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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Lane3 who wrote (99181)2/7/2005 8:23:19 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (2) of 793718
 
If all you mean to say is that logically (ABCDE) doesn't include F (or in other words 5 traits that Bush and Kim Jong Il might possibly have in common, don't mean they have other traits in common), than we agree, and I think the other people objecting to the article would also agree. The objection is to the use of this rhetorical device to cause people to think F (or f). Its bad enough (pure rhetoric without logical support) when you don't include someone as odious as Kim in the comparison, but when you do through in someone like Kim (or Hitler, or Osama ect.) than you are going to offend people and generate more heat than light in the discussion. Such a technique can be useful for rhetorical purposes (but it could backfire as well if people who lean towards some of your position get offended by the tactic), but it doesn't normally produce interesting or informative discussion. Its sort of like a more sophisticated and subtle version of a flame. Not a crude bash but instead a statement with twisted implications, that also allows one to fall back from the statement and say "I never meant anything like that".

The version with Hitler has become clichéd and also is even more likely to offend. The author at least had the intelligence to avoid that cliché, but a comparison to Kim isn't much better.

Tim
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