Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Ain't This America Stop wishing Rush Limbaugh dead

Ardy, I agree with everything that you have said about politians. When a person chooses to enter the public arena as a politician that person is also choosing to be critiqued publicly by all manner of folk.

When vast swaths of private citizens are branded and ridiculed, I see nothing gained and much lost.

Except, my dear Sky, vast swaths of private citizens deserve to be branded and ridiculed. Of course, which swath may depend on whose ox is gored....

Yes, well I do accept Sky's point to some degree. While at the same time thinking that perhaps NWP also has raised a valid issue.

Consider for the moment the issue of climate change. And issue that is always good for a spirited debate.

Among those who dispute human induced climate change, I have sen the following augments proposed:

There is no clear evidence that atmospheric CO2 is increasing.

Further, there is clear evidence that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have been increasing for more than 2 centuries and therefore current changes are non relevant to what ever may or may not be happening with the climate.

Also....
There is no clear evidence that sea levels are rising....

Further, there are records that show sea levels have been rising for more than 2 centuries and therefore current sea level change is not related to our activities.


Also
The earth's climate is not warming...

And further, the climate has been warming for more than two centuries so current human activities are not causing this change.

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I could go on and on an on about this topic (or others) where apparently intelligent people make arguments that are facile to the point of idiocy. And, they will never stay on point long enough to rationally dispute any of their assertions.

Sadly, it seems true that no amount of rational discussion will have any significant impact on the views of most people.... and certainly not anyone who starts with a firm allegiance to a political bias.

I personally prefer rational discussion of issues. It is why I come to this forum.

At the same time I recognize and respect that others will have different values. Perhaps they just want to socialize, chat, etc. And that also is fine.

And yet others offer only the pretense rational discussion as a form of partisan gamesmanship. I am skeptical that the views of such people can be altered by even the most patient and rigorous rational discussion.

When rational discussion has been discarded, I feel no obligation to avoid ridicule of pseudo rational discussion that is consistently misrepresented as something other than it is.

I believe that rational discussion can have a significant impact on people, and we may not even be aware of it.

Here at RR on any given thread, there may be 5-6 ranters posting. On an average week, about 50 registered ranters sign in and spend some time here, even if they are not actively posting. That's 10X the number of active posters on a particular thread. Plus, there are many times that who are lurking and not registered.

So, your rational discussion of a topic could well be positively impacting the thinking of hundreds of people a week, just here at RR. There are people who have lurked here for years without ever having posted one thing, yet their thinking is challenged and changed, not by ridicule, but by rational discussion.

Lysenkoism got its legs almost purely on branding and ridiculing vast swaths of individuals...BIOLOGISTS.
It later became official Soviet scientific dogma, much to the delight of American farmers, who profited on selling grain to the Soviets for many years as they stubbornly continued to ridicule, then later FIRE, any biologist who disagreed with the Lysenko view.

It starts SOMEWHERE, and it ends somewhere, and it works in both directions.

I am somewhat amused that we all got suckered into posting on this thread at all. Notice who hasn't posted? It was a false issue from the outset, and yet, here we are on page 5 with a deceptive thread topic.

Can we at least wish that his media empire will die?

Limbaugh's media empire is more than likely either a corporation or a partnership. As such, it is a legal person. One should not wish ill on another person.

I highly doubt the rules or guidelines have anything to say about wishing "juristic persons" dead, especially after mounting evidence shows that certain juristic persons wish for nothing more than to see large quantities of us in that state of affairs.

Actually, it says a whole lot more about the image Limbaugh has created for himself, that rumors of death wishes seem so plausible - accepted as real almost without question - and are so widely disseminated.

He must be so proud.