> It's one thing to state that you personally believe in something. It's an entirely different thing to try to pass off a personal opinion and baseless assertions as some kind of established consensus, particluarly as they fly in the face of reality.
That's exactly what you are doing. To be honest, I can't tell if you're serious because all you are doing is making statements and then just linking to pages without citing any particular fact.
> If you have a genuine curiosity about the subject and you're interested in getting up to speed on the topic, you may start by reading up on this as well.
If you had a point to make, it wouldn't take someone reading a whole page to compare what is essentially two arguments around quantitative figures. You'd be able to state a counterargument with some form of rationale. Just linking to a page and telling me to "get started" by "reading up" doesn't cut it. This is a discussion forum, and it's really not polite to just tell people they are wrong and not explain why. Nobody has time to read an entire encyclopedia entry to figure out why you are right and everyone else is wrong.
> That's exactly what you are doing. To be honest, I can't tell if you're serious because all you are doing is making statements and then just linking to pages without citing any particular fact.
No, not really. You might feel the need to ignore any of the sources I've cited, or even try to refute anything mentioned in them, but you can't pretend that the facts I've pointed out are baseless or even personal assertions.
This sort of position is particularly undefendable considering that you're purposely turning a blind eye to the baseless and completely unrealistic assertion that sparked this thread.
So,if you have any intention of actually discussing the topic, please stick to the facts instead of playing games trying to shift burdens away from your claims.
> If you had a point to make, it wouldn't take someone reading a whole page (...)
Please don't try to pretend that well-supported and referenced facts are free to be ignored just because you either don't like them or prefer to ignore them.
The summation of what you are saying is that I am wrong because lots of people with power made an opposing decision and that I should just read a Wikipedia page because reasons.
That's asinine. I could just as easily give you an Amazon listing for an entire book making a case for nuclear energy, tell you to just read that without giving an explanation of why, and that really wouldn't be much different from what you are telling me. It proves nothing.
Why are you even on HN if you want to avoid real discussion? Do you know why I and nearly everyone else here includes snippets from the pages they link to? It's because no one has time to read that shit if they have no context.
Can you even make a single point to back up your position? What you've shared is barely even a citation; a citation is usually in tandem with a piece of information or an abstract of the source being cited. You shared a hyperlink. Goodie for you.
You know what, I don't even really care if you are right because you wrote as if I'm a dunce who should "get started" learning about the facts around the subject. Are you kidding me? You turned a blind eye to my points and then have the gall to say imply I'm ignorant because you have a Wikipedia page? You're being a total jerk.
Instead of reducing what I said to a "personal opinion" that I am trying to "pass off" that is "baseless", you could have respectfully disagreed even without a reason and included that Wikipedia page, and there was a chance I might have read it. But you had to be a jerk. If you still don't get this, then you're on the wrong website.
That's exactly what you are doing. To be honest, I can't tell if you're serious because all you are doing is making statements and then just linking to pages without citing any particular fact.
> If you have a genuine curiosity about the subject and you're interested in getting up to speed on the topic, you may start by reading up on this as well.
If you had a point to make, it wouldn't take someone reading a whole page to compare what is essentially two arguments around quantitative figures. You'd be able to state a counterargument with some form of rationale. Just linking to a page and telling me to "get started" by "reading up" doesn't cut it. This is a discussion forum, and it's really not polite to just tell people they are wrong and not explain why. Nobody has time to read an entire encyclopedia entry to figure out why you are right and everyone else is wrong.