12-08-2013, 03:37 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-08-2013, 03:56 AM by Albert Rossi.)
Tracy Riddle Wrote:We could call ourselves "Warren Commission critics" or "assassination researchers" and the other side "Warren Commission supporters," but in the heat of internet battle it's easier to have Team CTer vs. Team LNer. No, I don't like it, but if I were to list all the things homo sapiens do that I don't approve of, this would be a very long post.
I understand that shorthand is sometimes necessary, and that abstraction (using a group concept to capture common characteristics) in one sense actually underlies thought. But I think Jim gets it right when he notes the rhetorical strategy involved: "sorry, conspiracy theorists" immediately conveys the most important part of the message: disparagement of anyone who would think the opposite; or to borrow from speech act theory, the illocutionary is more significant than what the apparent subject of the sentence is.
Yes, there are many, many things worse. But little concessions can also add up.