Something of Historic Proportion is Happening

[Glitchfinder]

As has already been stated, this falls under the purview of several fallacies. First and foremost is a trasfer of authority from one subject to another. This is a very old logical fallacy, and many people fall for it even today. Just mentioning that you are a college professor has no purpose. She could just as easily be a professor of chemistry, computer science, or algebra. Mentioning that you have a number of books in several languages also does not help, unless those books are acclaimed works on or related to the subject at hand. This is like someone trusting a world-renowned veterinarian to fix their plumbing, because they are world-renowned for something.

Next is the fact that no specifics are given. Pam does not go into the details regarding education. One example I could use is that some of my cousins are being taken out of school for home tutoring because their teachers are teaching them completely falsified history, obviously fake science, and math that I could do in kindergarten.

Finally, the whole paper is written like someone with little knowledge in the way of real argument. There are no citations, no evidence, and many, many assumptions. And when you assume, you make an ass of you and me. This author has no clear-cut, down to earth, substantial writing within this essay, and it shows.

 

[rey meustrus]

I didn't catch *most* of those fallacies, mainly because one doesn't catch an over generalization that well when one agrees with it, if even partially (or maybe I'm just not terribly alert). The only problem is that what I was agreeing with is that we've been on the wrong track, and that's not something you can attribute to Obama, especially not if much of the basis for the argument against him, and indeed, much of the Hitler reference, comes from him being new to politics and relatively unknown. He can't both be an unknown, and behind a conspiracy to wreck our nation to the point of total collapse in order to re-align power. Honestly, the people that would try that sort of thing--evil, 80's-TV style corporate nemeses--already have more power than they deserve, or even need to do everything they want.

I am of the opinion that every single politician came into the business hoping to help people. They wanted to help their communities, maybe even something larger. It's possible for politicians to get swallowed up by politics, but I firmly believe every one of them would, given the chance, do only what they thought would lead us in the right direction. Corruption aside, the main reason we have trouble at all is a combination of a lack of education (you can't expect all politicians to be learned economists, for example, or to understand what goes into public education and what makes it work) and sever power struggles. The two-party system has developed into a means by which all politicians must agree to things they don't agree to in order to get votes for their big project. Politics is about weighing evils: do we pass the healthcare bill, or the education bill?

But why is there opposition at all? Shouldn't we all love the idea of education? The opposition isn't really opposed to the idea of education itself, they are opposed to the way that somebody else wants to fix it. Think about it. Even here, in the Symposium, we have had lots of debates about how much sex people should hear about, and when. Now take your position, which you are convinced is best for everybody, and try to codify it into education. Everybody that debated against you is now in a coalition against you, and your friends all have more important things that they want you to help them with before they'll vote for what you want. And ultimately, when the bill passes, is it what's actually better? Whether it is or not, millions of people will believe it's otherwise.

Here I am, I've gone off on politics.

My point is, it's hard to do the right thing, and often it's hard to even tell what that is. Government is not in possession of the kind of power to really screw things up. Why are we in trouble now, one might ask? It is my opinion that things got screwed up because government gave away that power, and it got given to those that didn't really care that it did. Even in this case, there's nobody that stood to gain from total economic collapse; the bankers, etc. that screwed it up were really just being short-sighted, or even blind at some levels, riding high on the market and not noticing that policy encouraged low-level bankers to make deals that would inevitably go sour. That's what corporations do, they focus on their bottom line at the end of the quarter.

I would be far more willing to compare the former administration to the Nazi regime, since the Patriot Act borders on fascist (hell, screw it, the Patriot Act IS fascist), but it's still not the same. Even they thought they were doing the right thing, just maybe not for the people they weren't trying to fix things for. But now, a new guy comes in, and immediately he gets blamed for all of our problems. Problems he didn't cause, and that he's trying to fix. He's been here three months and it feels like he's gotten more flack in this short time than the previous administration got for an entire eight years, especially including Ms. Geller's essay. God, how I wish there were more Hitler comparisons for everybody, and not just the Democrats.

 

[QuantumMindGames]

doesn't every president do this though? obama uses the word Change to sum up his campaign, but doesn't every president wanting to take office spout some bullcrap like this as well? Maybe Bush was our Hilter? Oh wait, he was too stupid to do that - yet he's done more in his lifetime than any of us have. (bush was genius, btw - he got elected TWICE, and now has a nice chunk of cash to sit on for retirement.)


Obama is not Hilter, personally i think we ARE into the 3rd world war (how many countries are supporting our "war on terror" exactly? how many have helped us with troops, supplies, and whatnot over the course of the war? think about it.), and while the flow of history may repeat itself, it's never the same.

Anyways, enough political babble. My honest feelings about this letter: Bullspit. Some of the most retarded things in existence can think of some good points to bring in the idiots to their cause.

So yeah, I say doomsayer.


PS. Ms. gellar's comparison to hilter (for the above post) - She's trying to instill fear into those who don't believe in what she says.