down property values. And how do we know that? Well, just look at the places they live! You can read about it here: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2\n014/05/the-racist-housing-policy-that-made-yo\nur-neighborhood/371439/
or, if you prefer, you can look up the Wiki on your own.

When the system "just happens" to continually discriminate against the same people, decade after decade, that is systemic racism that is the product of racist policies developed by a racist society, and the system continues to have racist effects whether or not the individuals implementing the policies harbor any racism at all.

Individual intent is irrelevant.

The BLM folks need to sell the BLM message to black folk. Show us a black neighborhood their people take pride in. Show us a neighborhood full of parents who teach their kids to respect themselves and their neighbors and take pride in how they comport themselves. They live like animals in the inner cities. Parents let the kids run wild. The good ones leave ASAP and seldom ever return. It's not up to whites to fix this. We can't change their culture. All you SJWs talk a lot but I doubt you've ever spent a single day in one. Being poor is a state of mind. My friend comes from Cameroon where he was the leader of his tribe. He says his people were very poor, but they didn't know they were poor. They were happy. My friend has a 1000 followers living here now, and you wouldn't know theirs was a black neighborhood. Whites and blacks live together in harmony. Yards have grass and flowers. Neighbors talk to neighbors. All credit to my friend for his leadership.

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EZPZ. Your only holdup will be not seeing easy things. 10.

The reason we laugh at college kids' dreams for establishing Utopia by the power of Big Government is ...well, just look at Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, Cleveland, Milwaukee, St Louis, Newark, Pittsburgh -- places that haven't had a Republican government in, like, 100 years.

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Tuco is right about my attitude toward Utopia. If it were possible why hasn't Utopia just spontaneously broken out...somewhere, sometime,...ever? The answer is that the system is wrong. It is a left over from less enlightened days. So like our Community Organizer in Chief says, we must fundamentally change the country. But what that really means is we must live like our betters in Washington want us to. Utopia never works, but those who try it end up losing their individual freedoms.

So here is the choice, Utopia and no freedom or the old unenlightened system that has afforded us more freedom than any other country for the better part of the last 227 years.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that Utopia doesn't work?

SJ: if intent is irrelevant than all you are left with is a broken system.

So what really happened with the freeways? They went through the poorest neighborhoods. The city fathers were just looking for an excuse to bulldoze those neighborhoods and here it was. Discrimination against blacks. Indirectly, it was directly discrimination against poor people and old run down neighborhoods. B.T.W. we built government housing for those people. Nice modern high-rise apartments. I think everyone knows how that turned out.

JackT: the inner city is largely a product of government welfare programs. Specifically AFDC. If a poor girl gets pregnant and the father wants to do the right thing, get a job and support the family, his girl friend will probably throw him out. If he gets a job she is no longer eligible for government assistance and her bum of a boy friend cannot make as much money as government assistance provides. End result, single parent households, mostly no fathers. No wonder the kids go wild.

Worse yet, when the cild of a mother on AFDC is old enough to go to kindergarten or pre-school the government stops the assistance because now that the kid is out of the house Mom is free to go to work. But again, she cannot get a job that provides as much money as the government. So as the time approaches, she pops out another kid and voila, another 4 or 5 years of government money magically appears.

You may be wondering why the politicians don't correct this situation? Simple, as far as they are concerned it's a big success, it is buying them votes and that is the true purpose of all government programs, to get politicians elected and re-elected.