{"id":14564,"date":"2026-10-24T14:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T21:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/?p=14564"},"modified":"2026-10-24T16:09:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:09:58","slug":"a-facebook-sampler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2026\/10\/24\/a-facebook-sampler\/","title":{"rendered":"A Facebook Sampler; Political Language; Political Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Examples of some of the more measured things I post on Facebook.<\/p>\n

PROPAGANDA<\/p>\n

Despite the term’s largely pejorative connotation, propaganda is not by definition false or misleading or harmful. Propaganda is anything of a verbal or pictorial nature that is propagated to influence behavior. Propaganda can consist of truths or falsehoods, good advice or bad, exhortation to good behavior or subornation of bad. Anti-smoking and anti-drug messages are propaganda but the messages are salutary. Leftist propaganda is mainly destructive while conservative propaganda typically inspires ameliorative action.<\/p>\n

SKEPTICISM ABOUT GOVERMENT<\/p>\n

Skepticism about government\u00a0 is a classically American attitude. It is based in a sober, and indeed conservative, understanding of human nature. Men are not angels. They are flawed, fallible, and easily suborned by their lusts, in particular, their lust for power. Government puts a check on the power that corrupts. But it also must be borne in mind that those in government are just like the rest of us. Their power must be kept in check by the governed. The Founders understood all this. They were a rare and highly distinguished generation of philosophers who were also men of action.\u00a0 They were our greatest generation, not those who fought and died in World War II.<\/p>\n

THE ALTAR OF ACTIVISM<\/p>\n

Don’t sacrifice your happiness on the altar of activism. Although happiness involves activity as Aristotle observed, it also involves rest, appreciation, enjoyment, gratitude, contentment, and contemplation. These, especially the last five, are deeply conservative. And they lie beyond the political.\u00a0We conservatives should be politically active only to the extent that it is necessary to beat back the totalitarians for whom the political is everything. And beat back these bastards we must.<\/div>\n
…………………………….<\/div>\n
My tone in the final sentence third piece moves toward the polemical. More so in the following one.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
IGNORE THE POLLS<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ignore the polls whether or not they are fake. Some of them are<\/a>. Polls can induce complacency or the opposite. Just vote!<\/em> But never for any Islamo-commie. And if you are concerned about the short-term uptick in the price of gasoline, I say you are selfish, short-sighted shithead, lost in your petty personal life, and no true conservative. Just one nuclear explosion over your shallow pate will ruin your whole day.\u00a0 You won’t stand against Muslim savagery because you don’t want to pay more for gasoline in the short term? Then I say you are contemptible. Drive less.\u00a0 Learn how to drive efficiently. Learn how to drive, period. Get your priorities straight.<\/div>\n
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I don’t hesitate in polemical venues to call our political enemies scumbags and shitheads, although I sometimes package\u00a0 the latter epithet in quasi-civil terms of ‘intracranial feculence.’\u00a0 This polemical practice of mine raises questions not just of taste and good manners, but of morality.\u00a0 Is it perhaps morally wrong to address our fellow mortals with terms of contempt? Or does personal abuse have a morally legitimate use?\u00a0 This is not an easy question to answer, and I remain open on it.\u00a0 But it is a fascinating area of investigation. What should we call it? Political ethics?<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Although ‘scumbag’ is an abusive term, it has a non-abusive semantic core to the effect that the one to whom the term is applied is morally reprehensible. If I call you morally\u00a0 reprehensible, I am not abusing you but expressing\u00a0 a considered moral judgment. Judge we must: ourselves and others.\u00a0 Judge, and be prepared to be judged! Thus spoke Ayn Rand. I could argue that it is consistent with the New Testament verse, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” But that’s a difficult topic for another occasion.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Compare ‘stupid’ and ‘scumbag.’ Neither is nice. Both are abusive. But the difference is that the non-abusive semantic core of ‘stupid’ is non-moral whereas the core of ‘scumbag’ is moral. The non-abusive core of ‘stupid’ is unintelligent<\/em>.\u00a0 When I call Kamala Harris stupid, I am expressing my factual (non-moral) judgment that she lacks intelligence, or the sorts of intelligence required for the positions she aspires to hold. But I am doing more: I am showing disrespect for her.\u00a0 I am ‘dissing’ her. Is that morally allowable? It is if she is personally responsible for her lack of intelligence.\u00a0 For I would insist that we all have a moral obligation to develop our intellects as far as we can up to the innate limits that we have no control over. (Ought<\/em> implies can<\/em>; ultra posse nemo obligatur<\/em>.) To the extent that a person fails to meet this moral obligation, I feel justified in charging her with willful self-enstupidation, a charge which is itself abusive, but not merely abusive.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0You can see how complicated this discussion can become. Time to bring this installment to a close. In the present circumstances, our political opponents are\u00a0 not mere opponents but enemies<\/em>.\u00a0 Our enemies pose an existential<\/em> threat to us. An existential threat is not merely a threat to our biological life but to our way of life<\/em> which goes well beyond the biotic into the economic, the social, the cultural, the historical, and the spiritual, the latter of which\u00a0 embraces both Hegel’s objektiver Geist<\/em> and his subjektiver Geist<\/em>.\u00a0 Political punch-back with abusive language is justified in the present circumstances\u00a0 given that our political opponents are\u00a0 subversives who pose a mortal treat to our system of government, the best system the mind of man has yet to develop.\u00a0 Liberty-loving patriotic Americans will not accept Islamo-commie DSA-Dem dhimmitude. You must vote! and do it now.\u00a0 If we can defeat the Islamo-commie scum politically, we won’t have to reach for the extra-political. No one his right mind could want that. Long live the Republic!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Examples of some of the more measured things I post on Facebook. PROPAGANDA Despite the term’s largely pejorative connotation, propaganda is not by definition false or misleading or harmful. Propaganda is anything of a verbal or pictorial nature that is propagated to influence behavior. Propaganda can consist of truths or falsehoods, good advice or bad, … Continue reading “A Facebook Sampler; Political Language; Political Ethics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,158,6,43,123,56,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facebook-posts","category-invective","category-language-matters","category-political-language","category-political-morality","category-politics","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14564"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14570,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14564\/revisions\/14570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}