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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
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Those who think elitism a bad thing merely exult in their being in the low end of the gene pool.
Disagree. Elitism is "the belief that certain persons ... deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority" (bartleby) or "the selectivity of the elite; especially SNOBBERY" (MW on-line).
Few here admire snobbery, snoot. And your comtemptuous claim to be a privileged elite clashes with the founding principle of this country: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Where does snoot "claim" to be an elitist?
Speaking the words in a context such as this, which has no *meaning, doesn't put forth a claim of belief. It is not a "dialogue", but a string of posts, some directed, some not. I'd ask him myself if it wasn't clear which was which, but.
Where does a 200+ year old *intention (from a bunch of guilt ridden slave owners) that still hasn't proved to be a reality fit into all this? (It's still a nice dream, one I hold dear, but it ain't real, yet.) There is a propesity for all animals to make a difference between 'created' and 'current state of being", but...
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old hand
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old hand
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Musick, I think that both you and Keiva miss some contextual relevance. In Keiva's quotation, he omits the fact that "men" meant only white males at the time. In your case, you assume that all of the slave owners who established this country were guilt-ridden. Jefferson did question it's propriety, as did a few others, but not all. Even Ulysses S. Grant married into a slave-owning family, and owned a personal slave for a while.
I agree that egalitarianism is not a reality, and certain "politically correct" types make a mockery of earnest attempts toward greater equality of opportunity and legal protection, but look at the progress we've made. Black people are no longer 3/5ths human, women have been found to be people (DAMN! what a concept!) and freedom of speech has been tried and upheld repeatedly for even the most odious of speech.
As for the egalitarianism of this board, can you not agree that nearly all participants are pretty bright and learned in one or another field? That is not elitism, but simple self-selection, IMHO.
While I may disagree with Snoot's intentions, I do appreciate his cleverness. There is wit in his posts.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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...you assume that all of the slave owners who established this country were guilt-riddenNot really! It was just the elite ones that came to mind. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Smithsonian magazine about two years ago had a very fine article about George Mason, the prinicpal force behind adoption of the Bill of Rights. It described his extreme unhappiness with slavery, but his reluctance
to ruin his children who would have been almost paupers if he had freed his slaves.
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newbie
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newbie
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Few here admire snobbery, snoot.
And, yet again, Kenny babes purports to speak for the forum. By the 'virtue' of your latest reference your self-perceived superiority on this forum makes you a snob. And since few here admire snobbery therefore few here admire you. QED.
And your comtemptuous claim to be a privileged elite clashes with the founding principle of this country: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ...
Oh, Kenny boy. Must I always have to point things out to you? This forum is worldwide! It's not just the US and to presume that everyone in this forum subscribes to the Declaration of Independence implies that you are being... what are the words? Oh, yes. Elitist and snobbish. And a racist too, for that matter.
Facts man. Get your facts right!
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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George Mason .. his extreme unhappiness with slavery, but his reluctance to ruin his children who would have been almost paupers if he had freed his slaves.
Interestingly, Jefferson initially drafted the Declaration of Independence with a scathing indictment of slavery. This was deleted at the insistence of Georgia and South Carolina, it being crucial to obtain unanimity among the colonies. (Politics is that art of the possible.) But note that 11 of the 13 colonies accepted this language -- a position far ahead of their time:
he [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, and to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain, determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce; and this this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die (emphasis added)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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... where does snoot "claim" to be an elitist?
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