Newsletter Week of 18 September 2020
In the U.S., early voting has started. I just want to take this opportunity to urge every eleigible voter to cast a ballot.
The first time I voted was in the 1976 Presidential election (I voted for Carter over Ford). I've voted in every election since.
I've heard all the excuses. A single vote doesn't change anything—right, and a single drop of water can't erode much rock, so the Grand Canyon must not exist. Voting is too much trouble—but getting your driver's license is more trouble, yet you do that. I don't like any of the candidates—fine, that's often the case. But surely you dislike one more than the other? So don't vote for the candidate you like, vote agaisnt the candidate you hate more.
Basically, all arguments against voting boil down to one thing: a person who doesn't vote is fine with letting others make decisions for them. If you don't vote, you have no right to complain. And I don't know about you, but to me the ability to complain is worth a lot more effort than it takes to vote....
- Ripped 7 more DVDs to mp4
- Added 1200 words to my memoir
- More progress on new paperback edition of The Leaves of October
- Worked on cleanup from workspace rearrangement
Asleep at the Wheel: Our hamster Covid got tired running on his basement wheel, so he took a nap.
Please take a moment to read the quote from Naveed Mansoori below. It makes an excellent point: When arguing with Trumpists, pointing out the truth is irrelevant, because "the Right celebrates power, not truth." It's like answering a statement in English by speaking Sumerian: no meaning getgs through.
I'm begnning to think that the way to have constructive arguments is to answer in the language of poweer, rather than that of truth. This is a language that makes many of us uncomfortable, so we usually don't use it.
What would that looknlike? Let's take a hypothetical argument about abortion rights:
R: God says that abortion is murder, so it should be illegal.
L: I used to think that too, then I heard Reverend XYZ talk about it. He's the pastor of a huge church in California, a very holy man. He researched the Bible and talked to the greatest Biblical scholars for ten years, and he says that the early Popes twisted Jesus's words in a lot of ways. You should watch his sermons on YouTube and make up your own mind." (Obviously, this approach requires that there actually be a Reverend XYZ withs ermons on YouTube.)
The idea is to answer their appealk to authority with an appeal to other authority—a stronger one if possible.
I haven't had a chance to try out this approach yet, but I think it's well worth trying.