prompt stringlengths 470 10.9k | chosen stringlengths 35 83.6k | __index_level_0__ int64 0 99 |
|---|---|---|
Human: Change my mind: Gun violence, education reform, concussions in American football, the European far right, and the Israel-Palestine conflict cannot be resolved without fixing economic inequality. In recent years, a number of studies have shown that the US in particular has the lowest income equality, among the lo... | "You can fault shitty tackling technique on helmets. If people lead with their head then they will get injured. Is that the fault of the helmet? That's just a guy who is a crappy tackler. "
'So it seems like it would be poor tackling skills and not the helmets. Go figure. '
"No one cheers for injuries in football. Yo... | 64 |
Human: Change my mind: Driving a car is insanely risky and probably the most dangerous thing you do in your everyday life. I find it difficult to understand how so many people enjoy driving a car or can even relax while doing it. I am almost continually tense while on the road thinking about what's at stake (and I've b... | '' "And if we were invulnerable, we'd be even safer. " 'Yes. '
'∆ TBH, the fact that by this metric walking is more dangerous than driving blows my mind. I guess that it depends on where you walk? (Then again, the same is certainly true for driving.) Maybe I feel more in control when walking, so I underestimate... | 15 |
Human: Change my mind: I don't believe inmates should be eligible for organ transplants. Though it has been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court that withholding medical treatment for individuals incarcerated by the justice system is in violation of the 8th amendment. I do not believe this should extend to organ transplan... | '> The punishment of prison is (supposed to be) a loss of freedom. Nothing more, nothing less. Actually, so far, I\'ve seen three vision of what a prison should do. The first one is yours, that prison is there to separate and resctrict freedom for the inmate. This lead to mexican style prison(not official name), in w... | 32 |
Human: Change my mind: I shouldn't get a job in this economic climate because it'll be automated anyway; I should just wait for a post-scarcity utopia. I think the world is automating fast enough that a utopia will arise where no one will have to work anymore. Within the next 2 decades or so, having a job won't mean mu... | 'No, resources would still be consumed, just we would theoretically be so efficient a finite amount of resources is not a problem. I mostly used the term post scarcity because op used it, but in reality the "utopia" to be expected in the short term from automation is just a form a socialism, so nothing to be excited ab... | 0 |
Human: Change my mind: I believe there should be a Death Race-esque Contest for Prisoners I think there should be a system in place similar to what happened in the Movie 'Death Race'. Better yet, something similar to the Hunger Games.
What am I proposing? Get the Prisoners on Death Row to participate in a mandatory co... | 'What could possibly go wrong with that plan?' | 16 |
Human: Change my mind: i have a hard time feeling sympathetic towards ebola aid workers (and feel bad about it) in the uk there's a story going on right now of a nurse who got transferred to a london hospital/isolation ward, and that her condition is deteriorating rapidly.
i don't take death lightly, i try and picture... | "> i dunno, if it happened to your friend i think you'd be more angry than sympathetic, you'd think they were selfish. Am I right that you'd be angry because you feel like they're putting you in a position where you have to worry about their well-being and possibly deal with the fallout resulting from their injury or... | 47 |
Human: Change my mind: Serial killers cannot be rehabilitated. A serial killer, according to Princeton, is typically defined as a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychologica... | "Depends on the serial killer, I'm guessing. Why not? Plenty of serial killers are probably out on the loose right now. Some get caught years later, some confess years later, some disappear. Just because they did a string of murders, it doesn't mean they'll continue and the ones that continue eventually get caught.... | 82 |
Human: Change my mind : In most cases, the pirates that only download but do not upload copyrighted content are causing no loss to the copyright holder. Think about it. **If they have no means to pay the copyright holder, either because they have the money but not the compatible payment media (for example, Sony doesn't... | 'So in that case, you\'re not concerned with the monetary aspects of pirating at all - you claim they don\'t "deserve to make a profit" and "whether they see money or not is irrelevant." If that\'s the case, then this isn\'t the thread for you - OP is specifically concerned with the loss or lack thereof resulting from ... | 92 |
Human: Change my mind: Female-only gyms and women's shelters are not discriminatory… or are they? Well, while I was discussing the effects of feminism on another CMV post, a reddit user made a very good point in saying that female-only gyms and shelters are discriminatory. That was something I never thought about! I co... | 'Yeah, but not because of some arbitrary shit like race. Because of biological differences.'
