He did it, too!

I've revised this post.

This post is not about Cheney's drunken hunting trip, but about the debate idiocy commenting found all over the blogosphere. I found this comment on HuffPo on a story about Dick, my comments in red:

It's nice to see a man who takes responsibility for a mistake like the vice-President. Two days after the incident, and only because the political pressure was mounting.

Unlike BJ Clinton, the Veep has done nothing but tell the truth about this run of the mill hunting accident. What does Clinton have to do with Cheney shooting a man? This is the way righties "debate." Was it Clinton's fault Cheney shot a guy?

And you libs are going to make a big deal out of one beer for lunch? This one is a bit more serious. First of all, "one beer for lunch" never means one beer for lunch. Secondly, alcohol and guns should NEVER be used in combination. Believe me, I drink a lot of beer - I'm the last person to say one drop of alcohol makes you drunk. But guns are designed to kill things. Any amount of focus or caution that is lost is too much when handling something designed to kill something.

Heck, a certain Mass. Senator has a six pack by the time he brushes his teeth in the morning. Here's the righty "debate" again. He did it, too! Again, TK has nothing to do with the fact that Cheney shot a guy.

If a gop jumped off a cliff, would the rest of them follow? Seriously, this is a major problem with American political "discourse" on both sides of the spectrum. I'm amazed when I read blogs that say something like "all idiot liberals don't have any ideas so they resort to namecalling." Like idiot isn't namecalling? I'm inclined to believe that the lack of intelligent dialogue plaguing a significant chunk of the blogosphere has a lot to do with our system of education, which focuses on standardized tests rather than teaching critical thinking and skills like debate. There is a virulent strand of anti-intelluctualism running through this country, which is most evident in conversations about science and research. It's as if stupidity is glorified in our culture these days. Just look at how stupid characters are beloved in our movies and television shows. Come on, use facts, stick to the topic, and at least listen to what your opponent has to say.

A logical argument according to Wiki*, "is an attempt to demonstrate the truth of an assertion called a conclusion, based on the truth of a set of assertions called premises." The "he did it, too!" defense is a fallacy; using it simply makes your argument invalid. Tu quoque! Tu quoque! Give me a break.

*Normally I would not use wiki for a source, but in this case, the article is a good and simple explanation of logical argument.