Jack Kime, a supporter of the Boy Scouts said:
I register my refusal to passively sit and watch my America go the way of a Roman Empire, drowning in decadency and politically correct insanity.
The author, Austin Cline, responds:
Ironically, the Roman Empire was transformed into a Christian Empire where church and state were deeply intertwined.
For this discussion I'm going to avoid the clear bias on both sides, as well as any possible historical inaccuracy in the second statement, and comment on what the author was trying to say. Essentially, the author says that it wasn't decadency and politically correct insanity that caused the downfall of the Roman Empire, it was Christianity. Furthermore, the author asserts that decadency and political correctness are the opposite of Christianity. The illogic here is quite clear, the person who doesn't want America to become like Rome is actually trying to make sure America becomes like Rome! If a person says, "I want to live longer, so I'm going to smoke a cigarette", is that ironic? I would argue no. Stupid, certainly, ignorant and naive, but not ironic, it's just wrong. If I say, "I need 4 of something, so I'm going to add 2 and 3", is that irony? Well obviously not, everyone should agree. What is the difference between this and the blog post above? Not very much.
4 comments:
not to be pedantic but you have a spelling error here:
I would argue know. Stupid, certainly, ignorant and naive, but not ironic, it's just wrong.
Please feel free to delete this comment after you correct it.
I wouldn't bring it up, but it's something I do too, i don't no why, so I thought I'd spare you the embarrassment.
Not to be pedantic? I think the whole point of this blog is to be pedantic. There is clearly something very interesting going on in my brain. I always tend to spell it like Langauge, although I immediately notice it. Normally though, when I misspell a word, it ends up like another properly formed word. I didn't just add a 'k' to "no", I added a 'w' as well. My brain somehow decided to make a word, regardless of the spelling. It gets stranger, because the words in question are homophones, so what I'm typing relates to sound, even though I'm not speaking aloud when I'm typing. Interesting stuff.
There, did I successfully make you forget I made a typo?
I totally agree.
It's a strange type of typo.
I often type no instead of know, just for brevity. In texts for example. tomoro, tho, etc.
But to accidentally do that vice-versa is very odd.
I think I'm doing something akin to stopping mid-sentence while I'm forming the sentence in my mind, then continuing by typing a word that is a homophonic. I think it's the hesitation that makes the difference.
Just noticed a post I wrote on the skeptics guide forum where I wrote:
withing
i reckon this is another example of me just hesitating mid word and then continuing with what my fingers are used to typing, ing.
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