Guest eureka Posted June 16, 2005 Report Share Posted June 16, 2005 I do not "make lapses", Argus. I leave such failures in logical extension to you and to other of the more vicious "Right Wingers." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argus Posted June 16, 2005 Report Share Posted June 16, 2005 Venom, eh? Y'know what venom is? Yes, you often demonstrate it, as you do here. You are filled with hatred, venom and bitterness towards others. Sad, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Terrible Sweal Posted June 16, 2005 Report Share Posted June 16, 2005 Venom, eh? Y'know what venom is? You are filled with hatred, venom and bitterness towards others. Fortunateley you're on guard with your superduper accurate venom detecter to safeguard general good cheer! Thanks Arg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawasakm Posted June 16, 2005 Report Share Posted June 16, 2005 You know we use 'whinge' and 'whingers' here in Australia. It had never occured to me that the words would not be in common use in other english speaking nations such as Canada or the US. Kind of interesting. Pocketrocket, we pronounce it: win - j (as in jar) - er (as in her). To sum up win-j-er Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PocketRocket Posted June 17, 2005 Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 Thanks, Tawasakm. Now I have a new word to add to my regularly-used vocabulary. Now can we all stop wingeing about all the wingeing???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted June 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 Where do I begin? I'm moderately recovered from jet lag and I have a moderately stable Internet connection. August, I have rarely heard a more pompous whinge. You don't like hearing from posters who don't agree with your stance that Liberals are evil. Whoopee. At least none of us squirrel away a nasty snipe like yours here at the end of a longwinded disjointed spew. Sweal, I was making the point that some people seem to approach political parties and sports the same way - as fans. I'm trying to understanfd why. Both sporting matches and political elections are repetitive, dramatic, risky events over which an individual has absolutely no effective influence. I then connected my point to the behaviour of some posters here. Partisan, one-line comments that sometimes take the form of a personal insult. I then named names. I'm sorry if you took it as a nasty snipe. Sweal, you are capable of thoughtful posts that make good points. Your best posts avoid sophisticated words. Your worst posts are one line putdowns. I was trying to encourage everyone to put some thought into their posts rather than just send off a "And you're a bigger jerk" reply. I don't think I have ever described the Liberal Party as "evil". The tagline on each of my posts comes from the text of a Liberal politician. I would not characterize my original post as a pompous whinge, although it might be longwinded and disjointed. (This is an Internet discussion forum for gawdsakes, not Harper's.) And getting back to the original point, what happens when people choose political parties the same way they choose hockey teams? Does political debate become a series of one line rejoinders? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cartman Posted June 17, 2005 Report Share Posted June 17, 2005 August, I suspect that you know the answer to your first question. People get excited about sports (even politics) because they feel as though they are part of the larger community. It does not matter whether their particular actions affect the outcome. You might as well ask why people in church sing together. Symbols and community are important to humans. Many people cannot live without being in society. Why do you bother to post here as opposed to simply writing down your thoughts on paper at home? In the past you have often referred to the importance of symbols. You are right about some people not contributing in earnest, though I believe that everyone does it at some point in time. You analogy to a sports fan screaming at the television is hilarious because I think it is true. Though I think people are being too hard on Sweal, I agree with Argus that his use of the word "whinge" is, well, antediluvian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted June 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2005 August, I suspect that you know the answer to your first question. People get excited about sports (even politics) because they feel as though they are part of the larger community. It does not matter whether their particular actions affect the outcome. You might as well ask why people in church sing together.Do you mean that political parties are lonely hearts clubs? No doubt some people get involved in politics for the sex, or just to hang out.I suspect you also mean that by the act of voting, people feel a sense of community. Is that how people feel when they pay their taxes? [Those are questions better left to Hugo!] Symbols and community are important to humans. Many people cannot live without being in society.We use symbols to communicate; and we prefer to live together if only because we benefit from cooperation. I can see the advantages in identifying myself as a Conservative in Calgary. Why do you bother to post here as opposed to simply writing down your thoughts on paper at home?People love to talk, communicate and deal with one another. I'm no different.