Almost Classical

Facebook "memes" are among the least and most effective rhetorical devices in use. They are ineffective at changing ideas or winning arguments. They are extremely effective  at ensuring your community perceives you as a loyal member, and they reinforce the dominant values and positions in the community. The memes get more and more extreme as people seek to prove just how much they hate the opposing camp. The claims about the values and authenticity of the opposition also trend towards absolute dismissal and discounting of any genuine differences. Republicans become thugs and fascists. Democrats become communists. Both sides argue the other represents "real" fascist and authoritarianism. The reality is, there aren't many radicals in the United States. Most voters are centrists. Social media posts from left and right are demonstrating absolutist stupidity in many of these threads. Conservatives and libertarians are neither extreme anarchists nor fascists....

A lot has happened in the last few months, and even now I don’t find myself particularly motivated to write on most of the events. Instead, I like to see patterns and comment on those large, inescapable patterns politicians and the public would rather ignore. Islamic radicals have been a “pattern” since the start of the religion. I don’t mean that every Islamic individual or even Islamic nation has been a problem, but I do mean that Islam seems to have a fair number of radical believers unwilling to enter the modern world. I’m tired of the excuse that Christianity was “just as bad” in some way. I’m not a Christian, and I’m not about to defend any religion or Colonialism, but I also don’t think we should be comparing a current problem to the sins of humanity over the last six thousand or more years. Yes, the Crusades were terrible — but the Muslim nations won! Yes, the Ottoman Empire fell and European powers sliced up the Middle East, but Arab leaders sided with Hitler; not exactly ...