Comments on: How Stupid Do They Think We Are?

By: Walt C

Walt C — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:58:59 +0000

Business partners routinely open up joint financial accounts all the time, therefore I shouldn’t have sued my old friend (now ex) and business partner for identity theft when he ran up charges on my personal credit cards,

By: brooksfoe

brooksfoe — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:25:27 +0000

Slitting someone’s throat with a knife is not assault. Doctors routinely slit open patients’ throats with knives during tracheotomies to save their lives.

Sam: let me put this into a syllogism for you.

1. Doctors do not routinely assault people.
2. Doctors routinely slit open people’s throats with knives.
3. Therefore, slitting open people’s throats with knives is not assault.

Why is this syllogism absurd?

The key issues here would be the intent of the throat-slitter, and the consent of the throat-slittee. Is that clear?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:09:10 +0000

Oh, and also thank you to the many commenters who are in agreement with Mr. Schwenkler’s statements.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:07:58 +0000

As a leftie, tree-hugging, democratic socialist, it’s ever so nice to see that not all of my ideological opponents are knuckle-dragging thugs like Gingrich, etc. I’m very glad that no matter what other things we may disagree on, there are some conservatives out there who understand that torture is torture.

Thank you, Mr. Schwenkler. You’ve restored some of my faith in humanity today.

By: Mandy Cat

Mandy Cat — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:49:09 +0000

While living in the Atlanta area, I was represented in Congress by Mr. Gingrich, at least to the extent that Mr. Gingrich has ever represented anything other than his own gigantic ego and his bloated sense of self-importance. It is useless to attempt to parse anything the man says. Every idea that pops into his head, at the rate of approximately one million notions per minute, he perceives as a heaven-sent truth which he is duty bound to reveal to the ignorant masses.

When these revelations are directly contradicted a minute later it’s merely evidence of his originality and intellectual versatility, if he even remembers what those old ideas were.

There’s a reason why Mr. Gingrich and his supporters were known locally as “Newtie and the Blowhards.”

By: Mr Peepers

Mr Peepers — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:57:54 +0000

I routinely pull out my child’s fingernails to toughen him up for when he goes to school. He is my child and these acts are not torture because I, as an authority figure, said it so.

By: Deep Stupid « Hungry Hungry Hippos

Deep Stupid « Hungry Hungry Hippos — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:45:35 +0000

[...] John Schwenkler at American Conservative, in a post reminiscent of a previous Deep Stupid, dismantles most conservatives’ favorite argument — most recently voiced by Newt Gingrich — that waterboarding cannot be torture because military trainers do it to our own soldiers. [...]

By: Nate

Nate — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:02:54 +0000

Sam, Newt isn’t providing a logical argument at all. We do torture SERE participants, which is the whole point. It wouldn’t be torture practice without, well, torture.

By: John Schwenkler

John Schwenkler — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:39:27 +0000

Of course, I’m not “smart” like all of you are.

No, apparently you’re not. By your own, er, logic, Sam:

1. American drivers would not /do not routinely violate speed limits.

2. American drivers routinely drive over 75 mph.

3. Therefore, driving over 75 mph does not violate speed limits.

Obviously the key point, which shouldn’t need to be spelled out, is that the context in which something is done (e.g. whether it’s done as part of a training exercise or as a means to terrify a prisoner and thus extract information), the position of the person it is done to (e.g. whether he’s willingly subjected himself to it, etc.), and so on, all affect the moral status of the act in question.

Stupid, indeed.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:31:42 +0000

Well, I don’t know how stupid Newt Gingrinch thinks you are, but judging from these responses, you’re pretty stupid.

To put his argument into a syllogism:

1. The US military would not /does not routinely subject its own personnel to torture. (Not explicitly stated, but clearly implied)

2. The US military routinely waterboards (some of) its personnel. (It also routinely deprives them of sleep, yells at them, insults them, gives them unattractive haircuts,deprives them of food, etc.)

3. Therefore, waterboarding (and these other activities) is not torture.

I’m sure you all disagree with the premises involved, but the argument itself is perfectly logical, unlike the ridiculous strawmen you all threw up.

Of course, I’m not “smart” like all of you are.