Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Friday, August 14, 2020

Lies Gush Forth Upon the Land



The president is ramping up his lies and using them against his political opposition. The New York Times reports:
"President Trump on Thursday encouraged a racist conspiracy theory that is rampant among some of his followers: that Senator Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee born in California, was not eligible for the vice presidency or presidency because her parents were immigrants. 
That assertion is false. Ms. Harris is eligible to serve. 
Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday, nevertheless pushed forward with the attack, reminiscent of the lie he perpetrated for years that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya."

The transparency of his lie is obvious. It is also discouraging because millions of his followers will come to believe it. The president lamely commented: "I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements. I have no idea if that’s right. I would have thought, I would have assumed, that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president."

This lie appears to be based on an August 12, 2020 article in Newsweek that asserted that children born in the US of immigrant residents are not US citizens. That false idea was asserted by a conservative lawyer who has been arguing that for years. Once again, crackpot lies become mainstream conservative politics and their sacred alt-reality. Trump himself has been arguing the same thing for a while.


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