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Alabama Voters Don’t Need Insults
This from John Podhoretz is just one of many similar comments out there:
Similarly, if you believe America has rotted away morally, the idea you’d hand enormous political power to a morally rotted person like Roy Moore reveals your own spiritual and moral rot.
What is wrong with simply saying “I disagree with your decision to vote for Roy Moore?”
Alabama voters are between a rock and a hard place. It’s not entirely their fault since Moore’s peccadilloes weren’t known until it was too late to take him off the ballot. The “establishment” offering, Luther Strange, was scandal-tainted himself.
It is true that Moore’s refusal to step down does not speak well of his character either.
But if you vote for Roy Moore, do you become him? If you vote for Doug Jones, do you become an abortion-promoting leftist?
If character should always trump political considerations, what ‘s the right choice if it were Moore versus a scandal-free Nazi?
Alabama voters have a choice between a predator and a progressive. Please, cut them some slack.
Published in General
Elvis dated a 14 year-old Priscilla, and I’ve never heard anyone refer to him as a pervert or pedophile.
There was an election many years ago, between a corrupt politician (can’t remember the name or office) and David Duke.
There were bumper stickers that said, “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”
Pervert.
Words were never “defined” by “thinkers.” They and their meanings evolved naturally and will continue to do so.
Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin. Is that perverted? Or just sick and wrong?
Edwin Edwards. Governor of Louisiana.
Also the man who gave us the immortal phrase, “The only way I could lose is if they caught me in bed with a dead woman or a live boy.”
Maybe so until the advent of dictionaries. Linguistics is a deep study and I am adverse to defining words down in order to conflate lesser crimes with more serious ones.
Pedophile and pervert have their meanings and I’d rather not engage in defining them down like we have “rape and “sexual assault.”
Actually, I stand by my original assessment. In most of history, where literacy was confined to a highly educated set, words were shaped and changed via those that made a living by them – orators, leaders, professionals, writers, philosophers.
In a world of rampant literacy (comparatively) and an open internet to all comers, words are taking on the uninformed connotation of the poorly educated and incurious, albeit literate, members of a loquacious Twitter, micro-blogging culture.
Added note: language, pronunciation, and dialect was ruled by everyone by use, but those don’t affect word meanings.
Moderator Note:
Please play the ball, not the player.The charges against are specious and slanderous beyond the evidence.
A. The one charge of sexual assault has been pretty thoroughly debunked.
B. The other charges are that he dated 17 year olds, which may or may not be true. Gee, if dating a 17 year makes you a pervert that makes Seinfeld and Justice William O Douglas a pervert too! I believe the justice married a seventeen year old!
The real issue here is whether the new Senator from Alabama will take on the GOP Establishment and it’s policy perversions. RINO’s, including John Podhoretz are aghast and frightened that someone would actually dare to represent the people instead of special interests, so they have resorted to slander, and thoroughly beclowned themselves.
The more RINO’s say stupid stuff about Moore, the less credible they become. If you are more concerned about Roy Moore’s ethics and morals that the sleazy state of Washington DC’s corrupt rule, [redacted]. The pain and suffering the Washington elite is inflicting on their fellow Americans is just beyond the pale. No amount of highbrow, condescending rhetoric can change that.
Depends. Was it his first cousin, or was there some remove?
I keed, I keed.
My point is it’s not unnatural (perverted) for a man to be attracted to a post-pubescent girl. Acting out on it can certainly be frowned upon and, as I said, controversial, but it’s not the same as “perverted.” We need to reclaim the language, or coeds will continue to get away with calling any drunken union they regret, “rape,” thereby ruining young men’s lives.
But, let’s not hijack the thread. This is about the wisdom of scorning the people who have decided thwarting the cultural-Marxist agenda of the Left is more important to them than unsubstantiated 40-year-old accusations (suspiciously timed and solicited by noted Dem media manipulators) against the guy most likely to represent their values.
People who insult Moore’s voters seem to believe their votes reflect poorly on their own character (stupid, immoral, coprophagic according to Michael Graham et al). I disagree, and even if it were true, of what benefit (electorally or otherwise) is it to insult them?
Coprophagic. This is a language thread, after all.
Heh. Thanks.
As I implied above, the benefit is in tribal signaling: “I’m not one of those sorts of Republicans.” Nothing more.
I’ll grant an exception for Jonah Goldberg, who has had a running feud with Trump for years, for whom I suspect it’s more personal.
The illiterate still spoke. Words are shaped by everyone who uses the language in any medium, not just those who are able to convert it from one medium to another. A society in which the common speech has no influence on language cannot function, assuming such a situation is even possible.
And in any case aren’t the “deep thinkers” the problem here? Isn’t “Words [being] shaped and changed via those that [make] a living by them,” precisely what you don’t want to happen here?
I voted for him. Edwin Edwards. He is a pig but I helped stop Duke. I draw my bold line at Nazi.
If I recall correctly, no one was cool with it at the time.
He has toned himself down. When was the last time you looked him up on Twitter?
Wrecked his career actually from a financial standpoint.
I had hopes for the Weiner-Holder ticket in 2016. I don’t think Carlos Danger will be out in time for this to happen in 2020.
As to the OP. J Pod can pound sand. Elitist arrogant hypocritical pig.
But Jerry Lee Lewis was called a pedophile, basically. Maybe it was that Lewis wasn’t famous enough for people to give him leeway (heh) on it. And I have a dim memory that one of his enemies made a big deal to publicize it, which wasn’t the case with Elvis.
It reminds me of when Jerry Seinfeld dated Shoshanna Lonstein. Howard Stern did not let up with his criticism of Seinfeld. He even had a song about it.
Look in a dictionary sometime. Our pronunciation of words has changed considerably over time, but definitions have largely remained consistent throughout time. Agriculture doesn’t have it’s meaning by arbitrary usage. It comes from a combination of two words, one meaning farmer that goes back thousands of years. Latin may be dead, but it’s words and meanings have carried forward into new languages. Most of the words we use have similar etymologies.
Shakespeare is considered a great wordsmith. If it was common for commoners to shape the meaning of words, such a claim would be impossible to make. (Wordsmith meaning creating new words)
If words shifted and changed as you claim they do, I would not be able to read books by our founders and understand them without learning a whole new language. Words’ meanings are not as changeable as the left would have us believe.
Deep thinkers aren’t doing the changing now. Media, manipulators, and Twitter and Facebook are doing it.
And if smart and educated people like you and I think words are as malleable as the left would have us believe, then there is no standing against it and enforcing a linguistcal norm via tradition and dictionary.
Because I’m old? I remember when “hillbilly” meant a Michigan dirt farmer.
Indeed, interesting times we live in, when a man who likes young women is called a pervert, but a man who likes to dress like a young woman is hailed as a civil-rights pioneer…
I don’t think so.
Sometimes it is like learning a new language. For example, words like awful and artificial. If you get really literal, you can figure out what they meant back then.
Yes? You have found me out. I don’t want guys like Moore tarnishing my brand.
As a NeverTrumper, I will go on the record to say that I was disappointed that Senator Menendez was not convicted, that I hold no candle for Matt Lauer, that I hope that Harvey Weinstien is convicted, and that I was relieved to be able to vote for Evan McMullin instead of Hillary, and that I never voted for Bill.