So check this shit out. Today I'm driving around, and I see a big redneck-type truck on the road with a sticker in the back window that says, "We Support Terrorist Prisoner Abuse."
No shit.
That isn't the conclusion that I reached after reading a milder, more eloquent and thought-out slogan, if that's possible when expressing this kind of sentiment. This isn't a generalization I made based on the size of the truck or the number of American flags it had displayed on it (2). This is verbatim what the sticker said.
Now... there are several issues that I take with this sticker. First of all, how can you support abuse? Abuse by its definition is the misuse of something. So basically they're saying "We Support Mistreating Terrorist Prisoners." They're acknowledging that the abuse is in fact mistreatment, and therefore wrong, but then saying that they support it, which I'm not sure is even possible. You can say that you support a particular method of doing something, and therefore contest the opinion that it is in fact abuse or misuse, but I don't think that you can support abuse.
And of course, aside from the fallacious nature of the statement itself, is the message behind the statement. "Yes, we're okay with mistreating this type of person." Even if it's a terrorist, that's fucked up, isn't it?
It blew me away. If that guy had a sticker that said "We Support The Abuse of Niggers" he'd get pulled over by the cops. But it's okay to discriminate against an ambiguous, hyperbolic "terrorist?" It just... amazes me. Right?
No shit.
That isn't the conclusion that I reached after reading a milder, more eloquent and thought-out slogan, if that's possible when expressing this kind of sentiment. This isn't a generalization I made based on the size of the truck or the number of American flags it had displayed on it (2). This is verbatim what the sticker said.
Now... there are several issues that I take with this sticker. First of all, how can you support abuse? Abuse by its definition is the misuse of something. So basically they're saying "We Support Mistreating Terrorist Prisoners." They're acknowledging that the abuse is in fact mistreatment, and therefore wrong, but then saying that they support it, which I'm not sure is even possible. You can say that you support a particular method of doing something, and therefore contest the opinion that it is in fact abuse or misuse, but I don't think that you can support abuse.
And of course, aside from the fallacious nature of the statement itself, is the message behind the statement. "Yes, we're okay with mistreating this type of person." Even if it's a terrorist, that's fucked up, isn't it?
It blew me away. If that guy had a sticker that said "We Support The Abuse of Niggers" he'd get pulled over by the cops. But it's okay to discriminate against an ambiguous, hyperbolic "terrorist?" It just... amazes me. Right?