Would it be out of line for me to ask an FPP to add a space between the comma and the ampersand in the OP title? Or make the ampersand an "and" instead? I'm sorry really, but it's making my eyes burn.
Thanks Heebie! You're the best! Also totally right in the OP! And about everything else!
Trollfail, Moby. That's just punctuation salad. It only hurts if it's almost right.
This reminds of the punch-a-Nazi debate. There's a whole bunch of ethical reasoning that I'm sure is important somehow, but mostly I just want to know what will be most effective at winning. Then, you can work backward from that to the ethics.
Let us discuss Oxford commas WRT the post title.
8: YOU KNOW IT. ENDS AND MEANS, BABY!
It'll be interesting to look back on this time in a decade or so. I mean, we'll be looking back from a forced-labor camp or a beach house under 6 fathoms of water, but interesting nonetheless.
I think I agree with Lithwick here - or at least I agree with the blurb because I'm not going to go so far as to click on the link.
Trump is basically telling his people that The Blacks are protesting against The Troops. I don't think that's comparable to observing that people noting that people waving the confederate flag are racist shitheads, and tend to use a lot of dogwhistles and subterfuge as part of their racist shitheadery.
I think it is comparable, for the reasons Heebie gives. The difference lies not in the reinterpretation of opponents' actions but in the empirical defensibility of the reinterpretation. Which is to say, Trump does not dwell in the reality-based community.
To bring the threads together, cocaine would help me pull allnighters in my office.
I did this on the wrong thread just to be meta, or something.
Now I think we need to post "women don't understand multi-threading" in the Backlash thread, and we'll be all caught up.
I'm not up for engaging with the logic of the argument (no offense to heebie or Lithwick, I'm just tired), but it does remind me of what seems like a trend about bullshit (as in, disregard for truth) and trolling seeming more common and problematic these days. Related: I remember a Charlottesville video about a neo-Nazi who took off his outfit to flee from an angry mob. When asked why he was there, he said he just thought it would be fun to go out in public and yell "white power!" as in, not primarily animus, but trolling. As in, it's hard to tell them apart. As in, there apparently exists a large group of people for which that's funny. (Of course, maybe I shouldn't take his word for it, but anyways.) This seems newer than and distinct from the "reality-based community" meme. I'm not sure it's scarier than the unreconstructed KKK or Nazis, but it's scary in a different way.
Animus and trolling have significant overlap. Trump's base is largely trolling the rest of the country -- and they are doing it because they hate us.
17: When you were a callow teenager, you couldn't see the appeal of acting like that? I sure could. I wouldn't have acted like an asshole for lulz in that particular way, since I thought of myself as a leftist even then, but I certainly had the impulse to act like an asshole for lulz in other ways.
The scary thing to me is that for some people doing it for lulz is a gateway to doing it for real.
I was really fucking callow, but no, I could not see the appeal of dressing like a Nazi.
I think PF is right.
There's the axis of indifference to passion, and the axis of anti-racism to white supremacy. The guy described in 17 is both indifferent-ish and white supremacist.
I see a fair amount of shouting to the void at cross-purposes between the quadrant of indifferent-and-somewhat-racist and the quadrant of passionate-and-anti-racist. The former see themselves as above the fray and having a birds-eye view of both-sides-do-it and everyone's making too big a fuss. The latter sees the former as racist idiots who don't understand structural racism and the high stakes involved. Obviously the latter is completely correct.
20.1: I certainly can't see the appeal of dressing like a Nazi if it means tucking my white polo shirt into my khaki trousers. What happened to the dark sinister glamour of the Third Reich? The Luftwaffe alone had sixteen different uniforms to choose from.
they are doing it because they hate us
They are doing it well. I absolutely hate them right back.
And for my money, the guy in 17 deserved a good beating more than many of the actual Nazis. He might actually learn a lesson from it.
Drink deep the pugilist spring or drink not at all.
A little beating is a dangerous thing.
If you're going to punch a Nazi, why only hit hard enough to make a libertarian.