The wrong side must not win
POSTED BY: canttakesky
UPDATED: Monday, August 26, 2024 17:12
VIEWED: 8309
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http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/20/the-wrong-side-absolutely-must-n
ot-win
Quote:
The Wrong Side Absolutely Must Not Win
The past several weeks have made one thing crystal-clear: Our country faces unmitigated disaster if the Other Side wins.
No reasonably intelligent person can deny this. All you have to do is look at the way the Other Side has been running its campaign. Instead of focusing on the big issues that are important to the American People, it has fired a relentlessly negative barrage of distortions, misrepresentations, and flat-out lies.
Just look at the Other Side’s latest commercial, which take a perfectly reasonable statement by the candidate for My Side completely out of context to make it seem as if he is saying something nefarious. This just shows you how desperate the Other Side is and how willing it is to mislead the American People.
The Other Side also has been hammering away at My Side to release certain documents that have nothing to do with anything, and making all sorts of outrageous accusations about what might be in them. Meanwhile, the Other Side has stonewalled perfectly reasonable requests to release its own documents that would expose some very embarrassing details if anybody ever found out what was in them. This just shows you what a bunch of hypocrites they are.
Naturally, the media won’t report any of this. Major newspapers and cable networks jump all over anything they think will make My Side look bad. Yet they completely ignore critically important and incredibly relevant information that would be devastating to the Other Side if it could ever be verified.
I will admit the candidates for My Side do make occasional blunders. These usually happen at the end of exhausting 19-hour days and are perfectly understandable. Our leaders are only human, after all. Nevertheless, the Other Side inevitably makes a big fat deal out of these trivial gaffes, while completely ignoring its own candidates’ incredibly thoughtless and stupid remarks – remarks that reveal the Other Side’s true nature, which is genuinely frightening.
My Side has produced a visionary program that will get the economy moving, put the American People back to work, strengthen national security, return fiscal integrity to Washington, and restore our standing in the international community. What does the Other Side have to offer? Nothing but the same old disproven, discredited policies that got us into our current mess in the first place.
Don’t take my word for it, though. I recently read about an analysis by an independent, nonpartisan organization that supports My Side. It proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything I have been saying about the Other Side was true all along. Of course, the Other Side refuses to acknowledge any of this. It is too busy cranking out so-called studies by so-called experts who are actually nothing but partisan hacks. This just shows you that the Other Side lives in its own little echo chamber and refuses to listen to anyone who has not already drunk its Kool-Aid.
Let’s face it: The Other Side is held hostage by a radical, failed ideology. I have been doing some research on the Internet, and I have learned this ideology was developed by a very obscure but nonetheless profoundly influential writer with a strange-sounding name who enjoyed brief celebrity several decades ago. If you look carefully, you can trace nearly all the Other Side’s policies for the past half-century back to the writings of this one person.
To be sure, the Other Side also has been influenced by its powerful supporters. These include a reclusive billionaire who has funded a number of organizations far outside the political mainstream; several politicians who have said outrageous things over the years; and an alarmingly large number of completely clueless ordinary Americans who are being used as tools and don’t even know it.
These people are really pathetic, too. The other day I saw a YouTube video in which My Side sent an investigator and a cameraman to a rally being held by the ONOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
*snicker*
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It's a good peice as far as discussing rhetorical devices. I have friends using it in class already. But Ive also seen people post that link as justification for anything their side does, which is pretty weak.
Note to anyone - Please pity the poor, poor wittle Rappyboy. He's feeling put upon lately, what with all those facts disagreeing with what he believes.
"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"
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Quote:
That is why I believe 2012 is, without a doubt, the defining election of our lifetime.
I've heard the same thing said about every election since 1980.
Quote:
The difference between My Side and the Other Side could not be greater.
And water is wet...wow!
Quote:
That is why it absolutely must win on November 6.
Nah, not really. All of us have already suffered, whether real or imaginary, either through the Obama years or the Bush years. If the other guy wins this time, so what....been there, done that, life goes on.
