Thread: "The US Does Not Torture"

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Lol. I love it. The same argument over and over.

Oh, you understand it? Then why do you keep dodging it?

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

And I ask, again: Why is the "burden," objectively, on me? I forget.

What happened to your "over and over" claim?

The burden is on the person claiming there is evidence of a positive, not on the person asking what that evidence is. The burden is not on a person to give evidence of a negative, especially when he is not even claiming the negative. Review my Bigfoot example.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

My position is that there is evidence that the U.S. supports torture, and it seems that you are the only one holding fast to the idea that there isn't. Your argument basically boils down to "convince me," which is impossible to do when someone refuses to be convinced. I could be making the stance that the moon has a gravitational pull and, to someone that refuses to consider it, no matter what argument is presented, it is impossible to "convince" them that there is evidence. You've been fighting in religion/spirituality too long. The position that the U.S. does not support torture is much harder to defend, logically, than the position that "God" (Bigfoot or the Flying Spaghetti Monster) does not exist.

No, not on the general issue of whether the U.S. has a torture policy at all. We already covered the issue of whether or not threatening reasonably avoidable torture is torture itself and whether sending somebody to a place where something could happen is the same as engaging in that something.

I keep asking you specifically about these so called "black sites". What evidence do you have of their existence other than some biased journalism saying that some European media outlets claim they exist and that there is "an investigation"? How many times do I need to ask that question before you finally answer it? It is not my responsibility to provide evidence of a negative. If that is all you've got, then tell me what evidence those media outlets have. How sure are they? Are they competitive outlets that have something to lose if they make up stuff? I am talking about where what you posted got its information. All you posted was some assertion. Tell me about the nature of the media reports your link talked about. You are claiming there is evidence of a positive, so I am asking what that evidence is. What is that evidence?

Telling me to give evidence otherwise does not qualify. That would be like if I said there is evidence of Bigfoot and told you to give me evidence to the contrary. Yes, I will make that argument until you admit that the burden of evidence is on the person saying he has evidence that something exists. You are talking about covert interrogation locations. What could I possibly say to provide evidence that they do not exist? Nothing. All I can do is deal with your supposed evidence. That is why I keep asking what that evidence is. Why won't you tell me?