tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post69244995012182129..comments2024-03-28T09:38:52.661-04:00Comments on thwap's schoolyard: Vapid, Useless Air-heads and Death Squadsthwaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-73438979413792382402008-04-15T12:46:00.000-04:002008-04-15T12:46:00.000-04:00"Let me put it to you another way. I might very we..."<I>Let me put it to you another way. I might very well be an airhead. But what are your claims to superior intelligence based on?</I>"<BR/><BR/>Superior analysis. The ability to mount a coherent argument and counter-argument.<BR/><BR/>"<I>You'll write over 5,000 words about and in response to people that you deem to be your intellectual inferiors.</I>"<BR/><BR/>1. Well, I type really fast. <BR/><BR/>2. I write <I>about</I> people who I think are stupid and wrong because they're so goddamned prevalent. Because the damage they do in their blinkered state of deluded ignorance is vast. Because the results of being so enormously wrong are things like the invasion of Iraq, the starvation in Haiti, the polluting of the earth, the perpetuation of death squads, and on and on.<BR/><BR/>And I'm writing <I>in response</I> to you, and others who I don't respect, because a) I have a comments/discussion section to my blog, b) I might actually change somebody's mind, and c) There are others who might be reading this exchange and who might find it interesting. <BR/><BR/>"<I>Yeah, sure I was playing bait the pinky brain when I commented on that earlier post.</I>"<BR/><BR/>Okay. There it is. But goddamn it, I hope you'll at least admit to yourself that you don't have a fucking clue about what you're talking about.<BR/><BR/>And I hope you can at least try to see things from my perspective; that this is a terrible thing that I'm discussing, and that vapid "tease the leftist" snark is really just a dopey way for you and the millions of people like you to remain in ignorance or denial, which means that these atrocities and these sufferings are only going to continue.<BR/><BR/>So yeah, I get a little pissed-off with such a flippant response.<BR/><BR/>"<I>Judging from your response, you've fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. I might be an airhead, Thwap, but if I am, than you are definitely a chump for taking the bait.</I>"<BR/><BR/>You aren't important. Your opinions (ignorance really) on this topic aren't all that remarkable. What's important is the subject itself and the fact that ignorance such as yours is so common. That's why a case-study such as yourself is worth debating with. To engage with a manifestation of this ignorance and test its limitations.<BR/><BR/>And if you're feeling "hurt" or angry, or whatever from my tone, I can assure you that it would probably hurt more to be tortured. To be hacked to death with a machete. To watch as a female family member or friend of yours is raped and murdered before your eyes.<BR/><BR/>Which, at the end of the day, is what it means when our governments take some of our tax-dollars and direct them towards military training and equipment to the dictatorial puppet-governments that they support.<BR/><BR/>Let's remember; some people thought that the US was going to go into Iraq, find the WMDs and bring democracy and Western values to that country.<BR/><BR/>People like me thought that was moronic at the time, and we've been proven right in spades.<BR/><BR/>Some people thought that we'd go into Afghanistan, bring Osama bin Laden to justice, smash the Taliban-terrorist network and bring peace and democracy to Afghanistan.<BR/><BR/>People like me thought that wasn't going to happen. Here it is, over 5 years later, and we're still there, killing more people than our enemies, propping-up an increasingly unpopular government.<BR/><BR/>Some people believed (when they thought about it at all) that Canada, the USA, and France were ridding Haiti of an incompetent, corrupt, dictator, and that we'd bring democracy and development to that poor country.<BR/><BR/>People like me thought that was all a crock of shit, and now, 5 years later, the UN, Haitian security forces and paramilitaries are killing at will, and crushing the political movement that represents the majority of the people, and the people themselves have been reduced in too many instances, to actually eating dirt.<BR/><BR/>I don't think that I'm really all that smart. It's just that the ideas that I oppose are so evidentially stupid and ignorant.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-3632797438498157592008-04-15T12:23:00.000-04:002008-04-15T12:23:00.000-04:00"If Colombia is where the story is now, why were y..."<I>If Colombia is where the story is now, why were you using El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Reagan and Carter administrations as your most current examples?</I>"<BR/><BR/>I already explained it to you. Those national truth commission reports are to be considered the last words in what happened in those countries during the height of the violence and the height of death-squad activities. <BR/><BR/>They are what the political systems of El Salvador and Guatemala themselves regard as the official word about those events.<BR/><BR/>As such, they are excellent sources for pointing to what the death-squads did. Which is important, as I'll explain ...<BR/><BR/>"<I>I don't really care what Chomsky pointed out back in the 1970 and 1980s, I'm more interested in what he is talking about now.