re: #15 Sergey Romanov

The word “feel” should be deleted. It should read “all people wronged” because that limits the grievances to ones that are real. It’s possible to feel wronged without actually being wronged. It’s possible to be wrong about being wronged.

In 1980, Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon because he felt Lennon had wronged him. He hadn’t. Discerning the difference between one’s feelings and reality is an important part of being sane and thus an important part of political rhetoric.

Assuming that “corporate forces of the world” does or does not mean “all corporations” is just two sides of the same coin. Both assumptions are equally valid or invalid. That’s the problem with a lack of specificity. My default interpretation is to assume it means what it actually says. I consider that a prudent default position for interpreting anything. You interpret it to mean what you want it to mean, what you hope it means.

Why is charity of interpretation a must? Their enemies won’t be charitable. If I, a powerless asshole, can demolish their professed beliefs, think of what a powerful asshole could do.

As an example, here’s something else not very charitable — a crash test:

Youtube Video

Would one feel more safe or less safe if the crash tests performed on the car one drives to work every day were charitable?

I crash tested this Declaration. It failed.

When someone disses the Confederate America without getting more specific, does this mean they want to diss each and every Confederate citizen as a bad human being? Etc.

Is it wrong to say the Chinese are untrustworthy? I don’t know. I haven’t met them all yet.

Is it wrong to make a generalization about a group if you don’t mean everything in that group? Yes, it is.

Best case scenario: The authors of this Declaration and organizers of this protest are sensible, rational people who used imprecise wording.

Worst case scenario: They are irrational people involved in a secular version of what religious people call a prayer meeting, begging non-existent gods to cast the imaginary Great Satan (“corporate forces of the world”), the originator of all Sin who is to blame for all the things in the universe they don’t like, into the Lake Of Fire.