Dumbness and Libya

[jpgray]

Directed at people for: "So you supported this when Bush did it?"

Directed at people against: "So you wouldn't intervene in (Rwanda/Kosovo/WWII)?"

Reductio ad absurdum is meant to reduce another's argument to its most absurd implications. It isn't about making an absurd argument yourself. If you're going to ignore the manifold differences between Libya and other countries/conflicts, whatever your stance, at least do others the courtesy of assuming they have not ignored such differences in forming their own conclusions. if there's any intelligent discussion of Libya here, it will take into account the uniqueness of the conflict/country rather than collapsing everything into simplistic, patronizing, sloganeering tropes.

(Yes, I know this is the internet.)

[Zoeisright]

1. Ah, I see the dumb are unreccing already.

[leftstreet]

2. Rec for spelling Libya correctly AND using medieval latin n/t

[gmaki]

3. You should look up "Ad hominem"

nt

[jpgray]

4. Fortunately an argument is not a person

Identifying one as dumb fails to qualify as an ad hominem by definition. Some very smart people can make very stupid arguments.

[NightWatcher]

5. so what is the "uniqueness" of this conflict?

We're now killing brown people in four countries throughout the Middle East, and WHY?

Afghanistan? something about some Saudi Arabians with boxcutters....
Iraq? Cause we believed the shit that Bush sold us about mushroom clouds and surginess..
Pakistan? We're not killing anyone, it's those drones...
Libya? cause for the first time in history a dictator has tried to squash rebels...


Or we can look at what these FOUR areas have in common:

Afghanistan? an Oil Pipeline and trillions in gifts for the Military Industrialists selling war and "security"
Iraq? Oil Pipeline and trillions in gifts for the Military Industrialists selling war and "security"
Pakistan? It's just the silly drones
Libya? There's no oil under there and I'm sure no Military Industrialists will profit from....what.....a hundred million dollars worth of Tomahawk Cruise missiles dropped on the country in the first day.


Sorry, but I dont buy the reasons they are selling us this war EITHER

[jpgray]

7. Your opposite numbers would tell me this is redeeming ourselves for Sarajevo and Rwanda

I just wish people would speak of Libya as Libya. In the context of US intervention that you mention, absolutely, but not as a one-to-one match for past failures of action or inaction that are significantly different from the present situation.

[damntexdem]

9. We're killing murderous people who do monstrous things . . .

to brown people fighting for the rights of all Libyan people.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. ...

http://xkcd.com/386

[jpgray]

8. It's a living.

Wait, no it isn't. :dunce:

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. I'm not seeing dumbness so much as ignorance

and the ignorance seems to mostly (although not entirely) be on the side of the anti-interventionists, many of whom seem to think: that this is about oil (it isn't); that this is a unilateral US action (it isn't); that the US was the driving force behind the intervention (it wasn't); that the US is the only country making any significant military commitment (it's not).

[Aerows]

11. Many of us...

...are hoping *fervently* that you are correct, but we are cynical because history has taught us differently.

I suppose we will see sooner or later.