WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2023
Gloomily, Bret Stephens speaks: We keep hearing from Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, brother of immortal Hector and the "strange man" Paris.
Cassandra was a daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her elder brother was Hector, the hero of the Greek-Trojan war. ...[S]he was admired by the god Apollo, who sought to win her love by means of the gift of seeing the future. According to Aeschylus, she promised him her favours, but after receiving the gift, she went back on her word. As the enraged Apollo could not revoke a divine power, he added to it the curse that nobody would believe her prophecies...
Gloomily, Cassandra is now prophesying that Candidate Biden won't be able to win next year. Or at least, we think we're speaking about Cassandra. We're working from these accounts:
Cassandra was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "shortish, round-faced, white, mannish figure, good nose, good eyes, dark pupils, blondish, curly, good neck, bulky breasts, small feet, calm, noble, priestly, an accurate prophet foreseeing everything, practicing hard, virgin." Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian, she was illustrated as ". . .of moderate stature, round-mouthed, and auburn-haired. Her eyes flashed. She knew the future."
Whatever.
Bret Stephens has apparently been hearing from Cassandra too. In this morning's New York Times, he tries to explain, to our blue tribe, why Biden is polling so poorly:
Why So Many Americans Are So Down on Biden
That's the headline on the column. He mentions some things that get discussed on Fox but get disappeared on our own tribe's channels. Also, he mentioned this:
STEPHENS (9/6/23): Easy to see is that the president is not young for his age. The stiff gait and the occasional falls. The apparent dozing off. The times he draws a blank or struggles to complete a thought. Yet the same people yelling #ResignFeinstein or #ResignMcConnell don’t appear to be especially vocal when it comes to the president’s fitness, as if noting the obvious risks repeating a Republican talking point.
Oof. On the other hand, we can't quite call that inaccurate.
This very morning, on Morning Joe, the pundits conducted a long discussion of this and several related matters. A few pundits tried to connect to basic reality. Others seemed to be whistling along in the dark.
Trump is just three years younger, they cry. That said, Trump spills over with crazy energy. That just doesn't seem to be true when it comes to the older guy.
Especially with respect to tribal loathing, the Morning Joe chat was well worth discussing. The lack of transcripts makes that hard, but we may give it a shot.
We'll always have Paris, Cassandra would say. And then, out of nowhere, they didn't!
Somerby condescends to explain who Cassandra was (in literature, not real life). I have it on good authority that she held no opinions about American politics, despite her ability to foretell the future.
ReplyDeleteIt continues to bother me when Somerby appropriates a figure that may how pleasant associations for readers and assigns it his own meanings, which it cannot have. Homer was not a Trump supporter and neither was Cassandra.
Does Somerby not understand that Bret Stephens is a Republican? Of course he is explaining to us why our candidate will lose. That's what an opposing party does during an election.
"Cassandra was described by the chronicler Malalas in his account of the Chronography as "shortish, round-faced, white, mannish figure, good nose, good eyes, dark pupils, " etc etc and so forth.
ReplyDeleteBecause her appearance was the most important thing about her. And yet she attracted Apollo and was confident enough to spurn him. She no doubt foretold his role in her future and decided not to get started with him. And for that she is punished, because women don't say no to men, except at their peril.
Somerby's comment is "whatever". He has been putting words in her mouth for years now, without any recourse on her part (or ours). How many men would like women to behave like their hand-puppets?
But if Cassandra is foretelling the future accurately, is it better for Democrats to just give up or work harder to try to win? And does anyone these days still believe in fate (within the US, where we believe in individual agency and free will)? Whatever Cassandra was, Bret Stephens is no Cassandra, so why does Somerby believe him? He wasn't Apollo's type.
Somerby just wants to call Cassandra a pig without having to take responsibility for it, so he attributes the words to someone named Malalas (cribbed from Wikipedia to sound erudite). Whatta guy. What does her looks or figure have to do with anything? And why would Somerby choose to include that irrelevant nastiness from some ancient fool?
DeleteIf your friends had hit the Wikipedia link, they would have read this and hesitated for three seconds before moving onward with their shamelessly fatuous complaints:
Delete“Cassandra or Kassandra (/kəˈsændrə/;[2] Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, pronounced [kas:ándra], also Κασάνδρα, and sometimes referred to as Alexandra)[3] in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate prophecies, generally of impending disaster, are not believed.
