The Dark Emporium of Earthly Delights

Hi! I'm Leon: an incendiary, opinionated, egotistical and all-round repulsive soul that's currently in his senior year at the University of Western Australia. I'm blunt, caustic, charming, brutally-frank and eloquent all at once. I speak my thoughts out loud and dress strangely. My sexuality is (apparently) nebulous and frequently subject to speculative second-guessing. I abhor religion, but respect individuals' search for the truth.

The above is more of a read-before-consumption than it is, say, an exercise in vanity. If; however; you leave your reservations at the door, then I can guarantee that we'll have a raucously good time together by the fire.

I write about life, men's (and occasionally women's) fashion, computer games, and maybe even love. I follow pages I adore and I occasionally reblog things that impress me or make me laugh.

If you are easily-offended, stubbornly-religious or morally and politically-conservative, then I would advise against reading beyond this preface. This is a space for me to consolidate my thoughts and to capture the brightest of moments. Some of these thoughts are radical, others beautiful, but most are ugly, vitriolic and indignant.

For I am human.

"
When someone can’t put aside their instinctive “Ugh, yuck” reaction for long enough to discuss an issue dispassionately and maturely, that’s their problem, not yours.

In a discussion on a taboo topic, if you take an unpopular position that violates a social taboo and someone can’t argue against it on its own merits (or lack thereof), they often end up resorting to the “urgh, yuck” defence rather than acknowledge to themselves that maybe - just maybe - you have a point.

It’s caused by them realising at some level that they’re in danger of losing the logical, rational debate so they retreat into irrational emotionality (and as you found, often even ad-hominem attacks) in an attempt to move the goalposts and avoid losing. Sort of a disingenuous and shitty “if you can’t win the game you’re playing, change the rules of the game”.

It’s the debate equivalent of knocking over the game-board just because you’re losing - immature, obnoxious and reflecting only on the person that does it, not on their opponent.
"

—

Quoted from a thread on Reddit, debating the morality and ethics of child porn, and the place of paedophiles in society.

It’s highly annoying discussing issues such as this with close-minded individuals, because approaching the issue impartially and philosophically puts you at considerable risk of being branded as a paedo’ yourself.

I’d Also like to take this chance to say that I come from a family full of really shitty debaters, and that it seems at times that I’m the only one who developed any sort of faculties for critical thinking.

Mother, sister and father all used to complain to each other that I ‘always have something to say’ in a debate, and so arguments with them would invariably result in them exhausting their ammunition in less than a minute, and then adopting a stupid brute-force approach.

My personal favourite was my sister’s ‘just shut up’ device.

Don’t even get me started on religious debates with extended family.