Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!news.quux.org!eternal-september.org!feeder2.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul S Person Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: Whoops! The Atlantic Makes Trump Look EPIC In Cover Intended as a Smear Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2024 08:31:25 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 116 Message-ID: <162qhjd6bb8kkisqupgvfo0v3pu45m6krn@4ax.com> References: <9lrbhjth817stv8fotbo3ibig1qpqjpoh5@4ax.com> <6ctchjp5n73v2had88s5smaq7eac755vc6@4ax.com> <8ehfhj9jphf08ssafje6l45ugf8dd4gjub@4ax.com> <027mhjd9dd0b2m87u0a8213ld6mgqt7h5o@4ax.com> <0fdd7892-047a-a12d-7596-195e6572c8a6@example.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2024 17:31:29 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="020a405cd3ec6b150669164fd607981a"; logging-data="3978605"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18zbzmV9d5buKSLTgaI8OksFGBA6JEPrbk=" User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 Cancel-Lock: sha1:hubXoC+yM3dc1Mcd3jlTj9I7J8U= Bytes: 7023 On Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:27:59 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote: >On 10/25/24 06:45, Chris Buckley wrote: >> On 2024-10-25, D wrote: >>> On Thu, 24 Oct 2024, The Horny Goat wrote: >>>> I'm from BC (Canada) and had our provincial election Saturday. I = voted >>>> in the advance poll at our local recreation center which is about = 2-3 >>>> miles from home and fairly close to my favorite grocery store. Can't >>>> recall whether I voted first shopped after or vice versa but it was >>>> the same trip away from home. My candidate didn't win but that's not >>>> the point - far better to have voted and lost than not to have voted >>>> at all. >>>> >>> I disagree. If there is no candidate that represents my view, I would= be >>> doing democracy a disservice by voting. By not voting, I send a clear >>> signal that the current politicians are of low quality and/or = incompetent, >>> and that they in no way deserve me participating in the system. >>=20 >> I very strongly disagree. Voting is critical; at a minimum we must >> distinguish our distaste for current candidates from the apathetic not >> caring about the issue. Vote for the candidate you agree with most; if >> there actually are none, then write-in "Mickey Mouse" or "Hatsune >> Miku" if you're somewhat younger. That sends a clear signal; not >> voting sends nothing at all in the US (it does send a signal in those >> countries with mandatory voting.) You are not going to find a >> candidate that represents your view 100% unless you're the candidate >> yourself. >>=20 >> This is now the third Presidential election in a row that I can't vote >> for either major party candidate - in the previous 40 years it only >> happened once. Times are changing. But the need to vote is still = there. >>=20 >>> In additiona, democracy is a violent act, since it represents you, = through >>> the possible force of the majority, imposing your will on others, by = the >>> threat of violence if they do not comply. This is unethical. >>> >>> Pacifists and libertarians can, due to their ethics and political = beliefs, >>> not vote in democratic elections and remain consistent with their = moral >>> positions. >>=20 >> D, I would not have thought that you were that much a proponent of >> today's cancel culture. The modern notion that if you object strongly >> to one belief of a person or group/party you must completely = disassociate >> yourself from that person or group, is tearing apart our society. = We're >> unable to discuss or even recognize the good qualities of that = person/group. >>=20 >> There's no reason for pacifists and libertarians not to participate in >> a democracy despite their disagreement about what some of what a >> government should do. That's cancel culture. Would you really not >> vote for someone like Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party candidate) >> because of that, D? Just about the only group who philosophically >> should not vote are the anarchists. >>=20 >> As they say "Democracy sucks; it just sucks less than the = alternatives." >>=20 >> Chris >>=20 > > All American Anarchists should always vote for the most competent=20 >candidate. We should do that because as bad as >government is it is far better constrained by even imperfect >basic law than by men acting on whims and without information. > We see in nations where Government has collapsed and >anarchy prevales that misery excalates. We see in nations >ruled by dictatorships of the Left or of the Right that misery >ensues. So goverment by the Constitution is better but certain >branches of the Government have resigned their proper functions >and allowed one or more other branches to improperly >execute the duty of other branches. One branch has the duty >of comparing non-basic law to the basic law for conflict >but the so called justices have dragged the common law of >superstitious monarchies into the case. They presume to >place their interpretation of religion against modern science >and in addition prominent members have accepted large gifts >from parties who have interests in the presented cases. An excellent summary of our current situation. Just two quibbles and an observation: 1. Freedom of religion and a prohibition on a State Church (which would include Science acting as a religion, BTW) /are/ part of the basic law (the Constitution, as amended). 2. The concept that human life begins at conception /is/ modern science; they are merely drawing the inevitable consequences from this belief. It is truly amazing that so many anti-modernist Christians ("Evangelicals") have adopted the /scientific/ viewpoint and abandoned the historical Christian viewpoint (that human life begins when the child draws breath independently of the mother. And, yes, spending time on a respirator for a while /does/ count.) 3. Abortion has been discouraged for a long long time. The Hippocratic Oath, from 3 or 4 centuries BC, includes a pledge by doctors not to provide a drug to induce one. But this was because they believed the fetus to be a human being (except potentially); it was because they believed it to be the property of the father. Abortion was regarded as a form of property theft. Keep in mind that the mother was also, unless hanky-panky was involved, the property of the father. --=20 "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino, Who evil spoke of everyone but God, Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"