[ExI] miscommunication (was: Yet another health care debate)

[Damien Sullivan]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 11:52:39AM -0400, John K Clark wrote:
> "Damien Broderick" <thespike at satx.rr.com>
> 
> >I was pointing out how John Clark's indignant misreading of BillK's
> >post completely distorted and reversed what BillK had written.
> 
> BillK (the man who thinks Walmart is the biggest enemy that
> America has) wrote:
> 
> "Extreme libertarians do, from time to time, bring up the
> suggestion of letting all the poor, mentally disabled, physically
> disabled, etc. fall by the wayside (evolution in action), but we
> are trying to civilize them."
> 
> At the time I honestly thought "them" referred to the
> "mentally disabled" not to "Extreme libertarians". Amd despite

Did you think "civilize them" also referred to the poor, physically
disabled, etc.?  That seems the only way to be consistent.  Either way,
your reading seems bizarre to me; that 'them' reached back to "extreme
libertarians" seemed obvious, and to make better use of the 'but'.

"X bring up the (horrific) suggestion of Y, but we are trying to
civilize X" vs. "X bring up the suggestion of Y, but we are trying to
Z."

-xx- Damien X-)