Do you think it is appropriate to quote a derogatory description of a female rhetorical device gratuitously? Gratuitiously means the physical description had no relevance to anything else Somerby said, except that it was nasty and it was about a woman.
DeleteAnonymouse 1:07pm, Bob didn’t use the device gratuitously. He used it with concern and angst about the future election results which are important to him.
DeleteYou berate that concern because you’re here to discredit him for voicing such heresy.
Your occupation could be called “fiddling while Rome burns” (No trivialization intended of Nero or Trump.)
Cecelia, you are ignoring my point and reading Somerby incorrectly.
DeleteI'm not objecting to Cassandra as a rhetorical device. I am objecting to the paragraphs about her looks. It doesn't matter what Cassandra looked like. There was no reason to quote that mean-spirited description of her. Somerby perhaps did it because he found it funny, but judging women for their appearance and not their accomplishments is wrong, even when Somerby does it.
Rome and Nero had nothing to do with Troy hundreds of years earlier. Hector was born in 1228 BCE (Before Christ). Nero was born in AD 37. That is 1265 apart and in a different part of the world (Italy vs Turkey). When you try to sound literate without knowing what you are talking about, you just sound foolish.
It would explain a lot if you were not actually female. I doubt many women would have missed my point the way you did -- even conservative women understand that women can have other accomplishments besides their looks, especially when fortune-tellers.
I don't care whether Somerby wants to pretend that Cassandra is telling him things. I do care when he posts a rancorous physical description of a literary character and giggles over it, the way Trump followers did when Trump called women fat pigs and dogs, and said of Rosie O'Donnell:
"During his brutal public feud with Rosie O'Donnell in the mid-2000s, Donald Trump said it was "so natural" to refer to O'Donnell as "he."
Some men get off on belittling women's looks. It is abusive and inappropriate.
Anonymouse 1:56 pm, most women would understand that the adage “fiddling while Rome burns” is a classic rhetorical device to convey some common scenario or mindset, just as the classic reference to Cassandra is used.
DeleteMost people/women wouldn’t launch into accusations of sexism over a quote from Wikipedia that conveys varying, almost opposite descriptions of the lady… which one to “believe” or to “not believe”…hmmmm… irony…
You break your back trying to find more fault and injury in the world than there actually is.
Talk about a curse from the gods.
When you use a rhetorical devices, elements of your analogy need to have some similarity to the situation you are comparing it to. There is none here because I am doing nothing comparable to fiddling while ignoring some urgent problem.
DeleteWhat was the purpose of Somerby's inclusion of that quote describing Cassandra's appearance, in your view? Or did you just laugh and continue reading?
Anonymouse 3;03pm, I read the quote from Wikipedia first because it was linked by Somerby before he quoted the passage. I didn’t react to the contradiction of “mannish figure” and “bulky breasts” in the sense of being unattractive (that describes every hipless full-breasted model of the ‘80s) but of contradiction with the adjacent description of Cassandra.
DeleteI associated Somerby’s quoting of the passage as marking contradiction and uncertainty. Words that are..,certainly…descriptive of the blogger’s state of mind as to our politics and the country’s future.
Don’t be an anonymouse. Allow him that.
.
Cecelia is pretending to be a woman, so that already limits their credibility, then they suggest they are going to attack the commenter’s substance but instead merely repeats a synopsis of who the character is.
DeleteIt’s nonsensical and we should stop responding to these right wing Somerby fanboys; like him their only goal is to trigger people, muddy the waters, in order to manufacture ignorance.
Anonymouse 3:28pm, I’ve told you a thousand times that whatever gender or nomgender you believe me to be is okey dokey. Nothing I say is based upon the authority of gender, nationality, ethnicity, or name, rank, and serial number. I don’t take ANYTHING (NOTHING), that anonymices aver about themselves on a blog, based that sort of authority either, so we’re even.
DeleteTo be fair, you criticize others who genuinely identify with a gender other than what they were assigned; however, in your case, you are attempting a ruse, you do not identify as woman, you pretend to be a woman, and as such, are rightfully criticized for that.
DeleteFurthermore, you enhance your ruse by populating your comments with malapropisms and non sequiturs with the design being to trigger and manufacture ignorance.
Clearly, you are an angry, addled, and wounded person, I don’t just expose your nonsense as a warning to others, but also as an off ramp for you to find peace.
Anonymouse 4:25pm, if by “off-ramp”you mean silence and by “peace” you mean hushed , you are correct in your description of your intentions towards the blogger, me, and other commenters here.
