Stupid Republican idea of the day

The BBQ Pit
8541

And that’s just revealing your bias.

You just don’t notice when liberals do it. And you want it to be a “tiny” proportion - enough so you can make the original blanket statement.

ANY statement that characterizes a certain logical or debate tactic as “liberal” or “conservative” is going to be wrong, every time. I agree that conservatives do it more, but it’s simply not fair or productive to blame one side for something all the time.

You don’t know me well enough to tell me that. I know what I believe, you don’t.

The reason you don’t see many liberal postings from me is because I find that boring as hell. I would much rather explore how my fellow liberals are screwing up the arguments for our side, so that they can improve their strength. Also, some positions others consider liberal, I don’t, for instance the Citizen’s United decision.

In any event, all this proves is what I’ve always said, which is that ideological labels are useless. So maybe I’m not a liberal, but I’m sure as hell not a conservative either. I have views, and I express them. I frankly don’t care how they line up ideologically, and don’t think it matters one iota anyway.

Of course you can complain about it. You just can’t go saying that only rightwingers do it, because that’s false. And it’s not fair. And really, why does it matter? Why not simply say it’s wrong, and not use it as a cheap point to score?

And here’s a great example of how I’m making you improve your argument, because if I were a rightwinger trying to destroy you, I’d use this to destroy you. Ten minutes on google and I’d be throwing stuff at you and you’d be bogged down in a pointless argument that gets you nothing.

Which I’m going to now avoid.

8542

Nope, you’re wrong. Liberals are perfect :smiley:

8543

To “help me improve my argument” you’d actually have to have a counter argument better than my argument, which you don’t. You have standard by-the-books conservative shell games that one can’t point out idiocy that is standard part of the republican party now because somewhere, some no-name idiot on a youtube comment who claims to be a liberal did something similar, whereas we have documented republican elected officials doing it routinely. So to be “unbiased” in your eyes, I have to pre-pend every criticism of republicans or conservatives with “though some liberals, somewhere, might’ve done this too, I hate it when…” as if I am milquetoast Obama or something and have to pretend they are anywhere near similar to us.

Your false equivalence does not impress me one bit, and you don’t impress me one bit. You have nothing to “destroy” me with.

8544

I think we should get behind him on this one.

8545

No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.

(I do like your use of “claims to be a liberal,” because that’s a classic example of another tactic rightwingers use alot - to either simply claim countervailing evidence is being faked to embarass them, or to use the No True Scotsman fallacy to discount it. So you kinda just proved my point right there. Good show).

Sigh.

I’m not surprsied you don’t get it one bit.

You want to waste your time with this pointless crap, thinking it wins you anything? Feel free.

8546

And rape. Or is that The Fountainhead?

8547

Somewhere out there, some rightwingers are ranting about how it’s always the liberals who “hide behind the First Amendment” to justify porn, radical college professors, violent or sexy movies made by (liberal!) Hollywood, promoting terrorism or persecution of Christians (like the “War on Christmas”), the “lies” of the liberal media, etc. And they’re saying it’s a liberal thing to do, and that conservatives hardly ever do it. And you’d be eaten alive out there in the real world.

8548

Yeah, we know. They’re called “Republican congressmen and senators.”

What was your point again?

8549

That not being aware of your own biases will bite you in the ass.

8550

And that has what to do with Republican congressmen and senators accusing the left of shit they’re not doing?

8551

Really.

8552

In many cases, they ARE doing it.

Just stop this nonsense now. No ideology has a monopoly on intelligence, or logic, or rationality. I don’t blame you for wanting to say so - the right is coming up with new forms of stupid and crazy all the time. But if you think there aren’t stupid, or crazy, or irrational liberals out there too–more than just an tiny number–you’re blinded by your own bias.

And trying to brand the other side as completely irrational while your side is spotless accomplishes little, here or in the real world. In fact, having “sides” at all doesn’t do much. Debate issues, not people or labels.

8553

Are you severely autistic?

8554

So the War on Christmas *is *real. I fucking knew it!

8555

Your link made me go look something else up on Wikipedia:

Holy crap. 400 members in New Hampshire! Does every block captain get to be in the Legislature?

8556

And that response also doesn’t surprise me.

(And not only is it substanceless and an insult, it’s rude to people with disabilities, like my child. Please don’t use that as an insult - pick another one).

8557

It’s that New England town meeting thing.

8558

No, but try to follow along, this will be long: When right wingers say there’s a war on Christmas because a liberal attacked Christianity or something (whether or not he actually did), sometimes a liberal says “but I have a First Amendment right to say that, so you can’t criticize me for what I said.” And then you’re on the flip side.

Then the righty says “you’re just hiding behind the First Amendment!”

If it’s too much, never mind. I’m sure that right wingers are all drooling dolts and liberals are pretty much all sane geniuses. What could go wrong just assuming that?

8559

How can anyone participate in a “Stupid Republican idea of the day” thread and still harp on self-righteously about being aware of biases? The whole fucking thread is about mocking Republicans. If you want to be scrupulously fair, this isn’t the thread for it.

8560

You’re falling into an easy trap… yes, it’s certainly the case that for any given Bad Thing there is almost certainly at least one example of someone “on the left” doing it and one example of someone “on the right” doing it. There are thieves and scoundrels of all political persuasions. That said, there’s no grand principle of political-malfeasance-balance which somehow ensures that the amount of any one particular Bad Thing is anywhere near equal between the two sides at any given time. I mean, it might be. Or it might not be. But it’s not automatically guaranteed to be by the universe simply so that nonpartisan political independents can cluck their tongues and act superior.

In other words, unless you’re refuting a really extreme and absolute claim (EVERY Republican is X, NO Democrat has ever done Y) you can’t just make the facile point that neither side is perfect and act like you’ve scored a point.

So is it the case that approximately as many prominent Democrats are guilty of whatever-the-heck-it-is-that-we-were-talking-about as prominent Republicans? Well, maybe. Democrats aren’t saints. But if you want to make that argument you actually have to make it, with, you know, evidence and stuff, not just pointing out obvious things that no one is denying in the first place.