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all i'm going to say is that i have far more conservative friends and colleagues than you might expect. what differentiates most of them from what happens here at times---sadly more than i would prefer---is that these folk are not impressed with populist conservative politics in the limbaugh mode. they dont recycle the arguments. they dont use the same techniques. they dont put you in the position of having to accept ridiculous premises in order to get to leading questions that aren't geared around discussion at all because the game is built into the premises.
and they don't act all offended or bewildered when problems of premise, of logic, of data, of coherence come up.
they're part of what a discussion is. they're part of the game.
but there are also other folk who don't seem to get that their positions come from anywhere in particular, that don't seem to understand that part of disagreement about politics is disagreement about data, about how things are defined and connected together, about consequences of arguments as they play out logically or as they play out in the world.
these are also the folk who seem to default into playing the victim when they get called out on things.
which is always strange because getting called out on things is also part of the game of argument.
and it's possible to respond to being called out on things without climbing on the victim train.
it's just the victim train is so cheap and easy and it shortcircuits things because from that point its not about argument its about you and your injury.
and that you can control.
but most of my conservative friends and colleagues are pretty interesting, smart informed people with whom it is possible to have interesting discussions about any number of things. there are some of those folk here as well. it's good to have a few drinks with the folk in meat-space and it'd be interesting to have a few with the folk i take as parallel here.
so don't get your panties all in a bunch cimmaron. it's all playtime.
and if you get called on arguments, just roll with it.
it's easy.
just answer the questions.
play the game.
sheesh.
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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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