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Gunnar wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:51 am

If Republican officials and candidates turn on Trump and acknowledge his incompetence and/or criminality, they, in effect, have to either admit to having been fools and cowards for having supported him for so long, and/or have to admit to the appearance of having been accessories after the fact to his crimes. It is understandable they would be reluctant to do this.

Thin Blue Line

Thin Blue Line published on August 16, 2022

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Defund the secret police.

Gunnar wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:51 am

It sometimes seems to me that the more egregious or more clearly criminal the things Trump is caught in, the more strongly his Republican base rallies around him and the more they try to find excuses or rationales for what he has done. As things look worse and worse for trump, the more his supporters look like either craven cowards or accessories after the fact to Trump's crimes for continuing to support him. This is part of the problem, I think. If Republican officials and candidates turn on Trump and acknowledge his incompetence and/or criminality, they, in effect, have to either admit to having been fools and cowards for having supported him for so long, and/or have to admit to the appearance of having been accessories after the fact to his crimes. It is understandable they would be reluctant to do this.

Binger wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:33 pm

Gunnar wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:51 am

It sometimes seems to me that the more egregious or more clearly criminal the things Trump is caught in, the more strongly his Republican base rallies around him and the more they try to find excuses or rationales for what he has done. As things look worse and worse for trump, the more his supporters look like either craven cowards or accessories after the fact to Trump's crimes for continuing to support him. This is part of the problem, I think. If Republican officials and candidates turn on Trump and acknowledge his incompetence and/or criminality, they, in effect, have to either admit to having been fools and cowards for having supported him for so long, and/or have to admit to the appearance of having been accessories after the fact to his crimes. It is understandable they would be reluctant to do this.

This is a form of apologetics. The art form.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 9:59 pm

Binger wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:33 pm

This is a form of apologetics. The art form.

And the art form is just marketing or propaganda. The propaganda machine works by taking popular ex-Mormon and atheist issues (Evangelical issues twenty years ago), and turning them on their head. The goal isn't even to win the argument. The goal is to make debate impossible. They seek to destabilize perception itself using post-modernism and argumentum ad absurdum. People engaging Mormons should understand that chatting in good faith with an apologist is impossible..

What the Mormon church encourages its apologists to do is a form of mind control. Virtually everything they aver is the opposite of reality. Because if you start there, it's impossible to even argue an alternative. It's meant to confuse the discussant and reader alike, and make it impossible for people to even form a consistent argument for or against the apologetic. Basically weaponised postmodernism. The man behind this is movement was probably Joseph F. Smith since he took hard doctrinal positions, in the face of prevailing science, and from this sprung Packer, Nibley, Midgley, and the like. Once the Mopologists were institutionalized, their goal wasn’t to convert or even grow faith, but to get people so lost in the weeds talking about some upside down look at the gospel that nobody even knows what side of the story they're on. That's the goal.

- Doc

Binger wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:38 pm

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 9:59 pm

And the art form is just marketing or propaganda. The propaganda machine works by taking popular ex-Mormon and atheist issues (Evangelical issues twenty years ago), and turning them on their head. The goal isn't even to win the argument. The goal is to make debate impossible. They seek to destabilize perception itself using post-modernism and argumentum ad absurdum. People engaging Mormons should understand that chatting in good faith with an apologist is impossible..

What the Mormon church encourages its apologists to do is a form of mind control. Virtually everything they aver is the opposite of reality. Because if you start there, it's impossible to even argue an alternative. It's meant to confuse the discussant and reader alike, and make it impossible for people to even form a consistent argument for or against the apologetic. Basically weaponised postmodernism. The man behind this is movement was probably Joseph F. Smith since he took hard doctrinal positions, in the face of prevailing science, and from this sprung Packer, Nibley, Midgley, and the like. Once the Mopologists were institutionalized, their goal wasn’t to convert or even grow faith, but to get people so lost in the weeds talking about some upside down look at the gospel that nobody even knows what side of the story they're on. That's the goal.

- Doc

Yes. Gunnar does that. Exactly. And you do it, exactly.

Irony nor irony.

This fallacy is sometimes used as a form of rhetoric by politicians, or during a debate as a filibuster. In its extreme form, it can also be a form of brainwashing. Modern politics contains many examples of proofs by assertion. This practice can be observed in the use of political slogans, and the distribution of "talking points", which are collections of short phrases that are issued to members of modern political parties for recitation, and in order to achieve maximum message repetition. The technique is also sometimes used in advertising.

MeDotOrg wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 5:37 am

How will the country hold up during this process?

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:24 am

Binger wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:38 pm

Yes. Gunnar does that. Exactly. And you do it, exactly.

Irony nor irony.

Proof by Assertion

This fallacy is sometimes used as a form of rhetoric by politicians, or during a debate as a filibuster. In its extreme form, it can also be a form of brainwashing. Modern politics contains many examples of proofs by assertion. This practice can be observed in the use of political slogans, and the distribution of "talking points", which are collections of short phrases that are issued to members of modern political parties for recitation, and in order to achieve maximum message repetition. The technique is also sometimes used in advertising.

- Doc

canpakes wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:32 am

MeDotOrg wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 5:37 am

How will the country hold up during this process?

We’ll see a sizeable number of folks uncritically and ironically defending a man who has cheated thousands of fellow Americans out of sizeable amounts of cash in the midst of sourcing his own investments, merchandise and wives from foreign countries … and they’ll defend him because they actually believe that Trump exemplifies ‘America First’.

At least, that’ll be the reason given in polite company.

Binger wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:38 pm

Yes. Gunnar does that. Exactly. And you do it, exactly.

Irony nor irony.