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Thought you were "registered to vote" think again...

  • #21
actually i never connected the wackos doing this stuff directly to Obama....highly doubt he would have the time to do much on influencing this kinda thing not to mention he would have to be brain dead to try to do it......just like i doubt McCain would.........just seems its more likely to happen to the Demo's if for no other reason then they practice this kinda voter registration more and by a pure numbers stand point.....the more you do this kinda thing the more likely some wacko is going to be able to get in and do harm.....i dont think these kinds of voter registrations should be stopped per-say.....just that they should be looked over more carefully.......with BOTH parties.........
 
  • #22
dude ive got to show proof of residence and a photo ID when i vote, and this is in a small town where i KNOW the election judges on a personal basis....maybe tighten up the voting laws in some of these states and this crap couldnt happen........

But tightening up voting laws would prevent illegal aliens from voting for Obama!
 
  • #23
actually i never connected the wackos doing this stuff directly to Obama....

I didn't mean to imply that you did, I'm just still disillusioned about Florida in the 2000 election.
~Joe
 
  • #24
Conspiracy and Agenda both signify the same thing a group working to further their own goals. It is a semantics issue, not a word definition issue. Semantics is the study of how words affect our perception. Conspiracy is certainly not the only word which operates this way but it's a good starting point for today's lesson. My "Agenda" is your "Conspiracy", and your "Agenda" is my "Conspiracy". It all depends upon your reality-tunnel ("worldview" as Palin likes to say) and what your conditioning has taught you to believe / perceive. When someone uses the word "conspiracy", lights go off inside your head, some people's heart beat a bit faster, basically emotions get fired up for folks on both sides. People use these sorts of words instead of others because of the effects they elicit. Politicians especially have speech writers who are semantics experts, this is why they're so often fumbling morons in interviews but have good speeches. When you hear a pundit say "he used all the right words tonight" semantics is to what they are referring.

Just like I used "Reds" earlier (just to keep on earning my shady political pot stirrer label) by using "Reds" I could well have meant any group affiliated with red in all of history: italian fascists, russian communists, chinese maoists, monks in red robes, the rosicrucians, the vampire goth kids who call themselves Reds... Any affiliations made to a specific historical group wearing Red to Republicans was perceived and projected from your own mind by me using the color descriptive term Reds. As Count Alfred Korzybski said, "We are all greater artists than we realize." or even "We are all islands of perception shouting across oceans of misunderstanding."

But anyway onto today's example, read the following group descriptions and note your emotional reactions and images projected in your mind when you read each one. I don't care what your stance is on the subject, just note how you feel when you read / think about each sentence



The Agenda to End Abortion



The Conspiracy to End Abortion Rights



Both statements signify two groups with the same ideals but the description of one of them is much more pejorative and seems crazy. "Those people" might do anything, while "those others" probably just sit in meetings all day drinking coffee and discussing things.


The exercise for tonight is to see how many semantic "spooks" (i.e. conspiracy used for agenda, etc) you can find when you watch the pundit news tonight (FOX, CNN, MSNBC, etc.). Make a list you'll really be surprised. Then watch the BBC and make another list of the same type of words, you'll really be surprised at the lack of provocative semantics.

(Extrapolated from Swords' Archive for the Conspiracy to Affect Free Thought - I think... :-D )
 
  • #25
So the take-home message is that you don't like the word conspiracy attached to your views on certain people's agendas? :poke:

MMkay... in my "worldveiw" I see them as synonyms in certain contexts but not others, but I see your point.
 
  • #26
So the take-home message is that you don't like the word conspiracy attached to your views on certain people's agendas? :poke:
Lol , who of us does? Do you? ;)

The real take home message I have for you today my friends, is that I think people need to understand the words they being exposed to and how the words we use effect our perceptions. I told you "conspiracy" is only one example of many, almost any word can be made into a semantic spook if you use it in the "right" (or wrong) way to elicit the desired response. Often pundits call them "buzz words". I pointed out my own intentional use of "Reds" earlier to guarantee an emotional reaction to this thread which is the effect I was looking for. See if you can come up with some more examples, or as I said watch the news and easily gather up a list of them. Semantics is used on all sides of an issue to effect perception of the issue. Once people understand this aspect of manipulation they may be able to step away from the emotionality of the American political game and perhaps see it for what it seems to be to me, politicians exercising control over peoples minds and emotions.

My mags London writer says of their elections the campaigns are so short he thinks all parties actively try to keep them secret until the day before election when all the posters suddenly go up. In reality it's not quite that way but their campaign season is around six weeks, as opposed to two years. Hardly enough time for the embedded semantics we see in our republic.
 
  • #28
Also, one person can have an agenda. It takes two to conspire.
~Joe
 
  • #29
Speaking of "reds"..
who decided the Republican states would be "Red states" and the democrat states would be "blue states"??

they got it backwards..

it would make so much more sense if Democrat = Red and Republican = Blue..
just because people are used to associating "left" with "red"..
we have decades of association with that..

politics aside, its just the more obvious color choice..

just something that always bothered me..

Scot
 
  • #30
alright swords.....here is where we got on the wrong foot....your up in arms about voter INTIMIDATION........the article you posted was about voter FRAUD, which the ppl involved were defiantly guilty of.........two different things.....and i agree both suck but next time find an article to post that supports your argument instead of one thats actually about something different....

i agree voter intimidation should be severly punished but damn man you went off the hook about voter intimidation the repubs supposedly do(actually the worst corruption ive seen is in dem vs dem races around here) but the article was most defiantly about voter fraud that Obama supporters most defiantly look guilty of in the story you posted
 
  • #31
As I had said back at the beginning, I fear this fraud allegation is only the start ("tip of the iceberg" was my phrase) of the voter intimidation season. If all 1.4 million voters who registered with ACORN are summarily tossed out just because they came from ACORN, or if the people who registered with them believe that their vote will not be allowed because they signed up with this group because of the media - which is how the big news networks make it sound. Then this to me, is another form of intimidating and disenfranchising a huge number of voters. If indeed the legitimate people who signed up through ACORN's new voter registrations are valid the same big media outlets need to come forward and make sure those new voters know this.

That sir, was my point on how this seems to be a form of voter intimidation. It's ok if you feel differently than me but that's how I see see it.
 
  • #32
what i would do is toss out any suspicious registration from any office(not just ACORN, not just Dem voter registration drives, im happy to throw Repubs in this too) where major fraud is apparent.......i would then run PSA's in the local newspapers, radio and TV stating what happened and give those that went through those f'ed up offices a chance to re register before the election.....i would also send a notice via the mail to any suspicious registration that has an address and inform them of the problem and allow them the chance to re-register if it was actually just something that looked odd but is infact legit(for example i know in the next county over there is a road officially named "Psycho Path" but that would look odd to and possibly fraudulent to individuals not familiar with it....)

im all for severe punishment for all that do voter intimidation.....have no problem slapping them with a felony and taking away their right to vote along with mandatory prison time.........dont care who it is........
 
  • #33
Well then I don't think we're too far opposed in our view on this after all.

He he "Psycho Path", that's as good as "Druid Lane" by my granny's house. I'd be happy to say I lived on either! :)
 
  • #34
swords.....push comes to shove i care a great deal bout the ideals this country was formed under......im all for every person legally able to vote to do so.....regardless of its effect on the outcome of the election.....as a result i am highly against any form of voter fraud and intimidation.....i have no problem calling BS and am all for locking up the SOB's that do it even if they do it in the name of the guy im supporting.....
 
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