That “clever” argument is a tell that one making it is one of those bootstrapping Rugged Individualist independents who, if and when they vote, always seem to choose right-wing authoritarians.
It’s not accurate in any case. BB is posting about a “he lied, got caught, and then backpeddled in a slimy and unconvincing manner” situation.
No it’s not accurate. I thought that
went without saying.
You’d think so, but one has to make things explicit when replying to that kind of commenter.
Well to be fair, that is one of my own favored cliches:
But I’m aware enough to realize that it is a cliche, not an immutable fact written in stone.
In the past I’ve found it to be very useful in pre-empting Libertarians’ attempts to use a complaint about Obama or Clinton or other Dems who lie as a launching point for some anti-liberal/anti-progressive rant. Since they agree with the meme they just nod and grumble and it shuts things down before they get tiresome.
I guess I have to point out that:
a) lying about important things that can negatively affect innocent people is bad
b) when these lies can be pointed out they should be
c) some people possibly lying doesn’t excuse other people actually lying
d) even if all people lie, some people lie more than others - and some groups of people tolerate lying more than others
e) it’s never possible in reality that any two people, or any two groups of people, are equally good or bad at something. One person or group is always more good or bad at that thing
f) the way you can tell how good or bad a person or group is at a thing, is look at the actual evidence of that thing
g) if the thing is something that matters, then the evidence matters and the amount a person or group does that more than another group actually matters
Leaving aside the racism implicit in a man who would rather have immigrants from Norway than Africa, the characterization of many African countries as shit* isn’t shockingly inaccurate. Many of them have blowhard thin-skinned kleptocratic presidents. Their politics revolve more around stoking ethnic animus between various tribal groups than choosing policies. Their economic systems are characterized by extreme income disparities, with most of the wealth in the hands of a tiny percentage of the population while most people live in poverty with little chance of advancement. They are often primed for high levels of violence, and most of the population has only very uneven access to modern medicine.
There’s a reason that some people want to emigrate from these countries. Of course people who are hard working and brave enough to leave their family and friends behind to try to find a better life are exactly the sort of people that you WANT as immigrants.
Of course to most Norwegians, the US resembles these shit* countries much more than it resembles any place that they would want to emigrate to. Which wouldn’t seem so terrible if the GOP wasn’t so intent on plotting a course due shitward for the US.
Exactly. Sh-thole/sh-thouse drain thyself.
I don’t think the concern here is the accuracy or inaccuracy of saying some countries are less desirable places to live than others. There are few people who would rather be born an average citizen of Haiti than an average citizen of Norway.
The concerns are (1) the racism, (2) the stupidity of only wanting to take immigrants from other rich countries (when the poor huddled masses, the wretched refuse of shitholes have contributed just as much to Making America Great as anyone else), (3) the punching down, and (4) less importantly, but just as rage-inducingly, the language that, if uttered by Obama, would have been fodder for MONTHS of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News commentary about the debasement of the presidency.
YES. But a surprising number of people are distracted by the norm-breaking language.
That’s an assumption. A fairly probable one, based solely on Haiti’s high poverty rate, but an assumption nevertheless.
I guess all those shithole countries must feel better now that they know he wasn’t talking about them.
my enjoyment of this post was spoiled by some nonsense. i overreacted and i’m sorry.
in other news, the son of a kkk member accepted the endorsement of the head of the kkk without comment and refused to call out real nazis.
what are the odds that he’s a racist?
Speaking of shithouse, I’ve been meaning to push for a new nickname for Mar-a-Lago. Trump has been trying to brand it the “Winter Whitehouse.” But since he’s not in the Whitehouse when he’s there, I think we should all call it the Outhouse.
Think of the headlines: “Trump spends the weekend at the Outhouse.”
Dude…
So… top 9, then? 
That’s not always an option.
Furthermore, wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if BB chose not to play rage inducing ads, to the point where ad blocking wasn’t necessary?
In fairness @orenwolf has said in the BBS before that they’re trying to identify and block the shitty ads, but as I understand it you can’t exactly just create an ad whitelist to show to people.
We are. This is a complex problem not appropriate for this topic, but rest assured we are trying to stop these shitty ads that steal focus and autoplay with sound.
ETA:
