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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
In tangential news, Cracked invokes Godwin's Law in regards to Donald Trump
.
I've always seen it more that we don't help the crazy people in our society, best exemplified by this political cartoon
◊.
edited 3rd Oct '15 7:40:45 AM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"It's an apt comparison.
The only reason Godwin's Law is even a thing is because of people on the internet more concerned with pulling an intellectual GOTCHA than actually discussing the matters at hand. More interested in "winning" the debate than in the actual topic being debated.
That goes both for people who think equating someone to a Nazi is an automatic "I win" card and for the people who go, "Hah! You mentioned Hitler, that means I win."
There's a reason our rules say this:
A fallacy is neither subjective nor nebulous. If you've spotted a real fallacy, you should be able to explain why your opponent's argument is incorrect, and this is generally preferable to calling out the name of a fallacy. If you can't explain what's wrong with it, it probably isn't a fallacy.
edited 3rd Oct '15 7:47:31 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Except the US is nowhere near the conditions the Weimar was that allowed Hitler to rise to power, Hitler speeches didn't appeal to the poor, the communists in Germany did, Hitler speeches appealed to the German industrialists and the German middle class, which were scared shitless of a Russian style communist revolution. His blaming of the Jews isn't equivalent to blaming Mexican immigrants which has the whole rhetoric built around "DEY TOOK OUR JERBS! DEY STEAL WELFUR!", Hitler blamed the Jews for manipulating the finance and hyper inflation during the Weimar Republic and introducing "depraved" ideals allowing communists to set foothold in Germany. Hitler also used his personal militia to harass and eliminate opposition members as far as I know Trump doesn't have uniformed hit squads killing repds and dems alike.
If ATB claimed Trump had all the characteristics of populist dictators, I'd agree. Blaming all the woes on a few groups, chattering to some minorities or appealing to the fears of the majority while sucking up to the elites and subscribing to a conspiracy theorist thinking to justify his actions isn't exclusive to Hitler.
It is in fact the playbook of every single dictator and populist leader, from the Lenin to Stalin, from Kim Jong Un to Mao, from the Perón dictatorship in Argentina to the Military Junta in Brazil, to the Francisco and Mussolini dictatorships in Europe and from Saddam to the Khomeini.
I really hate ATB for making an column that made people defend Trump.
Inter arma enim silent leges![]()
Funny you should mention that, because The Daily Show with Trevor Noah made a direct comparison between Trump and various African "Presidents"... including Gadhaffi.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I must say that, while I am having a lot of fun watching the Republican elections from afar, the perspective of someone like Trump being elected president really scares me. The most powerful army in the world led by a lunatic...that could become a nightmare.
GWB already screwed the Middle East in ways that will take decades to fix (and whose consequences, incidentally, mostly concern European countries, not the American soil), so a man like Trump could take cataclysmic decisions.
edited 3rd Oct '15 8:56:45 AM by Julep
The chances of Trump being elected are laughably low, the circus around him that is big.
Besides, the president alone can't do jack shit unless the other two powers agree, there are some executive orders and other stuff the president can do on his own but there isn't anything stopping the other branches from declaring "fuck that" and overruling or ignoring it.
Inter arma enim silent legesI heard somewhere that Trump would need like 47% of the Latinx vote to win the general election and with his immigration rhetoric I'd be surprised he gets 47 Latinx people to vote for him.
Put me in motion, drink the potion, use the lotion, drain the ocean, cause commotion, fake devotion, entertain a notion, be Nova Scotian![]()
Honestly, that just makes me wonder what the circumstances would be for even one Latino to vote for him. Maybe they'd be filled with racial self-loathing?
The comparison works, in the end Trump's only hope for power is to be appointed undemocratically, fake a terrorist attack and then suspend democracy.
So yeah, looks pretty unlikely to me.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyranedited 3rd Oct '15 11:35:21 AM by FFShinra
It's kind of hard to distinguish where democracy ends and dictatorship begins. Take leaders of former Soviet states. Some, like Lukashenka and Aliyev went through an election after the Union's fall, but have been in power for 20+ years since. Putin takes pains to follow the letter of the constitution (if not its spirit), Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan rolls elections, but he was elected before the country was independent, ditto Uzbekistan's Karimov (who is yet more aggressive with political enemies). Only Niyazov in Turkmenistan, and his successor, really count (the guy renamed days of the week and forced doctors in the country to recant the Hippocratic Oath and swear loyalty to him alone).
Even guys like Omar al-Bashir go through periodic elections.
![]()
There's a lot between democracy and dictatorship. For example, in a true dictatorship, there shouldn't even be an oligarchy.
Elections in a dictatorship tend to be a sham (there's no way Kim-Jong Un was elected unanimously by popular vote).
In addition, a true democracy can theoretically be just as authoritarian as a dictatorship in theory (which is why the US, for example, has a constitution. Even if a policy is popular, it still could be unconstitutional and therefore illegal).
Leviticus 19:34"The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period." - Thomas Jefferson
Started it up over there, if any are interested. I'm probably just going to lurk.
edited 3rd Oct '15 4:20:20 PM by Artificius
"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."

2.) A lot of spree shootings typically involve ideas, beliefs and attitudes such as racism, xenophobia, misogyny, religious zealotry, anti-theism and even classism in some cases. These issues are related to ideological background radiation that continues to contaminate social progress. These issues can be combated and mitigated through social justice initiatives. You know, that so-called social justice warrior drivel that people love to mock and dismiss? I posted that previous article for a reason.
3.) Bigotry is not a mental illness. Being an asshole does not mean you are in need of psychiatric care. Attributing asshole behaviors to mental illness ignores the fact that these behaviors and ideologies are normalized in public and personal discourse. This is illustrated daily by an ad nausea fixation on a certain presidential hopeful who shall, for the sake of my own sanity, remain unnamed.
The rest of this post is also great but thank you especially for this, Aprilla. As someone who lives with a paranoid schizophrenic, the attribution of "Gun violence happens because we let crazy people in our society!" struck a nerve such that I lacked the diplomatic capacity to properly respond to it.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.