re: #71 Destro

Destro, I am on your ‘side’ on this issue. I’m not pettifogging. It’s a nice word: completely inappropriate. What I’m doing is pointing out a flaw in your argument: privatization usually means turning over government services to a for-profit firm, but it can also mean to turn a government agency into a standalong non-profit— like PBS.

Furthermore, you’re really shooting yourself in the foot with the ‘slippery slope’ argument, because i’m fairly sure PBS has been an independent non-profit basically since it’s inception. Non-profits do not tend to become for-profits; what happened with TLC is unusual and totally worth actually looking at if you’re actually interested in the issue.

I really don’t get whey someone who’s clearly bright and motivated is as stupidly stubborn as you. It’s fucking ridiculous and you’re damaging your arguments horrendously by acting like such an idiot. All you had to do was acknowledge that PBS was private, and that the real problem was the for-profit/non-profit distinction. Instead, you’ve dug your heels in, refused to acknowledge your mistake, kept trying to fight me on whether PBS is private, and accused me of having some sort of privatization agenda.

When you wind up attacking people on your side to defend a bad argument, you’ve seriously fucked up. Not quite as much as defending the coverup of war crimes, but still a pretty big fuckup.