 
|
This board is closed to new users and new posts. Thank you to all our great mods and users over the years. Details here.
|
|
The Free Talk Live BBS
Profile of Nik from Illinois
Show Posts Topics
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: [1]
1
The Show / The Santorum Google-Bomb
« on: January 14, 2012, 12:44:07 PM »
I called in a few nights ago with my misgivings about FTL hopping on the bandwagon with redefining Santorum's name. I didn't prepare for the call so afterwards I felt like I didn't really get out all the points I was trying to make. I'm having trouble organizing these thoughts so I guess I'll just throw them out in a random order:
* Rick Santorum is not the only Santorum. This google-bomb affects them all -- there is collateral damage. It's a "nuclear weapon". So I think we should disavow it on those grounds alone. Are we not against collectivization and especially collective punishments?
* Even if Rick Santorum were the only Santorum, whatever happened to that whole "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" thing? When bin Laden, a mass-murderer, was killed, there was no celebration in the studio, in fact the killing of him was condemned. If returning like with like is wrong in that instance, why is it okay in the Santorum case?
* When I was a Democrat, I was right alongside my fellow Democrats in coming up with childish names and insults for Republicans and everything they believed in. As a voluntaryist, I look back on my behavior at the time with embarrassment. One reason why is because, at the time, I felt fully justified in name-calling because, of course, the other side was wrong. But that's what everyone thinks! Civility is not something you save for people who agree with you.
I'm not losing any sleep over Rick Santorum's situation. I do feel sorry for him, just like I feel sorry for Scott the Bigot, but the ones I'm concerned about are the people who are jumping on this bandwagon and contributing to this atmosphere that comes inevitably with giving moral support to any act of name-calling. It's largely about my concern for what happens when a culture of incivility is allowed to fester. I've been there. I used to live right in the thick of it. It's poisonous. I don't want FTL to head down that road.
* Rick Santorum is not the only Santorum. This google-bomb affects them all -- there is collateral damage. It's a "nuclear weapon". So I think we should disavow it on those grounds alone. Are we not against collectivization and especially collective punishments?
* Even if Rick Santorum were the only Santorum, whatever happened to that whole "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" thing? When bin Laden, a mass-murderer, was killed, there was no celebration in the studio, in fact the killing of him was condemned. If returning like with like is wrong in that instance, why is it okay in the Santorum case?
* When I was a Democrat, I was right alongside my fellow Democrats in coming up with childish names and insults for Republicans and everything they believed in. As a voluntaryist, I look back on my behavior at the time with embarrassment. One reason why is because, at the time, I felt fully justified in name-calling because, of course, the other side was wrong. But that's what everyone thinks! Civility is not something you save for people who agree with you.
I'm not losing any sleep over Rick Santorum's situation. I do feel sorry for him, just like I feel sorry for Scott the Bigot, but the ones I'm concerned about are the people who are jumping on this bandwagon and contributing to this atmosphere that comes inevitably with giving moral support to any act of name-calling. It's largely about my concern for what happens when a culture of incivility is allowed to fester. I've been there. I used to live right in the thick of it. It's poisonous. I don't want FTL to head down that road.
Pages: [1]