loomer wrote: ↑2019-07-23 05:10am
The Romulan Republic wrote: ↑2019-07-23 05:02am
loomer wrote: ↑2019-07-23 04:51am
It takes an enormous leap to assume I'm on Ralin's side, TRR, or that I'm actually comparing you to Trump, since my one post was actually critical of Ralin's belief in Trump as a non-interventionist and simply said that the hyperbole and histrionics is what people find Trumpish. I'm pointing to your posts here as part of why people in the Ecuadorean Embassy investigation thread are comparing your rhetorical style to his - nothing more.
You're right, I should not have said that you were on his side. That was an overly-broad accusation which was not warranted by your posts in this thread. My apologies. Nonetheless, it was an accusation made in response to you doing what so many others have done- contributing to a derail of one of my threads by lecturing me on my tone or personality rather than discussing the actual topic of the thread. Something which I find offensive both because it puts me in the position of being constantly under personal attack (which makes me more likely to lash out at others over what would by themselves be minor disagreements), and because I REALLY SHOULDN'T BE THE TOPIC HERE. See, unlike Trump, I am
not a raging narcissist, though I probably come off as one because every topic I post in ends up somehow being about me, no matter how much I wish it wouldn't. We're talking about a threat of genocide by the President of the United States against a nation of millions. Why the everlasting fuck is the focus of conversation some nerd working a minimum wage retail job? Perhaps because it makes a convenient distraction from the facts of the issue.
Also, given my views of Trump, comparing me to him his pretty obvious flame-bait.
The reason you're perpetually having to defend against it, TRR, is because your rhetorical style is
incredibly full of hyperbole and histrionics. That's why I pointed to your post and how it's a huge escalation from what had been said. You are in fact
starting these fights, and then being wounded when people rise to the challenge. If you want to keep it to the facts, keep it to the facts - it's an admirable goal, but it isn't one you're actually meeting, and it's why this keeps happening. I don't come here often enough to have a stake in this, either - we've had a couple of disagreements but I don't really have any ill will or particular memory of you, but I see this happening often and it's usually, as it is here, because you react to legitimate criticism of a position you advocate with extremely rapid escalation into things like yourself comparing people to Trumpers, being offended that you think (incorrectly) that people are calling you racist, and so forth.
I also, I must again labour to emphasize, did not compare you to Trump. I pointed out an example of why people find your rhetoric reminiscent of his - this does not compare you, as a person, to Trump in any way. It is not flame bait.
1. The difference between my rhetorical style and Trump's is that a) my rhetoric is not focussed on self-agrandizement, b) I do not routinely shift my basic positions out of self-interest, c) I do not target people based on their race, gender, sex, religion, nationality, etc, and d) I have a vocabulary greater than that of the average fifth-grader. And frankly, I think that nitpicking my rhetorical style instead of the President's threat of genocide against a nation of millions is at best severely myopic.
2. Ralin did, in fact, call me a racist, in this thread and elsewhere.
What’s reprehensible and staggeringly racist is caring more about Trump’s dumb way of emphasizing that he’s totally committed to a peaceful resolution (‘because if I wasn’t I could so easily kill everyone’) then the nineteen goddamn year long war the US has inflicted on Afghanistan
Unless we're supposed to believe that wasn't directed at me, but was just a random insert referring to other people not participating in this thread?
3. Ralin made multiple false allegations against me, including calling me a liar in the very first line of his very first post (before I had a chance to "escalate" anything), and claiming that I "hate the idea of (Trump) cozying up to dictators (read: engaging in diplomacy)", implying that I was opposed to any diplomacy with dictators. Neither of these allegations is true.
4. While I will acknowledge that I have sometimes jumped to conclusions, and that the responsibility for that is on me, I do not agree that I was mis-reacting to "legitimate criticism" here. Ralin's arguments are not legitimate, and he has made no more than a token effort to defend them by any means other than smearing me. His defense of Trump's threats is deplorable (and yes, in my opinion, racist), and his characterization of Trump as anti-war and anti-intervention, and of merely negotiating with (as opposed to pandering to) dictators, is factually false on multiple counts. I will note that I posted no less than six examples of Trump's militarism, not one of which Ralin or anyone else has made the slightest effort to refute, preferring instead to focus on discussing my tone and personality, again.
I am not blameless, but the blame is not all on me here. The focus, however, is- to the detriment of the thread and the forum. It is very clear to me that Ralin is debating my character because he does not wish to, or cannot, debate my arguments.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver
"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.
I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.