[MD] Imaginings

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[John]
I have some leisure time to respond in detail.

[Arlo]
Yeah, okay, bad bad Arlo for getting upset at the moronic squawking about
"death panels". Bad bad Arlo for getting angry at seeing someone here say
"academics are willing executioners of those they disagree with". But don't
castigate, Platt, oh no... just ignore him. Let him say whatever vile,
distortive, nonsense he wants... but don't call him on it! Oh no! 

There is one point in all this I'd like to continue...

[Arlo previously]
That to me, John, is an example of something Pirsig would unequivocally call
"morally evil".

[John]
I can't agree with that assertion.

[Arlo]
Russell KNEW his statement would create a false association. It was
deliberately designed to create the impression that "school addresses" are
endemic to totalitarian regimes. He deliberately ignored the fact that
conservatives supported Bush giving a similar address a few years back so as to
create a sense of anger and incite a mob.

And you do not think that is morally evil?

Same with "death panels". These people KNOW that a similar "end of life"
passage appeared in the 2003 Medicare Act. They KNOW conservatives backed it
then. Since 2004, until Obama's proposed act, there have been no squawks about
"death panels". So the use of this term is pure hyperbole, it deliberately
distorts the facts and appeals to the anger of misinformed voters so as to
incite them into a mob.

Both of these are perfect examples of social violence seeking to subvert
intellectual discourse. And as such are prime examples of something Pirsig
would call "morally evil".

[John]
Right.  I get that.  Take off thy shoes and tip-toe around, thou art on sacred
ground.

[Arlo]
Well we should be above pandering to rhetoric that distorts in order to subvert
intellect. Yes. We should. Excuse me for thinking that people here should find
such stuff revolting.

[John]
"I've put in enough time dealing with Platt.   So.... I'm gonna respond the
hell out of him every time he pops up with this nonsense."

[Arlo]
I don't respond to Platt in the hopes of reaching any agreement. I respond to
Platt so that the lurkers or newcomers here don't think we are all a bunch of
idiots squawking about "death panels".

But I shouldn't care. 

[John]
And don't take it that I'm saying you SHOULD ignore him.  Au contraire.  I'm
saying your claim that you dislike the engagement is contradicted by the facts
of what you actually do.

[Arlo]
You're saying that every time he squawks "death panels" I should either ignore
it, or repeat the same "intellectual" response over and over, all the while
being called a freedom hating, degenerate hippie, commie, anti-liberty pinhead
"acerdimic".

[John]
Ok then.  You see the pendulum problem then.  The effect of drawing up sides
and villifying the enemy and just going back and forth.

[Arlo]
I am not taking SIDES. Please see past that, John. I am taking issue with
distortive, deceptive, inflammatory rhetoric designed to subvert intellectual
discourse to social violence. Period. 

I am NOT saying Obama's "end of life" provision, or any other part of his
proposal, is beyond criticism. I have said that I disagree with sections of it
as well. I am saying that squawking about "Obama wants to set up death panels
to kill seniors and babies" is EVIL.

Please, please, tell me you can see the difference?

[John]
Ok.  Good point.  (except in the interest of "accuracy" thousand-fold is an
exaggeration)  And so your passionate response to a problem in the world.

[Arlo]
I truly think we are the edge of a powder-keg. And with discourse being reduced
to "incite a larger and larger angry mob", I firmly believe it will not be long
until we see actual violence in the street. Khaled and I have been talking
about that. And this frustrates me, and this is exponential here because we
SHOULD know better. If MOQ-D can't rise above that, if we can't unequivocally
denounce that rhetoric as "evil", then I see no hope whatsoever. Why even try?
Let the mobs get incited, let me try to help make my mob even angrier. Hey,
saying "Obama wants to set up death panels to kill seniors and babies" is just
a "view"! How dare anyone criticize that!!

Cry havoc! And let loose the mobs of war...

[John]
Yeah.  Right.  Go away Arlo.  You do and I'll call you a metaphysical sissy.

[Arlo]
Why stay in a forum that is unable to denounce such rhetoric as "evil"? You'd
call me a sissy. That's funny, since I am being chastised for being a
metaphysical bully by condemning Platt's idiotic rhetoric.

What would I be if I stay and just ignore it, John? I'd say "metaphysically
dishonest".

Okay, now I've had my time behind the shed. Now what do you say, John, able to
make good on your promise to take Platt back there too?