3 ms·

Just because most people don't share your viewpoint doesn't mean you are correctly questioning the mainstream assumptions of society. There has to be some nove

by tsally 17y ago

Just because most people don't share your viewpoint doesn't mean you are correctly questioning the mainstream assumptions of society. There has to be some novel or persuasive reason why your viewpoint is correct and I don't see that here. A minority opinion does not automatically qualify under the "What You Can't Say" test. I have many libertarian views as well and I want police to stop all barefoot runners in the middle of winter. I especially want them to stop barefoot runners in the middle of winter who appear to be speeding up after asked to stop. What would you say if tomorrow in the newspaper you saw an article about a mentally handicapped kid who ran away from home and was hit by a bus and killed? Would you be angry at the police because they didn't stop him? I wont trade my liberty for anything, but I will allow myself to be inconvenienced for one day in my life if it means I increased the chance of survival for another human being by 0.00001%. Would I allow an illegal search of my home or car for that? No. But I will certainly cooperate with the police on a minor issue. Also, cool about the shoes. I thought about buying FiveFingers but honestly it was just too big of a leap to go straight to those. :-p How long have you been running barefoot for? I'm wondering when I can get even less supportive shoes, but I want to avoid injury.

unignorant 17y ago
Sure, I agree that a minority opinion does not automatically pass the "what you can't say test". To make a slightly weaker claim, let's just say that it bothers me that people assume you can't run barefoot in the winter, when it is clearly (empirically!) possible, at least given adequate conditioning. Moreover, some of the research involving barefoot running and human biology is suggestive to me of a full-on "can't say" equivalence. I agree with you re. the handicapped kid, but where do you draw the line? I consider a pause, eye contact, a smile, and "I'm fine" (spoken in a self-assured manner) reasonable evidence that I'm ok, so to speak. When they finally did stop me for good, I was engaging them in what I would consider sophisticated (polite) debate and questioning (along with "facts"), and yet they still refused to let me continue my run. As for shoes, when I first went minimalist, I jumped straight to FiveFingers. But before that, I walked around barefoot all the time, so who knows... Just progress slowly -- granted, that's advice I have not always followed ;-)

by tsally 17y ago

unignorant 17y ago

Sure, I agree that a minority opinion does not automatically pass the "what you can't say test". To make a slightly weaker claim, let's just say that it bothers me that people assume you can't run barefoot in the winter, when it is clearly (empirically!) possible, at least given adequate conditioning. Moreover, some of the research involving barefoot running and human biology is suggestive to me of a full-on "can't say" equivalence. I agree with you re. the handicapped kid, but where do you draw the line? I consider a pause, eye contact, a smile, and "I'm fine" (spoken in a self-assured manner) reasonable evidence that I'm ok, so to speak. When they finally did stop me for good, I was engaging them in what I would consider sophisticated (polite) debate and questioning (along with "facts"), and yet they still refused to let me continue my run. As for shoes, when I first went minimalist, I jumped straight to FiveFingers. But before that, I walked around barefoot all the time, so who knows... Just progress slowly -- granted, that's advice I have not always followed ;-)