andrewducker | (no subject)

(no subject)

One of my passions is explaining things to people in ways that ordinary people can understand. I hate few things more than people saying "It's very simple, we simply verbeetzle the umpeffeltzter wnd wackdoodle the malporkerizer" because they've forgotten that ordinary people don't speak that language.

This therefore made me very happy. Especially as it uses the Duke of Hazzard as an explanatory tool.

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Oh, my god! Cat and I were rolling on this one!

Although I realize you did not write this, I've been impressed by your ability to exlain things, as well. Here's a request that calls upon your abilities... One that may prove a challenge even for you... *grins*

Can you find a way to explain (in simple enough terms for the average Bush suporter to understand) that changing what the war with Iraq was supposedly about since WMD haven't been found, attacking the bill of rights in the name of natonal security even though our national security agencies have gone on record saying the Patriot Act will do nothing to stop terrorist attacks, and posing with photo ops with various groups (police, firefighters, paramedics, veterans, the elderly, the working poor, etc.) and delivering sound-bites about supporting these groups while quietly introducing legislation to cut their funding (along with cutting funding to inspect large packages coming into the US from abroad), defying the UN (a group we helped form and whom Bush used Iraq's defiance of as a partial rationale for defying them ourselves to attack Iraq) are not the acts of a nice or honest man or a patriot, no matter how much he quotes some "holy" book in speeches, no matter how many pilots' work he takes credit for, and no matter how many "tough guy" sound bites he produces? And work in there something about how pro-Bush-ites are making a habit of vandalizing the property of free speech advocates, how the Bush administration (especially Ashcroft) thinks defending the Bill of Rights is un-American, and relate all of this to how a country begins to slide down the path to Facist Imperialism and police-statehood? Oh, and about no-fly lists and selected peace activists, known anti-Bush people, and civil liberty lawyers being harrassed and detained at airports? And secret arrests, state-sponsored torture, and all that other lovely stuff our current regime is doing? Oh, and work in the election fraud evidence somehow? Maybe using The Matrix or something?

When I try to explain, I get too pissed off and begin to sputter and rage incoherently at the nearest inbred, mouth-breathing, anti-American (yes, I can say that--I think that supporting attacks on freedom of expression and protection against invaions of privacy is in iteslf an unpatriotic act) neo-Nazi (read-Bush supporter).
:-D

This isnt' really a fair challenge, though. Anyone who is swallowing his line of bullshit probably isn't smart enough to understand polysyllabic words, or is so emotinally maladjusted and brainwashed that there is little hope short of intensive deprogramming. I actually spoke to one person whose response was, "well, if you're not doing anything wrong you don't have anything to worry about." And went on to opine that not supporting the president is as unpatriotic as you can get! I'm not joking.

On a serious note, I wonder how much longer I'll be allowed to type words like this and retain my security clearance/citizenship/freedom. Canada has begun offering political asylum to at least one group, I suppose, and I'm sure they and other countries will take more of us if the new US Nazis continue to gain power. *shudders* I love my country despite its' glaringly obvious flaws. I'd hate to see that happen.

Yes, yes... this could be seen as rather off-topic, but it's the whole "explaining things" aspecty that brought it up. I honestly have been at a loss as to how to break through the denial of otherwise sane-seeming people. I wonder if the more reasonable Germans had this problem with the rest of them during the Nazi rise to power?

So um... yeah... If you can think of a simple way of wording this, I'd appreciate it.

Honestly, there isn't very much difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, except that one party currently has a little more power than the other. Bill of Rights? I voted for Bush because I didn't want Tipper Gore taking away my music and Joe Lieberman taking away my video games. The Democrats enacted rules to give the President more power to act on his own, then dropped the baton when they tried to pass it along to Mr. Gore, who couldn't win the majority of the states because he only bothered with the more populous ones.

As far as I'm concerned, the present mess took the concerted efforts of both parties, and the level of seething fascism directed at each other by certain members of both parties make US politics a big joke. Give me Socialists and Libertarians any day, give me the Green and Reform parties. I don't regret my vote except to say I should've voted for the best choice, instead the "lesser" of the two evils that had a chance of winning. My gods, the Americans lost the election, and all we want to do is call each other stupid and blame the other instead of ourselves.

*nods* Note that I said "Bush supporter," by which I meant those who agree with his current actions, not "those who formerly supported Bush or voted for him before his exposure." You seem to be a relatively intelligent person who recognizes our current president as the danger to our country that he is.

Yup. The Democrats are no better, and frankly, all but a couple of the incumbents in both houses need to go, because they actually PASSED the Patriot Act. And right now even the hopelessly naive Libertarian Party is looking like a good alternative. I will not be voting for any canditidate in this next election who does not speak out against the Patriot Act, nor anyone who voted to pass it. Which means of course that, yes--I'll be most likely voting Green.

But like I said--The ones supporting him currently are generally low-brow enough that it will be really hard to dumb down to their level just what is wrong in Washington right now.

Well, one way where I differ from most people that dislike Bush's current actions is that I still think Gore would've done worse. Hmm... I'm registered as a Libertarian, but the problem with my party is that while it might be one thing to advocated the freedom of smoking crack, it's quite another to run for office while appearing to do so. >_>;;

LOL! Intelligence and humor make a great team. Hard to say who'd be worse, really, but Gore's saving grace would have, IMHO, been that he'd not have been able to sell his bullshit as well.

Me--I'd have voted for Zappa if he'd lived and run as he was considering. Hey! Why doesn't Dennis Miller run for office?

And believe it or not, I seriously thought this discussion would be more along the lines of "how to explain the Bush administration through *insert movie or series name here*, so my apologies to Andy for going so far astray.
:-D

Of course, I have the attention span of a 6-year-old on libertarian crack.

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(no subject)

In which we go off on a tangent...

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