----- I suppose I'm really wondering why people vote. It's a lot of work to find out which parties intend to do what and which candidates may actually follow through. And one vote changes nothing. Big cost, zero benefit. It's not hard to understand why voter turnout is going down. I have suggested that one way a voter can make the benefit positive is to become a "fan". Then election night is like the Stanley Cup when your team is on the ice. That seems to be the case because many voters seem to be partisan fans. I wonder what this means for democracy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mona Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 Hmmm...Why did the Liberals win the last what? 4 elections? Because people voted. The people's vote does count. Comparing Hockey to politics is like comparing apples to oranges (forgive the cliche). You vote does count because every person who votes makes a difference. Why do we have a minority government? because every vote counted in the last election. As to hockey and others things you coming to cheer someone on actually does make a difference (not the screaming in front of the t.v but being there does) It gives people confidence which makes you do better, I should know i'm an athlete. You saying that our votes don't count is encouraging young people not to vote which is not good. Did you vote in the last election? if not then you have no place complaining about the government because you didn't speak up using a slip of paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2005 You vote does count because every person who votes makes a difference.Mona, I don't know what riding you live in but you can go to the Elections Canada web site where you will find that if we removed your single ballot paper from the tally, the result in your riding would have been exactly the same. (I am aware of no election in Canadian history where a riding was won by one vote.)IOW, one person's vote makes absolutely no difference. It is sensible for an individual not to vote. Hence, my question of why people vote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Terrible Sweal Posted June 21, 2005 Report Share Posted June 21, 2005 Voting is simply not an individual undertaking. An election is a civic exercise. Of course one person's vote "doesn't matter". We are not dictators, we are citizens. So our votes matter together, not alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2005 Voting is simply not an individual undertaking.How can it be anything but an individual exercice?An election is a civic exercise.That sounds vaguely communistic to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Terrible Sweal Posted June 21, 2005 Report Share Posted June 21, 2005 An election is a civic exercise.That sounds vaguely communistic to me. The mere mention of 'civic', gives you a red-scare? The Berlin Wall fell iyears ago, August! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cartman Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 Even though I made an attempt, I do not believe August's initial question was ever truly answered. It is a very good question too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimmy Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 Even though I made an attempt, I do not believe August's initial question was ever truly answered. It is a very good question too. BOO-YAH! -k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySeinfeld Posted June 25, 2005 Report Share Posted June 25, 2005 Even though I made an attempt, I do not believe August's initial question was ever truly answered. It is a very good question too. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> BOO-YAH! -k <{POST_SNAPBACK}> lol.....you ROCK kimmy! going out to a sweet Alberta bar to celebrate out centential talk soon peeps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eureka Posted June 26, 2005 Report Share Posted June 26, 2005 You are right, Cartman. It was an excellent question. The only problem with it is that it actually requires some deep thinking to do it justice. That kind of effort is beyond nearly all the posters and would probably be quite painful for some to attempt. Still, I will give it some thought as you did and try to help August with his dilemma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argus Posted June 26, 2005 Report Share Posted June 26, 2005 You are right, Cartman. It was an excellent question. The only problem with it is that it actually requires some deep thinking to do it justice.That kind of effort is beyond nearly all the posters and would probably be quite painful for some to attempt. Including you, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Terrible Sweal Posted June 27, 2005 Report Share Posted June 27, 2005 Sweal, ... Your worst posts are one line putdowns. You are failing to make an essential distinction between a 'putdown' and a 'critique'. I do the latter and avoid the former. If you know of actually cases where I have failed to do that please make a specific reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cartman Posted June 27, 2005 Report Share Posted June 27, 2005 BOO-YAH! Though I appreciate your humour, you often state that others are closed minded on the issue of health care. Specifically, you state that people are not willing to consider creative options to state funded health; that any alternatives are inevitably dismissed as equivalent to US health care. I assumed that you would have something to offer on this subject. The Liberals will keep getting into office partly because of the mentality described by August. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted December 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2009 Rick Salutin makes the same point as this thread but in the context of the CRU leak/hack (climategate): What does Climategate prove – those e-mails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at a British university that show a will to manipulate data to confirm the case for warming? I don't think it proves climate change is just a “global warming scare” (National Post). The Arctic ice is still melting, the polar bears are retreating inland, the Northwest Passage is opening wider. Nor does it simply establish that scientists are human (Paul Krugman), although I wouldn't dispute the point. I think it shows that politics makes people crazy. You can already see this on the level of mundane electoral politics, and I'm not even talking about the pros – I mean regular citizens. Many people follow their party or cause the way they follow their favourite team: Their spirits rise and sink with each game. They think about it (party or team) before falling asleep and first thing when they awake. Maybe this comes from a need to feel part of something larger than one's circumscribed self. But it leads to weird behaviour. There's a reason that “fan” derives from fanatic. G&M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August1991 Posted May 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2016 [bump] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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