Joel Shepherd said:
Um. So, could one conclude that the only liberal sorts in Australia are
aborgines or their (even distant) blood relatives?
No.
Um. I think not.
Why would you suppose it's any different "over
here"?
What makes you think I do think this?
Some possibly helpful background:
Our Travis is a unique case and nothing that applies to him
necessarily can be generalised. Pulling Travis' chain must be
regarded as a sport to preserve one's heart. I enjoy beating up
cowboys and it is not necessarily Queensberry rules.
But let us look at the "Queensberry rules of logic" at least, and
notice that your assumptions are a little mistaken, you have
jumped to conclusions that are not right.
If Travis did find that he had genes in him that made him pause
to reflect on his views and soften their hard edges to be more
liberal, it does not follow that all liberals have those genes
nor even that descendants of Ghengis Khan are no-good dumb-ass
right-wing bastards. Nor that he is descended from Ghengis Khan
nor that dorayme is not a fan of a lot of things yanky or a
million other things...
To generalise, it is very hard to get anything to follow from
anything else and this is why successful reasoning can be such a
pleasure. It is the reason for the buzz we get when we work out a
difficult problem. Most solutions to most things are false...
which brings us back to the one-eyed, no-good, quick-draw,
shoot-first and hope-to-god-to-hit-the-target, feel-good, Cowboy
Right.
[btw, none of this applies to William Munny (Unforgiven), Jimmy
Ringo (the Gunfighter) or Preacher (Pale Rider) or Harmonica
(Once Upon a Time in the West) and many other of my favourite
cowpersons]
