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Mary Warner said on March 27th, 2010 at 12:19 am

Wow, a political column that I agree with completely. (I hope that doesn’t make you doubt what you just said now.)

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Then there are the politically specific lies that people swallow.

Objectivist: Acknowledging that people are animals gives you the right to act like an animal in society.

Libertarian: People should work to co-exist with you regardless of how much effort you put in to co-exist with others.

Liberals: Co-existence is possible with all philosophical groups.

Conservatives: Ethical values, unlike anything else that has value, does not have to be maintained to keep its original value.

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My favorite science fiction author is Joe Haldeman. He’s one of the few authors of “military SF” who actually served, and was wounded, in combat. One of my favorite quotes of his was that if you looked at military history Clausewitz got it backward. Politics is the continuation of war by other means, since mankind diplomacy and negotiation only happens when military options have been exhausted.

Now, Mr. Haldeman meant that to refer to military conflict and resolution. But if you look the current status in congress you’ll see the same thing. It’s politics as warfare. One side sought attempted to reach out to the other for support and was met with only tactical attempts to defeat their opponents (I don’t think the “Waterloo” analogy was coincidence). Even now they’ve doubled down with a misinformation campaign (the bill is Unconstitutional! Death Camps!) and ever-more heated rhetoric (Wolverines!). They will not be in a position where diplomacy is an option until they perceive that it is their only option.

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squishydish said on March 27th, 2010 at 1:15 pm

“Crutchley was about as much convinced by this assurance as were the Allies, on being informed by Mr Keynes, after the conclusion of the [Versailles] Peace Treaty, that they might whistle for their indemnities, since the money was not there. It is impossible for human nature to believe that money is not there. It seems so much more likely that the money is there and only needs bawling for.”
— Dorothy Sayers, Busman’s Honeymoon, 1937.

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I noticed all the examples of lies are ones that would most likely be given by Republicans/conservatives. Perhaps some other examples from other sides would be in order (though your points still stand as completely true)?

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LightlyFrosted said on March 27th, 2010 at 6:39 pm

If a point remains true regardless of the example given, it doesn’t really matter what example is given, does it?

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I leave that as an exercise for the reader, Rbx5. 🙂

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Liberals: Co-existence is possible with all philosophical groups.

Zenrage- Pity that, out of all of them, this is the one most unlikely to succeed.

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I think Vetinari wrote the first paragraph.

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Zenrage- Pity that, out of all of them, this is the one most unlikely to succeed.

Only for as long as people remain generally stupid

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Tales to Enrage said on March 28th, 2010 at 8:42 am

Rbx5-I don’t think those lies are tied to any political party. After all, you could say your easy answer is to stop immigration as a conservative. Or your easy answer could be grants for solar power plants, as a liberal.

Your political affiliation may put a different flavor on the lie, but the liberal who says that enacting their progressive program will immediately save money is still using the third lie.

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“Pity that, out of all of them, this is the one most unlikely to succeed.” — Wm. George

“Only for as long as people remain generally stupid.” — Zenrage

“You know how dumb the average person is? Well, by definition, half of ’em are dumber than that!” — J.R. “Bob” Dobbs

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Commented on my blog.

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