Thursday, October 04, 2018

Inciting To Violence

Just sayin', evangelicals get called out when they make morally questionable statements - which is fair. So...professors at a Roman Catholic college.  Does the RCC take the hit, or are the professors so firmly secularist that they are not associated?  And if secularist, then why don't secularists in general have to answer?


A Georgetown professor advocates violence against men who vote to confirm Kavanaugh. She  claims she is only echoing back the terrible things people say*, tweet, and email to her, with a "How do you like them apples?" style.

Invalid for the following reasons. 1) That is not apparent from her tweet, and thus is a deceitful "Surprise! It wasn't me, it was those other people in disguise" 2) This reduces all argument to everyone adopting the worst of tactics of one's opponents.  She could as easily have said "I will mimic the people who approached me most fairly, and answer in that manner"  3) She is an identifiable figure of some authority, while the opponents she is imitating could be trolls, sock-puppets, or isolates. 4) She did not respond to reports of giving offense by clarifying what non-offensive or less-offensive thing she actually did mean. 

It's worth paying attention to, as she is not the first to use this line of argument when saying horrible things.  

*I'm betting "say" isn't true. She is reporting what she is receiving, plus what some Other People She Has Heard About are receiving.

3 comments:

james said...

It is worse than telephone, since we put the most dramatic spin possible on things, to liven up our otherwise rather dull lives. And your friend will pass along an even edgier version.

And of course you know The Plan

Grim said...

I can sustain some violence. Who wants to stand to my reprisal? Turnabout is fair play, so I hear.

Christopher B said...

They expect the authorities to have their backs, just like the player who throws an elbow after the shove is the one who gets the flag.