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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Jupiterian Local
It really irritates me when people take up individual cases as miniature incarnations of The Cause, whatever their cause in question happens to be. Individual cases are individual cases, and deserve to be judged as such, not as referrendums on issues that they're supposedly representative of.
Every time anything like that hits the national news, it becomes symbolic of whatever the person talking about it wants it to be a symbol of, and the fact that the actual case is about individual people involved in an individual sequence of events rather than about the wider issue gets completely ignored.
The best recent example of this is the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case. It was a pretty simple example of a situation murky enough that there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute, so no charges were filed. Then the national media gets ahold of the story and starts screaming "WHITE MAN KILLS BLACK TEENAGER IN STREETS, WALKS AWAY!" (nevermind everything that's wrong with that characterization of the events). This blows the whole situation into a huge deal for months, where everyone from Zimmerman to the local police chief to the prosecutor that declined to press charges is raked over the coals of public opinion... and the trial eventually returns a "not guilty" charge because the situation was murky enough that there wasn't enough evidence to convinct him. You know, exactly as was obvious to everyone actually involved in the situation from the very beginning.
So yeah. I don't fault people for wanting to raise money for the defendants in these situations, if only to ensure that they can afford the high-priced lawyers they'll need to match the high-profile lawyer working pro bono for the alleged victim and/or their family.
If they're guilty, then by all means they should pay for it. But the hordes of people chanting "burn the witch!" before the facts of the case are even known just piss me off.
edited 6th May '15 4:16:26 PM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
NOT THE BEES
That's rather more likely to happen on Facebook, for exactly the wrong reason — it mines your usage history to guess your preferences, so you're more likely to see stuff you already agree with.
As a side note to our previous discussion about the leanings of the user base, it's important to remember that tropers are more educated than other communities. That's going to play a role in our debate methods and how we gather research. I've noticed that many other communities really don't grasp the principles of scholarly research very well.
edited 6th May '15 5:29:23 PM by Aprilla
A real bad hombre
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
That's very true. On most other websites this would probably have become a flame war a long time ago.
EDITED to fix a typo.
edited 6th May '15 6:02:41 PM by LinkToTheFuture
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
I'm pretty sure it's due to a combination of good mods and most tropers having at least some sense of self-awareness due to the meta nature of the site.
So who do you guys want to win the 2016 Republican nomination?
edited 6th May '15 6:40:21 PM by AngelicBraeburn
The artist formally known as Deviant Braeburn
Lost in Space
(raises hand)... Umm... none of them?
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
A real bad hombre
If I can't answer "No one" I'd probably choose one of the more moderate among them, like Christie or Bush III.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
I would want the most incredibly far right one imaginable, so everyone flocks to Hilary.
Another green world.
A real bad hombre
Actually, that would be a good idea.
But what if it backfires and said candidate is actually elected?
edited 6th May '15 6:57:55 PM by LinkToTheFuture
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
Then we all move to Canada.
Another green world.
A real bad hombre
There's definitely enough room up here.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
Either that, or Sweden.
Another green world.
A real bad hombre
Or I come down and start a revolution, while I'm still 16.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
Unless Obama really screws things up I doubt someone like Rand Paul or Rick Santorum would get elected. They're just too toxic.
NOT THE BEES
This is the Democrats' race to lose. They could strap a can of squeezy cheese to a wooden plank and draw a smiley face on it in Sharpie, and it would probably win.
They said that about Bush too, both times.
"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
A real bad hombre
I have to agree with Pykrete here. The way things have been going so far, Clinton could sit around in her house all day and would probably win.
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison
Well, it looks like the Texas legislature is voting to ban local bans on frakking. Gotta love how they claim state's rights and then stomp all over municipalities trying to decide what goes on in their own towns.
This news comes right after the junk about Abbot setting our state guard to "monitor" the military doing practice drills for actions abroad, under the premise/bizarre assertion that somehow they're practicing to invade Texas.
More like giant cherries
does it concern anyone else that there seems to be a bit of liberal bias on this thread?
It's mildly concerning, but then again, reality has a huge liberal bias as well.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
My Dad's wanting to vote for Rand Paul. But he (my dad) is rather libertarian. I'm thinking Ted Cruz, but I haven't decided yet. I'll need to do more research.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
Honestly the bias thing I think comes from people confusing Republican with Conservative. The forum certainly has a Democrat bias, but it still has plenty of Convesatives around. I'd say there are threads in OTC where a bias is present and has even resulted in what I'd consider bad mod action, but that's not this thread, it's threads on other stuff.
As for Texas breaking away, take it from a nation that knows, letting the wack job evangelical fools break off and form their own (almost certainly doomed) country might seem like a good idea at the time, but it cause all sorts of hell in the long run.
I don't know I think it worked out pretty well that one time...
"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
Sounds more like a common-sense approach to Trust/Monopoly-busting.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"