False equivalency - the last refuge of a scoundrel.

[rivertext]

In decades past patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel. Today it is a false equivalency.

From the New York Times:

A Turning Point in the Discourse, but in Which Direction?


By MATT BAI

Published: January 8, 2011




WASHINGTON — Within minutes of the first reports Saturday that Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, and a score of people with her had been shot in Tucson, pages began disappearing from the Web. One <1> was Sarah Palin’s infamous “cross hairs” map from last year, which showed a series of contested Congressional districts, including Ms. Giffords’s, with gun targets trained on them. Another <2> was from Daily Kos, the liberal blog, where one of the congresswoman’s apparently liberal constituents declared her “dead to me” after Ms. Giffords voted against Nancy Pelosi in House leadership elections last week.

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1 ≠ 2


Palin's putting the gun sights over Gifford's Arizona district and a Daily Kos poster saying a Congresswoman was "dead to me" is a false equivalency.

Employees of right wing think tanks are even now, I assume, searching through the conversations and speeches of Democratic politicians looking for every use of the word "targeted" so that they can start a meme in the media about out of control violent rhetoric "on both sides of the aisle."

Those rightwing politicians who regularly go on television to incite the crazies on the fringe with baseless allegations and violent rhetoric know the media is almost craven enough to establish a false equivalency between Palin's "don't retreat, reload" and Henry David Thoreau's:

“In the long run, men only hit what they aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.”

1 ≠ 2

[Motown_Johnny]

1. Last Refuge? It seems to me that it is the source of many problems

we are now trying to deal with

[lunatica]

2. When in doubt or caught being stupid they always say "Both sides do it"

Always.

[Boojatta]

3. You have a point.

However, listen to Bill Hammack of the Department of Chemical & Biomolecule Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana.

At the beginning of this video, he says "In some sense this everyday watch isn't special at all. I bought it for ten bucks at Target."

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If even experts in science and technology resort to using the word "target", then what hope is there for politicians?

[rivertext]

4. Right on Target - n/t