[LINK] Tea Parties

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 09:20 +1000, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> Yawn. There were estimates of 300,000 in total across the entire 
> country of nearly 300,000,000

This is an unpleasant tactic - it demeans a minority for being a
minority. It's the same tactic John Howard used when 400,000 people
protested against his actions in Iraq.

Leaving aside the question of whether they were "real" protests or not,
what fraction of the population needs to stand up to be counted before
you stop yawning?

What if the 300,000 that turned out were *not* "e-organised"? What if it
really was spontaneous, would it look better to you then? What if they
were all disabled? What if they were all Muslims? All immigrants? All
Australians? What if they were all children?

Just what exactly would wipe the "yawn" off your face, if the fact of
*three hundred thousand people* taking the time to protest leaves you
unmoved?

Hmmm?

K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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