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Chris Knudson Alan Archibald Perhaps that is the goal for you, which could be a good thing... for you, not for everyone else. There are no absolutes in politics... My sense is that discussions/debates/arguments on FB, or anywhere else for that matter, should not be entered into with the goal of winning, whatever "winning" may imply to the individual. Perhaps the goal should be about learning. Which act is more loony, Trump waking up and sending a drone to kill a general (numerous other crazy scenarios come to mind) and then going on TV and ranting uncontrollably and then Tweeting the rest of the day like a crazed person, or Obama waking up, and deciding on this 'Kill List Tuesday" to use a drone to kill a US citizen sans trial, then use a drone to kill that persons US citizen child, and then use Killer Drones to slaughter numerous innocent men, women and children in the Middle East and Africa on a regular basis, as well as dropping 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone, all while being much more intelligent, better spoken, better looking, and smiling? You have the more obvious evil of a Trump vs the "More Effective Evil" of an Obama or whomever, as they govern with the imprimatur of being from the left, when of course nothing could be further from the truth. Of course Trump is a lunatic, but they all are. It is the system which makes it so. Here's the thing, job #1 of all US presidents, every last one of them, as well as the raison d'etre of the US itself is in making the world safe for corrupt, crony and predatory capitalism while destroying all alternatives at every opportunity. As such, wars based on lies, invasions, torture, death squads, assassinations, installation and support of brutal right-wing regimes etc. are all used to facilitate this paradigm... The US was the most violent and terrorist nation in the world before Trump, it remains so with Trump, and it will continue to be so regardless of who replaces Trump... up until the system itself is changed... Be well...
Alan Archibald Chris Knudson Your argument is well reasoned and well presented. But there is a qualitative difference between "padded cell insanity" and garden variety "systematic insanity." I am determined that this year's Democratic candidate wins the November election. This is an election in which "winning" is essential. P.J. O'Rourke provides the bottom-line rationale. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../video-pj-orourke...PAXONBOTHHOUSES.BLOGSPOT.COMVideo: P.J. O'Rourke Discusses New Book, "How The Hell Did…Video: P.J. O'Rourke Discusses New Book, "How The Hell Did This Happen," The 2016 Campaign
- Alan Archibald This will be my last post on your Facebook page.
You are now free of "the troll" and at liberty to re-immerse yourself in whatever confirmation bias you need.
By way of prelude here is a piece I wrote about Eichmann in 2013.
"Thomas Merton: Adolf Eichmann, Sanity and Normality"
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/thomas-merton-adolf-eichmann-sanity-and.html
Life abounds in "critical thresholds," and these thresholds happen to be lower in politics than they are in religious communities.
It is a fact - "plain as potatoes" (as Chesterton liked to say) - that every vote Bernie supporters cast for a candidate other than Hillary (and every Bernie supporter who did not vote at all rather than vote for Hillary) represented a vote that could have been used to keep The Madman out of office.
I understand that statistics can be argued and massaged until the cows come home.
But, by my lights, the data is persuasive.
"Bernie Sanders Voters Helped Trump Win
And Here's Proof"
Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-trump-2016...
It bears repetition that during the 2016 primary season I donated exclusively to Bernie.
And if Bernie is this year's Democratic presidential candidate I will do everything in my power to elect him.
***
Elsewhere, but in related vein...
Apparently, I "triggered a complex" when I referenced Merton.
You feel the need to dismiss Fr. Louis' comment about the relationship between "insistent perfectionism" -- and consequent transformation of "the best" into "evil" -- as impertinent to the discussion.
Not so.
Merton's comment is central to our discussion.
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
"The best imposed as a norm, becomes evil."
"Limitations are salutary."
In the 2016 election, enough Bernie supporters in every decisive swing state voted for Trump (or for someone else, or "for" no one) to not only tilt the scale in Trump's favor but to ensure that Hillary did not win decisively in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
These pro-Bernie Trump facilitators saw Bernie as "the best" and were determined to impose their anti-Hillary views as "the norm."
And now we have Donald Trump in The Oval Office with strong likelihood that third party voters -- coupled with disgruntled "purists" -- will enable his re-election.
Washing one's hands of this meaningful matrix of causality is no more effective than Pilate's attempt to wash his own hands of responsibility for the crucifixion.
Your categorization of me as a troll is as wrong-minded as your defense of those who contributed to Trump's victory by not voting for Hillary.
"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." "The best is enemy of the good."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good
Adios. - Alan Archibald The correct Eichmann link is https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/.../thomas-merton...PAXONBOTHHOUSES.BLOGSPOT.COMThomas Merton: Adolf Eichmann, Sanity and NormalityThomas Merton: Adolf Eichmann, Sanity and Normality
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