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there is a problem here--i think it has alot to do with politics in the broader sense as they play out amongst a basically small and static community on a messageboard.
and the general problem isn't exactly new---not only are there conflicting political viewpoints at play, but there are conflicting ideas about political argumentation, about the relation of argument to data, and by extension conflicting views of what constitutes a legitimate argument.
conservatives in the main operate from a made possible by virtue of the simple fact that we, in the states, work inside a conservative-dominated ideological bubble--the "free press" works with a remarkable degree of ideological uniformity, particularly on matters related to economic ideology--you can kind of array social and political issues outward from the main ideological consensus about neoliberal economic theory---some being more open to contestation, others less so.
the economic ideology is of a piece with a form of political domination--that form of political domination--a kind of soft authoritarian system that we confuse with freedom---requires a degree of defense--so political questions that are too fundamentally problematic get atomized--witness the war in iraq, which by any sane standard should have long ago resulted in a significant legitimation problem for the entire political order. but it hasn't. why is that?
because conservative forms of argument operate against a background of noise from television and its print subsidiaries, because they repeat elements of this dominant frame of reference, there is no particular reason for them to actually argue their positions--so they don't.
folk who work from a more "left" opposition viewpoint also work with political assumptions that are not part of the ongoing blah blah blah of marketing neoliberalism as a way of marketing consent---so they have to explain more about where they come from in order to make points. because they have to explain more, there is a different kind of concern with linking claims to information.
conservative posters here in general are not playing the same game as those who post from more left positions---they never have been, they seemingly never will. no doubt there are other registers of explanation for this, but they seem to veer toward critiques of others as players in this little game. so there's a structural explanation--or the outline of one--that operates instead.
this is a big reason why this game is often not any fun.
there's no agreement about what the game is.
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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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