We should neither hate Hitler nor respect Martin Luther King

"[. .. ] I am a fairly new member for debate. org, I think i joined less than a week ago, and this is my first debate that I consider legitimate. I really do apologize and will try to uhh. .. I guess try to figure out how to follow the rules of conduct more appropriately, are you aware of any way I could do this? " Well I read 8 or 9 debates before I started debating so try to read as many as you can to get a feel for basic debating conduct. =] -------------- Rebuttals -------------- 1) CON agreed to my new premise so there is nothing to rebut here 2) "A glass beaker is an inanimate object, it obviously does not have any way to know right from wrong, does not know the alphabet, and in fact, does not have a brain. It does not have the capacity for emotions such as love or hatred," So? A person's emotions, thoughts and brain activity at any given moment is nothing but the result of a combination of their genes and their environment and so is not under their control. You might as well say that people are not see-through and sonerous for all the difference it makes. "so when talking about Martin Luther King Jr. (I apologize for the part in my previous argument where I criticized you for using simply "Martin Luther King". ) and Adolf Hitler I do not think comparing them to a glass beaker is a legitimate analogy. " I am saying that a person's actions are not really their choice as their actions and who they as people are are down to a mixture of their genes and their environment - neither of which they are given any choice in. This is why it is possible to compare the action of a glass breaking wth Hitler's action of initiating the genocide of Jews or MLK's action of standing up against racism since none of the actions are the choice of the individuals/ inimate objects. 3) "Are you trying to say that MLK had no control over his actions? I guess I understand the argument for use with Hitler, and I guess this is starting to relate with solipsism, but I really do not believe it is fair to assume that MLK had no control over his actions. " I am saying no-one has control over their actions. Why can it be applicable to Hitler but not MLK? Please provide reasons to back up your assertions. "But we obviously can trace the parentage of MLK and Hitler and figure out their social status, economic stability etc. " Yes but i'm saying that since we are the result of our genes and our environment and nothing else, then we have no choice in who we are since we have no real choice in our environment or our genes. Its just taking the above one step further. 4) "Regarding your basketball player argument" Firstly, I stated that it was "a simple example" not an argument. "if there is someone that really wants to play basketball, but do not fit the physical criteria, they could simply try as hard as they could to reach these criteria to play" Yes but there are also other who do fit the criteria and will also try as hard as they could to play and in this situation the people who fit the physcial criteria (lean, tall, good hand-eye coordination) would win out over the person who did not fit the criteria. "Even the disabled, if they really wanted to play, could join a team for the disabled" yes, but the disabled is restricted to disabled basketball (wheelchair basketball) because of their environment (a car crash perhaps) or their genes (a birth defect) "there are no real limits to what on can or cannot do" I'll assume you meant what "on[e] can or cannot do", an african aids orphan with stunted mental and physcial growth who stays for his whole life in sub saharen africa cannot become a billionaire buisness man. -------------- argument -------------- I feel that CON has missed the main point of my arguments in his rebuttals so there is no need to make any new arguments - he says himself in the comments section that his argument "sucks". I shall simplify my argument into a syllogism to make it easier for him to rebut them: 1. We do not blame the glass for its action of breaking because it has no control over that action - we are at emotional neutrality to the glass 2. People also have no control over their actions because their actions are down to a combinaton of their genes and their environment neither of which are down to the individuals choice. 3. We should then be at emotional neutrality to other people - be it MLK or Hitler.