DeleteThe only thing you manage to expose is your dogmatic militancy.
anon 4:25 and 3:28 I'm wondering whether you are the same anon as the other anon who was engaging in a dialog with Cecilia. I'm also wondering whether you yourself share some of the mythical Cassandra's skills, being apparently comfortable with asserting, as if you had actual knowledge, and Cecilia "pretend[s] to be a woman." I don't see that you have any rational basis - that you're only interested in insulting her, because she pisses you off by having a different point of view than you do. But I appreciate your standing up to defend the mythical Cassandra from when TDH quotes some ancient author who described her looks in some unflattering way. That TDH - always wrong, almost diabolical!!!
Delete“…shortish, round-faced, white, mannish figure, good nose, good eyes, dark pupils, blondish, curly, good neck, bulky breasts, small feet, calm, noble, priestly, an accurate prophet foreseeing everything, practicing hard, virgin.”
DeleteI’m sure that the only traits here that apply to anonymices are “short” and “virgin”.
AND whiter than the driven snow.
Delete“ He used it with concern and angst about the future election results which are important to him.” The results are important to me too, but I didn’t spend 2020 condemning the Democratic candidate and then the past 4 years pushing Republican complaints about Biden in a blog that was recently cited by a writer for the LA newspaper.
DeleteGod knows you haven’t done anything like the stuff you mention, mh. The only thing you’ve done is to describe things thusly.
DeleteIt is a fact Cecelia is pretending to be a woman.
DeleteIf you read my comments, it’s obvious Cecelia does not “piss me off”, neither do any of the right wing Somerby fanboys, such as yourself ac/ma (and you’re not a lawyer, nor a Dem, DIC isn’t related to Liz Skurnick, etc.), I am saddened to see such folks suffering and offer some relief, however I’m not a mental health professional, nor do I claim to be, so it’s only a start, you all will need to continue on your own seeking help.
It is unsurprising that the right wing fanboys, and Somerby himself, want others to take right wing nonsense at face value; context is a killer for right wing notions.
As Dr Bandy Lee explains, right wingers are people suffering from a pathology, which is bad for society, we are here to help. It does seem that it is you who is “pissed off”, understandable considering what trauma you have suffered to have arrived at your station in life. The first step to healing, is learning, and I’m humbly providing some edification towards that goal.
Thanks anon 7:54, I asked how you could assert Cecilia was not a woman - and you've answered it; by pointing out that it is a "fact." But, still, I somehow still don't see how it is you are able to conclude that. You also asserted that I "am not a lawyer." You don't know me, and between the 2 of us only one knows the truth on that. Other than claiming to have Cassandra type powers, there. The beauty and the ugliness of the internet is that any idiot can say anything anonymously, no matter how stupid.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:54pm, “providing edification” is not something a person does while swinging a pocket watch left and right in front of their own eyes.
Deletemh, you should relax a little. TDH doesn't want the GOP to prevail. He doesn't influence anyone's vote. While those Maga's and their Fuhrer-like love object are understandably cause for alarm, despair, disgust, anger, etc., the libs, unfortunately have gone nuts themselves in many ways. I think not as bad as the MAGA's. though. Like it or not there are other legitimate points of view.
DeleteA/C/M/A/// - more both siderism. In other news, the sun came up in the East this morning.
DeleteI know aspects of both Cecelia and ac/ma, sorry guys, your assumed anonymity is misguided, and your claims about yourselves are false, and sometimes just weird, like with DIC.
DeleteYou both fundamentally misunderstand the motivation behind those that criticize TDH in the comments, because you both have a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature.
Libs have not gone nuts.
DeleteCecelia doesn’t know how hypnosis works.
DeleteHipless full breasted models are the result of surgery not nature.
DeleteCecelia would know that if she were a woman. Only men are fooled by cosmetic surgery. Women consider it a measure of how much another woman’s financial well-being depends on male approval.
DeleteCecelia obviously doesn’t identify as a woman because she has no outrage over Somerby’s inclusion of an eval of Cassandra’s looks which is entirely irrelevant to being a priestess or fortune-teller. She doesn’t understand it at all, much as men don’t. And women have empathy whereas Cecelia has none in general. It is harder to pretend convingingly than Cecelia thinks.
DeleteNote the non-denial denial above.
Biden is too old.
ReplyDeleteHe is 3 years older than Trump, but much sharper and more fit.
DeleteIMO Trump appears more fit than Biden. However, they're both much too old. Whoever is elected will still be President in January of 2029! What will they both be like then? I shudder to think.