"Except that the reason there *aren't* men's shelters is that they're all women's shelters. If you started a trend of creating gender discriminatory soup kitchens you'd see the same pattern. The need is irrelevant, the sexist ... | 98 |
Human: Change my mind: Timed essays like the SAT don't properly measure one's writing skills, nor their critical thinking skills. Timed essays, especially with as little time as the SAT gives, force test takers to come up with a BS answer without really thinking about it. As a result, they are either forced to justify ... | 'This is incorrect. I majored in Englsih Literature in college. All I did was read and write. Nearly every one of my in-major classes, and many of my other classes, had a timed midterm and final that involved writing long essays. Either you knew the material and were able to produce a coherent essay within the time fra... | 79 |
Human: Change my mind: You birth determines the vast majority of success/quality in your life. I believe an upwards of about 90% of your success/quality in life is determined when you are born. You can be born into a rich family in America and have a much better life than someone born to a poor family in the slums of I... | '> If good genes/environment occur, then it\'s highly likely good life choices will occur. Statistically, probably. It\'s theoretically possible, though, for an individual to make optimal or non-optimal decisions or whatever decisions, since there is no obstacle for will. OP\'s saying that, whatever those decisions ar... | 91 |
Human: Change my mind: Police officers should have stricter guidelines on when they can use their firearms or in some cases be disarmed completely of the ability to use lethal force. The stated mission of police is to "serve and protect" the people, and obviously from what we've seen recently in the news this mission i... | 'My title does seem focused on guidelines but my argument takes a much harder stance if you choose to read it. The guidelines part came from seeing countless news videos of situations in which lethal force was used and seeing cops just standing around waving their guns. Drawing your weapon should be an actual last reso... | 22 |
Human: Change my mind: The field of economics is inherently biased against poor people This is a much clearer way to say what I was trying to say:
Market frictions affect poor people more. In fact, at some point, they become the more dominant than the market dynamics themselves.
Every market has infinite frictions... | '>Right, but there are some that are privileged in the field. The market is a concept that is applied in almost every subfield. "The market" is not a singular concept that operates based on one theory. Views on how real-life markets operate are extremely diverse. >Right.. this is how every field works. But the refine... | 85 |
Human: Change my mind: The events in Paris suck...but the comic creator wasn't some great martyr or anything. Please leave the footnote below the following line, but remember to delete this sentence by replacing it with the body of your post. Thank you!
Almost none of his comics were actually relevant or topical in an... | '> random/semi-irrational posts Could you elaborate on this? or at least show some examples. Every comic ive seen by the media (which im sure they have a bias on) as made sense, and been rational. which ones do you refer to?'
'Hm I guess I made the OP incorrectly. The main point was meant to be he created a bunch ... | 2 |
Human: Change my mind: I believe a world government is a good thing I live in Lebanon. We are a small country. And when you live in a small country bigger countries effectively control your policies. In the case of lebanon it is done directly through buying politicians. This is true for Saudi arabia the united states I... | 'Yes 100%. theres a reason why your info is there in the first place. if it was illegal feds could call fraud on those holding financial information of party workers that should be released to the public. '
'The counterside to this is that "bad" things can also move abroad. Your constitution doesn\'t allow spying on... | 51 |
Human: Change my mind: Freedom of speech is being taken too far In the last few weeks we've had two huge events happen in the world, both of which were caused by matters relating to "freedom of speech." The first being the hacking of Sony over The Interview, and today the shooting at the offices of a satirical magazine... | '>What would the reaction from Americans be if someone walked through the streets of a predominantly black neighborhood saying "I hate black people" and was murdered? "What would the likely reaction be?" is not the right question to ask. You should ask "what is the proper reaction?" A person doing that is probably an... | 10 |
Human: Change my mind: I think the Paris shooting makes a good case for culture of responsible gun ownership any carrying. Thinking about today's news: [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-30710777), [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting)
I think France is in a tough spot in how to... | ''
"I really liked your explanation, and OP's non-answer was pretty hilarious. It sounded like a politician dodging a question. I always have a similar sort of critique to anyone arguing for guns as a personal safety/protection tool. Guns escalate situations, and make people more unpredictable. It sounds so silly to... | 7 |
Human: Change my mind: Diet soda is perfectly healthy for you. I drink a lot of diet soda. Like... six to twelve cans per day. I rarely drink any regular soda with calories. In fact, I grew up with diet soda and I tend to prefer the diet soda taste to regular soda. Because of my amount of intake, I've spent a lot o... | "Thanks for a fresh argument! I hadn't considered bone density. I'm going to go so a little research. Do you have a study or anything you could link me to?"
'http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/4/936.full http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=349673 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1359/jbm... | 5 |
Human: Change my mind: Whole Brain Emulation is clearly the way the Singularity is coming. [Wikipedia on the (idea of) the Singularity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity)
[Wikipedia on (the idea of) whole brain emulation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_brain_emulation)
Strong general artific... | "> and that this plays an important role in the genes that are transferred onto the next generation I've never heard of this, but I'll have to look into it. That said - it doesn't make things easier, if anything, it makes things harder to simulate, no?"
"But once you simulate a human brain, it doesn't need to find o... | 18 |
Human: Change my mind: Wedding ceremonies are a waste of time money, and energy My girlfriend is currently dealing with planning the wedding of an old friend of hers, and it is painful to watch. The amount of excess money going into this one day is absurd; DJs, flowers, photographers, clothes, matching shoes, centerpie... | 'Then it doesnt seem like you think wedding ceremonies are a waste of time, money, and energy, just that one end of the spectrum is. I think most would agree with that. Its pretty subjective on where to draw the line'
"I agree completely. The excessiveness of it all is what's lost on me. I have no problem with the ide... | 42 |
Human: Change my mind: The 99% was people realising they do not matter. And they are still just as not important.
Those 99% what do they achieve for the grand scheme of things?
How many of them were required to do a job vs how many of them actually had that job?
Why the F do we need the opinion of the majority in any p... | '∆ well thought out response. I think your point about the necessity of the 99% is pretty indisputable :)'
'Heartless? That\'s not at all what I was saying. Honestly, it\'s hard not to argue strawmen when you\'re not entirely sure what the other person is trying to communicate. But I was saying that I think yo... | 45 |
Human: Change my mind: Students who receive no financial aid from their parents should be able to declare independent on their FAFSA.
