That’s so pathetically hilarious. I find it laughable but so darn plausible. It conjures up images of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. And I’ve seen people like that!
It’s Der Trihs.
Heh. Until the last line, I thought you were describing George Bush.
We should keep in mind that those who protested the war from the start, have been shouting in the desert for quite some time now.
Those who, at the time, pointed out what was going on were treated with much disdain, and outright hostility, if listened to at all.
It was very hard to cut through the propaganda and beating of war drums.
Remeber ‘Support the troops’ ‘Freedom Fries’ ‘Why do you hate America?’
Slowly slowly it has become more and more apparent that something ‘was not quite as we were led to believe’.
The hostility against those who were right all along subsided. But the dismissals continued.
‘Too soon to tell’ ‘It is all just an unfortunate mistake’ ‘Bush made decisions on faulty intelligence’.
It was no mistake.
Those of us who knew that all along and have been talking in the desert, shouting in the desert and yes shrieking in the desert.
Because nothing seems to penetrate.
What’s that got to do with Der Trihs being a dopey prick?
That, maybe, he is just tired of ‘civil discourse’ after having so much ‘TRAITOR!’ thrown at him
I don’t see it as an escape from “civil discourse”. It seems a deliberate attempt to get a rise.
You only need to see some other of his responses to know he can do a lot better.
…
Yes.
Because, you see, there is this actual cabal, no conspiracy handwaving !, an actual cabal that has invaded a sovereign country, without provocation.
A warcrime.
No two ways about it.
By all rights Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush Sr and Wolfowitz ought to be hanged.
They have caused the deaths of how many thousands of innocent people? For blatant self enrichment.
And people give it a shrug.
Do you find it strange that is, let’s say, ‘somewhat frustrating’ to people who still see clear?
I mean FUCK!! this lot is literally getting away with bloody murder, and people here can do nothing else than say
‘Tssk Tssk, Trihs, language!’
See, now you have me shouting too
Thanks for highligting Normal Phase’s post, a very succint summary.
I wholly endorse this view.
A worthwhile pitting. I think Der Trihs often has worthwhile things to say, but when he starts ranting the only thing to do is ignore him. His approach is often completely counter-productive, and he is capable of better.
If Bush is evil (and the argument can certainly be made), I tend to think he is so by a process of ignorance, self-justification and ego. I don’t see him as taking pleasure in other’s suffering.
That is such complete fucking bullshit.
Apparently you somehow have managed to overlook the hundreds, if not thousands, of threads posted on this board during the entire Bush tenure, and since, endlessly wallowing in what a reprehensible bunch of poltroons occupied the White House during the period.
By the way, aside from pissing and moaning about it on an anonymous message board years after the fact, what the fuck are you, personally, doing about bringing Bush, et al to justice?
Lastly, you do realize, don’t you, that D_T’s complaints go far deeper than just being rather upset with the previous administration, right?
Well, we have a court here in The Hague, all set up.
All you need to do is arrest them.
Oh, I’m far from indifferent. I’m angry about how the war in Iraq was justified, how intelligence from sources known to have an agenda was wilfully interpreted as a serious WMD program and connections to Al-Queda. About the spin that Iraq would be a beacon for democracy in the Middle East. About how concerns over keeping order in Iraq after an invasion were handwaved away. IIRC, one general was trying to highlight the importance of keeping utilities running and preventing looting, but was ignored. I’m angry that a lot of people have died to achieve very little. I’m angry that the perpetrators of this action have never had to face any serious repercussions for the mess their arrogance created. I find it depressing that so many people are indifferent to all this. I’ve spent a fair bit of time arguing these points on other forums.
However, shouting FUCK repeatedly and making Bush out to be someone who dines on three Muslim babies for breakfast achieves nothing. It just becomes worthless bleating, I’ve heard it a million times. And I’m fed up with people who can’t accept anything that is contrary to their own world-view. Bush and co have a lot to answer for, but a point often overlooked is that it’s the Iraqis who are killing each other.