Hmmm, better than Reuben's.
..One more.
Ben!
..My last one.
Okay.
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I dunno guys, this strikes me as a nasty "reality is perception" argument. And that argument is fascistic. And it's misanthropic in that it suggests that people's convictions are purely tribal/partisan. Sure there's some of that at work and we can all go to our respective echo chambers to feel good about being biased.
But I think there are real differences in this election and every election. Will the Republicans winning mean the end of the world as I know it? No. But will it tangibly make things worse for people I care about? If they follow through on their intentions, you betcha!
Also it sets up a really malicious equivalence between Obama's birth certificate and Romney's tax returns. Obama submitted his birth certificate long ago but the birthers prefered their conspiracy theory. Romney has simply not submitted the tax returns in question. If he had, and the left doubled down and said they are all lies, then you'd have an our side = their side thing. But as it stands, ya don't. The whole piece is like this.
A "perception is reality" argument always serves the right/authoritarian cause. An "everyone is just as corrupt and bad as everyone else" argument serves the cause of apathy and disengagement, and that, again, serves the authoritarian cause. Y'all may enjoy looking down on your fellow humans, snicker at the ruinous folly of the ditto-head, but the ones looking down on all of us are laughing all the way to the bank.
HKCavalier
Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
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Excellently done, tho' some of it doesn't apply to what I believe and some of it doesn't seem appropriate. What "same old disproven, discredited policies that got us into our current mess in the first place" apply to Obama? "...got us into our current mess"? He certainly hasn't gotten us OUT, but I don't see that one applying.
I also don't view the Quote:
As applying to EITHER side, unless you count that idiot doctor who says rape can't get you pregnant.
this ideology was developed by a very obscure but nonetheless profoundly influential writer with a strange-sounding name who enjoyed brief celebrity several decades ago.
Don't get Quote:
First off, the people at the rally wore T-shirts with all kinds of lame messages that they actually thought were really clever. Plus, many of the people who were interviewed were overweight, sweaty, flushed, and generally not very attractive.
I guess it's just intended to be over the top?
For me, Obama's transcripts are irrelevant, while Romney's taxes are quite relevant. I think the birth certificate thing was idiotic, but only because once produced, it's still ignored.
And I certainly see blunders on the left, and feel there is no more excuse for them than for those made on the right. It's not the blunders that bother me...!
Aside from those, however, I think it's pretty accurate for how many on both sides see things. I still think raising taxes on the middle class and poor to give tax breaks to the rich, and the social agenda on the right is to me unconscionable. But that's just my opinion.
It's beautifully written, nonetheless, and a wonderful satire. Thank you!
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Quote:
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
An "everyone is just as corrupt and bad as everyone else" argument serves the cause of apathy and disengagement, and that, again, serves the authoritarian cause.
I don't think this is arguing that EVERYONE is just as corrupt as everyone else. It is saying that One Side is as corrupt as The Other Side. Rather than calling for apathy and disengagement, it makes a case for reforming a Two-Sided System that, in the great scheme of things, only carries cosmetic differences.
No matter Which Side wins, our drones will still be murdering innocent people in Pakistan, Guantanamo will still be there, our health care system will still be broken, our children will still be hungry, our workers will still be unemployed, and the 1% will still own and control everything.
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I hear a lot of people make the argument that "voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil." My response? "It's voting for LESS evil. And if you vote for LESS evil every time, you get BETTER, you get GOOD, simply by voting against evil or choosing the least evil path."
"I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 and intellegence [sic] had very little to do with that decision." - Hero
Mitt Romney, introducing his running mate: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!"
Rappy's response? "You're lying, gullible ( believing in some BS you heard on msnbc ) or hard of hearing."
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Disagree. You still get evil, more and more evil, but don't you get as MUCH evil each time than you would have voting for the greater evil.
You only get better and good by VOTING for better and good, and by fighting against evil. And when there is no more good to vote for, there is only one option left.
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