Comments on: Will-You-Condemn-athon

By: | Waveflux

| Waveflux — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:21:31 +0000

[...] Crooked Timber: That most popular rhetorical tactic of wanker pundits worldwide, made into a round robin – the Will-You-Condemn-athon! Related, somewhat: Official blog of…? Bush’s Iraq strategy is a Sidney Harris cartoon Showing that presidential timber once more Matt Blunt, GOP candidate and smarmy punk These Weight Watchers ads are wack [...]

By: Mrs Tilton

Mrs Tilton — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:38:48 +0000

Don’t know much about New Ulm, Manitoba, or wherever the u- it was. But may I just point out that the original New Ulm (or “Neu-Ulm”, as the natives quaintly spell it) is a complete shithole.

And, just across a not terribly broad river, Ulm proper is no great shakes itself. Should you find yourself there, though, you can usefully spend an hour or two in the Fishermens’ Quarter, or climb to the top of the Minster for the views.

By: Bill Gardner

Bill Gardner — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:55:21 +0000

“Dogs or peasants?”

Dogs. The good people of German Village were brewery workers, not farmers.

By: bi

bi — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:28:27 +0000

Hidari, abb1:

It’s quite definitely a special case of the Fallacy of Association, which itself is a special case of the Ad Hominem. I think the distinguishing characteristic is the “condemnation” part.

Maybe an Argument by Lack of Condemnation?

By: Grand Moff Texan

Grand Moff Texan — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:06:29 +0000

In New Ulm, Minnesota …

OK, now THAT’s funny!
.

By: neil

neil — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:55:02 +0000

Barack Obama: Will You Condemn the Weathermen?

By: abb1

abb1 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:40:11 +0000

Hidari,
this is a garden variety argumentum ad hominem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:24:11 +0000

I imagine that the Arminius statues had something to do with the Franco-Prussian War.

By: rea

rea — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:22:17 +0000

But aren’t you are asking a lot from Quintilius Varus? Seeing as he already killed his own self?

Suetonius reports that, after news of the battle reached Augustus, he walked his palace for days, banging his head against the wall, and shouting, “Quintili Vare, legiones redde!”

So, yeah, it’s asking a lot, but it’s not me that’s doing the asking . . .

By: Suspicious Behavior « The Opinion Mill

Suspicious Behavior « The Opinion Mill — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:33:21 +0000

[...] 15, 2008 I note a suspicious reluctance among people of the Left to condemn the outcome of the Battle of Manzikert. Talk about being soft on the War On Terra! Posted by [...]

By: chris y

chris y — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:31:00 +0000

slaughtered German Shepherds

Dogs or peasants? I need to calibrate my outrage. Of course German Shepherd dogs have been known as Alsatians in Britain since 1914.

By: Hidari

Hidari — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:28:28 +0000

Incidentally the Christopher Hitchens fallacy, should, of course, be ‘Adolf Hitler was against smoking. Therefore, if you are in favour of the smoking ban, you, personally, are responsible for the Holocaust.’’

This is very closely related to his ‘You support X. Y also supports X. Therefore you are Y. And twice as ugly.’ fallacy.

By: Bill Gardner

Bill Gardner — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:26:11 +0000

“In New Ulm, Minnesota there is a 102-foot-tall statue the man who defeated the Romans at Teutoburg Forest—Arminius, locally known as “Herman the German”. It was built in 1897 and somehow survived WWI and WWII.”

That survival is interesting. I live in the German Village neighborhood of Columbus, OH. It just about the oldest part of the city, and in the late 19th century the public schools taught auf Deutsch, in part because that’s what was spoken and in part because it was believed that German schools were better. In 1917, however, they burned books in German and—we’re told—slaughtered German Shepherds in Schiller Park.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:02:07 +0000

Rea, there was some sort of direct or inderect connection between the two monuments.

By: rea

rea — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:55:38 +0000

John, that monument in New Ulm looks an awful lot like this one, in Detmold, Germany (where the battle did not take place, according to modern research):

http://www.teutoburgerwald.de/hermannshoehen/hermannshoehen/orte_am_weg/detmold.php