I put my post about “how to best represent county-level election data”:https://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002820.html on “my own weblog”:http://www.kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/000943.html#000943 as well. Yesterday it got linked to from “this thread”:http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/guntalk/config.pl?read=15832 on the “CSP Gun Talk Forum”:http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/guntalk/config.pl. Apparently, trying to present the data honestly is a problem:
Re: Don’t let “them” get away with it!
Posted By: those Sore Losers
They are rewriting history as we speak …….. !!!
Look at the map below >>>
then Go to the link below the map for the real shock >>>
Then they provide their own analysis:
bq. The only reason New Mexico and Colorado have any blue counties is because of all the idiot Kalafornicators that moved there. The only reason south Texas is blue is because of all the illegal mexicans that live there. It is sad the dimocrap city slickers want to force their pitiful way of life on the rest of us country folks…….maybe we need to wall off the large metro areas of the country…..chris3
{ 27 comments }
Benedict Eastaugh 11.05.04 at 4:46 pm
Morons in shock-horror display of internet stupidity! Hold the front page!
In all seriousness, such posts are as common as muck and tell us nothing beyond the fact that out there in the world there are ignorant idiots. Beyond providing you and your audience with some modicum of satisfaction (the “How stupid are these people?” effect being best when it’s shared), I don’t see that this post does anything beyond tarnishing your personal credibility.
Kieran Healy 11.05.04 at 4:51 pm
I don’t see that this post does anything beyond tarnishing your personal credibility.
I beg your pardon?
I’ll just take a deep breath and note only that it wasn’t _me_ who used the phrases “ignorant idiots” and “How stupid _are_ these people?” All I said was “Sore Winners.”
Shelby 11.05.04 at 4:55 pm
I think the broader point is that we all know there are morons out there (across the political spectrum) and that these particular morons don’t bring anything of interest to the discussion.
Perhaps Benedict means you tarnish your credibility by re-posting the idiocy; I certainly didn’t read your post as suggesting you made those statements.
Kieran Healy 11.05.04 at 5:01 pm
you tarnish your credibility by re-posting the idiocy
I see. You don’t think that this is an odd test for when someone’s credibility gets tarnished? I mean, is there a little bit of tarnish for everyone who comments on this thread — which only encourages people to read the quoted posts again — or do I get the whole bucket of tarnish to myself?
des von bladet has no credibility and he must tarnish! 11.05.04 at 5:07 pm
N’yah.
It has turned out that the real [sic] threat of post-modernity was not so much to the instrumental rationality of science and logique, but rather to the dialectical rationality of the agoras.
It is not the substitution of good old-fashioned hand-made reality with Baudrillard’s media-mediated hyperreality that has turned out to be the problem, but instead the reimagining of political discourse in the FDRUSA along the lines of a perpetual USENET flame-war.
Flame On, Once Great Nation(TM)! Flame On!
Immanentize that eschaton!
Immanentize it harder: we (Good Europeans) do so enjoy a spectacle!
novalis 11.05.04 at 5:20 pm
maybe we need to wall off the large metro areas of the country
Haven’t people on the left proposed the converse? Canada 2.0, for instance.
novalis 11.05.04 at 5:22 pm
maybe we need to wall off the large metro areas of the country
Haven’t people on the left proposed the converse? Canada 2.0, for instance.
Shelby 11.05.04 at 5:30 pm
You don’t think that this is an odd test for when someone’s credibility gets tarnished?
Actually, I do think it’s an odd test. I was guessing what Benedict meant, not endorsing it.
do I get the whole bucket of tarnish to myself?
Take as much as you need. I’m sure there will be enough left for everyone.
Shelby 11.05.04 at 5:32 pm
You don’t think that this is an odd test for when someone’s credibility gets tarnished?
Actually, yes I do. I was guessing what Benedict meant, not endorsing it.
do I get the whole bucket of tarnish to myself?
Take as much as you want. I’m sure there’ll be enough for everyone.
PG 11.05.04 at 5:33 pm
Too bad that we can’t get one of those satellite image maps to zoom in at the county level, to show how people voted within the county, just so my tiny dot of blue could represent.
The way things are going in Texas, I might have to argue that the “straight ticket” option at the top of the ballot is excessively prejudicial to local Dems…
Kieran Healy 11.05.04 at 5:35 pm
I was guessing what Benedict meant, not endorsing it.
I feel that reposting his comment did little beyond tarnishing your own credibility, Shelb.
;-)
Shelby 11.05.04 at 5:35 pm
Sorry — after the first post I got a “cannot load” message, so I re-wrote it.
Kieran Healy 11.05.04 at 5:36 pm
I was guessing what Benedict meant, not endorsing it.
I feel that reposting his comment did little beyond tarnishing your own credibility, Shelb.
;-)
PG 11.05.04 at 5:38 pm
I wish we could get the detailed satellite maps of each county done up in election colors, just so my little dot of blue could represent.