I really wanna talk more about this. Surely I'm missing something. I have three major issues:
1. You're screwing the kid over, plain and simple. Mommy and Daddy make $100,000/year and... | "What logic is that exactly? Seriously? There are a lot of things my tax dollars go to that I don't agree with. But if the majority wanted are tax dollars to go to public higher education, then it should. And people who do believe that they should are free to advocate for it. Point is you don't need consent from all... | 56 |
Human: The iPhone keyboard/texting is hands down better than Android. I had an iPhone for years, and maybe I just got used to the way it works, but I can text flawless on an iPhone even though I can't spell for shit. I've had a Galaxy s5 for 7-8 months now and if I don't go slowly and hit the check mark on some words i... | 'Hey, out of curiosity, can I change certain keys? For instance, now that I have double tap on my space bar can I switch the period button to a question mark? Without having to hold it down first that is? '
"Awesome. I'll try that one first. "
"That's good to know. Although it doesn't really negate my opinion if ... | 93 |
Human: Change my mind: Apple Laptops are best for everyday use Let me preface this by saying I don't have much of a preference between Mac and Windows, and actually slightly prefer windows. I have a great custom built pc that I game with and use every day, and also a macbook air for school. The problem is, I need a new... | 'Plastic is not inherently bad. There are a great many very well-built plastic computers. All cheap computers are plastic, but not all good ones are metal. If you just like the look of metal that\'s fine, but there is little *objectively* superior about it and some things *objectively* inferior. For example, aluminum ... | 11 |
Human: Change my mind : We need to keep working on A.I., even if this could mean the end of the human race Assuming that one day we will create an AI way too powerful to control it (big assumption I know) and thus taking control over us (in a Terminator or Matrix way), I think even knowing that we should continue.
Hum... | "But this sadness you feel is a specific structure of brain matter inside your head, it's just emotions felt by a sack of meat. Wouldn't it be better to change the meat in your head so that it doesn't feel sad rather than eliminate all the meat in everyone else's heads?"
'Our children are some kind of trace and peace ... | 48 |
Human: Change my mind: Insults such as 'You're gay' are not an affront to gay people I've seen some discussion about this topic, where many kids and adults may call people something they aren't to try and insult them. For example: 'That's so gay' and 'You throw like a girl' type insults. Many people come to the conclus... | 'I think you\'re seeing things where they don\'t exist. The butt of the joke is *not* that its silly to be gay. The butt of the joke is that after a series of legitimate suggestions for evening plans, someone suggested something that was obviously ridiculous (since none of us were gay). It would be similarly funny if h... | 67 |
Human: Change my mind: Shaming someone for a lack of empathy is just as bad as shaming someone for any other inborn trait It seems like it isn't uncommon for people to resort to using "lack of empathy" as an insult, especially when discussing social issues. It's my understanding that empathy is largely an immutable pe... | "> we should never criticize anyone for anything even if we perceive it as bad (or criminal). There is a significant difference between criticism, which can range from constructive to rude to destructive, and shaming, which is not only destructive but must also carry a significant amount of weight to qualify. Addition... | 17 |
Human: Change my mind: There is No Free Will With our ever advancing knowledge of neuroscience and the chemistry involved with it, I do not see any place for the idea that any animal, including humans, is truly capable of making choices. We are capable of recognizing choices, that is obvious, but I'm not convinced that... | 'How else could uncaused motion occur? If it is not random, it must be influenced by something which decides the particular direction of non-randomness it has, whether that thing is a material cause of an immaterial one.'
'"What isn\'t random and isn\'t deterministic?" is a question I\'ve never heard any sort of answe... | 73 |
Human: Change my mind: Copyright law should include a "continued use" provision. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm surprised that I don't think I've ever seen anyone else suggest it. So maybe there's an obvious reason for there not to be such a provision that I haven't considered, but here's what I thi... | "> I would argue that we benefit, as a society, from Disney retaining its copyright over Mickey Mouse - and Mickey is a perfect example because he is nothing except what Disney put into him. Actually, that makes it a pretty bad example of copyrights, because you are really talking about trademarks. Not Mickey Mouse ... | 80 |
Human: Change my mind: Minimum Wages Should Automatically Adjust Based on a Price Index Note: While this general argument may apply to other countries points made below will be specific to the point of view of the United States.
Recently it's been in the news that many states have increased minimum wages this year wit... | ">I fail to see how the labor market is any different from another commodity. The labor market has a regulated price floor, which you yourself advocate. If i don't like the price of a pack of gum, I can buy it elsewhere without a legal minimum."
"If real wages are constant due to inflation then there is no real growt... | 19 |
Human: Change my mind: I don't believe history "has shown we won't ever" launch nuclear weapons one or more countries. I don't know how common this opinion is but I have heard it from several people. Basically, they argue that history has "shown" that no one has any intention of actually launching nukes on each other. ... | "You're assuming that the only thing that all fringe groups want is territory, therefore MAD will eventually apply. You forget that a lot of these groups out there aren't after land, but rather attempting to simply destroy other group's ideals or bolster their own. MAD doesn't save us from people like this."
