An introduction

As per request, I shall be devoting this post to an explanation of who I am and what my contribution to this blog will consist of. I am a highly-opinionated fourteen year old finally fulfilling his life-long ambition to be a blogger. As you will discover soon enough when I begin to use this space as a means of espousing them, I possess a veritable plethora of views, and on any issue political, economic, social or cultural, rest assured I will have an opinion on it of some sort. Some of you, I am sure, will be wanting to know where I place myself on the political spectrum. There is no easy answer to this question. I have never labelled myself, nor do I consider it helpful to do so; 'leftist', 'conservative', 'libertarian' and the like are all fairly lazy terms, and anyway, I dislike the idea of my self-styled contrarianism being reduced to pure liberalism or pure conservatism. Although I believe one should always be wary of making statements or defending opinions purely for the sake of being controversial, I like to think of myself as someone who enjoys holding positions which run contrary to those of the so-called 'consensus' or the so-called 'majority', no matter how many enemies it makes him. I think the sentiment expressed by the motto of the Royal Society: 'nullius in verba' (take no man's word for it), is appropriate here. I also like to quote the journalist Christopher Hitchens, of whom I have always been a great admirer, who said:
My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim my right to have it defended against any majority, any consensus, anywhere, anyplace, anytime. Anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, wait in line and kiss my ass.

Above all, I want to use The Opinionated Internet to fuel debate and discussion, and get people talking about the issues that matter. What follows are just some of the topics that might crop up now and again within my blog posts: Republicanism, drug legalization, LGBT equality, feminism, grassroots democracy, interventionism, free trade, economic liberalism, the conflict between religion and freedom of thought, multiculturalism, the history of science and the philosophy of race. I may also be posting the odd review, and sometimes will provide links to articles and videos which I have enjoyed or found interesting enough to want to share with others.

Here is some of what I love: arguments, debating, public speaking, long walks in the English countryside, tea, the films of Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami and Joel and Ethan Coen, the writings of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, P.G Wodehouse, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, the life and work of Christopher Hitchens, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Douglas Murray, Nick Cohen, Maryam Namazie, Richard Dawkins, Salman Rushdie and Peter Tatchell, modern art, brutalism, minimalism and the art and culture of London.

Here is some of what I try to fight against: deception of the public, denial, censorship, theocratic encroachment on a free society, religious fundamentalism, misuse of belief, bigotry of all stripes, narrow mindedness, human rights abuses, totalitarianism, excuse-making and extremism.

I am hugely excited to now be a part of the Opinionated Internet blog. If you have any suggestions, criticisms, queries or complaints, do not hesitate to get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

MS

Greetings from JHWW

Hey all readers, JHWW speaking (If you must now my real name, well you can't have it). Despite what JAFHR said about us being deities, this is not true, just see us as the co-creators of this blog, and enjoy our posts. You will find me not deranged, unlike JAFHR, not like PWN and write annoyingly long, boring blogposts, and not like iTech, who won't let me reveal his real name (well actually I didn't give you mine earlier, but you'll see my name at the bottom of this post). You'll find me as the one with the urge to disagree with what is said on this blog, especially ideas surrounding philosophy. If you want to know about myself, my hobbies include collecting beerbottletops, and playing Little Big Planet on PS3. I have a fear of rollercoasters and when I was younger, pelicans. I am allergic to bananas, and some types of cat, and have a double joint in my ankle. Enjoy reading this bog, and as one last message,

I like cheese

Life of Pie

                                     

Yes, I've taken to naming my introductions after 21st novels. I guess I ought to explain a little about myself before starting to write proper content. Why 'Life of Pie'? I don't know, I like pie. So here's all I'm saying about myself, it's a kinda pie of information. No, no, I'm sorry. That was a terrible simile. Anyway, here it is the 'pie':

1) My initials are PWN. I'll let you guess my middle name.

2) I am a real person.

3) I go to some kind of school.

4) My favorite animal is the elephant.

