On figuring out who the good guys are:

[xiphias]

If you've got two groups of people who are arguing, and one of them points to a good thing that the other one did, and then tries to make it sound like a bad thing, the people who make the good thing sound like a bad thing are the bad guys.

I'm looking at you, Gov. Palin. Most folks think that working with the poor and downtrodden to try to give them hope and a future is a good thing. If you are saying that being a community organizer is a bad thing, then you are saying that a good thing is bad. And only bad people say that good things are bad.

Actually, yes, it IS that simple.

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I like to leave room for the existence of confused and stupid people.

Especially when really, it'll probably irritate them more.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

This. The question I find myself asking most often these days is, "Is this evil? Or merely stupid?"

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

When the bombs begin to fall, does the difference still matter?

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

Nope, it doesn't. In practical terms, the question doesn't matter at all, really. Evil or stupid, I'm STILL not voting for it.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

At that point, no, not at all.

However, before you get to that point, there is hope that ignorant (which I know is different from stupid) people can be educated, and that confused people can be enlightened.

[alaria-lyon.livejournal.com]

It's neither evil or stupid, it's just a game. And, if the democrats I work with are any indication, it's a game they are winning.

Ok, maybe it's a little evil :-)

[alaria-lyon.livejournal.com]

As a social worker, who works with the poor and downtrodden, I agree completely! Gov. Palin apparently thinks that the work I do is not only unimportant, but laughable. It is insulting, and frankly, enough a reason not to vote for them, even if I didn't have a million others.

[delerium69.livejournal.com]

This is why I try to avoid bigoted politicians when they're running off at the mouth, especially since I've been feeling already fairly nauseated this week on my own.

But, geez, did she really say that? What does she think actually is a good thing?

[asqmh.livejournal.com]

I think I love you.


... unless that's bad.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Love is a good thing. People who say love is bad are bad. Therefore, you're good.

[yardlong.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is that simple and you are exactly right.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes, it IS that simple.

I'm not so sure it is, unless you're willing to accept being considered a bad person by other people who have different ideas of what constitutes a good thing.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I think that would be worth it. My mother thinks torturing prisoners is a good thing. She thinks shotgun marriages are a good thing. She thinks insubordinate whistleblowing is a bad thing. I'm willing to have her consider me a bad person because of my deviant values.

[navrins]

Y'know, I keep starting to think, "Well, but what if..." and realizing that as long as we stay within one context of good/bad definitions it *still* leads to your conclusion, just by a different route.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Not that this is any better, but it sounded to me not as though Governor Palin was saying community organizing is bad, but that it is insignificant. That is, she's being criticized for lack of experience, and in that portion of her speech she was trying to portray Senator Obama as even less experienced than she. Her implication seemed to be that community organization did not require leadership skills, or at least not at the level of being a mayor or governor. Again, IMO this isn't any better than saying that community organizing is bad, it's just different.

Did you hear Fred Thompson's speech? At one point, he asserted that Senator McCain's selection of Governor Palin as his running mate had cast the Obama/Biden campaign into a state of panic. I can think of a variety of adjectives to describe their reaction, but "panic" is not one of them.

Throughout the last week, I've been reminded frequently of a particularly apt quotation from Napoleon Bonaparte: "In politics, absurdity is not a handicap." Quotation nicked from Quotes of the Day.