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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   31282 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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You appear to be acting on the assumption that "you can't prove X" and "X didn't happen" are equivalent statements and the point that I am trying to make is that they are not.

I have no clue how you arrived at this interpretation, and if you can point to what I said that made you think this that would be helpful. No, I do not believe those statements are equivalent. I also don't believe "you can't prove X didn't happen" and "X did happen" are equivalent statements either.

People should absolutely be punished for trusting bogus information because that's how you nip that shit in the bud. If you want people to trust government officials your first, last, and only priority should be ensuring that government officials are trustworthy.

Uh, what? Nip what in the bud? How does prosecuting the people who believed the government help encourage the government to be more trustworthy? Shouldn't you direct your efforts towards...the government?

I have no clue how you arrived at this interpretation,

Explain to me then how you made the jump from absence of evidence to evidence of absence.

A big chunk of this argument has always been about the book-keeping. Things like requiring ID to vote, having documented chains of custody for ballot boxes, third party observers in the counting rooms, etc... are put in place specifically to keep people honest and act as evidence against fraud. Elections are by nature adversarial, and as such the absence of such evidence can be interpreted circumstantial evidence in itself.

For a less emotionally fraught example, imagine a dealers' service agreement that explicitly excludes the car's transmission from the warranty. What would your immediate suspicion be? I can tell you what mine would be.

Shouldn't you direct your efforts towards... the government?

In an ideal world, maybe. But in the real world asking a government agency to oversee itself is almost always a losing proposition.

For a less emotionally fraught example, imagine a dealers' service agreement that explicitly excludes the car's transmission from the warranty. What would your immediate suspicion be? I can tell you what mine would be.

Sure, I'd be suspicious of the transmission. What part of the voting system is this supposed to map to your analogy?

But in the real world asking a government agency to oversee itself is almost always a losing proposition.

This is bewildering. You haven't explained how prosecuting normal people for believing the government advances any interest. What problem does this solve? What behavior is this supposed to encourage?

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