"Even i... | 26 |
Human: Change my mind: Iran has the right to develop nuclear weapons First off, I do not believe that Iran *should* have nuclear weapons. In fact, I believe Iran having nuclear weapons makes the world less safe overall. However, I believe that as a sovereign nation they have the right to develop nuclear weapons if they... | 'There is no such thing as "de facto acceptance of Israel\'s nuclear program." the Non-Proliferation Treaty is only binding for signatory states. Israel is not a signatory.'
"because international law doesn't require states to sign treaties, it only requires them to adhere to treaties they've already signed. Israel is... | 1 |
Human: Change my mind: I don't believe illegal immigrants in America deserve citizenship more than those who go through the legal process If you desire to become a legal immigrant in any country, you should respect the rules of the government, which includes respecting the requirement of going through the citizenship p... | 'Thanks, interesting stuff!'
"> They say that there aren't enough skilled laborers in the US to fill the positions they have. But what they really mean to say is, there aren't enough americans to work for the salaries they want to pay them. I don't think this is true; the high tech non-poaching thing was an effort to... | 62 |
Human: Change my mind: There is no productive reason to have, "Under God" in the US Pledge of Allegiance and, "In God We Trust" on the dollar bill. The, "Under God" line is actually a relatively new addition. It was added during the Cold War to assert the US from the Soviet Union. Now that the Soviet Union is not curre... | 'What God? Most of the founders were Deist. '
'∆ I hadn\'t thought it from a "let\'s trick people into thinking our money is the best money" perspective before. I like it.'
'But they made slaves 3/5 a person' | 4 |
Human: Change my mind The EGG came first before the chicken. According to the theory of evolution it makes more sense that the egg preceded the chicken. Before the chicken there was a similar but different creature. Let's call it X. Its completely arbitrary when the X officially evolved into a chicken, but at some poin... | 'This is a very good point. I guess I\'ve been assuming that there\'s no way to tell that the organism inside the egg is a chicken until it hatches, and that the chicken inside doesn\'t really exist until it has hatched. In that case, the egg becomes a chicken egg at the same time that the chicken begins to exist. And ... | 37 |
Human: Change my mind: Religious fundamentalists should be diagnosed with a form of psychosis. Within the last decade, there has been a huge push for taking mental disorders such as depression more seriously. Why has this push not touched on helping people who have lost contact with reality?
*I am not here to start a ... | 'Exactly, OP standards for a form psychosis would probably encompass 99% of people'
'Ahh, in that case, I agree with your agreement.'
'> By religious fundamentalist, I am referring to someone whose personal religious beliefs are obsessive and interfere with one\'s ability to think rationally (e.g. someone being a cre... | 28 |
Human: Change my mind: In a perfect world, all police wear body cameras. If an incident occurs in which the body cam was not activated (by accident or not) the officer is guilty until proven innocent Say an officer shoots a man. With body cam footage it shows the man was viciously attacking the officer and it is shown ... | '>Thus, we should assume that camera malfunction means possible abuse or corruption. It\'s an inexpensive electrical device, you can\'t just assume corruption because it fails. Should it be looked at with more scrutiny? Absolutely, but its comepletely contrary to our current justice system. Saying "Oh it malfunctio... | 41 |
Human: Change my mind: Riots and looting in Ferguson were for the greater good Please leave the footnote below the following line, but remember to delete this sentence by replacing it with the body of your post. Thank you!
It is my contention that the property destruction and disruption of commerce in Ferguson are the... | "The post was about the initial riots, and not the ones after the verdict. It didn't get people talking about the racial aspect of the murder? Do you really want me to link the countless examples of how that's not true? What's new is the fact that there is now legislation on police shootings(http://thinkprogress.org... | 95 |
Human: Change my mind: Colonel Quaritch from "Avatar" was right. Recently, I stumbled upon [this](http://i.imgur.com/MEgVf.jpg) after a discussion of Avatar with a friend. [ (Not from the movie, but from here) ](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=sa7rmohv1hmgymf4xdu8cait&page=27#660) It summed up my fe... | '>But, beyond that, I don\'t think in nature predator species literally rape and enslave prey species. But whatever. I agree, Rape and enslavement should be excluded from conquering. >Because, the one thing about predators is that they have to constantly fight their competition for their rights to the pray. Resulti... | 53 |
Human: Change my mind- Mentally handicapped people should be held to more or less the same standard as neurotypical employees when working at their job. (Before I start a disclaimer: I posted this with the intention of learning more about something I'm not very educated about. Nothing I say was meant to denigrate or of... | "∆ Though it might not cost the employer any money, it definitely lowers the quality of the workplace having a coworker who won't do his or her share but still takes home the same paycheck. If there's 5 people in the dept including Ricky that just means the other four have to do 120% of the work and that still isn't q... | 90 |
Human: Change my mind: The term "steep learning curve" is used incorrectly what people really mean is "shallow learning curve" I forget where I first learned this but it has stuck with ever since and as person who deals with graphs and plots all the time (biochemist) it drives me nuts when ever I hear it.
The term "le... | 'A+ trolling, for a n00b.'
