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Old 08-30-11 | 09:35 PM
  #98  
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gerv
In the right lane
 
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 9,556
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From: Des Moines

Bikes: 1974 Huffy 3 speed

Originally Posted by cooker
I think you have an idealized memory of the "good old days" when people had higher standards. It's a variant of what I call the "old man rant" - you know the one: it starts off with "These kids nowadays......!" You've mixed in a bit of the "slippery slope" argument as well. It's all about the decline of mankind.

There is actually no such thing as car-free or drug-free or sugar-free. Those are Platonic concepts like the perfect circle, etc. that exist only in the abstract. In real life it's all about getting a reasonable working definition.

People call themselves drug-free if they avoid ingesting certain drugs - opiodes, benzodiazepines, crystal meth, cannabinoids or whatever, but often they smoke cigarettes like crazy and drink coffee and cola out of buckets. However they have adopted a working definition of drug free that tolerates those drugs.

Sugar-free is defined by authorities like the FDA as a sugar content below x% where x is a small number, but greater than zero.

And we define car free as we define it. Some have a stricter definition, some have a looser definition, and through a process of discussion we may reach a consensus, or we may continue to disagree. The forum header is simply one possible definition, not accepted by all.
Great post! The perfect circle indeed...
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