</I>"<BR/><BR/>Well, what he was saying in the 1970s and 1980s still holds true today for the issue that I'm talking about. Chomsky wasn't writing about some historical particularisms in individual countries at a particular moment in time.<BR/><BR/>Chomsky was describing current events at the time and demonstrating how they're systemic problems related to capitalism and imperialism.<BR/><BR/>And if you're really interested in what Chomsky is saying now (I doubt it), let me help you ...<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.chomsky.info/articles/200412--.htm" REL="nofollow">Colombia</A><BR/><BR/>"<I>The worldwide total of murdered union leaders for 2003 was reported to be 123, three-quarters of them in Colombia. The proportions have been consistent for some time. Not only has Colombia been the most dangerous place for labor leaders anywhere in the world (insofar as statistics are available), but it has been more dangerous than the rest of the world combined. <BR/><BR/>...<BR/><BR/>It remains to be seen whether the September 2004 concession of the army murders leads to any action. If the past is a guide, nothing will happen beyond the lowest levels, though the evidence for higher military and civilian responsibility is substantial. There have been a few occasions when major massacres were seriously investigated. The most significant of these was the Trujillo massacre in 1990, when more than 60 people were murdered in a particularly brutal army operation, their bodies cut to pieces with chain saws.<BR/><BR/>...<BR/><BR/>There is nothing particularly novel about the relation between atrocious human rights violations and US aid. On the contrary, it is a rather consistent correlation. The leading US academic specialist on human rights in Latin America, Lars Schoultz, found in a 1981 study that US aid 'has tended to flow disproportionately to Latin American governments which torture their citizens,... to the hemisphere's relatively egregious violators of fundamental human rights.'"</I>thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-46984373682325277142008-04-15T11:12:00.000-04:002008-04-15T11:12:00.000-04:00Let me put it to you another way. I might very wel...Let me put it to you another way. I might very well be an airhead. But what are your claims to superior intelligence based on? You'll write over 5,000 words about and in response to people that you deem to be your intellectual inferiors. <BR/><BR/>Yeah, sure I was playing bait the pinky brain when I commented on that earlier post. Judging from your response, you've fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. I might be an airhead, Thwap, but if I am, than you are definitely a chump for taking the bait.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05500183382693034426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-42057308891719993922008-04-15T10:34:00.000-04:002008-04-15T10:34:00.000-04:00If Colombia is where the story is now, why were yo...If Colombia is where the story is now, why were you using El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Reagan and Carter administrations as your most current examples? I don't really care what Chomsky pointed out back in the 1970 and 1980s, I'm more interested in what he is talking about now.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05500183382693034426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-28308968351175714552008-04-15T10:10:00.000-04:002008-04-15T10:10:00.000-04:00El Salvador and Guatemala are just particularly ex...El Salvador and Guatemala are just particularly extreme examples. And I was using the reports of national truth commissions from those countries as the best sources that I could find of these examples.<BR/><BR/>Those truth commissions are the accepted version of the violence in Central America, so I thought they'd be good.<BR/><BR/>But, as usual, you're wrong about an important area. I've also included Colombia, where death squads are particularly active, right now, and not coincidentally, where the bulk of US financial and military support is going at the moment.<BR/><BR/>That's a pattern that Chomsky pointed out back in the 1970s and 1980s, that wherever US "aid" is targeted most, tends to be where you'll find the most extensive human rights violations.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-48508017998950373762008-04-15T08:38:00.000-04:002008-04-15T08:38:00.000-04:00While I'm sure death squads are still operating al...While I'm sure death squads are still operating all over the world, if you are that concerned with human rights, why are you focusing on atrocities that happened almost thirty years ago? If it bleeds, it leads - couldn't you have found something a little more topical to draw attention to the issue? Reading Chomsky is commendable, but it looks like you are more interested in settling old scores and using "compassion" as window dressing for your petty vitriol.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05500183382693034426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-50611854681722266302008-04-14T18:46:00.000-04:002008-04-14T18:46:00.000-04:00Hunh.Well then. I'm happy to explain. To repeat,...Hunh.<BR/><BR/>Well then. I'm happy to explain. To repeat, I stated:<BR/><BR/>"<I>Every instance where the capitalist system uses its wealth and power to keep commodity prices low, via death squads and corrupt governments and invasions of oil-producing nations, ... all this has to be factored into the "success story" that is globalization.