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    Citizens as Prisoners

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    • J
      Jack Waugh last edited by Jack Waugh

      In the non-watercooler portion of the present forum, I mentioned an analogy between the Prisoner's Dilemma and the problem facing voters in the US. But it's not just an analogy; voters in the US are prisoners. And I am not the only one to see that. I find Ginsberg even harder to read than probably any of us find Smith, but some of his words were imported into the play Hair, which I think applies the prisoner idea as a description of the plight of the general public in the US.

      Now these works do use a compound of the N-word. I suppose I had better address that, lest I be perceived as racist for citing works that do that. The N-word is unacceptable for calling someone by it. I think what makes it unacceptable is its meaning. And what I think it means is it doesn't really say anything about the person it is directed at that has to do with them intrinsically or by their choice, but rather, the meaning applies to the person who directs the insult. It says that person is a racial supremacist, a pernicious and false position to take (the racist may be truly describing himself, but supremacy is not true). So what the word is about is engineered oppression. The song from Hair and the Ginsberg poem whence it takes ideas use the N-word in a compound with "-town". What kind of town do they mean? I say it is a town where everyone is oppressed, and that's what the expression means.

      Approval-ordered Llull (letter grades) [10], Score // Llull [9], Score, STAR, Approval, other rated Condorcet [8]; equal-ranked Condorcet [4]; strictly-ranked Condorcet [3]; everything else [0].

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      • rob
        rob Banned @Jack Waugh last edited by rob

        @jack-waugh Yeah, and the government has a monopoly on violence, taxation is theft, owning pets is slavery, meat is murder, and looking at attractive people below their necks is rape. 🙂

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        • J
          Jack Waugh @rob last edited by Jack Waugh

          Five straw men in one post; that's probably a record.

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          Approval-ordered Llull (letter grades) [10], Score // Llull [9], Score, STAR, Approval, other rated Condorcet [8]; equal-ranked Condorcet [4]; strictly-ranked Condorcet [3]; everything else [0].

          rob 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • rob
            rob Banned @Jack Waugh last edited by rob

            @jack-waugh That's not what a straw man is. It is misrepresenting someone's position and arguing against that misrepresentation.

            If you still don't know, what I did was suggest that your hyperbole strikes me as similar to the listed ones, that come from others who are nuance-challenged.

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