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That was, well, "interesting."
Jul. 29th, 2014 09:16 amSo yesterday (or actually over the weekend, but it got promoted to a lead post) I asked my favorite Professional Crank on the Internet (PCotI) "why shouldn't every free adult human be able to vote in the country they are a citizen of?" (The PCotI thinks that women shouldn't be allowed to vote.) Hilarity ensued.
Well, maybe not hilarity. I was told that:
1) Fascists and communists wanted women to vote. (Good think fascists and communists weren't in favor of dental hygiene, I guess.)
2) Women and illegal immigrants won't vote in the long-term interests of the state. (When I suggested that sounded better in the original Italian as delivered from Mussolini's balcony, well that was not well-received.)
3) Since the Founding Fathers only allowed male land-owners to vote, well that was the gold standard of voting. (The reason we got universal male suffrage is that men demanded it and threatened to take the vote by force.)
4) Women are akin to children in that they can't think long-term. (Do I need to comment on that?)
5) Only ex-soldiers should vote, or people not getting a check from the government. This ran downhill into whether or not public schools were good or bad. (PCotI's commenters are against public education. Again, no particular comment.)
6) Tom Kratman showed up, and accused me of "intellectual dishonesty" for refusing to admit that Hitler was freely voted into office. (Hitler came in second in an election marked with considerable physical violence and coercion. In any event, I never claimed voting was perfect.)
7) The evils of the War of Northern Aggression were discussed. (The South Carolina Declaration of Secession was, I was told, not relevant. In any event, the fact that white men voted to fight in defense of enslaving non-voting black men somehow proves that voting is bad. Yet we should let men vote but not women. If you can figure that one out, please let me know.)
8) There were a few commenters who stated the obvious - PCotI wanted to restrict the franchise so that his preferred political views would win at election time. These comments, despite being as obvious as farts in a bathtub, were ignored.
So, maybe not hilarity, but an "interesting" time was had.
Well, maybe not hilarity. I was told that:
1) Fascists and communists wanted women to vote. (Good think fascists and communists weren't in favor of dental hygiene, I guess.)
2) Women and illegal immigrants won't vote in the long-term interests of the state. (When I suggested that sounded better in the original Italian as delivered from Mussolini's balcony, well that was not well-received.)
3) Since the Founding Fathers only allowed male land-owners to vote, well that was the gold standard of voting. (The reason we got universal male suffrage is that men demanded it and threatened to take the vote by force.)
4) Women are akin to children in that they can't think long-term. (Do I need to comment on that?)
5) Only ex-soldiers should vote, or people not getting a check from the government. This ran downhill into whether or not public schools were good or bad. (PCotI's commenters are against public education. Again, no particular comment.)
6) Tom Kratman showed up, and accused me of "intellectual dishonesty" for refusing to admit that Hitler was freely voted into office. (Hitler came in second in an election marked with considerable physical violence and coercion. In any event, I never claimed voting was perfect.)
7) The evils of the War of Northern Aggression were discussed. (The South Carolina Declaration of Secession was, I was told, not relevant. In any event, the fact that white men voted to fight in defense of enslaving non-voting black men somehow proves that voting is bad. Yet we should let men vote but not women. If you can figure that one out, please let me know.)
8) There were a few commenters who stated the obvious - PCotI wanted to restrict the franchise so that his preferred political views would win at election time. These comments, despite being as obvious as farts in a bathtub, were ignored.
So, maybe not hilarity, but an "interesting" time was had.