DeleteTrump eats a horrible junk food diet, is overweight, doesn’t exercise, needs help walking up a slight incline, and according to our blog host is a slobbering nutcase. More fit???
DeletePerhaps they will be like you David, or me, or the various other retirees who comment here. There are several, not counting Somerby (who doesn't even read his comments).
DeleteI walk several miles a day, play duplicate bridge at tournaments at a high level (which is very cognitively demanding and requires intense focus), live independently and participate in my community, follow politics, read regularly, and have no major health problems. Only 30% of the elderly do have health issues that interfere with their lives, beyond minor aches and stiffness. I wouldn't want to be president, but I am sure I could go back to my previous job if I wanted to and do it competently.
People are not just living longer, but also maintaining functionality later into their lives, assuming they had good health care when younger.
What concerns me is that Trump refuses to disclose accurate info about his own health. I wonder what he is hiding and why. I read Biden's health report and it has nothing major in it, but I cannot say the same about Trump. It could be that he is too vain to let anyone see has has ED, or it could be that he has incipient Parkinson's, which affects judgment and thinking not just motor movements (which would account for Melania's need to lead him around). Fortunately, there are enough visible reasons not to vote for Trump that I don't need to worry about undisclosed problems with health.
Biden has been honest and transparent with his health record. Trump cannot say the same. That makes Biden the better bet, in my opinion.
When did we, as a country, decide it was OK to elect a president who either couldn't or wouldn't read?
DeleteIt seems trivial to worry about a pause when speaking compared to the other guy who still cannot read.
Delete@1:03 -- Glad to hear that you are in such great shape. I am in good physical shape, too. And good mental shape (unless you think that being a conservative is a sign of mental illness.)
DeleteHowever, I don't have the physical or mental energy that I had when I was younger. And, Heaven knows what kind of shape I will be 3, 4, and 5 years from now.
P.S. How many Master Points do you have?
As discussed the other day, age is not an issue for US presidents, the circumstance is well accounted for.
DeleteAn issue not well accounted for is a corrupt president, which is the issue with Trump.
In that context, an elderly Biden has a strong advantage over a slightly less elderly but corrupt Trump.
The idea that some Republican voter anywhere is the least bit concerned about Biden's age is as stupid as some Republican voter anywhere being "economically anxious".
DeleteStop being played by liars.
Before Trump, most Repubs tried to walk that fine line between showing concern for the working class while also subtly indicating their support for racism.
DeleteNow essentially they’ve said, aw fuck it, run n****r run, we gonna get ya.
Silver lining?
I think Biden is in better shape than Trump.
DeleteI think Biden takes Trump in an arm wrestle, but Trump wins a pie eating contest.
DeleteIs this the same Cassandra that led Somerby to moan and groan back in 2020 about the “terrible candidate” Biden, and to title one of his posts “Goodbye Wisconsin!” (implying Biden would lose Wisconsin after the George Floyd protests; Biden, of course, won Wisconsin). Cassandra made truthful predictions, but wasn’t believed. Her track record here in America seems less than stellar.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I haven’t heard any liberal or Democrat, even on MSNBC, proclaim Biden’s re-election a sure thing. Everyone is a bit nervous. But Somerby wants to depict liberals as clueless lemmings, because he gets off on that. He sounds like Stephens and Bill Kristol and all the other teeth-gnashers in the punditocracy.
"STEPHENS (9/6/23): Easy to see is that the president is not young for his age. The stiff gait and the occasional falls. The apparent dozing off. The times he draws a blank or struggles to complete a thought. "
ReplyDeleteStephens seems to have no idea what is normal for 80, so he cannot give a fair appraisal of whether Biden is "young for his age" or not. I am 75 and I do not ride a bicycle. I do doze off in the daytime, which I never used to do when I was 70. I don't do it during important events. I have been drawing a blank and struggling to complete a thought since I was in my teens. Word-finding difficulties are an individual difference. Trump doesn't bother finding the right word or completing any thought -- he rambles stream of consciousness. Biden may do what I do, which is self-edit my statements as I speak, and sometimes I go back and correct them, sounding a bit repetitious. That is an individual difference, not a sign of aging much less senility.
