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so wait---let me see if i understand this non-discussion correctly.
what stevo is saying in no. 17 is that faced with the choice between actually thinking about how issues are framed and simply following the framing that exists--no matter how obviously inadequate, no matter how dubious---the choice he--and the other conservatives who posted thereafter--would make is to follow.
in another thread, stevo at least laid out the basis for this--a kind of voluntarism according to which the taking of a stance mattered above all else. in that context, i could almost respect the position he outlined--but here it seems that the need to feel resolute works to obviate any possibility of being resolute in a coherent way. i woudl think that this might pose problems...but apparently not. go figure.
presumably the rationale for this particular display of resoluteness at the expense of coherence lay in the sad fact that the right is now in power. from this, the only conclusion i can draw is that because the right is in power, and because conservatives identify, for some reason, with the ideology for which the administration stands, then for them it follows that whatever the administration says or does is necessarily coherent, necessarily good.
but then i started thinking about what happens in this space, and it began to occur to me that maybe folk from the right who post here are trying out extreme versions of their politics here in a space that offers no pressure on them to be coherent or think independently or consider what they are doing and why they are doing it.
maybe these views are not viable in their everyday lives.
maybe the 3-d people they talk to in thsi way would laugh at them if they expressed these views in real life.
in here, laughing is confined to something that happens around the keyboard, during the act of typing, and does not translate into posts.
so maybe they can pretend no-one laughs.
they would be wrong, but who really cares?
or maybe this is a space that gives folk the chance to intellectually cross-dress, to try out the wardrobe of total, unreflective partisan loyalty and see how they look in it.
or maybe the point is an exercize in sustained submissiveness. maybe there is a charge to be had from it.
at least these speculations would explain the adherence to this kind of ridiculous "logic" you see from the right in this thread.
it certainly cannot be based on any standard of coherence.
i understand host's exasperation.
i find this kind exasperating as well.
that is why i am checking out of this thread.
it has become idiotic, and will no doubt remain idiotic.
worse, the critiques that would obtain have been made over and over and over again and--once again---conservatives here react by acting as though nothing had happened and by repeating the same old same old, using the same old kind of claims. they appear to refuse to even consider problems with their positions.
perhaps this follows from the politics they imagine that i or anyone else who would criticize ther views necessarily would hold, and they consider anything coming from such a position to be a priori wrong.
nice.
i am not sure what this is, but it is clear what it is not:
it is not a discussion.
it is not a debate.
it is not worth the time or effort to participate in.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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