Sunday, April 24, 2011

ESAD

Something my brothers and I used to say a lot when we were kids.  It's an acronym, used when you really wanted someone to go away, typically after they insulted you.  Eat solid waste And Die.

Morgan came up with a good analogy for a phenomenon I've been trying to put a finger on, but not trying hard enough to actually come up with something.

It's the "Eat Poo" Argument.
See, this arguing style has a way of flipping things upside-down — it turns the moderate side of the argument into the extreme side, and thus the extreme side into the moderate side. To rationally thinking people, “eat poo” is an extremist position. My ludicrous and silly example at the beginning of the post inverts the equation, and makes the poo-eating proposition look moderate and any attack upon it look extreme (assuming you’re dim enough to buy into it). Well, that is what the President is doing.
It ain't just the President, buddy.  But this is a part of that "Community Organizing" book of rules, so it just comes naturally to him.

The other side has been doing this for quite a long time.  It's not like I've never seen it from my side, but when I've seen that, it's usually been to point out the double standard.

It's good.

Go read.

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