Personally, I think Mitch McConnell's freezing moments are harmless (unless he were an air traffic controller, which he is plainly not). Diane Feinstein is 90. That 10 years makes a lot of difference at the end of life, just as the difference between an infant and a 10 year old is huge in the early years. But the main criterion for judging whether Feinstein should be reelected is her performance in office. The voters reelected her four years ago and she says she is not running again. Any elected senator can encounter health problems during a 6-year term that might preclude their performing well or running again. That is not age-dependent. I think people are being cruel to her for partisan reasons.
Next time you fall asleep in a movie, tell me about Biden being too old to do anything because of it.
Biden’s performance in office has been impressive. Even for a younger man his accomplishments would be impressive, especially in the face of the 24 hour hate machine dedicated to calling him monstrously corrupt while being a senile doddering fool. In the face of “he’s too old” 3 years ago, his accomplishments (including bipartisan bills) should have buried that criticism. I’m sure younger voters (and others) would prefer a younger candidate, but I think there is sufficient reason to re-elect Biden based on his time in office.
DeleteTrump has some sort of balance problem himself. Not just stiff gait, but he won't go up or down stairs without holding onto a railing or Melania's hand.
DeleteThe problem with old age and falls isn't that old people fall more (unless they are blind), but that they have difficulty recovering balance to prevent the fall once they have tripped. Young people trip too, but they catch themselves because they have greater muscle strength and tone. Anyone can trip over something as Biden did. The other reason why falls are a concern for the elderly is that their bones are more fragile so the results of a fall can be more serious and take longer to recover from.
That's why it is foolish to hold a fall as evidence that someone is too old for anything -- just as it is foolish to consider it evidence of being drunk, drugged, ill, or any of the things they accused Hillary of when they said she had some serious illness during her campaign way back in 2015, when she was only 68.
It’s also worth saying that Biden has many tangible accomplishments while in office. Trump did nothing, aside from watching TV, “playing” golf, and trying to stay in power when he lost. How many times was it supposed to be infrastructure week under Trump? Only Biden actually got an infrastructure bill passed. Etc.
DeleteIndeed, and it wasn’t all that long ago Bob Somerby would have considered this kind of handicapping of the election this far out as stupid, junk news. What would Bob want a liberal to do at this point, just hope Trump is found innocent so the right doesn’t get too mad and elect Trump? Does Bob think Trump’s indictments are winning over independents to his side? Dubious. As to other poster speculation, yes, it’s hard not to believe Bob found a right wing sugar daddy. But I don’t think they are getting their money’s worth.
Delete"That said, Trump spills over with crazy energy."
ReplyDeleteNot any more. His latest rallies have been slow, moaning dirges full of self-pity. He can barely lug his bloated carcass around the golf course. He didn't go to his arraignment in Atlanta because he couldn't get up early enough in the morning to make the plane. He has hugely slowed down in the number of rallies (his favorite thing) compared to his last campaign. I'd say he was depressed but narcissists are too self-protected for that, so I think it is old age, lack of exercise and bad diet catching up with him. A doctor named Cassandra might predict a heart attack.
Trump sometimes does present as more energetic than Biden, it’s clear those are times he has taken a stimulant drug.
DeleteOther times Trump slurs his speech, has spittle buildup around his mouth (so gross), glitches, has a blank stare, and drones in a monotone.
As Joan Jett sang, “man you’re looking wasted…doesn’t really matter”; it’s great to have an energetic sports coach but it’s of no consequence for a US president.
Many US citizens have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role a president plays: he/she/they are not a king, not your parent, not your friend, they oversee an administration and promote a political agenda, either for progress, for the status quo/establishment, or for themselves.
Trump wants to be president for his own personal benefit, he’s a “torpedo in a tuxedo” (Jett); Biden, surprisingly for us leftists - we reckoned he’d be more of a neoliberal/establishment type, Biden wants progress.
Somerby jumps on the bandwagon he used to despise, the punditocracy’s penchant for “defining” the candidates: Gore was described as uncomfortable in his own skin, while Bush was someone you’d like to have a beer with.
ReplyDeleteTrump is full of crazy energy, while Biden seems slow and dull.
Somerby pushes these memes today.
That is sad. I guess he's been sucked into the narrative and forgot he was supposed to exist outside of it. He's certainly lost his touch quite a bit.
DeleteDo you suppose that is what happened to Trump when he forgot he was supposed to be a loyal American and went over to the Russians? Sucked into Putin's narrative?
Delete12:50 - I don't know if you're trolling or digging for my political beliefs. If you have a sensical question just ask it.
