Opinion of Penn and Teller

[7,052,770]

All religious ideas are just people's opinions and thoughts, while environmental issues are questions of facts and science (regardless of what you choose to believe), so those aren't really  comparable.

[Lief 🗽]

Doesn't one of these fellows not even talk? Why are we giving pantomimes television programs?

[Ronnie]

They are AWESOME~!!

[Associate Justice PiT]

     They are awesome, simply put.

[John Dibble]

All religious ideas are just people's opinions and thoughts, while environmental issues are questions of facts and science (regardless of what you choose to believe), so those aren't really  comparable.

Believe it or not, science is full of things that qualify as opinions rather than hard fact. In fact the scientific community can be rather political - people get attached to their own ideas to the point that if someone disagrees they won't like that person simply because that person holds a different viewpoint.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Uh dead0man is quite off. I'm tealing the right wing positions he missed:

Here is what the shows have been calling shenanigans on ("left" positions in red, "conservative" positions in blue:
Season1
talking to the dead
alternative medicine
UFO/aliens
Christian "Left Behind" and other survivor types
Second hand smoke
Penis and breast enlargement
Feng Shui
creationism/InteligentDesign
selfhelp/firewalking
ESP
dieting
ouija board and near death experiences
environment fearmongering

S2
PETA
terrorism hysteria/mad cow disease fear
monogamy
war on drugs
recycling
biblical accuracy
New Age BS
plastic surgery
funeral services
profanity/FCC
Alcoholics Anonymous
home based exercise equipment
hypnotherapy

S3
circumcision
monogamy (again) and trying to "fix" homos
911truthers, Moon landing fakes and JFK assassination crap
life coaching
critical view of Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Dalai Lama
political correctness and diversity requirements at Uni's
govt surveillance and govt encroachment into our private lives
gun control
ghost hunters
the Endangered Species Act
supernatural signs
needless luxury

S4
gays in the boy scouts/mormons
prostitution laws
capital punishment
WTC rebuilding
obsesive pet owners
reparations
abstinence only education

S5
obesity epidemic
Wal-Mart haters
colon detoxification
exorcisms
Minutemen (the border guys,  not opebo)
American with Disabilities Act
Mount Rushmore
nuclear power haters
anger management classes

S6
porno regulation on the internet
govt funded space programs
carbon credits
sensitivity training
child safety
remembering the "good ole days"

S7
astrology
video games and teen violence
dec 21 2012 idiots
polygraph tests
organic food
US tax code

Conservative?  I think not.

I may not disagree with them on some of that stuff (like the 911 "truther" idiots), but how can one say being critical of Mount Rushmore or circumcision (seriously, when the hell did circumcision ever become a left/right issue?) is left wing yet defending Wal-Mart is not right wing?

[dead0man]

I may not disagree with them on some of that stuff (like the 911 "truther" idiots), but how can one say being critical of Mount Rushmore or circumcision (seriously, when the hell did circumcision ever become a left/right issue?) is left wing yet defending Wal-Mart is not right wing?

I assumed the Right worshiped at the alter of our "founding fathers" more so than the Left and thus bashing those "dieties" would be something that pissed off the Righties.  I could be wrong, the left could be just as stupid on the matter.

I was also under the impression that most circumcisions done in the US today were done by the religious (Christian and Jew) and that the non-religious were much more likely to not be circumcised.  Thank you for correcting me.

As for Wal-Mart, I thought both sides have plenty of people with an irrational hatred for them.  I suppose righties are more likely to shop at them because of where most of them are located and many lefties do try and fight them going up in big cities.

[dead0man]

...and still, they aren't conservative.  Again, if Penn Jillette and Pat Robertson are both "conservative" then the word is much too broad to have any use.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I may not disagree with them on some of that stuff (like the 911 "truther" idiots), but how can one say being critical of Mount Rushmore or circumcision (seriously, when the hell did circumcision ever become a left/right issue?) is left wing yet defending Wal-Mart is not right wing?

I assumed the Right worshiped at the alter of our "founding fathers" more so than the Left and thus bashing those "dieties" would be something that pissed off the Righties.  I could be wrong, the left could be just as stupid on the matter.

Just because it would piss one side off more doesn't mean it's a position of the other side. Is it left wing to hate George Washington?

I was also under the impression that most circumcisions done in the US today were done by the religious (Christian and Jew) and that the non-religious were much more likely to not be circumcised.  Thank you for correcting me.

haha, what? Circumcision has NO relevance to Christianity. It's mostly done for health and hygeine issues, one can disagree with the supposed benefits, but claiming it's only religious is...LOL.

As for Wal-Mart, I thought both sides have plenty of people with an irrational hatred for them.  I suppose righties are more likely to shop at them because of where most of them are located and many lefties do try and fight them going up in big cities.

Doesn't this contradict the Mount Rushmore part?

[Alcon]

The idea that the practice of infant circumcision in America is separated from Christianity is inane on two levels.  First off, it couldn't have started without certain religiously-founded cultural superstitions (Google John Harvey Kellogg if interested and not easily squicked).  Second, the very same sociocultural factors that continue to make us an unusually zealously religious country are hard to separate from the propagation of other traditions.  Not that lefties are really all that much less traditionalistic, but Dead0man's point is going somewhere very valid.  I wouldn't call it left/right either, but I wouldn't call the show's mode of analysis left/right anyway, so whatever.

Anyway:  I would really say they have a libertarian streak with a bias against institutional thinking.  Calling that left/right seems inane to me.  I think it conforms to the attitude of their show in a marketable way.  Attacking institutonal thinking on the right involves lower hanging fruit.  The left's institutional "bullsh**t" is inherently less sexy; it is tax spending and stuff, no one wants a hands-on TV show about ethical resource redistribution or whatever.  On the "sexy" leftie Sacred Cows like global warming, their adversaries are inherently going to be high-caliber scientific intuitions or broad cultural attitudes like environmentalism.  When dealing with the religious right, the cultural institutions are represented by...people whose methods of thinking are more easily attacked.  How are they supposed to adjust for that without sacrificing their show's m.o.?

I don't always think they're fully honest or right, but besides that, they're entertainers.  I also don't think that they attack liberal ideas disproportionately considering that their general lean, which is anti-traditionalistic/anti-cultural norms, is not entirely separate but certain fundamentally "liberal" cultural ideas.  What's your beef BRTD?  The format is better than 95% of the "analysis" on TV, even if they're kind of dicks in their own way.

P.S. They did an episode on feng shui, what?  I gotta see the first few minutes of that just to figure out where they went with it.

[dead0man]

The idea that the practice of infant circumcision in America is separated from Christianity is inane on two levels.  First off, it couldn't have started without certain religiously-founded cultural superstitions (Google John Harvey Kellogg if interested and not easily squicked).  Second, the very same sociocultural factors that continue to make us an unusually zealously religious country are hard to separate from the propagation of other traditions.  Not that lefties are really all that much less traditionalistic, but Dead0man's point is going somewhere very valid.  I wouldn't call it left/right either, but I wouldn't call the show's mode of analysis left/right anyway, so whatever.

Why thank you!

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Basically they called a few people who professed to do Feng Shui and had them set up the same couple of rooms and explain why they were doing each thing.  All the people did totally different things for totally different reasons.

(again, from memory)