I wasn't making a civility argument and I don't have the time in my life to fix every social problem I can identify.
Do you have a constructive point to make? You've taken everything I said completely out of context and made completely irrelevant responses. As it happens, the last sentence is the central point of my comment, and serves to motivate and justify the preceding two sentences. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear enough.
Maybe it would be useful to me to remember that a lot of people read English as if they were finite automata--once they read a given sentence they get their heads into a given state, even if the sentence immediately following it provides essential context to what I actually meant.
> I don't have the time in my life to fix every social problem I can identify.
I didn't say that you did. However, you do live in a world with those nasty social problems....
> Do you have a constructive point to make?
My point is that either you just bitch or you set up unreasonable constraints. The difference between the two or your reasons for them may be important to you, but the end result is pretty much the same.
> You've taken everything I said completely out of context and made completely irrelevant responses. As it happens, the last sentence is the central point of my comment, and serves to motivate and justify the preceding two sentences.
Oh really? Let's review that last sentence "Political enemies only want to discredit their opponents--they're not interested in truth, and for every Acorn video there's a Swift Boat smear campaign with no basis in fact."
That sentence says that you find it likely that the Acorn tapers managed to capture some "fact" and may have been interested in truth. Yet, that's not good enough for you. Since the folks with appropriate motives aren't doing the work, dismissing folks with "bad motives" means that you're going to do without.
Someone else already pointed out that your "no basis in fact" statement is false so it's unclear why you'd bring up that sentence.
Do you have a constructive point to make? You've taken everything I said completely out of context and made completely irrelevant responses. As it happens, the last sentence is the central point of my comment, and serves to motivate and justify the preceding two sentences. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear enough.
Maybe it would be useful to me to remember that a lot of people read English as if they were finite automata--once they read a given sentence they get their heads into a given state, even if the sentence immediately following it provides essential context to what I actually meant.