DeleteI have a point. It is that there are other narratives to get sucked into besides Somerby's. Somerby and Trump are the same age. I am proposing that being old may have resulted in Trump being sucked into Putin's narrative, which is more dangerous for a president, than it is for a blogger who buys into the right wing's narratives. Somerby's old age is harmless. Is Trump's? I'm not so sure.
DeleteAlright thanks for sharing.
DeleteMostly unrelated but it just broke that Trump owes E. Jean Carroll some more money. From remarks he made after losing the first case. I wonder if he will be able to keep his mouth shut on this now, or even draw a greater lesson for it? A good test to see how much of an impulsive idiot he actually is (the best impulsive idiot? perfect?)
Seems like very different situations.
DeleteSomerby stands outside the MSM narrative for years, criticizing the core way that it works (e.g., discussing the way Gore dresses instead of his stance on policies.)
Now he's trying to do so while being a part of it (commenting about age of candidates in a general, dumb way.)
Then you have Trump. He likely doesn't need to be sucked into any narrative, because it's highly probable the KGB has compromat on him.
So there you go, I think that's what you were probing for, whether we disagree or not, that's my take.
Nobody would be surprised if there is video of Trump sucking Putin’s cock, just nauseous.
DeleteHeck, Trump is so confused and perverse (daddy issues), he regularly expresses he wants to fuck his own daughter. Apparently porn star mercy fucks are only exciting when his wife is pregnant.
And of course, just recently, he sold his son out in an attempt to save his own skin.
What’s crazy about Trump is not his energy, but that he gets any votes at all. Hmmm, well I guess not that surprising seeing how triggered they got over Hunter having a bigger penis than Trump.
These are tragically wounded people, Somerby included, and as such have broken moral compasses.
"Oof. On the other hand, we can't quite call that inaccurate."
ReplyDeleteTry
"Trump is just three years younger, they cry. That said, Trump spills over with crazy energy. That just doesn't seem to be true when it comes to the older guy."
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting propaganda technique. You avoid mentioning your opponent's name while making sure to mention your own candidate's name as often as possibe.
Here Somerby mentions Trump, but he calls Biden "the old guy" thus promoting the meme that is obviously today's talking point. If you want to see who Somerby really favors in the next election, go back through his essays and count the number of times he mentions Trump's name compared to the number of mentions of Biden's name.
By the way, in psychiatry, "crazy energy" is called mania. Trump doesn't have that symptom. It is not part of narcissistic personality disorder or psychopathy (sociopathy) or Machiavellianism (greed and self-interest). It is part of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and drug addiction. Somerby might give that a think.
Somerby is Trump's age. He should be able to assess whether Biden is young for his age or not. I'd say that given that Biden is 3 years older than Somerby and yet performing at a much high level both physically and cognitively, he must be younger for his age than Somerby is for his. So why would Somerby let Bret Stephens slide on that stupid remark?
ReplyDeleteIf you promise a god your favors, give him your favors.
ReplyDeleteBut render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's?
DeleteWhat this ignorant right wing moron thinks is, if someone presents as authoritarian, you bow down to them, servile-style.
DeleteThe dude’s a cuck.
If you don’t want to give a god your favors, don’t promise him your favors.
DeleteOver promising is not a crime, things happen.
DeleteA god, definitionally, is aware of your future actions, and does not need favors from anyone.
DeleteThe ancient Greek gods often sought favors. Your definition does not apply to them.
DeleteAssume greek gods lacked omniscience or needed favors at your own folly, our knowledge of their traits are based on unreliable narrators. At any rate, I appreciate having fire.
DeleteBut please, proceed with exemplifying submission to arbitrary authority.
We don’t know for sure whether Cassandra was ever right, or ever existed. Somerby bases a lot on her because he has no real support for his own predictions. We say Somerby is full of shit and he says “they said that about Cassandra too, and now they’re all dead!”
DeleteCecelia calls that a rhetorical device not a fallacy.
DeleteTroy existed, and the various Greek city-states mentioned by Homer existed, but we don’t know if any of the individuals existed. The gods? Almost certainly not.
DeleteBut the point remains: don’t promise favors if you’re not willing to grant favors.
I call it inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteNot that Biden is old, but that any American is down on him for it.
Also,
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/say-what-you-want-about-joseph-stalin-at-least-he-wasnt-old
Stalin was seventy-four when he died.
DeleteI thought I was old when I hit 21, then 30, then 40…shit I’m old!
DeleteBret Stephens is a conservative republican hired by the Times to provide "balance" in its op-eds. Somerby seems not to notice.
ReplyDelete