I wasn’t sure where to post this link, but had to.
It starts out:
Here’s the link:
http://lynnharper.com/Opinion/sheeple.html
Boy if it doesn’t say so much about the status of our nation, I don’t know what does < grin >.
If you want to make an argument for your ideas, make one. Don’t waste our time reading this unfunny, badly written piece of nonsense.
“Nothing significant happened today.” — Diary of King George III, July 4, 1776
Oh Wendell, lighten up…I never claimed that it was anything but what it is… :rolleyes:
What it is is a unfunny waste of time. It doesn’t make any argument for its positions, it just asserts them. By allowing people to read it and waiting for their reaction, you can tell who agrees with you and who disagrees with them. That way you can tell who you can henceforth be buddies with and who you can henceforth ignore. You’re making no attempt to get people who don’t already agree with you to change their minds, you’re just finding a reason to ignore certain people’s ideas. I’m sorry, but even in the BBQ Pit I expect an argument, not just raw assertions.
I don’t think I’m all that popular right now, but I guess you can count me as one of your buddies.
Does this mean Wendell isn’t your buddy? 
Ah, Freedom, you know you are one of my “buddies”
As for Wendell, if you don’t like, then comment on the scope of what bugs you so (political wise) about it, otherwise this is a BBQ Pit debate, sheesh Besides if I though it funny I would have posted it MPSIMS.
If I had to choose between the two, I know who I’d go party with (hint: Wendall’s a mathematician).
This really isn’t a GD thread (MPSIMS? Pit?)
All right, then, let’s debate Ms. Harper’s decision to spell “Communist” with a “K”.
Actually tracer, Lynn Harper didn’t write it, her web designer/web master found it on the web. The link is dead and the “updated links” are dead too.
Just a technicality.
I’ve always found it a useful rule of thumb to never discuss politics with anyone who spells America with a “k”.
Ah, tracer, always trying to keep threads in GD. This one might inspire a GD from the looks of it, but it probably should have gone in MPSIMS (for future reference, techchick). On the other hand, if you’re proselytizing, this is the forum for such.
Gaudere,
Yes, I was trying to get some comments, other than the words than Wendell’s thinking that it was wasting his time. Like I said “I wasn’t sure where to post this link.”
Sometimes people don’t get the fact that one is trying to create a debate based on a profound, if not thoroughly coherant, set of words, it’s still worthy of debate (if you can read it for the spirit that it was written.)
The fact that “Sheeple” struck me as worthy of discussion, I thought maybe somewhere, somehow, someone might disagree with the “charges” and have something worthy to say so me, Lib, Freedom and Sam Stone (among others) could debate this as a legit debate…regardless if the words are in Wendell’s thinking “What it is is a unfunny waste of time. It doesn’t make any argument for its positions, it just asserts them.”
Apparently this has gone over the heads of most. My apologies.
Okay, here’s my opinion. The linked essay shows that conservatives make fun of liberals. That’s not really a revelation. Liberals make fun of conservatives, majoritarians make fun of libertarians, libertarians make fun of majoritarians, moderates make fun of extremists, extremists make fun of moderates, socialists make fun of capitalists, capitalists make fun of socialists, and everybody makes fun of Dan Quayle. It’s natural that people with political beliefs make fun of other beliefs. The line between where legitimate satire ends and ridiculous misrepresentation begins is more likely to be drawn based on idealogy rather than what’s written. A conservative reading “We the Sheeple” would probably feel it points out the flaws of liberalism in a humorous fashion. A liberal reading it would probably feel it was a meaningless distortion that has nothing to say about the realities of liberalism.
It sounds to me like the linked thread is perfect grist for a lively debate about personal responsibility. The fact that the OP didn’t frame it as such shouldn’t result in such silly responses as provided by Wendell Wagner. After all, he didn’t HAVE to read the link.
I have long maintained that the worst problem we face as a result of Democratic populist policies of the '30s through the '70s is the resulting reliance of residents of the US on the central government to ‘make things right.’ A classic example, in my opinion, is the resistance to removal of so-called ‘affirmative action’ programs, which takes on the appearance of acting as though certain minorities have a right to such ‘remedial’ actions. Certainly there are things the central government should do; no one would reasonably assert that federalism exists first and formost to ensure freedom from external interference. There are even social reasons to have a central government. But should Washington, D.C.'s institutions be our first and most prominent choice for remedial action?
On the other hand, I don’t think that things are as bad as the link makes them out to be. I know some disagree, though I doubt those with knowledge and rational thought do; even the most conservative (truly conservative, not those johnny-come-latelies who have hijacked that label) would point out different, more rational reasons to dislike the state of our Union.
Ok, now let’s hear DEBATE on this.