Nutjobs Ranting About Politics.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Well, actually, Hank...Pony did. Then Bilmore jumped in and agreed with Pony, but said he'd prefer it if the firestorm only fried "the bad Arabs." But he didn't say he wouldn't drop them because a nuke isn't smart enough to figure out who the good Arabs and the bad Arabs are.

And he does keep parading these lists of bad Arabs out, hoping that eventually we'll stop asking how it is that he was born with magical powers that will allow him to figure out who the good Arabs and the bad Arabs are.

Arabs aren't bad - Islam is bad. The best bomb we can drop on the Arabs is globalization. We must flood their countries with American goods and basically westernize their culture. Bombs are quite expensive. We could probably subsidize western franchises in the mideast for a fraction of the price. Sounds nuts, eh? I'm serious. If you pipe satellite cable television to these people and give them all the toys, clothes, gadgetry and other crap that's made us a pretty soulless consumption machine, you will kill the fundamentalism. You won't create anything great, but it will be fat, lazy and self-absorbed... hardly the sort of society which could easily find 19 guys willing to die in a plane crash.

We need to make these Arabs selfish. Selfish people aren't willing to die for anything.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
You went well beyond the guilty, and indicated you wanted to kill all the guilty and anyone associated with the guilty. Now you're flip flopping and saying, oh, jee, maybe I don't want to kill everyone who sits silently by, maybe I want to just kill those sitting silently by if they're having bad thoughts while they sit silently by. And, of course, saying you were being "subtle", oh, yuck, yuck.

You are so ready to make a point that you can't read one.

I was contrasting with Pony's posts. Go back and maybe see why. It might help you decipher things.

Hank, cancel the contest.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
This is a loooong way from "I agree with Pony, but let's design nukes that only kill people with funny hats. It's also the first time you've actually said "we can't simply nuke them."

Explicitly? Yeah.

You can't aim too low around here, can you?

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Well, i think Pony was speaking mostly out of anger, but realized that nuking random cities wasn't justified, really. He can answer that if he'd like. I think B's point was more hypothetical- he'd like to launch the magic nuke that kills those who deserve it. But implicit is the lack of such a smart weapon (fucking Clinton budget cuts).

Oh, well I take it all back. It's not racist if you only think about doing it.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Oh, well I take it all back. It's not racist if you only think about doing it.

Your critical reading skills are lacking. You want me to have race as a point in common. My chosen point in common was guilt. And my final point was, but how can we know?

But it's easier to just cry "racist", right?

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by bilmore
Explicitly? Yeah.

You can't aim too low around here, can you?

You were arguing awfully hard for someone who was satirizing, Bilmore.

But hey, if that was what you were doing, all I can say is I'm glad. Because if you weren't, you were being pretty fucking scary, dude.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
You were arguing awfully hard for someone who was satirizing, Bilmore.

I was arguing hard for my definition of guilty. I'd already made the point that the definition was unusable in terms of identifying people.

Cast that "racist", "nuke-happy" shit a bit more lightly.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Oh, well I take it all back. It's not racist if you only think about doing it.

if you mean its racist to think I would like to kill all the Islamic peoples who would capture a school, rape 13 year old girls, shoot babies, make mom's do a Sophie's choice and eventually kill hundreds of kids, then put me on that list. Even you haven't defended the terrorists, are you holding back?

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by bilmore
Your critical reading skills are lacking. You want me to have race as a point in common. My chosen point in common was guilt. And my final point was, but how can we know?

But it's easier to just cry "racist", right?

Thinking something doesn't equal guilt, Bilmore. Your written point in common was "don't think like us."

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Thinking something doesn't equal guilt, Bilmore.

And all those good germans who hated the jews figured they were okay as long as they weren't actually turning on the gas.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by bilmore
And all those good germans who hated the jews figured they were okay as long as they weren't actually turning on the gas.

They weren't okay, but they weren't war criminals.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by taxwonk
They weren't okay, but they weren't war criminals.

I guess we just need to agree to disagree on that one.

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
if you mean its racist to think I would like to kill all the Islamic peoples who would capture a school, rape 13 year old girls, shoot babies, make mom's do a Sophie's choice and eventually kill hundreds of kids, then put me on that list. Even you haven't defended the terrorists, are you holding back?

It's only racist because you felt the need to insert the word "Islamic." Let's try it without:

I would like to kill all the people who would capture a school, rape 13 year old girls, shoot babies, make mom's do a Sophie's choice and eventually kill hundreds of kids[.]

Yeah, see, makes perfect sense without it, and not racist at all. And more accurate, I suspect. Unless you're giving the Baptists a free pass to rape and murder kids. And maybe you are, Hank. Maybe you are.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by baltassoc
It's only racist because you felt the need to insert the word "Islamic." Let's try it without:

I would like to kill all the people who would capture a school, rape 13 year old girls, shoot babies, make mom's do a Sophie's choice and eventually kill hundreds of kids[.]

Yeah, see, makes perfect sense without it, and not racist at all. And more accurate, I suspect. Unless you're giving the Baptists a free pass to rape and murder kids. And maybe you are, Hank. Maybe you are.

Islam isn't a race.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by bilmore
And all those good germans who hated the jews figured they were okay as long as they weren't actually turning on the gas.

And here we arrive at bottom.

These discussions of group responsiblity are quite fun, as they allow us to play extensively with the definition of the group, and the extent of responsibility.

Though certainly different in scale, it strikes me that this discussion bears some resemblance to Atticus' position that supporters of the GOP bear some degree of responsiblity for the forseeable effects of the policy that its Administration and Congress hath wrought.

Shall I put you down for a "yes" on that one?