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zephyreon 3 days ago

Perhaps the one thing Ken Paxton and I agree on.

otterley 19 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A broken clock is right twice a day!

buellerbueller 18 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It is an important observation, and a reminder: evaluate positions on their merits, and not who is taking the position.

deathanatos 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

While I agree (and I agree with the upstream comments, too), there's often deeper reasons why we can short circuit fully evaluating an argument made on its merits: often the "merits", or lack thereof, are derived from the party's values and beliefs, and if we know those values to be corrupt, it's likely that subsequent arguments are going to be similarly corrupt.

There's only so much time in the day, only so much life to live. Could a blog post written by the worst person you know have a good point, even though it's titled something like "An argument in favor of kicking puppies" by Satan himself? I mean, true, I haven't read it, yet. There could be a sound, logical argument buried within.

This is also what "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" teaches, essentially. Trust is hard-won, and easily squandered.

"A lie is around the world before the truth has finished tying its shoes."

"Flood the Zone" is why some of us are so exhausted, though.

In these instances, the argument has to come from someone who is self-aware enough of the short-circuit to say "okay, look, I am going to address that elephant" — but mostly, that's not what happens.

Thankfully in this case, all we need get through is the title.

buellerbueller 35 minutes ago | parent [-]

I don't care about people's values, unless I am evaluating them; that's their own business, and I am not the value police or thought police. Goodness knows there are people (hi, mom!) who are appalled by some of my values.

Roman Polanski and Woody Allen: terrible humans, but they have still made some of the best films that exist.

platevoltage 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's also important to read the fine print when the perceived good position is coming from a guy who tried to sue Tylenol over autism.

This guy does nothing good on purpose.

buellerbueller 40 minutes ago | parent [-]

>It's also important to read the fine print

It's always important to read the fine print. That would be part of evaluating an argument on its merits. His lawsuit over Tylenol + autism is easily rejected on its merits. That means nothing about this issue.

TheAdamist 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No.

.its an insane lawsuit, there are basically two outcomes crazy side effects from his lawsuit:

Tvs are banned. (Possibly can only texas permitted tv)

Or if he loses, which might be his donors goal of him litigating so terribly, all your data now belongs to the companies.

Theres no consumer friendly option here

bsder 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Perhaps. But you also need to ask why Paxton is doing this as this case will vaporize as soon as that is accomplished. I would be much more optimistic if California were also signed onto this.

Paxton, however, doesn't give one iota of damn about individual freedom. So, this is either a misdirection, shakedown or revenge.

Unfortunately, we don't have Molly Ivins around anymore to tell us what is really going on here in the Texas Laboratory for Bad Government.

1659447091 14 hours ago | parent [-]

> So, this is either a misdirection, shakedown or revenge

This is about being in the news as much as possible. He is in a close 3 way race for the 2026 Republican spot for US Senate. The other two are current old-school conservative senator John Cornyn, and new comer MAGA Wesley Hunt (but not as MAGA as Paxton). Lots of in-fighting over funding, so Paxton is making sure to get in the news as much as possible.

Throughout the year he has been in the news for things that are useful like this and another suit against a utility company for causing a fire and others for typical maga things like lawsuit to stop harris county (Houston) funding legal services for immigrants facing deportation or immigrant-serving nonprofits or a "tip-line" for bathroom enforcement or lawsuits against doctors...it goes on and on and on. It's a page out of the Trump playblook, its like watching a trump clone. And thats the point.