'> Similarly, it isn\'t at all obvious that the phrase "I could care less" is an incorrect way of expressing apathy. Nobody seems to have any problem with the fact that "I\'ve been better" generally means something like "I\'m not doing very well right now. "I couldn\'t care less" expresses ... | 58 |
Human: Change my mind: Cloth car seats are better than leather Leather seats are often considered a luxury feature, and are a standard feature of high-end cars, but I think the "luxury" isn't really better than cloth seats.
Leather seats get incredibly hot during the summer and unless you take a lot of extra care of t... | ''
'You can\'t go on it\'s status symbolism alone. A "luxurious" item needs to be comfortable as well.'
"If that's all it takes to be a premium product,this couch(http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/sofa4.jpg) must be fit for a king. And I'm of the same opinion as OP - a leather seat is about as comfortable as a plasti... | 34 |
Human: Change my mind: Nobody who works in a cubicle or other job where you rarely interact with anyone other than your co-workers should have any dress code beyond "cover your naughty bits" and "don't wear offensive stuff" To be clear: I'm talking about research/design/programming/IT/call center jobs, where you aren't... | "Pretend you're a potential investor. You walk through the offices to get a feel for the place. You look around at the programmers there. In one scenario, they all look like Comic Book Guy.(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/The_Simpsons-Jeff_Albertson.png) In another, they're all well-groomed, professionall... | 59 |
Human: Change my mind: The idea of "Buy local" or "Buy American" is primarily grounded in selfishness. Recently there has been a shift from the industrial globalized system of goods (food, handmade items, clothing, etc) to more alternative systems like farmers markets, local businesses, and "buying American" (or whatev... | ">Additionally, buying local =/= better labor practices. This is really two different arguments, if we assume that the local 10 acre organic tomato farm has the same labor standards as the 5,000 acre commercial tomato farm only with fewer employees, then we're just focused on an interest in keeping money closer to... | 69 |
Human: Change my mind: I believe that regularly browsing 4chan will make you into a worse person Because of the anonymity on 4chan people are more prone to not think through, care about what they post and are quicker to throw out insults. They will care about how people respond to them, but since it's largely negative ... | ''
"Very late to this thread, but if you order /r/4chan by Top it works against OP, as there's some ggreaat humour but very little that's offensive."
'i miss read it as great tapes.'
"From time to time, you'll see nurses, or doctors commenting on pictures in that subreddit. They'll be debating causes of death, etc. ... | 43 |
Human: Change my mind: Why America isnt a scary place to move to As you can read im not an American. Ive been dreaming of starting a clinic in America in the future, or to work in a medical clinic when i finish medical school in my own country. However reddit has made me think that America seems like a really scary pla... | "I'm from Missoula, Montana and currently live in San Diego, California. Montana is absolutely beautiful, the people are nice and very liberal in missoula (other cities not so much). California is always pegged as this amazing and liberal place....but I don't see it that way. They have weird laws and taxes and it is ve... | 52 |
Human: Change my mind: I believe you have three choices once you discover the suffering animals endure in the meat industry... The options are as follows:
1. You don't agree with what is going on and stop supporting it.
2. You don't care about animals, so you're content with paying for them to be abused for your plea... | "This is a great answer, and I'd add that we have limited resources (time, energy money) to support causes we believe in while still treating ourselves as well as possible in life. Different issues are more or less accessible for different people to change. If I stopped eating meat, I wouldn't have enough food that I l... | 30 |
Human: Change my mind: Sean Connery wasn't the definitive James Bond. I loved Connery's Bond overall, but I don't think there's any one best James Bond actor because they all bring something to the table. I don't view Connery's Bond as a performance that was so definitive that the other actors paled in comparison. Th... | "It's not that I like him or dislike him, his Bond is an action star and not a secret agent. " | 63 |
Human: Change my mind: As we change from 2014 to 2015 — I think the acronyms B.C.E. and C.E. which are used to supersede B.C. and A.D. are antihistorical, pretentious euphemisms with no place in the scientific and academic communities or anywhere else I thought it appropriate timing to post this CMV as we change from t... | 'Yes, I know that a lot of language was derived from religious sayings. CE/BCE is not a new concept. It\'s been referenced for 300 years now. Jewish scholars started using it, not just to be "pretentious", but because referring to the birth of Jesus as "Christ" is a direct contradiction to their faith. They *don\'t... | 78 |
Human: Change my mind: Universities that receive public funding should be responsible for placing their graduating students in relevant careers We spend an absolutely ludicrous amount of public money on education, yet the government rarely demands a return on this investment. IMO this is an unconscionable use of public... | 'I never said that non-employable skills are not important or useful, I said that the public should not be forced to pay for those skills since it will not see any real return on investment. That belief does not at all contradict the validity of universities, they are necessary to teach important things that cannot/ar... | 60 |
Human: Change my mind: Humans are going to die out because of an economic collapse Bill Gade presents the argument better than I do so I will just quote him.
It turns out that there is a final category. It is known as Unemployment. As Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Services become more efficient in the coming months,... | "They disagreed with the title, but the title is bad and doesn't accurately reflect OP's position. "
"> I do disagree with Gade a little bit. I don't think it would kill everybody, but the some few people that still know how to hunt and gather would probably survive as well people who were rich enough to have access t... | 35 |
Human: Change my mind: I'm scared shitless over automation and the disappearance of jobs I'm genuinely scared of the future; that with the pace of automation and machines that soon human beings will be pointless in the future office/factory/whatever.
