Twisting and lying are so common when I turn on a legacy media outlet I feel sick. It even happens regularly on the house and senate floors. Yet, rarely are the liars called out for lying or distorting facts. 😢
Your most excellent post describes exactly the illogical discourse one enters into with a TDS-deranged Democrat.
The worst thing is they think they know logic and rhetoric when it’s abundantly clear that they don’t when they sprinkle straw men fallacies all throughout their rant.
And if by chance, you actually make headway, you don’t get an acknowledgment, the best you’ll get is a moving of the goalposts, and you’ll still lose because in their minds they won because you got tagged with a smear that they think is rightly applied.
This is why I take the Clay (as in “Thomas Sowell Quotes”) approach of ‘Predator, Not Prey’ when I engage, score the killshot and disengage from the (brain)dead. Show and invite them into the trap, see them in, shut the door and sign off.
Enemy Maintenance is a good term - we should all use it. Anytime a person self-defines by what they hate rather than what they believe, they are automatically an enemy. That includes people who ostensibly are "on our side" who don't know anything except "I hate them progressive SOBs". If you are incapable of quoting fact, including facts in your argument, and being respectful of those who disagree with you (assuming their "facts" are correct and not invented"), you are not the enemy. Maybe wrong or naive, but not the enemy.
And not just maintenance of the “projected enemy within” but actual moral and material support of real enemies of the American people without: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic thugs occupying Iran, PRC China, Maduro, North Korea, etc.
"In highly polarized political and cultural environments, many people no longer define themselves primarily by what they believe, but by what they oppose. Their identity becomes dependent upon the existence of an enemy."
More importantly, their identity becomes synonymous with -- and inseparable from -- their political ideology. You can't challenge their ideology or beliefs without attacking their character or personhood, because in their minds "ideology" and "personhood" are the same thing. Anyone who doesn't believe as they do is, by definition, The Enemy.
That also explains why "they" hate "us" so damn much. Because ideology and personhood are inseparable in their minds, and because our ideology is so abhorrent and reprehensible to them, it then follows that our personhoods -- i.e. our very lives -- are abhorrent and reprehensible (dare I say, "deplorable"), too.
Twisting and lying are so common when I turn on a legacy media outlet I feel sick. It even happens regularly on the house and senate floors. Yet, rarely are the liars called out for lying or distorting facts. 😢
You must’ve been “arguing” with my brother, lol.
Your most excellent post describes exactly the illogical discourse one enters into with a TDS-deranged Democrat.
The worst thing is they think they know logic and rhetoric when it’s abundantly clear that they don’t when they sprinkle straw men fallacies all throughout their rant.
And if by chance, you actually make headway, you don’t get an acknowledgment, the best you’ll get is a moving of the goalposts, and you’ll still lose because in their minds they won because you got tagged with a smear that they think is rightly applied.
This is why I take the Clay (as in “Thomas Sowell Quotes”) approach of ‘Predator, Not Prey’ when I engage, score the killshot and disengage from the (brain)dead. Show and invite them into the trap, see them in, shut the door and sign off.
"That’s why I settled on the term “enemy maintenance.”"
From Hoffer, you don't need a god to organize/energize a mass movement, but you do need a devil.
Now look at NATO and the desperate need for Russia to play the part of the extinct Soviet Union.
Enemy Maintenance is a good term - we should all use it. Anytime a person self-defines by what they hate rather than what they believe, they are automatically an enemy. That includes people who ostensibly are "on our side" who don't know anything except "I hate them progressive SOBs". If you are incapable of quoting fact, including facts in your argument, and being respectful of those who disagree with you (assuming their "facts" are correct and not invented"), you are not the enemy. Maybe wrong or naive, but not the enemy.
And not just maintenance of the “projected enemy within” but actual moral and material support of real enemies of the American people without: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic thugs occupying Iran, PRC China, Maduro, North Korea, etc.
"In highly polarized political and cultural environments, many people no longer define themselves primarily by what they believe, but by what they oppose. Their identity becomes dependent upon the existence of an enemy."
More importantly, their identity becomes synonymous with -- and inseparable from -- their political ideology. You can't challenge their ideology or beliefs without attacking their character or personhood, because in their minds "ideology" and "personhood" are the same thing. Anyone who doesn't believe as they do is, by definition, The Enemy.
That also explains why "they" hate "us" so damn much. Because ideology and personhood are inseparable in their minds, and because our ideology is so abhorrent and reprehensible to them, it then follows that our personhoods -- i.e. our very lives -- are abhorrent and reprehensible (dare I say, "deplorable"), too.
I wonder what is lost on productive activities with all that energy dissipated by their rabid hatred.