Thomas Sowell: Idiot Emeritus

Nonno

Habari Na Mijeldi
"Godwin’s Law states that the longer an online discussion goes, the greater the chance of a Nazi reference. No matter what the forum, unless the subject is the Nazi’s or genocide, anyone making such a comparison automatically loses the argument. Period. By this standard alone, syndicated Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell is the Biggest Loser.

For those who don’t know him, Thomas Sowell (born 1930) is an American economist, retired professor, social critic, political commentator, author, and lunatic. After seeing his vile, depraved weekly columns for the past four years I truly believe he belongs in an institution – which is just where he is. Since 1980, Sowell has been a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The Hoover Institution, like the Heritage Foundation and countless others, is basically a welfare program for Right Wing Op-Ed writers. Wealthy donors give people like Sowell the financial freedom to rail against entitlement programs and rewrite history, particularly the Great Depression. Consequently, they are not bound by prickly things like facts or editors or journalistic ethics."

More at: Thomas Sowell: Idiot Emeritus « Tomfoolery
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
That was painful to read. I kept looking for a coherent argument in there. It was like a shaggy dog story whose only point was to take a shot at Sowell. And there's too much projection and editorializing to make it informative.

But I'm amused that he bothered to bring up Godwin at all. Because the writer is more or less guilty of what the Law is supposed to describe. Godwin's Law describes the tendency of people to resort to name-calling once they've run out of logical argument.

For those of us who remember Usenet (it's still around, but has nowhere near as many participants), we all noticed long threads and by the time you reached the bottom of the thread, you HOPED that you'd be reading the most current aspect of the discussion; but invariably what you HAD was two or three people arguing about who was rude or misunderstood and who is too dumb to understand and what are your academic credentials anyway and you're a weenie wannabe and ...well - you get it. It could be far too frustrating to have to back up message after message just to figure out what slight or insult they were getting their panties in a wad over.

The concept is that after a long, long discussion on a topic, most informative discussion is over and the only people STILL arguing are those who take it personally. The whole room was arguing, but most people left the room and only the red-faced extremists remain.

And they pretty much resort to name-calling.

See, Godwin's Law *uses* Nazis, but the premise is anything regarded as ultimately evil relevant to the audience will suffice. If you're Muslim, you could just call someone a dog or a Jew. If you're a liberal, it's racist. If you're a Christian fundie, it's the devil.

I'm amused that a man would fill an article with disconnected insults sprinkled with opinion on a man's motives and character without factual support and think it's anything but childish name-calling.
 

philibusters

Active Member
As noted in the previous post the author of the article did exacty what he accused another of...name calling. His post are ignorant and arguments are vile.

How common is that that stone thrower has the same sins as the person getting hit by the stone? Probably pretty common. I do it myself---usuallly by accident, but sometimes I even realize it
 

Toxick

Splat
"Godwin’s Law states that the longer an online discussion goes, the greater the chance of a Nazi reference. No matter what the forum, unless the subject is the Nazi’s or genocide, anyone making such a comparison automatically loses the argument. Period. By this standard alone, syndicated Conservative columnist Thomas Sowell is the Biggest Loser.


1) Shiddy Reference.

2) Thomas Sowell is not even close to the Biggest Loser. 2001-2009 was nothing but 8 solid years of Godwin's Law run amok.

3) ObRaceCard: Anyone who disagrees with Thomas Sowell is a racist.

4) You're still a horse's ass.
 
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