wsgy
1mo ago
Yeah, counter-revolutionary also applies in France ~1800. Heretic was a big one in Europe, "secret Catholic" in England at one point, "witch" practically everywhere, communist, terrorist, enemy of the state, enemy of the people, monarchist... I'm pretty sure humans are hard wired to do this crap to each other
wsgy
1mo ago
Good question because I'm really racking my brain and can't think of anything good. I'm assuming you're asking about xenophobia in particular having moral weight attached to it instead of any kind of morality language being used to shut down discussion or malign enemies because examples of the the latter numbers in the thousands. The only example I can think of doesn't feel the same even if it's in the same ballpark. "Misobarbaros" was an ancient Greek word for someone who hated foreigners too much. But this was more a "stop making fun of the savages, they don't know any better like us superior Greeks" kind of a way, and even then it doesn't seem to have the same moral weight as 'racist' does today. And it wasn't so much about race as it was about culture, customs, and language, which presumably can be changed
That seems to be the pattern through history, that admonishment for anything approaching race-hatred would be like being critical of someone who hates children in a more modern setting, and even people who hate kids these days still get to keep their jobs
It's better than calling things Black [day of the week]
I mean look at this shit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday
Who knows what someone is talking about when they say Black Monday?
wsgy
4mo ago
So it's useful to ask what's the difference between those nameless Chicago politicians he's not going to pardon and Blago. Blago was on the Celebrity Apprentice and personally knows Trump, and declared himself a supporter. Would that be enough for you to pardon him? Maybe not, but Trump is easy to flatter and isn't going to take any hits politically for this action. It's a guy doing a solid for someone that was on his TV show that said he likes him, I don't think you need to go much beyond that
wsgy
4mo ago
“It was a sort of a terrible injustice,” Trump said. “They just were after him. They go after a lot of people. These are bad people, the other side.”
Sounds to me like Trump feels like Blago is a kindred spirit unjustly persecuted by his political enemies. I don't think it goes much beyond that but you could make the argument that he's sending a message about lawfare. Blago has said in the past that he's a "Trumpocrat" so he's a supporter
wsgy
4mo ago
my own brand of scrawl that's so bad even my own signatures don't look alike
Yeah that seems like it would be a problem. Here in the US when you vote they compare your signature on your ID with the one you put down on record at the ballot place. If it's insufficiently similar I assume that means they can tell you to take a hike or something
wsgy
4mo ago
What do young people's signatures look like?
Everyone I know has a signature based on cursive script, but apparently schools aren't teaching it anymore, so what do young folks do on forms? Just print their name and draw some stars around it like Krusty the clown? I remember hearing there was a high level of ballot curing in Nevada because "young people don't have signatures anymore" but idk what that even means. Or even more broadly, is bad penmanship going to create legal problems because nobody writes things down anymore, they just type them?
"In the interest of justice" is an idiomatic "term of art" in the US legal system. When you see it, the best way to think of it is dropping the case would create the most just outcome for all parties involved, including the wider population, but what exactly that means could be just about anything, including "prosecuting this may lead to right-wing racism against Somalian immigrants". It's my understanding that was more or less the idea with Rotherham, but we don't know if anything like that occurred here
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