I truly believe that with the automated car, roughly 3 million jobs,... | ">I see no reason why it can't. Then you are ignorant. >Technology improves at an exponential rate No it doesnt >Computers get smarter and smarter and one day computers will make better computers No they wont. and no they arnt. Computers arnt any smarter than they were 40 years ago. Hell you computers dont even... | 29 |
Human: Change my mind: Super hero secret identities are unnecessary and actually get in the way of crime fighting. There are since exceptions, such as Spider-man who I believe so benefit from a secret identity. But for characters like Batman and Superman it makes almost no sense.
To elaborate: Batman is extremely wea... | '>My reasoning is that he doesn\'t need "Clark" to relate to human beings. It\'s not about relating to human beings, "Clark Kent" and that whole persona is how Kal-El sees the human race. Right now, we\'re weak, scared and just starting to bloom as a species. Someone had a good quote with Superman and Lex Luthor, so... | 50 |
Human: Change my mind: Eugenics isn't all that bad... And we don't even have to kill anyone for it Okay, I'm talking about making the human race smarter, forever.
Intelligence is at least partially genetic and therefore passed down by parents, yes? [Yes.](http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/40459/titl... | 'Yeah... Kud∆s for helping. Reminds me of the "evil people are intelligent" thing that someone said Edit: Delta for explaining how intelligence isn\'t always good, I never considered how it could be not good.'
"Less intelligent people exist for a reason. Their genes survived through million of years of evolution.... | 12 |
Human: Change my mind: Men should either be able to waive their financial obligations to their child, or they should have abortion rights. First of all, I understand the underlying arguments for women being the sole decision maker when it comes to getting an abortion. I also understand the underlying arguments for a ma... | "Same if a man lies about having a vasectomy. That's not illegal, and then the woman is stuck pregnant. Condoms being lied about can give someone STIs, a risk they aren't consenting to if you have both agreed on using protection. I believe, personally, that poking a hole in a condom should count towards that as well ... | 86 |
Human: Change my mind:Essential Oils are bullshit My wife has recently gotten deeply involved/obsessed with the healing properties of essential oils. I am cursed with a common problem in that I am an extremely skeptical person. I can't help but look at this product and see a pyramid scheme that takes advantage of the... | 'Most do. Some smell kinda funky.' | 6 |
Human: Change my mind: FDR did not get the United States out of The Depression In 1940, the US Unemployment rate was still averaging 14.6%. FDR's policies weren't doing anything until the United States entered World War II. Then the national economy only had a temporary recovery as industry transformed for war producti... | "I edited what I said. I realize that you were pointing to good policy FDR passed. You are right that bank holidays and leaving the gold standard were good ideas, however FDR's claim to fame was the New Deal and massive government intervention. With respect to fiscal policies, the data doesn't show that fiscal polic... | 33 |
Human: Change my mind: Physical media such as DVDs, blu-rays, and music CDs are pointless to purchase, because they will be obsolete within 10 years Although there is something kind of special about owning a physical copy of a favorite movie or album, I no longer see any reason to purchase a piece of physical media in ... | 'Interesting, I did not know CDs were at such a massive bitrate. While you are correct, a lot of this is dependent on a solid, fast internet connection, connection speeds continue to get faster and more reliable. Hopefully once the Comcast debacle is dealt with, most people in first world countries will have access to ... | 77 |
Human: Change my mind: There is no sound biblical argument that makes being trans-gender morally wrong. I'm not some hippy liberal christian, I'm a serious southern baptist Sunday school teacher. I think that after examining the Bible, there is no argument that being transgender is wrong. Indeed, there are only three m... | "Do you have an example of sex and gender being considered the same? For all we know, every reference to either is reference to only sex, especially because there isn't any biblical text that explicitly specifies the difference."
''
'Life of Brian disagrees!(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA)'
"Here's your... | 74 |
Human: Change my mind: Soccer will never become a major sport in the US. So I'm a pretty big soccer fan (Premier League and MLS), and my interest in the sport expanded after watching the World Cup. It was great to see a wide variety of support, as there were both lifelong fans and patriotic first time supports alike.
... | "Sure it has the capacity to grow. I've been to Red Bull Arena, and it's a great venue. However, mid season games left the stadium of 20,000 mostly empty. It's frustrating because New Jersey (where RBNY plays) has a large amount of youth soccer players, but somehow that doesn't translate to high attendance and interest... | 87 |
Human: Change my mind: Han Solo is a space douchebag. And we are the misguided teenage girl that goes for him, and thinks he can change.
* His ship is a space muscle car. "Look how fast/pimped my ride is"
* He is a criminal. A smuggler no less.
* Total jerk
* Has a bounty on his head. With the fucking space mafia.
* G... | 'I wish OP had stuck around because I like this post and I hate to see it wasted.'
"> We haven't changed him at all, he just becomes a somewhat lovable douchebag instead of a totally irredeemable one. Maybe we have to agree to disagree, but that seems a pretty valid change to me!"