In Texas politics, I might have to start arguing that the “straight ticket” option is excessively prejudicial to the local Democratic politicians, who ought not be associated with the national ones if they want any hope of election.
George Williams 11.05.04 at 5:46 pm
“I was guessing what Benedict meant, not endorsing it.”
I feel that reposting his comment did little beyond tarnishing your own credibility, Shelb.
Kieran, by resposting the repost, you are merely tarnishing the tarnish on your reputation.
bncthor 11.05.04 at 5:59 pm
…”the illegal mexicans that live there.”
The capacity of humans to engage in folly is unlimited. How can a Mexican be illegal? We need to find a way to allow Mexicans to do our dirty jobs, but them magically disappear during non-working hours, and just as magically return for work next day.
Kieran Healy 11.05.04 at 6:26 pm
you are merely tarnishing the tarnish on your reputation.
Varnishing it, maybe. A second coat.
me2i81 11.05.04 at 6:27 pm
We need to find a way to allow Mexicans to do our dirty jobs, but them magically disappear during non-working hours, and just as magically return for work next day.
And then we can require that they contribute to a retirement fund, and then steal it. It worked so well the last time.
Benedict Eastaugh 11.05.04 at 6:30 pm
“I think the broader point is that we all know there are morons out there (across the political spectrum) and that these particular morons don’t bring anything of interest to the discussion.”
Shelby illustrates part of what I meant rather better than I did, the other part being that if drawing attention to an interesting point of view wasn’t the purpose of the post, then laughing at them probably was (and that this was unworthy of you and of Crooked Timber generally).
I personally have no qualms about calling such people names, but then I don’t really feel I personally have any credibility to tarnish.
jet 11.05.04 at 6:58 pm
No, let’s laugh at the dumb rednecks. You know you want to, and you did just lose an election to them. Isn’t cherry picking some grand examples of their ignorance the best thing we could do in this time of introspection?
Perhaps there is a “Crooked Timber” on the right cherry picking some exerpts from IndieMedia and having a good chuckle. How better to elevate the debate than by magnify the worst each side has to offer?
Jackmormon 11.05.04 at 7:29 pm
A caller to a CSPAN program on the campaigns last night made a similar point to these guys you linked to. He argued that the Democrats only had a chance because of “a few presincts outside of LA and NYC.” And when you look at the map, with all its vast red states, you can see why these people feel justified in loathing those tiny blue patches. Unfortunately for them, electoral clout still has something to do with population…
Keith M Ellis 11.05.04 at 11:03 pm
It’s a cheap shot to pick some morons of opposing beliefs and mock them.
On the other hand, it’s surprising to me, although perhaps it shouldn’t be, that someone would think that “look at all that red relative to so little blue” could be very meaningful without correcting for geographical area. But they think it’s a form of lying!
Morons.
(Also: the only blue NM county that’s arguably due to “kalifornicators” is Santa Fe county. Every other blue NM county is not. And Albuquerque isn’t even majority Hispanic. And all the northern blue counties, at least, that are majority Hispanic are of families that have been living in the area since before the US was founded. Probably a portion of the blue along the border is “illegal immigrants”, I guess, although the poster doesn’t exactly explain how it is that illegal immigrants are voting in a national election. But most of those south Texas Rio Grande valley folks are Hispanics that have lived there for a long, long while.)
Walt Pohl 11.05.04 at 11:47 pm
Jet: Notice that it’s not just dumb people — it’s dumb people being dumb about a post on Crooked Timber.
Kieran Healy 11.06.04 at 12:19 am
Isn’t cherry picking some grand examples …
Come on, Jet, _I_ wasn’t the one trawling around looking for the worst I could find. It was the other way around: _they_ linked to _me_ in their effort to cherry pick some grand examples of liberal elitist blah de blah.
Tim 11.06.04 at 4:48 am
Just keep brushing away chris3’s thoughts as redneck ranting, and you will continue losing touch with America, and losing elections.
Open minded people will consider what was said and try to analyze the reasons people feel the way they do. But you just arrogantly dismiss it as “tarnish.” So much for the open-minded progressives!
Well, it does give me satisfaction to witness you fine fellows muddling about in shock, confusion, and self delusion. As for me, I’ll be heading to the gunstore later to buy me some new “assault weapons” with the money I saved from my tax cuts. You really ought to take up shooting, it’s such an enjoyable stress-reliever, something you boys really need lately.
Kieran Healy 11.06.04 at 5:18 am
But you just arrogantly dismiss it as “tarnish.â€
So now I’m tarnishing myself with a brush I am also arrogantly dismissing? I clearly can’t win around here.
yabonn 11.06.04 at 9:43 pm
What a sticky fingers bunch you all are. Could anyone please pass the tarnish?
… Or roll another at least?
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