# Is civil war in Egypt averted? 90% yes for new Constitution.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-civil-war-in-egypt-averted-90-yes-for-new-constitution/679071>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 17, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-civil-war-in-egypt-averted-90-yes-for-new-constitution/679071 "2014-01-17T16:30:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 683

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**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-civil-war-in-egypt-averted-90-yes-for-new-constitution/679071/683 "2014-02-06T17:25:30Z")

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> [@Human\_Action](#):
>
> Can you see how referring to a coup as an “invalidation of an election” is a) incredibly clumsy phrasing, with the “power of force the voters gave with a determination for x years” glossolalia, and b) markedly inferior to using the phrase “removed from office” or “deposed”, since it uses the one phrase (“invalidated election”) to refer to both the situation of a president’s electoral victory being invalidated (e.g., by a court, due to voting irregularities, fraud, etc) and thus his never taking office, and the situation of a president being certified as the winner of the election, ruling for a period of time, and then being forcibly removed from office.
> 
> It’d be like referring to a divorce, and annulment, and the death of one’s spouse as an annulment. It might be technically correct if you hammer at the dictionary enough (a divorce decree and a death certificate are “formal declarations”, thus either could be a “formal declaration that annuls a marriage”, right?), but it’s very coarse and thus imprecise, and 99% of the people you talk to are going to think you mean an annulment when you use “annulment” to mean “being widowed” or “divorced”. There’s no possible reason to communicate this way, unless you are determined to use your own version of the language, regardless of common usage, or if you erroneously called a divorce an annulment and decided to never, ever, admit you misspoke.
> 
> In your case, I honestly don’t know which it is.

Whether **NfbW** realizes it or not, this is what he is saying:

Was Barack Obama’s election valid?  
Reality: Yes  
**NfbW** : Maybe

Is Barack Obama the validly elected president right now?  
Reality: Yes  
**NfbW** : We won’t know until 2016

But it doesn’t matter if a billion people think one thing and a single person thinks another.

I suggest he do an experiment. Ask people in real life the above questions. When they say yes, explain to them why the are wrong. Record their reactions. Think about why they react that way.

Somehow, if there was some fantastical future reality where Darth Rove was the puppet master behind the Empire of America, I don’t think **NfbW** would be saying, Remember the good ole days when Obama was the validly elected President? It’s a shame he wasn’t validly elected now. I kinda liked him.

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