# I forget, do we have a general HurricaneDitka Pit thread?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-forget-do-we-have-a-general-hurricaneditka-pit-thread/805952>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [January 6, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-forget-do-we-have-a-general-hurricaneditka-pit-thread/805952 "2018-01-06T00:15:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 529

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2018, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-forget-do-we-have-a-general-hurricaneditka-pit-thread/805952/529 "2018-09-21T08:06:16Z")

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> [@septimus](#):
>
> I’ve posed him a simple arithmetic riddle in another thread. Before letting him [make a fool of himself](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21208938&postcount=112), I even tried to help him figure it out, writing “D+R total.” _Nobody help him now please!_ He’ll probably just double down, and whine that it’s a Wikipedia vs Septimus dispute. In the unlikely event that he’s numerate enough to figure out the point, he’ll be caught in a dilemma: (1) Continue to pretend he’s innumerate, (2) Make a fool of himself defending his error.
> 
> The 3rd choice — “Oh, I see. Good point!” — is beyond the capability of a right-winger. Their philosophy has nothing to do with reason, reality, or even simple arithmetic truth, so an admission of mistake would be logically impossible. Whatever slime oozes from one of Trump’s orifice (or from one of their own) is “Truth” for them.

I guessed right again. 🙂

> [@They're coming for us ... what will you do?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theyre-coming-for-us-what-will-you-do/817507/117):
>
> “the standard benchmark”?
> 
> Why then, pray tell does [Wikipedia choose to use a non-standard benchmark in reporting the election results](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2016)? Is it possible this “standard benchmark”, while certainly one valid way to analyze at election results, is not the only way? Perhaps it’s not quite as “standard” as you two imagine?

Had **Ditka** said “Aha; yes that makes sense!” I’d have increased respect for him. I have no doubt that if correct arithmetic would support the stupid partisan post he was trying to make he’d recall enough of his 3rd-grade arithmetic to get the correct answer.

Yet he clings to his mistake tenaciously. Is he really so dim-witted? Or, perhaps, he does have an IQ of 95 or so when discussing areas outside politics, but his IQ effectively drops 15 points when politics are involved.

Anyway, he missed a chance. Had he said “Aha; that makes sense” we could imagine he was not beyond salvation. Now there’ll be no further dispute about how much attention we should pay to his “ideas.”

ETA: If anyone is confused about whether it is **Ditka** or **septimus** who has the better grasp of simple arithmetic, kindly compare our participation when someone poses a math question in GQ.

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