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

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:52 AM 9/24/2008 -0400, John K Clark wrote:

>>I was pointing out how John Clark's indignant misreading of BillK's
>>post completely distorted and reversed what BillK had written.
>
>How exactly did I do that Damien?

I've already snarkily explained that, I think.

>"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".

Okay, I should apologize for my bad temper about all this. But look, John--

Suppose someone wrote:

"Al Queda do sometimes blow up Americans, but we are trying to hunt 
them down and kill them."

How likely is it that you'd think "them" referred to "Americans"? The 
grammar is identical.

Damien Broderick