Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to God, I'm getting tired of this...

Then don't do this
Robert — (archived)

There are two sides to this story.

It seems to me that you frequently try to control the meaning of words in order to control the parameters of discussion. A good example is the way you indiscriminately label as a socialist, if not damn communist, anybody who's not a laissez-faire dog-eat-dog devil-take-the-hindmost let-'em-eat cake-or-starve free-market capitalist. You might have noticed that many of my responses have to start with a "renormalization" of terms. I often include a dictionary definition just to make sure we're literally on the same page.

A related issue is precision of terminology. Just now you wrote "the environmental movement is mostly leftist". What's a "movement"? Is it only the formal organizations involved and their leaders? Or does it include the rank-and-file membership? It's usually the latter. So when you condemn "the Democrats", it really isn't clear that you're only firing a shot at the Democratic leadership, even to a "normal person". Someone who's a member of the Democratic Party, or in common usage merely votes Democratic, is as prone to say "I'm a Democrat" as is a party official.

And, when you use provocative phrases like "a normal person knows", you obligate the reader to push back a little. Disparagement like that inserts a speedbump into your text that has to be flattened before conversation can proceed. The reader can't ignore it without conceding the insult.

Sorry man, but you bring it on yourself. "Give it a rest already" yourself.

--Robert

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