RNC appalled the NY Times would quote RNC censure resolution
https://share.smartnews.com/7CQVi
Still calling the 1/6 participants "legitimate political discourse"
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If attacking the police was “legitimate political discourse”, I hope we never reach the point of “heated argument” or beyond. Although I think many are trying to relabel this as “Antifa in disguise”. What happened at the capitol was some legitimate protest mixed in with some inexcusable acts of violence.
I think that in light of the uptick in politics posts, I’d like to share my general thought on all opinion pieces (and news in general):
if you decide to pick “a side” in an argument, it’s always easy to come up with supporting arguments for “your side” and criticism for “the other side”. But I think it’s an important personal decision to be able to provide at least two other things:
1. A list of things that “your side” gets wrong
2. A list of things that “their side” gets right
Obviously, there are rare exceptions (like if one side commits genocide..), but those exceptions are exceedingly rare, and It’s my personal experience that people who consistently “take a side” but are unable to provide both of the things listed above (criticisms of your side and benefits of the other side) are people I don’t bother listening to. They show that they haven’t spent enough time critically thinking about their opinions to bring an honest perspective to the discussion. In fact, I’d argue that when they participate in discourse, it isn’t a discussion at all - it’s just a lecture on “Why I’m Right”.
This isn’t a criticism of you or your post, [@mention:589599268366343161] - just a perspective that I feel is relevant to any contentious topics of discussion (and the Jan 6th insurrection is certainly contentious, with many insisting that there’s really nothing of note to discuss as it was just a peaceful gathering of sorts…).
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First, legitimate protest was the rally with speakers. No problem.
Insurrection with a side of riot was storming the steps of Congress, assaulting police outside and in, breaking windows, crapping on the floor, stealing stuff, , screaming about hanging Pence (and building a gallows out front), looking for politicians to kill while saying you want to kill them, and making every effort to stop the counting of Electoral College votes in what has always been a ceremonial event to show the world America can have a peaceful transfer of power.
To MM's points, I'd just like to say that we all get to have our own opinions but we don't get to have our own facts. Ever since Kellyanne Conway made the bizarre and untrue comment that there are alternative facts, we've seen people arguing about opinions and claiming that they are facts.
Facts are provable. Period. I teach my students about the difference between fact and belief when we are in our World Religion section in World History. I ask which will land on the floor first when I drop them from the same height, a heavy textbook or a pencil. Then I do the drop. And repeat. By the second drop, it's clear that gravity pulls all items at the same rate no matter the mass (32ft per second per second). Fact. But religion is a belief. It can't be proven. No matter how much you WANT to prove it, you can't. You can make up fake facts, but that's about it.
When we moved from fact to belief in our current society, whether it be re Covid or voting or did man really land on the Moon, we are now going down a slippery slope. I'm all for political discourse, we can argue over policy, but when we refuse to recognize facts we are in trouble.
Covid is not the flu. Covid shots work. Trump lost the election. There was (as always in the past 50 years) minimum voter fraud (it's down in the <.01% range). The insurrection was not a peaceful protest. And Obama had more people at his first inauguration than did Trump.
We are in trouble.
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[@mention:661243556573300231] posted:
First, legitimate protest was the rally with speakers. No problem.
Insurrection with a side of riot was storming the steps of Congress, assaulting police outside and in, breaking windows, crapping on the floor, stealing stuff, , screaming about hanging Pence (and building a gallows out front), looking for politicians to kill while saying you want to kill them, and making every effort to stop the counting of Electoral College votes in what has always been a ceremonial event to show the world America can have a peaceful transfer of power.
To MM's points, I'd just like to say that we all get to have our own opinions but we don't get to have our own facts. Ever since Kellyanne Conway made the bizarre and untrue comment that there are alternative facts, we've seen people arguing about opinions and claiming that they are facts.
Facts are provable. Period. I teach my students about the difference between fact and belief when we are in our World Religion section in World History. I ask which will land on the floor first when I drop them from the same height, a heavy textbook or a pencil. Then I do the drop. And repeat. By the second drop, it's clear that gravity pulls all items at the same rate no matter the mass (32ft per second per second). Fact. But religion is a belief. It can't be proven. No matter how much you WANT to prove it, you can't. You can make up fake facts, but that's about it.
When we moved from fact to belief in our current society, whether it be re Covid or voting or did man really land on the Moon, we are now going down a slippery slope. I'm all for political discourse, we can argue over policy, but when we refuse to recognize facts we are in trouble.
Covid is not the flu. Covid shots work. Trump lost the election. There was (as always in the past 50 years) minimum voter fraud (it's down in the <.01% range). The insurrection was not a peaceful protest. And Obama had more people at his first inauguration than did Trump.
We are in trouble.
Very well said! I will however have to disagree on one point. Sometimes alternative Facts are acceptable, see below
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All good knives, but which is best is opinion. Otherwise there would be no need for this site.
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