21–30 of 86 posts
> Witch hunts cannot actually be carried out by losers, big or small: the agent of a witch hunt must have power. Aaaaay, and now the public conversation has finally advanced. The contention of the far right is that this statement is exactly right, but not in the way the author means. That is: there is no coherent rightist opposition to the national religion of progressivism, and this can be verified by checking for w…
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Then something cannot be described, it does not become a fact of shared reality. Hundreds of millions of Soviet citizens had an experience of the thing that could not be described, but I would argue that they did not share that experience, because they had no language for doing so. This is a very good point, but is I think a bit obscured because it seems to mistake the map for the territory. I think what the writer i…
> Witch hunts cannot actually be carried out by losers, big or small: the agent of a witch hunt must have power. Aaaaay, and now the public conversation has finally advanced. The contention of the far right is that this statement is exactly right, but not in the way the author means. That is: there is no coherent rightist opposition to the national religion of progressivism, and this can be verified by checking for w…
I've been rereading this trying to see a coherent argument, but I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say. The thing that you quote seems like it could win an award for stretching metaphors.
It is hard to explain without attracting the attention of the moderators. I'm not sure it's possible to even talk about it without offending somebody, but fortunately I'm gradually losing the will to care.
A simple example would be this recent shooting in Las Vegas. Now: the fact is that this number of people die on a regular basis in certain cities, making it Vegas x 1000, but it doesn't attract uproar or congressional investigations.
Why not?
Another example would be the problem with certain gangs in the UK. I lived there for years and never realized the scale of it. It's not that the media doesn't report events, it's that we don't live in a world where posters line the streets saying "Watch out for Pakistani pedophiles". The media works very hard to tell us everything and nothing by neglecting to join up obvious dots.
We easily could live in a world of right wing witch hunts.
But we don't.
This is because the exact contours of the arguments that would be lost by one side are being routinely ignored.
Most of the public, especially the younger generations live in an unreality. Once you're old enough you become aware that the information streams are badly lopsided.
> Witch hunts cannot actually be carried out by losers, big or small: the agent of a witch hunt must have power. Aaaaay, and now the public conversation has finally advanced. The contention of the far right is that this statement is exactly right, but not in the way the author means. That is: there is no coherent rightist opposition to the national religion of progressivism, and this can be verified by checking for w…
If that’s not what you’re saying, why is the actual point dressed up in that overwrought allegory?
I don't speak German, so it was somewhat surprising to me when I learned that Führer means "leader" (or "guide", according to Wikipedia). And that that word is essentially dead in modern German speech. So how do you refer to the "leader" now?, I asked. I didn't get a good answer to that question, but it would probably take more understanding of German as to how they get by without the obvious word. I wonder if "news"…
Then something cannot be described, it does not become a fact of shared reality. Hundreds of millions of Soviet citizens had an experience of the thing that could not be described, but I would argue that they did not share that experience, because they had no language for doing so. This is a very good point, but is I think a bit obscured because it seems to mistake the map for the territory. I think what the writer i…
> It also means that they all know everyone knows it, and know that everyone knows everyone knows it, ad infinitum. Well not ad-infinitum. Just 3 levels needed: 1. I know (think of a graph with one node A) 2. I know that the other knows (A -> B) 3. I know that the other knows, that I know (A B). That's basically how common sense works, and it helps groups of people work as a group (solve problems, achieve a common go…
Regarding NPR's choice of words: it is in fact quite common to avoid very direct accusations in politics and news. I really doubt the author came about this for the first time ever, but rather wonder if he detested it as much each and every time earlier.
A timeless work about language misuse in Politics.
[1]http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit...