re: #268 Obdicut

I think you’re applying a blanket definition to the word ‘trend’ that doesn’t apply.

For example, you can characterize a place as having a drought by noting a trend of far less than average rainfall over a course of a few years. Doing so requires a long-term knowledge of the trends of rainfall in that region, but the drought is characterized by a short-term trend.

but short-term trends are not a cause for alarm unless their context (i.e. long-term history) would indicate a cause for alarm. therefore, you are either alarmed about a short-term trend without understanding the longer-term context, or you believe that the longer-term context…for example, the past century…should lead us to look upon the last decade with alarm. in that case, please illuminate the longer-term context for me.

and that’s even if i accept the premise that there is “more”…what was your term…’influence of the radical religious right’…which i don’t.