[ExI] us

[Dave S]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 1:16 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>  Dave wrote:
>
> >…No, vaccines aren't disinfectants. A disinfectant is a chemical that
> kills microbes directly. A vaccine prepares the host's immune system to
> attack a specific microbe. A world leader should know better than to
> speculate about possible medical treatments in public…
>
>
>
> Granted that matter shouldn’t be discussed by politicians.  However, if it
> is, it shouldn’t be leveraged by politicians to political advantage by
> modifying the statement to trick one’s political opponents’ followers into
> drinking bleach, which is what may have happened.
>

It may have been intentional or it could have just been a sloppy
paraphrase. Unfortunately, Biden is old enough that you can't rule out the
latter.


> We end up splitting hairs on the definition of disinfectant.  A virus
> infects a host.  Anything that fights that infection is (in my mind)
> literally a disinfectant.
>

You're entitled to your own definitions of common terms, but don't be
surprised when that causes confusion.

The current definition of the term specifies bacteria, and viruses are not
> bacteria, so perhaps one could argue that direction.
>

Again, that may be your current definition, but it's not the commonly used
one.


> Let us run with this just a bit.  If a politician suggests ingesting a
> disinfectant, then opposing politicians substitute a more specific term
> than “disinfectant” such as bleach, then may we also substitute a less
> specific term?
>

No.


> Bleach, and all disinfectants are artificial disease fighting agents, this
> being a general term which includes all disinfectants including bleach.  So
> is it then OK to say the politician suggested ingesting an artificial
> disease fighting agent?
>

No.


> Would it be OK to say that means the same thing?
>

No.


> If that is OK, then those who opposed that statement oppose artificial
> disease fighting agents, which means they also oppose vaccines.  Are we
> anti-vaxers now Dave?
>

No.


>  It is misleading to substitute a different term for what was actually
> said, either more specific or more general.
>

Agreed.

>   Go to political leaders for political leadership.
>
> >…Good luck with that. Seriously. IMO, the less "leadership" we have, the
> better off we are.  -Dave
>
>
>
> Dave you and I are in rare full agreement on that comment.
>

Cool. :-) This covid/bleach thing is a good example of the failure of both
men to exhibit leadership.

-Dave
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