I had an interesting debate with a liberal friend of mine at the 4degreez.com politics board last week. I was being completely antagonistic and unfair; basically picking a fight, but it was fun, in a way, to see the reactions. It was an attempt to point out the irony that dominates the BUSH LIED! meme. I can’t say as though I know how successful I was. It’s a little long, but I think its interesting reading nonetheless (worthy of a skim at least)… My basic refrain ended up being some variation of this question:
Why is it acceptable for you to bend facts and selectively quote an interview to make your point?
Heh. Thanks to Eugene Volokh’s NRO article and Porphyrogenitus’ comments on the BUSH LIED! meme, as they helped me flesh out some of the ideas and are worth of reads on their own…
The thread is reproduced here on my site with permission, as the 4degreez Politics board is not public and the site is no longer accepting new members. Some of the code that is used to format the indentation for the thread is ancient, so some browsers might have trouble displaying it. The thread, however, is linear enough that it doesn’t really matter…