Disclaimer: Republicans spend a lot of time torturing non-Americans and then laughing about it in their Republican forums, so as a non-American, I’m probably about as biased against them as a black guy would be biased against the KKK.
Regarding American politics, which party’s general stance is more optimal for ensuring prosperity?
The Pirate Party.
I believe Eliezer said somewhere that, if you had to choose between one of the two major tribes, the Republican camp was slightly better.
Really? I wouldn’t expect it of him. Frankly without context and certainty, I think this sentence is more distracting than useful, as I’m trying to figure out reasons he would say that, instead of actually judging an actual argument for or against a party.
Republicans spend a lot of time torturing non-Americans and then laughing about it in their Republican forums, so as a non-American,
There are two ways to interpret the above statement, one of which makes it false, the other true but highly misleading.
The false interpretation: Republics support torturing random non-Americans and than laugh about it on their forums. (Seriously, if this statement sounds at all plausible to you, you have bigger problems.)
The misleading interpretation: Republics support torturing certain particular non-Americans and laugh than laugh about it on their forums. Of course, those particular non-Americans are terrorists, dictators, dictators’ thugs, and otherwise nasty people who one could reasonably say deserve it.
Republicans spend a lot of time torturing non-Americans and then laughing about it in their Republican forums, so as a non-American,
There are two ways to interpret the above statement, one of which makes it false, the other true but highly misleading.
The false interpretation: Republicans support torturing random non-Americans and than laugh about it on their forums. (Seriously, if this statement sounds at all plausible to you, you have bigger problems.)
The misleading interpretation: Republicans support torturing certain particular non-Americans and laugh than laugh about it on their forums. Of course, those particular non-Americans are terrorists, dictators, dictators’ thugs, and otherwise nasty people who one could reasonably say deserve it.
Of course, those particular non-Americans are terrorists, dictators, dictators’ thugs, and otherwise nasty people who one could reasonably say deserve it.
Or innocent bystanders mistaken for, or even cynically denounced without merit. The same legal and practical protections against torturing or even mistakenly imprisoning Americans are deliberately not applied when torturing or imprisoning foreigners.
The U.S. has, and all countries have, to some extent, a double standard, one for citizens and one for non-citizens. In the U.S. the distance between the two different standards has increased gigantically since 9/11/2001.
The misleading interpretation: Republicans support torturing certain particular non-Americans and laugh than laugh about it on their forums. Of course, those particular non-Americans are terrorists, dictators, dictators’ thugs, and otherwise nasty people who one could reasonably say deserve it.
No, it’s not just “particular” non-Americans, because then you’d see Republicans debate in their forum what criteria should be used to determine those “particulars”—WHICH I’VE NEVER SEEN THEM DO. The more accurate relation is just this: Republicans support torturing non-Americans. They support torturing certain kinds of non-Americans more than other kinds, but there’s never been a torture of a non-American by Americans that they’ve ever found a legal or moral problem with. Not even taxi-drivers that were tortured to death for being in the wrong place.
Being a non-American is the sufficient condition for most Republicans to support the right of Americans to torture you, even to death.
That’s been my impression from the Republican forums I’ve had the misfortune to observe.
I spent several years hanging around in the warblogger community around 2003. I literally have no idea what you’re referring to. Yes, a lot of people were very happy when Saddam Hussein got hanged, myself included. Some(though not all) favoured waterboarding in extreme circumstances. Absolutely nobody would have favoured taking a cheese grater to a random Canadian.
Disclaimer: Republicans spend a lot of time torturing non-Americans and then laughing about it in their Republican forums, so as a non-American, I’m probably about as biased against them as a black guy would be biased against the KKK.
The Pirate Party.
Really? I wouldn’t expect it of him. Frankly without context and certainty, I think this sentence is more distracting than useful, as I’m trying to figure out reasons he would say that, instead of actually judging an actual argument for or against a party.
There are two ways to interpret the above statement, one of which makes it false, the other true but highly misleading.
The false interpretation: Republics support torturing random non-Americans and than laugh about it on their forums. (Seriously, if this statement sounds at all plausible to you, you have bigger problems.)
The misleading interpretation: Republics support torturing certain particular non-Americans and laugh than laugh about it on their forums. Of course, those particular non-Americans are terrorists, dictators, dictators’ thugs, and otherwise nasty people who one could reasonably say deserve it.
I believe his stated reason was their economic policy.
There are two ways to interpret the above statement, one of which makes it false, the other true but highly misleading.
The false interpretation: Republicans support torturing random non-Americans and than laugh about it on their forums. (Seriously, if this statement sounds at all plausible to you, you have bigger problems.)
The misleading interpretation: Republicans support torturing certain particular non-Americans and laugh than laugh about it on their forums. Of course, those particular non-Americans are terrorists, dictators, dictators’ thugs, and otherwise nasty people who one could reasonably say deserve it.
Or innocent bystanders mistaken for, or even cynically denounced without merit. The same legal and practical protections against torturing or even mistakenly imprisoning Americans are deliberately not applied when torturing or imprisoning foreigners.
The U.S. has, and all countries have, to some extent, a double standard, one for citizens and one for non-citizens. In the U.S. the distance between the two different standards has increased gigantically since 9/11/2001.
This may be what Aris was referring to.
No, it’s not just “particular” non-Americans, because then you’d see Republicans debate in their forum what criteria should be used to determine those “particulars”—WHICH I’VE NEVER SEEN THEM DO. The more accurate relation is just this: Republicans support torturing non-Americans. They support torturing certain kinds of non-Americans more than other kinds, but there’s never been a torture of a non-American by Americans that they’ve ever found a legal or moral problem with. Not even taxi-drivers that were tortured to death for being in the wrong place.
Being a non-American is the sufficient condition for most Republicans to support the right of Americans to torture you, even to death.
That’s been my impression from the Republican forums I’ve had the misfortune to observe.
I spent several years hanging around in the warblogger community around 2003. I literally have no idea what you’re referring to. Yes, a lot of people were very happy when Saddam Hussein got hanged, myself included. Some(though not all) favoured waterboarding in extreme circumstances. Absolutely nobody would have favoured taking a cheese grater to a random Canadian.