'Still here mate. Some of us have t... | 31 |
Human: Change my mind: Philosophy has no tangible value as an academic field of study. As an independent form of study, philosophy doesn't seem to have any practical applications. What value does philosophy have in the modern age, right now, aside from contemplating things. Is it truly worth it to invest a significant ... | ">This isn't to say I'm smarter - I just already know what arguments they're going to make, why they might be wrong, what refutations exist, counter-arguments, what alternative views there might be, and even how points can be expressed differently. I completely agree. And not only can you be uneducated on the history... | 9 |
Human: Change my mind: Major corporations collecting consumer data is ethically wrong, increases consumer vulnerability to identity theft, and is a violation of privacy. Every form of consumer data is just another statistic for major corporations to collect, analyze and create numerical individuals that belong to segme... | "Pay information is one thing, which shouldn't be saved by the company anywhere, but certain companies want certain information. The argument is that collecting consumer data, such as buying habits, personal information and other identifying statistics about the individual is inherently wrong." | 24 |
Human: Change my mind: The most financially successful film released in 2014 was likely Planes: Fire and Rescue **TL;DR: Planes 2 likely made 24 times is production cost back in worldwide box office, blu-ray + dvd and merchandising. Transformers 4 (the highest grossing film worldwide) made roughly 15 times its producti... | 'The site OP links to, Box Office Mojo, defines Wide Release as such >Box Office Mojo considers a movie in Wide Release or about to go Wide when it is playing at 600 or more theaters, which generally indicates a nationwide release (the term is short for "nationwide"). A movie is considered to be in Limited release wh... | 81 |
Human: Change my mind - Mobile websites are a relic of the early mobile internet era and are inferior to actual websites when using your smartphone. Full disclosure I use an iPhone but any smart phone can handle this.
There isn't a single instance where a mobile website is preferable to a full site. The information i... | "and vice versa. I hate going to the desktop version only find it's worse then the mobile site on my phone and not being able to go back."
'Don\'t be silly. Plenty of websites work just as great on mobile as they do on desktop. http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ is the posterboy of this, but plenty of "real" websites d... | 99 |
Human: Change my mind: LGBTQ folks should be featured more prominently in kid's TV and education. Let me start this off by saying that I'm gay and 18 years old. It wasn't until I was 14 that I had known I was guy, although looking back it was already obvious in kindergarten.
I don't want to sound like a douche, but w... | 'This is a terrible argument to make though. If we were able to change from racist and sexist teachings of the past, then we can certainly do the same for LGBT teaching.'
"This is a great answer, and the point about how much we have to change yet in these old stories is a great point. We are just starting to change s... | 89 |
Human: Change my mind: Women who are anti-feminism do not have internalized misogyny. First let me clarify that anti-feminism isn't necessarily anti-women's rights, but against the belief in the patriarchy and institutional misogyny. Feminists often try to silence women's criticisms of feminism by saying they have inte... | 'WRONG. It was not "one feminist". The video was shot by a man who was paid to do so by a women\'s activist group. The woman was paid to walk around ignoring poor black people. And it was thousands of feminists that popularized that bit of hate speech. Do you understand the difference? She was an actress. A white wom... | 68 |
Human: Change my mind: A teenager can be just as intelligent as an adult (on certain topics) because age and experience don't equal intelligence. Okay so this is an argument I have all the time, being a teenager myself (17). usually what happens is I'll be discussing a topic with an adult (usually a family member or te... | 'this is easily the best comment here. you changed the way I look at the whole thing. wow. thank you. this is the kinda thing I was hoping for when I made this post. theres not much more to say. EDIT: forgot delta ∆'
"I'm late to this party, but I wanted to riff off what that guy said. The big difference with... | 61 |
Human: Change my mind: There are more taboos and stigmas in modern morality than there are logical reasons for them ... or to put it another way, I suppose it could be written that "People hold many opinions about the immoral nature of certain actions *just because* with no real logical reason for it."
This is an opin... | "Well, we could get all philosophical about this and say that *all* actions lead to harm by some convoluted trail of events, but we should really be reasonable and stick to direct or very close to direct events causing harm (e.g.: polluting a shared resource for personal gain, or something like that). There's no point ... | 65 |
Human: Change my mind: I think we should get rid of random drug testing from schools. A false positive could potentially make life hell for a high school student. And the probability of being a user given a positive is far too unreliable for any drug test to implement random drug testing in schools.
Some notation:
Pr... | 'Huh. I had thought that I was describing such an approach. P(test history | true user) * P(true user) = P(true user | test history) * P(test history) P(test history | true nonuser) * P(true nonuser) = P(true nonuser | test history) * P(test history) Therefore P(test history | true user) * P(true user) is proportio... | 96 |
Human: Change my mind: Instead of "bands" for income tax there should be a continuous formula for tax rates Rather than having a fixed number of income tax bands there should be a continuous function relating your salary to the rate of tax that you pay.
(In the following example I’m making up numbers to demonstrate a ... | 'If people are doing their taxes by hand they already have a lookup table for anyone under 100k and we can have that for the new system ss well. Anyone over 100k is probably going to understand the formula anyways or just use a tax software. '
'Exponents (or multiplying something three times) is never simpler than "... | 94 |
Human: Change my mind: If you pay a flat fee for Internet, it is a nice and acceptable thing to leave an unsecured WiFi network for neighbors and travelers. Many times in my life, I have been helped out by a neighbor or business owner who left an unsecured or no-password WiFi network. I am aware that this practice is s... | "You can't buy insurance to mitigate the risk of a fatal crash, but you still probably get in a car to drive to work every day. "
"> If you have an open wifi - you can't force them to use TOR and hope for the same protection. PORTAL(https://github.com/grugq/portal/) GL.iNET(http://www.gl-inet.com/w/?p=492&lang=en), ... | 70 |
Human: Change my mind: It is ok to hate a religion so long as you do not hate its followers It seems to me that it is entirely justified to believe that a set of beliefs are wrong and to desire to see less people follow that belief. If you disagree with certain parts of a religion and believe that following them to the... | "Just as a side Christianity isn't your best example. There's a famous part of the Bible where Jesus says precisely not to stone people."
