« , »

Linklog: 2008-10-21

October 21st, 2008 by chris 2 Comments Tags:
  • Share/Bookmark

2 Responses to “Linklog: 2008-10-21”

  1. phaedral Says:
    October 21st, 2008 at 7:02 am

    Bigots might just win this one for McCain yet.

    Meanwhile, I’ve come to realize that in some circles “Liberal” is the new “N**ger”. That’s the key to the success of Bill O’Reilly and Rush and the like, the way they manage to connote so much that is detestable and loathsome with a word that denotes something quite different. You can hear it in the tone when a ditto-head or their spiritual brethren say it, “Liberal”, and when you hear that tone you should know there is no point in attempting anything resembling substantive discourse or even polite debate. The beauty of it is that you can’t even get mad at the name calling, because the poison is in the connotations and the folks who play that game usually can’t even spell connotation much less parse it.

    </rant>

  2. phaedral Says:
    October 21st, 2008 at 7:08 am

    That said, it would be interesting to take the Buchanan transcript and use it as a corpus showing a well practiced set of rhetorical abuses. Key in my mind are when Pat tries to say Powell’s endorsement is all about race, saying something like “It’s crazy to say it has nothing to do with race” juxtaposed with a dismissal of Powell’s comments to the economy and supreme court as “silly”.

    Now, I don’t think anyone could substantively argue with a straight face that matters of the economy or the high bench are either silly or trivial, but Buchanan is attempting to trick folks into accepting a false premise: that anyone ever said Powell’s endorsement had nothing to do with race. The power of negation is key here, and Pat struggles artfully to move from “can’t say not at all” to implying “have to admit it’s nothing but”. Buchanan out of hand dismisses Powell’s other concerns, and in so doing distracts the conversation away from those very important issues, which is to his candidate’s benefit.

    I wish I had the kind of time it would take to do the job. But I’ve procrastinated enough for the day, don’t you think? ;)