Hmm… I fail to see how terms such as “good” and “evil” can be applied to inanimate objects. A hammer can be used for “good”, or it can be used for “evil”.
Methinks the whole “evil weapons” (and all derivatives of such) thing is just another propaganda thing. “I don’t like nukes… so I’ll call them EVIL! That’ll stir up support for my cause!” Baloney. Call it like it is, folks. There’s no need for frothing-at-the-mouth hysteria. And this is directed at Mr. Bush, too… no need to constantly repeat the “evil weapons” line over and over when anybody with half a brain can see that, hey, the WTC got blown to smithereens. That should be propaganda enough.
One has to agree that you can’t blame objects for failure to live up to a moral code. But what if the designers intent clearly is evil ? Some objects are specialized enough that they have very few, if any, benign uses.
An inanimate object can be carefully designed and optimized for evil use - say, thumbscrews, an artillery shell containing genetically modified smallpox virus or - at the risk of invoking Godwin’s law - the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
It’s not that you can’t figure out some other uses - the shell will make a nifty doorstopper, perhaps - but that the objects can hardly do any good when used for their intended purpose.
Referring to them as “those evil weapons” is a workable shortcut - instead of saying “those weapons that demonstrate the evil intents of their designers”. I guess.
Au contraire ! If he repeats the word “evil” often enough he can ensure himself a place in history as the “evil” president, or more formally, The President of “Evil”.
People, people, people. This is simply Propoganda. It is a “legitimate” tool in the prosecution of a war, and it has been used for eons. Firms up public resolve for a nasty job. It’s politics. It works well on the masses. Recognize it for what it is, we’ve seen it dozens of times in the last twenty or thirty years, and we’ll see it next time the US needs to “enemy-ize” a person or group. Sheesh, it’s like ya’ll have never waged a war, or something.
Does anyone else ever flashback to Reagan and his “evil empire” when referring to the good old USSR, when Dubya starts talking? Maybe it’s this kind of attitude (America = Good, anyone who opposes us = Evil) that causes so much of the rest of the world to hate us.
As a thinking, rational citizen of the United States who can read and form my own opinions, I positively cringe whenever George W. Bush says that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurred because they were “jealous of our freedom” and other such pap.
Don’t insult my intelligence like that, you collegate-dropout dim-bumbed moron!
Can’t argue with that. Relatively speaking, we aren’t insulted too much by our masters. This project that I started working on last night should give you an idea of the sort of stuff that permeated the daily existence of folks in China in the 60’s and 70’s. So I guess it’s not too bad. I guess.
[sub]Do you know James Thurber’s 1940 story, The Very Proper Gander?[/sub]
I just cracked up when I saw that word in the Tempest (a pretty funny play, actually, except for Prospero’s last speech). It hit me just the right way, for some reason. It isn’t a common word these days, and I didn’t know it without looking at the footnote.
I guess if anyone would get it, a Doper would. Anyone else would have thought me a particularly perverted delusional case.
Maybe y’all do, I don’t know. But Tranquilis fought some of my ignornace. Whadda place!
" I positively cringe whenever George W. Bush says that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurred because they were “jealous of our freedom” and other such pap."
As opposed to the real reason. Because they’re a bunch of fucking cultist fuckwits who blindly follow fucking doom seeking psychopaths.
