Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Limits of Discourse

Brendan provides some real clarity regarding the looming debate about rhetoric in the wake of the Giffords shooting.
Can we blame an individual act by some loon on a specific statement by a specific prominent conservative blowhard? Probably not, not any more than we can attribute a single nasty storm to anthropogenic global warming. But, as with AGW, there is something we can say with confidence -- muck with the climate, and you increase the odds that extreme events will happen.

3 comments:

  1. Using Targets as pointer icons on a map locating political rivals is suggestive. Using words like "Target" and "Shoot" when referring to a political opponent in an ad for a campaign rally at which guests can fire an M16 is treasonably suggestive. Suggesting that the second amendment offers a rational response to an electoral loss is seditious.

    These words from a few blowhards fall on mostly deaf ears. But they are directed at the demographic that is not inclined to fact-check, less inclined to read and understand the constitution. These 'blowhards' acted as the butterfly's wings that ultimately led to a tempest in Arizona.

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  2. You must have been on to something!

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