'There\'s a difference between hating something and telling someone else you hate that thing. I might hate the color pink, but I wouldn\'t say that to someone wearing pink, because... | 3 |
Human: Change my mind: Attempting to convert people to your religion (or lack of) is a MORAL thing to do. The reasons for this are different depending on whether you are religious or not. I am intentionally not stating my own beliefs as it's not relevant (EDIT: actually it's pretty obvious!)
If you are religious, the ... | "My answer to that is 'yes'- it is moral *from their point of view*. I want to clarify here that I absolutely do not agree with moral relativism, their act is clearly not moral (in an absolute sense) but from their point of view it is. However, I do admit that this is a confusing issue. Due to reasons outlined in my p... | 66 |
Human: Change my mind: Irony aside, most people that post in Change my mind are uneducated, and changing their view on one point won't solve this overall problem There are some instances, yes where controversial topics are discussed here and people are actually interested in hearing the opposite side. I consider myself... | "That's not what he was saying. He was pointing out that several people here have changed views and I think he was trying to imply that this was evidence against your view. I'm not saying I agree with this idea but that's what I believe that comment is getting at. "
'But convincing that same stupid person of something... | 13 |
Human: Change my mind: Determinism vs. Indeterminism... and the bigger question, "Free-Will". **DEFINITIONS**
- **Determinism** : All events are certain, the entire outcome of an event is based on existing conditions, or **predetermined**. (Ex. *Event A will cause Event B.*)
- **Indeterminism** : No event is certain,... | '>to having a human being able to control which state an atom ends up in solely with their mind I think it would be more along the lines of that the atom exists in a certain state based on chemical principles, thus it exists regardless of the human mind. The human mind is then a product of the chemical reaction of mat... | 25 |
Human: Change my mind: Printing an image of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is not "standing up for free speech" Context: the [tragedy at Charlie Hebdo](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30710883) on 1/7/15. Whether this attack was directly provoked by a printed image of Muhammad or not, my argument will be framed as if... | "Bacon sandwiches have some purpose, represent some good to the people consuming them. That is in fact the primary purpose of consuming a bacon sandwich. It is *possible* to be offensive while consuming a bacon sandwich, but that is not the intention of most people eating bacon sandwiches. The purpose of these cartoon... | 8 |
Human: Change my mind: TV Commercials Should Not Accost Their Viewers as to the Presence or Absence of Meats My view isn't founded in legal rationale for banning such commercials, but I believe, as a matter of good taste, TV commercials should not belligerently accost their viewers as to the presence or absence of meat... | "The commercial was a miss for you. I'm sorry. Marketers don't have the ability to only show you the commercials you like the most, yet. Just because you have a negative view of the commercial doesn't mean that a majority of people (or just the target audience) has a negative reaction. What if, and bear with me here, p... | 38 |
Human: Change my mind: Prerequisites for courses should be replaced by a "(strongly) suggested background" Having gone through schooling for countless years in a variety of disciplines, prerequisites have been more of a hurdle than help. I realize my view is possibly more of an ideal, but places truly looking to educat... | 'Your hypothetical situations don\'t match up with my actual experiences. At my university (in Denmark) we operate with both "formal preprerequisites" (i.e. you must have taken this/these specific course(s)) and "suggested background/academic qualifications" (i.e. you should have knowledge in these areas). The former i... | 14 |
Human: Change my mind:I believe that the British Monarchy is, on balance, a positive net contributor to the United Kingdom in all aspects of our nation. I have long been on the side of the fence which supports the British Monarchy and the Royal Family. I think that their position as the Head of State provides a groundi... | 'Why they would or why they wouldn\'t? You need a head of state. In US-style systems the president is both head of state and head of government. They are elected separately from the legislature, and have a different dynamic with the legislature (often they don\'t work together because they can be from separate parties... | 97 |
Human: Change my mind:Although I accept that global warming is man made and real, it seems to me the odds are it might be better to do nothing. We don't really know if, without Global warming, the planet is cooling, heating or staying the same. For example there is some statistical possibility that without our warming... | "I think devastation is a justifiable word choice given the scale of some of the anticipated changes. We're already looking at billions of trees lost across the taiga and alpine forests of North America from these beetles. The Amazon also lost billion of trees to drought(http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/feb/... | 72 |
Human: Change my mind: I believe that same sex marriage has distracted LGBT people from more important issues From my point of view at least alot of LGBT people in the UK have seemed to accept that "the battle is won" and now we have same sex marriage we are all equal, all happy and all of that. In Fact where I now liv... | "> It's a cascading effect. There's the older generation finally getting married and coming out of the closet, there's those of the younger generation who do get married, there's the politicians who come out and get married. It also promotes the idea that LGBT love is not less than heterosexual love. It's no less valid... | 76 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.