5) My favorite colour* is beige.

6) *Yes, I'm English.

7) My favorite films are 'The Dark Knight' and 'Inception'.

8) My favorite game used to be Minecraft but now it's Supreme Commander (this will change every month or so).

9) On Youtube, I like watching the Yogscast, Nostalgia Critic and Totalbiscuit.

10) I will never release such boring information again.

-PWN-

Our Pantheon

Hello.

This is merely to clarify what I said in my last entry-I said something about'deities'.This might be the cause of some confusion.

When PWN,JHWW and I were setting up the idea for this blog,I had the idea to set this up as a pantheon-a group of gods.In many different cultures,there has been the idea of three main gods;we have decided to do things similarly. The three of us shall consist the 'Triad',or the three main gods;we shall also publish the views of a series of 'minor gods',or less frequent authors(We do not mean the phrase 'minor gods' as an insult, or in any way downgrading; some minor gods, such as the Greek goddess Hecate, turned out to be more important than the main gods).

Hoping you find this interesting,

-JAFHR-

Greetings

Greetings to all!

Throughout this blog you will know me as JAFHR, and of the three main deities of this blog (JHWW, PWN, and myself) you will find me the most deranged- my many hobbies include philosophy, researching mythology, and arguing- thus I am the patron of the many oddities featured herein. My entries shall include philosophical discussions, demonstrations of my archaic and arcane knowledge, poems and creative writing, and general weird sayings and ideas which I make it my aim to propagate.

Until next time, brave visitor of websites far remote...

-JAFHR-

A Sense of a Beginning

Alright, I've been thinking. And I've realized that the majority of good  reviews content is biased in some way, that is, based on opinion and making no attempt to provide anything a level playing field. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, after all, the web is all about expressing opinions freely and in theory one needs only one unbiased reviews website to serve the entire internet. But the trouble with that is, if it shows any kind of bias then it gets yelled off the web. So don't say that this is biased, because that's the idea.

Now then, there are three problems with the name of my blog. The first is with the word 'the'. 'The' is what's called the definite article, implying that this is the only place on the entire internet which is opinionated, while obviously it is not. Secondly, 'opinionated' isn't really the best way to describe this blog, as sometimes I will attempt to be unbiased. Thirdly, and most pedantically, the word 'internet' should not be used to describe the web because they are not the same thing ('internet' means the hardware (all the wires and such), while 'web' refers to the information stored and transferred on it - I'm sure there are better definitions but that's my understanding). Therefore, a much better title would be: 'A Biased Web', but that sounds ghastly so I 

Now some people who will not enjoy this blog:

1) Idiots (you won't understand what I'm saying).

2) People without internet connections (now that I've ruled out the first category, need I explain it?).

3) Geniuses (you'll find me patronizing and annoying).

After all, something showing bias cannot be for everyone by definition. I ought to explain what I'll be writing, so here are some of the titles you might see in capitals in front of posts:

INTRODUCTION - I might post some more introductions to explain some other details about the blog and all.

ANNOUNCEMENT - If something interesting happens, such as a new author joining the blog, then I'll post one of these.

OPINION - Probably making up the bulk of posts, opinion posts consist of my (or another author's) opinion on a certain subject.

REVIEW - Speaks for itself really, although if you looking for balanced, fair reviews you might want to look elsewhere

INTERVIEW - If we manage to get someone famous or noteworthy to agree, we might interview them and post it onto the blog, but this will be quite rare.

ARGUMENT - A transcript of an argument between me or one of the other authors with someone else about a subject on which they disagree.

INFORMATION - A rather stale and dull look at some piece of information, such as a list of admins, authors

And some you'll only see in front of my posts:

iFAQ - inFrequently Asked Questions, because let's be honest, the majority of 'frequently asked questions' never get asked.

Also note that every article I will post a different picture of a trilby hat, in the same way that JAFHR will post a picture of a god from ancient mythology.

I may add to this introduction later, or post further ones with additional information.

-PWN-