Political discourse has become so stale that I find myself in bizarre exchanges with my conspecifics about politics. When I make a political statement, they seem to assume that I am coming from the "left" or the "right" even though they've known me for years and know that I'm an anarchist. They don't seem to know how to talk about politics in any other terms.
For example, if I criticize the GOP, this is usually interpreted as an endorsement of Democrats. Pointing out that Democrats are wankers, too, is not an adequate refutation of a critical comment about the GOP. If I criticize Bush, I am told that "Clinton did it, too" or "Clinton was also evil". I'm not talking about Clinton, damn it! I'm talking right now about the GOP currently screwing things up. Did you ever hear me defend Clinton? Pay attention to what I'm actually saying, please.
If I point out that the aggressive interrogation techniques employed by the governemnt were designed to elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes, that does not mean that I believe that the GOP USG is using the techniques for those purposes. If they did, they'd screw it up. There's no need to jump to the defense of the GOP and anticipate a charge that the GOP is coercing false confessions. I'm just saying that the techniques are of questionable value even if you take the GOP USG at its word. Which I never do.
I'm not really talking about Democrats and Republicans. I'm usually talking about authoritarians of any party versus freedom.
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