</I>"<BR/><BR/>And you replied:<BR/><BR/>"<I>Speaking as one member of the oppressed Canadian Proletariat to another, those death squads in the motherland (I live abroad now) are quite ruthless, eh?</I>"<BR/><BR/>Which I interpret (correct me if I'm wrong) as a snarky attempt to deflate the pompous, over-the-top, loony leftist.<BR/><BR/>Now, it's possible that you might have genuinely interpreted me as having said that there were death squads in Canada. But when I asked you where you thought I said that, I got no reply. You did tell me though that you'd managed to reconnect with an old contact via my blog, ... as if I was supposed to care, ... but you didn't explain where you got the impression that I was describing the work of Canadian death squads.<BR/><BR/>So, once again, I'm left to assume that you were just merrily teasing the silly leftist again.<BR/><BR/>And, yes, that certainly did strike a nerve. <BR/><BR/>As I've tried to explain, death squads are horrible. They do horrible things. And I've stated repeatedly that I think that death squads are integral to the functioning of our entire economic system. Which is to say that I think they're a systemic problem, not an aberration. I believe that death squads are fostered, trained, armed, and protected by the very same people that mainstream society refer to as democratic politicians.<BR/><BR/>Now, you might deign to sweep together a few facts and arguments and try to explain to me why I'm wrong about that. You could try to prove to me that death squads are just aberrations arising out of the local conditions of backward, under-developed countries with no traditions of democratic government or respect for human rights.<BR/><BR/>But you didn't do that. Leaving me no recourse but to go on assuming that I'm right about death squads.<BR/><BR/>Which is to say that I believe that Western governments (mainly the US government) assist in the creation of groups of armed psychopaths who execute children and mutilate their remains. Who rape and dismember and kill women. Who torture, humiliate and murder men.<BR/><BR/>They do this so that there are no protests against Western mining corporations. Western agricultural corporations. Western textile assembly factories. So that there is no autonomous economic development outside of the control of the corporations and the "developed" ["imperialist" in left-speak] countries.<BR/><BR/>So, yes, it strikes a nerve with me to have such a serious topic airily dismissed with an incoherent, unfunny one-liner.<BR/><BR/>Because your attempts at humour notwithstanding, these horrors are going to continue.<BR/><BR/>And, no, I had no idea whether you really bitch about taxes or watch sports or anything like that. I was just trying to imagine the pursuits of someone who felt compelled to respond so flippantly to an (at least earnest) offering on such a serious subject. <BR/><BR/>I mean, you could dispute what I say. You could try to show me that I'm wrong. (You'd fail of course.) But to simply make a stupid joke?<BR/><BR/>I'm not always so serious and humourless. I'm actually pretty committed to chemical indulgences and overall dissipation. But there's some things that I don't find funny at all. The subject of death squads is one of those things.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/el_salvador/tc_es_03151993_toc.html" REL="nofollow">El Salvador Truth Commission</A><BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/report/english/toc.html" REL="nofollow">Guatemala</A><BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-0408coltradereact,0,5614614.story" REL="nofollow">Colombia</A>thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-63133736807239927942008-04-14T15:03:00.000-04:002008-04-14T15:03:00.000-04:00Well, I'm more interested in why you bother to res...Well, I'm more interested in why you bother to respond to a comment that was twenty-five words long with a post that was about 631 words long. I might very well be an airhead, but I really struck a nerve.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05500183382693034426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-30224608609730293292008-04-14T14:41:00.000-04:002008-04-14T14:41:00.000-04:00Well, I defy you to point out where I mentioned de...Well, I defy you to point out where I mentioned death squads operating in Canada.<BR/><BR/>And I wonder if you could address the point of this post, that your inane dismissal of the significance of death squads only allows a sick system to continue to destroy people's lives.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2022452485619502579.post-70406829513588745522008-04-14T11:15:00.000-04:002008-04-14T11:15:00.000-04:00I defy you to find a single post on my blog where ...I defy you to find a single post on my blog where I complain about taxes <B>or</B> explicitly endorse any political party.<BR/><BR/>I think in the end you wrote close to 5,000 words total on Mark Steyn, which I found strange, given the number of times you said that you didn't really have any time to waste on all the "fanboys" commenting on your blog. For someone without a lot of time, you managed to write the equivalent of a feature article in <I>The New Yorker</I>.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05500183382693034426noreply@blogger.com