I seriously doubt that it was as simple as Rumsfeld et al firing up a spreadsheet. In the wake of 9/11, the hawks found they had a mandate. If you read some of their spiel, they are ideologically driven. They have a view as America as leader of the world, and themselves as leaders of America. Also, can you not see the appeal in toppling an unambiguously evil dictator like Hussein? How easy to convince yourself that whatever regime replaced it could only be an improvement?
DT’s comments reveal him to be an asshole who lives in a comic book. And now we meet another of the characters. The use of “cabal” was a little over the top, though.
You’ve personally set up a court in the Hague? Cool! How did you get the authority to do tbat?
Anyway I’m sure DT is headed to Crawford now, citizen’s arrest warrant in hand.
Well, I see two slight problems there:
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To the best of my knowledge, the International Court has not issued any indictments against Bush or other members of his administration
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Even if it had, I’m not a law enforcement officer and despite romantic notions of ‘citizen’s arrests’, they generally don’t work out very well for the person doing the arresting.
But seriously, your defense of D_T is “They made me act irrationally”? Personally, I find that less than compelling.
I’ts not a mental problem, it’s just a lack of perspective, and he’s far from the only person who lacks perspective, but he is one of the worst at maintain perspective among posters on this board. In fact, I see quite a few people on both sides of the political spectrum who utterly lack perspective and, of course, it’s these types who are most likely to get into shouting matches and least likely to affect anyone else’s opinions or have their own opinion’s changed. To this end, I offer two things that I think make a big difference here in the vain hope that maybe it will help with someone’s perspective and we can have more productive discussions.
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Hanlon’s Razor (Hanlon's razor - Wikipedia) - “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” I think it’s human nature to be hurt and think that it was intentional, or to see someone do something we disagree with and think they did it out of malice. But it’s precisely these sorts of assumptions that escalate and ultimately create hate between people. It’s not always easy, but always try to find a non-malicious reason why someone might be doing a bad thing and the world becomes a much better place and these discussions can actually be productive.
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Simply put, two reasonable people can disagree on a point. Especially in things like politics, people weigh things up differently and have different priorities and you’re not always going to see eye to eye. Sometimes two people can honestly examine all of that evidence and come to different conclusions. It seldom means that they’re stupid or evil, it just means they have different opinions or priorities. Spend less time trying to attack them for disagreeing and trying to change their mind and more time trying to understand those differences in values and priorities and you’ll make a lot more headway.
To these ends, I think Der Trihs doesn’t do well with either of these prinicples. Bush didn’t screw up the country because he was had different veiws or even because he was incompeteent, he did it because he was evil. Conservatives don’t disagree with him because they have different values and priorities, they disagree because they’re stupid or evil. Honestly, I don’t know how people live in a world where they see so much evil around them everywhere. If I saw that much evil around me all the time, I’d probably be much the same way.
That doesn’t make any sense.
One “dines on” things (or Muslim babies) at DINNER. At breakfast, one breaks one’s fast.
Who’s giving it a shrug? Certainly not me. While I haven’t been very politically vocal on these boards, my position is clearly stated in OP, and I’ll say it to anyone who asks me in person (and yes, I’ve been called a traitor for saying as much).
If Der Trihs were to regularly post content as coherent, rational and to the point as the post from Normal Phase I quoted in the OP, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. But no, he had to post invective and bile, without providing much by way of reasoned argument. And my point (again) being, this adds nothing positive to the discussion at hand, and is in fact a detriment because it forces away folks who may otherwise participate.
And beyond the Bush discussion, he is not known for any kind of nuanced, rational viewpoint on religion either - he’s derailed many a productive discussion with his anti-religious, anti-right vitriol, to the benefit of no one but himself.
Yes, it’s a good guideline, and one I don’t apply as oten as I should.