Jubbergun wrote:
While I think that you're oversimplifying the importance of the symbolism in question (this isn't just about "a pin," it's about the Flag of the United States of America), even if you don't want to pander to "those people," you have to because they're your voters. They're the same idiots that win you an election now whether it's the right saying, "He'll take your guns," or "he hates America," or "he's an Islamic socialist," or whether it's the left saying, "he'll take your social security," or "he's a racist." These are the exact same morons both sides pander to because they have to pander to them to win elections.
It's not about the flag, they were SIX big damn flags right behind him. It is about the pin, because he never once refused to be seen with the flag. This is about a little piece of metal and people who will go to any lengths to produce something to hate him about. There is enough for my-way-or-the-highway obstructionists to dislike in his policies, this is just another example of throwing up a non-issue to cloud talking about something substantive.
Quote:
It's not just "a fucking pin." It's the Flag of the United States of America, which is arguably the most potent symbol of the nation there is.
It's a pin, there are flags behind him. You can go on a rant about the flag if you want to, but it was a pin that he didn't feel like wearing while standing in front of a whole wallpaper of actual flags.
Quote:
Obama, if your explanation is to be believed, didn't want people to back him/his policies based on those emotions, but because they came to the intellectual conclusion that those were the best policies to follow. If he was aware of this strong relation between emotional reaction and the flag, why did he provoke it with something so silly as refusing to wear, in your words, "a fucking pin?"
Probably for the same reason victims don't decide the punishment for perpetrators in our legal system. Just because you have a strong response of strong feelings about something doesn't make it right. Patriotism comes in right behind Religion as the most damaging and logic-evaporating groupthink. We tortured for patriotism, we invade countries for patriotism, we put our own citizens in pens and internment camps, and anyone who stopped to question were labeled 'unpatriotic'. Blind Patriotism is for fools, and if you're so bent out of shape about a damn pin that's exactly what you are.
Quote:
trying to ride the ol' moral high horse
Maybe if you ask real nice he'll put on a fake accent and talk nice and folksy for ya, make ya feel like he's one of yuns.
Quote:
ITT
people want their ideas heard/think they are right and want others to accept it and by all means attempt to force/convince their ideas on to others.
So you came into a political arguement thread and said 'ITT: Arguement'. Jubber and I both know we're not going to get anywhere with our windbagging, but thanks for somehow being less useful than both of us combined.