08-26-2020, 11:14 PM
(08-26-2020, 03:52 PM)Dill Wrote:
What I tend to do is contest the reduction complicated political issues to sound bites. The "long-winded explanations" you detest result from defining terms, articulating principles independent of the issue at hand--the things people normally do when they want political discussion to move beyond exchange of baseless accusations and "opinion."
I literally could not ask for a better example.
Quote:"Obfuscation" is the effort to prevent or undermine such efforts, often by adopting positions ad hoc--e.g.,"inflammatory" is ok when talking about Muslims, but not Trump.
Still stinging about my criticism of Islam, eh? Don't worry, women are still being oppressed, gay people are being executed and apostates are being killed in the Islamic world. All is right, from their perspective at least.
Quote:From what perspective could the following principle be judged "irrelevant":
It is not "unacceptable" for Americans to note, discuss and make a case for [Trump/Hitler] correspondences if they are really there.
It should be unacceptable to acknowledge they are there but deny their discussion.
From the perspective that such comparison are so highly charged as to make their use a deliberate attempt to be inflammatory. Are there no other totalitarian governments one could use an a parallel?
Quote:So far on this thread, you have not really disputed the fact of parallels between Trump's and Hitler's (and other dictators') anti-democratic behavior, just argued that they should not be publicly confirmed and discussed because they are "charged."
I haven't argued against the earth being flat either. I don't waste my time arguing against pure hyperbole.
Quote:Such an argument for suppressing political discussion appears to separate that discussion from any kind of factual grounding, as if such "charged allegations" were only that, not factual claims subject in principle to confirmation.
Oh my, calling for no Nazi comparisons is now "suppressing political discussion". You'll pardon me, I just got whiplash from my severe eyeroll.
Quote:It also appears to dismiss the idea that past political precedents can guide present behavior, perhaps most especially when they are "charged."
It does no such thing, except to this determined to use the worst possible example in human history as their basis for comparison.
